Introduction

This page is a work in progress. There are incomplete sections, and unfinished ideas.

Jane had a vocation as a Catholic and a professed Religious sister, to work with the poor. I am not going to claim that she was influential, innovative, or especially wise or holy. She tried to discern God's will for her life and she found it in a consecrated life of loving service. I am trying to explore the religious, moral and cultural ideas that set the standards she consciously followed, or which explain what she did.

She followed the principles of religious life as taught by the Catholic Church. She accepted and followed the goals of her Religious Order. Her work with the poor was supported by the teachings of the Church and her Religious Order.

She was nevertheless unwelcome in her Religious Order, because she complained that she had been sexually abused, and she exposed the sexuality of one individual in particular, with strong implications about the sexuality of others. The Church teaches that professed members of Religious orders should be celibate but does not appear to enforce its rules very strongly, even in the case of various forms of sexual exploitation and abuse. Complaining about sexual abuse seems to more sinful, in the eyes of the Church authorities, and in the eyes of faithful Catholics, as disruptive and harmful the Church. This seems to be regarded as less saintly and perhaps more sinful than sexual abuse.

Vocation

Being Saintly

The theologian George Weigel writes in the modern orthodox Catholic tradition. He wrote a popular biography of the late Pope John Paul II. In his book The Truth of Catholicism he explains the evolving idea of sainthood. After quoting a letter from the English novelist Evelyn Waugh to his friend the poet John Betjeman, he said:

Waugh's letter to Betjeman sums up two facets of the Catholic view of who we are and what we must become. The first is that sainthood is everyone's destiny - sainthood is everyone's purpose. In a world that often imagines itself purposeless, Catholicism proposes a dramatic, transcendent purpose for every human being, the life of a saint. The second, equally striking aspect of the Catholic view of sainthood is that sainthood is not generic, but quite specific. Becoming a saint means living out a unique vocation, a distinctive role in the cosmic drama that can be filled by no one else. Discerning that vocation, giving oneself to it and then dying in it is the drama of the the Christian life as the Catholic Church understands it. The drama points, at every juncture, towards the infinite. In becoming the said we are made to be, we become the kind of people who can live with God forever.

Inner Life

It would be easy to compile a long list of books and writing on the Christian spiritual life. The Church requires clergy to read and pray The Liturgy of the Hours, and since the Second Vatican Council has started to invite all Catholics to take the time to join that regular ritual or reading, reflection and turning to God. There are many good texts among the readings for the Office of Readings, one of the Hours.

The second reading for the Memorial (Feast) of the Immaculate Conception is from a sermon by Saint Lawrence Justinian, the 14th century bishop, first Patriarch of Venice:

While Mary contemplated all she had come to know through reading, listening and observing, she grew in faith, increased in merits and was more illuminated by wisdom and more consumed by the fire of charity. The heavenly mysteries were opened to her, and she was filled with joy; she became fruitful by the Spirit, was directed toward God, and watched over protectively while on earth. So remarkable are the divine graces that they elevate one from the lowest depths to the highest summit, and transform one to a greater holiness ...

Imitate her ... God places more value on good will in all we do than on the works themselves. Therefore whether we give ourselves to God in the work of contemplation or whether we serve the needs of our neighbour by good works, we accomplish these things because the love of Christ urges us on. The acceptable offering of the spiritual purification is accomplished not in a man-made temple but in the recesses of the heart where the Lord Jesus freely enters.

It takes a modest effort for a 21st century reader to move past the pietism and the idealization of Mary, and to avoid debating the modern question about Marian devotion as a repressive story about women's place in the Church. It also takes a modest effort to avoid reading fideism and other belief systems, or some forms of 21st century spirituality back into that passage. St. Lawrence was not saying that faith, self-esteem or good will are good enough. We all believe we mean well, but we are absorbed in our own stories about ourselves, fascinated with our own feelings and our need for status and power. He was saying that an outwardly good life may be corrupted by the desire for power and glory, that the good life is selfless.

Institutional Community

Consecrated Life

Overview

Jane was a member of a Religious Order, the Sisters of Holy Cross. The Church formally refers to that way of life as Consecrated and to such organizations as Institutes for Consecrated Life. Institutes tend to call themselves Orders, Societies, Congregations, and Communities. For instance, the Jesuits are the Society of Jesus, the Trappist Monks are the Order of Cistercians of Strict Observance and the Franciscan friars are the Order of Friars Minor.

Catholics view a vocation to the Religious life a calling from God, because, in secular terms, it is a very unique choice of a manner of living and working. There are few financial rewards, and the emotional rewards of marriage and intimate relationships are absent. The life is rewarding, emotionally and intellectually, to a person with strong religious beliefs. The Church sets high standards for members of Religious Institutes, who are living role models for Catholics, and who exercise important leadership and teaching functions in the Church. Catholics trust their presentation of Christian teaching, accept their leadership and support their work by doing business with their institutions (schools and hospitals), and by charitable giving.

Religious Institutes

The Roman Catholic Church has a hierarchical structure. Hierarchy means governance by the holy. The Church has divided the world into regions called dioceses, and each diocese is served by a bishop. The Church refers to the idea of Apostolic succession. All the bishops are the successors of the Apostles in the leadership of the Church. They exercise some functions collectively, and some individually in their dioceses. The Pope as the successor of St. Peter and the Bishops of Rome, has considerable authority within the Church's canon law and traditions over the entire Church, and great influence throughout the entire Church. The Pope is assisted by the Roman Curia - a central administrative authority which coordinates the administration of the church by local bishops, and supervises some aspects of Catholic life directly.

Bishops ordain diocesan priests, who are obedient to their bishop and to the laws and teachings of the Church. A diocesan priest administers the sacraments, says Mass, and ministers to Catholics in specific areas. Bishops and diocesan priests are vowed to celibacy and obedience, but not to poverty. Catholic men who discern a calling may apply to a Bishop to be ordained as priests and after a period of education in a seminar, can be ordained as priests and assigned to minister to the affairs of Catholics. A few diocesan priests work in Church administration and education. Men ordained as priests or consecrated as bishops are called clerics or members of the clergy.

Other men, and women, can join Religious Institutes. Some Institutes are large, and some are small. Some undertake diverse and specialized work. Some follow a monastic rule and emphasize prayer. Some serve as teachers in Catholic schools. Some follow conventional academic and professional careers. Some Institutes of men are Institutes of ordained priests, some have some members who are ordained as priests, and some do expect any of their members to be become priests. Men who are ordained as priests are clerics or clergy and "Religious". Men and women who are not ordained are simply "Religious".

Members of Religious Institutes take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. Poverty means communal property - no individual property. It sometimes implies a very simple or ascetic lifestyle. Obedience means obedience to the laws of the Church and obedience to the directions of superiors elected by the Constitution of their Institute. Professed religious are also required to identify themselves to the local bishop when they move into a diocese, and to obey the bishop, although some are exempt. Some priests function as diocesan priests and take charge of specific churches in the diocese. Historically, Religious Institutes have tended to live monastic lives of prayer and contemplation or to carry out special works in education, health care, social services, social development and the promotion of the Church.

Members of Religious Institutes have substantial autonomy from the supervision of bishops in matters of where and how they live and pray. They are accountable to the Rules of their Orders, and to their superiors, and to the Vatican in those matters. Bishops have more authority over matters where members of Religious Institutes interact with the local community - their ministry and their presentation of the teachings of the Church. They are not supposed to solicit funds unless their presence and mission in a diocese has been approved. The question of charging fees for services may not present the same canon law considerations, but some services have a particular Catholic dimension.

A Vatican agency - part of the Roman Curia - called Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has a mandate described in these terms:

The Congregation is responsible for everything which concerns institutes of consecrated life (orders and religious congregations, both of men and of women, secular institutes) and societies of apostolic life regarding their government, discipline, studies, goods, rights, and privileges. It is competent also for matters regarding the eremetical life, consecrated virgins and their related associations, and new forms of consecrated life. Its competence extends to all aspects of consecrated life: Christian life, religious life, clerical life; the relationship is of a personal character and has no territorial limits; certain determined questions of their members, however, are remanded to the competence of other Congregations. This Congregation also can dispense those who are subject to it from the common law. Further, it is competent for associations of the faithful erected with the intention of becoming institutes of consecrated life or societies of apostolic life, and for Third Orders Secular.

There are several documents on the Vatican's website which contain the Church's teaching on the legal and normative elements of the consecrated life, and the spiritual dimensions of the consecrated life. See: this index.

The Vatican Congregation asserts wide powers, but the exercise of those powers in the Church is influenced heavily by the Catholic clerical culture. The Church has limited disciplinary power. If the Church's teaching are too onerous, people tend to drift away into other Christian churches or non-Christian religious groups. The Church's teaching are important to people who are economically, socially and psychologically tied into the Church's power structure. A teacher, a theologian, a person who wants to fulfill himself by acting as a ritual priest and minister needs to conform to Church culture. The interpretation of Church teachings and laws is part of that culture, but there seems to be a cultural sense of appropriate standards of private and public action that supercedes teachings - and teaching tends to be flexible and multi-faceted.

The actual authority of the Vatican Congregation, the leaders of Religious institutes, and bishops over the actions of individual clergy and religious is limited. The Church asserts a power to discipline and expel, but the Church is extremely reluctant to apply that power against someone who has been recognized as having a religious vocation. Any accusation of irregular teaching or personal life against clergy or religious risks a number of reactions by the accused member and by others in the Church, and the Church is primarily concerned with its own coherence and stability. This means that the Church pursues some issues much more vigorously than others. It depends on the accuser, the accused and the issue. Sexual misconduct - even predatory abuse - is often forgiven. The Church seems to reserve its anger for individuals who visibly dissent from or disobey the Church's teaching on social organization and law - for instance politicians who support liberal policies in gay marriage and abortion.

Models of Religious Institutes

This text is a work in Progress.

Over the course of the first two millenia of Christianity, various models of the Religious life developed. The cultural context has changed, but certain key ideas about Religious life were expressed within various models, and have become common to all models.

Christianity arose within the Jewish communities in modern day Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, and Italy. The culture was initially Jewish, and the great intellectual debates in the early church were over the question of departure from Jewish Torah on ritual and dietary issues. The belief-content and religious practices of Judaism were unsettled. Judaism was for some a religion of rituals and worship, not far removed from animal sacrifice. There was a growing emphasis on right living by following divine law, and a growing emphasis on understanding and debating the law. The Pharisees were representatives and leaders in this movement. Jesus is represented in the Gospels as engaging the Pharisees in dialectical debate over the meaning of the law, psychological debate over their sense of self-righteousness in the law and the word, cultural debate over their tendency to stratify society into virtual castes of the righteous and the unrighteous, economic debate over their sense of justice and entitlement. We tend to look back on him as a radical reformer. He was more likely raising many of the same questions that other Jews and Pharisees were raising, with his teachings recorded as a radical break from tradition by his followers, two and three generations after he was executed.

The early Christians seem to have been from the part of Judaism that placed less emphasis on temple and ritual, more emphasis on the law and social life, more emphasis on interpersonal transactions. Historians have been trying to understand whether they had clergy, as we know it, and the interplay of leadership and influence in ritual, teaching, counselling and social service. The answer seems to be that they followed the cultural practices of their cities, villages and synagogues, with the new Christian theology evolving and influencing cultural institutions. A particularly religious person would find a particular role in the community, but there were no groups or institutions for especially religious persons.

Some individuals sought to know God through study and meditation, and many of them chose to live as hermits in remote places, free of distraction. These individual gravitated to others, especially to influential teachers. The relationship of these individuals to the local Churches would depend on mutual respect for the intellectual and personal excellence - in Church terms, the holiness - of the people involved. Within the community of writers and teachers, there was no shortage of suggestions on the best way to achieve holiness, and over time a consensus emerged. Enough time devoted to physical and economic activity to sustain the body, and a lot of time in community prayer and private prayer or contemplation - meditation intended to bring a sense of the presence of God.

The original religious institutes were monastic communities.

This section of text is still a work in Progress.

Religious institutes have, at times, been at odds with secular leaders, local bishops, and with various Popes. Their autonomy sometimes fosters important work. The reform of the Benedictine Orders by Bernard of Clairveux, the radical poverty of Francis of Assissi, the intellectualism of St. Dominic and St. Thomas, the fierce discipline and focus of St. Ignatius revitalized the whole Church in their eras. The Jesuits fought against imperial powers to protect the indigenous peoples of South America from dehumanizing colonial laws and slavery. (The movie The Mission is based on historical events). Their resistance to the King of Portugal was one of the reasons for their suppression by the Church in the 18th century. On the other hand Religious institutes have sheltered heretics, fanatics, and lunatics. The Jesuits of Port Royale, the teachers of Pascal, were Jansenists, although most Jesuits opposed that heresy.

The Post-Conciliar Era

This section of text is a work in Progress.

The Second Vatican Council was the starting point for a review of the work of members of Religious Institutes. Concurrently, there was a precipitious decline in vocations to the Religious life in Western Europe and America. Many in the Western world hoped that the church might liberate professed Religious to live and work in new ways. One of challenges for the church was to establish an effective presence in an increasingly liberated and hedonistic culture, while maintaining the integrity of its teaching.

One key document, presented in 1983, that Catholics referred to during most of Sister Jane's ministry was called Essential Elements in the Church's Teaching on Religious Life as Applied to Institutes dedicated to Works of the Apostolate.

The modern teaching of the Church continues to emphasize personal holiness and special dedication to the work of the Church. Members of Religious Institutes are expected to engage in personal and communal prayer and to live within special communities bound to the rules of an Institute and the rules of the Religious life. Celibacy and chastity are mandatory. The Rules of the Institutes normally call for all property to be held in common, and for members to disavow personal remuneration and any share of the common property. Personal ambition is suppressed under rules of obedience to the Rule of the Institute and to superiors holding office within the institute.

The comments on ministry to the poor include:

35. The way of working, too, is important for public witness. What is done and how it is done should both proclaim Christ from the poverty of someone who is not seeking his or her own fulfillment and satisfaction. In our age powerlessness is one of the great poverties. The religious accepts to share this intimately by the generosity of his or her obedience, thereby becoming one with the poor and powerless in a particular way, as Christ was in his Passion. Such a person knows what it is to stand in need before God, to love as Jesus does, and to work at God's plan on God's terms. Moreover, in fidelity to religious consecration, he or she lives the institute's concrete provisions for promoting these attitudes.

36. Fidelity to the mandated apostolate of one's own religious institute is also essential for true witness. Individual dedication to perceived needs at the expense of the mandated works of the institute can only be damaging. However, there are ways of living and working which witness to Christ very clearly in the contemporary situation. The constant evaluation of use of goods and of style of relationships in one's own life is one of the religious' most effective ways of promoting the justice of Christ at the present time (cf. RHP 4e). Being a voice for those who are unable to speak for themselves is a further mode of religious witness, when it is done in accordance with the directives of the local hierarchy and the proper law of the institute. The drama of the refugees, of those persecuted for political or religious beliefs (cf. EN 39), of those denied the right to birth and life, of unjustified restrictions of human freedom, of social inadequacy that causes suffering in the old, the sick, and the marginalized: these are present continuations of the Passion which call particularly to religious who are dedicated to apostolic works (cf. RHP 4d).

37. The response will vary according to the mission, tradition and identity of each institute. Some may need to seek approval for new missions in the Church. In other cases, new institutes may be recognized to meet specific needs. In most cases, the creative use of well-established works to meet new challenges will be a clear witness to Christ yesterday, today, and for ever. The witness of religious who, in loyalty to the Church and to the tradition of their institute, strive courageously and with love for the defense of human rights and for the coming of the Kingdom in the social order can be a clear echo of the Gospel and the voice of the Church (cf. RHP 3). It is so, however, to the extent that it manifests publicly the transforming power of Christ in the Church and the vitality of the institute's charism to the people of our time. Finally, perseverance, which is a further gift of the God of the covenant, is the unspoken but eloquent witness of the religious to the faithful God whose love is without end.

Holy Cross

Sisters of Holy Cross

Sister Jane's calling to work with the poor in urban Canada falls within the mission or charism of Holy Cross as the members of Holy Cross identify their own mission.

The Sisters of Holy Cross are one of a family of Orders following the vision and rule of the 19th Century French priest, the Venerable Basil Anthony Marie Moreau. The American Region of the Sisters of Holy Cross has a Web presence. Jane intially joined the Sisters in New England before moving to Canada. The Canadian Region does not have a Web page although it participates in an Internet vocations (recruitment) project and has an information page there.

History and Organization

There are four independent congregations - the Priests and Brothers of Holy Cross, and three congregrations of women: the Sisters of the Holy Cross, the Marianites of Holy Cross, and the Sisters of Holy Cross. Each congregration is divided into national and regional provinces. Many of congregrations and provinces maintain one or more web sites. The Holy Cross congregations in Canada and the United States appear to collaborate in a project called the Holy Cross International Justice Office.

The Sisters of Holy Cross were established as a separate North American congregation shortly after the first Holy Cross women came to Quebec. The history on the Sisters' (American) Web site says:

A branch of this tree, the Sisters of Holy Cross and of the Seven Dolors originated from the Marianites of Holy Cross founded in Le Mans, France, in 1841 by Father Moreau. At this time, Leocadie Gascoin joined the community and assumed the religious name Sister Mary of the Seven Dolors. From the earliest years, she was a faithful confidant and collaborator of Basile Moreau in the governance of the Congregation.

In 1847 appeals from bishops in North America brought a Holy Cross team of priests, brothers, and sisters to Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Canada. When Rome asked that the sisters become an independent Congregation, Father Moreau asked Sister Mary of the Seven Dolors to be the first Superior of this foundation.
....
The Marianites of Holy Cross, called to Canada to serve the Church by educating its youth, developed into a Congregation of educators. It was in this spirit that Holy Cross soon spread beyond the Diocese of Montreal to serve in the United States and Bengal.

In 1881, the Canadian Province of the Marianites of Holy Cross became an autonomous Congregation known as the Sisters of Holy Cross and of the Seven Dolors. It is called Holy Cross because the Congregation was founded on the outskirts of Sainte-Croix in Le Mans, France. The new Congregation established its administration in Saint-Laurent, Montreal. In 1910, Rome gave definitive approval of its Constitutions.

The Sisters of Holy Cross came to the United States from Canada in 1881 for the purpose of educating children in New England cities and towns. Extending our mission to the United States, we accepted the invitation to open a bilingual, co-educational school at St. Joseph in North Grosvenordale, a small town in the northeastern part of the State of Connecticut.

Undertaking the direction of a parish school in the United States was quite another apostolate. The format of education was to be significantly other than that prevailing in the Province of Québec. Teaching boys was so new a concept for the community that this condition presented a major obstacle against acceptance of the "mission." Neither in France nor in French Quebec at that time were so-called "mixed schools"taught by women religious. Twice the Mother Provincial submitted the request to accept this "mixed school" to the General Council in LeMans, France, and twice she received a negative response. The General Council indicated that it would not assume such a responsibility. If the Mother Provincial thought that she could not do otherwise, then hers was to be the responsibility. She decided to take the responsibility! What seemed a very simple decision was, at that time, a fairly daring one. From that time forward, Holy Cross schools in primary, elementary, and secondary and higher education flourished. From 1881 the Sisters opened and directed fifteen schools in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, in response to a need to educate children of French Canadian families who had settled in the mill towns of New England parishes.

Still inspired by its original apostolic orientation we, the Sisters of Holy Cross, continue to minister in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine carrying on the mission of educating the whole person, and strive to exercise this responsibility in whatever form of service we undertake. "Education for liberation" best describes the vision that is central to the Congregation as we strive to respond to today's needs "giving priority to serving children, youth, women, and emerging churches in solidarity with our lay sisters and brothers as Church".

The early Holy Cross Religious seem to have thrown themselves into several different areas. They were educators, they served in the mission fields, and they served the local church in France. At the turn of the 20th Century, the French Government in one of its may fits of secularity, banned religious schools, which caused a large number of Holy Cross Religious to become unemployed in France, and to move to America. The Priests and Brothers of Holy Cross founded Notre Dame University in 1903 and Holy Cross College, and other post-secondary schools. The Sisters of Holy Cross were more involved with primary and secondary education, although they founded and administered several colleges.

The histories of the Congregations on the web pages of all four Congregations reflect a relatively decentralized governance, and frequent reorganizations. In the years after the Second Vatican council the Holy Cross congregations managed to work together to restate their constitutions as the Vatican council had required, and to work to promote the canonization of Father Moreau. His cause was advanced when Pope John Paul II granted him the title and status of "Venerable" in the spring of 2003.

Work

Their web pages at Notre Dame University emphasize the educational mission of the Holy Cross men. The web pages of the International Congregation of men emphasizes the continuing service to the Church in the developing world. The main apostolic works of the Holy Cross congregrations of men and women in the United States and Canada were in education and health care. Some of the Universities, colleges and schools have flourished, although mainly as conventional secular institutions with some religious emphasis in their programs and management. Others have closed. The Religious involved in these institutions sometimes served on the academic and administrative staff, according to their talents. The Holy Cross priests served several parishes. Members of the Holy Cross congregations are actively involved with social justice issues.

Prayer, Spiritual Life and Communal Life

The American Region of Sisters of Holy Cross have a Vision Statement on their Web site:

As faith filled apostolic women religious, Rooted in the spirituality of our founder, Basile Moreau, we, the Sisters of Holy Cross of the U.S. Region, dedicate ourselves to "Education for Liberation" among children, youth, women and those who are underserved in our society. We affirm our stewardship of the environment and of natural resources. We respond to this call in collaboration with Holy Cross Associates, Alumni, and all friends of Holy Cross. We remain ever open to exploring new forms of membership in Holy Cross.

The "Who We Are" page on their Web site says:

Significant to the heritage passed on by our Founder are certain virtues, certain fundamental attitudes that are linked to his person and, through him, to our collective Holy Cross identity. These virtues and attitudes were lived by Father Moreau to such a degree and were taught by him with such insistence that they have marked forever the being and the action of the Holy Cross Family.

First among these virtues, from Father Moreau's perspective, is zeal, a characteristic of the Holy Cross vocation, that is both a source and a fruit of apostolic commitment. Father Moreau speaks of zeal as an interior movement that "impels and drives us forward in the divine ways" of love and service.

Basile Moreau also believed and taught that "in union there is strength" and that "union is a powerful lever with which to move the world."

The apostolic spirit is part of the Holy Cross vocation. It finds expression within the Congregation and in each of its members through:
* sensitivity to the needs of the People of God,
* availability and creativity in order to respond to the demands of charity,
* audacity to risk and undertake all things for the Kingdom.
(Constitutions of the Sisters of Holy Cross)

Compassion in the face of suffering humanity awakens and sustains the apostolic zeal of the Sister of Holy Cross. The compassionate God is enfleshed in her. Thus, with the very tenderness of the heart of God, she cooperates in the liberation of the inner being... (Constitutions of the Sisters of Holy Cross).

Called to awaken others to the nearness of God, each sister draws close to those to whom she is sent. She adopts suitable modes of apostolic presence and service wherever she may be. She is recognized by her simplicity, her hospitality and her involvement in the life of her milieu. (Constitutions of the Sisters of Holy Cross).

The web page of the (Eastern and Midwest) American provinces of Holy Cross brothers describes Holy Cross spirituality in these terms:

Many Founders of the great religious communities within the Church modeled in their lives one or more elements of Christ's life. These aspects eventually evolved into a specific spirituality with its own teachings and practices that influenced the prayer, lifestyle and mission of the community. The Congregation of Holy Cross is unique in that our Founder, Father Basil Moreau, did not promote one specific tradition of spirituality. Instead, drawing from various schools of thought, his legacy in Holy Cross is an eclectic spirituality reflective of the piety and tradition of nineteenth century France.To present, therefore, the spirituality that Holy Cross religious embrace today, it is best to highlight the following major aspects of our Founder's spirituality that he emphasized both in his life and example:

Providence -

Holy Cross religious are convinced of God's constant presence and activity in our world. Since God is faithful to us, we believe that our fidelity is fundamental in responding to God's call.

Zeal -

The life and ministry of a Holy Cross religious is characterized by a passion, an inner fire, which urges us to serve God's people in holiness.

Cross -

Holy Cross religious understand that the experiences of the cross are inevitable in life and ministry. By embracing the cross, we open ourselves to the possibility of transformation and the compassion of Christ.

Unity -

Father Moreau formed a family of three societies, men and women, lay and ordained. We believe that if our interdependence as priests, brothers and sisters is a marked quality in our life and ministry, then our community will be a powerful and prophetic sign of love and unity in a world of division.

Hope -

Holy Cross religious are challenged to be men and women of hope convinced by our way of life that the only way to the resurrection is the way of the cross.

The Spirituality page at the web site of the Sisters of the Holy Cross says:

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross has its origins in the Marianites of Holy Cross, founded in 1841 by Venerable Basil Anthony Mary Moreau. From the beginning, congregational spirituality has been marked by a variety of influences: the liturgical life of the Benedictines, the spiritual discipline of the Jesuits, the attention to one's interior life of the Sulpicians. Father Moreau's spirituality was shaped by the events, needs and aspirations of post-revolutionary France. Today, our spirituality continues to be immersed in world reality and in the Word of God.

Seeking interconnectedness

In a world marked by individualism and lack of mutuality, we strive to be family, inclusive in our prayer, our communities and our actions. Father Moreau asked us to be a "community of friends." Today we seek interconnectedness as God's design for all creation and mutuality in our use of power in solidarity with all, working to create communities of justice and love. Interdependence marks our relationships with each other and within our ministries. Hospitality compels us toward openness to difference.

Maintaining a stance of nonviolence

In a global reality marked by the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of suffering, we strive to maintain a stance of nonviolence, remembering the providence of our God who endured the cross and maintained hope. Compassion compels us to stand with others in their suffering that together we may experience God's liberating and healing presence. Reverencing the earth

In the face of an increasingly global economy that promotes consumerism, we strive to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole earth community. Simplicity compels us to make choices that promote sustainable use of the goods and resources of earth.

Walking the path of justice

In a world and a Church too often marked by abuse of power and infidelity, we strive to become a discipleship of equals, sharing our giftedness, working with fidelity and zeal to welcome the reign of God in our Church and society. Our awareness of sin and its consequences in the world call us to examine our own lives to see to what depth we have assimilated the Gospel message. Our life compels us to walk the path of justice.

In a global reality marked by dualities, we strive to live and worship in such a way that our prayer and our actions praise God, reverence the earth, contribute to beauty around us and embody, as Father Moreau said, " that union which moves, directs and sanctifies the world."

Ministry

Presence

Our Place/Chez Nous was based in an old three story bank building. The drop-in Center was on the main floor and she lived in a suite on the upper floors. It was a small apartment, with a little chapel or prayer room.

Jane explained her work as living out the Church's preferential option for the poor. What she did was to be present for people and to listen to them, providing them with safety and respect. The Anglican theologian (now the Archbishop of Canterbury) Rowan Williams, in his book "Christ on Trial, How the Gospel Unsettled our Judgment", wrote:

God's transcendence is in some sense present in and with those who do not have a voice, in and with those without power to affect their world, in and with those believed to have lost any right they might have had in the world. God is not with them because they are naturally virtuous, or because they are martyrs; he is simply there in the fact that they are 'left over' when the social and moral score is added up by the managers of social and moral behaviour.

Dr. Williams alludes to a failing in our economic and political systems. The market economy and the liberal democratic state give people the chance to fulfil themselves in work, business, material gain, and a high standard of living. People who acquire wealth or who succeed within this system gain respect from others, sometimes self-esteem, and sometimes fame, which may bring happiness or sense of fulfilment. People have the material and political freedom to meet the basic needs for food and shelter at a high level, and to express their will and choices in many ways. The modern welfare state provides a basic assurance of food and shelter for the poor, often at the cost of their dignity, and without warmth or human connection. Their rights are respected - but they are marginalized. The political consensus shared by capitalists and socialists, liberals and conservatives, is that the poor have needs that are best met by giving them more resources (better jobs, higher pay, better welfare benefits, better public education etc). The debate between capitalists and socialists is whether to emphasize economic policies favouring creating employment opportunities, or social programs that provide direct benefits to the poor.

Michael Ignatieff's book "The Needs of Strangers", points out that everyone knows that people have fundamental needs for love, respect, honour, dignity, and solidarity with others. These are universal, immediate personal needs. He also reflects on the fact that no social program or economic policy can meet these needs directly. While politicians and bureaucrats try to foster respect in the delivery of social services - or talk about it - no law or policy can guarantee that the poor will feel themselves respected and loved. These human needs can only be satisfied in relationships with other persons. Ignatieff, a philosopher writing in the liberal pluralist tradition of his mentor Isaiah Berlin, does not address whether human needs are met in the religious experience. It would seem that even a felt relationship with Jesus or with a transcendent God must be experienced in solidarity with other persons. Some people have lost all normal safe relationships - sometimes by misfortune and fate, and sometimes through their own mistakes and addictions. With family and with friends, we can endure much.

In Canada, we think that we have welfare programs to take care of the poor. We think we don't need a Mother Teresa. Who loves the poor? In a political context, that question is incomprehensible. It is a great challenge, within our culture, to see the poor as anything but a burden and a problem to be managed.

Solidarity

Jane saw herself as following the teachings of the Church on living in poverty and supporting the poor in solidarity. Her assessment seems to be supported in the Church's teaching documents. In his Encyclical letter Centesimus annus, delivered in 1991 on the 100th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's letter Rerum Novarum, Pope John Paul II commented on social services in the modern Welfare state:

By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending. In fact, it would appear that needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them and who act as neighbours to those in need. It should be added that certain kinds of demands often call for a response which is not simply material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need. One thinks of the condition of refugees, immigrants, the elderly, the sick, and all those in circumstances which call for assistance, such as drug abusers: all these people can be helped effectively only by those who offer them genuine fraternal support, in addition to the necessary care.

49. Faithful to the mission received from Christ her Founder, the Church has always been present and active among the needy, offering them material assistance in ways that neither humiliate nor reduce them to mere objects of assistance, but which help them to escape their precarious situation by promoting their dignity as persons. With heartfelt gratitude to God it must be pointed out that active charity has never ceased to be practised in the Church; indeed, today it is showing a manifold and gratifying increase. In this regard, special mention must be made of volunteer work, which the Church favours and promotes by urging everyone to cooperate in supporting and encouraging its undertakings.

In order to overcome today's widespread individualistic mentality, what is required is a concrete commitment to solidarity and charity, beginning in the family with the mutual support of husband and wife and the care which the different generations give to one another. In this sense the family too can be called a community of work and solidarity. It can happen, however, that when a family does decide to live up fully to its vocation, it finds itself without the necessary support from the State and without sufficient resources. It is urgent therefore to promote not only family policies, but also those social policies which have the family as their principle object, policies which assist the family by providing adequate resources and efficient means of support, both for bringing up children and for looking after the elderly, so as to avoid distancing the latter from the family unit and in order to strengthen relations between generations.

Apart from the family, other intermediate communities exercise primary functions and give life to specific networks of solidarity. These develop as real communities of persons and strengthen the social fabric, preventing society from becoming an anonymous and impersonal mass, as unfortunately often happens today. It is in interrelationships on many levels that a person lives, and that society becomes more "personalized". The individual today is often suffocated between two poles represented by the State and the marketplace. At times it seems as though he exists only as a producer and consumer of goods, or as an object of State administration. People lose sight of the fact that life in society has neither the market nor the State as its final purpose, since life itself has a unique value which the State and the market must serve. Man remains above all a being who seeks the truth and strives to live in that truth, deepening his understanding of it through a dialogue which involves past and future generations.

In his 1987 Encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis Pope John Paul II said:

I have wished to introduce this type of analysis above all in order to point out the true nature of the evil which faces us with respect to the development of peoples: it is a question of a moral evil, the fruit of many sins which lead to "structures of sin." To diagnose the evil in this way is to identify precisely, on the level of human conduct, the path to be followed in order to overcome it.

38. This path is long and complex, and what is more it is constantly threatened because of the intrinsic frailty of human resolutions and achievements, and because of the mutability of very unpredictable and external circumstances. Nevertheless, one must have the courage to set out on this path, and, where some steps have been taken or a part of the journey made, the courage to go on to the end.

In the context of these reflections, the decision to set out or to continue the journey involves, above all, a moral value which men and women of faith recognize as a demand of God's will, the only true foundation of an absolutely binding ethic.

One would hope that also men and women without an explicit faith would be convinced that the obstacles to integral development are not only economic but rest on more profound attitudes which human beings can make into absolute values. Thus one would hope that all those who, to some degree or other, are responsible for ensuring a "more human life" for their fellow human beings, whether or not they are inspired by a religious faith, will become fully aware of the urgent need to change the spiritual attitudes which define each individual's relationship with self, with neighbor, with even the remotest human communities, and with nature itself; and all of this in view of higher values such as the common good or, to quote the felicitous expression of the Encyclical Populorum Progressio, the full development "of the whole individual and of all people."66

For Christians, as for all who recognize the precise theological meaning of the word "sin," a change of behavior or mentality or mode of existence is called "conversion," to use the language of the Rihle (cf. Mk 13:3, 5, Is 30:15). This conversion specifically entails a relationship to God, to the sin committed, to its consequences and hence to one's neighbor, either an individual or a community. It is God, in "whose hands are the hearts of the powerful"67 and the hearts of all, who according his own promise and by the power of his Spirit can transform "hearts of stone" into "hearts of flesh" (cf. Ezek 36:26).

On the path toward the desired conversion, toward the overcoming of the moral obstacles to development, it is already possible to point to the positive and moral value of the growing awareness of interdependence among individuals and nations. The fact that men and women in various parts of the world feel personally affected by the injustices and violations of human rights committed in distant countries, countries which perhaps they will never visit, is a further sign of a reality transformed into awareness, thus acquiring a moral connotation.

It is above all a question of interdependence, sensed as a system determining relationships in the contemporary world, in its economic, cultural, political and religious elements, and accepted as a moral category. When interdependence becomes recognized in this way, the correlative response as a moral and social attitude, as a "virtue," is solidarity. This then is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all. This determination is based on the solid conviction that what is hindering full development is that desire for profit and that thirst for power already mentioned. These attitudes and "structures of sin" are only conquered - presupposing the help of divine grace - by a diametrically opposed attitude: a commitment to the good of one's neighbor with the readiness, in the gospel sense, to "lose oneself" for the sake of the other instead of exploiting him, and to "serve him" instead of oppressing him for one's own advantage (cf. Mt 10:40-42; 20:25; Mk 10:42-45; Lk 22:25-27).

39. The exercise of solidarity within each society is valid when its members recognize one another as persons. Those who are more influential, because they have a greater share of goods and common services, should feel responsible for the weaker and be ready to share with them all they possess. Those who are weaker, for their part, in the same spirit of solidarity, should not adopt a purely passive attitude or one that is destructive of the social fabric, but, while claiming their legitimate rights, should do what they can for the good of all. The intermediate groups, in their turn, should not selfishly insist on their particular interests, but respect the interests of others.

Positive signs in the contemporary world are the growing awareness of the solidarity of the poor among themselves, their efforts to support one another, and their public demonstrations on the social scene which, without recourse to violence, present their own needs and rights in the face of the inefficiency or corruption of the public authorities. By virtue of her own evangelical duty the Church feels called to take her stand beside the poor, to discern the justice of their requests, and to help satisfy them, without losing sight of the good of groups in the context of the common good.

The same criterion is applied by analogy in international relationships. Interdependence must be transformed into solidarity, based upon the principle that the goods of creation are meant for all. That which human industry produces through the processing of raw materials, with the contribution of work, must serve equally for the good of all.

....

Solidarity helps us to see the "other" - whether a person, people or nation - not just as some kind of instrument, with a work capacity and physical strength to be exploited at low cost and then discarded when no longer useful, but as our "neighbor," a "helper" (cf. Gen 2:18-20), to be made a sharer, on a par with ourselves, in the banquet of life to which all are equally invited by God. Hence the importance of reawakening the religious awareness of individuals and peoples. Thus the exploitation, oppression and annihilation of others are excluded. ...

Rossbrook

Introduction

Sister Geraldine MacNamara, a Sister of the Holy Name, was one of the founders of Rossbrook House, another drop-in centre in the impoverished Winnipeg "inner city" area. She enjoyed greater institutional from her Order than Jane did from Holy Cross, more social support from her sisters in her Order and from friends in the Church, and was never troubled by the attentions of a self-proclaimed leader and healer like Sister Jeanne Wilfort. She was her own person, with her own skills and needs, but her work was similiar.

This section of text is a work in Progress.

Gem - The Life of Sister Mac

In 2001, Novalis, the University Press of St. Paul University in Ottawa published Gem, The Life of Sister Mac, Geraldine MacNamara. The author, Eleanor J. Stebner, recently appointed to the Woodworth chair at Simon Fraser University, formerly a professor at the University of Winnipeg. It is a useful book, written while many of Sister Mac's friends were around to provide interviews and background, and informed by Sister Mac's journals. It is probably too short, only briefly touching the major themes and issues of her life. The author, a feminist historian, whose own religious beliefs are in the liberal Protestant tradition, is self-conscious about her discomforts in interpreting the spiritual life of a modern Catholic nun. She does not want to write inside the Catholic tradition of hagiography - the idolization of holy persons as saints. She does not want to provide a patronizing psychological view of her religious vocation or an artificial metaphorical view of Sister Mac's life either. Her honesty is good, although it makes for a rather cold view of a dynamic and emotional person.

Activism and Involvement

Pending