JOHN DANCY: Now, our cover story. The subject is nuns. Traditionally they educated the children and cared for the sick, but those ministries have been changing. The number of nuns is down sharply since the 1960s, as they face hard questions about their role in modern society. At a conference this summer, nuns from various orders will hear recommendations on how they can most effectively spread the gospel and push for social justice. From Chicago, Judy Valente looks at the life of nuns today.JUDY VALENTE: Ellen Gaynor is a doctor, a cancer specialist. Patricia Crowley runs a shelter for homeless women.
Sister HILLARY HALPIN: Can you feel any burning?VALENTE: Hillary Halpin works as a massage therapist. All three women are also living a life committed to prayer, community, and service. They are nuns.
These women represent the new face of women in the religious life. They haven't so much left the world to pursue their religious vows as they have brought their religious life into the world.
Sister ELLEN GAYNOR: I view what I do as more than a job. I really do view it as a ministry, caring for people who are ill. We bring to it other work we do, the person that we are, and certainly the person I am has been heavily influenced by my being a member of a religious congregation, religious community.Sister PAT CROWLEY: I don't think being religious in the world today is about, you know, preaching or about, you know, necessarily teaching people because I'm a nun.
Sister HILLARY HALPIN: I don't feel I have two calls to the -- one to the religious life and one to massage therapy. I see it very entwined. I think if you go back to Scripture and see how many times, you know, it talks about healing and the healing touch ...
(Excerpt from THE BLUES BROTHERS courtesy Universal Pictures)
VALENTE: There was a time when a nun's touch wasn't necessarily considered healing, but gone for the most part are the days of the black-robed, ruler-wielding nuns, who left generations with memories -- sometimes fond, sometimes not -- of life in parochial school.
(Excerpt from THE BLUES BROTHERS)
Unidentified Teacher: It's a political work, right. It has to do with the government of a city, right.
VALENTE: A teaching nun looks more like this nowadays, but this picture is becoming less common, too. Because there are far fewer nuns, they are more likely to be running their institutions than to be teaching in them. Consequently, young women see fewer sisters as role models in the classrooms.Since the 1960s, woman have found many more professional opportunities open to them, and the Second Vatican Council encouraged laywomen to be more active in the Church ministry; thus, they could participate in church life without entering the convent.
For these and other reasons, the number of nuns began to shrink. There are now less than half as many as there were 35 years ago. The median age of sisters, as they are now more commonly called, is 68. And the number who retire or die each year is greater than the number of women who join religious orders.
Historically, nuns played a critical role in the building of the American Church, operating and staffing the schools and hospitals that met the needs of 19th-century Catholic immigrants.Sister MARGARITA WALTERS: Women -- we used to fill that need. Now those needs aren't the same, and so I think that's another -- perhaps another reason in declining numbers. What is the purpose? People can get very enthused about purpose, to give your life a reason.
Sister LORRAINE: Georgia? It's Sister Lorraine.
VALENTE: This nun is bringing Communion to a shut-in. The shortage of priests has brought women religious into parish work in increasing numbers.
Sister LORRAINE: The body of Christ.
GEORGIA: Amen.
Unidentified Woman: To be homeless is -- can be a detrimental situation ...
VALENTE: Two years ago, the city of Chicago gave Patricia Crowley a major award for working women. Here, she meets with homeless women in one of the three shelters she operates.
Sister CROWLEY: And many of the women are very, very spiritual. I must say, though, that many of them don't know that I'm a sister. You know, they find that out, but we do talk about spiritual things. And they have tremendous faith.
Sister HALPIN: Let us ask God to fill you with new life and new energy.
VALENTE: Hillary Halpin, a Benedictine sister, sees her work as an extension of her order's centuries-old focus on prayer and work.
Sister BARBARA KRAEMER (Center for Study of Religious Life): I don't think that the decision to enter religious life is based on what we do as much as on the way of life. It's a way of having a common commitment, being supported in that commitment in community, and sharing that enthusiasm for the gospel and for living that out.
VALENTE: In the past, young women would go into the convent right out of high school. These women, who are spending a come-and-see weekend with the Benedictine sisters of Chicago, have already begun other careers. They range in age from 22 to 52. They want to know more about life as a nun. The road is a long one. A woman doesn't need a degree in divinity or theology, but depending on the order, it may be nine years before she can take her final vows.
Sister WALTERS: I had a lot of friends. I was in active in the Church. I made good money. I traveled. I mean, there was nothing you could put your finger on that would be missing, but it felt like something was missing.
Ms. SUZANNE WEBER (Postulant): It's making a commitment. It's putting everything out there and saying that I want to live my life for God, and I want to live it with like-minded people. What would I say to God on that last day when he said, "Gee, you know, I called you to religious life, and how come you said no?"
Sister CROWLEY: The future of religious life is an unknown, you know? I mean we may be very much in a transition. I have, over the course of my life, asked many times, "Is it important to stay within this, you know, structure and do the things I'm doing?" And I -- the answer is yes.
