Sisters making mainstream headlines

This week’s round-up of media mentions of women religious takes us from bee hives in New York to high fashion in Greece. And there’s a mystery to be solved this week, too.

Sweet smell of success

The Dominican Sisters of Hope in Ossining, N.Y., are taking a victory lap for leading the charge to get their town to allow backyard beekeeping.

The high-profile case brings attention to the sisters’ life work on behalf of the environment. They are strong and vocal advocates for “going green” in the workplace, energy efficient cars, recycling and growing your own food.

TV reports featuring the order’s Sr. Nancy Erts credited the sisters with leading the charge to override a long-standing ordinance against beekeeping.

According to Dominican Life USA, the sisters spoke at public hearings, wrote letters of support and went so far as to screen a film about bees for the village mayor and trustees.

“We lose the bees, we lose our sources of food,” Erts told News 12 TV in the Hudson Valley.

The sisters themselves plan to tend their own bees at their Mariandale Retreat and Conference Center, home to an outdoor labyrinth, nature trails and a community garden. Clearly, they’re still abuzz over their good news.

Don’t want them here

Sr. Linda Yankoski, chief executive officer of Holy Family Institute in Emsworth, Penn., found herself on the hot seat this week, facing a standing-room-only crowd at a public hearing described by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as “charged but orderly.”

Many in the crowd opposed the institute’s decision to give temporary shelter to immigrant children from Central America, but supporters applauded the institute for agreeing to take in up to about three dozen children at a time, all of them 12 or younger.

One man said he was concerned that the sisters’ “compassion has some unintended consequences,” noting reports of smugglers exploiting families.

Yankoski said the immigration system does need improving but it’s up to Congress and elected officials to do it.

She said she couldn’t fathom “why parents feel so desperate to send their children on that journey. I just know right now there are children who are sleeping on the floor, and I have a bed.”

Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik sent a videotaped message in which he applauded the institute’s actions, saying the “Catholic Church responds to humanitarian crises . . . because we are pro-life.”

Revitalizing China

Two Benedictine sisters recently traveled to China to advise women religious in Jiangsu and Beijing, according to Asia News.

Religious communities in the country are reportedly still struggling to grow spiritually in these post-Vatican II years.

Sr. Mary Catherine Wenstrup from St. Walburg Monastery in Kentucky and Sr. Stefanie Weisgram, retired from the College of Saint Benedict & Saint John’s University in St. Joseph, Minn., visited the country in May.

But the news is just now being reported by Chinese media outlets.

The women taught Biblical and spiritual courses at several orders, including the Sisters of the Child Jesus in Haimen, the Presentation Sisters in Suzhou and the Sisters of Charity in Nanjing.

In Beijing, they helped the Sisters of St. Joseph draft their first charter – 142 years after they were founded in 1872.

Quote of the week

You wouldn’t think to find news about women religious in a style story, but that’s exactly we found in the fashion section of Britain’s The Telegraph.

The story detailed how three years ago, in the middle of Greece’s economic crisis, ex-banker Mareva Grabowski and Dimitra Kolotoura, who owns a public relations company, started a line of high-end clothing made by Greek workers.

Over the years they’ve created jobs for more than 100 people around Greece, apparently for women religious, too.

One of the company’s most popular items for spring/summer 2014 was a long, embroidered caftan hand-woven by women religious who live in a convent on the island of Crete. The story didn’t name their order.

After making hundreds of the dress in the company’s signature muted colors, the sisters reportedly called the owners to say they were bored and wanted to add green and gold to the design.

“We were screaming, saying, ‘No, don't change anything, all of them have to be the same,’” Kolotoura laughed.

Letting go

Don’t say that the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace on Long Island are “selling” Stella Maris, their sprawling retreat and convention space overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

They consider themselves caretakers of the 6.8-acre parcel of land – with meadows, an organic garden and a fish pond in the middle of the circular driveway – and they want the new owners to take over with the same mind set.

“We’ve put a lot into these grounds. They’re sacred,” Sr. Suzanne Golas, director of the retreat’s ecology and spirituality program told NewJersey.com.

The sisters have used the land for spiritual renewal for nearly 75 years. But Hurricane Sandy did a lot of damage to the property, which needs a new $1 million sea wall, and the sisters simply can’t afford the repairs.

"They do not want to sell that to a developer. They would prefer having someone in who would preserve the ecology there,” said Tom Schember, chairman of the retreat’s board of trustees.

“Their mantra is ‘Peace with God. Peace with the earth.’ They believe in the sacredness of the earth.”

He declined to give the asking price for the property.

The town’s mayor, Adam Schneider, called the land a “spectacular piece of property” and hinted that he’d like to see it remain some kind of retreat place.

Schneider sounded even more excited, though, about what could be in store for the town – at least $20,000 in annual property taxes that the non-profit order doesn’t pay.

Ask “Sister”

While reading some of the sister-written blogs out there this week I ran across one called Ask Sister Mary Martha. It made me laugh out loud, and I even bookmarked it on my laptop.

Then in trying to find the author, who is not identified on the blog itself, I ran into all kinds of online speculation that it’s not really written by a sister after all.

Anyone out there have a clue?

Whoever is writing this cheeky, irreverent blog should be writing for “Saturday Night Live.” (Wait, do you think she or he does?)

On her profile, the writer lists her location as Marina Del Rey, Calif. Her interests are “dusting pews, scrubbing floors on hands and knees, hours of contemplative prayer and terrorizing children.”

Her latest entry suggests that St. Teresa of Avila would make a great patron saint for people with ADHD because her writings are “meandering . . . she digresses. A lot.”

She’s also profiled St. Joseph, calling him the “Patron Saint of Everything You Need.”

When one reader (allegedly) wrote a while back asking if was OK for young people to like Harry Potter and “Twilight,” the blog author wrote that it’s OK to dress up like Potter, just not to let him lead you into the dark arts.

“Do stay away from the ‘Twilight’ series,” s/he added. “It’s not about vampires. It’s about teenage sex. Thanks, devil.”

If anyone knows this person’s true identity, drop me an e-mail. Let’s solve this mystery together.

[Lisa Gutierrez is a reporter in Kansas City, Mo., who scans the non-NCR news every week for interesting pieces about sisters. She can be reached at lisa11gutierrez@gmail.com.]

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