February 2014 newsletter

February 2014 newsletter


Student debt fund gets project manager

Mr. Mark Teresi appointed

NRVC’s efforts to establish a fund to help religious communities with new-member education debt has moved forward, thanks to the recent appointment of Mr. Mark Teresi as project director for the National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations (NFCRV).  

The NFCRV is a new initiative sponsored by the National Religious Vocation Conference. The fund’s purpose is to assist religious institutes in welcoming new members who have student loans. Research has shown that large education debts have been a substantial stumbling block for vocations in recent years.

While acting as project manager, Mr. Teresi will continue in his current position as vice president of institutional advancement at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. Prior to his current position, Mr. Teresi worked in development at the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls in Chicago and for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

As NFCRV project director, Teresi will design the business plan and oversee the fund’s incorporation, establish a board of trustees, and search for an executive director. The goal is to complete these tasks by late fall 2014. The National Fund could then issue its first grants to religious institutes in 2015, the year dedicated to Consecrated Life as declared by Pope Francis in November 2013.       

Photo: Mr. Mark Teresi, newly appointed project director for the National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations, initiated by the National Religious Vocation Conference.

 
 


"Next Steps in Hope" brings sisters together

30+ communities to gather in Chicago

A group representing more than 25 sisters' communities will convene for NRVC's  "Next Steps in Hope" meeting February 18-19, 2014 at the Felician Sisters' Motherhouse in Chicago.

The group's purpose is to review what a number of communities have done (or stopped doing) to help spur internal change in their congregations with an intent to foster vocations. ​The group hopes to identify the ​resources, ​programs, ​or ​processes ​​needed ​to aid ​women’s ​institutes ​in ​attracting ​and ​retaining ​new, ​vowed ​membership. ​The ​results ​of ​this think ​tank ​will ​inform ​NRVC ​and the sponsoring ​GHR Foundation ​as ​to ​what ​further ​action ​is ​needed ​to ​sustain ​the ​viability ​of women ​religious ​in ​the ​United ​States.

Photo: The planning committee for "Next Steps in Hope"

 
 


Men Religious Moving Forward in Hope

Men religious move toward strengthening vocations

Religious priests and brothers gathered at St. Meinrad Archabbey, St. Meinrad, IN in December 2013 and at Holy Name Retreat Center, Houston, TX in January 2014 to focus on new membership issues. Approximately 125 men attended one of the two identical events. They listened to presentations on what canon law says about religious life, Catholic demographics, the contemporary social context for vocations, and how their own institute's "vocation culture" can enhance new membership efforts.

Initial feedback about the events has been positive. Participants praised the sense of fraternity and hopefulness. Many said they will be sharing the talks and using the vocation culture assessment tool they received.

Program follow-up

This coming summer 2014, NRVC will publish online a public document gleaning the shared wisdom of the two gatherings and looking at initial steps that the participants' communities have taken.

For further information, click here  or contact Sister Debbie Borneman, SS.CM, at debbiesscm@nrvc.net

To see or download photos of the event, go to the NRVC Flickr page

 

Photos: (top, left) Father Hank Lemoncelli, OMI, of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life talks with participants in the January 2014 "Men Religious Moving Forward in Hope" event held at Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center in Houston, TX.

Participants (above, right) at the St. Meinrad event bless each other during a prayer service.

Brother John Mark Falkenhain, OSB (above) presents the Vocation Culture Assessment tool. Every participant received this tool to use with his own community.

 
 


Register online for Summer Institute

Chicago vocation ministry workshops

Online registration is now open for NRVC's popular Summer Institute, to be held July 8-22 at the downtown DePaul University campus in Chicago. Click on the titles below to register.

 

 

Ethical Issues in Vocation and Formation Ministry

July 8-9
By Father Raymond P. Carey, Ph.D.

Behavioral Assessment I

July 10-12
By Father Raymond P. Carey, Ph.D.

Orientation Program for New Vocation Directors

July 14-18
By Brother Paul Bednarczyk, CSC and Sister Deborah Borneman, SSCM


Understanding, Assessing and Fostering Psycho-Sexual Integration

July 19-22
By Sister Lynn M. Levo, CSJ Ph.D.
 

 



Connecting with Communicators

NRVC editor meets with media professionals

Carol Schuck Scheiber,  publications editor for NRVC, took part Jan. 29-30 in the board meeting of the Communicators for Women Religious (CWR), held in Orange, CA. For simplification, CWR recently changed its name from National Communicators Network for Women Religious. Its mission of spreading the good news of Catholic sisters remains the same.

Learn more about CWR here.

 



Newly professed survey released

CARA surveyed 107 who took final vows

The latest survey of newly professed men and women religious--released January 23, by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops--shows that the 2013 group, similar to its recent predecessors, is multi-ethnic, with an average age of 37 or younger, and with 10 percent reporting a delay in their formation due to education debt.

A total of 107 individuals filled out the survey, which was conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Twenty-four percent were born outside of the U.S.

The ethnic breakdown was as follows:
•  74 percent Caucasian
•  14 percent Asian
•  12 percent Hispanic/Latino

About four in ten responders (43 percent) attended a Catholic elementary school, which is similar to that for all Catholic adults in the United States (42 percent). The survey respondents are more likely than other U.S. Catholics to have attended a Catholic high school (31 percent of respondents, compared to 22 percent of U.S. adult Catholics) and much more likely to have attended a Catholic college (30 percent of responding religious, compared to just 7 percent of U.S. adult Catholics).

Click here for the news release about the survey.

Click here for the full report.
 


 



National Catholic Sisters Week

March 8-14, 2014, part of Women's History Month

Molly Hazelton and Mary Soher, OP, are heading up the National Catholic Sisters Week event in March.

 

The first-ever National Catholic Sisters Week, sponsored by an organization of the same name,  will take place March 8-14, 2014 and will be kicked off with an event March 7-9, 2014 at St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN.

The inaugural event March 7-9 will bring together college women and sisters. The project is underwritten by the Hilton Foundation, and grant funds will support housing, food, and local travel costs (between the airport, the hotel, and the university) for participants. 

The weekend will begin on Friday evening, March 7, and conclude at noon on March 9. Sisters and teams of sisters with college students are invited to attend. They will learn about doing oral histories, discuss religious life, and form a network of college women and sisters. Prayer and liturgy will also be part of the event.

Information and registration details can be obtained from the co-executive directors of the project:

Molly Hazelton
651-690-6149
mdhazelton@stkate.edu    

Sister Mary Soher, OP
651-690-6762
mpsoher@stkate.edu

National Catholic Sisters Week
St. Catherine University
2004 Randolph Avenue
St. Paul, MN  55105

 

 



2014 Pope's message for World Day of Prayer for Vocations

May 11, 2014 is day of prayer for vocations

 

Pope Francis has released a statement for the May 11, 2014 World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Among his words are these:

“I invite you to listen to and follow Jesus, and to allow yourselves to be transformed interiorly by his words, which “are spirit and life” (John 6:62). Mary, the Mother of Jesus and ours, also says to us: “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). It will help you to participate in a communal journey that is able to release the best energies in you and around you. A vocation is a fruit that ripens in a well-cultivated field of mutual love that becomes mutual service, in the context of an authentic ecclesial life. No vocation is born of itself or lives for itself. A vocation flows from the heart of God and blossoms in the good soil of faithful people, in the experience of fraternal love.”

Click here for the full address in English.

Click here for the full address in Spanish.

 

 



Sister Virginia Herbers, A.S.C.J.

I am NRVC

How long have you been involved in vocation ministry?
I served on our vocation committee for eight years, then served as vocation minister for a year before starting full-time in formation ministry. I've kept my hand and heart in vocation ministry throughout my five subsequent years of formation ministry, however! I'm also a member of the NRVC Editorial Board.

Has being a member of NRVC been helpful to you?
Yes, I have found membership in NRVC to be an invaluable source of information, community, support, and strength over the course of the past several years!

What has been your community's best outreach effort?
Our discernment retreats have been the most fruitful, allowing us to meet and get to know a wide variety of discerners. For me personally, however, my ministry on college campuses has been the most positive and fruitful in terms of forging good relationships that open the door to vocation discernment.

Any words of wisdom?
My greatest exhortation would be to remember that this is a ministry. It is so easy to become discouraged or disheartened when someone who has been a strong candidate and with whom we've spent lots of time and energy decides not to pursue a religious vocation in our community. Yet, if I truly believe what I say I believe about a vocation being a call to holiness and an invitation of the Spirit, I have to accept what the Spirit is doing in and through me--even if it doesn't exactly match what I would have liked!

 

 



Resource of the Month

"Responding to God's Love"

This popular 12-page booklet is designed for inquirers, new discerners, and those who seek basic information on discernment. In an easy-to-read style, it explains vocation, preconditions for discernment, and the discernment process.  This resource is great for presenting talks on discernment, and as a gift to teachers, catechists, Busy Persons Retreats personnel, and parish vocation committees. Written by Charles J. Jackson, S.J, it is available in both Spanish and English.  Please call 773-363-5454, email nrvc@nrvc.net, or order at https://nrvc.net/store. $2 for NRVC members; $3 for non-members.

 

 



Communication Tip of the Month

Always keep the audience in mind

Do you use advertisements, webpages, and other types of media to reach out to young adults? If so, be sure you develop and test these media with the target audience. Without this critical focus, you risk making media that speaks to you and your current membership--and not necessarily those you want to invite.

Learn more from this blog:  Target Your Audience, Not Yourself

 

 



"ForMission" program offered by RFC

For all people involved in formation ministry

The Religious Formation Conference offers an intensive, four-week course beginning in June 2014 on all aspects of formation ministry. Learn more at relforcon.org. Or contact Yvonne DeBruin at ydebruin@relforcon.org or 202-827-4562.

 

 



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