Congratulations and clarification

Congratulations to NRVC member Sister Maria Therese Healy, O.Carm., who was recently featured on the Today show promoting the new reality show The Sisterhood: Becoming Nuns. The Today segment put religious life and discerning women in a very positive light, which is good news, particularly as we enter the Year of Consecrated Life.

However, we do have one important clarification: In the clip, Sister Maria Therese says, "We belong to a national organization for vocations, the NRVC, and we're one of the communities that they thought would be a good fit because of our unique ministry." We are grateful for the NRVC mention, but that statement makes it sound as though NRVC identified communities for the reality show. In fact, we did not recommend any communities. It was the production company, Hot Snakes Media, that thought the Carmelite Sisters of the Aged and Infirm would be a “good fit”--not NRVC. The producer did contact the NRVC office several times; however, we were clear that because of the nature of the show, we could not recommend any particular community and that the producer would have to seek out possible community participants directly.

Again, we offer our hearty congratulations to Sister Maria Therese on her Today show appearance and hope that this reality program will help shed light on the discernment process and joys of religious life.