Sisters of Life, Sr. Mariae Agnus Dei

Sister of Life: ‘You Will Never Regret’ Attending a Faithful Catholic College

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Sister Mariae Agnus Dei of the Sisters of Life is one of many religious sisters whose vocation was nourished by faithful Catholic education.

Founded in 1991, the Sisters of Life now have more than 100 sisters serving across the country and in Canada. The sisters take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, plus a special vow to “protect and enhance the sacredness of every human life.”

The Newman Society is grateful to Sister Mariae Agnus Dei for sharing her story and testifying to the influence of the faithful Catholic education that she received.

Newman Society: Why did you choose to attend a faithful Catholic college? What role did it play in your life and your vocation?

Sister Mariae Agnus Dei: Choosing a Catholic college was a poignant moment of grace for me. I watched older siblings go off to secular colleges and return to the home emptied of their faith, and with that, the hope and peace of a life lived with Christ. I knew I wanted something different. God did too. He placed a deep desire in my heart to find a college that not only had strong academic and athletic programs, but also a culture where I could encounter Christ and grow in my faith. He led me to the doors of The Catholic University of America [a Newman Guide-recommended institution in Washington, D.C.]. It seemed to have everything I wanted: a good nursing program, Division III athletics, and a solid commitment to integrated Catholic education and student life. I told the Lord I would go if He got me a scholarship and told Him the amount I needed. He answered promptly through an acceptance letter from the University with the offer of a scholarship that matched my prayer to the dollar. The deal was sealed, and I left the beauty of rural Maine for the urban jungle of D.C.

Looking back, I can honestly say going to Catholic University was one of the most pivotal and important decisions of my life. At Catholic University I found the Christian community, academic integrity, sacramental life and culture to irrevocably and all but entirely fall in love with God. They were beautiful years of learning and discovery — humanly, intellectually and spiritually. Whether running cross-country, engaging the deeper questions of my heart with other students at campus ministry events, attending the many cultural events at the University or in the city of D.C., diving into the well-rounded curriculum of the nursing program, or serving as a student minister, I found Christ alive and ready to be encountered in the fabric of campus life at Catholic University. Father O’Connell, the University president at the time, held a Catholic vision strong enough to create an integrated culture of faith on campus — a gift I am eternally grateful for.

Newman Society: How did you discern your vocation?

Sister Mariae Agnus Dei: My experience at Catholic University grew the generosity, trust and freedom to give God permission and surrender to His plans for my life and vocation. Who am I? What am I called to do with my love? At Catholic University I found resources to ask and answer these questions authentically and fruitfully. I discovered my life was a gift. I was good. And God had great plans for my life. A year after graduating, His call burst into my life in full color. I was working the night shift as a nurse in intensive care. As I sat down in the nurse’s station after an intense “code,” I was full of gratitude that the patient we had worked to save was now stable. The precious gift of life flooded me through and through, and I perceived a new invitation at the door of my heart. In this moment, I discovered the love of a Father — one that knew me to the depths of who I was. I held this mystery of grace in my heart and arrived home just as my roommate was waking up. She asked me how the shift went. I was surprised at my reply, “I think I have a vocation to religious life.” She paused, looked at me, and said, “Rachel, you’re tired. Go to bed.”

I did so, and yet, when I awoke, the question of vocation was burning even more deeply in my heart. Shortly thereafter, I met with the diocesan vocations director. He told me to go be quiet before the Lord, pray for the grace to know the deepest desires of my heart, and pray for the grace not to be afraid of what came in answer to that question. My whole soul was filled with a peace unlike anything I had ever tasted. I went to a nearby Church for Mass, knelt and let the Holy Spirit lead my prayer. As it came time to receive the Lord in Holy Communion, I knew He was inviting me to receive Him in a new way. The veil of my heart was drawn back, and I beheld what I knew was my deepest desire — Love Himself. An invitation resounded throughout my soul with gentleness and clarity, “Consecrated life with the Sisters of Life… will you come?” I responded with a full-hearted, joy-filled, “Yes”!

I have been a Sister of Life now for 12 years and couldn’t be happier — God’s dreams for my life and my love have far exceeded my own and continue to surprise me each day. I’m overwhelmed by the joy, gift, love and beauty of this call, this “yes” to Love. I remain eternally grateful for my years at Catholic University and the incredible ways it laid a foundation to hold God’s dreams for my life.

Sisters of Life
Sr. Mariae Agnus Dei (right) with some of the Sisters of Life. Photo via Sisters of Life.

Newman Society: What advice would you give to students who are trying to make the decision about which college to attend?

Sister Mariae Agnus Dei: To those discerning colleges, all I can say is you will never regret choosing a place that is invested in forming, supporting and flourishing every dimension of your life — mind, body, heart and soul. You are uniquely created in the image of God and have a unique gift of love to give. Only a college committed to serving and revealing God’s full vision for the human person will ennoble the life and love your heart desires to live. The years you spend at college, the people you encounter, the culture in which you immerse yourself, will inevitably lay a foundation for the rest of your life. In choosing an authentically Catholic college, you will be on course to live the good life you desire and become who you were made to be.

One Word Could Erode Catholic Education

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In three amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court filed last month, the bishops and Catholic educators—together with other major religious groups—urged the Court to uphold the meaning of “sex.”

It’s one little word. But if the Court gets it wrong, our religious freedom could be quickly eroded.

And while all Catholics and Catholic institutions would be endangered, there is a double threat to Catholic education: both to the integrity of its employees, and to its ability to teach young people the authentic Catholic faith.

Continue reading at Crisis Magazine…

EWTN Radio: Newman Society Discusses Recent Pew Study Findings and More

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Newman Society President Patrick Reilly was recently hosted on The Good Fight with Barbara McGuigan on EWTN radio. During the first hour of the show, they discussed a number of topics, including the recent Pew Study that found that only 26 percent of U.S. Catholics under age 40 believe in Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist.

Faithful Catholic education is a key solution to restoring belief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist. “There are a variety of ways of teaching, the point is that teaching and formation has to happen and we cannot compromise on that, ” said Reilly.

“Every single young person who is baptized must understand the Eucharist, must love the Eucharist, must devote their life to the Eucharist. And if that’s not happening, then we are failing,” he continued.

Listen to the full recording here.

Oath of Fidelity

A New Year’s Resolution for Catholic Colleges

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As the new academic year begins for students around the country, a video on Twitter caught my eye: tutors at the new East Coast campus of Thomas Aquinas College recited the Profession of Faith and Oath of Fidelity at Convocation in front of the College’s students.

“In fulfilling the charge entrusted to me in the name of the Church, I shall hold fast to the deposit of the faith in its entirety,” the tutors proclaimed before Bishop Mitchell Rozanski of the Diocese of Springfield on Aug. 24. “I shall faithfully hand it on and explain it, and I shall avoid any teachings contrary to it.”

What a hopeful and profound way to begin the year!

Thomas Aquinas College, known for its academic rigor and orthodox Catholicism, is now educating students in Northfield, Massachusetts, as well as Santa Paula, California. It joins other faithful New England colleges, including Holy Apostles in Cromwell, Connecticut, Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts in Warner, New Hampshire, and the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire, in bringing a renewal of Catholic faith and culture to an area of the country that is sorely in need of it.

At Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming, on Aug. 25, professors also made their annual Profession of Faith, and new professors made the Oath of Fidelity. The College has told The Cardinal Newman Society: “While we know that this is not strictly required, we wish to go beyond the minimum and demonstrate that all our Catholic faculty are committed to teaching all disciplines ad mentem ecclesiae.”

The profession and oath were made at a Mass celebrated by Bishop Steven Biegler of the Diocese of Cheyenne. He told faculty and students, “The formation of the whole person that Catholic education seeks—body and mind, heart and soul, faith and reason, seeks to form disciples who think and speak and act like Christ.”

Later that afternoon, freshman students also signaled their commitment to faithful Catholic education by signing their names in the official Student Register. “In signing this book,” Acting Dean Kyle Washut told the students, “you are making a public act of trust. You are announcing your intention to trust the Wyoming Catholic College community with your formation over the next four years. We are aware of the solemn duty imposed on us when you give us that trust, and we will honor it.”

The same day, the entire faculty of Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, made the Profession of Faith and Oath of Fidelity at a Mass of the Holy Spirit celebrated by Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington.

“I want to begin by thanking you and your gifted and talented administration and faculty for providing our students with such a sacred place to continue their education, to deepen their relationship with the Lord, and to grow in Truth and be prepared to articulate that Truth wherever the Lord sends them,” Bishop Burbidge said.

Catholic college presidents, too, are expected to recite the Oath of Fidelity according to canon law. Dr. Timothy Collins, the new president of Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio, recited the oath during the University’s Mass of the Holy Spirit on Aug. 28. Impressively, he was surrounded by members of Walsh’s founding order, the Brothers of Christian Instruction, and University Chaplain Father Thomas Cebula.

“When you think about the Oath of Fidelity, we think about it in terms of a covenant,” said Monsignor John Zuraw, the Mass celebrant and chancellor of the Diocese of Youngstown. “God has established a covenant with each and every one of us. And with any covenant, there are responsibilities. There are values that we hold deep within our very being.”

“As President Collins takes this Oath of Fidelity,” Msgr. Zuraw continued, “he takes it first and foremost to be faithful to God and all that he does and all that he will be. But this Oath of Fidelity also implies a relationship with each and every one of you… that he will do his best to lead this University with values and principles based on the Gospel.”

A public profession of our Catholic faith is an important witness to students and a comforting assurance about the type of education students will be receiving. While the Church does not require it of every professor at a Catholic college, canon law does require that every Catholic theology professor receive the mandatum from the local bishop, by which theologians promise that they will teach in accord with the Church. Often this is accomplished by a Profession of Faith or other similar measure.

Among the faithful colleges recommended in The Newman Guide, all theology professors have the required mandatum, and most take the Oath of Fidelity. Sadly we don’t see this everywhere, but there is an exciting renewal today at a growing number of Catholic colleges. Families seeking assurance of a faithful education have many good options.

Starting out this new academic year on the right foot is a very hopeful sign. Please keep Catholic educators in your prayers, that they will faithfully teach and witness to our students, preparing them to walk with Christ throughout their adult lives.

This article first appeared at The National Catholic Register.

Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia

Dominican Sister Discerned Vocation in ‘Silence’ of College Chapels

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Editor’s Note: This article is part of our new “Profiles in Faithful Catholic Education” series which features graduates of faithful Catholic schools and Newman Guide colleges who are leading the renewal of the Church. Other recent profiles can be found here and here.

For one Dominican sister, two years on a faithful Catholic college campus were just what she needed to discern her vocation to religious life.

Sister Bernadette Marie of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia in Nashville, Tenn., said that during her high school years she realized that the “secular environment of a public university” would not provide her with a “strong faith-based community.” As she explored potential colleges, her wish-list included “daily Mass, times of Adoration, and a strong community.” When she visited Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., which is recommended in The Newman Guide, she “fell in love with the Catholic environment immediately.”

During college, Sr. Bernadette Marie studied theology, education and art and became involved with many activities on campus, including intramural sports and Bible studies. She formed great friendships with her peers, who encouraged her to grow in her relationship with Christ and “become a better all-around person.” She also met professors who cared about her “spiritual and academic growth.”

“At Benedictine College, I was blessed to see many adults living their vocation to the full,” said Sr. Bernadette Marie. “I recall with fondness praying early morning rosaries with President Minnis and other students… witnessing the gift and sacrificial love of families through resident hall directors and their young families. The Benedictine monks and other religious sisters studying on campus helped me to see that total dedication to God was a joyful sacrifice of love.”

There were many elements of life on the faithful Catholic college campus that helped Sr. Bernadette Marie to be open to her vocation — a vocation which she had inklings of earlier in her life. But she says that she discerned her vocation “first and foremost in the silence of the chapels on the campus.”

After just two years at Benedictine College, Sr. Bernadette Marie left campus to begin a new adventure with the Nashville Dominicans, whose apostolate is Catholic education. The sisters, who wear long white habits, are dedicated to a life of prayer and have a strong sense of community. After additional formation, Sr. Bernadette Marie taught second grade students for several years, helping prepare them for their sacraments. Now she serves in the vocations office of her community, which allows her to meet with young women on college campuses who are “thirsting for the truth and a deeper relationship with Christ.”

When it comes to her own journey, Sr. Bernadette Marie is full of gratitude and “overwhelmed by the incredible gift” she received at a faithful Catholic college. “I knew that the Lord had to be calling me to something even better in the convent because I had been so happy at Benedictine,” she said.

Catholic Schools Must Restore America’s Faith in the Real Presence

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“He is truly there in the Eucharist,” says Amelia Shripka. The 8th-grader at Everest Collegiate High School and Academy in Clarkston, Michigan takes delight in the Eucharistic procession that her school holds every year. It’s a “great time to reflect on what Jesus did for us,” she says.

But according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, such strong faith is increasingly uncommon. The Pew study found that only 26 percent of U.S. Catholics under age 40 believe in Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist.

So how does the Church restore faith in its most precious sacrament? One key solution is the renewal of faithful Catholic education, whether in parochial schools, lay-run schools, online programs or in the home.

Continue reading at Crisis Magazine…

CNS Joins Amicus Brief Opposing Redefinition of Sex in Title VII – Harris v EEOC, U.S. Supreme Court

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Click here to read.

CNS Joins Amicus Brief Opposing Redefinition of Sex in Title VII – Bostock v Clayton County, U.S. Supreme Court

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Click here to read.

Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul

Yet Another Lawsuit Against the Church

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The Archdiocese of Indianapolis is the target of yet another lawsuit — this one from a guidance counselor whose contract to help form students at Roncalli High School was not renewed for the coming school year, because she entered into a same-sex marriage.

With this and other similar disputes in Catholic schools, Archbishop Charles Thompson is clearly under assault. And the same fight is coming to every bishop and every Catholic school and college that courageously upholds the mission of Catholic education — as well as those schools and colleges that carelessly go forward without clear and consistent Catholic policies, thereby opening the doors wide to ideological activists and legal trouble.

Just last month, the Indianapolis archdiocese settled a lawsuit by a teacher who was dismissed from Cathedral High School for his same-sex marriage.

That teacher is legally married to a man who still teaches at Brebeuf Jesuit College Preparatory School, where leaders refuse to comply with archdiocesan policy requiring Catholic school teachers to avoid scandal. Now the school’s leaders have filed a canon law suit with the Vatican, challenging Archbishop Thompson’s episcopal right and duty to determine whether the school may be called Catholic.

In the latest lawsuit filed in federal court last week, plaintiff Lynn Starkey accuses Roncalli High School of discriminating against her because of same-sex attraction. But Starkey was employed at Roncalli for 39 years, and even after she violated her contract by entering into a scandalous, permanent, same-sex commitment, Roncalli did not fire her. Instead, it chose not to renew her contract.

Another counselor at Roncalli, Shelli Fitzgerald, is expected to sue in the next month or two. Fitzgerald was placed on administrative leave last fall, following (you guessed it) her same-sex marriage.

These suits join a growing number of attacks against Catholic schools and colleges across the country, because the Church prescribes morality standards in Catholic education. Why are so many Catholic school and college employees eager to challenge such standards? It may be that the standards are not stated clearly enough, or that they are not consistently applied, so that employees are genuinely surprised to lose their jobs. Surely there is also the hope that courts today are willing to support discrimination claims instead of upholding religious freedom. In Starkey’s case, it is especially astounding that a guidance counselor at a Catholic school could fail to appreciate that teaching and witnessing to Catholic moral principles are essential to her job.

Catholics should not be naïve in thinking that there is anything substantially unique about Indianapolis. Catholic education nationwide faces serious threats from within and without, and too many schools and colleges are insufficiently prepared for the legal battles.

The best thing that school and college leaders can do — immediately, without hesitation — is to ensure that every internal policy and practice is consistent with the formation of students in complete fidelity to Catholic teaching, and that employees embrace this mission without compromise. That makes lawsuits unlikely, resists the corruption of Catholic identity, and allows for a vigorous defense of religious freedom in court.

In the weeks and months ahead, there will be more lawsuits. We must pray for our bishops and school leaders to have the fortitude to make a strong stand for faithful Catholic education. Only if Catholic educators get back to their roots and defend their foundations, will they preserve their most important mission of forming students in the faith.

This article first appeared at The National Catholic Register.

Threats to Catholic Education

EWTN Video: Newman Society Discusses Latest Threats to Catholic Education

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Hu74hWE5tmc&feature=emb_title

Newman Society President Patrick Reilly was recently hosted on EWTN News Nightly to discuss the latest threats facing Catholic schools and colleges.

“We’ve been seeing many exciting things happening in Catholic education,” Patrick Reilly shared with EWTN News Nightly host, Wyatt Goolsby. “But because our culture is going in a different direction, we’re seeing many lawsuits. Some of them are even coming from teachers within Catholic schools who lose their jobs because they’re not witnessing to the faith.”

“Catholic schools have to be very careful that in their Catholic identity they are consistent across the board,” Patrick explained. “They need to have very clear policies and ensure that everyone understands what is required from a Catholic institution.”