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Vowed Membership
As vowed members of the Sisters of St. Joseph, we are
women who love God and attend to the needs of our
neighbor. We strive to unite people with God and with
each other. We give witness to our love of God by living
simply and working for a more just society. We seek to be
responsible stewards of our planet Earth. We believe in
one another and in the power of women working together.
Our ministries flow from our mission “that all may be
one”. In keeping with the intention of our founding
sisters, we minister where there are unmet needs, with
preference for the poor. We minister in education,
parish work, on college campuses, with youth, in spiritual
 direction
and retreat work, with Aids patients, in homeless
shelters, in soup kitchens, in diocesan offices, with the
elderly, in nursing, in neighborhood centers, in prisons
and rehabilitation centers.
Prayer is at the heart of our service and our life in
community sustains us for service. Our life together is a
sign of unity that gives us strength for our ministry in
the Church and human community. We meet regularly to pray,
dialogue, grapple with challenges, and we make decisions
through consensus.
Associate Membership
 Associates are women or men who seek to be identified in
spirit and in mission with the Congregation. In keeping
with our charism, Associates are involved in living simply
and working for a more just and peaceful world in prayer
and in action. They seek to deepen their baptismal
commitment by striving for personal holiness. From a
variety of lifestyles, Associates serve in various
ministries according to their own gifts and talents,
generously carrying out the works of mercy.
April 25,
2010
Associates Gather to
Celebrate 30 Years
To celebrate over 30
years of association with the Sisters of St. Joseph of
Springfield, associates gathered at Mont Marie on April 25
to pray, listen, remember, reconnect and recommit. About
40 Associates and Sisters attended the gathering including
several
former associate coordinators, as well as Cindy Katinas
who is the newest Associate, and two Associates who have
been with the group for 30 years, Sam and Mary Belluardo.
The morning
session included discussions on why Associates stay with
the group and how their covenants continue to reflect the
charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph in today’s world.
The afternoon included a prayer service in the chapel,
with a recommitment ceremony.
The Associates
agreed to continue to share the SSJ charism with the dear
neighbor whoever or wherever they may be. Sister Sally
Marsh closed the day with her song written for the closing
of the 125th anniversary – Graced by Love. Truly it is
because of God’s great love that the Associates are able
to celebrate over 30 years as part of the Community of St.
Joseph.
Sisters of
St. Joseph Welcome New Associate
On Sunday,
December 6, 2009, in a pretty little white church in
Rutland, MA, Cynthia S. Katinas made her covenant of
association with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield.
Cindy is a registered nurse at UMass Medical Center in
Worcester. She is very active in St. Patrick’s parish and
is also a hospice volunteer at Autumn Village in
Worcester.
In the presence of vowed
sisters, associates, friends and colleagues, Cindy
expressed in her covenant that “My heart is filled with
joy as I come here today to respond to the invitation so
graciously extended to me by God…” Cindy continued,
“Though I have served many people in my ministry as a
nurse… I now am more intentionally uniting with the
Sisters of St. Joseph in living out their charism of
uniting neighbor and neighbor with God.”
We welcome Cindy and look
forward to her giftedness among us. There
are now 86 associates 30 years after the first associate,
Mary Creighton McDowell made her covenant.
Community of St. Joseph: a New Way to Share Our Mission
 For
those interested in joining in the mission of the Sisters
of St. Joseph of Springfield, there are several
possibilities. With the establishment of the Community of
St. Joseph, vowed members, associate members, agregees and
partners in mission all strive to bring people together
with one another and with God.
According to the Mission Statement of the Community of St.
Joseph, “We commit ourselves to work together towards
building a more just society and in living more simply.
We encourage one another to use and celebrate our gifts in
accordance with our chosen paths of life”
To
learn more about the Community of St. Joseph, please click
here.
First
Agregees Welcomed
The Sisters of St.
Joseph of Springfield have welcomed three women as
Agrégées. Marisa Brown-Ludwig, Sherry Enserro
and Teresa Foley made their commitments at a
ceremony on August 9, 2008 at Mont Marie in Holyoke.
While living various lifestyles, agregees are committed to
the mission of the Sisters of St. Joseph and choose
ministries based on that mission.
August 17, 2009
Leadership
Conference of Women Religious Explores Critical Issues
Against Backdrop of Vatican Studies
New Orleans, LA -
Meeting in assembly in New Orleans from August 11 to 14,
approximately 800 leaders of US orders of Catholic sisters
engaged speakers and one another on some of the most
critical issues facing Catholic orders, the Catholic
Church, and the people they serve.
Aware of the
devastation of New Orleans, the restoration of the coastal
wetlands of Louisiana, and climate change, the members of
the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) met
under the theme "Women of Spirit: Creating in Chaos." The
assembly began with 250 members touring the work sites and
housing of Catholic sisters that had been destroyed by
Hurricane Katrina. LCWR had co-sponsored a recovery
project that raised more than $7 million which enabled
sisters to remain in New Orleans and restore their works
in education, healthcare, and social services.
Several hundred
of the leaders held an outdoor public prayer service on
the banks of the Mississippi River where they learned more
about the ruinous effects of coastal wetland erosion. They
also unanimously affirmed a resolution to take measurable
steps to reduce their orders’ carbon footprints.
ABC News and NPR
analyst Cokie Roberts, a New Orleans native educated by
Catholic sisters, addressed the assembly. She offered a
historical perspective on the resiliency and creative
contributions of Catholic sisters to the nation since they
landed in this city in 1727. Roberts referenced the study
being conducted on the quality of life of Catholic sisters
by the Vatican saying that while she was not qualified to
speak on the quality of life of these women, she could
speak with authority to the quality of life of those
changed by them and solidly endorsed the spirituality and
mission of sisters today.
The assembly
body also discussed the Vatican study, as well as a
separate inquiry being conducted by the Vatican’s
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the position
of LCWR in matters pertaining to Catholic Church doctrine.
Following analysis of the experience of these studies thus
far, the leaders noted that while their orders have always
been fully accountable to the church and plan to
collaborate with the Vatican in these studies, they
request that those conducting the inquiries alter some of
the methods being employed. Among the expressed concerns
are a lack of full disclosure about the motivation and
funding sources for the studies. The leaders also object
to the fact that their orders will not be permitted to see
the investigative reports about them that are being
submitted directly to the Vatican.
Throughout the
assembly, the leaders emphasized that their orders have
remained faithful to the reform and renewal of their
communities called for by the Second Vatican Council that
urged women and men religious to adapt their lives, prayer
and work so they may most effectively fulfill their
mission. They reclaimed their commitment to what they
believe is the unique and needed role of religious life
which includes serving at and speaking from the margins of
the Catholic Church.
The leaders
noted that this study of their lives has drawn national
and international attention and provided them the
opportunity to explain the substance and focus of
religious life, not only to those conducting the probes,
but also to the public. In a presentation on a recently
conducted national study on vocations to religious life,
Brother Paul Bednarczyk, CSC and Sister Mary Bendyna, RSM
emphasized the need to increase public understanding of
religious life. Bednarczyk, executive director of the
National Religious Vocation Conference, and Bendyna,
executive director of the Center for Applied Research for
the Apostolate (CARA), addressed the assembly on the
findings of the national study their two organizations
conducted over the period of two years on vocations to
religious life.
As LCWR outgoing
president Sister J Lora Dambroski, OSF called the assembly
to move forward together, she also pointed out the
potential inherent in the Vatican studies. In her address
to the assembly she called the inquiries a "unique
invitation to ongoing creativity in the living of Gospel
commitment" and said they provide "another defining moment
in our conference and our collective histories and
future."
President-elect
Sister Marlene Weisenbeck, FSPA assumed the office of LCWR
president for 2009-2010 after the members voted in Sister
Mary Hughes, prioress of the Dominican Sisters of
Amityville, New York, as the new conference
president-elect; and reelected Sister Ellen Dauwer, a
Sister of Charity of Saint Elizabeth of Convent Station,
New Jersey as conference secretary. They also approved a
five-year plan for future conference studies and planning.
In other
assembly business, the conference heard findings from a
study commissioned by LCWR and conducted by CARA on the
policies and practices in place in orders of Catholic
sisters for responding to allegations of sexual abuse and
for prevention of abuse. The findings showed the vast
majority of orders have appropriate policies in place.
The assembly
closed with the conferring of LCWR’s highest honor, its
Outstanding Leadership Award, on Sister Sharon Holland,
IHM, who until June 2009 was one of the highest-ranking
women at the Vatican, and Sister Helen Garvey, BVM,
project coordinator of LCWR’s traveling museum exhibit
"Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America."
LCWR has
approximately 1500 members who are elected leaders of
their religious orders, representing approximately 59,000
Catholic sisters. The conference develops leadership,
promotes collaboration within church and society, and
serves as a voice for systemic change.
The addresses
from this assembly will be available at
www.lcwr.org.
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
8808 Cameron Street | Silver Spring, MD 20910 |
301-588-4955
For more information on vowed membership or associate
membership, please contact:
Natalie Cain, SSJ, Coordinator of
Membership and Association
Email:
ncain@ssjspringfield.com
Sue Lavoie, Associate, Co-Director
of Associates
Email:
slavoie@ssjspringfield.com
Tel: (413) 536-0853, ext. 249
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