Current Events

May - June 2007

Sr. Joan Granzeier interviewed the delegates who will be going to the General Chapter in Paris with Sr. Margaret Nimbley, our provincial.

MEET THE DELEGATES…to the General Chapter  

submitted by Sr. Joan Granzeier SH

About 40 years ago, just as the Church prepared for its 2nd Vatican Pastoral Council (1962 – 1965), just as the rumblings of change seemed to be emerging everywhere,  just as students around the world were becoming aware of the call to participate in Society in new ways…so also religious communities were sensing the great changes that were to come about in the coming years, without knowing as yet the ramifications and magnitude of these changes.  It was less a moment of delving into doctrine than a time of re-thinking the Christian way of being with and for others, in journeying together as followers of Christ  in this world, as being light bearers with and for Jesus Christ and his mission in the world of “today”.  It was Pope John 23rd who  convoked this council which was attended by 2,450 Catholic leaders as well as “observers” from many other denominations and faiths.  Even though he was already ill with (and aware of) the cancer that would claim his life within a year, he “opened the window” of the Church, inviting all to reflect on the Church:  Who is she, this Church who we are?  How is she called to serve the mission of Christ in today’s world?

What has all this to do with the title of this article?

Religious communities – men’s as well as women’s – have always counted on the gathering of their members in various ways, to deepen their understanding of their own expression of their purpose in the Church and to foster future planning in a spirit of faith and love.   However, since Vatican II, these occasions have intensified and strengthened religious communities (variously called “congregations”, “Institutes”, “communities”, etc.)  There are more meetings within religious life itself and rich  collaboration with Institutes of different backgrounds, as also with many other religious and secular persons, groups and communities.  Dialogue and a sense of sharing understandings and projects have helped religious to explore the great variety and spiritual wealth that exists within and among religious Institutes.

When we US Helpers met recently in preparation for the General Chapter, one of our tasks was to elect 2 representatives from our USA province to the General Chapter to be held Aug. 6 – 26 in Paris, France, where our Institute was founded 150 years ago.

So – please meet our delegates from the USA who will accompany our US provincial, Sr. Margaret Nimbley, to the General Chapter:

                                              SR. JEAN KIELTY      

              Jean hails from Minnesota, which she lovingly describes as “God’s country” and thrills to the winter wonderland of her native region.   After some years of working in a religious education program in a parish in Minnesota, she moved to St. Louis where she was an active member of the Christian Life Community movement.  She met the Helpers there and entered our community in Chicago in l986.  She began working with Catholic Charities, first as director of a shelter for homeless women and families and currently as a

clinical family services specialist.  She also has special training in counseling for drug addition. 

When interviewed for this article Jean recognized that we are no different from other religious communities who have similar convocations of members, each one seeking their way of being in the Church and associated with the mission of Christ.  Jean explains, “We come together to discern our future leadership and to consider more closely the decisions we need to make and the directions we must take.  It is an opportunity for the Institute to discuss those questions that affect not only us but the world around us. 

Such questions might include establishing the Institute in a new place/situation, or looking more closely at the particular needs of one or another province and to respond to those needs more carefully, in the light of many factors, not the least of which is our internationality and our ability to help one another across province lines.  There are also women’s issues – addressed in the last chapter but which will surely continue to be part of our discernment and work.  Questions of justice and peace remain for us always in new ways.  Because of our particular vocation in the Church – to help in all manner of good – we recognize divergences and nuances in the needs we see.  

For example, our sisters in Rwanda experienced the horrific 3-month (100 days) genocide of 1994 and were able to work in liaison with those of us far away, helping us and collaborating together to find ways to work together, to protect people in danger of death.  If nothing else, we become infinitely more aware of the terrible sufferings.   We can also recognize more clearly that this suffering continues in many shapes and forms even unto today – and not only in Rwanda.  Our Rwandan sisters are active agents for change, for healing, for reconciliation among the people of Rwanda..

The provinces are encouraged to do “homework” before the General Chapter, such as reflecting on their own country/ies’ needs and challenges as preliminary work for the Chapter which will ask the question:  To what are we, as Helpers, being called by the Providence of God now?  God speaks to all of us through the realities of life situations.  Up to us to read these signs in the light of the Gospel.

Jean sees that being a delegate is a call to her, to be accountable to our province, to study the preparatory documents being set in by the provinces, to be present to what is happening with a true focus on the work at hand.   Simply to interact with Helpers from far away countries, e.g. India, Japan, Chad, Scotland, Spain Mexico, Quebec, etc., just to name a few, is a graced experience. 

There are the challenges such as the language barrier, the need to listen closely and at length to simultaneous translations, to “put a face  on these international gatherings.   “It is an honor,” says Jean, “to have been elected.   I can engage deeply with the Institute, participate in this special way of the Chapter.”

“We walk in faith,” says Jean.  “We are simply women, called to share the journey, to stop in order to be renewed as an Institute and, with the Chapter findings and gifts to continue our way.  We can be bread for one another, believing indeed that “a new world is possible.”

              SR. DOMINGA ZAPATA  

Minga (as she is affectionately referred to by those who know her) was born on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, the youngest child in a family of 14 children.  She came to New York as a teenager. With her friends she came regularly to the Helpers in New York to participate in the “Mary of Providence club”, a source of plentiful activities of celebration and service for young teens. She went on to enter “the Helpers” in 1963 and went to Chicago after her first vows to study theology particularly in view of her life’s dedication to the spiritual, religious and pastoral formation primarily for the Hispanic community in the United States.  Currently, she is much sought after for conferences and workshops on a national level.  Bishops have sought her assistance in diocesan  communities and Minga never neglects the more simple and needy people who seek her wisdom and understanding. 

Minga is enthused by the Chapter.  This time around, she heard most profoundly in her heart that all…ALL…are participants in the Chapter.  “In olden days, we just jumped up and obeyed, whereas now the call is to participate, to embrace,” she notes.  Our constitutions say this: “..If the mission would allow it, all the members would meet (in the Chapter).” (Art. 159 Helpers’ Constitutions)   Why?  She goes on to explain that we are now responsible for the mission of Jesus as given to us.  We do not “possess” this mission.  It is shared by the universal Church, the Body of Christ, by our friends who are at once those who benefit from our fidelity but who also bring their own fidelity to the table.  The “ripple effect” of this dynamic nourishes ALL of us, not only those who are vowed as Helpers, but all those who partake of the same spirit of hope, of service, of commitment.

We need to look beyond ourselves, beyond meetings, beyond chapters to see the action of Christ through this gift (or “charism”) that we share.  We begin to realize that, indeed, Christ did not come only for good and healthy people.  There is the suffering, there is sin, there is what we often metaphorically and really call “purgatory”.  It is the pattern in our lives of that great mystery and total hope given us in the Communion of Saints, that connectedness which has come with the gift of Christ.

When asked her impressions when she was chosen as a delegate to the General Chapter, Minga responded that her first shock came with a question mark:  “Why me?” she thought. The second shock was greater than the first.   “Why not me?”, and the answer became clear.  Our belonging to the Body.  Our sense of belonging as part of a much bigger reality than we could imagine,  “I knew then that we were all together in the understanding that it is not one person, one delegate, one Provincial, one grass roots sister, but a body of members who are formed as one in the love of Christ.  No one goes as an individual to the General Chapter!