Remarks by Catherine Pinkerton, CSJ
Recipient of the 2006 LCWR Outstanding
Leadership Award
August 22, 2006
It’s difficult to imagine how one views that remarkable piece, so sensitively prepared by Annmarie Sanders, and then go home to live with the reality. Thank you, Annmarie.
From the day the LCWR Executive Staff arrived at NETWORK’s office to deliver the news, Carole with a magnificent bouquet in hand, I have been riding the shock waves, pondering, trying to unravel the why of it all. The LCWR Executive Staff has been a unbelievable support, all anyone grappling with such an honor could ever be. I offer each of you my deepest gratitude, a gratitude, nevertheless, sifted through with wonderment at the error of your ways.
To have served LCWR was a totally unbelievable gift of grace, an experience, that despite the often painful and undulating movements during the early 1980’s, the constant questions from Church hierarchy about the evolution and direction of religious life in the United States, all of which are now part of LCWR’s rich history, proved over and over again what a prophetic gift religious life is to the Church and to the world at large.
But, tonight as I gratefully accept this award, I am reminded of the well-worn but true adage that we walk on each other’s shoulders. Therefore, I am compelled in justice, but moreso in loving remembrance, to name just a few of the women with whom I share this honor, some of whom have already received their ultimate reward. They rightfully belong with us this moment of a Golden Jubilee celebration.
First, Helen Flaherty, Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, who immediately preceded me.
Helen, with great sensitivity and superb deftness began the long and painful process of facilitating LCWR’ s response to the document entitled “The Essential Elements Document of Religious Life” sent to U.S. religious by John Paul II in 1983. Suffice it to say, the questions and concerns its tenets raised led to the formation of a Papal Commission, headed by Archbishop of Quinn of California- to whom LCWR shall forever be grateful. Bette Moslander CSJ here tonight and Claire Fitzgerald served on that Commission.
Next is Margaret Cafferty, PBVM of
San Francisco who followed me as President, a
woman of great strength and vision, who later served as Executive Director of
the Conference. Leaders, whose members were involved in the New York Times
debacle, will well remember Margaret’s incomparable wisdom in dealing with that
situation over several years. Living one floor below Margaret in the
so-called Nun’s Towers, an apartment complex in
And, still among us and present this evening, the final person in the 82-86 saga, Miriam Therese Larkin CSJ who followed Margaret, a welcoming, thoughtful and perceptive woman, a calming and contemplative presence .
But, I would be lacking in truth to that historical moment if I did not name one who was companion and mentor to all of us, a woman with inimitable foresight and judgment, with superb facilitation skills, and, amid all, a wicked sense of humor, Lora Ann Quinonez of
The Congregation of Divine Providence, who served as Executive Director. All of us, but especially Mary Daniel Turner, with whom Lora not only worked but with whom she shared a lifelong friendship, could write volumes about her.
LCWR and NETWORK
For me NETWORK has been –even though I feel that God picked me up by the hairs of my head to plant me there - a long story, ( one in which Nancy Sylvester figured strongly), another graced segment in my life. I have never doubted that for me NETWORK was a natural progression from LCWR. In truth, we two entities are inextricably linked. LCWR has always been a part of NTW’s Board, helping to set its direction, Marie Lucey presently serving in that role.
NETWORK is the face of women religious on Capitol Hill, “the
Nun’s Lobby”, as we are often called. We are one of two religious groups,
registered as federal lobbies, not, therefore, considered an advocacy group,
but a direct lobbying entity. Senator Barbara Mikulski of
Too, LCWR and NETWORK are revolving doors. NETWORK has been blest by both past and future LCWR on its staff. Tonight I wish to name women who came to LCWR from NETWORK or who have chosen to serve at NETWORK after leadership. There’s a subtle hint here.
Nancy Sylvester IHM, an early NETWORK pioneer,
traversed from serving as NETWORK’s
National Coordinator to Leadership in the IHM’s and
then to President of this Conference; Kathy Thornton RSM, who so recently
served as NETWORK’s National Coordinator,
is now President of the RSM’s in Iowa. Simone
Campbell came from a position of leadership in her Congregation, the Sisters of
Social Service, and the founding of a
Looking for a post-job?
One of the most poignant and unique insertions of a
congregational leader who moved into NETWORK between terms as her
Congregation’s President was that of Nancy O’Connor, CSJ Orange, who died so
suddenly just over a year ago. In an early morning call to me,
Now, very remiss I would be if I didn’t acknowledge my deep gratitude to my own Community, the CSJs of Cleveland, represented by two of our Leadership Team here this evening, Pat Kozak and Jeanne Cmolik and my very close friend and colleague in Administration, Felicia Petruziello. My community knows how to lovingly and patiently deal with mavericks and I am the ultimate one.
They have been so wonderfully and lovingly supportive through the years, not only to me but to NETWORK. I often wondered if their generosity indicated they wanted to be certain I stayed in DC? But, seriously, my congregation, now reconfigured, is the spring from which I have been nourished and sent forth.
So those are some of the women on whose shoulders I stand this evening. Consequently, these LCWR women, persons of unbelievable love and dedication, are bright threads woven into the fabric of this award tonight. And there are countless others I could name-Theresa Kane, Mary Daniel Turner, Margaret Brennan, Joan Chittester, each with her own page in this glorious history.
I would not be here tonight, however, if it wasn’t for the early example of justice, the legacy of my parents. At the time of the Depression, my family was engaged in buying a new home. I was ecstatic because it had a paneled library and I had dreams of rainy days of reading and munching popcorn. But two weeks after we had decided to buy, my Dad brought us together to tell us that he and Mom had decided against the purchase. I still recall glass shattering at my feet as I popped the question” Why, Daddy?” “Well,” he responded, “something terrible is going to happen in this country and there will be many people without work and food. We will need to help them.” Little Miss Moffit here replied: “Why can’t they help themselves?” To which question I received my first justice lesson. I learned about what a lack of resources meant-jobs, education, etc. Then came the final shot. “Besides that, Missy, you haven’t the right to more than you need when other people haven’t food on the table or even a home. We will buy a smaller house, but we can’t live in that large one.” And so it was. That’s my personal saga.
TONIGHT
But, as we have already celebrated,-- this evening has deeper meaning for us all as the conclusion of LCWR’s fiftieth anniversary…... I am certain that each of us has reflected on the unquestionable fidelity of LCWR to its prophetic mission over these years. How absolutely pristine is its description of that mission in its 2004-2009 Call:
“We, the members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious,
believe that God’s call is written in the signs of the our times. Our foremothers and founders stepped into the chaos and the unknown of their day, trusting in God’s good guidance and great providence. In our time, we are called to do the same. Inspired by the radical call of the Gospel, led by God’s Spirit and companioned by one another, we embrace our time as holy, our leadership as gift and our challenges as blessings.”
As I consider the meaning of this award, I realize that the LCWR call to step into the chaos of the unknown- an unprecedented challenge today in this very conflicted world reality-, and NETWORK’s call to leadership in the global movement for justice are so very intertwined as to be inseparable. We are you in the Halls of Congress. Our missions in these times are more profound than any I and my companions ever knew. It isn’t the future structures of our individual congregations or even the future unfolding of religious life that is at stake. Rather, it is the realization that humankind has been cast into a deeper chaos, a chaos that is global, more enveloping, than at any other historical moment. And we know that as a prophetic entity, we can’t create boundaries to defend and preserve ourselves. Neither, it seems, is there a moment when we can stop to create the new.
We must fully immerse ourselves in this dark night, knowing that these dark times are the conditions for rebirth. Rudolph Bahro states that “When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure.” And there is absolutely no reason for our insecurity or any reason for a lack of hope. As Vaclev Havel says: “Hope is a dimension of the soul, an orientation of the spirit and of the heart. It transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.”
We women do know some very basic things- who we are and who we are called to be. As O’Murchu points out, we are a liminal people, standing on that tenuous line between what is and what is yet to be. We are the prophetic gift given to the world, bearers of a moral message to humanity. But above that, out of the blessed gift of 22 years at NETWORK, I will state over and over, that as women, bearers of the Gospel and the rich heritage of Catholic social teaching, we have the special mandate of our prophetic role not just to speak to our political leaders on issues, important as that may be, but to use action on legislation as a means of transforming consciousness, of working toward a moral vision for a nation that has truly lost its way and its understanding of its authentic place in the evolving world community.
Never have our voices as women religious leaders been more sorely needed. Right action, which is birthed through being authentically who we are called to be, is a process that cannot be coerced but only followed. May we as the prophetic gift to Church and humanity continue to act bravely and forcefully. In deep gratitude and love for this gift, I pray you continue to be the women you so obviously are.