Contact:   Annmarie Sanders, IHM
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Catholic Religious Leaders Address Ecological Problems

(Detroit, Michigan – August 25, 2003)  At a critical moment for the ecological future of the planet, more than 900 leaders of communities of Catholic women religious recently explored the potential they have to help chart a new shift in thinking and living on the earth.

Gathered at the annual assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in Detroit, the leaders studied the effects of the mass extinction of the diversity of life on the earth. Sister Nancy Schreck, OSF, an assembly keynote speaker, noted that this extinction calls for profound shifts in theology. “While Christians generally understand God’s will for salvation on earth to involve healing and wholeness for human beings, we must extend our understanding to include healing and wholeness for the rest of creation,” she stated. 

 This shift was echoed by the second keynote speaker, Dr. Brian Swimme, who voiced the need to stop thinking of the earth as “a collection of objects and to start thinking of it as a mutually indwelling communion of subjects.”

 Swimme also noted that women religious have the potential to be effective leaders in creating a new world view. “We have a deep belief and confidence in women religious. In contrast to the collapse of confidence in leadership in other segments of society, we know that your work is motivated by truth and love.”

 LCWR president Sister Mary Ann Zollmann, BVM, challenged the leaders to maximize the potential to create change that is inherent in religious life. “We have uncovered within ourselves the power most necessary for the creation, salvation and resurrection of our church, our world, and our earth. It is the power of relationship, of our sisterhood with all that is. This power is prophetic; it is the most radical act of dissent.”

 Assembly participants further explored the needs of the environment through workshops on permaculture with Sister Carol Costen, OP; ecology’s invitation to authentic humanness with Sister Lynn M. Levo, CSJ; leadership lessons from ecology with Peter McLoughlin; earth-friendly and economically sustainable renovation with Sister Janet Ryan, IHM and Danielle Conroyd; contemplation of the cosmos with Sister Mary Southard, CSJ; and the call of the Earth Charter with Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker. Participants had the opportunity to tour the campus restoration project of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Monroe, Michigan, who have transformed their 280-acre campus using principles based on ecology, spirituality and justice.

 In addition to studying the needs of the earth at this time, the assembly participants passed three resolutions that commit themselves to intensifying their acts of advocacy for social justice, opposing the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and decrying the continuing tragic loss of life in Iraq.
 During the assembly, LCWR honored Sister Mary Luke Tobin, SL, 95, with the LCWR Outstanding Leadership Award. Sister Mary Luke is a well-known figure in the Roman Catholic Church who gained notoriety as one of the principal architects in the renewal of the church and religious life.
As the LCWR president from 1964 to 1967, she was invited as one of only 15 women throughout the world to attend the sessions of the Second Vatican Council. She was one of three women auditors invited to serve on planning commissions for documents on the church in the modern world and on the laity. 

She has advocated for peace and nonviolence throughout the United States and abroad in areas afflicted by war and oppression. She is also renowned as a leader in ecumenism, a founding member of NETWORK and Mary’s Pence, and an advocate for true equality for women in church and society. She founded the Thomas Merton Center for Creative Exchange.

Joining the LCWR members in honoring Sister Mary Luke were 22 of the 31 living LCWR presidents.
The LCWR members also elected Sister Christine Vladimiroff, OSB, prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, as vice-president; and Sister Anne Hennessy, CSJ, general councilor of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, California, as secretary. Also at the assembly, Sister Constance Phelps, SCL, assumed the presidency and Sister Mary Ann Zollmann, BVM, became the past-president.
LCWR’s members represent approximately 75,000 Catholic sisters in the United States.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) has approximately 1,000 members who are the elected leaders of their religious orders, representing 76,000 Catholic sisters in the United States. The Conference develops leadership, promotes collaboration within church and society, and serves as a voice for systemic change.