Take three seconds and picture a nun. See her? Is she dressed in a severe black and white habit, slapping naughty students on the wrists with a ruler? Or is she twirling along the hills of Austria, declaring them alive with the sound of music?It's 2007, but somehow such stereotypes of nuns persist -nuns who, by the way, prefer to be called sisters these days.
Ever since the Vatican made dramatic changes in the Roman Catholic Church during the early 1960s in an attempt to make the faith more accessible to all people, the nun archetype has been a-changin'.
The phenomenon, known as Vatican II, got nuns out of habits and into suits and trousers.
Many sisters have traded carrying rosary beads for briefcases and stethoscopes, all while keeping their faith at the center of daily life. Though there are still several communities of sisters maintaining the traditions of wearing habits, living cloistered lives and even taking vows of silence, most of today's sisters have their feet firmly planted in the 21st Century.
Our wrists are safe.
Sister Pat Davis, Sisters of thePresentation of the Blessed Virgin MaryWalk into the Learning and Loving Education Center in Morgan Hill, and you're bound to see a tall woman with a riot of salt-and-pepper curls calling out to students by name, working at a computer and juggling phone calls.
This is Sister Pat Davis, and though she's dressed in gray slacks and a black blouse instead of a habit, she's following her calling as a Presentation Sister by working as executive director for the center. She and her staff teach living skills to low-income immigrant women in the South Valley.
The center helps teach the women to find and apply for jobs, how to use computer programs and how to speak and read English."My community was started in the 1700s by a woman in Ireland named Nano Nagle who really wanted sisters to be among the people," Davis said. "She started schools for women and poor children who wouldn't be taken into schools, so I feel like we're certainly continuing that work here.
"Until Vatican II, Presentation Sisters wore traditional habits. After the changes in the church, the habits were gone and Davis said she felt the community was following Nano Nagle's ideas more than ever. By getting rid of the habits, there was one less separation between sisters and the community.
Davis, 68, grew up in San Francisco and began studying to be a sister right after high school. At the time, it was very common for girls to enter convents and 14 girls from Davis' graduating class entered the religious life. After becoming a nun, Davis got a college degree and worked as a teacher for a large part of her career."I actually knew when I was 6 years old that I wanted to be a sister," Davis said. "I went to see that old movie 'The Bells of St. Mary's' in the theater, and I said to myself, 'That's what I want to do.' And that's what I did."
Though Davis said though she loved teaching and working as a vice principal, landing at the Learning and Loving Education Center was a "wonderful surprise." She works with children in the nursery school, women who have come to America with hopes of creating a better life for their families and a group of teachers with a variety of backgrounds - and Davis knows the backgrounds of just about everyone at the center.
Some of the staff now charged with teaching English and life skills to others were once students at the center, Davis will proudly tell you. Some students have pulled themselves up by the boot straps, moving from living in a car, to a shelter and finally to an apartment. A student recently had her new baby at the center, and Davis hurried to pick up the infant and have a quick cuddle.
"This center is a beautiful thing - I'm so lucky to be woven in and out of the lives of the students," she said, tearing up. "That's where God comes in. God is revealed in the people that you serve, and I see that every day. You wonder how some of these students make it, but they're here, they're working hard and it's easy to see that's God at work. Seeing that is the joy of being in the religious community."
Sister Rachela Silvestri, Daughters of CharitySister Rachela Silvestri of Saint Louise Regional Hospital begins and ends her day with prayer. In between, she serves God as part of a ministry that is dedicated to education, health care for all and general service to the people of the community. Silvestri began studying to be a sister in 1960. Her community, the Daughters of Charity, was founded by St. Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac in France in the early 1600s.
Their ministry focuses on aiding the poor through health care and social services. Silvestri, a nurse now in her early 60s, has her fingers in a multitude of pies stemming from her work at the hospital. She sits on a number of health committees, oversees and teaches classes at the hospital, gives educational health talks at senior centers and other community venues, writes grants, conducts studies, secures public service announcements on television and volunteers at the Rotocare Clinic in Gilroy, which provides health care for homeless and low-income residents.
"Health care is what I was called to do, but I was also called to be a sister," Silvestri said. "A sister can have any profession - sisters are teachers, psychologists, sociologists - the profession doesn't matter. What matters is the manner in which a sister lives her life."Daughters of Charity sisters still wear a form of habit, which can be a simple light or dark blue dress, or a dark blue skirt with a light blue top, similar to a suit.
Silvestri said the habit is mostly a nod to tradition, and when she's not at work she can often be found sporting a pair of jeans instead. "A lot of people have misconceptions about sisters," she said. "People get nervous around us. By far the biggest misconception is that sisters are perfect or we're above regular people. We've just chosen a life that's different than mainstream society.
It's different, not better or worse. We're still people."Sister Delores Kemper, Franciscan Sisters of Christian CharityIf you happen to see Sister Delores Kemper sitting at her desk at Sacred Heart Parish in Hollister, don't be surprised to see a little furry tan head pop up and look around with big, liquid brown eyes. That's Peanut, Kemper's cocker spaniel. Peanut comes to work with Kemper while he's being trained. He's still a puppy, so he can't really be left alone at the sisters' home near the San Juan Bautista Mission.
"I don't know that it's normal for a sister to have a dog at work - in fact I know that it's not," Kemper said with a shrug and a smile. "When I was working at a parish back east, I asked about getting a dog and the answer was a definite 'no.' But when I asked the other sisters at home, they said yes. We also have a Chihuahua, a turtle, lovebirds and some fish. But maybe it makes sense - we are Franciscan sisters.
"Saint Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals. Before Vatican II, Franciscan sisters dressed similar to him in a long brown habit, with a rope tied around their waists and a long rosary hanging from the rope. The sisters also wore a white cap and sandals. "The habits were wool, so in summer we were sweltering and the rosary always clanked when we walked," said Kemper, who is in her early 70s. "Then in the winter, we still wore our sandals, which was very cold, and the snow back east would get caught in the folds of those long skirts. I can't say that I miss the habits."
Now Franciscan sisters wear simple brown and tan clothing, with an optional veil. Kemper entered religious life about a year after high school, and said she's never regretted her decision. "I have my college education, I've been able to travel to the Holy Land and to Rome, and I've been able to serve people all across the country," she said. "I worked at conservative parishes back east, and then I worked in Wyoming, and my life felt like a cowboy movie. I love my home here in San Juan Bautista and this parish. I love my job."
At Sacred Heart, Kemper spends a lot of time focusing on adult religious education. She coordinates classes for people who want to convert to Catholicism and works with adults who want to be confirmed.
She sits in on faith-sharing groups and has recently started working on a program that provides religious education for families, instead of dividing the education between adults and children.
"It does bother me that some people are intimidated by sisters or they think of all of us as very strict, very severe people," Kemper said, petting Peanut. "There's no need to be nervous or scared around sisters. We got into this work to serve God, to help people and to be part of a community. I actually think of it as part of my job to help undo some of those negative stereotypes."
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