In an interview with ACI Africa, Sr. Prof. Agnes Lucy Lando urged Catholic Bishops and Superiors General of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL) to come up with a plan that takes care of the spiritual needs of the Catholic Sisters serving in non-Catholic institutions.
In the Thursday, June 29 interview, a few days after her book, “Moving into the Unreached Pastoral Frontiers: Making Visible the Impact of Catholic Sisters working in non-Catholic Institutions”, was released, Sr. Lando said, “Findings of my study seem to suggest that there is the need for the development of a pastoral care program for Catholic Sisters working in non-Catholic institutions.”
“My appeal to our Bishops and Superiors General for various Sisters’ Congregations is to have a desk that caters for the pastoral needs of these Sisters,” the Kenyan member of the Religious Congregation of the Sisters of Mary of Kakamega (SMK), who lectures at Daystar University in Kenya further said.
She added, “Those of us working in non-Catholic institutions have our challenges, our joys and achievements. We could have a desk at the Catholic Secretariat that makes our experiences known and extends help to our Sisters in these unreached pastoral frontiers.”
“We are appealing to the Church to cast out into the deep, as Saint John Paul II said, and look for the Catholics serving in non-Catholic institutions who don’t enjoy the privilege of being Catholic,” Sr. Lando emphasized.
The Former Director of Research and Postgraduate Studies at Daystar University said the findings of the study she conducted point the Church to move further into unreached pastoral frontiers and provide pastoral care to Sisters serving in non-Catholic institutions.
This outreach is in line with the multi-year ongoing Synod on Synodality, Sr. Lando said, and added, “No one should be left behind, according to the Synod on Synodality. Yet, we Catholic Sisters serving in non-Catholic institutions feel so much alone.”
The 59-page book that Paulines Publications Africa (PPA) published is a result of a study that Sr. Lando conducted among women Religious serving in non-Catholic settings, where participants shared that their pastoral needs are not taken care of, including access to Chapels, Eucharistic celebration, and the Sacrament of Penance.
It also emerged in the book that was released on August 23 that Catholic Sisters, who serve in non-Catholic institutions are not given permission to observe Church Solemnities that do not fall on Sundays, as their employers demand that they work on weekdays.
In other instances, the women Religious are transferred by the government institutions they work for to places where their respective ICLSAL do not have communities, Sr. Lando shares in her semi-academic and pastoral oriented book, which can be purchased for US$5.00 online or at Catholic bookshops under the auspices of the Pious Society of the Daughters of St. Paul (FSP/Pauline Sisters) in Africa.
There are many women Religious serving in non-Catholic institutions, including schools, hospitals, and many government and non-government institutions yet their stories are not known, the SMK member told ACI Africa during the August 29 interview.
“It is the Sisters who first go to many of such places unreached to set up a mission before other entities come. Not much is heard of these Sisters, who work in such difficult situations,” Sr. Lando said.
Highlighting the successes of her study, the widely published University professor said that the Church now has a database of women Religious serving in non-Catholic institutions in the Association of Consecrated Women in Eastern and Central Africa (ACWECA) region.
The Catholic Sisters, Sr. Lando said, have expressed the deep desire to belong to a group, where they can support each other and know that they are not alone in their experiences.