Hope blooms at CTU despite vocations drop

National Catholic Reporter, Feb 20, 1998 by Tim Unsworth

Spindler entered religious life just as Vatican II was winding down. She recalls the lockstep days of convent life and the tension that emerged when the structure was no longer a good fit.

"I used to get angry," she said, "but not anymore. There is still room in the church for all of us. You do whatever helps you get to God, whether you're wearing a habit or not. The issue is life, and God has called us all to life."

In 1994, the theme of the biennial synod of bishops meeting at the Vatican was on religious life. Most American religious were skeptical. Indeed, interviews for this report suggested that many still were away of John Paul II and his often unyielding curia. Few expressed bitterness, preferring to say that Vatican dictates had little effect on their lives.

Two years after the synod, on March 25, 1996, John Paul II issued his pastoral letter, Vita Consecrata, which was based on the recommendations of his bishops. The document was remarkably positive and pastoral. John Paul II called the consecrated life "the very heart of the church." In spite of difficulties, he pronounced that "the profession of the evangelical counsels is an integral part of the church's life."

"[It] may experience further changes in its historical forms," the pope continued, "but there will be no change in the substance of a choice which finds expression in a radical gift of self for love of the Lord Jesus and, in him, of every member of the human family."

`I love being a nun'

Immaculate Heart Sr. Angela Hibbard is a member of one of seven congregations of sisters bearing the title of Immaculate Heart of Mary. In 1960, she entered with 41 others, eight of whom are still IHMs. She was trained as a teacher and spent four years in elementary schools and the next 11 years in special education. There was a year in Japan, pursuing master's studies. She eventually moved into parish work at the Jesuits' Gesu Parish in Detroit.

"I love being a nun," she said. "Early on, I felt isolated. There were periods of needed therapy and involvement in the charismatic movement, but I think they helped me to develop close relationships.

"I'm not quitting," she added. "I have ventured too much."

Her congregation, once numbering some 2,000 members, now has only 700. Some years ago, the congregation created "clusters" of 18 to 20 sisters, which serve to strengthen community life. "Now God is at the center of these clusters and they are for everybody. It's a new form of religious life, gradually shaping itself.

"My congregation has been incredibly responsible," Hibbard said. "They are amazing women who think things through."

Sr. Angela Hibbard has no illusions. "That part about us `choosing the better part' is a lot of baloney," she said. She is likely to return to Gesu Parish after she completes here degree in liturgical music.

Her vision of a community of the future is one of celebration -- a community of people, married and single, who follow a modified Rule of St. Benedict and whose special charisma is the renewal of worship.