Tuesday, August 29, 2006

"Where Would the Church Be Without Women?"

So my father asked aloud as we stood together at an outdoor reception at a parish I was leaving. The women of the parish orchestrated the reception and worked it for hours one bright, summer Sunday. I've never forgotten Dad's observation, which extended beyond menial tasks to the equally important ones forming so many of us. For example, a group of Adrian Dominincan Sisters began my elementary school, even living in a portion of a wing of it until their convent was built.

A handful of young women, doing missionary work of teaching at an Alaskan boarding school, were the first of what would become the Jesuit Volunteer Corps [JVC]. Women on the front lines of the serving church yet again!

This year marks the golden anniversary of the JVC. Its younger, international incarnation, the JVCI, has been around as long as I have been a priest (which makes it easy for me to remember). Read about their histories in the articel entitled with the motto of Corps members, "Ruined for Life."

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