Catholic
Colleges and Universities SistersOnline: Connnecting nuns, students for
social justice
By ARTHUR JONES
NCR Staff
It took religious communities a
while to realize the ministry potential of the Internet, said Dominican Sr.
Elaine LaCanne. With so many sisters of an age they are no longer
teaching, the question was how do we keep in touch with the next generation and
continue to teach.
That question was answered two years ago when 12 congregations of
women religious created www.SistersOnline.org. The idea is to network
among college students and women religious to focus efforts on social justice
issues that concern both.
That means, for example, this fall students at the Sisters of St.
Joseph of Carondolets College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., the
Sinsinawa Dominicans Edgewood College in Madison, Wis., the Sisters of
Charity of the Blessed Virgin Marys Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, and
the Benedictine Sisters College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn.,
will be invited to work with us on social issues that range from
opposition to the U.S. Armys School of the Americas to opposition to
sweatshops. Each college will have its own Web page on the SistersOnline
site.
LaCanne, SistersOnline project manager, and the 30-plus
congregations (some 4,500 sisters) belong to Region 11 (Minnesota, North and
South Dakota, and Wyoming) of the national Leadership Conference of Women
Religious. SistersOnline is thinking nationally, not just locally.
Students are interested in the sweatshop issue. Its
already big on public campuses, said LaCanne, and there are sisters
all over the country working on it -- but most of us have no idea who they are
or what they are doing.
So, part of our effort, she added, is to say to
sisters around the country: Why arent we more visible? The Internet gives
us that capability.
The parallel step, she said, is linking up sisters and Catholic
students.
Personal appearances on campuses are one way. Featuring sisters
and their ministries on the Web site is another. (Recently highlighted: Sister
of St. Joseph of Carondolet Rose Tillemans, founder of Peace House
in Minneapolis, a gathering place for communal meditation and lunch, open to
all.)
Earlier this year, SistersOnline representatives were at St.
Catherines College. All St. Kates students, explained
LaCanne, are required to have a global search for justice
class under their belts before they can graduate. So LaCanne and
colleagues were at St. Kates to persuade students to list their social
justice topic findings on Sisters-Online, to help students everywhere with
similar projects.
At the same time, the Web site is trying to make the connections
for students between spirituality and justice, and to interest students in
following up on topics to which the sisters are committed, such as women in
prison.
We also want students at different colleges to network with
each other on our site, to introduce them to issues among students on other
Catholic college campuses, have them know one another so, for example, they can
connect in person when they go down to Fort Benning, the Army
installation in Georgia where the School of the Americas is located, said
LaCanne.
Next up on SistersOnline: regular book reviews on key justice and
spirituality topics. Were exploring, said LaCanne.
Were hoping we can have enough staff available in a couple of years
to begin to reach out to high schools, too, she said.
The starting point though, she said, is we have so many
sisters who do social justice work -- but nobody knows it because weve
all been doing our own thing. SistersOnlines hopes to help link them
together.
Arthur Jones e-mail address is
ajones@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, September 29,
2000
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