On July 28, the Vatican announced its intention to initiate a “constitutive assessment” of U.S. communities of women religious.

The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life released the details of a three-phase process involving 341communities of women religious in the United States, a process that includes personal interviews with religious superiors, a detailed questionnaire and on-site visitations.

To be sure, the Vatican’s announcement of the Apostolic Visitation was met with strong reactions, deep-seated feelings and difficult and probing questions.

The visitation also occasioned in my mind a difficult and troubling realization that, in the words of 20th century American writer W. A. Ward, “feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

All of us, directly or indirectly, are beneficiaries of the mission and ministry of women religious, whose works and witness have too often gone unrecognized and unheralded.

Since the earliest days of the Diocese of Helena, communities of women religious have been responsible for nearly 150 years of health, education and charitable ministry that has provided the solid foundation upon which the Diocese of Helena now stands.

In 1864, four Sisters of Charity of Providence arrived at St. Ignatius Mission, providing health and education ministry to the settlers and Native Americans. In 1873, two Sisters of Providence purchased a small house, which eventually developed into the present-day St. Patrick Hospital. Jesuit Father William Schoenberg, in his Chronicle of Catholic History, details the remarkable development of the Providence Community across the entire Pacific Northwest.

On September 29, 1869, a small group of women, five Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth and a young teacher named Rose V. Kelly, “took their seats on the Missouri-Pacific railway headed for the far-off Rocky Mountains.” This small band of women became a catalyst for missionary activity and charitable outreach to the settlers of the Helena Valley and beyond.

Within the year, the Sisters opened the St. Vincent Academy for Girls, St. John’s Hospital and a boys’ day school, which, in the words of Sister Mary Buckner, SCL, signaled “the beginning of a strong, permanent Catholic community in Helena.”

In the years following, the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth became a dynamo of missionary and charitable activity across the region, beginning in Helena and continuing into Butte, Anaconda, Virginia City, Walkerville, Hamilton, Browning, Shelby, Harlowton, White Sulphur Springs and Deer Lodge.

The Sisters, in conjunction with Bishops Brondel and Carroll, established educational institutions, grade schools and high schools, hospitals, orphanages and ministries of outreach flowing from their deeply held convictions rooted in the hearts of St. Vincent de Paul and Mother Xavier Ross.

In 1907, as the country faced financial panic and a brief but serious depression, the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary came to the diocese at the behest of Bishop John Patrick Carroll, himself a student of the BVM community in Dubuque, Iowa. It was there that Bishop Carroll first experienced the extraordinary charisms of the BVM community and invited the Sisters to serve school children in Butte and Missoula.

Through the years, thousands of children in the Diocese of Helena were beneficiaries of formation and education under the tutelage of the Sisters of Charity of the BVM.

Throughout the history of the diocese, other communities of women religious were invited to meet the emerging spiritual and pastoral needs of the people across the vast reaches of the Montana landscape: Ursulines, Dominicans, Benedictines, Sisters of Mercy, Hospitallers of St. Joseph, Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Sisters of Charity of Loretto, Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Handmaids of Mary Immaculate, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, Sisters of St. Joseph, Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon, Sisters of Humility of Mary, Sisters for Christian Community and others.

Each individual Sister and each respective community used their ample gifts and talents in loving and selfless service to the people of God across the expansive territory of the Northwest.

While fewer in number, women religious continue to seek out new, fresh and innovative paths to provide loving presence and service to the Church in ways unimagined in prior decades.

In addition to pastoral ministry in parishes, health care facilities and educational institutions, Sisters are involved in social services, global solidarity with the poor, the care and preservation of our historic archives and patrimony, the administration of local parishes, chancery ministry, prison ministry, ministry among our Native American peoples and environmental stewardship. These are but a few manifestations of the work of the Holy Spirit in and among our people at the hands of generous and caring religious.

For nearly 150 years in the Diocese of Helena, our Sisters have been trusted and valuable witnesses to the Gospel of Christ as they continue to “read the signs of the times” and provide pastoral care and presence to our people, without counting the cost.

British writer G. K. Chesterton once opined that “I would maintain thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” Echoing his sentiments, I wonder where the Church would be in the present day without the presence, imagination and innovative ministries of our Sisters, ministries that have met the pressing needs of our people.

In the name of the Diocese of Helena, I express profound gratitude and appreciation for all that the Sisters have done in the name of the Church to lead us individually and collectively closer to the heart of Christ.


Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 25, No. 12, December 18, 2009.