A SHRINKING SISTER HOOD : Fewer--and Older--Women Are Now Answering the Call

Maureen Harris closed down her medical-insurance-billing business two years ago, sold her two-bedroom condo in La Habra and gave away the furniture, the car and the cat.

“Literally, I walked out the door and knew that I would never go back again,” said Harris, 37. “It was over. Kaput. It brought tears to my eyes.”

Harris now lives with five other women in two cream-color ranch houses joined by a central hallway--the novitiate, or training convent, for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange.

“Ever since I was young, I felt the call to be a sister. But I sort of ran away from it,” she said. “Eventually, the call caught up with me.”

She spends her days taking religion lessons and talking to cancer patients at St. Joseph Hospital, where she is learning to become a chaplain. Whereas she used to date or take last-minute trips on weekends, she now spends most of her free time with her fellow nuns.

“There is an inner peace that comes along with this life,” she said. “It was scary to say, ‘OK, I’ll do that,’ but it’s worked out great.”

Sister Maureen’s defection from the secular to the religious life is typical of the few women who are now entering convents. But it hardly makes a dent in what has been a decades-long trend toward a smaller, older population of nuns.

There are now only 104,419 sisters in the United States, contrasted with 176,341 in 1968, according to the Tri-Conference Retirement Project, a national Catholic agency that studies issues affecting the elderly in religious life.

Orange County’s convents have mirrored the national decline: Only 450 nuns remain in a county with more than 500,000 Catholics.

At Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, the county’s largest order, with less than 200 nuns based in Orange County, the median age is 62. The community has shrunk from about 350 in the early 1960s to 300 now. As the nuns get older and few come to replace them, there is little hope it will grow again.

Years ago, large numbers of women fresh from high school entered the convents to become teachers or nurses, living structured lives in quiet convents surrounded by orange groves.

Today, fewer women are choosing to become sisters. Those who do are generally older and have had successful careers or even been married.

They live in the county’s 72 convents, hold a wide variety of jobs and are generally more active in their communities and in pursuing outside interests. Most have shed habits and veils in favor of street clothes.

Yet still entwined in their lives are centuries-old traditions and the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Sister Frances Hallicy became a nun in the old days. She was just shy of 16 when she journeyed from Orange County to the Sisters of St. Joseph’s fledgling convent in Eureka, Calif. Her parents thought that it was a passing fancy, but she stuck it out and says she has never regretted her decision.

“It’s only by the grace of God because how could I possibly make a decision like that at that age?” said Sister Frances, now 85.

In 1920, when she was a novice, the order was small and poor. The 50 sisters wore long, black habits, grew their own vegetables, taught school and aided the sick and needy.

“Because the sisters were young and enthusiastic, we could put up with difficulties,” she said.

After moving to Orange County in 1922, the community started numerous schools and hospitals, such as St. Joseph Hospital in Orange and Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. Many of the sisters still work in education and health care, but some are pursuing careers in law, psychology, social work and other fields.

Sister Frances taught for many years, later becoming statewide supervisor of the order’s elementary schools, dean of its college program and principal of St. Cecilia’s School in Tustin.

She now teaches religion part time in the order’s Center for Spiritual Development.

While Sister Frances has taken most of the order’s changes in stride, she still wears a veil. “When (people) see the veil, they know I’m a sister,” she said.

Sister Frances lives in Regina Residence, a home for 75 ill and retired nuns in Orange that the order opened 10 years ago in response to the aging of many of its members, half of whom are over 65. The facility provides nursing care for the infirm; active sisters have their own rooms but share lounges and kitchenettes.

Nuns earning outside wages help support Regina Residence by contributing their salaries to the order, which then distributes the money to the convents.

Sister Frances receives a $50 monthly allowance to pay for clothes, toiletries and other personal items, an amount that is about average for Orange County sisters. She also receives $100 a year for vacations. All other needs are met by the community.

But with fewer women entering the convents, the financial security of older sisters in some communities has been threatened. While each order is struggling to deal with the problem in its own way, the church has established an annual national fund-raiser to help support the retirement of older sisters, who generally outlive other American women by about 10 years.

Last year, Catholics contributed almost $30 million toward the retirement of religious men and women, far short of the $500 million that was needed, said Sister Mary Oliver Hudon, director of the Tri-Conference Retirement Project.

Convents around the country have been selling off property and cutting back services to pay for retirement, she said.

Sisters of Providence closed Marywood High School and sold the building to the Diocese of Orange in 1980 not only to help fund retirement, but also because of a shortage of sisters to staff the school.

Sister Frances and others say they don’t know what the future holds, but they trust in God.

“I don’t feel that the young sisters should have to take care of the older sisters,” she said. “They should lead their own lives and do the work that God has called them to.”

Sister Jane DeLisle is her order’s equivalent of a recruiter.

As vocation director for Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, Sister Jane dons a neat business suit and gives talks to schools and other groups about life as a sister. She dispenses glossy full-color brochures and comic books that describe religious life and the history of the order.

She also interviews and counsels women who are considering entering the convent.

In the interviews, she looks for such traits as generosity, sound mental and physical health, openness, a desire to learn, solid relationships with family and friends, a good attitude toward work, an ability to be involved in common projects, a healthy spiritual life and a desire to be involved in ministry.

Sister Jane, a confident woman of 41, is now working with five women, ages 24 to 43, who are contemplating entering the community.

She rejects more people than she accepts. Sixty women a year inquire about becoming sisters, but there are now just five novices, Sister Jane said.

Before a woman enters the convent, she goes through a series of counseling sessions and psychological tests and spends time with the religious community. This period of discernment can last six months to a year.

“That’s to see what’s in you that you could live this life,” said Sister Jane, a former teacher. “It’s got to be that the Lord is calling you to this lifestyle and that you have the qualities to live this life.”

From the postulancy, which is like a “come and see” period, the woman moves to the novitiate, then to a temporary profession of vows and finally to vows for life.

Two women who have recently chosen to enter the convent have been married--one is divorced, the other is widowed. Both have grown children.

Convents’ acceptance of formerly married women is not new, Sister Jane said. In fact, St. Jeanne de Lestonnac was married before she founded Sisters of the Company of Mary. But nuns today are more open about their family and backgrounds.

Sister Jane dated while she was in college and as a secretary before she entered the convent. She said that when her sister got married and had children, she thought about what a similar life might have been but has no regrets.

“I love being a sister,” she said. “It’s who I am. It isn’t something I put on in the morning. It’s part of me.”

But taking the vows does not erase all worldly weaknesses. Sister Jane and others say that they have days when they are crabby or disagree with each other and that they still have romantic and sexual desires.

“Because you’re celibate doesn’t mean you’re asexual,” said Sister Jane, who enjoys reading romantic novels by Danielle Steele and Barbara Taylor Bradford in addition to spiritual and religious works. She and other sisters say they channel such energies into prayer and work.

“We’re challenged to be warm and loving and accepting for everyone,” she said. “ Compassion is one of our big words.”

Sister Gloria Harper, 47, one of three Sisters of the Little Company of Mary who live in Laguna Hills, can do things now that she could not do when she entered the convent 23 years ago.

“Today we have greater freedom to follow our talents,” Sister Gloria said. A nun chooses her job through prayer and dialogue with superiors. “Before, you were told you were going to go here and that was it.” For many years, Sister Gloria worked as a microbiologist at a laboratory in the order’s Torrance hospital.

But she felt called to work more closely with people and helped start a new ministry in Laguna Hills in 1983.

She, Sister Mildred Radziewicz, 66, and Sister Mary John Schlax, 71, visit shut-ins in Leisure World, hold retreats, perform wake services, teach religious classes and serve the elderly and sick in other ways. Like many nuns today, they live in a house rather than a traditional convent with small rooms off long corridors.

Sister Gloria performs many duties that were once prohibited. She preaches at retreats and gives Holy Communion.

But the Roman Catholic Church still does not ordain sisters or permit them to perform sacraments. Friends from the ministerial association in which Sister Gloria participates joke that if she left the Catholic Church, she could become a minister.

Like some other nuns, she does not necessarily agree with all the church’s regulations, but she obeys them.

“I personally support the idea of women clergy, but I uphold the views of the Holy Father and the Catholic Church,” she said. “There’s a lot of changes in the church that I’m thrilled with that I never thought I would see.”

Changes in the world have been reflected in the convents.

“It’s important for us, particularly as an international community, to have that global vision,” said Sister Ernestine Velarde of the Sisters of the Company of Mary in Tustin.

Nuns from Sisters of the Company of Mary make monthly trips to Tijuana to take food and clothes to and spend time with the poor.

Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange has formed a partnership with the Christian organization Habitat for Humanity, and many of the sisters have signed up to help the nonprofit group, which builds homes for low-income families.

Some nuns also take political stances. A group from St. Joseph of Orange is traveling to the nuclear test site in Nevada to take part in a peaceful demonstration today and Good Friday.

Sister Mildred was one of thousands of people who formed a human chain in Orange County several months ago to show their support for the anti-abortion movement. Sister Mildred wears a pin on her lapel that she says is a life-size likeness of a 10-week fetus’s feet. If someone inquires about the pin, she gives it to them, replacing it with another from her supply.

But for some nuns, the changes were too few and too late.

Sister Gloria said she has seen many women who entered the community with her leave after changes resulting from Vatican II, which opened the ancient traditions of the church to the influences of the modern world.

In 1965, Vatican II gave more influence to bishops and allowed more participation by lay people. It encouraged Roman Catholics to take part in the ecumenical movement, intended to unify Christian churches. It also allowed the modernization of religious life of monks, priests, brothers and nuns. The sisters shed not only their habits but also some of the rigid structure that defined their lives. And as some Catholics were uncomfortable with the changes and left the church, the phenomenon was mirrored in the convents.

It was an era Sister Gloria recalls as the “Mass Exodus.”

“Most left because they felt that this wasn’t any longer what God wanted for them,” she said. “And culturally, there are few people willing to make a lifetime commitment, even to marriage.”

But even though the number of new sisters has dwindled, young people continue to trickle in. Tamura Brown, 22, entered Sisters of the Company of Mary the week before her 21st birthday. A bubbly, outgoing woman, she was told by one of her friends that she was too pretty to enter a convent.

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” said Brown, a novice. “It was something in my heart that moved me to this lifestyle. I know it sounds corny, but it was the Holy Spirit calling me.”

ORDERS IN ORANGE COUNTY Order: Number of Sisters Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange: 191 Dominican Sisters (Mission San Jose): 41 Sisters of the Company of Mary: 35 Union of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin: 15 Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception: 15 Society Devoted to the Sacred Heart: 13 Sisters of St. Louis: 11 Poor Clare Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (Misioneras Clarisas): 11 Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet: 10 Dominican Sisters (Rosarian): 9 Sisters of Providence: 9 Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse, N.Y.: 8 Sisters of St. Clare: 7 Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus: 7 Congregation of the Holy Cross: 6 Religious Sisters of Charity: 5 School Sisters of St. Francis (Milwaukee): 5 Sisters of St. Francis (Rochester, Minn.): 5 Lovers of the Holy Cross Phat Diem: 5 Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary: 5 Benedictine Sisters (South Dakota): 4 Sisters of Mercy (Meath Mercy Community): 4 Benedictine Sisters (Grand Terrace): 3 Sisters of Charity of Poitier: 3 Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary: 3 Dominican Sisters (Adrian): 3 Felician Sisters: 3 Sisters of the Little Company of Mary: 3 Religious Sisters of Mercy (Burlingame): 2 Sisters of Social Service: 2 Community of the Holy Spirit: 1 Dominican Sisters (Sinsinawa): 1 Sisters of St. Francis (Philadelphia Foundation): 1 Immaculate Heart Community: 1 Sisters of Mercy (Piqua, Ohio): 1 Society of Helpers: 1 Total: 449 Source: 1989 Catholic Directory, Diocese of Orange