‘Prophetesses of hope’: Dedication of religious sisters and power of communication
By Salvatore Cernuzio
The little girl in South America with her legs cut off by a train on its way through Mexico, in front of her mother. Another 8-year-old girl in the Philippines locked in the dark in a room with her aunt selling her little body online. The woman, or rather, the many women impregnated by their tormentors in Uganda, rejected by their families and trained to make weapons. The refugees, the homeless, the teenage victims of violence, the poor families, the malnourished children without education or medical care.
The splendour of the 16th-century frescoes in the Sistine Hall was not enough to soften the impact of the stories and testimonies reported by nuns from all over the world during the Global Jubilee Conference with women religious held Thursday, 23 January, in the Vatican Apostolic Library.
Communication as a gift
The Conference, promoted by the Dicastery for Communication with the support of the Hilton Foundation (together we collaborate on the ) in the context of the Jubilee dedicated to communicators, was intended to be a platform and a showcase for the experiences, works, and missions of women religious from around the world, and to show how various forms of media – both old and new – are fundamental tools for these experiences, works and missions.
Thanks to social media, radios, websites or simply listening, the little South American girl was taken to a migrant reception centre, then to Tennessee, and where she lost her limbs, she regained her smile; the little Filipino girl was saved from the horrors of the web; the Ugandan women learnt to sew bags and clothes, providing for their personal needs but also for those of the village that had rejected them.
All this was thanks to communication, understood in the etymological sense: "communication as a reciprocal gift of self," as Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, explained in his opening greeting.
Examples of ‘female genius'
Fifteen speakers (with a large female presence, 12 out of 15) gave engaging testimonies from disaster-stricken areas of Africa, Europe, or South East Asia during the event, which gave the appearance of a cross between a press conference, a training course, and a round table.
Religious sisters were described as ‘prophetesses of hope... with their hands in the dough,’ strong, resilient, examples of ‘tenderness’, yes, but living their vocation by sharing meals and lodgings with the poor they assist, putting themselves in front of the camera to denounce, in short films, the tragedies of their own village; by teaching illiterate women to speak on the radio or to knock on the doors of the rich to demand aid for children at risk of hunger.
The ‘feminine genius’ proclaimed by the last three Popes, in short, was seen in all its variety in the speeches of the conference participants, who also had the opportunity to visit the headquarters of Pope, as well as the Vatican Radio Museum and St Peter’s Basilica.
The creativity of the nuns
The Conference opened with greetings by the Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, BAV), Salesian Father Mauro Mantovano; and a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary led by Monsignor Lucio Ruiz, Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication.
Addressing the sisters, Msgr. Ruiz said, “We need your wisdom, your dynamism, your creativity, your love.”
In his remarks, Dr. Ruffini also spoke of love, recalling how it was “the first source of communication” of the early Christians, who “were recognised by the way they loved each other.”
Communication “transforms relationships into connections,” the Prefect continued, adding that today, in this “change of era,” we must “live communion.”
“We live in a fast-paced time, we cannot stop it, but we can take time for reflection to restore communication to its deepest meaning,” he said. “We need the creative love of the sisters.”
The legacy of the Hilton Foundation
That need corresponds in large part with the mandate given by Conrad Hilton to the Foundation that bears his name. In his will, his granddaughter Linda recalled, Hilton expressed a clear intention to direct “the largest portion” of the funds “for the benefit of nuns around the world.”
“Remaining faithful to this service since ’54,” Linda Hilton, over the years 614 million [US] dollars has been given to nuns, “who defend communities, who promote peace and justice, especially if they have access to education or have a voice at the decision-making table.” Mothers and sisters who educate children, care for those in need, stand by those who are victims of oppression.
Standing with migrants at the US-Mexico border
Sister Norma Pimentel, the first speaker at the event, is a prime example. An “angel” of migrants crossing the Rio Grande and an influential figure in the US Church, she has been assisting those who venture on the voyages of hope from Mexico to the USA for years.
Now, with the new US government, that faces “a series of new challenges”: “With prayers and support we will try to do our utmost to defend the marginalised and be present,” Sister Norma said.” She then recounted her experiences with children and families from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Haiti, as well as Ukraine, Russia, and China, all “in terrible conditions.”
At one time, Sister Norma could not bring these experiences to the microphones and cameras. “They tried to pull me into the world of politics... My response was always to return to the message of the Gospel.” Then the nun realised that communication could help her work.
She gave the example of the 6-year-old South American girl who was crossing Mexico with her family; in an attempt to board “The Beast,” the large goods train that never stops, she fell and the vehicle severed her legs. “The mother had stayed behind, she saw the whole scene, she picked up her daughter's legs from the tracks.”
The child was taken to hospital and then to Sister Norma's centre: “She survived, full of life, with no legs but a smile on her face because she was safe.” The family wanted to move to Tennessee; Sr. Pimentel posted a photograph on Facebook asking for help to buy tickets: $1500 was requested, more than $8,000 received: “And we are still getting funds!” Sr. Pimentel said, describing it as a response after a communication.
“Sewing hope” of women victims of violence in Uganda
A round of applause greeted Sr. Pimentel's speech, which continued for Sr. Rosemary Nirumbe, a Ugandan nun described by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for her work on behalf of victims of abuse and torture.
These included women kidnapped by the so-called “Lord’s Resistance Army” in Uganda, and “trained to kill,” a danger to society, rejected by families and relatives because they were carrying the kidnappers’ children. “I did not know what to do with them... They were traumatised. I used the only FM radio station to send a message to the women: You can come to the Santa Monica centre in your condition! If you are pregnant come as you are, if you are victims of sexual violence come! It was risky, the rebels were also listening, but I took the risk.”
And so many women came to the Santa Monica Centre with their children. Sister Rosemary first taught the girls “to receive love,” then started a tailoring project to sew clothes and bags (the outfit she wore to the event came out of the project) and to “sew hope.” “I decided to communicate to these young girls that their future can be fixed, mended,” she said. “They had been forced to make automatic weapons, so I put them in front of automatic sewing machines.”
The nun’s work has spread to villages, towns, and whole regions. In South Sudan, a nutrition programme was started for 450 displaced children. “We were able to feed everyone for the first time.” This came after Sister Rosemary had flown all the way to the USA to tell a benefactor: “If we don't feed these children at least three times a week they will die quickly.”
“Now we feed these children every day, a peace school was started to teach reading and writing, we offer health care, we even smuggle medicine from Uganda – but don't tell anyone.”
Fighting human trafficking
Filipino Sister Abby Avelino, a delegate of the anti-trafficking organisation Talitha Kum, spoke with equal vigour. Sister Abby is dedicated to women and men deceived and exploited by traffickers – including, sometimes, even their own relatives.
Ruined lives, like that of the girl thrown into a car as soon as she arrived at the airport, forced to work in a nightclub for 20 hours. Once she was identified, Talitha Kum was able to rescue her, Sr Abby recounted.
She then denounced the phenomenon that most concerns the 5,000 members of Talitha Kum: exploitation in the digital world. Children are the first victims, she said, noting that the organisation has received almost eight million complaints of online exploitation between 2019 and 2022. Overall numbers increased with the Covid pandemic. To combat this new challenge, we need joint work by networks, agencies, NGOs, public safety.
Anonymity and the speed of the web allow traffickers to remain untraced. And dating apps and social networks offer new platforms for recruiting for forced labour, scams, and paedophilia.
Sr Abby told the story of an eight-year-old girl who was exploited by her aunt. “She was exploited, her body sold online.” She, too, was saved thanks to complaints (often via Facebook), coordination, and help from many young people and their communication skills.
Contacts and bridges
Sister Helen Alford and Sister Natalie Becquart then took the floor, the former, a Dominican, is president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences; the latter, a Xaverian, is under secretary at the Synod of Bishops.
Sr Alford emphasised the importance of speech, saying talking is part of the healing process for victims.
Sr Becquart, for her part, described the experience of the two-fold Synod on Synodality, which saw so many sisters working to communicate without creating divisions, to create contacts and build bridges, to learn from one other, and to be attentive to what is not said.
The ‘On Our Radar’ project
The address by Chris Walter, co-director of On Our Radar, a project in the UK that brings people on the margins to the “front page,” was well received. The project involves training journalists and communicators in the same communities where “barriers,” erected due to distrust of the media, prevent stories from being shared. He described efforts to build conviction, skills, confidence, and creativity; as well as organising trips, and explaining how to gather information or how to record videos.
The results, he said, are visible: for example, in Sierra Leone between the presidential elections and the Ebola crisis, local journalists were able to convey news via text message from places inaccessible to larger media outlets. Films projected “on bedsheets” were taken up by international newspapers.
Mr. Walter warned that democracy, and indeed the planet is threatened by conflict, the effects of migration, and social polarisation. Communities experiencing difficulties would be able to help find solutions, but are not listened to. “No one trusts the media,” Walter concluded, saying that “deep collaboration” is needed to generate trust and tell stories “with” people, and not simply “for” them.
No to a ‘show of pain
That final point highlights a fundamental distinction, because “until the lion learns to tell the story, it will be the hunter who gives his perspective,” according to an African proverb recalled at the Conference by Sister Dominic Dipio, a professor at Makerere University in Uganda.
Her speech alternated with that of Linda Previato, media relations manager for CUAMM, presented the organisation’s communication and storytelling campaigns, which aimed at making Africa the protagonist: a work of care and discernment meant to ensure that that images used in communication do not make “a show of pain.”
Digital pollution
Among the male voices at the conference was that of Franciscan Father Paolo Benanti, an expert on the ethics of technology and chairman of the Commission for the study of AI of the Italian Council Presidency.
“The first challenge of our mission is to produce high quality in a media context that is the worst possible,” he said. “We live a digital pollution. In this context, however, one has to be there: ‘It is worse not to be there than to try to be there,’ especially in the face of various war frontiers or ‘cognitive wars in digital space’.”
In response to questions, Fr. Benanti emphasised two priorities. The first is training, which is no longer “something that is transmitted from the old to the new generation.”
"With digital media it is my nephew who teaches my father how to use the tablet. Young people are more experienced than us," he said.
Secondly, the promotion of the Gospel can be “an enzyme that allows us to ingest and always propose something new.”
The online evangelisation of an Orthodox nun
Between excerpts from documentaries by Sister Lismy Parayil Chandy highlighting, among others, Sister Paola Moggi's account of a radio station in Arabic and local dialects in South Sudan that rose from the rubble of the civil war; and the evangelisation of the Pauline Sister Rose Pacatte “with the Bible in one hand and the App in the other,” there was also room in the conference for a discussion on the opportunities of social networks.
The discussion, moderated by Sister Nina Krapic of the Theological-Pastoral Directorate of the Dicastery for Communication, featured Sister Neusa Santos of CLAR; Brother Jordan Columba, producer of the ‘Called to More’ project; and Orthodox nun Vassa Larin, a Russian-born naturalised US citizen, who is a university lecturer in Church history and influencer with the successful program “Coffee with Sister Vassa.”
Sr Vassa spoke about her experience of online evangelisation, which often begins with a bit of self-deprecation about the black veil that covers her entire head, the object of attention and jokes. She admits to being a professor, a liturgiologist, “and also… a fashion icon,” promising to offer beauty tips, but only after discussing the life of a saint.
“It is silly,” she admits, “but it serves to lower defences.”
Father Jordan acknowledged a certain aggressiveness in interactions, noting that conflict, attacks, and disagreement lead to more “clicks.” And there is no shortage of angry or concerned reactions from Sister Vassa's users who, for example, complain about the war in Ukraine and support from the Russian Church hierarchies.
Confused about information they see online, people try to make sense of it. Speakers agreed that “empathy” and “authenticity” are key.
Looking to the future
At the end of the event—after time spent sharing in language groups and then in the assembly—Nata?a Govekar, the Director of the Theological-Pastoral Department of the Dicastery for Communication, who organised the Conference expressed her gratitude.
“I was asked: is this conference something you do every year or two years?” said Dr. Govekar. “Actually, it is the first one there has ever been. We hope it is not the last.”
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