LINCOLN (SNR) – The School Sisters of Christ the King hosted a Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR) regional workshop at Villa Regina Motherhouse in Lincoln April 17.
The workshop, “The Holy Priesthood and the Eucharist: The Presence of Jesus Among Us,” focused on providing women religious practical and spiritual means to support priests. Father James Mason, president and rector of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, delivered the talks. Sisters from local religious communities participated in person while additional communities from across the nation joined via livestream.
The CMSWR is composed of the major superiors and their vicars of 112 communities of women religious (approximately 5,700 sisters) in the United States.
The Council was founded June 13, 1992 in response to the Second Vatican Council’s call for the renewal of religious life based on discipleship to Jesus Christ. Its purpose is to serve the major superiors of women religious and their communities by providing mutual support in sustaining among its members the transcendent nature of religious life and the centrality of common life, common prayer, community-based apostolates, religious obedience, and the witness to consecration and poverty by a garb that is both common and simple.
According to the CMSWR, their members live and/or serve in at least 140 different dioceses across the United States. The overall average age of sisters in their communities is 58, well below the average age of women religious nationwide, which is 74.
Almost 900 sisters (16%) are currently in initial formation as postulants, novices, and temporary professed sisters. More than 84% of professed sisters in CMSWR membership communities are engaged in active ministry.
Sisters in CMSWR communities serve in more than 440 educational institutions and nearly 300 health care facilities, as well as in almost 300 parishes and 50 retreat or spirituality centers. The sisters also serve in many other institutional and non-institutional settings.
