(SNR) – Bishop James Conley celebrated a Mass of Profession June 26 at Sacred Heart Church in Suffern, N.Y., for the Sisters of Life.
Among those professing first vows was Sister Elena Marie Wathen, a native of the Diocese of Lincoln.
Sister Elena Marie, 26, graduated from Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich. in 2016. Prior to entering the Sisters of Life in September 2018, she was program coordinator at the Newman Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
She is the daughter of James and Carol Wathen and attended their home parish of St. Peter in Lincoln, the fifth of six children. She graduated from Pius X High School in 2012.
The Sisters of Life is a religious congregation with a special fourth vow – in addition to vowing poverty, chastity and obedience, the members vow to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life.
The congregation began in 1991 in New York. Since then, the community has grown to more than 100 sisters from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Spain, and the Philippines.
