A long time ago I got tired of hearing the unfair jokes and exaggerated stories about "how nuns mistreated me when I was in grade school!" To judge the ministry of thousands of wonderful women because of the frustration of a few is plainly unfair! I am sure a few nuns here and there did "lose it" on occasion, but what is often left out of their stories is the hardships nuns had to endure because of us: overloaded classrooms, long workdays dressed in unbearably hot religious habits, extremely close and uncomfortable personal living quarters and very little notice, pay, relief or appreciation. As a pastor, I have seen first-hand and heard about some of the situations where some were sent to live and how much they were paid! I just hope they have forgiven us!
What is not mentioned enough is the fact that most of the nuns had profound effects for good on many people including me! Just in my home parish of St. Theresa alone, ninety-seven Sisters of Charity served our community over one hundred and twenty-three years! One history book described their work in St. Theresa in the early 1900s this way. "In addition to their responsibilities in the school and parish, the Sisters cared for the small farm that helped to provide food for them and 39 boarders of which only 15 could afford to pay." Our school would have closed a few times during the early years without the subsidies of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. We owe them so very much that I am here to defend them from generalized defamatory and slanderous statements that damage their reputations! To me, they were real heroes! I wish we had more of them today!
On this day when we celebrate Word Day for Consecrated Life, I want to share just two stories you may not know about, knowing that there are thousands and thousands of similar, but unknown, stories of their heroism.
BEFORE HE BECAME MUHAMMAD ALI
Cassius Clay charmed a nun who ran the library at what is now Spalding University, across the street from where the gym was. Sister James Ellen Huff of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth gave him a job dusting so he could make a little money. She said she liked his “zest.” Sometimes she would return from dinner with a snack for him before he went to train. Once she returned and found him asleep on a long library table. After the world came to know him as Muhammad Ali, she put a sign over the table that read, “Cassius Slept Here.”
That's her, Sister James Ellen Huff, on the left! I knew her when she worked at Spalding University and I admired her. I knew her as a capable, intelligent and loving human being, as well as a dedicated Sister of Charity of Nazareth very much like the same Sisters of Charity of Nazareth who taught me all through grade school. I am still a friend to many Sisters of Charity and a few from our other religious communities of women.
Thank you, Sisters, for all you have done and keep doing for so many here in the United States and around the world (India, Belize, Nepal and Botswana).
Sister Mary Jude Howard, SCN, is pictured here nursing a leper in India in 1947. She was part of a group of 6 Sisters of Charity of Nazareth who were sent as missionaries from Nazareth, Kentucky, in 1947 to Mokama, India. They started what has grown into a large hospital and various other ministries today and that community of Sisters of Charity of Nazareth is still growing in India - so much so that the present President of the SCN community in the United States, and one of her assistants, both pictured below, are now Sisters from India. They serve from their offices at the original Nazareth Motherhouse outside Bardstown, Kentucky. It was Mother Ann Sebastian Sullivan, SCN, who made the very wise move to send SCN Sisters to India back in 1947.
Sister Sangeeta Ayithamattam, SCN President Sister Jackulin Jesu, SCN
Happy "World Day for Consecrated Life" to all our Religious Sisters, Brothers and Priests serving here and abroad! Thank you and God bless you!
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