c. 2006 Religion News Service

NEWARK, N.J. _ A moving crew unbolted the solid wooden pews from the floor of the chapel at Sacred Heart convent.

The hallways were filled with mattresses, boxes and other personal effects of the eight Nigerian religious sisters who had called the 17,000-square-foot convent their home for the past decade.

The sisters, all members of the order of the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Mercy, were headed to an eight-bedroom home that they purchased with pooled salaries from their work in the community. A former drug haven, the three-family house was rehabbed to accommodate their move.

It’s a change they knew was coming.

The community of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, which once numbered 17,000 parishioners, is down to about 400, said the Rev. Andrew Prachar, pastor of Sacred Heart.

For a long time, the convent alongside the church housed the Sisters of Charity, and then served as a retirement home for sisters. When it closed, the Nigerian sisters made an arrangement to pay the utilities on the convent in exchange for rent. Some worked in the school next door, and others worked elsewhere. Originally, there were 20 sisters, but 12 found homes in another community around April.

As the neighborhood’s needs changed, and money at the parish tightened, the church began looking at other uses for the building.

“We need to be able to use this facility to offer hope,” Prachar said. “It’s about how to extend the Catholic presence in the area and help those in need.”

For now, the church will lease the first floor and the basement to the a local youth program.

Nuns across the country have encountered similar situations as more and more convents close. As a result, finding housing for large groups of sisters is becoming an increasingly difficult task.

“This is a serious situation in many urban areas,” said Sister Mary Johnson, a professor of sociology at Emmanuel College in Boston. “Housing for medium to large groups of sisters is becoming more scarce.”

Johnson argues that eliminating convents makes sisters less visible, and can take away a support system many sisters value.

“There is a yearning for less fragmentation, less isolation, less individualism on the part of younger people, and on the part of the wider society,” Johnson said. “How we respond to that deep desire in the culture is key.”

Nationally, the number of religious sisters has dropped from 179,954 in 1965 to only 68,634 in 2005, according to statistics kept by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, at Georgetown University.

But according to Margaret McGuinness, editor of the research journal American Catholic Studies, it’s not just the drop in sisters that caused the shift away from convents.

In 1957, some American sisters began re-evaluating their work, McGuinness said. Many turned toward working with the poor, eschewing convent life to live among those to whom they ministered. Around the same time, the number of women religious hit its peak, and began to decline.

“Some of it had to do with numbers, and some of it had to do with people wanting to be more a part of the community,” said McGuinness, who is also a professor of religious studies at Cabrini College outside Philadelphia.

Today, it’s not uncommon for sisters to live in houses, said Sister Mary Charlotte Chandler of the Center for the Study of Religious Life in Chicago. Instead of teaching, many practice their vows through careers such as social work or administration.

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Nowadays, Chandler said, most sisters in the apostolate _ those who are active in the community rather than in cloisters _ live in groups of five or less.

Sisters who work for the Archdiocese in Newark _ either in the church, schools, or other ministries _ are paid a contracted $29,571, along with benefits, said archdiocese spokesman Jim Goodness. Compensation varies for those who work in the community.

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For the eight Nigerian sisters, the house hunt took an entire year, as they searched for an affordable place that could fit all of them.

They finally settled on a run-down home on Monticello Avenue _ translated from Italian, it means Mount of Heaven _ and took out a mortgage and construction loan for approximately $450,000 to purchase and rehab the home.

For foreign sisters who are used to a system that takes care of all their needs, it was no small feat. The sisters work and are putting themselves through school.

And they’ve also faced an unfamiliar U.S. system that has subtly passed more independence _ and more responsibility _ onto its nuns.

“Years ago, when you were a nun, there was a piece of paper (on the wall) with all the assignments,” said Marie Varley, a former Dominican sister who helped the Nigerian sisters find and finance their new home. “Now it’s like, get dressed up, get a resume, and get a job.”

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The reason for the change is that many orders no longer have their own institutions _ be it hospitals, or schools _ and cannot place sisters like they used to.

While the new lifestyle gives sisters more freedom to define their own jobs, it also puts them in direct competition with those in the private sector.

“It means that you have to be qualified to compete,” Chandler said.

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Adjusting to a new culture was “a little bit difficult” at first, said Sister Consolatrix Obi, the superior of the Nigerian sisters.

“In Nigeria, the parish would buy a house for the sisters, supply them with furniture, everything the sisters need,” Obi said. “Here, we take care of everything.”

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The newly painted home, with freshly varnished hardwood floors and brand new curtains donated by members of the church and local community, was a welcome sight.

“We don’t feel happy moving, but we have to,” Obi said as movers cleared out what remained in the convent. “What makes us happy is that this place is going to be our permanent home.”

(Sara K. Clarke is a staff writer for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.)

KRE/JL END CLARKE

Editors: To obtain photos of Sister Grace Amakwe, movers loading a truck and Sister Consolatrix Obi, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

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