Camilla
Hall, located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, is a home for retired, sick, and recovering
Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM). After attending an
IHM-run high school and grade school, I have a close connection to the order,
crediting them with much of my educational and spiritual upbringing. Throughout
high school, I volunteered at Camilla Hall; a group of us would go over every
couple of weeks to deliver meals and visit the sisters, taking care to check in
on those without local families or frequent visitors. Although this volunteer
work played an important role in my high school life, I have not had the chance
to go back since my freshman year of college.
Finally home for a full week this semester, I seized the
opportunity to return. Although I saw a few familiar faces, especially among
the sisters who work on the staff, I had the opportunity to meet plenty of new
women. Each time I visit, I am struck by the wisdom the sisters have to offer.
From insightful political commentary (which abounds when I mention where I
attend college), to thoughtful responses to questions about the Catholic Church
and faith in general, the sisters make visible their commitment to the order’s
mission statement in all that they do. While it might be cliché, I truly feel
that each time I volunteer at Camilla, I receive more from the sisters than I
could possibly give. Returning this semester reminded me of why I made that
commitment throughout high school and convinced me to look for similar places
to volunteer in Washington, DC. Although Georgetown is a Jesuit school, I have tended
toward theology, rather than religion, during my time here. Although there’s
nothing wrong with this approach, I began to realize what has been missing from
my thinking when I returned to Camilla. Hearing the sisters talk about
discerning their call from God and making the decision to devote their lives to
the IHM sisterhood reminded me of the very personal nature of religion—an
aspect that is often an afterthought, at best, in academic conversations about
theology.
Yet we
talked about more than just personal narratives and journeys; we also discussed
the changing face of the Catholic Church, the politics of religion, and the
Vatican’s newly ended investigation of the American nuns. Like many millennial
Catholics, I lauded the tone taken by Pope Francis and the changing face of the
Catholic Church. While taking Dr. Jeanne Lord’s Georgetown course, “Smart,
Catholic, and Female,” gave me the opportunity to explore many of these issues
and think about how I personally reconcile certain elements of Church hierarchy
with my own identity, I still looked with disapproval on the often conservative
rhetoric espoused by leading figures in the Church and balked at the
justification offered for the Vatican’s investigation of the nuns. Yet where I
felt righteous and justified, almost all of the sisters I talked to at Camilla
urged forgiveness and love. They challenged me to pray and work toward a Church
that can be there for all of its
people, but also to embrace the Church with an attitude of kindness and love,
recognizing even those parts of it that might bother me the most. They
encouraged me to remember the Catholic community, rather than focusing, as I
had done, on what I as an individual wanted to see. Only as a community can we
heal, change, and grow together.