The National Religious Vocations Conference recently hosted the workshop "Candidate Perspective Through the Lens of Inculturality" in San Antonio, Texas. Global Sisters Report has published an article about the event, during which participants, including FSPA Director of Vocations Julia Walsh, were asked "not just how we evaluate potential new members, but how our judgements can be clouded by cultural and generational bias."
The author of the article, Benedictine Sister of Mount St. Scholastica Helga Leija, a Spanish liaison for GSR, shares her own experience of discerning religious life, what she sees as candidate assessment challenges that include "a lacking formation process" and "bias and belonging" as well as her own perspective of the process as "a communal task."
Sister Julia contributed to the article, sharing insight into her own formation ministry. "I can allow others the same graces I would want because we're all learning and growing here." The writer adds that Sister Julia "hopes to bring that awareness into her ministry by encouraging her sisters to be more sensitive to differences, forming new members in a way that allows them to flourish and be themselves, without forcing them into narrow expectations."
Visit globalsisersreport.org to read the article in its entirety.
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