Pope praises women’s religious orders for courage, generosity

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In its religious orders, the Catholic Church has an array of strong, courageous and generous women who care for the poor, defend peace and share the Gospel message of salvation in Christ, Pope Leo XIV said.

Meeting Sept. 22 with four communities holding their general chapters in Rome, Pope Leo singled out the Discalced Carmelite Sisters of the Holy Land.

“What you are doing is important: your vigilant and silent presence in places sadly torn by hatred and violence, your witness of trusting abandonment to God, your constant prayer for peace,” the pope told them. “We all accompany you with our prayers and, also through you, we draw close to those who suffer.”

The women present for the audience also included members of the Sisters of St. Catherine, the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate and the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres.

The founders of the four religious orders, the pope said, were “deeply united to God and thus consecrated to his service and to the good of the whole church, committed to planting and strengthening in the hearts of their brothers and sisters the kingdom of Christ, which they first felt alive within themselves and wanted to spread to every part of the earth.”

In the women’s religious orders, he said, “God has found not one, but many strong and courageous women, who did not hesitate to take risks and face difficulties to embrace his plans and respond with a ‘yes’ to his call.”

The women cared for “the moral and material miseries in the most abandoned places of society,” the pope said, and standing firmly with those in need, they even endured violence or lost their lives in wars.

Saying the church still needs generous and courageous women, Pope Leo thanked the sisters “for the good you do in so many countries and in so many different contexts.”