Catholic Sisters in Africa Engaged in Research Urged to Stay on Top of Trends Likely to Affect Religious Life

She added, “Until a few years ago, Consecrated Life in Africa and many of the emerging economies, including the church, relied on feelings in making decisions and not necessarily on data that could unearth trends.”

The member of the Little Sisters of St. Francis (LSOSF) Kenya observed that with advances in technology, research spheres such as the Centre for Research in Religious Life and Apostolate (CERRA-Africa), which organized the June 10-12 maiden symposium are key in helping to collect data in a more streamlined way as compared to the past.

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With data, the Kenyan LSOSF member said, Religious communities are able to respond to questions such as “Is the number of women religious growing? Is our congregation growing or declining? And what steps do we need to take?”

“It is no longer about wanting to wait until things happen that we start saying we saw the trend, but we never thought it was going to come this far,” Sr. Jane said, and added, “As Congregations, as institutions, monitoring demographic trends is one of the important ways that can inform the decision making.”

The Kenyan Hilton Foundation official noted that with changing times, women Religious must change the way they do things.

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“We will not do things the way we did in the 1960s when our Congregations were founded,” she said, and explained, “We are living in a new era, welcoming women who have different experiences. How would we engage them so that they can feel welcome in the communities that we live?”

The three-day research symposium that concluded on June 12 brought together researchers from various ICLSAL across Africa and CERRA-Africa’s collaborators from other continents, who shared their experiences in their apostolates and ministries.

The symposium, the first of its kind in Africa, was an opportunity for Catholic Sisters engaged in research to collaborate with each other and with others, and to identify challenges in Religious Life for future initiatives.

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Participants in the three-day symposium organized under the theme, “Creating Global Impact through Sustainable Development” presented their experiences in religious formation, education, pastoral care, healthcare, care for the elderly, and other social services.

Also facilitating the symposium that was realized in partnership with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation was the U.S.-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA-USA) and other religious-led data centres from Cameroon, Mexico and India.

In her address during the second day of the symposium, Sr. Jane underlined the importance of researchers, saying that those involved in empirical studies possess hope, resilience, optimism, incisive discipline and patience, qualities she said help them to conduct studies, design research findings and develop recommendations.

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The official of the Hilton Foundation urged Catholic Sisters engaged in research to be more intentional about the studies they undertake.

“I encourage all of those who are here, who are researchers, to intentionally work to conduct studies that provide solutions to formation, social and economic challenges and take action to address situations as early as possible,” she said, and added, “As researchers, do not just do it to append your name and to count the number of research you have conducted or published. Contemplate on what studies you undertake.”

“It is important to pause and reflect on the impetus for conducting a particular study,” the Kenyan LSOSF said, and urged Catholic Sisters engaged in research to always ask themselves what the problem they are exploring is and how the problem can be solved, before they embark on studies.

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She also called on African Religious Sisters in research to always seek to explore how results of their studies contribute to informing practice for the common good of the communities in which they serve, and how to engage protagonists in decision making processes within programs, ministries and governance. “Exploring these questions intentionally will help us build a path of hope and a path that has a sense of solidarity in the work and in the solutions we provide that inform practices, change narratives and change the way we approach things,” Sr. Jane said.

In her address, she also reflected on the life of Conrad, the man behind Conrad and Hilton foundation, who had the needs of Catholic Sisters at heart.

She said that Conrad's charitable endeavours, which continue to transform the lives of Catholic Sisters across the globe were not about him, but about others. “According to Conrad, charity is a supreme virtue and great channel through which the mercy of God is passed on to humankind. In his will Conrad counsels, love one another for that is the whole loan,” Sr. Jane observed.

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She said that Conrad and Hilton foundation continues to fulfill its mission of improving the lives of individuals experiencing disadvantages worldwide by making grants to organizations that are doing charitable work that impact individuals and communities.

“Our presence is not only in doing but we need to be transforming life spiritually as well as physically,” she said.

“In support of Catholic Sisters over the past four years, the foundation had invested over 103 million dollars in Africa alone, of which 9 million has gone to support research in various countries to address the needs of aging and elderly care, to support longitudinal studies that examine the impact of skills development and education, ongoing formation, evaluation and technical support that is provided to sisters,” Sr. Jane said on June 11.