Wisdom House Retreat Center and the Center for Catholic Studies at Fairfield University are co-sponsoring “Vatican II: An Unexpected Revolution” Sept. 28–29. at Wisdom House in Litchfield, Connecticut. The program begins with dinner at 6 p.m. Friday and concludes at 2:30 pm Saturday. The program will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council by exploring its purpose and legacy. Presenters include Maureen Sullivan, OP, PhD; Paul Lakeland, PhD; and the Most Rev. Peter A. Rosazza, D.D. For more information, call 860-567-3163 or visit www.wisdomhouse.org.

Adrian Dominicans

The Archdiocese of New Orleans and the congregations of women religious serving there—including the Adrian Dominican Sisters—are offering women a home where they can discern God’s call in their lives. Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans blessed the Magnificat House of Discernment for Women on Aug. 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Read more

“Trailblazers in Habits,” a 90-minute film documenting the pioneer work of Maryknoll Sisters, the first U.S.-based congregation of Catholic women religious dedicated to foreign mission, will have its New York premiere on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, at 2 p.m. at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd St., New York, NY.

An intimate portrait of the Maryknoll Sisters’ ground-breaking endeavors in Hong Kong and elsewhere throughout the world, “Trailblazers in Habits” tells the story, in the sisters’ own words, of the congregation’s work in education, healthcare, and the cause of social justice. A moving and absorbing chronicle that spans 100 years and several continents, the film celebrates the intelligence and tenacity, the love, compassion and generosity of these early feminists. The premiere coincides with the Maryknoll Sisters’ Centennial year.

Production of the film was almost entirely funded by donations from the thousands who attended Maryknoll schools around the world. Maryknollers wanted a way to tell the full story of the sisters’ contributions to their communities, from the building of schools and hospitals around the world to helping lay the foundation of Hong Kong’s social welfare system.

Award-winning director Nancy Tong, an alumna of Maryknoll School, Hong Kong, is contributing all the proceeds from the film to the Maryknoll Sisters. She and some of the sisters will be present at the premiere for the Q&A session.

Tickets to the fundraiser premiere—at $100 and $250—are available online or e-mail TrailblazersInHabits@gmail.com

For more information on the film, visit www.trailblazersinhabits.net.

by Alison Faubert

“I never would have guessed when I entered religious life that I would be doing this,” smiles Nancy Murray, OP, about her 12-years-and-counting run in a one-woman show, “Catherine of Siena: A Woman for Our Times.” While on the surface it may seem somewhat unusual for a nun to be an actress, it actually makes a lot of sense when you consider the family she comes from. Four of her siblings also act—most famously her brother Bill, the Oscar-nominated star of “Lost in Translation” and dozens of other movies. “He said one day: ‘People have been sending me all these articles about you,’ and I said: “Great! All these years they’ve been sending them to me about you’.”

Sister Nancy will perform the two-hour show as a fundraiser for the Mariandale Retreat and Conference Center in Ossining, New York, on Sunday, Oct. 14 at 12:30 p.m. She wrote the show at the behest of a panel for the Dominican Leadership Conference (DLC) in 2000. Based on recent translations of 400 letters in which the 14th century Italian saint debated political and church issues of the day with princes, cardinals and popes, it shows Catherine as a precocious but rebellious child in a large Tuscan family who grew up to be a “radical feminist” with lots of spunk and humor, says Sister Nancy.

Catherine wielded extraordinary influence for a woman of her time, and is credited with helping to influence Pope Gregory XI to bring the Papacy back from Avignon to Rome and to reform the clergy. Catherine, who died at 33, is a Doctor of the Church and, with St. Dominic, considered a co-founder of the Dominican Order. “She was strong and feisty,” Sister Nancy says, “but her affection was irresistible.”

And why does Sister Nancy call her “a woman for our times”? Parallels abound, says Sister Nancy, between St. Catherine’s 14th century world and ours—including a health scourge (the plague then, AIDS now), wars, a failure to take care of the poor and, of course, troubles within the church.

Catherine, in Sister Nancy’s words, “will ever be the voice of the humble, the one who speaks truth to power.” And playing her onstage so many times has inevitably affected Sister Nancy: “I can’t keep doing her lines without saying ‘I’ve got to write to the government’” to protest or to plead for something she believes in—such as helping the poor. When she is not onstage, Sister Nancy works in a shelter in Chicago, doing the women’s laundry, or with migrant children.

While she isn’t planning to doff St. Catherine’s habit just yet, Sister Nancy is starting to branch out a bit. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur have asked her to tell the story of Sister Dorothy Stang—an advocate of the rural poor in the Brazilian rainforest who was murdered by two ranchers for her convictions—and she is working on a script for a play about Karen Klimczak, the Sister of St. Joseph who worked tirelessly on behalf of ex-prisoners—and who was murdered on Good Friday, 2006, by a parolee.

“People love stories,” observes Sister Nancy, “and these are stories they need to hear.”

“St. Catherine of Siena: A Woman for Our Times” will be performed at Mariandale Retreat and Conference Center, a sponsored ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Hope, in Ossining, New York, on Sunday, Oct. 14. Tickets are $35 for a matinee and lunch. There will be two seatings, first seating 11:30 lunch and 12:30 matinee, second seating 12:30 matinee and 2:30 lunch. Call (914) 941-4455 for more information or reservations or visit www.mariandale.org.

Alison Faubert is communications director for the Dominican Sisters of Hope