Best of Jesuitical: How a religious order decides it’s time to close up shop

Jesuitical

America Media

Spirituality, Christianity, News, News Commentary, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 949 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Jesuitical is bringing back a poignant yet hopeful conversation with Sister Donna Dodge, the president of the Sisters of Charity of New York, which recently decided to embark on a “path to completion.” That means the over 200-year-old congregation will no longer accept new vocations (though their ministry continues). We discuss: - How religious life has changed since Sister Donna joined in 1966 - How the sisters discerned that it was time to let go—and how their charism of charity will live on in the work of lay collaborators - Why the church needs to change the way it talks about “vocation” with young people You can follow us on ⁠X⁠ and on ⁠Instagram:⁠ @jesuiticalshow You can find us on Facebook at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/groups/jesuitical⁠⁠⁠ Please consider supporting Jesuitical by becoming a ⁠digital subscriber⁠ to America magazine at⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.americamagazine.org/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Jesuitical, a podcast from American Media for Saints and sinners.
0:15.0	You can join us each week for honest conversations about the Catholic Church and our world today,
0:19.8	sometimes over drinks. I'm Ashley
0:21.4	McKinless, and I'm joined by Zach Davis. It's great to be with you, Ashley. Good to be here.
0:24.7	So a story that we see all the time in the church is the dwindling number of vowed religious. And that
0:31.6	means that there are a dwindling number of religious orders. You have the heavy hitters like the
0:37.3	Franciscans, the Jesuits,
0:38.9	the Dominicans, now the Augustinians had a new light. Got a boost. Yeah, yeah, from our Populia
0:43.5	the 14th. But there are all kinds of these religious orders who have made huge contributions
0:47.6	to the church over the centuries that find themselves with fewer and fewer members. The people
0:52.0	who are left are asking the question,
0:59.3	what do we do if we're the last ones? So we got to talk to Sister Donna Dodge about just that.
1:05.1	Yeah, Sister Donna is the president of the Sisters of Charity of New York, which for over 200 years,
1:10.1	we're doing really essential work serving the poor in this city. And yeah, they have seen their numbers go down from a peak of
1:12.1	1,300 sisters to just 153 today or in 2023 when we spoke with her. You know, this can seem like
1:20.1	a downer of a topic, but the Sisters of Charity have approached this with a lot of hope and
1:25.3	spiritual maturity, I'd say, you know, they don't call it like
1:29.6	shutting down or dying as a religious order. They call it coming to completion. Like they had a
1:34.6	mission to serve in a certain time and place and it is up to God, whether that's going to
1:41.0	continue or come to completion. I was really inspired by that. As usual, Catholic sisters are leading the way.
1:46.8	So stick around.
1:47.9	This is our conversation with Sister Donna Dodge about the Sisters of Charity of New York.
	...

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