SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME DE NAMUR TAKE A STRONG STAND FOR THE POOR AND THE RADICAL SHARING OF RESOURCES

Belmont, CA, USA – August 1, 2008

Standing: Sisters Jeanne MacDonald, Lilianne Sweko, Maria Delaney Sitting: Sisters Teresita Weind, Nancy O'Shea

Sixty-one Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur met in Belmont, CA, at the 16th General Chapter to set directions and to elect a new Congregational Leadership Team for the next six years (2008-2014). The General Chapter, which convenes every six years, is the highest decision-making body in the religious Congregation. The participants from five continents arrived for the opening meeting July 10. The sessions concluded with a liturgy of celebration on July 31 at Notre Dame de Namur University.

The Chapter delegates voted unanimously to call all Sisters in the Congregation to listen to the cries of our fragmented world and our endangered Earth. The document from the General Chapter calls for:

• commitment from all Sisters to personal, corporate and collaborative action for
  
  • people who are impoverished by the growing divide between the rich and the poor, from the sexually exploited, trafficked, marginalized to abused women and children, especially girls.
    
  • Earth mistreated and endangered by human activity
    
    
• pledge to address the inequalities within the religious Congregation, by a radical sharing of human, material and financial resources.
  
  
• recommitment to education as a call from the foundress, St. Julie Billiart, “to educate for life” in all ministries

The delegates elected a new Congregational Leadership Team: Sisters Maria Delaney, Jeanne MacDonald, Nancy O’Shea, Liliane Sweko and Teresita Weind. On the first ballot, Sr. Teresita Weind, from Columbus, Ohio, was elected by absolute majority as the General Moderator of the Religious Congregation. The new Leadership Team will assume office in Rome, Italy in December 2008.

All Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 18 countries on the five continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America will carry forward the calls of the General Chapter 2008, according to the demands/needs of their specific countries and appropriate to their particular cultures.

Founded by St. Julie Billiart (1751-1816) in Amiens, France in 1804, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur are an international religious Congregation of women, with offices/centers in Rome, ITALY, Namur, BELGIUM and Ipswich, MA, USA. The offices maintain a website at www.sndden.org.

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