The hoped-for sale of the John Paul II Cultural Center, which we reported on last October, isn’t going to happen. The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist announced last Thursday that they are withdrawing their plans to purchase the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C., due to a lack of funds.
“…the Sisters discerned that to pursue this endeavor was not a prudent use of our limited resources,” wrote Mother Assumpta Long, superior of the order, in an open letter.
The John Paul II Cultural Center has been suffering financially almost from its very beginnings. Built at a cost of $75 million, largely through funding from the Archdiocese of Detroit, the museum was never able to achieve the visitors it hoped to achieve.
The order had hoped to renovate the building into a House of Studies for their sisters in formation. Instead, the sisters will be pursuing plans to establish priories, to receive new vocations, in California and Texas. Over the past five years, the order has received between 10-20 new vocations each year. Founded with four sisters in 1997, the order has grown to more than 100 sisters in just 13 years. The average age of the sisters is 26, and the average age of the women who enter is 21.
“The John Paul II generation is alive and well,” said Sister Joseph Andrew, vocation director for the community. “We attract about 400 young women each year to our Vocation Discernment Retreats. The world is starving for spiritual mothers…it needs that Marian maternal love. These women are coming to us because they want the sacrifice.”
“We went through those years of so much confusion where young people didn’t hear about religious life,” recalled Sister Joseph Andrew. “John Paul II turned the young onto God’s will and here they come.”
Print Edition: May 19, 2013
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As great as JPII was, I think we have too much of a penchant for trying to build museums, libraries etc. that are redundant or otherwise unneeded. The best tribute to JPII would be the same tribute we give other saints (and I think JPII will ultimately be canonized) which is to name many churches after him and, perhaps, a Catholic college or two. These institutions wouldn’t have to create meetings, seminars, conferences, etc. about JPII. They could honor him while going about their instrinsic missions of evangelization and education.
It’s good to see that this order has such a young average age for their sisters. Most of the time we hear that religious orders are very old and not attracting new vocations. Other orders might look into the life of this order if they hope to grow and prosper as this one is.
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