Yesterday, a couple of sources (Whispers in the Loggia and InsideCatholic) broke the news that Washington, D.C.‘s John Paul II Cultural Center may be sold to Ann Arbor’s Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Today, an email from the order confirms that news.
According to the email, the Dominican Sisters of Mary are in the “inspection phase of a purchase and sale agreement… It is our hope to use this builidng as a House of Studies for the continuing education and formation of our Sisters.”
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. I recall a visit I made to the center some years ago. Aside from a few school children in the lower level exhibit, the place was quite empty.
Most recently, EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo, had been making use of the facility to record his The World Over program.
The purchase, should it go through, would be a fantastic marriage between a rapidly growing religious order and a floundering Catholic property. In August, the Dominican Sisters welcomed 22 aspirants to their community. The Sisters see the property as a means to handling their growth and the education of candidates for their order - an order devoted to the apostolate of teaching.
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.
Given the reasons cited for the order’s growth, the John Paul II Cultural Center seems the perfect place for those aspiring to join.
“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.”
Sister Joseph estimated that of the 400 who attend the vocation retreats each year, approximately 40 may have a religious vocation. That doesn’t mean that all are drawn to the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. The community sends many to different communities, with charisms more aligned with the spirit of the aspirant. They’ve sent young women on to the Franciscans, the Missionaries of Charity, the Carmelites, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and others.
To learn more about the endeavor, or to help support it, visit their House of Studies web page.
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Sending prayers for the success of this endeavor.
What a joy to see the growth of the various Orders. As a grad of Barry University (‘76) Graduate School, a Dominican University, I nay be a bit biased, but the sale of the JP II Centre could retain the name for the House of Studies, in honor of one of the most saintly Popes in Church history. I see no reason why the Sisters couldn’t continue the Broadcasting and Museum as a special ministry. I am sure that attendance will increase as the years go by and the new Order will prosper. Barry University has grown tremendously since I left there. Despite all the setbacks in our Church, it continues to grow and flourish everywhere in the world. How easy it is to forget what Jesus said that The gates of hell will not prevail against us.
Blessings
I think thst the John Paul II cultural center was a mistake, because it overestimated the devotions to and popularity of this particular Pope and his model of the Church.
Even the new media were bored of him, after 30-40 international trips (and he went on to make over 100), they stopped covering him.
His message was not a vigorous re-affermation of Catholicism and Catholic tradition. There was no zeal for the precious heritage of the Catholic Faith. Rather, his was a broad inclusiveness that we’re all basically the same.
Without that strong re-inforcement of Catholicism and Catholic tradition, his legacy was just the circus like World Youth Day, ecumenism with Protestants, and endless appologizing for the “sins: of the Church.
Not much of a legacy. Thus, the reason why this place has always been seriously in debt and on the point of closure.
Now, if John Paul II had conducted his entire papacy like the model of the great Venerable Pope pius XII, or Saint Pius X, the outsome would have been totally different. The place would have been flourisihing.
But all John Paul II id was glory in Vatican II…...which most Catholics, especially the young, simply can’t stand.
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