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At a time of deep political division and declining trust, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore told a national gathering of women religious leaders that renewing American political culture requires more than better politics. It requires a renewal of human character, relationships and spiritual life, a task to which he said women religious make a unique contribution.<\/p>\n
In a Sept. 18 keynote address to the 2026 National Assembly of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious<\/a> in Florissant, Missouri, Archbishop Lori said the Church has always understood that the renewal of society begins \u201cnot with structures, but with saints.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBefore there can be renewal of institutions, there must be renewal of persons,\u201d Archbishop Lori said. \u201cBefore there can be civic friendship, there must be conversion of heart, and before there can be lasting peace, there must be reconciliation with God.\u201d<\/p>\n He said religious life must remain \u201cabove politics\u201d in the sense that the Church must never become captive to partisan ideologies, but that transcending politics does not mean withdrawing from the world.<\/p>\n \u201cThe evangelical counsels are not an escape from history \u2014 they are a way of redeeming history,\u201d Archbishop Lori<\/a> said. \u201cConsecrated women do not flee society; they bless it.\u201d<\/p>\n The vocation of women religious matters not only to the Church but also to the nation because \u201cevery authentic consecrated life becomes a living argument that another way of being human is possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The annual national assembly, held Sept. 17-20 at the Augustine Institute in Florissant, Missouri, brought together major superiors from across the country for prayer, reflection and dialogue aimed at deepening their understanding of consecrated life.<\/p>\n Drawing on his recent pastoral letter, \u201cIn Charity and Truth: Toward a Renewed Political Culture,\u201d Archbishop Lori suggested the nation\u2019s deeper problem may not be bad politics, but expecting politics to accomplish what only holiness can achieve.<\/p>\n \u201cWe increasingly look to government to provide what families once provided,\u201d he said. \u201cWe ask for legislation to heal wounds that require forgiveness. We expect institutions to restore trust that can only be rebuilt through virtue. We seek policies to solve crises of meaning. Politics has become burdened with expectations it was never intended to bear.\u201d<\/p>\n Citing Pope Benedict XVI, he said government can guarantee justice in certain respects, but cannot create love, manufacture virtue or replace moral formation within families, communities and the Church.<\/p>\n \u201cDemocracy depends upon virtues that democracy itself cannot produce,\u201d he said. \u201cIt depends on honesty, mutual respect, sacrifice, patience and mercy. It depends on generosity in seeking the common good over private advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n Those virtues are learned in communities that embody them, he said. The contribution of women religious to democracy, he added, has never consisted primarily in political advocacy but in the formation of virtuous citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cLong before America debated civic education, sisters were forming consciences,\u201d he said. \u201cLong before people spoke of \u2018social capital,\u2019 sisters were building communities of trust. Long before commentators worried about polarization, women religious were teaching children to recognize Christ in one another.\u201d<\/p>\n Archbishop Lori presented the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience as witnesses to authentic freedom and sources of renewal for American public life. Drawing on St. John Paul II\u2019s 1995 homily at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, he said the vows proclaim a freedom deeper than the ability to satisfy every desire.<\/p>\n Evangelical poverty, he said, challenges a culture in which the religious sister stands before the world and quietly declares: \u201cMy security does not come from accumulation, my identity does not come from ownership, and my future does not depend upon what I possess. My treasure is Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEvangelical poverty reminds us that societies flourish when people ask not first, \u2018What belongs to me?\u2019 but rather, \u2018To whom do I belong?’\u201d Archbishop Lori said.<\/p>\n He pointed to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, whose trust in divine providence enabled her to establish schools, orphanages, hospitals and charitable institutions serving immigrants and the poor. In a culture increasingly tempted to confuse security with accumulation, he said, her example shows that poverty is less about having little than about being owned by less.<\/p>\n He also highlighted Mother Mary Lange, founder of the Baltimore-based Oblate Sisters of Providence, whom Pope Francis declared \u201cVenerable.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite racial prejudice in both society and the Church, she founded institutions that restored dignity through education, hope through community and confidence through faith, Archbishop Lori said. Her witness challenges a political culture that reduces people to categories, he said, noting that before people are identified by race, wealth or political ideology, they are beloved children of God.<\/p>\n Consecrated chastity, Archbishop Lori said, offers a witness against reducing people to labels, objects or political identities. He held up Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman as a model of joyful, truth-filled engagement.<\/p>\n She confronted racism and challenged the Church to embrace the richness of African American spirituality while remaining rooted in Catholic tradition, and never abandoned truth for popularity or charity for anger. Instead, he said, she \u201cchallenged, invited and loved.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause she belonged completely to Christ, she was free to belong to everyone,\u201d he said. Laws and institutions alone cannot create trust or virtue, he said. One of the greatest gifts women religious can offer the nation is a witness of \u201ccommunion without uniformity, conviction without hostility and truth without triumphalism.\u201d<\/p>\n He presented holy obedience as a school of listening and discernment. Christian obedience, he said, begins with receptivity: asking what God is saying before deciding what one must do.<\/p>\n \u201cSocial media rewards immediacy \u2014 discipleship requires discernment. Political rhetoric rewards certainty \u2014 Christian wisdom often begins with silence,\u201d Archbishop Lori said. \u201cCommentary rewards speed \u2014 prayer rewards patience. Our nation does not simply suffer from a deficit of information \u2014 it suffers from a deficit of contemplation.\u201d<\/p>\n He highlighted St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who responded to personal loss and uncertainty by trusting providence and allowing obedience to become a source of creativity.<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps political renewal begins not with louder voices but with quieter hearts,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore children learned algebra, they learned mercy,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore they learned history, they learned gratitude. Before they debated political questions<\/a>, they learned to examine their consciences. Before they became voters, they became disciples.\u201d<\/p>\n As the nation marks 250 years of independence, he asked what kind of witness women religious will offer in the next 250 years.<\/p>\n The natural questions, he said, are whether membership, institutions and the Church\u2019s cultural place will match the past. The deeper question is whether sisters will be as available to Christ as the saints who came before them.<\/p>\n The Church, he said, needs women religious who can build bridges, accompany others and remind the Church that it is not \u201ca collection of competing interests but the Body of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n Every generation of consecrated women has faced uncertainty, he said, but they had confidence in providence.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world needs women who have been seized by Christ,\u201d Archbishop Lori said. \u201cIt needs women whose lives bear unmistakable witness to the truth that God is real, that holiness is possible, that sacrifice is fruitful and that love poured out in communion with Christ can transform the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Her example offers a model for public life marked by \u201cconviction without contempt,\u201d disagreement without dehumanization and criticism animated by hope rather than hostility.<\/p>\n
While historians often emphasize the schools, hospitals and orphanages built by women religious, Archbishop Lori suggested their greatest achievement may be shaping the nation\u2019s moral imagination.<\/p>\n