It was like coming home. Thursday night I went to the S. Dillon Ripley Center of the Smithsonian Institute for the opening of the exhibit, Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America.
About 200 women and men came to celebrate the history and heritage of Catholic Sisters in America over a period of almost 300 years. The exhibit is a magnificent testimony to the leadership of women in decades before most women even thought about being presidents of universities or administrators of hospitals, much less founding such institutions. It is a celebration of women dedicated to social justice, from the streets of Selma to Capitol Hill. It will be at the Smithsonian through mid-April.
Among the crowd was Mother Clare Millea, ASCJ, the sister leading the investigation of American women religious. I wondered what she was thinking.