Nuns want the record set straight
Ursuline sisters launch public service campaign
By The Associated Press
CINCINNATI — Movies have perpetuated a mistaken and unworldly image of nuns for too long, say Ursuline sisters who are launching an ad campaign to set the record straight.
"So much of the media is still imaging us as we were in the '40s and '50s — the garb, being behind the wall, not in touch with the world," said Sister Jacquelyn Herpy, membership and vocation director at the Ursuline motherhouse in Youngstown, Ohio.
Sister Herpy, 46, said she had a pretty clear idea of what being a nun was all about because she was a lifeguard at a camp run by Ursulines before she joined the order.
"I perceived them as very human beings. I think most people have a different image," she said.
To change that, Ursulines in the United States and Canada are working with a Cincinnati ad agency on a series of public service advertisements that will be available to radio stations and newspapers beginning early next year.
"The perception of nuns as very strict, unworldly, blackrobed teachers lacking in personality is plain wrong," said Jeffrey Tolvin, vice president of media relations for the New York-based Young & Rubicam Inc., which has an office in Cincinnati.
"They asked us to help communicate who they are today educators, social workers, health care professionals and administrators who attend movies, take classes and dress in contemporary garb," he said.
"What I'd like to see is a switch from the stereotype of women who are hidden out of the way to dynamic women who are in touch, who have something to contribute," she said.
Sister Herpy said the main purpose of the ads isn't to fill the ranks.
The agency charged the order nothing to develop the $70,000 campaign.
"A lot of communities are concerned about their image. We just happen to be taking the lead," said Sister Maureen McCarthy, general superior of the Ursuline motherhouse in Pepper Pike, Ohio, which operates Ursuline College.
Twenty-five years ago there were 176,341 nuns in the United States, and their median age was 46; there now are 99,337 and their median age is 65.
Ursulines are among religious orders having trouble attracting new members.
"The project wasn't done for the key purpose of recruiting," she said. "It was done for the key purpose of stating who we are as women today."
Not that the order wouldn't welcome new members.
"It would be wonderful if people showed interest and wanted to come to our community. But mostly we want to get the stereotyping of nuns changed," said Sister Anne Maureen Maher, superior. The title "mother superior" has been phased out of many motherhouses.
She hopes the ads show Catholic women that life in a religious community is worth considering.
"I think some people are turned off to it because they don't see it for what it is," she said. "We're normal human beings. We don't pray 24 hours a day, but we do take praying seriously."
The Order of St. Ursula was founded in 1535 in Brecia, Italy, by Angela Merici. The first bishop of Cincinnati asked the order to establish a colony in Ohio in 1845 to open a school for girls.
That group still operates Ursuline Academy in Cincinnati and Chatfield College in St. Martin, Ohio.
One of the print ads shows Sister Margaret Scheetz doing carpentry work at a shelter for homeless women with children.
In another, Sister Pam Mueller, a speech pathologist, is at a Kentucky farm, holding a child whose hearing loss caused developmental problems.
"On Mondays, I have night class; I'm working on my master's degree," says the voice on the radio ad. "Wednesdays I get together with friends to see a movie... I guess people are surprised when they find out I'm a nun."
A third shows Sister Michael Marie with kids at a Cleveland inner-city youth center.
Sister McCarthy, who joined the order in 1955, said she has seen change in the order's way of life.
"It it used to be a very structured schedule. Today, variety is the word," she said. "There was no social life, except to go home to visit our families. Today, we go to plays, sporting events, all kinds of things."
Sister Susan Durkin, 30, is one of the newest members of the Pepper Pike motherhouse. She has not yet taken permanent vows but recommends the sisterhood to other women "without reservation."
"Being a woman and looking at what my peers are doing, I feel I'm so much more empowered," she said. "The friendship and support and love and care of people I live with are the most important things. I don't feel like I really gave up anything."
December 8, 1993 K-you • COMMUNITY
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