Local Holy Cross sister travels to India as delegate to congregation's 26th General Chapter

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Holy Cross Sister Veronica Fajardo

SALT LAKE CITY —Holy Cross Sister Veronica Fajardo, who ministers at a shelter for domestic violence victims  in Park City, served as a delegate to the 26th General Chapter of the Sisters of the Holy Cross that took place in May in Shillong, Meghalaya, India.

Each of the congregation’s geographical areas sent five or six delegates to the meeting. Sr. Veronica was among those who were voted by their sisters to represent the area of the United States and Mexico.

The theme of the General Chapter, “Transforming Love – for the Life of the World,” “motivated us to be the transforming love,” said Sr. Veronique Wiedower, president of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. “In this holy event of the General Chapter, we profoundly listened to be able to know how to transform ourselves and be able to spread the love in the world  so this love can be an echo of the Divine.”

The Holy Cross sisters hold their General Chapter meeting every five years. It has two main objectives: to articulate a direction that reflects how God is calling the Congregation to live and serve at that particular time in history; and to elect the General Leadership Team members who will facilitate the Congregation’s implementation of that direction.

“At the General Chapter, we talked, we prayed and we decided the focus for the Sisters of the Holy Cross Congregation for the next five years,” said Sr. Veronica, who participated for the first time at the General Chapter. She added that participants had the opportunity to listen to members of the congregation throughout the world talk about their  realities and challenges.

Holy Cross sisters serve in countries such as the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Ghana, Uganda, Bangladesh and India.

“It was a very beautiful experience in which we celebrated our diversity. We prayed a lot and we had a space in which we could decide where we are going for the upcoming years,” Sr. Veronica said, adding that at the General Chapter the sisters created a Directive Declaration and also selected the sisters who are going to guide all the Holy Cross sisters.

In the declaration it states that the Sisters of the Holy Cross will celebrate their call to be witnesses of God’s transforming love for the life of the world.

“Guided and sent by the Holy Spirit, we choose and commit ourselves anew to witness to God’s desire for the transformation of human hearts, human relationships and all creation. Let us hurry then, and take up this work of resurrection!” the declaration states in part.

During the General Chapter, Sr. Veronique Wiedower was elected to serve as president of the General Leadership Team for the next five years. Sisters Pushpa Teresa Gomes, Suzanne Brennan, Esther Adjoa Entsiwah and Mary Tiernan were elected as councilors.