Salt Lake diocese to commemorate the Year of Consecrated Life

Friday, Sep. 26, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY —Benedictines and Dominicans, the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Carmelites and Jesuits – all these and many other religious orders have contributed greatly through the years to the formation of Catholic Church in Utah. Those women and men who served, and continue to serve, the Diocese of Salt Lake City as vowed religious will be recognized over the next year through a series of articles in the Intermountain Catholic in recognition of the Year of Consecrated Life, which was declared by Pope Francis to run from October 2014 to November 2015.  

The objectives of the Year of Consecrated Life are to “make a grateful remembrance of the recent past,” to “embrace the future with hope” and “live the present with passion,” said Cardinal João Braz De Aviz, the Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, when the announcement was made in January.  

Also, the Year of Consecrated Life will have an evangelical focus, helping people to realize “the beauty of following Christ” in the various types of religious vocations, Cardinal Braz de Aviz said, according to the report.

Several local events are planned to take place during the year. In addition to the series of articles scheduled to appear in this newspaper, Utah Catholic School students will participate in various activities that relate to their curriculum – many of the schools were founded by members of religious orders, each of which has their own charism. Also, the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, plans to celebrate a Mass to commemorate the Year of Consecrated Life. 

Religious orders in Utah go back to 1876, when Father Lawrence Scanlan, later the first Bishop of Salt Lake, “convinced the Sisters of the Holy Cross from Notre Dame, Indiana, to join him in planting the seeds of faith throughout this large territory,” said Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, the diocese vicar general emeritus. “In time a stream of other religious women arrived in Utah to become the heart of evangelization.”

The sisters taught catechism, were nurses, cared for orphans and prayed for the growth of the faith, Msgr. Fitzgerald said, adding that men religious arrived to spread the good news of the Catholic faith with their unique ministries as well. 

“The women and men religious were significant in Utah not only because of their apostolic work but, more importantly, for their total commitment to the life of the Church, living out their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience,” Msgr. Fitzgerald said.