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Millions of television viewers may have a somewhat different opinion of the life of women religious after Tuesday's Oprah Winfrey Show, which featured a long look at the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. The order, based in Ann Arbor, MI, is one of the fastest-growing communities of nuns in the United States, and some of their members teach in Ave Maria at the Donahue Academy.
In introducing the segment, Oprah said that her show called "convents all across the country" to find an order that would participate in the program, and most declined, with a California order asking, "What's an Oprah Winfrey?"
But the Dominican Sisters welcomed the show's reporter, Lisa Ling, who spent a night in the convent and said that the sisters were "some of the kindest people I've ever encountered."
The show shot segments in the convent, and several of the sisters were interviewed in the studio and through a remote hook-up.
The sisters were portrayed as active, dedicated women who love their life.
The reporter, Ms. Ling, said that what she found was not what many people would expect. "Rather than being very strict, their lives are actually much more liberated" than those of many other women in today's society, she concluded.
The Donahue Academy has posted the entire segment in several parts on their site here.
Three video excerpts from the program are on the site for the Oprah Winfrey Show and can be viewed by clicking here.
The sisters have also posted a slideshow of pictures at their site here.
One of the sisters who teaches at the Donahue Academy, Sr. Teresa Benedicta, will be the speaker at the monthly meeting of the Ave Maria Founders Club Feb. 23. More information on that is here. |
