At The Interfaith Center of New York’s annual awards gala on Monday, June 10, five distinguished leaders received the James Parks Morton Interfaith Award in recognition of their “Courage of
Conviction,” who have chosen to challenge the pillars of revered civil and religious institutions to
make a more fair and just society. One of those recipients, Leadership Conference of Women Religious Immediate Past President Sister Pat Farrell, OSF, offered the following acceptance speech.
Remarks by Sister Pat Farrell, OSF
Thank you sincerely for this award and for the opportunity to share this celebration with the other very inspiring recipients whom I feel honored just to meet. I accept this recognition in the name of the thousands of women religious represented in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious which I have served as president. They are unsung heroines, women of conscience and courage, committed to serving some of the most vulnerable people in our world. It is in the name of all of them, my sisters, that I gratefully receive this honor from the Interfaith Center of New York.
My presence this evening carries with it the legacy of Catholic sisters, recently made visible in our current controversy with the Vatican’s doctrinal assessment of our organization. Gratefully, the media has shone a spotlight on us in a way that goes beyond the trivializing stereotypes of nuns projected by the entertainment industry. I know that you know of the spiritual leadership of sisters and their immense contribution in areas of health, education, and social services. That awareness has been evident in the immense outpouring of support we have received during this past year. I very much welcome tonight the opportunity to say a public word of appreciation for the affirmation we have received from religious leaders across a variety of traditions. Thank you very much for your support and encouragement. We share with all peoples of faith present here a dedication to mysticism and prophecy, ancient yet ever new.
I also appreciate the Interfaith Center of New York’s tradition of honoring religious leadership in a broad and inclusive way. You recognize the significance and influence of those not holding formal positions of power who nonetheless lead by relationship, service, inspiration, in short, by the authority of their lives. That is often the case for women of faith who lack formal recognition from their mostly male hierarchies. That you for your deliberateness in valuing the undervalued and empowering the disempowered which so resonates with our own commitment to prophetic social action.
As we celebrate tonight the courage of conviction, I claim LCWR’s sustained effort to respond to the Vatican’s intervention with integrity. Our path of restraint could appear to some as cowardice or timidity. It is neither. It takes a different kind of courage to operate from a truth not immediately evident. It takes the foolishness of faith to trust that a fresh way forward can show itself in the spaciousness of contemplative deliberation. The choice to enter into truthful yet respectful dialogue with church leaders of differing perspectives recognizes our fundamental oneness, accessible at deeper levels, in spite of closed questions and unhealthy power dynamics. It takes conviction to trust that domination and exclusion can be overcome when named for what they are, and that ultimatums not submissively received have no power and can be reframed. We continue on such a path, not knowing the end result, but grateful for your recognition tonight of the courage and conviction of women religious, your sisters. Thank you.
