Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Last week Mary Therese Johnson wrote about the Dominican Convocation that brought together nearly 400 Dominican Sisters and Associates.    In that crowd I met people that I hadn’t seen for years – all from San Rafael, California! One was my classmates, Maureen McInerny, who is now the prioress of the San Rafael Dominicans.   I met up with her at the last convocation we had three years ago.   Another was a friend from Fresno, California, (where I lived at that time) Margaret Diener.   We were both students at Dominican College (now University) in San Rafael. And another was a sister, whom I hadn’t known before, Sister Marie Sagues, who put me in touch with Sister Marguerite Stanka, O.P., librarian at Dominican College with whom I worked when I was a student there. Maureen, Margaret and Marie were all there in support of Pat Farrell, O.P., a San Rafael Dominican who is the current executive director of the DSC, sponsor of the convocation. Thes...

Like many people, I am fascinated by Pope Francis.  I know that he most likely won't change church doctrine.  However, I am drawn to his philosophy of encounter and living into the abundant joy of the gospel.  Our belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of this joy. In the days that he was in Cuba and the United States of America I remember feeling proud to be a Catholic and proud of the pope.  There have been few times in the past when I have felt this way and few times when I have felt like this about a pope. I know that Pope Francis and the church are far from perfect.  I know that there are many sins that the church have committed against those it has been called to protect and love.  In spite of this Pope Francis makes me want to experience that joy of the gospel that he so often speaks of.   He experiences people as opportunities of encounter were we are called to not look at our differences, but the way that we are ...