“Sometimes it causes me to tremble: Let Lent lead us through our fears for the future of the church.”

The Catholic Church in the US faces some daunting realities: falling attendance, suspicion of the institution, and young people who are opting out of religion altogether.

How does Sister Barbara Reid, who heads up a school that trains seminarians and lay religious leaders, prepare these students to serve the church of today and of the future? How will they address the rampant spiritual hunger of young people, for example, who are so committed to social justice, community, and service, but who seldom see the church as meeting their deepest needs?

Sister Reid and CTU are navigating these rough waters, and believes the church will thrive in the future--provided it looks different from the church of today. Reid finds great hope in one of the Gospel stories of Holy Week, which invites all of us, especially our leaders, to a different model of church. What might Jesus, who always stands at the center of our faith, be asking of us and our church this Lent?

More Background on Sr. Reid ...

Sister Barbara Reid was elected president of Catholic Theological Union in 2020, and has served on the CTU faculty since 1988. A renowned New Testament scholar who has served as president of the Catholic Biblical Association, she has received numerous awards for her contributions to the field. Reid has led many of CTU’s travel and retreat programs in the Holy Land, as well as lecturing in South and Central America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. She is a Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids, and a former Spanish teacher.

Catholic Theological Union in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood is one of the largest Catholic graduate schools of theology in the English speaking world; it trains women and men for lay and ordained ministry within the Catholic Church. Its more than 4,000 vowed religious women and men and lay graduates are serving in 60 countries worldwide.