VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | May. 8, 2013
VATICAN CITY Pope Francis met Wednesday with leaders of orders of Catholic sisters and nuns from around the globe, telling them that the lives of consecrated persons are a “light in the world.”
“What would the church be without you?” the pope asked at one point in the audience, telling the sisters the church “would be missing maternity, affection, tenderness” without them.
The meeting, a private audience held in the Vatican’s Pope Paul VI Hall before Francis’ weekly Wednesday audience in St. Peter’s Square, was between the pope and approximately 800 members of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), a membership organization of some 1,800 global leaders of congregations of women religious.
The meeting was much anticipated because leaders of the sisters’ group said they could not recall the last time a pope had met with their general membership.
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