Pilgrims of Hope (2): Democracy

The series “Pilgrims of Hope” is a monthly spiritual contribution to the Holy Year – a collaboration between the international Generalate of the Hospital Sisters of St Francis and the Muenster-based German church publication “Kirche und Leben” (“Church+Life”). Our topic in February: Hope for Democracy.

Democracy is a topic currently much debated, and it is a very complex one. To approach it, it may help to ask: What would I miss without democracy? What would we all miss without our constitution? Imagine, for example, that we did not have Article 4 of our Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of belief and conscience. (The Article states: “The undisturbed practice of religion is guaranteed.”)

The lack of this freedom of belief is at the core of the history of our international Congregation as it affected our founder, Father Christopher Bernsmeyer. When Napoleon’s troops occupied Muenster in 1811, they closed the Franciscan monastery so that Father Christopher lost both his home and his brotherly community. Ultimately, he found a new home in Telgte near Muenster, where he founded our Congregation in 1844.

Throughout our history, we have faced political obstacles. 150 years ago, the Kulturkampf raged in Prussia and the 1875 laws threatened the existence of religious Orders including ours in Muenster. Fortunately, our Superior welcomed the request of Bishop Peter Baltes of Alton, Illinois, to send Sisters to America to care for the sick. In October 1875, 20 of our Sisters journeyed from Münster without knowledge of the English language or the American culture but with hope for democracy and freedom in the service of God. That hope was realized immediately after their arrival when they founded four hospitals and shortly after they founded the first Catholic nursing school in the United States of America. The following years saw the founding of other healthcare ministries throughout the United States and abroad. This year, we are celebrating 150 years of presence in the United States together with nearly 13,000 employees who provide care to nearly two million people annually through 13 hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin. We thank God for democracy.

The Sisters in our Polish Province also suffered political persecution. As early as 1848, some of our Sisters went from Muenster to Silesia to care for the victims of a typhoid epidemic. After the epidemic, they stayed on, building an orphanage and hospitals – the groundstones of a new Province. However, after World War II, the communist authorities confiscated these hospitals and expelled our Sisters. While many members of other congregations serving in the area were sent to labor camps, our Sisters escaped this terrible fate because their Provincial Superior was a Dutch citizen who placed the Provincial Motherhouse under the protection of the Dutch queen. Nevertheless, religious life behind the Iron Curtain was difficult, and the General Superiors from Muenster were unable to travel to the Silesian-Polish Province for 35 years.

Democracy is our responsibility!

Today, in democratic Europe, two Polish Sisters work in the international General Administration in Muenster. Two other Sisters come from India, officially the world’s largest democracy with 1.4 billion people. The Indian constitution guarantees equality before the law, and non-discrimination on the basis of religion, caste, gender and origin. However, according to “Open Doors”, India is in tenth place on the world persecution index, overtaking North Korea. This reveals that the core of a healthy democracy lies not only in its institutional structures, but also in the way people treat each other, and in the ability to appreciate diversity, interculturality, and differences.

This is also what we experience within the democratic structure of our Congregation: Both the Provincial Leadership and the international General Leadership are elected by the members of the Order for a limited term of office. The most recent election was held during the international General Chapter in September 2024 when delegates from all the countries in which our Sisters live and work gathered in Muenster.

Democracy is our responsibility. Our freedom depends on our commitment to it, both privately and in Church and society. That is why we as German Hospital Sisters will go and vote in the German General Election on February 23. And this is why we encourage you to use your right to vote as well, wherever you are and whenever you can. Just think about what you might miss – without our democracy.

By Sister M. Margarete Ulager and Claudia Berghorn

This article was published online and in print in the Diocese of Muenster’s magazine, “Kirche+Leben” (Church+Life), in February 2025.

The Hospital Sisters of St. Francis also participated in the Diocese of Muenster’s Campaign for Democracy, “Live Freedom”. On February 7, 2025, General Councilor Sister M. Hiltrud Vacker joined representatives of St. Francis Foundation to spray the campaign logo onto a fence around the building site for the future St. Francis Health Academy and Nursing School.