Article by Tim Reidy, editor of America
“ Last week, my colleague Father James Martin traveled to Atlanta to address the 2025 assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. As he acknowledges in his remarks, which we have adapted for this week’s Cover Story, this is a difficult time for many religious orders in the United States. Drawing on his recent book on Lazarus, Father Martin acknowledges the sadness that many feel at this moment:
“We can wonder why we are no longer getting as many vocations, why so many in our circle of friends are dying and why our beloved ministry sites are closing. And we can wonder: Jesus, where are you?”
This is a question that Martha and Mary also asked when Lazarus was near death. Where is Jesus? Why isn’t he here to help us?
The answer to that question, then and now, may be unanswerable. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing we can do.
Father Martin points to Lazarus, who did not know what Jesus was calling him to when he announced, “Come forth!” But he got up anyway and followed the sound of his master’s voice. “
“Can we,” he writes, “like Lazarus, fully trusting in Jesus, confident in the future because we are confident who it is who is calling us, say yes to God?”
Is anyone better equipped to answer this call than the women religious we know and love?
Tim Reidy, Deputy Editor in Chief
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