LI lay associates lend a helping hand

Cathy Roberts felt a tug to religious life as a teenager in Bellmore. But it was the late 1960s and early '70s, and with more women leaving convents than entering, Roberts said she also felt pressure not to pursue her calling.

More than four decades later, the mother of four is finally fulfilling her youthful impulse - even if in a limited way. She is a lay associate with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, part of a national movement that may be the Roman Catholic Church's future as the numbers of nuns, priests and brothers decline.

The trend grew from the 1960s Vatican II reforms that gave a more prominent role to lay people. Today, there are at least 55,000 associates in Canada and the United States, according to the North American Conference of Associates and Religious.

"They are a very important part of religious life today," said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., the main organization representing the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the United States. "They are helping to carry on the missions of the orders. It's part of the evolution of religious life in the 20th and 21st centuries."

Associates are unofficial members of a religious order. They lead regular lives raising families and working, but also connect themselves to religious congregations. Hundreds of associates on Long Island attend prayer groups, participate in social events with the nuns or priests, adapt the spirituality of the order to their lives, and work alongside them in soup kitchens, hospitals and schools. Most are women affiliated with congregations of religious sisters, though a few men also join. They include the late Yankees announcer Bob Sheppard, who had been an associate with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, said program coordinator Sister Phyllis Esposito.

Lay associates differ from eucharistic ministers and deacons who help priests distribute Holy Communion at Masses and to homebound people. Associates say they join the organizations mainly to deepen their spirituality with people who share the same vision. The groups often become small, tight-knit communities.

"They want something deeper than what they are getting in their parishes," said Sandy Figueroa of Elmont, an associate with the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul of New York. "I want something more, not just Bible readings."

"I didn't feel called to be a nun," said Eileen McMahon, a teacher at St. Mary's High School in Manhasset who helped found the lay associates program at the Sisters of the Infant Jesus in Rockville Centre in 1984. "But I had a good connection with the sisters. It helps me remain focused on my faith in Christ and how to live out his values."

When Roberts, 56, learned about the St. Joseph's associates program a few years back, "It hit me like a bolt of lightning," she said. It was "something I absolutely had to do."

That's a common feeling, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

The number of religious sisters in the United States dropped between 1965 and last year from 179,954 to 57,544, according to Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. The number of priests in the same period fell from 58,632 to 39,993.

Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre praised lay associates.

Being a St. Joseph's associate helps show "how to live my life in a more prayerful and meaningful way," said Arleen Brigandi, a retired Northrop Grumman employee from Bohemia. "It's a sense of connectedness to the sisters."