The New York Times
Sisterhood Recruits for a Next Generation
By Lisa W. Foderaro

Hartsdale, N.Y., Jan. 15--For young women in a culture saturated with alluring images of riches and sensuality, it is an unlikely advertising come-on. Turn your back on money and men and spend your life helping people who are sick, poor and uneducated. It's the ultimate tough sell, but the message is: Forget Madonna. Become a nun.

These days the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, one of the nation's largest orders of Roman Catholic nuns, are making the pitch with a vengeance, and they are using all the tools of the modern age: test markets, target audiences, catchy graphics and, new this month, a Web site. One recruitment poster that was sent to college campuses shows a close-up of God's hand reaching out to Adam's from Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam." Adam is holding a cellular phone, and the text reads: "Do you have a call waiting?"
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In the recruitment campaign, the New York, New Jersey and Brooklyn chapters, or communities, of the Sisters of Mercy teamed up to create the posters and brochures, which are aimed at women 21 to 35. "If you appear old and nonvibrant, that becomes an obstacle to anyone wanting to enter religious life," said Sister Patricia Wolf, president of the New York community, adding that the images showed a "connection to the world and also to humor."
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There is hope among nuns that they can tap into this millennial moment, when gift shops sell nothing but angels, and best-selling books, rock songs and television shows unabashedly deal with issues relating to religion, the soul and the afterlife.

"I think that probably more than at any recent time, there is a real quest today for spirituality," said Sister Patricia of the Sisters of Mercy. "The media give evidence of that. You have something like "Touched by an Angel" on television and other shows. So an attraction to religious life is perhaps even more possible than it has been at other times."
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The New York, New Jersey and Brooklyn regional communities of the Sisters of Mercy are also determined to increase the minority representation among their members, who are overwhelmingly white. One of the posters shows an African-American woman in prayer.

"We don't reflect as a community the ethnic background of New York City," Sister Patricia said in her spacious office on a former estate here. "Just walk around. We have a significant amount of work to do."

Sister Barbara Ann Catherine Gourdine, 40, is a relatively new--and young--member, having made her temporary vows two years ago. She is also African-American, one of only two in the New York community, which has 187 members. She actually joined the order at 21 but left in 1988. "In leaving it gave me a chance to grow and find out who I was as a person," she said. She has had to adjust to living with three women in a house after years of living alone in an apartment, and she recently took a job teaching in a Catholic school after 10 years in a public school. "It's not what I expected," she said, "but I am happy."

With members from Staten Island to the Adirondacks, as well as the Worcester, Mass., area (the result of a merger), the New York community of the Sisters of Mercy is spread thin. The order sponsors two high schools, three health-care centers and three social-service agencies. There are pastoral duties and community outreach as well, but half the members are retired. Sister Patricia frequently finds herself saying no to people who call to inquire whether a nun might be available to fill a teaching position, say, or simply to lead a retreat day. "There are days when I say, 'How can we do that?'" she said. "You would die to have someone for that."

Yet nuns resist the idea that they face extinction, and they look to their history for solace. "In some ways, you could say, 'Well, it's dying out and the last person should turn out the lights,'" Sister Mary Alice Young, Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, said. "But we were founded by only six sisters 150 years ago. So what you need are committed women."

And, she said, there will always be those.