VIGNE DI NARNI, Italy (LifeSiteNews) — A traditionalist community known as the Consoling Sisters of the Sacred Heart is undergoing a burst of vocations, with 22 young ladies having become novices and four having made their First Profession this summer on the feast of the Sacred Heart.
Residing in three convents in Italy, one in India and a new convent in Arizona, the Consoling Sisters hear the Traditional Latin Mass daily and catechize children as well as care for the sick and elderly. Largely drawing Americans, the order testifies that vocations flourish in the soil of Tradition, as the number of religious sisters is overall in steep decline, especially in the U.S.
Founded in 1961 by a Passionist priest, the Consoling Sisters of the Sacred Heart were entrusted to the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) in 1996. The Sisters’ mission, as their name suggests, is to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus with their entire lives, a Heart “afflicted by the ingratitude, the coldness, the outrages and the betrayals of so many souls that are particularly dear to Him,” as their founder explained.
In addition to the three traditional religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, the Consoling Sisters make a fourth vow to practice and spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. They also dedicate themselves to Christian formation, especially the youth, and to helping the priestly apostolate “in its many diverse forms,” including by adding to their prayers the intentions of the vocation and sanctification of priests.
Pictures found on an online presentation show how, in addition to their main apostolates of youth formation and care for the sick and elderly, the sisters in Italy keep busy with sewing, painting, upkeep of their convent work in the fields, including olive harvesting and cherry picking, in addition to their main apostolates, including catechesis.
Seven Indian sisters of the order dedicate themselves to educating orphan girls and caring for the elderly who are often found abandoned on the street in pitiable condition in their impoverished country. The sisters have revealed that most of the children they care for there come from broken families, most often broken up by alcoholism of their fathers.
The order’s growing numbers have allowed them to recently expand further to the country now providing them the most new postulants: the United States! In August 2023, five sisters in Italy left to begin an apostolate at Our Lady of Sorrows Church (SSPX) in Phoenix, Arizona, where they teach religion to elementary school students and foster in them a love of Christ Jesus and the Catholic faith.
The mother of four girls at various stages of profession in the order, Mrs. Jean Bomberger, told LifeSiteNews that for her daughters, growing up in a family of nine children, their education at an SSPX school, and their experiences at traditional retreats and camps have all fostered a desire to consecrate their lives to God as religious.
Mrs. Bomberger says her daughter Maria, the last of her sisters to enter the convent, decided to enter after the daily attended the First Profession of her sister Rita, and the veiling of her sister Madeleine. Maria was “so moved at what she witnessed” during the 16 days of their visit that, when they left, “she said that she must enter,” Mrs. Bomberger shared.
“For my husband and I, I can definitely say that living life in a joyful manner, even during times of sacrifice; cooperating happily with each other through thick and thin, trying to quickly accept God’s will for us; and, letting the children know that the most important thing to us was that they would each search out and do God’s will in their own lives — these things would sum up what we attempted to accomplish.”
“Now, probably more than ever in the history of the Church, we are in desperate need of holy religious vocations, and priests,” she added.
Sr. Maria Caterina, the superior of the sisters in Phoenix, told LifeSiteNews how she was attracted to the order by the generosity of sisters at their mission in India toward the old resident ladies and the orphan children.
One encounter she had later left a deep impression on her soul: A young, heavily tattooed man with piercings “wearing a scary t-shirt of club hell” once approached her at a gas station, initially making her nervous. To her surprise, he took off his hat and sunglasses and asked her to pray with him! It helped to show to her how many souls are suffering and are thirsting for God.
Sr. Caterina spoke glowingly of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is the centerpiece of the life of all true religious, the “grace of graces.”
“The Tridentine Mass is an artwork made by Our Lord Himself, given to the Apostles and transmitted up until our times; every detail has its importance to help the souls to be always closer to Our Lord Jesus Christ,” Sr. Caterina said.
Aspiring postulants or those interested in contacting or donating to the sisters can learn more at their website.