With two retirements, just six local schools will claim women religious as principals
Sr. Carolyn Ratkowski, CSSF, principal at St. Michael the Archangel School in Livonia, one of just eight women religious principals left in the Archdiocese of Detroit, is retiring at the end of the school year.Detroit — The presence of women religious in local Catholic schools has been dwindling for many years, say local Catholic sisters, but those who remain in education and other ministries are doing their best to make their presence known.
The second week of March marked the first annual National Catholic Sisters Week, which aimed to bring Americans a greater awareness of Catholic religious sisters’ contributions to society during Women’s History Month, according to Sr. Barbara Kelley of the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
“It’s a new event, and we want to really focus on serving the people of God,” Sr. Kelley said. “We’re not as visible in grade schools as we used to be, so we just want people to know we’re still there.”
Brian Dougherty, superintendent of the Archdiocese of Detroit’s schools, acknowledged that “the trend now is that there are less and less” religious sisters in Catholic schools.
“There are less religious that are going into education to begin with, and obviously there are less nuns now than there were 30 years ago, so it’s a dwindling pool if you will.”
Only eight schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit have religious sisters as principals: The Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), Divine Child Elementary School (Dearborn), Marian High School (Bloomfield Hills), St. Clare of Montefalco School (Grosse Pointe Park), St. Edith School (Livonia), St. Hugo of the Hills School (Bloomfield Hills), St. Michael Catholic School (Livonia) and St. Sebastian Catholic School (Dearborn Heights).
This number will be reduced to six in a couple of months, as Sr. Margaret Kijek of St. Edith and Sr. Carolyn Ratkowski of St. Michael are retiring at the end of the school year.
Both sisters belong to the Livonia-based Felician Franciscan Sisters and have been principals for more than two decades. Sr. Kijek has been principal at St. Edith for 23 years, and Sr. Ratkowski at St. Michael’s for 24 years.
Sr. Kijek said there has been a decrease in the number of nuns working in Catholic grade schools because there is a greater diversity of ministries in which they serve.
“Right now, I’m the only nun at St. Edith’s,” Sr. Kijek said. “They used to be here, but as time went on they went to other ministries.”
The Adrian Dominican Sisters have expanded to other ministries in order to “preach the truth of the gospel to the people,” Sr. Kelley said. “We still have the heritage of preaching, but preach in different ways. We have teachers, people in all levels of education, health care, we have lawyers, spiritual directors, writers, artists.”
Sr. Kijek said the decrease in the presence of sisters at Catholic schools is unfortunate, but that God has a plan.
“There must be some reason for all this to take place, but they’re still out here. The Lord has something in store, but we’ll see what that is.”
Sr. Ratkowski said it is not necessarily bad that there are fewer sisters working in Catholic schools.
“The people that are teaching right now and before have gone through religious education classes,” she said. “Ninety-nine percent of them are very dedicated laypeople who have the same morals and values (sisters) have.”
Sr. Ratkowski said one downside to the decrease in sisters’ presences in Catholic schools, many of which continue to be sponsored by religious orders, is that “the charism that that sister’s community has might not be as strong and evident as it would be if the sisters were there full-time.”
Sr. Ratkowski said her post will be filled by a layperson, though the person has not been chosen. Sr. Kijek said she is unsure who will take her place.
National Catholic Sisters Week also focuses on making young women aware of their own possible vocation to the religious life and methods of prayer, Sr. Kelley said.
National Catholic Sisters Week is the first project of the Catholic Sisters Initiative, based at St. Catherine University in Minnesota.
Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated there were just seven schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit with women religious principals. St. Clare of Montefalco was added to this edition for the correct total of eight.
