There's a fundraising supper coming up for the Sisters Servants of Mary.

It's Sunday up at the parish center of St. Patrick's Church on State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. If you don't know St. Patrick's, it's East of the Legends in KCK. The building is kind of an unfortunate relic of 1960's architecture and suggests maybe that it's an International House of Pancakes, but at least it's a proper rectangle church rather than the round spaceships we have in Johnson County.

The Sisters had their spaghetti dinner there last year too; we went, it was simple and fun. And CROWDED! We intended to go to noon Mass at St. Patrick's and then go get lunch afterwards. But it turns out that noon Mass is actually 11:30 Mass and our plans were foiled. It was kind of lucky, because if we didn't go straight to lunch (and go to Mass later that day, thankyouverymuch), we wouldn't have been able to get a seat for us and our friends that we were joining. Really. It was standing-room-only and people were waiting for our chairs as soon as we sat down.

Last autumn, the Sisters were treated to a fundraising dinner and action at their behalf, a $125/plate soiree that drew around 600 people and an auction that raised more money in a few hours than they earn in dozens and dozens of small events like spaghetti dinners. Obituary sections in the newspaper continually list that donations be made to their convent in the name of the deceased. The archdiocesean newspaper, The Leaven, even dedicated an entire special issue just to these nuns back in September. People just love giving to these women--women who take their vows of poverty, women who still dress in humble habits and always need a ride to get wherever they're going.

You see, these Servite nuns are a pretty special blessing. Many of their members are licensed nurses, they all minister to the sick and dying. When you've got a family member who is sick and bedridden, these nuns will stay by their side, praying and staying by the bedside. When family members need to get a little sleep at night but cannot leave their loved one unattended, the Sisters step in to help. They'll pull a chair up by the hospital bed and attend to the care of the sick. They've also been known to do some dishes in your kitchen overnight--caring for the sick often means caring for the family of the sick, too.

The Catholic Church has taken a hit in a lot of its vocations in recent decades. Great religious communities, monks, nuns, friars, and orders of all kinds have really struggled in most of the world. Communities who struggled with recruitment have been forced to board up their convents and monasteries, sell their assets and pool together with similar communities. It's that way the Ursuline sisters here in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. The Ursulines came to Kansas in 1895 and educated over 50,000 students in just a little over a century's time. But a century later, they were running low on recruitment and couldn't afford to maintain the grounds of the convent in Paola.

By the time I went to Catholic High School, there were only two nuns left teaching classes. One would pass away shortly after I graduated, the other keeps steadily plugging along. She has quiet strength and has earned her respect with a lifetime of work--she could have probably retired a couple decades ago, but it's her life's work, her vocation and her ministry.

There's some people who consider the decline in religious vocations and point to the changes in the Church after Vatican 2. This was the thesis behind Kenneth Jones' work Index of Leading Catholic Indicators (out of print, but you can find it in some Catholic bookstores. Check around online). The forward to the book was written by Pat Buchanan, and it's pretty startling. Buchanan's rhetoric is pure PJB, over the top and borderline sensation, but in the end, the numbers paint a pretty stark picture on the Church in America since the Council. The sum of which, Jones says speaks for itself: "In the end, though, my purpose in writing the Index of Leading Catholic Indicators is not to make any argument at all - it's simply to present the facts to people so they can come to their own conclusions."

A person on the Catholic Answers Forum put it this way: For the USA, it's like a nonsense narrative: Well, Mass attendance was high, seminaries were full, there were lots of teaching orders, etc. But then, thank goodness, we finally got a "renewal." It's hard to disagree.

There's probably also some merit in a competing theory for the decline in vocations: good economies don't beget many religious. The idea here is that people join the priesthood, convents or monasteries because it's steady work, a roof overhead and health care in retirement. I think that this is theory gains credibility if you look at cultural factors, like poorer countries often have a higher level of religiosity and therefore more religious vocations. But you're chasing chickens and eggs there, and while we need more priests, I don't think that the answer is to promote third-world living conditions in the USA.

In any measure, the Sister Servants of Mary do not appear to be struggling with vocations. There's quite a few of them at their convent in KCK--and they appear to have come to this city from all over the globe (including a lot of third-world countries) and they're in hospitals all over the city. Quietly and graciously living our their mission and their vocation. Ministers to the sick and suffering, doing God's work and asking nothing in return--other than a ride to and from the hospital or the bedside. The sisters don't drive.

God bless them and their work, those Sisters are good people. I'm not sure that planning a Spaghetti fundraiser on Super Bowl Sunday was necessarily the wisest decision, but I'll forgive those nuns for not having that day circled on their calendar already. Anyway, kickoff isn't until 5:20, so you've got time to have your meatballs and be back in time to cheer on the Cardinals--you are cheering for the Cardinals, right? Come on, man. They get to elect the next pope. They deserve to win a Super Bowl once in a while. Or even once.

SISTERS SERVANTS OF MARY
ANNUAL SPAGHETTI DINNER
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2009
11am To 4pm
ST. PATRICKS PARISH CENTER
9400 State Avenue Kansas City, KS
Dinner includes: Salad, Spaghetti, Homemade
Tomato Sauce, Italian Sausage, Meatballs, Garlic
Toast, drink and dessert. Price is $8 for adults
and $3 for children under 10

See you there.