[The Blue Nuns Need an Elevator is a story about an order of Nigerian nuns and their attempt to run a pregnancy center out of a dilapidated hospital in Illinois. The story will be told over the course of several installments through audio and written vignettes.]
PART 2: Fish Not Necessary
It’s interesting what happens when a story is told. If it’s told on a large enough stage, there may be some brave enough to interact with it. To refute, to debate, to engage. This often changes the shape of a narrative—maybe it gets bigger, maybe it grows a new branch, or maybe the the color shifts ever so slightly with the light that shines from a new direction. To understand a story in full is to be willing to accept there are multiple sides to it.
This second part of The Blue Nuns Need an Elevator goes deeper into the building itself. Why was it abandoned, why was it dilapidated, and how did it become a pregnancy center.
When I released the first part of this series last week, I got a Facebook message from a woman who I’ve known since my family first moved to Freeport,Illinois in 1996. She’s the mom of classmates, and has been involved in many of the activities in which I found myself through the years.
She asked me if, in my research, I learned of the school and the children that took residence there before the Blue Nuns came to the building. I told her that Sister Theo briefly mentioned it in our interview, but that I’d welcome more information. This community member told me of how she worked there, and how the closing of the school sent a shock wave through the workers and families who depended on the institution to care for these children. Sister Theo didn’t speak to this, but I imagine that’s not the perspective from which she was experiencing history in real time.
And so, this story took on a new hue.
In this second part, Sister Theo compared the nuns of this order to the Biblical narrative of Jonah. I draw out this comparison throughout the piece as a way to explore meaning. And the meaning became more rich when considering that maybe the nuns stepped into a tense situation. That maybe they were a little unwanted by some. That maybe they faced adversity before they even arrived. Kinda like Jonah.
So with some room for other perspectives, I leave you to listen.
TRANSCRIPT:
NARRATION: This is the blue Nuns need an elevator. It's a true story about a Nigerian religious order called the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Christ. These nuns run a crisis pregnancy center called the Madonna Renewal Center in Illinois, and they're known to that local community as the blue nuns for the blue habits they wear.
This particular branch is the solitary representation of the religious community in North America. The voice you'll hear is Sister Mary Theo, who was in charge of this order when we spoke in 2018. She leads the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as they live and do their work in a dilapidated a hundred year old massive hospital.
This is Part 2: Fish Not Necessary
Leslie: So, do you know the history of this building? You said it was a…
Sister Theo: Yes, it was. this place was a hospital through the St. Joseph Church and the religious community of Franciscan. They opened it in 1890. It was one of the first hospitals here in Freeport, and then it became a school of nursing too. So many nurses were trained in this place…
NARRATION: like I said, it's a large building, and when I was there, sister Theo took me on a tour. I was struck by just how big it is on the inside. It's four floors with never ending ceilings and each floor easily has 30 rooms. Sister Theo said that it was difficult to manage and finances became a problem.
Sister Theo: People were not paying, it became difficult to manage the hospital.
And so by 1965 they closed the hospital and then that same year, they used it for handicapped children. They turned it into a school. They lived full-time. There was no funds, so the school ran until they could still not manage because of finance, finances, and their difficulties they're in. So they officially closed in 99.
NARRATION: A member of the community who worked at that school told me that the decision to close the school by the diocese was a real problem for the students that lived there and their families. Those students had, “severe and profound developmental disabilities.” She said they had to find new places for these children to live.
Some could stay locally, but some had to find other arrangements in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. But by October of 1999, the last of these students were driven off campus. As the workers waved goodbye, I'm told, with tears in their eyes. And that's when the sisters came to live there, straight from Nigeria to this four story abandoned hospital turned school.
The building wasn't well taken care of building and started to deteriorate.
Sister Theo: I think major part of the damage occurred when most of the utilities were shut down. It was about from 2009 and then the building started going bad, real bad.
You know, as of 2012, you wouldn't step into this building at all. There was mold, there was asbestos.
NARRATION: And that was the same year Sister Theo was assigned lead the Illinois order and came to live in Freeport. But having already been a member of the North American branch of this order, sister Theo was well acquainted with the building.
Sister Theo: know, when I took office I think the question was very, very clear. What do we do with this building? I know at a point we struggled with it. We prayed. It is becoming too expensive to manage. You know, we just want to get rid of it and get out of this place, you know?
NARRATION: So it was decided by the diocese that the building would be sold.
Sister Theo: but some of us kept praying. We said, if God brothers see him, he has a purpose. We didn't want to run because of problem. We didn't want to run because we hit difficulty. If God has a purpose of bringing us into Freeport, we might be Jonah . We might be running like Jonah.
NARRATION: She's referencing a story found in the Bible. The Old Testament. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh. It's a town known for its wicked ways, and Jonah's supposed to tell them that their city would be destroyed if they didn't stop what they were doing. Jonah didn't want to do this, and actually this story says it's not because he's afraid, it's that he didn't believe the people of Nineveh were worthy of saving.
Why should he go out of his way to save a place that's allowed itself to deteriorate? So he runs, he gets on a boat and hides from God. But the story goes on that God sent a storm and everyone on the boat learns that Jonah is fleeing. So they eventually decide to throw him overboard. He gets eaten by a huge fish and while in the fish, he resolves to do the thing that God asked for him to do in the first place.
Now the story goes on and continues, but I'm struck by Sister Theo's comparison to Jonah. This is a woman whose life was wholly fixed on, presumably the thing God was calling her to do. She didn't run from God. And actually in the first part of the story, she tells us that she ran to God away from her parents to the convent.
So comparing this selling of a building to running from God, it seems so small in comparison to a lifetime of service, but it doesn't feel that way to her.
Sister Theo: The selling of the property somehow disturbed me more than I could ever imagine. I wasn't in charge of anything but somehow. In my heart, it seems so wrong,
and then I started having this nightmare of messages that get coming bring life into that property. Bring life into that property. I wouldn't sleep at night. In the middle of the night, this voice will wake me up. I ask you to bring life into that property. How do I begin to bring life? I said, no. I'm the one making up this thing.
NARRATION: It's important to note that she's not actually in Freeport at the time of the selling. She had gone to New Jersey to get her master's in counseling, but she was such an important part of the story that the other sisters insisted that she come to the closing to represent them.
Leslie: Why did they want you?
Sister Theo: I don't know, but there is some resistance for some reason kept insisting I should come represent.
Anyway, as soon as I agreed, this voice came so strongly, came back so strongly for three solid days. I could not. All I heard was, I beg you, bring life into that property. Bring life into that building.
NARRATION: As soon as she arrived at the campus, she called a meeting with all the sisters. She asked them what they thought about the selling and if they had explored all of the options, even with the expenses.She wanted to know if God had given them a larger purpose in this town.
Sister Theo: Everybody said, I don't know. I don't think we explored, but what do we do? We are not the ones who are going to make decision of this. Those who should make decisions have made decisions.
Leslie: Who is making the decision?
Sister Theo: Between our Superior General and our regional superior, they have already made the decision a superior general wrote an official letter for the sale. So I kept asking them. I said, okay, just for the joke of it, can we sit down and think just wishful thinking? What do we think we can do in this building?
You know, everybody was bringing ideas. Use it as a retreat, use it as this, use it. I know people were just throwing all kinds of ideas. I said, okay, that's a good idea. We use it for a retreat. They said, how can you start changing this? We have this meeting, do this. Are you gonna turn the thing around? I said, no.
At least I satisfy my head that we thought of something
NARRATION: the morning of the meeting. Picture a room with a panel of what Sister Theo calls….
Sister Theo: Cream of Thomas Big Men. I mean, they all sat down, lawyers, whatever, and there was the realtor.
NARRATION: The realtor begins to go into the details, who the buyer is, terms of sale, you know, all of that. He finishes and…
Sister Theo: the whole room was quiet…
And I got up and said I'm so sorry, Monsignor. We are not selling our property. I don't know where it came from. I don't know why I say that. I said, I think God is calling us to put this property to good use. The whole room first went silent. Then Monsignor blurted out: What are you up to? We don't understand you!
He talked and talked and talked and talked. And as he talked, I cried.
And after some time I got up, I said, Monsignor, I'm so sorry. I cannot in my heart stand up here and receive the money. I don't know why I'm brought to it. I don't know why I'm called into it, but my conscience is not allowing me to do that. I don't know what we do with the building. I have no idea. I'm so sorry.
So the meeting ended on that note.
NARRATION: So that night, sister Theo sat down and drafted a brochure. It's for the retreat center that the sisters had been dreaming of, and it was a way to show the board that they were actively working on a plan in it. She was compelled to write the phrase “Women empowerment program”
Sister Theo: Each time somebody picked up the thing and said, oh, so what is the, what's the Women empowerment program?
I said, I don't know, but it has to be there.
NARRATION: At this point, the sisters have walked away from selling a huge building that needs more work than they can do with their own hands or with the money they have available. So Sister Theo urges her sisters to pray to understand clearly what God wanted for them to do, and then they started noticing what was happening around them…
Sister Theo: within that time too we had a lot of Ladies who will run to us from their different circumstances. Say they have no home, or they have a boyfriend who is abusing them, or they thought they were into a relationship that would work and now it is not safe, and they're scared, you know? So they run to us and they don't want to leave.
You know, some of them, before they leave our house, they will ask us, how come if I want an abortion, I have all kinds of people supporting me. But if I want to keep my child, I'm alone. I become homeless. Nobody cares about me.
We don't have an answer for them.
NARRATION: If you've still got the story of Joan on your head, you might have made a connection to Nineveh and this big building, not in terms of evil doings or wickedness, but in terms of degradation. In this story, it's degradation of a physical place, not of a society. And while my source didn't speak of any personal hard feelings toward the nuns, nor did she speak for anyone else, she did mention disappointment toward the diocese from their decision to close the school.
It's worth wondering if the nuns were being brought into a sensitive emotional situation. As they also faced a physically large obstacle, Jonah ran from such a challenge. The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Christ ran toward it, and not just toward the physical building, but toward the purpose of the work to be done in that building.
It's the messy work. Like what their founder took on in 1937 when he empowered the local women in strength and conviction to lead their community in service. The messy work of the God they serve, whose earthly representation in Jesus, they emulate, The messy work of facing a society who has failed its women in the margins.
Sister Theo: The very last that came this, when she came, this girl was dirty. This girl, everything she was carrying was dirty. And she was fully pregnant. I think she's eight months pregnant already. And she was hungry. She hasn't had anything to eat. Um, first thing we had to fight food before we talked. We did all that. Had to get her, change everything.
She was wearing everything in her bag. We put it all in the laundry before we can get her into the room. She cleaned up, and for the first three days she just slept. She ate and slept, you know, and when she woke up she was thanking everybody. She said, “I don't remember when I slept like this last.”
She felt so happy. Anybody that passes here, she said, thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to be here…
NARRATION: and this messiness of humanity they were running toward…It's unpredictable.
Sister Theo: And then, I think after a week, she came up one morning and said, can I call my friends to come in here?
And I said, no.
You know, we realize Christ did so many things while on Earth, and if you want to put your hand in everything, you may not do everything well for everybody. By the last morning, she carried her things and left. But sometime in my heart, this is a mission God has called me for.
NARRATION: This is where the Jonah analogy kind of falls apart with this story. It's one thing to tell an entire city to stop doing what they're doing, otherwise they'll be destroyed. But it's another thing completely to run into battle arms wide open with eagerness to help and be unable to affect much change. But for these nuns, their mission and foundational context are the things that drive them. If you remember what Sister Theo said in the first episode about the foundation of this order in 1937 by an Irish missionary who said:
Sister Theo: if we want the church to survive, we cannot leave the women behind. He said, you leave the women. The church will never survive in Africa.
NARRATION: A group of women purposefully organized because of their strength to lift up their own communities are, decades later -- in another country, a foreign land -- doing the same for the women around them. And unlike Jonah, who didn't think the Ninevites were worthy of redemption, these women believe the opposite…
Sister Theo: is one thing to say you protect and defend life, but it’s another to recognize that some of these women, you know, if they have the support, the need, their child will not be in danger.
So first of all, you want them to realize that the strength is in them. It is not in somebody else. If they really have the opportunity to realize that the strength is within them, you know, things will be different and their child will be brought up differently. So, um, it's a question of dealing with their self-esteem, helping them learn parenting skills, job skills, if they're dropped out of school we'll get them registered to complete their GED. We'll make sure they try as much as possible to get a job while here, no matter the job to be earning, you know, something. If they couldn't find a job, they'll be volunteering. They have to engage in something.
NARRATION: The program is called the Madonna Renewal Center, named for Jesus's mother, Mary, and renewal for the holistic care the women will receive when they come to stay.
The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Christ didn't need to get eaten by a fish to force them into fulfilling their purpose. They listened the first time.
On part three of the blue nuns need an elevator:
Sister Theo: I kept speaking to communities, to groups, to whatever about the vision of doing this. They saw it as a need…
…We went and talked to the bishop and Bishop said, where are you getting this 250,000 from? And I said, my Lord miracles…
…He was screaming. This is Miracle Sister!! God is answering your prayer.
MUSIC CREDITS:
Toothless Slope by Blue Dot Sessions
Palms Down by Blue Dot Sessions
Low Coal Camper by Blue Dot Sessions
The Blue Nuns Need an Elevator, Part 2: Fish Not Necessary