A total of 172 sisters live and work in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Portugal. Even though some younger sisters still belong to the congregation in Europe, the average age is 81 years.

The theme of the consultation, which lasted several days, was: "But we had hoped ..." - a word from the Emmaus narrative in the Gospel of Luke. Inspired by this theme, the actual state of the community was looked at in order to then take a realistic look at the future, in light of the background of ageing and a lack of young people. Many questions were asked, some of them remained unanswered. However, this intensive exchange at European level created a solid basis for further deliberations and decisions. There was agreement that cooperation at the European level should be continued and intensified.

This international meeting was accompanied by the consultant for religious of the Archdiocese of Paderborn, Dr. R. Oehmen-Vieregge in her function as moderator, theologian and canon lawyer.

These days together ended with a church service led by Prof. Dr. Stefan Kopp, Rector of the Paderborn Theological Faculties.

cps/Sr. Martino Machowiak cps