"The more closer the contact we have with each other, the more considerate it must be so that we make life more pleasant for each other."
Blessed Pauline, 1860
Since 1873, when Mother Pauline began to send Sisters from Germany to North and South America, the Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Charity has been international. Through the years, this "internationality" has been expressed in various forms. The members of the 24th General Chapter in 2019 asked: What is the appropriate expression of our internationality in the 21st century? How can we respond to God's call today so that our thoughts, decisions and actions are intentionally international? As an international Congregation, what is the "new wine" to which we are being called? What "new wineskins" will be needed to contain this new wine? International communities have been formed in response to the General Chapter's call to deeper international communion.
The Sisters of Christian Charity have served in the Philippines for over 25 years and have lived in an international community during that time. Blessed Pauline Convent is home to sisters from the United States and Germany. The ministries of the sisters include Margaretha Home for the Blind and Christ the King Mission Seminary. Margaretha Home is sponsored by the Sisters of Christian Charity and focuses on poor and abandoned blind girls, an apostolate dear to Mother Pauline in her time and to the Congregation today.
In 2021, Resurrection Convent, envisioned by the Western Region's 2018 Chapter, opened in Chicago with the intention of becoming an international house of discernment. Two Sisters from the Eastern Province and one from the Western Region were the first Sisters to move in. Sisters from throughout the Congregation will live and minister there at various times over the coming years. Our Sisters in Chicago serve in a wide variety of ways in the parish office, religious education, with the youth and so much more. The Sisters love the people they minister with and their presence is truly appreciated.