We are happy to announce that two Catholic Indian sisters who have been collaborating with the Joseph Naik Vaz Institute in our monthly Masses at St. John the Baptist Church in El Cerrito, have advanced in their studies and are engaged in public theological speaking in the U.S. and in India.

Sister Fabian Jose, an Ursuline from Kerala in South India, is a panelist in the May 2nd forum on “Women Responding to the Call to Ministry in the Church” at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley.  The forum is on the future diaconate of women which is being considered by Pope Francis. Sister Fabian has a Masters of Divinity and Licentiate in Sacred Theology and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Sacred Theology at  JST.  She is author of  The Renewed Vision for the Consecrated life in India (2014).

Sister Shalet Mendonca just earned her doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, with the highest honor of  Magna cum Laude for her dissertation titled “A Spirituality of Making-Whole: Women Religious in India Responding to the Cry of the Earth and the Cry of the Poor.”  Last August, Sister Shalet was a panelist on our symposium on Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato Si”, in the South Asian context which was led by Dr. Thomas Massaro, S.J.,  Dean of the Jesuit School of Theology.  She spoke of the work that her Congregation, Sisters of the Little Flower of Bethany, Mangalore, does to provide education and job training to marginalized women facing economic and health problems due to environmental damage.

Joseph Naik Vaz Institute
http://josephnaikvaz.org/