Image courtesy of Scatti Spontanei

"I feel a profound sense of gratitude for all the experiences I enjoyed during these three years accompanying the UISG Executive Team and life as President. In this accompaniment the UISG Executive Team and life as President. Gratitude first of all because I was able to witness, first hand, the vitality of women's religious life and its extraordinary presence in the life of the Church, up to the very ends of the world, with its variety of missions and services. One of UISG's values is expressed in the phrase 'She is my sister', which has accompanied me throughout my entire period. 

Wherever I met a sister, I felt closeness and a deep welcome, even if she did not even know who she was with. These have been extremely intense years, marked by the COVID pandemics. In this context, when the fragility of humanity as well as that of religious life became so evident, being able to accompany each other from the UISG Constellations, in discernment, in formation and prayer meetings via zoom, being close to Superiors General, has strengthened our interconnection. It provided a double experience of relying on each other, but also of sharing vulnerability as an expression of the resilient and missionary force in women's religious life. I have been supported by the Claretian charism.

The Executive Team was a God's blessing of collaborators: Franca, Licia, Roxanne, Anabela, Josephine, Monica Joseph, Monika Regina, Luigina, and the two Marys, together with the unfailingly supportive Sr. Patricia Murray, Executive Secretary; we listened and learned from each other, complementing, discerning, sharing insights and experiences. It has been a work of weaving relationships between sisters with the aim of living the mission in a co-responsible way. 

The steps shared with CICLSAL and our USG brothers were invaluable, because in addition to the pandemic we were united by the call of the Church, of Fratelli Tutti, the opening of the 2021-2023 Synod and the collaboration in the field of the culture of care and the protection of vulnerable persons. The multidimensional openness and scope of the UISG is the fruit of a path that has been bestowed upon us, which we have pursued and is still to be pursued, such as this communion in the diversity of charisms, styles, histories, cultural and ecclesial realities, in seeking what the Spirit is telling the Church, being at the service of its mission: proclaiming in many different ways the Gospel of Jesus."