Taryn Stark, in her second year of candidacy with the Mercy Sisters, is studying at the Grad-uate Theological Union in Berkeley.

By Liz Dossa
Special to The Voice

When Taryn Stark of San Francisco entered the Sisters of Mercy in Burlingame last year, she became part of a long tradition which began in Dublin, Ireland on Sept. 24, 1827.

That day, Catherine McAuley opened the first House of Mercy on Baggot Street marking the beginning of the Sisters of Mercy, an order of vowed religious women whose ministry to the poor and uneducated now spans the globe.

The charism of McAuley continues to attract women to religious life. In fact, the Sisters of Mercy are experiencing an increase in vocations. Stark is among seven candidates this year who entered the Sisters of Mercy throughout the United States.

There are 44 women in various stages of the formation process. In addition, the Sisters of Mercy are in active conversation with another 64 women who have expressed an interest in religious life.

“There is an upswing,” said Mercy Sister Carol Mucha of Chicago, new membership minister. “Inquiries are up incredibly from women age 18 and older. A lot has to do with our online presence. Our website gives us the best response. It draws women to us.”

According to Sister Mucha, from August 2008 to August 2009, the Sisters of Mercy received 1,263 hits on VocationMatch, a Catholic religious vocation network website. Of those, 243 individual inquirers were sent to the vocation ministers in their locales to follow up.

“These numbers are very encouraging,” said Mercy Sister Norita Cooney, president of the Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Community headquartered in Omaha, Neb.
“This renewed interested in religious life may reflect a thirst for spirituality that we’re seeing today. Our retreat centers are very busy and many individuals seek spiritual direction from our Sisters, who are leaders in this area.”

Stark grew up familiar with the Sisters of Mercy. Her mother Ruth Stark was a Mercy Associate who worked in Africa and Fiji for the World Health Organization. Ruth Stark saw the Mercy motherhouse in Burlingame as a home base and visited frequently, bringing Taryn with her to run through the convent halls. Although Taryn knew the Sisters well, she saw them as her mother’s friends.

Taryn Stark spent her high school years in Botswana and after graduating from Whittier College in southern California, she returned to Africa. She first worked in a bank with what she said was “zero satisfaction,” so she took a position as a finance officer with the South African Catholic Bishops Conference, where she met Sisters, priests and laypeople she admired.

Then something began to click. She felt that this was the right place for her and her faith grew. She began to regard the Sisters as her friends, not just her mother’s connections. “Someone was knocking, but I just couldn’t hear,” she said.

She became a certified public accountant and assumed she was too old for religious life, but one day she “Googled” the Sisters of Mercy.

“I went to a web link that invited me, ‘Come and See for ages 18 to 40!’ It was a huge thing — not just a light bulb, but a huge stadium lighting up, knowing I can still do this. I went through a discernment process, but I knew at that moment.”
She came back to Burlingame to enter the Mercy Sisters’ community.

Now in her second year of candidacy, Stark is attending courses at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and working with Sister Patsy Harney at a Mercy Housing site, Britton Court Apartments in San Francisco. She teaches computer classes and adult literacy, helps with job searches for adults, and homework classes with kids.

If recent studies and statistics are accurate, Stark and other candidates and newly-professed Sisters are likely to see more Generation X and Y members joining religious life.

VocationMatch.com saw a record number of people complete online profiles and inquire about a vocation as a Catholic Sister in the past year. VocationMatch.com has seen inquiries jump from a first-year total of 5,591 to 7,073 in 2009. Fifty percent of the respondents are under 30.

That news is music to the ears of vocation ministers, such as Sister Mucha. “The decision to enter religious life is a culmination of experiences, conversation and personal reflection,” she said. “As Sisters, we need to begin the conversation.”

(Liz Dossa works in communications for the Burlingame office of the Sisters of Mercy West-Midwest Community.)

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