The sisterhood's new generation

Tampa columnist HOOPER E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published October 12, 2002

Wendy Wiegler had something important to tell her parents. Really important.

It was Christmas Day 1997 at their house in Brandon. Wendy was home from Siena College, where she was in the fourth year of pre-med studies. Theresa and Gerald thought in a couple of years, their daughter would be Dr. Wiegler.

She had a different title in mind.

Timing was the key. She could have sprung the news on her parents in the morning, but she opted to wait until after dinner -- after their food had settled. And then she told them.

I'm going to become a nun.

Last Sunday, some five years later, Father Ralph Argentino introduced Sister Wendy to my congregation at Nativity Catholic Church. For me, a man who spent his formative years in Catholic grade school, nuns were generally women in their 40s or 50s, women from another era.

Standing before me now was someone from my generation. To see a young person from my own town choosing a religious life left me in awe.

Theresa Wiegler said she was a little surprised when Wendy said she was joining the sisterhood. In hindsight, she sees the signs that indicated her daughter would devote her life to serving Christ. One thing I learned in grade school is everyone gets a calling.

Sure, Wendy played guitar, wrote poetry, loved to roller skate and like every other Brandon teen, went to movies at Regency Square.

She was also active in Nativity's youth ministry, leading a teen Christian community prayer group at the church and serving as a Eucharistic minister, someone who helps distribute communion at Mass.

Said Wendy: "I remember a couple of people asking me if I had ever thought about becoming a sister, and I distinctly remember saying, 'No. No way I would do that.'

"But why were they asking me? They must have saw something to even ask me."

At Siena, a Franciscan college in Loudonville, N.Y., she lived the life of an ordinary college student.

"It would be unrealistic to think as a university student you wouldn't have a social life at all," Wendy said. "None of us are perfect. I didn't always make the best choices, but I wasn't to the far extreme."

After her junior year, she asked family friends Brian and Sue Thatcher for advice on finding a medical school and taking the MCAT. Brian is a Brandon doctor who quit his practice to begin a apostolic ministry, but Wendy and Brian had never talked seriously about her faith.

Or her future.

"One day he just asked me, 'Do you really want to be a doctor?' " Wendy said. "I was shocked. I said, 'Why are you asking me that question?' I couldn't figure out where he was coming from me. I was really defending my position when I knew in my heart I was becoming detached from the idea of going to medical school.

"I think God was speaking through Brian because he had no reason to ask that question."

Hearing that story, I kind of got a chill.

Wendy realized that while she had always planned on medical school, she had never asked God what he wanted her to do. She had never prayed about her future.

"Your vocation is so personal," Wendy said. "To really put it into words is hard other than to say when you pray, your heart knows."

Wendy chose an order -- the Poor Clare sisters (St. Clare of Assisi was a contemporary of St. Francis of Assisi). After graduating in 1998, she began her journey. She prepared to make her vows and learned about life as a nun by spending time at convents in New Port Richey, El Salvador, Ireland and Wales.

On Dec. 19., 2001, she took her vows at a church in Newry, Ireland.

It was the first time in more than a decade the sisters in Newry had seen someone take their vows. Young people just don't flock to the vocation like they used to.

Sister Wendy leaves for El Salvador on Sunday. There she will help the poor while living with bugs, beans, rice and no air conditioning. So filled with happiness, she sees it as a picnic. More than anything, joy permeates everything Sister Wendy does.

Still people wonder: Why would she become a nun? Didn't she have friends? Is she pretty? (Actually, she's cute). In fact, I did it myself when I asked Theresa Wiegler, "Did you let her watch television growing up?"

The truth is Wendy Wiegler enjoyed a normal, middle-life childhood in Brandon, and even though she grew up in an MTV-era rife with pitfalls, she found her way to a life path of good intentions and great sacrifices. People should cheer and champion Wendy because her choices say something wonderful about our community.

Sister Wendy, you go girl.

That's all I'm saying.

-- Ernest Hooper can be reached at 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com.

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