Article published December 22, 2007
Sister Sujita's motto: Be more and have less
Notre Dame sisters' leader takes fight against poverty to slums
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
The global leader of the Sisters of Notre Dame, the religious community of 2,400 nuns serving in 17 nations, was born into a middle-class Catholic family in southern India, earned degrees in social work and communications from Bombay University, and learned many of her most important life lessons in an Indian slum.
Sister Sujita Kallupurakkathu, general superior of the Sisters of Notre Dame, said it is only by living with the poor that one can truly understand their plight and help them achieve a sense of dignity.
"I believe very strongly we must walk in their shoes, through the mud and the dirt and the filth of their life, and to see the world through their eyes and feel it in their body," Sister Sujita said during a visit to Toledo.
The 62-year-old nun, whose fluent English is flavored by a strong Indian accent, was elected general superior in 1998 and then re-elected to a second six-year term in 2004. She lives in Rome but travels frequently to spend time with Notre Dame sisters and observe their ministries around the world.
She visits the Toledo province, which has 235 sisters in 11 states, once every six years to meet with individual sisters and experience their mission and ministries, according to Teri Bockstahler, the religious order's communications director.
Sister Sujita, wearing traditional Indian garb, said that as leader of the global order of nuns, "I do believe my values, my priorities, my commitment are very well utilized because we are all on the same mission at the moment. … And I think the Spirit is saying, 'Bloom anywhere you are planted.'•"
With a broad smile, she said she knew as early as age 4 1/2 that she wanted to be a sister. "I used to dream of sitting on a horse and riding over the mountains, ringing the bell and collecting money for poor children. … And I always had that great, great desire to give my life to Jesus as a missionary."
Growing up in a middle-class family in Kerala, India, "I had what I needed," she said. "I was not rich, but we had education. You took it for granted. Health, we took it for granted. Good food."
After college, she was among the first nuns to move into the Bombay slums, spending more than 10 years among the people who, when India had a caste system, were known as "untouchables."
"We lived in a tiny hut. In fact, we could hardly sleep this way," Sister Sujita said, sweeping an arm side to side. "It's a mud floor, mud walls, with straw thatch. No toilet. No running water. No electricity. Nothing. Nothing! We just lived in that one room. It was our meeting place, eating place, prayer room, everything. But during the day, we were out with the people."
The nuns got up to pray at 3:30 or 4 a.m. every day, before the masses of people who are jammed together in the slum would rise and begin making noises that distracted their prayers.
She said people who live in the United States and other developed countries find it hard to understand the way the poorest of the world's poor live - not knowing where their next meal is coming from, owning just one set of clothes, even wondering if their newborn babies will survive.
"I cannot explain the extent of poverty. They are people who are assetless, landless, jobless. … But it's very good to experience that, because all of us are used to a nice room. You can close your door. You have [a] window. Everything is there. You never can imagine what it means to not even have a bed, or when it rains it leaks from all four corners. That is hard."
Even while living amidst abject poverty, however, the nuns realized they did not share their neighbors's plight.
"When we experienced that, we are still not poor because we can get out of here," Sister Sujita said. "Go back to our convent or our home. We will have a better place. But the real poor are those who are living like this and know they can't get out of it.
"You say, 'I am sharing the lot of the poor.' Yes, yes. But even then, you are 100 times better off than others. … We remind ourselves of that. Don't ever become complacent, because even when you are with the poor, you are far better off than any of them."
She met Mother Teresa several times.
"I always looked at Mother Teresa as a person who was passionate about her love for Christ, and that passion became very active in the way she responded. She responded to the victims of injustice and poverty with her whole being, and I think that was her whole contribution," Sister Sujita said.
Sister Anne Mary Molyet, Toledo provincial superior, called Sister Sujita "a very compelling witness."
"Her life is completely oriented to the person of Jesus and she calls forth that same strong commitment in us," Sister Anne Mary said.
She said that as she has traveled around the region with Sister Sujita, she was inspired by how the superior general relates to people of all ages, including students from elementary to college age.
"The students are rapt with attention, and her message is always very clear and consistent, and the message is Jesus. To the young people, she says, 'What is the difference you're going to make in the world as a result of the fine education you're being given?' And she waits for their answers."
The Sisters of Notre Dame worldwide focus on providing education, social services, and pastoral care. In India, Sister Sujita said the nuns' primary concerns are education, health, and direct involvement with the poor.
The religious order educates more than 21,000 children in India, most of whom are in rural areas and otherwise would not get an education. In the beginning, the nuns gathered the children under a tree and students wrote in the sand because there were no school supplies.
The Sisters of Notre Dame also work to provide health care to the poor at medical centers in India, mostly in the northern province of Bihar, where there are four sisters who are medical doctors and more than 20 nuns who are registered nurses.
"Because of poverty and illiteracy, both of them contribute to health problems," Sister Sujita said. "Without basic needs - food, health care - I cannot have dignity as a person. Mahatma Gandhi once said, 'To the poor, God comes in the form of bread.'•"
She helped the Sisters of Notre Dame establish micro-loan programs for women in the ghetto, helping to empower these people and helping them live with dignity as they develop small businesses.
"I remember in '93, when I talked about it, the women laughed. They said, 'You know we have no food? We hardly have one meal a day. We have nothing. What are you talking about? From where do we save?'
"So we had a joke about 'saving from the empty purse.' But when they got work, then they would set aside five pennies, 10 pennies. It started like that. Now it has grown into a huge movement. All these women have savings. They have a whole system worked out, how they can loan money from within the group. … and their dream is they will have their own bank in the near future."
Sister Sujita said she lived in the hut for 10 or 12 years and then worked with the government helping the slum residents for another 10 years.
"I always say it took us several months to see beyond the dirt and the filth, to the beautiful faces of human persons," she said. "They're wonderful people, generous. They are so hospitable. If they have two potatoes in their hands, that's all they have, they will give the best one to you as a happy, joyful gift.
"And they can sing and dance as if they had everything on Earth even when there is nothing much in their stomach. … I love them. I have seen God alive in them."
Sister Sujita said she always felt encouraged by thinking how Jesus would have responded to these people, most of whom are Hindus.
"I used to imagine Jesus among them and that really opened my eyes how to relate to them. It was always a tremendous help for me," she said. "I could not always preach about Jesus but I could always be like him. Nobody could prevent that. That is where I learned more and more to be like Christ."
The nun said that living with no material possessions is liberating.
"It gives you freedom. I feel very free when I have less. So my motto is: 'Be more and have less.'•"
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