From 30 May to 7 June 2026, women religious theologians from different continents and congregations gathered in Nemi to build networks and place their theological expertise at the service of consecrated life.

Sr. Clementina, who participated in the Symposium, shares her experience with us.

What does this Symposium represent for you? What opportunities and hopes have emerged?

It was a great opportunity, because it really gave me the opportunity to get to know many of my sisters who belong to other congregations, and to get to know their experience as theologians, but also as consecrated people. And this was an element of strength, because it brings out the loneliness and the thought that some challenges, some opportunities, are offered or denied depending on the geographical area where you live. In reality, this is not the case, because everywhere, feeling and living have the same characteristics, represented by different cultures that become a wealth, because facing cultures means progressing, it means getting to know the other, it means getting to know yourself even better.

What are the opportunities for consecrated life? 

To feel that consecrated life is not identified with a single congregation or a single diocese, but consecrated life has a face, which is mine, but also the face of many other sisters who are here with me today. It is the face of my congregation, but also the face of many other congregations that I did not know before coming, but now I know. And this becomes a strength, because it allows us to make similarities.

Why is it important to build networks of women theologians and women religious who reflect on the same themes?

Building networks gives us strength. Building networks brings us out of anonymity and loneliness. Building networks means being able to say to the Church, we are there and the Church needs us, because consecrated life is a lung for the Church, the Church cannot do without consecrated life.

So if we build networks, if we collaborate, if we reflect together on the same topics that constitute a challenge for us today, this can give a voice, not a single thought, but a voice that can be expressed in different points of our reality and say to the Church, we are there, you need the Church, you need us. So it is important, it is important to build a network and welcome the different color of consecrated life, which is a good for everyone. What is the image of women? Women who, after having gone to the grave for the sacred ablutions of the dead Jesus, instead do not find him and go to announce him.

If this Symposium were represented by an image or an icon, what would it be?

So I thought that the announcement of the resurrection was entrusted to women. So we believe that Jesus has risen because women have announced it to us. So we women have this task, that of announcing the risen Christ.

And this is my image, the icon with which I want to represent this symposium. That is, it was to discover together an empty tomb and to have received an announcement to bring to others, to say that Christ has risen. This is our hope and it is a reliable hope.

If you could leave one message for the leaders of religious congregations, what would you say to them?

Saint John the Antidote said to his daughters, I am the daughter of the Church, be you with me. So I think that for the congregations, for my congregation, but also for other congregations, it is important to feel like children of the Church. And it is important to give the possibility to the sisters who can, to be able to study, to be able to acquire titles.

But not for the title, but because it is important that there is the voice of the consecrated women. It is important that there is the voice of the Sister of Charity, of the Auxiliary Sister, of the Sister of the Word of God, that there is the voice of all the congregations.