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

What does this Symposium represent for you personally and professionally?

I am very thankful to be invited to this group of theologians of UISG and to share our knowledge, to share our backgrounds and our academic studies. I enjoy that we are so many sisters from different countries coming together here with different cultures and different backgrounds, different academic subjects, so we sisters have to work together. 

What are the most significant challenges you encounter in today's Church and world?

For me, being sister, living sisterhood is living Christianity and to show the church and the entire world, all congregations, all parishes, all people, that sisters can show Christ's image in this world.

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

The biblical icon I would choose is the chain from the Pauline letters and related to Corpus Christi. We are united as a chain, I also have a chain around my neck, and being members, being connected together with one goal, representing Christ in the world today as sisters. I choose this image because I feel here unity and we did not know each other before we came here, but on the first evening already we felt the same and talking together, discussing together, we did not have to share which doctorate thesis we wrote, but we felt immediately we are united and we have the same goal.

What does living in Jerusalem during this time of violence mean to you?

Living in Jerusalem, teaching in Jerusalem for Salesians and missionaries of Africa all over the world, this is a great challenge, but living in this city is the city of peace and the important city for all three religions, for the Abrahamic religions. So, of course, to live there every day we feel the hate, the rockets, the alarms all around, sometimes it disturbs our days, our lectures. The society is very difficult, but to live there as Christians, and we are many religions, many religious people in the town, this gives us a goal for peace.
So, we Christians, we can work with silence to bring peace, not with hate, not with agitation, but to be there, to be there present and not to take some land or to take our egoism, but to be there and listen to the people, listening to their challenges and problems and maybe to bring a peaceful world in this way. 

How can theological reflection help religious life cultivate healthier forms of leadership, accountability, and relationships of trust?

I worked with other sisters on the topic of obedience and authority, spiritual abuse, and this is an upcoming topic for the church, for religious congregations, for sisters. We also shared our impressions, our experiences, we had consultations with experts, and we have to encourage this topic to make sisters all over the world strong in this world and time of clericalism in the church, that sisters do not stay in silence, but to give them a strong formation, because we all are daughters and sons of Christ, and the sisters are not second class.

In these days, we heard from our sisters here that many have the experience also teaching at universities and seminaries, that we are in the second line, and when there is a priest, professor, he is preferred. Also in academic runs, when to be asked for articles, we are the second one. And in many other topics, it's great that we have now some sisters to be academics in theology also, but we need much more also to give good education, information, and to teach in a way of sisters, in a way of humanity, much more humanity.

And I want to encourage all superiors and all sisters to continue studies in theology and to be part together of the theological network of many religions in the world, because we have a different opinion on the church. We live in poverty, chastity, obedience, especially also with mercy, and this is different than to have a career in the church, and we can show this also reading the Bible, studying theology, and teaching theology.