Nuns in Mufti

"That is what I have always wanted in Chicago," the late, great Cardinal Mundelein cried when he heard about the Ladies of the Grail--a new Roman Catholic religious order whose members wear modern women's clothes and devote their lives of chastity, poverty and obedience primarily to social service among working girls. So last week the Ladies of the Grail began training their first group of U.S. aspirants on a great estate near Chicago given them by Cardinal Mundelein's energetic, liberal-minded right hand, Auxiliary Bishop Bernard James Sheil.

Bishop Sheil bought Doddridge Farm at a bargain price from Chicago's Episcopalians. Its 115 acres include a farm, 20 fine buildings. There last week Bishop Sheil blessed the yellow frame farm chapel, addressed the future Ladies, outlined the social problems they must face.

"What are we doing," he asked, "to eliminate poverty, to eradicate slums, to lift the community to a healthier and higher plane of living both materially and spiritually? What are we doing to remove the insufferable social sores that have been passed down to us by generations that lacked either the technological or social understanding to remedy them in their time? What are we doing to help safeguard the few hard-won gains that have been made in recent years?"

Bishop Sheil hopes the Ladies will become one of the most effective instruments of the Catholic Church's social gospel and social service in the U.S. Their order was started by a Jesuit in The Netherlands 20 years ago. After several false starts, they found their vocation of social work, distinguished themselves in the chocolate factories of The Hague, in the coal-mine country around Limburg, spread to other countries so slowly that even today there are only 120 fully professed Ladies throughout the world.

In the tasteful, flowered prints they wear for a Chicago summer, the Ladies of the Grail look more like clubwomen than nuns. Basically, they are "borers from within," much as Communist organizers are. They join girls who will be the wives and mothers of tomorrow, live among them, work with them, play with them, organize their spare-time activities. They are another instance of how the Roman Catholic Church has flourished for so long: by fostering religious orders suited to the times--Benedictines in the Dark Ages to give a Christian meaning to manual labor, Franciscans in the 13th Century to offset the Church's luxury, Jesuits in the 16th Century to lead the Counter-Reformation.

Energetic Bishop Sheil is not hurrying the Grail Ladies. Their U.S. leader, a plump, indomitable Dutch Ph.D. in philology, Dr. Lydwine van Kersbergen, spent a whole year rounding up her first group of 30 girls. From the lot, only six girls will be chosen to complete a three-year course leading to their vows. After that they will go into the world to do their work, carefully trained in Christian ethics, sociology, journalism, economics, art, apologetics, etc.

Dr. van Kersbergen, who brought the Ladies to Cardinal Mundelein's attention, is sure that they will flourish here. Says she: "Women in this country are more important than in any other country in the world. They have the money, the advertising is all for them. Why, through them we can change the whole country for the good."

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