Sister Jeanne Bessette, who entered the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate in 1977 and currently serves as its president, said someone once asked her, “Did you ever think you’d close the Joliet Franciscans?"

“And do you know what I said to her?” Bessette said. “I thought that from the day I came I could see the writing on the wall. But I came anyway.”

The Joliet Franciscans no longer will accept candidates, the University of St. Francis’ Go Fighting Saints newsletter recently announced. Bessette said the decision is acknowledging reality.

“We have not had a new woman join us in 16 years,” Bessette said, adding that that includes the groups in Joliet and Brazil.

It’s now impossible for a woman to join because it’s now impossible to mutually promise to live together in community, Bessette said.

“We would have to say to a new member, ‘We will be there with you.’ And we can no longer make that promise,” Bessette said. “Ten years from now, we will only have one sister under the age of 80 in the United States. And in our congregation, in my community, we only have one under 70 right now.”

Currently, the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate have 66 members in the U.S. (with 25 in the Joliet area) and 14 in Brazil, Bessette said.

The sisters’ daily lives are unchanged, and they’re actively involved in ministry, Bessette said.

“There are just fewer and fewer of us each year,” she said.

An impressive legacy

When the Joliet-based order celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2015, almost 100 of its 161 sisters lived in Joliet, and 17 worked in Brazil. In the 1960s and 1970s, the congregation had more than 500 members.

The 150th anniversary “was a very big deal celebration,” Bessette said. The recent 160th anniversary was “very low-key” and included the sisters and a few associates and family members, she added.

“When the times comes to celebrate the 170th, someone else will have to throw the party for us,” Bessette said. “We’ve gotten very thin.”

The Joliet Franciscans leave an impressive legacy.

Founding institutions include the University of St. Francis, Guardian Angel Community Services, the former Our Lady of Angels Retirement Home, the former Franciscan Learning Center and the former St. Francis Academy, which later merged with Joliet Catholic High School to become Joliet Catholic Academy.

The Joliet Franciscans also started the Groundwork Domestic Violence Program, the Upper Room Crisis Hotline, and the Center for Correctional Concerns, which provides programming to Will County jail inmates.

The Joliet order also worked in Guam and the Dominican Republic.

The order’s former Motherhouse, built in 1881, now houses some USF offices and serves as residence space for students – students not even born when the sisters left the Motherhouse in 2003, Bessette said.

Franciscan life isn’t dying

So, why has membership declined? Many reasons, including a lack of role models – Joliet Franciscans once taught in most Joliet-area parochial schools – and leadership opportunities, Bessette said.

“Being a Catholic sister was a way to get a great education,” Bessette said. “And even though we take vows, there is a lot of freedom for sisters in religious congregations: free to be themselves and to use their gifts.”

Still, Bessette said most sisters see religious life as a calling.

“And some days I think, I don’t know, maybe the holy spirit isn’t calling women in this country to be women religious,” Bessette said.

Franciscan communities are flourishing in Africa, South Asia and Indonesia, with some orders receiving hundreds of new members annually, Bessette said.

“Franciscan life isn’t dying,” she said. “It’s moved to a different geography.”

Most congregations don’t have the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate’s longevity. But each served its purpose and then had a natural ending, “which leaves room for others to come along,” Bessette said.

“I don’t think there is anything unnatural about this,” she added.

At some point, the order will ask the Catholic church to choose an outside administrator, she said.

The order is already planning for the retirement and health needs of its remaining members, and any remaining funds will be gifted or endowed, Bessette said.

“I never wanted to have to close the store,” she said. “[But] we’re not women who have given up; we’re living our lives,” Bessette said. “And we’re happy with the legacy we’re able to leave. And just as human beings – and even organizations – die a natural death, so do some ways of life.”

She said she’s convinced God hasn’t abandoned them and that he’s pleased with how they’ve used their gifts.

“And that’s all we can hope to do in life,” Bessette said. “Take care of what we’ve gotten. Share what we have, and use it well before we can’t use it or don’t need it anymore.”