Thirteen years after leaving the harsh mission fields of Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific, Sisters Dorothy Fabritze, 58, and Bernard Overkamp, 62, are still living the challenging lives of missioners.
Only today --- and for the last seven years --- the two Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart travel thousands of miles every year with a menagerie of clowns, elephants, acrobats, aerialists, Cossacks, horses, cats, birds and daredevil motorcycle riders.
The two nuns work for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
"Why we come on the circus is just to be with the people," Sister Fabritze told The Tidings last week, while the 136th edition of Ringling Bros. was in town at the Staples Center. "This is what we have learned to call a ministry of presence. We join a circus and we get a job. I have been pulling the circus curtain and Sister works in the wardrobe department. That's what we're paid to do.
"We move with the circus people, live with them, talk with then," she reported. "Then the famous 'it' happens. Usually, it starts with the children: 'Sister, I have a child who needs baptism. Can you help us?' 'Sister, my child needs First Communion. Can you instruct?' And then as the weeks and months pass, they'll come by and want to talk about their problems."
Evangelization
In fact, it's a lot like their missionary work in Papua New Guinea, where Sister Overkamp spent 25 years and Sister Fabritze 16, working mostly with native young women who wanted to be Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.
"It's evangelization, but it's not the evangelization that people think about like with Billy Graham, going around pounding people on the head," Sister Fabritze explained. "We're not out there preaching and pushing it down their throats. This is just presence."
Nodding, Sister Overkamp added, "And they have to come forward."
The performers, animal handlers and backstage employees often do during a "precious moment," where they want to know why the women religious, who are working and traveling with them, are so positive and at peace. It's a special time when they can share their faith, pointing out that the only difference is their relationship with God.
The sisters said their lives, in fact, are centered around the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel of their 29-foot house trailer, which they pull with a 2000 Dodge Ram truck, bought with money they raised. The pair also had to get written permission from the Vatican to take the Eucharist on the road.
Every day a Communion service is held in the chapel, and on weekends, wherever the circus happens to be, they find a local priest to celebrate mass. Members of the special congregation, which averages between 30 and 50, give up their lunch or dinner to attend, before giving a second or third performance on hectic Saturdays.
Subculture
Sisters Fabritze and Overkamp almost didn't make it to the circus. After coming home from the missions, the former was assigned to do fundraising, while the latter worked in a halfway house.
At first, both rejected the under-the-big-top ministry and then, after changing their minds, had to convince their superiors how traveling around the country with a bunch of performers and animals really fit the missionary charism of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.
Starting in 1999, they worked in two smaller circuses before joining Ringling Bros. three years ago. Somewhere along the line, both fell in love with the circus subculture and its people.
"This is a whole different way of looking at life, love and the pursuit of happiness," Sister Fabritze observes.
"It's the people who are the important part of the ministry," added Sister Overkamp. "Like with the girls I work with. To just be with them and being that support in their life right now when they have left home. And, yes, they have each other. But sometimes they come and want to share things they only share with us."
Both agreed that a major difficulty of their new ministry is the constant pulling up stakes and endless travel. But there are pleasures, too.
"The joys are to proclaim the love of God through our presence, and to take the people where they are and try to care for them," Sister Overkamp said.
For Sister Fabritze, a ministry challenge had also become a genuine joy. "I might be done with my job and walking home, and someone will come by and want to talk," she noted. "So I always have to be available. In my humanity, that's a challenge.
"But at the same time, it's a joy. The other side of that coin is you're sharing people's lives and their dreams and their hopes."
Both women religious said they want to stay with the circus as long as their Dodge truck, house trailer and own physical heath keeps going. After all, it's not only the Greatest Show On Earth, but also mission territory. |