By Mary Frances McCarthy
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 3/31/05)

Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart Dorothy Fabritze and Bernard Overkamp have been nuns for nearly 40 years. They have worked as missionaries in Papua New Guinea, as teachers, laborers and counselors.

Now they have the job nearly every child dreams of.

The nuns have a full-time job traveling year-round with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Sister Bernard, who is originally from Germany, saw a circus once when she was a child. The circus was "a tiny one." Being one of 12 children, she said money was often needed for things other than entertainment.

Sister Dorothy saw the circus as a child and said she enjoyed it, "but never thought of joining it."

After working together for more than 15 years in the South Pacific, the nuns came to the United States in 1993. They worked in several different jobs until Sister Dorothy picked up literature at a convention for missionaries on ministry to circus performers.

She took Sister Bernard to a performance, and the two have been on the road ever since.

Their circus careers began in 2000 with the Roberts Bros. Circus where they worked for two years before moving on to the Circus Chimera. They worked there until starting with Ringling Bros. last year. This is their second year with "The Greatest Show on Earth," "and we hope to stay," Sister Dorothy said.

The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart are present in 17 countries. The order’s main goal is "to convince people that God loves them," Sister Dorothy said. "God loves the circus and the people of the circus."

When asked if many of the people who travel with the circus are Catholic, she said with a smile, "we think they are.

"We do not limit our ministry to Catholics," Sister Dorothy said. "In talking to them, we find out eventually which faith they are. We are about evangelization — not proselytization."

The nuns travel with the circus year-round. They use the Mass Times hotline (410/676-6000) to find parishes in the cities they travel to. When they came to Washington, they were delighted to find a flier from St. Patrick Church in the Metro listing Holy Week services.

While most circus-workers travel by train, the nuns travel by trailer and have a Blessed Sacrament chapel in their living quarters where they can pray each day.

They try to arrange, if they can, a Mass in the arena the circus is performing in. That often means a short service, 25 or 30 minutes, in between shows.

The nuns are the first religious sisters to work with Ringling Bros. Circus. They have had priests as chaplains for years. Currently, Father Jerry Hogan, a priest in Boston, serves as chaplain. He will visit with the circus occasionally and is in charge of administering the sacraments.

The nuns describe the circus as a "traveling parish." Sister Dorothy teaches religious instruction and prepares children for the sacraments of first Communion and confirmation. She also provides religious instruction for anyone interested in joining the Church, and prepares Catholic couples for marriage.

Besides catechizing, Sister Dorothy also has the all important job of raising the curtain in the portal as performers come out to the stage. She said she raises it about 100 times a show.

"They always joke that I have the best biceps of any nun," Sister Dorothy said.

The sisters work together at reaching out to the performers and staff. "Sister (Bernard) has a marvelous way of working in the ladies wardrobe," Sister Dorothy said. Through casual conversation, Sister Bernard will encourage the girls to seek formal instruction from Sister Dorothy. She sent one girl to Sister Dorothy who was about to be married but hadn’t thought of formal pre-marriage preparation.

"It’s not ‘you have to,’ but in the conversations she reminds them," Sister Dorothy said.

About 300 people travel with the circus, 75 of them performers.

Sister Dorothy knows about 150 of them by name. Because she works in the ladies’ wardrobe maintaining costumes, Sister Bernard knows all of the women but not all the men.

"I like to know their names," Sister Dorothy said. "I think it gives them dignity."

Sister Bernard’s favorite part of working with the circus is "to work with these people, live among them and journey with them," she said.

"Every time they go out their job is to take people out of their daily routine and let them escape for a while and bring joy to them," she said. "And they do it in every show. I love my job and being with them."

The nuns are also involved with People on the Move, part of the Circus and Carnival Apostolate affiliated with U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The group seeks to help Catholics within traveling shows in three ways — by training people within the shows to become lay catechists and provide religious education and be pastoral ministers for themselves, to work on finding a retirement facility for the elderly and to help the overall secular education of the young people who travel.

According to the office of Migration and Refugee Services of the USCCB, in the United States, there are 50 to 60 circuses and between 300 and 400 traveling carnivals employing about 300,000 people. About 40 percent of these people are faithful Catholics. For this reason, the USCCB supports the apostolate to assist these show people "who create festive occasions for all Americans to enjoy," the Web site says.

For more information, visit www.usccb.org/mrs/pcmr/onmove/circus.shtml or e-mail pcmr@usccb.org and refer to the apostolate in the message.

The 134th edition of the "Greatest Show on Earth" will show at the MCI Center in Washington March 23 to 28, the Patriot Center in Fairfax March 10 to April 3 and the DC Armory April 6 to 17. Tickets are available at www.ringling.com or Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com or 202/397-SEAT.