Television shows ask if people are smarter than a fifth-grader,
but a trivia night at Ireland’s Four Courts in Arlington March 13 pitted young
adults against religious sisters. Who was smarter?
The event was hosted by Support Our Aging Religious (SOAR), which
received a grant for this event from National Catholic Sisters Week, a branch
of the National Catholic Sisters Project headquartered at Saint Mary’s
University in Minneapolis.
“Nun Better” — a team of congregations supported by SOAR — included
Oblate Sisters of Providence Mary Stephen Beauford, Rita Michelle Proctor and
Marcia Hall of Baltimore; Benedictine Sister Joanna Burley of Bristow; Sisters,
Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Kathleen Lunsmann and Terri Jordan of
Scranton, Pa., and Joan Rychalsky of Immaculata, Pa.; and Dominican Sister
Peggy Scarano of Sparkill, N.Y.
Sister Mary Kathleen Lunsmann said SOAR wanted to sponsor an
event that would attract young professionals. “For the last couple of months
we’ve been trying to target young adults, not to become donors but to become
aware of our mission and therefore become aware of Catholic sisters.”
Before the trivia portion began, sisters took the opportunity to
mingle with the tables of contenders. Sister Marcia Hall stopped by one of the
tables where she and the young adults discussed strategies for winning. Sister
Marcia hoped the young adults saw that sisters are approachable and they enjoy
having fun.
Bonus questions tested the players’ knowledge of Catholic sisters,
ranging from, “This Catholic sister won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 and was
known as the ‘saint of the gutters’,” to “Which vibrant city became home to the
first Catholic sisters in the United States?”
Mary Desmarais wanted to support the work SOAR does. “Religious
dedicate their whole life to God and as Catholics we benefit so much from their
devotion and they’re giving them the dignity to age in place or age well,” she
said.
The grand prize of Trappist IPA and Sisters of St.
Benedict Prayerful Pretzels went to a team named “Pig Mom and the Typewriter Boy.”
