"As Benedictines, we profess to be listeners to the movement of God in our lives.".

U.S. CATHOLIC Magazine is proud to honor the Benedictine Sisters of Erie with the 2002 U.S. CATHOLIC Award for furthering the cause of women in the church

"Benedictine communities of men and women were never intended to be part of the hierarchical or clerical status of the church, but to stand apart from this structure and offer a different voice. Only if we do this can we live the gift that we are for the church. Only in this way can we be faithful to the gift that women have within the church."

"We need to learn that our power to change a world, to change a person's heart, comes from the relationship we have with our God. We too can set a fire ablaze. Fidelity to God's word is what impels us to move into a hurting world and make a difference. As Benedictines, we profess to be listeners to the movement of God in our lives and in this, our world. We can do that only if we have sat in the stillness and silence where God speaks to us. It is our own transformation that will enable us to hear God in the multiple manifestations that are revealed to us in community, in prayer, and in ministry."

"We want to bring hope to a world that has learned to despair of ever finding peace. The positive direction of hope is always forward, and thus hope always hallows and makes holy the future. Hope invariably involves a sense of promise. It is about believing in the passion for possibility that God's Word will yield the harvest. God's dream for the world has been entrusted to us, to this community and to anyone who hears the Word of God and gives it a place to grow."

Prioress Sister Christine Vladimiroff, O.S.B. will accept the U.S. CATHOLIC award on behalf of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie. Vladimiroff and her 130-member community have dedicated themselves to causes of peace and justice for decades.

In 2001, every sister in the community except one signed her name to Vladimiroff's letter declining a Vatican request to keep Erie Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister from addressing the Women's Ordination Worldwide Conference in Dublin. Vladimiroff said she was standing by the Benedictine community's monastic sense of authority and obedience.

The Erie sisters live out their commitment to peace and justice by sponsoring a day care center, soup kitchen, job training program, free art lessons for poor children, environmental programs, and dozens of other ministries, and by providing national leadership in the Catholic peace movement.