Hope 2025 Leadership Conference: A Global Witness

BY SISTER VIVIEN ECHEKWUBELU, SNDdeN

Nearly 300 Catholic Sisters from six continents gathered just outside Rome at the Fraterna Domus Retreat Center in Sacrofano for the Hope 2025 Leadership Collaborative Conference held from June 3 to 8, 2025. Another 190 sisters joined virtually from around the world. This international gathering was not only a chance to reflect, reconnect and recharge—it was also a powerful moment of global witness. It brought together women religious across cultures, languages and traditions, united by their shared hope for the future of religious life and the Church.

One of the most potent themes to emerge was the call for deeper global sisterhood. Conversations throughout

Sister Vivien Echekwubelu, SNDdeN

the week emphasized the strength that comes from being in communion with one another across borders and generations. Participants spoke openly about their hopes for religious life in the coming decades, imagining a future shaped by trust, accountability and mutual support. Despite the diversity in context and experience, there was a common desire to walk together more intentionally, to share leadership more generously and to make space for voices that have long been silenced or overlooked.

Young sisters played a vital role in shaping the tone and direction of the conference. Many of them lifted up synodality: the practice of walking together, listening deeply and discerning communally as a foundational model for how religious life should evolve. They spoke with conviction about the need for a new theological imagination, one rooted in inclusivity, vulnerability and shared power. Their insights challenged everyone present to re-examine long-held structures and consider how religious life can become more responsive, flexible and just.

The sisters also confronted difficult truths. Participants from Africa, Latin America and Asia spoke candidly about the very real challenges they face in religious life. Many spoke openly about racism, neocolonialism and systems of exclusion still present in some religious communities and Church structures. These conversations were not easy, but they were necessary. Naming these realities out loud, together, was a courageous act of collective honesty. It signaled that real change is possible when we’re willing to hold space for truth and transformation.

Beyond the formal sessions, the conference provided an opportunity for deep relationship-building and meaningful networking. Sisters under the age of 65 engaged in conversations around leadership, sustainability and the future of religious life. In small groups, hallway conversations and moments of prayer, bonds formed that will ripple far beyond the week in Rome. These relationships are the seeds of future collaboration. They offer the foundation for a network of women religious who are ready to lead with integrity, wisdom and a spirit of mutual support.

Ultimately, Hope 2025 was a pilgrimage: a journey toward a more just and inclusive religious life. It reminded everyone present, physically and virtually, that the future of religious life will not be written by a few, but by many; that the Church’s future is being shaped not just by official declarations or documents, but by the daily acts of courage and compassion lived out by women across the world— women who dare to lead with tenderness, who listen with courage and who are willing to reimagine a Church that truly reflects the love and justice of the Gospel. In this gathering, a new chapter opened—one written in the language of hope, grounded in the strength of sisterhood and guided by the Spirit moving among us.

This story is also featured in the Winter 2025 edition of our  Sowing Goodness magazine.