African Nuns Encouraged to Engage in Empirical Studies Examining their Lifestyle, Ministry

“Many people have the notion that a religious woman is just a person on the side in the Church,” Dr. Njangeh said and added, “We have to know that religious women have emerged to be professionals in their own respective fields.”

Referencing Catholic nuns in Africa, Dr. Njangeh who is also HESA students’ advisor at CUEA said, “They need to carry out research in regard to what they are doing, and in regard to their own lives so that they bring this knowledge to the rest of the other members in the society.”

Drawing from her seven-year engagement in empirical studies at CUEA, she explained, “Research is the backbone of scholarship and for us to have sound policies or initiatives that respond to the needs of the people in the society, we need research to inform what we do.”

“We can only achieve this if we are carrying out sound and ethical research that has taken into consideration all the aspects that go into the planning of a research.” She told ACI Africa.  

She went on to acknowledge the various roles of nuns and expressed the view that empirical research would go a long way in improving livelihoods.

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“There is so much beauty if the religious women do research in the various ministries they are involved in,” Dr. Njangeh told ACI Africa and continued, “these ministries are responding to the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) and we need to know from the religious women what is working and what is not working and others can learn from them.”

She further encouraged the culture of collaboration between the laity and the religious in conducting empirical research saying, “The religious should also think of partnering with the laity since the Church is not one person or one category.”

She emphasized, “We need all these people together when we do collaborative research so that as religious look at issues with a religious lens, the lay will look at it with the lens of the laity and when this is worked on together, we end up with a more informed product, a more holistic project.”

Speaking to ACI Africa on the same subject matter, the president of Marywood University, Scranton Sr. Mary Persico said, “African sisters have the perfect opportunity to do research because there are young sisters who can venture into research work.”

“the young sisters in Africa still have many years, unlike in the western world where there is a decline in religious life so there are no young people who can do research now,” Sr. Persico who is a member of the congregation of Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) said.

She added, “Research is good for the sisters to help them understand what they are doing. The results from the research will help both the sisters and the society.”