Angelus News | August 2-9, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 27

San Francisco to study English led her
to meet the Verbum Dei Missionary
Fraternity (VDMF), a religious community
founded in 1963 in Spain that
her parents had come to know back in
Mexico.
“I always say that it was God interrupting
my life,” said Meza of the call
to her vocation as a religious sister.
“It was God approaching me, getting
closer to me, and showing me who
God was, and as well as the need of
the people.”
Attending youth group meetings led
by the community made her see that
“God wasn’t something boring, or up
there,” but someone “really close to
us.”
She recalled the ensuing process of
discernment as something “beautiful,”
in which God helped her leave
behind a good life in exchange for a
better one.
“We didn’t have cellphone, internet,
or any of that — so I really did a clear
cut in my life, from family, friends,
boyfriend, everything!”
Meza’s studies and job experience
prepared her well for her new calling.
She has taught theology at her
community’s institute, the Archdiocese
of San Francisco, and Loyola
Marymount University, while training
the order’s novices, and forming lay
catechists.
In 2017, she earned a doctorate
in sacred theology from the Jesuit
School of Theology at Berkeley. And
since being elected two years ago, she
has served as Verbum Dei’s regional
provincial, a post she’ll serve in until
at least next year, when her term is
complete.
Most recently, she has served as the
director of religious education at St.
Anthony’s in Long Beach, where she
will continue to live in community
with her fellow Verbum Dei sisters.
Since arriving there in 2008, she’s
seen the job not only as an opportunity
to evangelize, but also to put
her background in pedagogy to use
in restructuring the parish’s religious
education programs for children,
teenagers, and adults.
“For me, and for us as a community,
it was very important that besides the
catechetical formation, the people
could leave with a certainty of
experience of God, because many of
them don’t come back to church,”
explained Meza, who oversaw the
preparation of more than 700 children
for first Communion and more than
350 teenagers for confirmation during
her time at St. Anthony’s.
“But if they could leave the program
having the certainty that God loves
them, that’s fine — the objective is
reached.”
As if she hadn’t been busy
enough lately, she was
approached this spring to see
if she’d consider leading the
religious education department of the
nation’s largest Catholic archdiocese.
“No way,” she remembered she
answered. “I have a lot of work. I don’t
have time for that.”
But they soon called again, asking
if as provincial, she could offer any
Verbum Dei sisters to help the archdiocese.
The answer was, again, “no.”
“Well, then, what about you?” she
was asked.
Meza finally relented, figuring she’d
give the interview process a try. She
met with archdiocesan leadership,
including Archbishop José H. Gomez,
who liked what he was hearing in
their conversations about her ideas for
the future of religious education in
Los Angeles.
“He was transmitting to me the
desire of helping the people have
an encounter with Christ, and then
making disciples of Christ. And that’s
the core of my charism.”
The two agreed that keeping the
doctrinal element of religious education
was important, but not without
“recovering the spiritual element of
the doctrinal part.”
Meza admitted that her first weeks
on the job have been a little “overwhelming”
with so many things to
learn, people to meet, and events
to plan. But she’s felt supported by
the warm welcome from staff, and
perceives an openness to working
differently in the office.
Although the ORE oversees the
religious education programs of the
nearly 300 parishes of the archdiocese,
it also coordinates events like the upcoming
City of Saints teen conference
held each summer.
On the global stage, the department
is best known for organizing the annual
Religious Education Congress in
Anaheim. When asked how the event
can stay “fresh” while bringing back
attendees every year, Meza responded
that she feels a certain “restlessness”
to reach out to those hungry for both
theological training and spiritual
nourishment.
“I have the desire of reaching out to
the younger generations, including
millennials, so that they can find that
the Church is home for them,” said
Meza.
“How? I have no idea. I don’t think
that I’m ready for the how. I just have
the restlessness of reaching out to the
younger generation according to their
needs.”
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of
Angelus.
Sister Rosalia Meza (top row, fourth from left) with most of the sisters of the Verbum Dei Missionary
Fraternity’s U.S. province.
SISTER ROSALIA MEZA
August 2-9, 2019 • ANGELUS • 21