Catholic nonprofit will honor women religious who died of COVID-19

Chicago-based Catholic Extension plans to help 1,000 women religious with grants in memory of a group of sisters who died in late December of COVID-19 in Elm Grove, Wisc.

The grants, $1,000 per sister, have been established in the name of a group of School Sisters of Notre Dame, most of whom had been teachers and who died from complications of COVID-19 as the virus spread in the facility that cared for them.

Four members of the religious community died on the same day. A total of nine sisters died in a little more than a week in mid-December.

Group settings that care for the elderly, such as Notre Dame of Elm Grove in suburban Milwaukee, where the women lived, caused alarm during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many communities of men and women religious, particularly those that have members in their 80s and 90s and beyond, opted for limited contact with the public. But as the cases in Wisconsin showed, even with precautions, the virus seeped in, leaving devastation behind.

Catholic Extension is making the special grants available through the Sisters on the Frontlines program.

The money from the Sisters on the Frontlines program is being used to respond to a variety of needs the religious congregation has identified and helped families in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas, Mississippi and Missouri. It has helped with basic needs such as car repair for those who need to get to work, rent and utilities, insurance, food, medicine and medical bills, the organization said.