Meet Sister Grace Dominic, the reporter who became a Sister of Life

I missed this item when it popped up several weeks back, but the current edition of The Catholic Journalist, published by the Catholic Press Association, retold this woman’s remarkable journey—one that has echoes in my own vocation story.

From Crux: 

As with other new employees at the Catholic Standard newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington, Henrietta Gomes’ first day at work began uneventfully, as she met coworkers, received supplies including reporter’s notepads, and learned how to log on to her computer.

But her first day at work was Sept. 11, 2001, and that carefree day soon unraveled. TheStandard’s administrative assistant alerted staff members that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. But soon it was apparent that what at first appeared to be a terrible accident was no accident.

A second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center’s other tower, and another had crashed into the Pentagon, followed later by a fourth passenger jet’s crash into a field in Pennsylvania.

Gomes was dispatched to cover a noon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, located just blocks away. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, then the archbishop of Washington, was the main celebrant at that Mass, which was quickly organized in light of that morning’s tragic events.

He began the Mass by noting, “Never before has the blessing, ‘Peace be with you’ seemed more significant. But peace be with you, the peace only the Lord can give.”

The new reporter interviewed people after the Mass, including a stunned law student from nearby Catholic University, who fought back tears as she said, “What’s most important during this time is to have faith and hope, and to trust that God will take care of us.”

Almost exactly 15 years later, the woman who began working for the Catholic Church on 9/11 offered an answer to that day marked by terror, fear and death.

On Aug. 6, 2016, Gomes knelt before the altar at the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Stamford, Connecticut, and in a day marked by joy, hope and new life, she professed her perpetual vows as Sister Grace Dominic, one of six women pledging a lifetime commitment to serve as members of the Sisters of Life.

And there is this, which has particular resonance in my own life:

The 36-year-old woman of Indian descent grew up in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C.

Like many vocation journeys, hers had taken a circuitous route. The next day, in an email interview with Crux, she reflected on how the seeds for her vocation had been planted on one of the most sorrowful days in U.S. history, leading her on a path where she would find meaning for her life in Christ’s love, and would vow to make sharing that love with others her life’s work.

“I was shaken by the death of thousands of innocent lives,” Sister Grace Dominic said, remembering the events of 9/11. “Honestly, it was one of the first times I seriously considered my own mortality.  I began to ask existential questions… Why am I here? What am I doing with my life?”

Read it all. 

Photo: Sisters of Life