c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The last few minutes before a Barnum & Bailey Circus performer goes on is spent in total darkness, between two sets of black curtains.

Ushering them into the light is Sister Dorothy Fabritze, 37 years a professed member of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

She raises the curtain nearly 100 times a performance.

“I have the best biceps of any nun,” she jokes. The curtain isn’t light, nor are the burdens of the 300 performers who make up the circus. “This gives me lots and lots of time with each performer,” she said.

Backstage in wardrobe is the other half of the circus’ sister act, Sister Bernard Overkamp. Overkamp oversees the circus beauties, curvaceous young women who will ride elephants and swing from trapezes. With glittery eye makeup and sequined costumes all around, some would consider this an unholy place.

They would get an argument from Sister Overkamp.

“Everybody is a human being and what they try to do is bring joy to people,” said Sister Overkamp, 38 years a Roman Catholic nun.

The Catholic sisters are a source of joy to people paid to bring just that to their audiences. But they bring more.

“Sister Fabritze is a blessing,” said floor worker Phil Hall, of Denver. “She helps us keep it together because this is a rough ride.”

Hall and his wife of three years turned to her for mentoring with their marriage. “It’s hard to stay here. She’s a mom away from home,” he said.

Mariana Hartung and Aristeu Parreiros are part of Sister Fabritze’s Christian education classes. The couple’s daughter, 8-year-old Ana Lua Sacchetti, is preparing for her First Communion. Sister Fabritze runs 10 classes and Bible studies.

Traveling with the circus, both try to get performers to Mass while on the road. Many are South American, but others come from China, Russia and the Philippines.

“They keep these people together,” said Maria Alvarez, head wardrobe mistress _ Sister Overkamp’s boss _ a native of Argentina.

Both sisters worked decades together in Papua, New Guinea, but as people there began to serve as religious sisters, they felt called to come back to the United States. Sister Fabritze went into fundraising, while Sister Overkamp worked in a halfway house.

Neither was happy with their jobs, but they didn’t exactly run away to the circus.

Both had to be convinced it was a real ministry. Sister Fabritze’s mentors were nuns from the Little Sisters of Jesus, who were working in a small, Florida-based circus.

“They were happy to see us. They said we were an answer to prayer,” she said.

While those sisters’ congregation forbade them from doing more than being a prayerful presence, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart were commissioned to teach, preach and reach those who “haven’t heard about, refused to hear it, or slackened off from their response (to the gospel) once they heard it,” Sister Fabritze said.

The sisters say it took them about a year to learn the ropes of the circus, but that means they’ve had seven years of professionalism.

And it shows when Sister Overkamp gives a final blessing to visitors. “May all your days be circus days,” she says, then waves goodbye.

MO/JL END RNS

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