Kapaun Mt. Carmel

alumni news
Best Friends on a
Path Toward Life at
Convents
Eight years ago, Nicole Habashy ‘03 sat
in her high school honors English class
passing notes to a guy one seat away.
She didn’t know it then, but the person
who sat between her and her crush was
her future best friend. Kristin Kennalley
‘03 was quiet and Habashy was loud.
Habashy introduced herself and invited
Kennalley to a party at her sister’s house.
After talking at the party, the two clicked.
Neither woman ever expected their
friendship to lead to a shared passion for
religious life.
Habashy says that when she and Kennalley
first became friends, neither thought they
would enter the religious life. Both were
rebellious teens with other plans for the
future. Habashy thought one day she
would be a CEO and Kennalley wanted
to teach physics.
“Kristen thought about being a nun first,
and then I saw how happy and peaceful
she was and that helped me with my
decision,” Habashy says.
Kennalley first thought about becoming a
nun when she was in fourth grade. Then,
after attending a Catholic college for two
years, she transferred to the University
of Kansas to experience life outside of
Catholic schools. She also studied in
Rome, where her desire to become a nun
became more assured. “The more I get to
know myself, the more I see it as a desire
in my heart,” Kennalley says.
Habashy says she didn’t think about
becoming a nun until later in life. When
she was little, she always saw herself
getting married and having 12 children.
“Big families always seemed more fun
than smaller families,” Habashy says.
“They can entertain themselves.” But by
becoming a nun, Habashy realizes she
will be able to touch more lives than she
would with a family of her own.
Habashy says her time at KU has
strengthened her desire to become a nun.
She’s learned from the sisters at the St.
Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, 1631
Crescent Rd., that nuns are regular people
with their own struggles. Habashy, like
other nuns before they took their vows,
has gone on dates, but says nothing ever
worked out the way she
thought it would. “My
biggest complaint was
I didn’t think anyone
could reciprocate
the intensity of my
affection,” she says.
Father Zachary, a
priest at St. Lawrence,
says there’s something
special about Habashy
and Kennalley. He
says most women
on campus would
never have thought of
becoming a nun, let
alone taken the steps
to visit a religious
community. He
believes what they
are doing is countercultural
and that their
support for each other
is what helps them
through their journey
in faith. “The hardest
part for them is going to be to keep
looking forward and to not get distracted
by well-meaning people,” he says.
Together, Habashy and Kennalley have
visited religious orders in New York and
other places around the country, and
each woman is looking for an order to
fit her own personality. There are things
that they’re going to have to give up when
they become nuns and join their separate
orders, but their friendship is not one of
them. Kennalley jokingly says she will
miss her iPod and Habashy will have to
give up smoking cigarettes. Both agree
that giving up men and marriage will be
difficult.
Kennalley says her experience in Rome
helped ease her fears of leaving her friends
and family. “I don’t have anything to lose,
just everything to gain,” she says.
For Habashy, Kennalley’s experience also
proved to her that their friendship would
last forever. Habashy says that the two
only talked twice while Kennalley was in
Rome, but she felt closer to her because
she knew they had an unspoken bond.
“They have a deeper friendship; it’s a
spiritual one,” Father Zachary says.
As for their families, the women say
they are slowly coming to terms with
their decisions. “My parents are starting
to realize that I’m serious about this
decision, but it will take time for them to
7
Kristen Kennalley and Nicole Habashy
come around,” Habashy says. Kennalley
says her parents became very supportive
of her after they saw how happy she was
in Rome.
Habashy and Kennalley will soon give up
going on dates and passing notes to guys,
but they say they’ll never give up their
friendship. “It helps to have a friend like
Nicole to talk to who understands what
I’m going through,” Kennalley says.
Gessler Scholarship for
Pharmacy Students
Graduates of any Catholic high school
in the Diocese of Wichita who are
either presently in, or plan on, entering
a pharmacy school are invited to apply
for the Gessler Scholarship. The Gessler
Scholarship was created in honor of
William Gessler, Jr. and provides financial
assistance to students in pursuit of a
degree in Pharmacy. Interested parties
should contact Mike Wescott, Director
of Development and Planned Giving
for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita
at 316-269-3915 or at wescottm@
cdowk.org for an application or more
information. Deadline for application is
December 1, 2007.