Pioneering Women Sisters of Mercy in Alaska · April to plan their presentation to the CCASA...

JULY | AUGUST 2019 Bimonthly publication for sisters, associates and companions of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas

Pioneering Women Sisters of Mercy in Alaska

also in this issue:

Welcoming the Stranger in Panama

Responding with Hope and Joy to a Global Cry

F E A T U R E S

4 Pioneering Women: Sisters of Mercy in Alaska By Deborah Herz

10 Welcoming the Stranger in Panama By Sister Angelina Mitre

13 Responding with Hope and Joy to a Global Cry By Sister Patricia McCann

C O L U M N S

12 Vocation and Incorporation | It’s Their TimeBy Sister Cynthia Serjak

16 Journey of Oneness | The Next Little Piece of Holy Ground By Sister Helen Amos

D E P A R T M E N T S

2 Updates from Around the InstituteCompiled by Mercy Communicators

17 Spice of Mercy Life | Riding the Trolley to Spiritual Growth By Sister Marissa Butler

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Table of Contents

(Clockwise, from top left) In this issue, we share stories from the remote Alaskan ministries of Sisters Jane Winterson, Kathleen O’Hara (with Archbishop Francis Hurley), Pat Oliver (under sign, left) and Carol Ann Aldrich. Read more on page 4.

page 4 page 13

BIMONTHLY PUBLICATION FOR SISTERS, ASSOCIATES AND COMPANIONS OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE SISTERS OF MERCY OF THE AMERICAS

PublisherInstitute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas 8380 Colesville Road, #300 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910-6264 tel 301.587.0423 [email protected]

Editor Julie Bourbon [email protected]

Design and Production RoundPeg

TranslationMany thanks to our translators!

Advisory BoardSisters Kathleen Erickson, Judith Frikker, Diane Guerin, Patricia Kenny and Pat Talone. Sue Carroll, Elizabeth MacNeal, Beth Thompson and Cathy Walsh.

Articles or portions thereof are protected by copyright laws and therefore cannot be reproduced or reprinted without the permission of ¡Viva! Mercy and/or the author.

Visit www.sistersofmercy.org for highlighted articles from this publication.

¡Viva! Mercy is printed on acid free, elemental chlorine-free paper containing 50 percent recycled content including 15 percent post consumer waste.

J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 19 ¡Viva! Mercy 1

Dear Sisters, Associates, Companions and Mercy Volunteers,

How can we keep from singing?

July 1, 2019, marked a new moment for the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas on our Journey of Oneness. On this day, we transitioned to one center of authority and one canonical leadership team for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and the delegation of authority to the leadership teams. Confident of the rightness of this governance response for our Institute, the Institute Leadership Team took up its mantle and affirmed the appointment of leaders for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, grounded in the very heart of our God of Mercy, Wisdom and Mystery, from July 1, 2019 to July 1, 2021. We proclaimed joyfully,

“Together we cherish the reminder that our name is Mercy, and that our shared focus is our spirituality, charism, mission, and the vision of our constitutions.

Together we cherish Catherine’s trust in divine providence and sense of dance, and the joy that marks each day.”

Further, on this day, the ILT rejoiced in missioning members of the Institute:

“Responsive, enlivened and called by the God of Mercy, Wisdom and Mystery; broken open in merciful love through the cries of our suffering world; and believing in the unfolding story of Mercy, we mission you to live our vowed life faithfully, well and full.”

And we blessed Mercy Associates and Companions in Mercy in following the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in the spirit of Catherine McAuley.

Gloriously, on June 8, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sisters Jennifer Barrow, Danielle Gagnon, Marybeth Beretta and Marjorie Tapia, all magnificently alive in God’s extravagant love and mercy, professed their final vows in the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. On July 13, Sister Renée Kettering will do the same. Every moment of these professions is holy and teeming with God’s promise of life and the urgency of the mission at this time.

Fittingly, this issue of ¡Viva! Mercy contains three vibrant feature articles—“Pioneering Women,” “Welcoming the Stranger in Panama,” and “Responding with Hope and Joy to a Global Cry”—as well as Sister Helen Amos’ powerful reflection on the Journey of Oneness. In all of these, we recognize the same root of courage, aliveness and spirit of Mercy that propelled our five sisters to profess final vows. We recognize the essential call that compels our leaders to take up their new governance, advocacy and ministerial roles, and continually moves our Mercy family to live and to respond with love, mercy and justice to the cries of our suffering world.

With such witness to the vitality of Mercy’s call and response at this time in our history, “How can we keep from singing!”

In Mercy,

From the Institute Leadership Team

The InsTITuTe LeadershIp Team

(From leFt) SiSterS Áine o'Connor, PatriCia

mCDermott, JuDith Frikker, PatriCia Flynn

anD anne marie miller.

Updates from Around the Institute

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C O M P I L E D B Y M E R C Y C O M M U N I C A T O R S

SOUTH CENTRAL

SISTER MARY HADDAD was recently appointed president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association. Mary, who has been with CHA since 2009, previously served as vice president, sponsorship and mission services. Prior to that, she ministered as a teacher, principal and social worker, and served on the regional leadership team for the Sisters of Mercy in St. Louis.

More than 200 sisters and guests met June 21–23 in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the 2019 Gathering of the Whole. Sister Pat McDermott, Institute president, gave the keynote address, “May We All Be One: Our Common Journey.” Members also reflected on the larger context of emerging apostolic religious life, pondering how they might continue to grow in relationship and live religious life fully and well. The Institute Leadership Team missioned the members and the Community Leadership Team, which transitions to delegated authority effective July 1.

MID-ATLANTIC

SIXTY-EIGHT Mid-Atlantic sisters celebrate their jubilees this calendar year, including Sisters Mary Berenice Eltz (85 years), Elaine Buckley and Miriam Butz (80 years), Anna Marie Saltzman (50 years) and Mary-Paula Cancienne (25 years).

Two ministries celebrate anniversaries: MercyFirst in New York City (125 years) and Project Home, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (30 years), which was co-founded by Sister Mary Scullion and Joan Dawson McConnon.

Sister LaVerne Marie King, principal of Christ the Teacher Catholic School in Newark, Delaware, won the 2019 Lead. Learn. Proclaim Award from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA).

And, last but not least, Charlene Flaherty has been accepted as a candidate for the Mid-Atlantic Community of the Sisters of Mercy, and four members—Sisters Jennifer Barrow, Marybeth Beretta, Danielle Gagnon and Marjorie Tapia —professed their final vows.

WEST MIDWEST

THE WEST MIDWEST COMMUNITY will gather in joy and celebration on July 13 for Sister Renée Kettering’s perpetual profession of vows in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Renée is currently living in the Detroit area, where she serves as information technology specialist at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Sister Maurita Soukup, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received an honorary doctor of humane letters from Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, during its commencement ceremonies on May 18. As a nurse consultant/researcher, Maurita is a lead reviewer for the American Nurses Association Credential Center’s Pathway to Excellence Program. Her work includes service on the boards of two regional healthcare systems, including CHI Health.

Sisters Patricia M. Murphy and JoAnn Persch, both of Chicago, Illinois, received honorary undergraduate degrees from Gwynedd Mercy University, Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania, during its commencement on May 11.

Pat and JoAnn, the co-founders of the Interfaith Community for Detained Immigrants, are currently pastoral ministers for detention and deportation centers.

Sisters Marjorie Tapia, Danielle Gagnon, Jennifer Barrow and Marybeth Beretta professed final vows on June 8.

Sister Mary Haddad

During the CLT’s border immersion experience in April, Sisters Margaret Mary Hinz (left) and Susan Sanders (right) were able to visit with Sister Betty Campbell (center), who minis-ters at the border in Juárez, Mexico.


NEW YORK PENNSYLVANIA WEST

DOLLAR BANK IN PITTSBURGH honored the Sisters of Mercy for their contributions to the role of local women in the city’s history by presenting a $3,000 scholarship to Carlow University.

Sisters in Erie, Pennsylvania, joined Sister Marilyn Lacey, founder of Mercy Beyond Borders, for her talk at a Mercy Week prayer service at Mercyhurst University.

About 200 people attended a Mass and reception for benefac-tors sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy in Rochester, New York. Retired Bishop Matthew Clark, a longtime honorary associate, celebrated the Mass.

Sisters in Buffalo, New York, re-enacted the Journey to Emmaus during a Lenten retreat, and several were invited to preach the Good Friday service at St. Michael Parish in Buffalo.

CARIBBEAN, CENTRAL AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA

CCASA SISTERS and at least two associates from each country will gather in Santa Eulalia, Perú, July 26–30. The theme for

the Gathering is: “United in diversity we walk toward a new consciousness.” The purpose is to deepen our connections (lazos) and our living out of the Chapter 2017 Declaration and our CCASA Assembly Vision Statement. Keynote speaker, Sister Sofía Chipana Quispe, calls us to a “buen vivir” that moves us to a new cosmic consciousness, to a new harmony and to a new appreciation of woman’s connection to Pachamama, repairing the broken threads of life’s tapestry. Our “under 50 sisters” will share their hopes and dreams for our journey together.

PHILIPPINES

SISTERS IN THE PHILIPPINES had our annual Lenten retreat April 1–6 at Mercy Regional House, Camague, Iligan City. The sisters felt fortunate to have Father Luciano Ariel Felloni, an Argentinian priest who was closely associated as a seminarian with Pope Francis, who was then the pastor to seminarians. Father Luciano has been serving the Filipino people for almost 20 years.

From April 7–17, we were graced by the presence of three visiting sisters. Sisters Judith Frikker and Anne Marie Miller from the Institute Leadership Team (ILT) facil-itated the consultation for the Integrating Sisters’ Life and Governance process. Sister Patty Cook facilitated the Community and the nominees' discernment process before the selection of our next leadership team for the community in the Philippines.

Finally, on April 15, the sisters elected a new Community Coordinating Team for a two-year term. Sister Jean Delgado was elected Community coordinator and Sisters Aura Matalines and Letty de los Santos are the team members. The new Community leaders were approved by the ILT.

NORTHEAST

AT MERCY CIRCLES GATHERINGS this spring in Portland, Maine; Providence, Rhode Island; and Burlington, Vermont; Northeast sisters embraced the Journey of Oneness and prepared for its next steps. After viewing Sister Judith Carey’s Life and Governance video, sisters affirmed elements of

previous consultations and held lively discussions about how to ensure that the Chapter membership in 2023 is representative of the intergenerational, intercultural and international diversity of sisters Institute-wide. Sisters Maureen Mitchell and Peg Sullivan, president and vice president, respectively, explained how, as of July 1, 2019, authority at the local level will be “delegated back” to each Community Leadership Team by the Institute Leadership Team, even if CLT titles change to something new. Maureen and Peg assured sisters that their daily lives will change little, and that there is much to celebrate about our new reality.

Sisters Betty Secord and Sue Wieczynski at Mercy Circles in Vermont.

Sisters 50 and under met in April to plan their presentation to the CCASA gathering in July. Sisters Roslyn Bacchus and Elizabeth Small partici-pate in a ritual during the 2017 CCASA Assembly.

The Sisters of Mercy-Philippines at their annual Lenten retreat in April.Sisters Trish Tyler, left, and Edith Langiotti

were among those who gathered in Buffalo, Erie, Pittsburgh and Rochester for the annual Spring Consultations on April 6 to pray and affirm the learnings of the Institute’s October to December consultative gatherings.

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It takes a special kind of person to answer the call to minister in the wilds of Alaska. These four Mercy Sisters had just the right combination of fearlessness and adventurous spirit to make the

most of their time in the 49th state. Here, they recount the blessings of living and working as young sisters in a place so spectacular, if you didn’t like the homily, all you had to do was look out the window.

By Deborah Herz

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The Drive That Changed a LifeWhen less than six inches of snow shuts down her home-town of Warwick, Rhode Island, Sister Carol Ann Aldrich chuckles. “That’s a dusting, compared to Alaska,” she says. “One year, Valdez had 569.2 inches of snow.”

But that never discouraged Carol—who celebrated her 65th jubilee last year—from spending 23 years in Alaska as parish director in a wilderness so remote the moose practically outnumbered the people.

“Our church had huge windows and moose often walked by,” she says. “One day I opened my door to a mother moose and her baby.”

Now 84, she was the first sister in the United States to perform a Catholic wedding ceremony when severe weather prevented Archbishop Francis Hurley from flying into Valdez to officiate as scheduled. “They’re still married, too,” Carol says of the couple who were parishioners of the church where she served as administrator.

A pioneer at heart, Carol arrived in Alaska in 1983 as one of only six sisters serving five remote parishes. “My mother was adamantly opposed to my going,” Carol adds. “She thought I was nuts.”

To make matters worse, Anchorage was nothing like she expected. “I said to myself, if this is Alaska, you can have it,” she says. “Then I drove to Valdez with Sister Diane Carlson, who served with me at the parish for two years. It was the most gorgeous ride. That drive changed my life.”

After ministering in Valdez for nine years, Carol became director of St. John the Baptist Church in Homer, where she ran the small parish alone for more than a decade with only occasional visits from traveling priests.

Despite long winters, she faithfully served in Homer and two other

communities for 14 more years. Presiding over five week-end services in three parishes, Carol would drive across a 40-mile stretch of ice-glazed hills for the 7:30 Saturday night service in Ninilchik, then return to Homer that evening. The next morning, she’d drive back to Ninilchik for the 9 a.m. Sunday service, then head back to Homer for the 11:30 at St. John’s. At 1 p.m., she’d board a two-seater plane for the service in Seldovia before flying back to Homer that night.

Blizzards and whiteouts aside, the benefits far out-weighed the disadvantages. “I have nothing but wonderful memories,” says Carol, whose motto is “All for Jesus.” “It’s such a spiritual place. I love the land and the people. It was so spectacular, if you didn’t like the homily all you had to do was look out the window.”

Today, a little snow would never stop Carol from visiting the 13 homebound families she serves at Saint Rose & Clement Catholic Church in Warwick. Though she retired four years ago, she has no intention of slowing down. “I’m never home,” she adds. “My license plate is GA-374, and people who know me say the G and the A stand for Gone Again. It’s true. I never rest.”

Sister Carol Ann Aldrich explores the Alaskan vistas from a snowmobile (left) and perches on a pontoon boat for a view of a glacier (below).

Sister Carol Ann Aldrich gets a little help through the Alaskan terrain from some sled dogs (far left). She served as administrator of Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Valdez, Alaska (left), where she officiated at a wedding at the request of the local bishop.


Goodbye, Habit, Hello Ski PantsSister Kathleen O’Hara turned 95 on June 23, but you’d never know it.

Since retiring three years ago from her 40-year ministry in Alaska, she’s lived at Mercy Convent in Albany, New York. True to her motto, “Whatsoever you do for the least ones you do for me,” Kathleen served in Anchorage as a teacher, principal of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School and parish administrator. She also started a family-life program, ministered in an assisted-living facility, coordinated a hospice-care program and supervised the construction of a chapel where residents could attend Mass.

To this day, her Anchorage parishioners make sure she knows she is still dearly loved. “They call me every week,” she says. “I hear from kids at school who are now grown up, teachers, families I helped, and priests.”

Kathleen’s Alaska adventure started when she was in her 20s, living in upstate New York’s North Creek. “The Reverend Mother sent us a letter asking for volunteers to help reopen a diocesan school in Anchorage,” she says. “I read it, didn’t pay much attention, then went to the chapel to say my prayers.”

The next day, the small still voice inside urged her to read the letter more carefully.

“I replied to the letter then forgot about it,” she says. “The next day I got a call from the Reverend Mother, who said, ‘You’re just the kind of person we’d like to send to Alaska.’”

Before making her final decision, Sister Kathleen prayed

and checked with her mother, who said, “You’ve always done whatever you’ve wanted. Why would I try to stop you?”

That sealed the deal, along with the fact that

Alaska is known for record snowfalls. A few years earlier, Kathleen had fallen in love with skiing when her North Creek parishioners outfitted her with compli-mentary lessons and equipment. “I would slip out of my habit and put on ski pants,” she recalls. “There was a feeling of freedom in skiing; it’s one of the most spiritual things I’ve ever done.”

Assigned to teach religious education in Anchorage’s cathedral, she wasn’t there long before the archbishop asked her for a favor. “He said, ‘I see that you were principal of St. Teresa of Avila School in Albany, and I need a principal for St. Elizabeth’s.’ He gave me a whole half-day to make my decision, and I started the next day.”

On weekends, she and the late Sister Arlene Boyd were assigned missionary work, teaching religious education to adults and teachers. “We went [300 miles] to Valdez, then [145 miles] to Cordova and then [92 miles] to the Kenai Peninsula,” she says. “Sometimes we drove and other times we took a ferry or a bus.”

Looking back, Kathleen says the hardest part of her min-istry was ending it. “Life pales in comparison now,” she says. “I’d go back to Alaska tomorrow if I could, to celebrate my next birthday.”

In the meantime, no grass grows under Kathleen’s feet, even though she reluctantly relies on a cane and a walker. “I just attended a Saint Patty’s day party,”

Sister Kathleen O’Hara would love to celebrate her next birthday in Alaska. Archbishop Francis Hurley, seen here at Sister Kathleen’s 70th jubilee, asked her to serve as principal of a Catholic School in Anchorage.


remarks the nonagenarian. “We had a live band, but the dining room was so crowded there wasn’t room to dance.”

Note: Portions of this article were excerpted from an article by Catherine Walsh, Sisters of Mercy Northeast.

It was Beautiful and QuietThe first night Sister Pat Oliver arrived in Anchorage some 40 years ago, she fell down a flight of stairs and dislocated her collarbone. You could say her mission to Alaska started off with a bang.

Things could only get better from there, so the now-retired English and science teacher, who recently celebrated her 60th jubilee, took an assignment as pastoral minister in Glennallen. Located 180 miles northeast of Anchorage, the small rural town is home to more churches than bars,

abundant trout and salmon fish-ing, and long hard winters.

Pat lived alone in a double-wide trailer in an area so remote, water had to be trucked in every week to fill her home tanks.

“The snow was piled so high I can’t even remember what color my trailer was,” she says. “In the winter it was dark almost all day, and during the summer it was sunny 18 hours per day. You’d be out shopping or cut-ting the grass at two o’clock in the morning.”

Then in her 30s, she pre-sided over regular services in the rustic wooden building

that served as the parish church, taught children religious education inside her trailer and provided liturgical training to parishioners.

Described as someone who might turn up anywhere, she ministered alone to her tiny parish of fewer than 100 families for months on end. “I felt at home even though I was far away from family,” says Pat, who grew up in East Providence, Rhode Island, with her sister, the late Sister Judy Oliver. “I was never lonely. I loved the simplicity of life and the people, especially the Native American Ahtna tribe. I loved the wide expanse of nature and the wildlife. It was beautiful and quiet.”

The scenery in her tiny parish town was breathtaking, with four massive surrounding mountain ranges and the spectacular Aurora Borealis lighting up the night sky in vivid shades of green, purple, orange, blue and red.

Sister Pat Oliver taught and presided over religious services in Glenallen, Alaska.

“We never let the weather slow us down,” she adds. “Once we drove to Valdez through Thompson’s Pass and it was snowing so hard we couldn’t see. We hung out the window and brushed the snow off the windshield, praying to see the taillights of a truck so we could follow it and not slide off the mountain.”

Living by her motto, “Into Your Hands,” Pat has learned to let go and let God take her wherever He sees fit. Now liv-ing in Cumberland, Rhode Island, she serves as a spiritual companion to those seeking a closer relationship with God, and she travels as often as she can.

“Traveling offered me some of life’s greatest lessons,” she says. “The most important one is that good people are everywhere. You just have to accept their differences. When you open yourself up to our differences, you find the simi-larities. That leaves an opening to find God everywhere.”

Tsunami!Sister Jane Winterson wanted to become a sister when she was only in the eighth grade, but she didn’t take her final vows until she was 38. She recently celebrated her 40th jubilee.

Jane was raised in Omaha, Nebraska. Her father, a great outdoorsman, enjoyed taking her hunting and fishing. “When I told him I had joined the Mercy order, he was worried I might have to wear my veil when we went fish-ing,” she says. “As it turned out, I didn’t.”

Jane served in Sitka, an island accessible only by boat or plane. Today, the town boasts two traffic lights, up from zero when she arrived in 1986 to do parish work and visit the homebound.

“We had only 11 or 12 miles of paved road, so traffic was unheard of,” she explains. “We were surrounded by a dormant volcano and mountains, and tsunamis were quite common. When a tsunami hit, everyone knocked on everyone’s door and we all went to higher ground. It was just part of life.”

Home to towering spruce, eagles and a rainforest, Sitka is so quiet you can hear the humpback whales exhale a mile

Sisters Pat Oliver, left, and Carol Ann Aldrich loved the natural beauty of Alaska.

A dusting of snow is nothing for Sister Carol Ann Aldrich, who experienced 500 plus inches of the powdery stuff during Alaskan winters.



away. The natives and indigenous peoples, the Tlingit, live very simply, fishing for black cod, trout and salmon.

Jane felt right at home and made her father proud when she caught a 47-pound salmon in Juneau. “I gutted, cleaned and froze it, then took it home to Nebraska,” she says. “It was the biggest fish I ever caught.”

Sadly, her mission to Alaska ended abruptly after only one year, when her father was diagnosed with cancer. She returned home to help care for him until he died at 86. Though her time in Alaska was short and sweet, Jane treasures the memories. “I got to pet a whale,” she recalls. “I loved picking up starfish, too. They were four different colors—purple, orange, red and green.”

Now based in Oklahoma City, where she teaches algebra at Sacred Heart Catholic School, Jane still misses the simplicity of Alaska. “City life is not so simple,” she adds. Over the years, the motto engraved in her ring, “My God, My All,” has served her well.

At 82, Jane still drives and thinks nothing of taking a road trip to her family homes—one 18 hours away in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the other seven hours north in Omaha.

Along the way, she’s picked up some travel advice that’s still valuable today: “If you see polar bears coming, don’t run,” she warns. “Let them know you’re there. Deter them with an air horn and don’t look them in the face.”

Deborah Herz is a Mercy Associate and freelance writer working out of Narragansett, Rhode Island, and Naples, Florida. She can be reached at [email protected].

Sister Jane Winterson unexpectedly delivered baby Wilamina while in Juneau.

Sister Jane Winterson visits summer campers in Juneau.

Want to read more about these sisters' lives and ministries in Alaska? Visit our blog for complete stories on each of them at bit.ly/SistersInAlaska.


here is a crisis in our world, one of large-scale human movement, as people risk their lives and their families’ lives to immigrate to other, often far-away, places, even from one continent to another.

According to the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations, there are over 1 billion migrants in the world today—258 million who have crossed borders and 760 million who have moved within their own country—more than at any other moment in history. Large countries and, even more so, small countries, find that they have exceeded their capacity to respond to the needs of migrants.

Among those many millions of migrants were tens of thousands of Colombians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who have immigrated to Panama to escape social and political upheaval in their home countries. Many weren’t able to reach their dreams there and continued their journeys on to other countries.

Panama has had immigration issues for many years, although to me it was always a distant matter. I never imagined that in my journey as a Sister of Mercy I would find myself considering the Critical Concern, “To act in solidarity with migrants, immigrants, refugees … seeking with them a more just and inclusive world,” but some profound experiences have helped to awaken me and make immigration a part of my life.

Our journey to respond to the needs of migrants in Panama began when a young Venezuelan woman, only 20 years old,

sought psychological help at the Center for Counseling and Education where I work. She had come to Panama with her boyfriend, also Venezuelan, and was living with him and his mother and sister. Suddenly, their relationship became emotionally abusive. She had no relatives in Panama, so the boyfriend’s mother helped her find a new place to live. The older woman feared that her son would attack the young woman physically and that he would then have legal problems.

Because the young woman was in the country illegally, she couldn’t work other than sporadic small jobs to cover her personal expenses. Sometimes she had to make a “donation” to the police when they asked for her papers and threatened her with deportation. She didn’t want to return to her home country because the economic situation was so difficult there.

Migrants to Panama, especially those who are poor, often have great difficulty getting their legal documents in order because they don’t have enough money and the pro-cess is very slow. If they don’t have the correct papers they cannot get a stable job, sufficient food to eat, a place to live or medicine, and they can’t open a bank account (to receive financial help from family) or participate in work training courses. They live in fear of the immigration authorities and the threat of having to flee at a moment’s notice, as if they were delinquents.

Their pain really touched me and I wondered, what would Catherine McAuley do? Of course, she would accompany them.

Migrants take part in a workshop at the Centro de Orientación y Educación Familiar (COEFAM) in Panama City. They come from throughout Central America and receive services to help them build a new life in their adopted country.

We set out to establish a program to provide assistance. We began by reaching out to other migrant organizations to see what services they offered, and talking with psychologists and other professionals, as well as migrants, to learn what was most needed. We then began a program, the Centro de Orientación y Educación Familiar (COEFAM), to help migrants make the transition to their new situations. The program covers multiple topics: integration, the grief of migration, life projects, business plans (entrepreneurship), how to get a job and the legal immigration process. We are also considering offering financial support through seed capital so that people can begin small businesses. Entrepreneurship is important, because in Panama, there are some jobs that, by law, only Panamanians (by birth or naturalized) can hold.

Before the first workshop, we thought it would attract mostly Venezuelans and Nicaraguans. So it was a surprise to us that, of the 30 people who came, more than half were Colombian.

The Colombians were coming as refugees to Panama after losing members of their family and their belongings to guerrillas or paramilitary groups. Some women were victims of rape; others were threatened with death for witnessing the murder of their family members or for not paying war taxes to the paramilitaries, guerrilla groups or gang members. Some of them have been waiting four, five or even six years for their legal status as refugees.

Other participants in programs at COEFAM are Nicaraguans who, because of repression and the economic crisis in their country, have immigrated to Panama to look for a better way of life. Often, Nicaraguan men work in construction and the women do domestic work in homes, jobs that don’t require legal documents.

Others in the group are Salvadorans, who also immigrate due to violent conditions in their country. Gangs or maras control people’s lives, and whole families flee to protect their children so they won’t be recruited by the maras.

In telling us her story, a Salvadoran woman said:We came to this country fleeing from the violence in my country. Over there, we were harassed because we lived in different areas, or for not cooperating with the gangs. For going to work in the wrong area, the maras might kill us.

I had a brother who was killed by the gang members, possibly because he didn’t want to be part of the gang or he spoke to the police or they saw him in a different area of the city. They came at midnight to look for him. They took him and we never found him. We think he is in a secret cemetery. I left with my two daughters, fleeing just with the clothes we had on. Two years earlier, some cousins came here after my cousin was raped by the gang members. Thank God they didn’t kill her. My cousins are here and they helped me out, but they don’t have much.

This story moved us and we are trying to help in some way. Mercy Associates have expressed a desire to supply the woman with help so her girls have what they need to go to school.

We hear many difficult stories in our work and believe that we are all called to make the God of Mercy present in our suffering world, however we can.

Sister Angelina Mitre lives in Panama City, Panama. She works as a marriage and family therapist and member of the CCASA leadership team. She can be reached at [email protected].

Sister Angelina Mitre (standing, left) shares a laugh with migrants taking a class at COEFAM.

Panama population 2017:

4 MILLION

Migrants living in Panama 2000:

83,000

Snapshots of

Immigration in Panama

Sources: The International Organization for Migration; The UN Migration Agency; and UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency


191,000

Migrants living in Panama 2017:


V O C A T I O N A N D I N C O R P O R A T I O N

It's Their Time

story sharing and discussion, Rose Marie goes where young people are and makes herself available to them, believing that “it’s their time.” Because of that belief, she says that animators should “be hospitable, invite, but really greet” young people, going beyond that first hello and actu-ally making time and space in one’s life for relationships to develop.

Rose Marie’s standard for a successful encounter is going away with one or two email addresses of young women who want to stay in touch and learn more. She is happy to let young people see that she loves being a sister and that she loves prayer and that they can, too. She says that her ministry makes her “feel alive and appreciate her vocation more.” Who wouldn’t want that?

Rose Marie became involved because a vocation minister asked her to go to a meeting that the min-ister couldn’t attend. Soon, you may be called to help our new member-ship team in a similar way. Over the next several months, our new team of vocation ministers will be designing ways to engage our Mercy family in the ministry of animation.

Wondering if you are being called? Here’s how Rose Marie spells “CALLED”: C-urious, A-ware, L-istening, L-earning, E-mbarking, D-iscerning. These are words that Sisters of Mercy have embraced all our lives. Now all of us are called to share our call with young women, because, it’s their time.

—Sister Cynthia Serjak

enthusiastic witness to and sharing of the energy for religious life invites and encourages women to join in the journey of a religious vocation” (2-12).

A wonderful example of an enthusiastic response can be found in 83-year-old Sister Rose Marie Golembiewski who lives at St. Bernardine retirement convent in Fremont, Ohio. Rose Marie is part of a diocesan effort to gather young women and men to reflect about their vocations. In group meetings,

As we continue our Journey of Oneness, it is time for us to recon-sider the meaning of “all of us” and to reflect about how “each of us” can participate in connecting with the women whom God is now calling to be Sisters of Mercy. While we are blessed with a strong and eager group of vocation ministers, they cannot be everywhere, but will rely on all of us to help them in the ministry of animation. Our new membership document, For the Love of Mercy, says this about vocation animation: “The

Sister Rose Marie loves connecting with young women and men about their vocations. Here she is with Hannah, a nursing student from Lourdes University in Toledo, Ohio.

While some perpetually professed sisters are charged with the primary responsibility for the incorporation process, all of us are called to share our life experience with new members. —Constitutions 45


More than 321 people. All were killed simply because of who they were—Blacks, Jews, Muslims, Christians—

murdered in cold blood, most in their houses of worship. What is especially tragic is that these are but four instances of many over the last decade in which groups of innocent people were gunned down or blown up by merciless indi-viduals motivated to act by religious bigotry, racial hatred or a commitment to achieve a white supremacist majority culture. As Sister Kathleen Erikson noted in her reflective essay in the West Midwest’s 2019 Lenten booklet, we are “living during what may be a spiritual crisis for humanity.” What is the role of Mercy in this world in crisis?

A Global CryToday, much of the world is polarized and paralyzed, torn apart by extreme right wing nationalism and multiple hatreds: religious bigotry, whether Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Christian or others; racial and ethnic big-otry; homophobia; and xenophobia. People seek security in isolationism, hard borders, walls, gated communities and private or chartered schools. The eruption of these hatreds into white supremacy movements around the world raises alarm not only among targets of the hate groups, but among all people who cherish religious liberty, democracy and human rights.

Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, S.C., June 17, 2015 9 people shot to death while at prayer.

Tree of Life Synagogue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 27, 2018 11 people shot to death while at prayer.

Linwood Islamic Mosque, Christchurch, New Zealand, March 15, 2019 51 people shot to death while at prayer.

Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019 More than 250 people killed by suicide bombers during Easter Sunday services.

Flowers and signs were placed outside a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, where a shooter murdered 50 people during prayer in March. Credit: Sanjay Theodore, Te Waka Tiaki Mercy Mission Team, Nga Whaea Atawhai o Aotearoa Sisters of Mercy New Zealand


In his annual “state of the world” address in January of this year, Pope Francis said: “The reappearance of some populist and nationalist impulses today is progressively weakening the multilateral system, resulting in a general lack of trust, a crisis of credibility in international political life and a gradual marginalization of the most vulnerable members of the family of nations.”

Hate crimes—criminal acts committed on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender or gender iden-tity, sexual orientation or disability—are unquestionably on the rise in the United States, with 7,157 acts reported in 2017, up 17 percent from the year before, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The FBI’s findings show that 59.6 percent of hate crimes were issues of race or ethnicity and 20.6 percent were of religion. In 2017, hate crimes against Muslims rose by 15 percent in the United States, where Muslims and Jews tend to be the primary target of nationalist political parties or politicians. In CCASA countries such as Peru, Jews tend to be the most popular target of nationalist social groups, according to the Pew Research Center’s Social Hostilities Index. More than a quarter of countries around the world reported high or very high levels of social hostilities involving religion in 2016.

Nationalism and populism are also on the rise globally, hand in glove with scapegoating of immigrants and minorities, with targets ranging from indigenous Guatemalans to African Americans. Often the tone is set by political leaders, starting with Donald Trump in the United States and including Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party and Iván Duque Márquez in Colombia, to name a few.

Thomas Cullen, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, wrote in The New York Times on February 2 of this year that, “white supremacy and far right extremism are among the greatest threats facing the U.S.” They are also, along with the gun culture, among the United States’ greatest exports today.

While bigotry and hatred are not new, their danger assumes a significantly darker and more ominous tone in the twenty-first century with the advent of easily accessible military style weapons, unregulated social media and increasingly permissive attitudes toward hate speech,

racial and ethnic stereotyping, and bullying, all of which have become commonplace, even in the public forum. Sadly, Charleston, Pittsburgh, Christchurch and Colombo provide tragic validation of this assessment. But why is this happening around the world?

Fear of the Other in a Transformed CultureFear, anxiety, anger, economic insecurity, disillusionment and concern about cultural change play major roles in the resurgence of hatred and violence. A friend told me of a recent conversation she had while visiting relatives in a small, former steel mill town in western Pennsylvania that voted solidly pro-Trump in 2016. Folks in this town largely are not poor, have decent pension income, are able to access a good local hospital and live in well-kept neighborhoods with far less than 5 percent minority or immigrant popula-tion, but they feel anxious and betrayed.

“These people [translation: immigrants, blacks, the LGBTQ community, liberals, feminist women, the other]

threaten our American way of life,” her rela-tives told her. The 2008 election of a black presi-dent symbolized all of this change for them. This town is replicated throughout the United States and around the world. People feel left behind; their children and grandchildren are like strangers to them; technology seems alien, even as they enjoy many of its perks; they translate “global economy” as a loss of economic security at home; the future holds

fear and uncertainty; migrants—forced to flee by poverty, violence or climate change—are coming to take their jobs or overwhelm their social services.

It is not possible to overstate the impact of the cultural transformation currently in progress. Fundamental, long-established values and mores are in flux. Millennials and younger generations tend to identify the world and the future in radically different terms than did their grandparents or even parents. We are influenced today by factors—prin-cipally rapid advances in technology and the rise of social media—that did not exist in Catherine McAuley’s time, nor did they exist in the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries. So where do we go from here? How might Mercy respond to this transformation?

After the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, signs of solidarity sprang up throughout Squirrel Hill, the diverse neighborhood in which the synagogue is located. Credit: Karen Lillis


A Hope and Joy DynamicThe Chapter 2017 Recommitment statement titled “Called to New Consciousness” challenges the Sisters of Mercy to address these issues directly:

“The Sixth Institute Chapter has come to believe that the God of Mercy, Wisdom and Mystery is calling us as Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, an international and intercultural community, to deepen our relationship with God and one another, and to intensify our work in communion with oth-ers who seek a more just and inclusive world. We recognize a yearning for oneness in all of creation, in all peoples and within our Institute. Our suffering world calls us to speak and act with integrity and clear intention.”

This statement links to the five Mercy Critical Concerns identified by the 2012 Institute Chapter: anti-racism, immigration, women, Earth and nonviolence. We chose these five concerns to provide focus and framework for our ministry and life. It is telling that Pope Francis, in an April 2019 address in Morocco, noted that the only healing for the epidemic of violence in today’s world rests with build-ing “communities of mercy and compassion.” The Critical Concerns are a direct antithesis to the violence, hatred and bigotry we see on the rise globally.

Our Chapter 2017 Recommitment and Pope Francis’ chal-lenge have in common that they invite people of faith and people of good will to collaborate in creating communities grounded in hope and joy, mercy and compassion. We cannot be content simply to talk about such communities; we must live them in practice. We have to create communities of such transparent joy and hope that they are attractive to others who long for a more peaceful world.

One sees signs that this approach to the diminishment of violence is gaining ground. The May/June issue of ¡Viva!

Mercy related the fascinating development of a “Nuns & Nones” community at the Mercy Convent in Burlingame, California. This col-lective is one of several being formed to bring together women religious—with their years of community life, spirituality and skills in orga-nizing—and millennials interested in a life of spirituality independent of church affiliation, as well as solidarity around peace and justice issues, service and sustainability.

A recent article in The New Yorker maga-zine (March 25, 2019) sheds some light on the attraction of this energizing hope and joy dynamic as it points to the future. In “That Feeling When,” Lauren Berlant writes about

what she calls “affect theory,” which gives priority to feeling over thinking or meaning as a driving force in the choices we make. Berlant, a professor with expertise in intimacy and belonging in popular culture, sees this as the dominant mode shaping contemporary culture. She applies the theory to the current political milieu, but it also prompts an under-standing of our social media-driven society, where so much “feeling” is constantly, widely and easily shared.

The Chapter 2017 Recommitment uses affect language, too: relationship, intensify, yearning, compassion, mercy, hope, sol-idarity, community. These feeling words effectively express the Divine truths of the Gospel, address our Mercy Critical Concerns and have the power to overcome the feeling words of bigotry that galvanize people to commit acts of violence against their neighbors. During this spiritual crisis of humanity, the way of Mercy does not permit us to be merely well-informed spectators lamenting the sad state of the world. Rather, it calls us to respond to the cry of suffering all around us.

Sister Patricia McCann is a retired teacher of church history and a retired Mercy administrator. She is animated by a lifelong interest in social justice issues and politics, which she addresses in writing, speaking and action whenever possible. Currently, she

serves as sacristan at the Mercy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She can be reached at [email protected].

After the Easter Sunday bombings in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a support campaign declaring “#terroristshavenoreligion” and “Together we are Sri Lanka” appeared online in the country.

“We have to create communities of such

transparent joy and hope that they are attractive to

others who long for a more peaceful world.”


J O U R N E Y O F O N E N E S S

The Next Little Piece of Holy Ground

When I found myself using the word “climactic” to describe the Founding Event, I actually went to the dictionary for support in decid-ing whether that was the right term to capture my meaning. There I found “climax” defined as follows: the stage in ecological development

or evolution in which a community of organ-isms becomes stable and starts to perpetuate itself. This satisfied me as to my memory of how I felt in 1991, but more importantly, it challenged me to understand our current moment as an evolu-tionary one, too.

For me this means, in the first place, admit-ting that we do not see the future—or even the path—clearly. Nevertheless, it is surely a moment of grace. It is a call from God to which the only appropriate response is whole-heartedness—opening ourselves to the future, choosing

transformation as work that is ours to do.

One of J.D. Salinger’s characters, Seymour, once said that “all we ever do our whole lives is go from one lit-tle piece of holy ground to the next.” That strikes me as a good way to read our July 1, 2019 signpost: Let’s move on to the next little piece of holy ground.

—Sister Helen Amos

promises. No wonder that when we opened those doors in Buffalo we had a sense of having arrived!

Also remarkable in my memory of those days is how the atmosphere of collective accomplishment imme-diately began impelling us forward. Our Direction Statement, formulated

and approved at that initial Institute Chapter, remains one of our principal cherished expressions of how to reflect Mercy to our world—and to one another. Notably, the Direction Statement concludes with a pledge to “call ourselves to continual conversion.”

I take that, along with the rest of these memories, as clues for how—beyond the obvious governance change—to read the signpost of July 1, 2019.

As Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, we passed a signpost on our “Journey of Oneness” July 1, 2019. Reading the signpost through a governance lens, we see that over the course of nearly three decades, the Institute has journeyed from 26 leadership teams to a single elected Institute Leadership Team.

Although that says something about our oneness, clearly it is not the only perspective available for viewing the progress of our life as one community. Perhaps others who were pres-ent in Buffalo in 1991 are experiencing in this present moment—as I am—something that contrasts with the cli-mactic feeling we had at our Founding Event. Reading the first chap-ters of the book Union and Charity: The Story of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas (Denise Colgan and Doris Gottemoeller, 2017) triggered in me memories of the sense of achievement at that initial Institute Chapter.

We had dared to dream of a future together and worked through a veri-table mountain of issues to make it happen: 10 full years of complicated processes involving more than 7,400 sisters; consultations (both among ourselves and with the Vatican); drafts and redrafts of the Constitutions; conflicts and resolutions and com-

A bridge leads seekers along the Way of the Cross at Mercy Center Auburn, California. Credit: Julie Bourbon


S P I C E O F M E R C Y L I F E

Riding the Trolley to Spiritual Growth

interactions as ministry, I couldn’t help but think of the many times Jesus went out on a mission and was interrupted along the way. He may have wanted to continue about His business, but He always stopped to address the needs of the people who approached Him. I tried to remem-ber this when people on the trolley wanted to have a conversation, asked for me to pray for and with them, or informed me that a family member was in the hospital and asked if I would be willing to visit them. For some riders, the trolley was the only safe place for them to talk and feel accepted. Occasionally, I rode the trolley just to be present and, in the spirit of Mercy, I was able to embrace them.

Catherine McAuley called us to share three things: “The kind word, the gentle, compassionate look and the patient hearing of their sorrows.” I hear God calling me to be that kind, gentle, compassionate and patient person to others. The deeper I go in Mercy, the more I am blessed with opportunities to grow and to be the living reflection of Catherine McAuley that the Mercy way of life is calling me to be.

—Sister Marissa Butler

The trolley community knows him as Grandpa. I told him that I had just moved to Joplin from Burlingame and prior to that Chicago, where I had mastered using public transportation; I promised to catch on eventually there, as well. This led to the question, “What brought you to Joplin?” and that is when my trolley ministry began. I shared my story with riders and drivers who quickly learned that not only was I a chaplain at the hospital, I was also in formation to be a Sister of Mercy.

The little trolley community became fascinated with my choice to join a religious community. I often joked that my street ministry was “chaplain of the trolley,” but the truth is, it was a real ministry. It showed me that the ministry to which I am being called did not need to be limited to the 36 hours I spent at the hospital each week.

When I began to see my trolley

In Joplin, Missouri, the public transportation system is called the Sunshine Lamp Trolley. The funny part is, it isn’t even a trolley; it’s a little green bus. There are three routes, and you can catch the bus once an hour. Most of my experience with public transportation has been in bigger cities—including Chicago, Illinois; Burlingame, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and St. Louis, Missouri—where you get on and off the bus without talking to anyone. It is almost an expectation that you keep to yourself and don’t interact with others.

In Joplin, my experience was com-pletely different. Every time I stepped onto the trolley, I was greeted with “Hi, chaplain” or “Hi, Sister.” The first time I took the trolley in April 2016, I met Sam, the driver who helped me learn my way around.

This little green bus helped build a community of friends in Joplin, Missouri.

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Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas8380 Colesville Road, Suite 300Silver Spring, Maryland 20910-6264

JUNE 30–JULY 3Conference of Mercy Student LeadersErie, PennsylvaniaContact: Kimberly [email protected]

JUNE 30–JULY 6Final Vow ExperienceMercy International Center, Dublin, IrelandContact: Sister Eileen [email protected]

JULY 16–192019 Young Mercy Leaders PilgrimageDublin, IrelandContact: Sister Anna [email protected]

JULY 20Institute Founding Anniversary

JULY 25–30CCASA Community GatheringLima, Peru

JULY 29–30Partners in Ministry Leadership AcademyChicago, IllinoisContact: Kimberly Baxter,[email protected]

JULY 30World Day against Trafficking in Persons

AUGUST 6–11Mercy Volunteer Corps Orientation RetreatGwynedd Mercy UniversityContact:[email protected]

AUGUST 9International Day of World Indigenous Peoples

AUGUST 15Feast of the Assumption

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“Sunrise at St. Hilary's, California,” by Sister Helen Gilsdorf.

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