A variety of gifts

Last week Sr. Mary Lou Gillon said her last goodbye to the many, many residents at Mont Marie whom she served as pastoral minister. Mary Lou performed this service for 14 years.  (She is on the right in the picture.)

The reason I’m writing about this is because during the five plus years I’ve worked here at the Mont, I was continually impressed by her truly generous nature, her genuine warmth, and her ability to project real caring to the people with whom she worked. Granted, I wasn’t with her most of the time, so there must have been times when she was grouchy, frustrated, or just plain in a bad mood – but I never saw that, I don’t think any of the residents did either. She went to hospitals in the middle of the night and stayed for hours in the ER, sat with very, very sick patients, offered endless prayer on their behalf, and talked to family members of the residents of the Health Care Center about difficult end of life issues. She went to wakes and funerals a lot. It’s truly lucky that God blesses us with a variety of gifts because I could never do what she did.

Anyway, I think I’ll ask Mary Lou to write a blog about her experience as a pastoral minister here at the Mont, but I believe she’ll say, “You know, Denise, I’m not good with the computer” (and probably has never looked at the blog), but she is really good at some very important things. We’ll see.

What does "Catholic" mean?

A few days ago at morning prayer, we read the following excerpt from Joan Chittister's God's Tender Mercy, Reflections on Forgiveness: "Because history shows us that the church is a sinful church, it is the very place in which we should be able to find the greatest degree of mercy, of understanding, of compassion, of non-judgmentalism." 

It put me in mind of the unfortunate action of Bishop Thomas Olmsted in Phoenix when he had the Eucharist removed from St. Joseph's Hospital and stripped it of its Catholic designation for performing an abortion in November 2009 to save the life a pregnant woman suffering from severe symptoms of pulmonary hypertension.  Last May Bishop Olmsted excommunicated Sr. Margaret McBride, a member of the Sisters of Mercy (whose congregation founded the hospital over a hundred years ago) because she served on the hospital's ethics committee and was involved in the decision to save the mother of four other children.

While none of us is privy to the process Bishop Olmsted used to arrive at his decision, it seems that his harsh, legalistic application of punishment has done a lot of harm and saddened many ordinary Catholics - many who really would like to somehow find a way to stay within the walls of the Church despite its missteps.  The people of God display much more compassion and understanding than the Bishop of Phoenix does.  If just a few bishops in the United States would say (audibly) that Olmsted is over the top in the area of judging who sins and who doesn't and what must be done about it, then I think the small flame of hope will burn a while longer in our hearts.

Mary and God's Plan

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Mary was preserved from all stain of original sin from the first moment of her conception. In a brief reflection on this feast Joan Chittister, OSB, says “It is important to remember that Divinity stirred first in a woman and because of her in the rest of us. It is important to realize how integral to God’s plan for salvation women really are. It is even more important to work for the feminine in life or God’s plan can never really be whole.” The Church honors Mary for the role she fulfilled in God’s plan. Her virtues and characteristics are held as holy. But somehow the fact that God chose a woman for a pivotal role in salvation history does not translate into the recognition by many in the hierarchy of the virtues and characteristics women could bring to bear on the work of the Church today. This situation has persisted over time and has eroded the belief that there might be cause for hope that things might change any time soon.


Added to being relegated to second class citizenship is the Vatican’s use of an apostolic visitation to figure out what’s wrong with US women religious and make some recommendations to help us. Offering a tiny glimmer of reality, Archbishop Joseph Tobin, newly appointed Secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said that Rome must acknowledge the “depth of anger and hurt” provoked by a visitation of American nuns and that it illustrates the need for a “strategy of reconciliation” with women religious. Tobin said that he does not expect any “punitive” fallout from the visitation, and that before any decisions are made women’s communities should have a chance to know the results and to respond.  We’ll see, I’m not holding my breath.

Here's an opportunity

Restorative Justice & Community Accountability Boards
    
In 2005 Mary Quinn, ssj, changed her ministry in restorative justice to answer a call to serve as the president of our congregation. Before and since then she has encouraged many sisters to be part of Community Accountability Boards which are a vital part of the work of restorative justice. At a recent appreciation dinner for volunteers in this work we heard from Sheriff Michael Ashe, James Kelleher, and Monica Dominique, coordinators of CAB, how important this volunteer work is for local communities and former inmates.

Community Accountability Boards meet face to face with an offender once a month for four months. He or she is challenged to examine his/her actions, take responsibility for those actions, and explore how those actions have affected victims as well as other people in the community, themselves, and their family. Assignments are given to the offenders each month by members of the board. In turn the offenders spend time writing answers to the assignments and sharing them with the board at the next month's meeting. The time spent doing the assignments and the sharing that follows allows for conversations and future choices that might be impossible to do without the concern of CAB volunteer community members.

One of the most important principles to remember in this work is that the boards of volunteers take a non-judgmental stance during the time spent with the offenders. In fact, the offenders have already been judged and have been incarcerated for their crime and have chosen to be part of this program. Board members are also asked to keep whatever is shared at the meeting only for those present.

Due to many changes in our lives, several of our sisters who were volunteers are no longer able to be part of this program. Perhaps there are others, including associates and agregees, or partners in ministry who might consider this very important work within their own communities. The basic commitment for volunteers is a meeting once a month facilitated by a staff member from the Sheriff’s department. The two hour a.m. and/or p.m. (your choice) meetings are held in the communities of Chicopee, Holyoke, and Springfield.

If anyone would like further information about this program please feel free to call or e-mail the Justice & Peace Office. rmulcahy@ssjspringfield.com

This article appeared in Mission an online newsletter of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield.  It was written by Roberta Mulcahy, Justice and Peace Coordinator.

Women & Spirit

Now and then a good shot in the arm is just the thing, isn't it?  At the end of October hundreds of Sisters of Saint Joseph from the northeast traveled to Ellis Island to experience Women & Spirit Catholic Sisters in America, a traveling exhibit chronicling the breath and depth of the contributions sisters made to the country and to the church.  The exhibit was organized by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) an association of leaders of congregations of women religious in the United States.

Standing side by side with sisters in my own congregation, gathering the information, learning about women whose stories are known by few outside their own group and thinking about the courage, perseverance, and savvy it took to establish - hospitals, orphanages, colleges, and a myriad of other service institutions - usually with very few resources and sometimes in the face of opposition, made me proud.

Seeing the panel highlighting the Sisters of Saint Joseph who responded from France to an invitation to come to Missouri and teach the deaf in St Louis in 1836 underscored for me what these faithfilled 'women of spirit' did.  I have thought often of how solid are the shoulders we stand on - never more so than that afternoon in New York.  I did count my blessings.

(In the photo above Sisters Maureen Broughan,left, and Connie Quinlan take in one of the panels in the exhibit.)  For more information visit:  womenandspirit.org

Whose court is the ball in?

It is the day after the midterm elections and voters have decided (apparently) to turn the House of Representatives over to the Republican Party. Frustration with government, pretty much at all levels, is deep and wide. Understandable. I am finding it hard to be optimistic about what lies in our immediate future. More gridlock? Can Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner really find some common ground from which the federal government can address the common good?

I think that voters are sick of deep partisanship and if it continues for the next two years then we’ll have more head-spinning results in the 2012 presidential.

As a dyed-in-the-wool Massachusetts liberal and an SSJ the task of uniting neighbor with neighbor seems incredibly daunting in the harsh political climate of the country and of the Church for that matter.

The times, it seems, are calling for a courageous articulation of the teachings of Jesus; learning from and walking with people who are vulnerable and voiceless; and “joining with others in prayer and in action to effect change in those ecclesial and civic systems that hinder the journey toward the day when all will be one.” (2005 Chapter Commitments) May God bless us all.

Can we "describe the emperor's clothes/"

Roberta Mulcahy, ssj, wrote the following article for "Mission" one of our congregational communications.

Remember the story of the young boy who told the people just what the Emperor had on or to be exact didn't have on?

At a recent Sister of Earth conference we were challenged by Vandana Shiva, our guest speaker from India, to "Describe the Emperor's Clothes."  In other words she challenged us to speak and act from the wisdom of our education and lived experiences about the life issues of food, health, and water.  These justice issues affect, as we are well aware, poor peole, the earth, and the rising poverty experienced throughout the world.  We also know that the corporate world plays a key role in controlling food, health, and water in many poor countries as well as our own.

Reflecting on this brought to mind our involvement in the corporate world through our investments. There is no question that we are part of the Wall Street financial system.  Our SSJ investment philosophy gives us guidelines for investments which we try to follow and to update when necessary.  However, that doesn't excuse our need to educate and act through proxy work and shareholder resolutions.

Two particular corporations that we hold for advocacy work, Coca Cola and Monsanto, are very involved in poor countries through their water "rights" and seed programs.  Coke needs water rights to produce its soft drinks which are mostly water.  Monsanto produces hybrid seeds which are genetically modified (GMO) and which cannot be saved.  Both these corporations are in some litigation over policies they use in poor countries.  We also hold two health related corporations for advocacy:  Merck and Schering-Plough.  Patents held by these and many corporations control who "owns" what and who untimately receives the "rights" to medicines, water and seeds.

We will respond to Vandana Shiva's challenge by working with organizations like ICCR, Network, SOE and all who have the courage to "describe the emperor's clothes" so that the voices of the poor people and the earth are heard in their need for food, health, and water.

Last July, the United Nations General Assembly voted to support a nonbinding resolution declaring access to clean water and sanitation as a human right.  Canada, the United States, and Australia were among the 41 countries to abstain from the vote.  No country voted against the measure.  More than 884 million people around the world lack access to clean drinking water and 2.6 billion are without access to basic sanitation.