Women of Faith by Mary Beth Fraser Connolly

Author:Mary Beth Fraser Connolly [Connolly, Mary Beth Fraser]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Social History, Religion, Christian Ministry, Missions, Christianity, General
ISBN: 9780823254743
Google: epKUDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
Published: 2014-02-03T04:13:26+00:00

Figure 20. Community-owned home, Robert St., Aurora, 1980: Local sisters host get-together of members of their community in their home.

The Mercys who moved out of traditional convent-settings spoke of wanting to be treated as mature individuals. Making independent choices about where and how one lived is culturally an “adult” behavior. Moving from renting to home ownership is another step, which historically has reflected stability and permanence, but may run counter to the idea of religious poverty and availability for ministry wherever needed. The Mercys, however, had long owned and often built their high school, academy, and hospital convents, and property ownership was not a new phenomenon for the community. The Chicago Province, however, saw in the changed religious climate the need to have more control, or self-determination, over the manner in which they shaped religious life, and Mercy-owned houses and apartment buildings were a way to accomplish this goal. As time progressed, traditional convents came to serve new purposes, as the Mercys transitioned many of these buildings into assisted living and nursing homes, which enabled the community to protect and respect the individual person as she aged. Those who opted to live in the traditional convents during this period, however, were not divorced from the changes to community life and often “experimented” with and engaged in new modes of relating to one another as sisters, like their sisters who formed intentional communities in rented parish convents, apartments, and community-owned homes. In a similar manner, this respect for the individual sister’s choice was reflected in space given to explore and make new ministerial choices throughout the late 1960s and 1970s.52

“We are committed to the apostolic mandate”

The September 1970 issue of Exchange included a quote from Mercy Covenant, the interim Constitutions that re-articulated in modernized language the place that Sisters of Mercy had occupied as apostolic beings in the world. It began:

Both as a community and as individual members we are committed to the apostolic mandate; however, we acknowledge as inherent in any corporate effort the hope that dedicated persons will maximize the possibility of value changes and needed renewal. We recognize the value of extending the apostolate . . . Religious women today are asked to find Christ in society and to hear Him in the needs of His people.53

This passage encapsulated both the importance of “individual members” and a “corporate effort” to act in society. While the language fits with the times, the sentiments go right to the heart of the Sisters of Mercy’s charism. While they operated from different perspectives and worldviews, Catherine McAuley’s nineteenth-century sisters went out into their world to hear the “the needs of [God’s] people,” just as the Chicago Mercys envisioned doing at the beginning of the 1970s. This issue of Exchange went on to report on the various ways the individual members of the Chicago Province acted in the society, from Sister Mary Lou Hogan’s volunteer efforts on her brother Mark’s campaign for governor of Colorado to Sister Mary Thomasina Kobliska’s work as nutritionist and coordinator of the Pinal County, Arizona Nutrition Project Team.

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