March 10, 2007
Mount St. Joseph Motherhouse

Following are summaries, highlights, quotes and photos from Saturday, March 10 of the Chapter.

Elections
The Leadership Council of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati includes:
Sister Barbara Hagedorn, President
Sister Nancy Bramlage, Councilor
Sister Mary Michele Fischer, Councilor
Sister Lois Jean Goettke, Councilor
Sister Georgia Kitt, Councilor
Sister Patricia Mirsberger, Secretary (appointed)

The four year term of the elected governing body runs through June 30, 2011.

(From left to right) Sister Lois Jean Goettke, Mary Michelle Fischer, Barbara Hagedorn, Nancy Bramlage, and Georgia Kitt.

Blessings of the Newly Elected Officers
As each Sister was elected, she was presented with flowers and received great applause. The group sang “God Has Chosen Me.”

Newly elected Sisters, delegates and Associates met in the Chapel. Sister Maureen Heverin led the group in prayer. “Caritas Christi Urget Nos” was sung. Sister Judy Metz delivered the genealogy of SC leadership beginning with Elizabeth Seton through the present.

The five newly elected Sisters were called to the front of the Chapel. Sister Maureen Heverin lit five candles representing the new leadership members. Everyone raised their hands in blessing, singing once again, “God Has Chosen Me.” The congregation offered signs of peace to each other.

- Associate Mary Jo Mersmann

Genealogy of Community Leadership
Read by Sister Judith Metz as part of the blessing of the newly elected officers.
IN THE BEGINNING, Elizabeth Bayley Seton, impelled by the love of Christ and the needs of her times, searched for ways in which she could carry on God’s work in the circumstances of her life. Initially drawn to benevolent work as a young New York matron, she later attracted others to join her as she started her school in Baltimore. From there she and her companions responded to the stirrings of the Spirit by moving to Emmitsburg to establish the American Sisters of Charity, the first congregation of apostolic women native to the United States. Inspired by the spirit of Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, they embraced their work for the poor and needy with great zeal.

Shortly after Elizabeth’s death, four Sisters of Charity journeyed by stage and riverboat to Cincinnati where they began a long and faith-filled ministry in that growing city.

Within a quarter century, Margaret Farrell George and her valiant companions, seeking to honor Elizabeth Seton’s vision for the Sisters of Charity, separated from Emmitsburg to become an independent diocesan community.

In the following years Mothers Josephine Harvey, Regina Mattingly, Mary Paul Hayes and their councilors, women such as Sisters Anthony O’Connell, Sophia Gilmeyer, and Mary Agnes McCann, guided the young community in their pioneering efforts to serve God’s people in a country torn by civil war and transformed by a burgeoning population of immigrants. They responded to the internal migration patterns of the people by sending sisters to the New Mexico Territory as well as throughout Ohio and Michigan.

By the early 20th century, as the congregation was growing, the sisters were ready for new challenges. Under the wise leadership of Mothers Mary Blanche Davis, Sebastian Shea, Mary Florence Kent, Mary Bertha Armstrong and their councilors, women such as Sisters Leona Murphy, Ernestine Foskey, and Hildegarde Sumner, new orphanages and social service agencies, additional hospitals, and a variety of educational endeavors were added to the list of places where Sisters of Charity served.

An invitation for sisters to take charge of a small hospital in China stirred the community’s first interest in foreign missions. “Who among you are able and willing to go to China to take care of the poor sick?” was Mother Mary Irenaea Fahey’s appeal to the community in 1926. Chosen from among many volunteers, six sisters traveled up the Yangtze River to Wuchang to take charge of St. Joseph Hospital. Their work among the sick and orphans attracted Chinese women to join the Sisters of Charity. This group of foreign missionaries and Chinese sisters responded to great need among the Chinese people who suffered through the Japanese invasion and occupation of World War II and a civil war.

The 1920s also brought significant internal change with the decision to become a Congregation of Pontifical Right. Mothers Irenaea Fahey, Mary Regina Russell, Mary Zoe Farrell, Mary Romana Dodd and their councilors, such as Sisters Maria Corona Malloy, Anne Hermine Gerver and Elise Halloran, guided the community with faith and perseverance through the following years of transition and expansion of ministry.

The Sisters of Charity welcomed 39 members of the Pious Union of Our Lady of Good Counsel into their midst in 1930. In order to keep their ministries operating during the Great Depression, they mortgaged most of their property, and even managed to expand their work into new areas such as operating a retreat house and a day care center. In the post World War II years, as membership in the community grew, the sisters built replacement facilities for outdated structures, greatly expanded their work in parochial education, built a new home on the motherhouse grounds for sisters in need of health care, opened an orphanage in Rome, and dedicated precious resources to the religious and professional preparation of new members.

In 1960 the call for volunteers to serve abroad again elicited an overwhelming response from the sisters. Those chosen to serve journeyed the following year to the Peruvian altiplano as well to Lima where they continued the congregation’s ministry with Chinese people. This service outside the United States has been continued through subsequent decades in places such as Malawi, Kenya – Vietnam, Macao – Mexico, Brazil, and Guatemala.

No one could have foreseen the radical impact of the Second Vatican Council on religious congregations. With sweeping changes came internal turmoil and the loss of many valued members. Sisters Mary Omer Downing, Mary Assunta Stang, Helen Flaherty and their councilors, women such as Sisters Mary Janet Miller, Edward Cecile Hafertepe, and Mark Neumann, led the congregation through a reassessment of ministry, lifestyle, membership, sponsorship, and governance. The first congregation-wide Gatherings, which included participants in the newly established Associate Program as well as former members, challenged participants to expand their horizons and imagine their future. During this period sisters branched out into many new ministries, and the Sisters of Charity Health Care System was formed.

In our most recent years, Sisters Maryanna Coyle, Mary Ellen Murphy and Barbara Hagedorn and their councilors such as Sisters Pat Underhill, Mary Jo Gasdorf, and Katie Hoelscher, have boldly addressed the tension between decreasing numbers of sisters and increasing human needs. They have facilitated our crafting of Charism, Mission and Vision Statements, created the SC Ministry Foundation, and managed our resources in such a way that many sisters are enabled to minister among the needy of every description.

Throughout our history, our elected leaders have called us to critique the dominant culture and to be counter-signs in our violent, consumer-driven secular culture. They have walked with us, shared our joys and struggles, and encouraged us to be open continually to growth and change. In 2004 we were all enriched when we welcomed 49 former Vincentian Sisters of Charity from Bedford, Ohio into our midst, while at the same time seeing the Associate Program continue to expand both numerically and in levels of participation.

Today, urged by the same love of Christ that impelled Elizabeth and Margaret, Vincent and Louise, we call forth the following women to lead us through the next stages of our journey in a continuing spirit of humility, simplicity, charity, and a deep sense of meeting our grace in every aspect of our lives.

 

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