Featured Articles

Sisters Connect with New Superintendent
By S. Mary Bodde

Dr. Jim Rigg, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati,
visits with Sisters Jeanne Bessette, OSF, Barbara Hagedorn, SC, Rosina Panning, SC,
and Jane Vogt, SC at the Motherhouse.

Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati have discovered ministry connections with the superintendent of the Cincinnati Archdiocesan Catholic Schools. S. Rosina Panning started the ball rolling. In a mailing received from Divine Redeemer School in Colorado Springs, Colo., S. Rosina read of the appointment of Dr. Jim Rigg, the principal of Divine Redeemer, as the new superintendent in Cincinnati. One of the original teachers at Divine Redeemer, S. Rosina wrote to congratulate Dr. Rigg on his new position and invited him to lunch at the Mount St. Joseph Motherhouse. (In 2007, Dr. Rigg had invited the Sisters of Charity who had staffed Divine Redeemer to celebrate its 50 anniversary; none were able to attend.) Joining them at the August luncheon was S. Jane Vogt, who had been Divine Redeemer’s principal from 1956 until 1958. Both Sisters were so pleased to hear that Dr. Rigg had greatly increased enrollment, one of the reasons that may have made him an attractive candidate for the superintendent position in Cincinnati. “It’s good to know that I’m following what the Sisters of Charity started,” Dr. Rigg told Sisters Rosina and Jane, the only surviving Sisters of Charity to staff that school. On a tour of the Motherhouse chapel and Heritage Room, Dr. Rigg commented, “How very tastefully the exhibits show off the wonderful contributions the Sisters of Charity have made, especially in education.” The Sisters learned of other connections between the Charities and Dr. Rigg. Before taking the position at Divine Redeemer, Dr. Rigg had been principal in one of the eight former inner-city elementary schools that had long been closed in Memphis, Tenn., the former ministry home of Sisters Armin and Imelda Cooper. The two Sisters of Charity remember the effectiveness of the renewed Catholic School System, inaugurated by Bishop J. Terry Steib, called the “Memphis Miracle.” The initiative also had propped up two struggling high schools and provided funding for Catholic school scholarships. Today the eight schools serve 1,400 students, and some have waiting lists. At the Motherhouse luncheon with Dr. Rigg many Sisters stopped to welcome the new superintendent. Sisters Mary Dolores and Marie Irene Schneider, who are longtime faculty members of Seton High School in Cincinnati, recalled that four Seton graduates have been and are continuing as secretaries in Cincinnati Catholic School offices. Dr. Rigg chose Seton as the first Cincinnati Catholic high school to visit; he also offered the prayer at the Seton faculty meeting. May the ball S. Rosina started rolling continue to support these mutual relationships.

 

 

back to top

 

 

Charity ResourcesIn MemoriamSeton Enablement Fund