Roz Parr, Author at Sisters of Mercy

Bringing the Border Experience Home

byRoz Parr

July 5, 2022

By Elnora Bassey, Policy Advocate, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) — In early May 2022, I arose from my cozy bed hours before sunrise to catch an early flight to the U.S.-Mexico border. An advocate attorney with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), which works to protect immigrant and humanitarian rights, I was participating in a week-long border immersion experience to El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to learn more about immigration issues facing migrants during and after their journey to the U.S.-Mexico border. The program was sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy and hosted by the Columban Mission Center.

Joy, Pain and Mercy on the Border

byRoz Parr

July 3, 2022

By Catherine Walsh, Features Writer
— The joy I found on the U.S.-Mexico border in May surprised me. I heard horrific stories of people fleeing violence and poverty in Central America, Haiti and Ukraine, but I also saw countless kindnesses by migrants and those who help them while I was in El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Mexico, with the Sisters of Mercy to learn why people are coming to the border in ever higher numbers. I heard people say that the Southern Border is the new Ellis Island.

Following are photos capturing our time at the border.

Learning to Advocate Through Mercy

byRoz Parr

July 1, 2022

By Amanda Ricci, student, Georgian Court University, New Jersey —
Making the decision to travel to Washington D.C. and advocate for climate policy was far and beyond my comfort zone but was the leap of faith I needed. Engaging in advocacy trainings and putting those learned skills into action was certainly anxiety-provoking but entirely worth it in the end. Not only did I find my voice to address environmental concerns, but I learned how to do so through a Mercy lens.

The value of interrelationship

byRoz Parr

June 29, 2022

By Sister Estela Gomez — “Centered in God and the Spirit of Catherine McAuley, what critical conversations and collective responses are we invited to explore now?” We Sisters of Mercy are currently reflecting on this question as we prepare to gather in the spring for our next direction-setting meeting. At a similar meeting in 2017, we committed to engagement in education and dialogue around the subject of gender identity and sexual orientation. The question before us now invites us to consider the challenges more deeply, beyond what we’ve already been doing.

Finding community in Mercy as Catholic and LGBTQ+

byRoz Parr

June 28, 2022

By Carolyn Shalhoub, Mercy Associate — In 2017, at a direction-setting international meeting, the Sisters of Mercy committed to education and engaged dialogue on gender identity and sexual orientation. How farsighted it was for the sisters to set out on this particular journey. Catherine McAuley would be proud.

Walking with Saints at the Border

byRoz Parr

June 25, 2022

By Joanne Castner, Mercy Associate — On May 8, 2022, 13 of us from across the United States gathered in the living room of the Columban Mission House in El Paso, Texas, the beginning of an immersion trip to meet with people who find ways to organize their communities and improve living conditions for those in need, and to discover why so many people from other countries are seeking to cross our nation’s borders.

The Work of Brave Women at the El Paso-Juarez Border

byRoz Parr

June 23, 2022

By Gail Presbey, faculty member, University of Detroit Mercy — I was grateful for the opportunity to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border and see for myself the struggles that immigrants have, and to meet the people who are ministering to their needs and organizing for change. I was glad to do so in the company of Sisters of Mercy, Mercy associates and educators at Mercy institutions. I’d like to focus on the women I met there and the important work they do.

Embracing LGBTQ+ Education and Dialogue With Mercy

byRoz Parr

June 21, 2022

By Sister Eileen Campbell — Ever since I can remember in any of my ministries, I’ve known LGBTQ+ people who are alienated from and harmed by our church and society. They have been deeply traumatized, and unable to be who they are without judgment, alienation and cruelty. It should go without saying that people who are being true to who they are as LGBTQ+ individuals shouldn’t be subjected to such treatment in any part of our society, let alone our church, but they are and their pain cries out for healing.

Blessed, Broken, Shared: A Reflection for Corpus Christi

byRoz Parr

June 17, 2022

By Sister Michelle Gorman — The Gospel reading for the feast of Corpus Christi is a microcosm of the life of Jesus and how we are to understand ourselves as members of the Body of Christ. Jesus is healing those in the crowd in the context of the reign of God, and he places this reign of God within the reality of a crowd whose hunger can be fed by the intervention of the Twelve in the present moment. The seemingly insignificant five loaves and two fish are multiplied through the action of blessing, breaking and sharing.

Ready to Ride the Poor People’s Campaign Bus!

byRoz Parr

June 15, 2022

By Karel Lucander, Features Writer
— Sister Joan Serda and Sister Marilyn Graf have that feeling you get right before you embark on a big adventure. At 6 a.m. on June 17, they will board the Poor People’s Campaign Bus in Mobile, Alabama, bound for Washington, D.C.—leaving the comfort of the Convent of Mercy far behind.

Planting Seeds of Hope for African Farmers: A Mercy Investment Services Story

byRoz Parr

June 14, 2022

By Sarah Smith, director of Mercy Partnership Fund —

Rebecca Chituyi, a 27-year-old farmer in Kenya’s Bungoma District, and her husband Richard worked hard to support their family on just a half-acre of land, but didn’t see much success. “The harvest used to depress me,” says Rebecca. “I would only get two bags of maize (corn), and this only lasted us for a few months.” In 2018, One Acre Fund came to Rebecca’s village. The nonprofit organization, which the Sisters of Mercy have invested in through the Mercy Partnership Fund, the global community investing program of Mercy Investment Services, provides seeds, fertilizer, education and post-harvest support to more than 1.4 million smallholder farmers across Africa.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss

byRoz Parr

June 10, 2022

By Sister Patricia McCann, RSM — It is time to go back to the use of the word ignorant in our Mercy vocabulary. Catherine McAuley committed us to service among “the poor, sick and ignorant.” In recent years we changed wording to uneducated in many of our documents and in daily usage. Thinking of the vast network of Mercy educational institutions, we thought uneducated seemed more inclusive and less pejorative. And in that limited context it probably is. In contemporary times, though, we are discovering a new urgency about denouncing ignorance.

Author: Roz Parr