Sisters in the News
Sister Priscilla receives NRVC award
It is a rare honor to receive the National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC) Outstanding Recognition Award, and Sister Priscilla Moreno is one of this year’s recipients.
Just 34 NRVC members have received this award since its inception in 1990. Typically, two or three are honored biannually, but with many exceptional nominees this year, five will receive the award. Awards will be bestowed on October 31 after the biannual NRVC Convocation ceremony.
Please click here to for more information about this award.
Sister Sharon nominated for Ohio healthcare award
Sister Sharon Wiedmar, director of mission and volunteer services at Mercy Health-Fairfield Hospital in Fairfield, Ohio, was nominated for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award.
Each hospital or health system may nominate a single caregiver for the award, presented annually. Sister Sharon was selected for Mercy Health-Fairfield Hospital from among more than 1,800 workers and was one of 60 nominated statewide.
Ministering in healthcare for 19 years, Sister Sharon is a valued member of the senior leadership team at Mercy Health-Fairfield Hospital.
“Sister Sharon is one of those people that gets the job done without a lot of fanfare and with grace and humility,” says Sister Cheryl Erb, chief sponsorship officer of the Mid-American Group of Bon Secours Mercy. “For that reason, she is so well respected by all of the staff at the hospital. Her presence empowers so many people to go the extra mile and to do it with great delight and generosity.”
On August 25, Shari Kebler of Holzer Health System received the 2020 Health Care Worker of the Year Award.
After 50 years leading Stella Maris, Sister Karen McNally earns break
Sister Karen McNally, a Religious Sister of Mercy who retired Sept. 27 as head of Stella Maris after giving it 50 years of service, knows the power of saying “yes.”
Click on the blue words below to read the article about Sister Karen.
Interview with Sister Mary Haddad
Modern Healthcare published an interview with Sister Mary Haddad, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association. “I’m seeing our health ministries developing greater partnerships in the communities in order to provide better care for the patients we serve and looking at those social needs that impact their health,” she says.
Click on the blue words below to read the article about Sister Mary.
Sister Michelle Salois is helping fill a gap in much-needed mental health services among immigrant community in St. Louis
Sister Michelle Salois among nearly two dozen providers bridging need for mental health carethrough partnership with Casa de Salud.
Click on the blue words below to read the article about Sister Michelle.
She’s 111 now!
Sister Mary Aidan Donaldson celebrated her 111th birthday on Tuesday, August 20, 2019, at Convent of Mercy in Mobile, Alabama. She is believed to be the oldest Sister of Mercy in the world and perhaps the oldest living member of any religious order. Most days she is up and dressed, sitting in the community room reading, as well as observing all the comings and goings and occasionally summoning a passerby by name.
“One of the amazing things about this remarkable woman of Mercy is how much she still participates in community activities,” says Sister Carolyn Oberkirch, retirement convent administrator. “These include liturgy and prayer, bingo and bunco, Wheel of Fortune, and Saturday evening happy hour.”
Click on the blue words below to read an article about Sister Aidan in a newspaper published in her native Ireland.
Sister Carol Anne Corley: A fisher of men (and women)
“Gather ‘round and choose your thread color,” said Sister Carol Anne Corley, RSM, to a class of middle school students. It’s early dismissal today but nobody’s going home until they get their first fishing fly tied in Sister Carol Anne’s class, part of the art curriculum at St. John School in Hot Springs.
Click on the blue words belwo to read the rest of the story:
Mercy Sisters Join Others Fighting Injustice In Honduras
Sister Terri Bednarz was featured in an article about a “reverse caravan” to Honduras in which Sisters of Mercy and members of other religious groups participated in late March. Click on the blue word below to read the story:
St. Augustine-Wellston Center ‘committed to help
When Wellston residents showed up at a regular Thursday morning gathering last November at the St. Augustine-Wellston Center, Sister Carol Ann Callahan could tell something was up.
They were “very stressed out,” recalled the center director. Residents at a senior public housing complex had been notified that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to demolish the building, among other public housing units in Wellston — a total of 201 to be exact. Click on the blue words below to read the rest of the story:
Sister Mary Brigid Perez honored with naming of foster home
An emergency transitional home for children has been renamed for Sister Mary Brigid Perez, honoring her work with thousands of children and their families on Guam. The home provides shelter for children waiting to be placed in foster care. Click on the blue words below to read more in the Guam Pacific Daily News:
Letters: Welcome, don’t punish, refugees
Why are U.S. citizens, many of them Christians, among the most virulent supporters of the border wall, deporting people to their deaths, and imprisoning desperate families and their children for months on end? For those of us who have accompanied refugees at some point in our lives, the rhetoric of demonization and the apathy toward the most vulnerable people in the world is appalling. To read the letter in The Advocate please click on the blue words below:
Religious sisters in Mocksville live out the charism of their Belmont-based order
The Catholic News Herald featured Sister Martha Hoyle and Sister Susie Dandison and their ministry in Mocksville, North Carolina. A Storehouse for Jesus offers goods and services to economically poor residents of Davie County, ranging from food and clothing to haircuts and medical care. To read the story in Catholic News Herald, click on the blue word:
Storehouse
Sister honored as leader
Sister Helen Amos was honored on July 27, 2018, with the Catholic Business Network of Baltimore’s Leadership Award for outstanding leadership at Mercy Health Services, the community of Baltimore, Maryland, and the church. With Sister Helen are Kevin Spargo, president, Catholic Business Network of Baltimore (left), and Archbishop William Lori.
Legacy Award presented
Last year the Institute Leadership Team (ILT)initiated the Sister Marie Chin Legacy Award, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Institute’s founding and to honor Sister Marie, who served in leadership for the Institute for 14 years. Over the next 25 years, the ILT will annually award $25,000 to a Mercy ministry that serves those who are economically poor and that accompanies people in their education and spiritual formation.
On July 26, 2018, the ILT honored Casa de Misericordia of Laredo, Texas, and its executive director, Sister Rosemary Welsh, as the 2018 recipient of the Sister Marie Chin Legacy Award. Click on the blue words below to read more in Mercy Now:
Sister Marie Chin Legacy Award
Savannah sister featured
The St. Joseph’s/Candler website has a feature story about Sister Jude Walsh titled “The Principal’s Principles of Happiness.” Sister Jude ministered as principal of St. Vincent’s Academy in Savannah, Georgia, and now serves on its board. Click on the blue word below to read more:
Principal
Jubilarians honored
Three Jubilarians were honored during the annual Mass for World Day of Consecrated Life on Saturday, February 3, 2018, at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, North Carolina: Sister Ellen McSorley (70 years); Sister Brigid McCarthy (50 years); and Sister Paulette Williams (50 years). After the Mass, St. Patrick hosted a luncheon in their honor. To read more in the Catholic News Herald, click on the blue word:
Prayer to end trafficking
Sisters of Mercy and Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte hosted a service Thursday, February 9, 2018, to pray for an end to human trafficking. They gathered in the chapel at Sacred Heart Convent in Belmont, North Carolina, to pay homage to St. Josephine Bakhita, patron saint of Sudan who was enslaved and tortured. Sister Rose Marie Tresp, the South Central Community’s director of justice, helped lead the ceremony. To read more in the Catholic News Herald, click on the blue word:
Sister of Mercy takes her ministry to the homeless
Catholic Health World features Sister Lisa Atkins and her ministry for the homeless, which she established about two years ago in Rogers, Arkansas, and nearby Bentonville. Sister Lisa organizes a weekly free hot meal program at a motel, where homeless people sometimes live, as a way to build trust with the occupants and inform them about social services and medical care available through Mercy and other community nonprofits. To read more, click on her name below:
Coffee & Doughnuts with Sister Helen Amos
The Catholic Review, publication of the Archdiocese of Baltimore (Maryland), published an interview with Sister Helen Amos in its December 2017 issue. Sister Helen talks about her Catholic roots in Mobile, Alabama, and her ministry as chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. Click on her name below to read more:
Surgeon general honors sister
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy presented a Certificate of Appreciation to Sister Charlotte Kerr for “outstanding service on the Presidentially-appointed Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health, and contributions to the implementation of the National Prevention Strategy.”
Sister Charlotte served on the 21-member Advisory Group from its inception in 2011 through the submission of its final report in September 2016. She also served on the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and the Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health Alternative Medicine Program.
A registered nurse, acupuncturist, professor emerita at the Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH), and public health consultant, Sister Charlotte sees patients in the MUIH Natural Care Center in Columbia, Maryland.
Cincinnati sister featured
In observance of the Year of Consecrated Life, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio, featured interviews with several members of religious orders, including Sister Sally Sherman. To see the interview with Sister Sally, in which she talks about the Critical Concerns and her ministry, click on the blue words below:
Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital celebrates retirement of Sister Valentina Sheridan
Sister Valentina Sheridan, the director of mission integration at Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital, has retired after more than 21 years of ministry to patients and families at the facility. Known to all as “Sister Val,” the hospital celebrated her retirement with a reception attended by staff, physicians, volunteers and friends.
Sister Valentina began working at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in 1994 as the director of pastoral care, and was instrumental in shaping the continued growth and professionalization of that department at the hospital. Through the years, Sister Valentina used her gifts to help others both emotionally and spiritually, from her steady presence at the bedside of patients to providing words of support and encouragement to families.
To read the complete story, please click on the blue words below:
Happy 90th birthday!
St. Vincent’s Academy in Savannah, Georgia, threw a surprise birthday party for Sister Mary Jude Walsh, who turned 90 on Saturday, February 14, 2015.
Sister Jude graduated from St. Vincent’s and served as its principal from 1967 to 2003. To see WTOC-TV’s story on her birthday celebration, please click on the blue words below:
National publication features sister
Sister Mary Schmuck discusses her ministry in an interview with Sister Camille D’Arienzo, RSM (Mid-Atlantic) in the National Catholic Reporter. Sister Mary is parish social ministry coordinator for the Nazareth Office of Catholic Charities of Louisville, Kentucky.
“This office promotes parish social ministry, especially among 47 Catholic parishes in 19 Kentucky counties organized into four archdiocesan regions,” she says. “Such ministry can be considered a three-leaf clover: charitable outreach, faithful citizenship, and global solidarity.” To read more, please click on the blue words below:
Sister named to university board
The Arkansas Catholic reported Sister Judith Marie Keith’s election to University of the Ozarks’ Board of Trustees in Clarksville, Arkansas. Her three-year term will begin January 1, 2015.
Sister Judith ministers as a consultant for Subiaco Academy in Subiaco, Arkansas. To read the article, please click on the blue words below:
Sister Judith Marie
Sister Doris shares experience
The National Catholic Reporter recently published an interview with Sister Doris Gottemoeller by Sister Camille D’Arienzo, RSM (Mid-Atlantic). Sister Doris talks about her role as the first president of the Institute, her mentors and role models, community life, and what drew her to the Sisters of Mercy.
“I came to desire a life of prayer and deeper purpose,” she says. “The choice of the Sisters of Mercy was based on the encouragement of the sisters in the parish and, especially, on my observation that they did a variety of ministries: teaching, health care, social work, and foreign missions. So my reasoning was that by joining them, God would choose the type of work I was meant to do.”
To read the interview, please click on the blue words below:
Magazine features sisters’ Civil War nursing
The September 2014 issue of Our State North Carolina magazine features Sisters of Mercy in its series about the Civil War.
It describes the sisters’ arrival in Beaufort, North Carolina, on a steam tug and tells how they tended sick and wounded soldiers using their tools of “good nutrition, cleanliness and gentleness.” To read the story, please click on the blue words below.
Sister Roch Tranforms Health Care, Earns Lifetime Achievement Award
The Catholic Health Association (CHA) has named Mercy’s Sister Mary Roch Rocklage, as a recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing how she guided Mercy through momentous growth and change to become a leader in health care delivery innovation and the sixth largest Catholic health system in the United States. The award will be presented today at CHA’s 2014 Catholic Health Assembly in Chicago.
Sister Roch’s remarkable career in health care started more than 50 years ago as a nursing student and over the years led to positions of leadership including hospital president, the Mercy health system’s first president and CEO, chair of the board, and today, health ministry liaison and board member. She shepherded Mercy’s transition from individual hospitals to a system, and then to a new form of leadership designed to ensure the future of the health ministry with fewer Sisters of Mercy to serve. Please click onthe blue words below to read the complete story.
Sisters answer call during U.S. Civil War
When civil war broke out in the United States in 1861 neither the Union nor the Confederacy made arrangements for hospitals or medical care for their soldiers. Among those answering the call to help care for the injured were nearly 600 Roman Catholic sisters, including the Sisters of Mercy, many of whom were new residents of the U.S.
“The Sisters of Mercy fulfilled a very important role with the military on both sides during the Civil War because there were very few trained nurses in those days,” said Myra Joines, communications director for the Sisters of Mercy–South Central Community. Please click on the blue words below to read the complete story.
Why I Am a Nun on the Bus in Ohio
Why? In October 2012 the bus tour departed from Cincinnati to promote The Faithful Budget as an alternative to the Ryan Budget that Sister Simone Campbell of NETWORK had so eloquently introduced when the national Nuns on the Bus (NOTB) tour stopped in Cincinnati in June. Please click on the blue words below to read Sister Carren Herring’s complete blog.
Nuns on the Bus Ohio
Sister Rose Marie Tresp fasts for immigrant justice
Sister Rose Marie Tresp of Belmont, a Sister of Mercy for 46 years, has advocated for fair treatment of immigrants in the U.S. for many years, particularly since she became director of justice for the Sisters of Mercy – South Central Community in 2008.
But when the call came to join the Fast for Immigrant Justice that began on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 12, she hesitated because of her busy schedule advocating for and educating others on a variety of justice issues. Please click on the blue words below to read more about Sister Rose Marie’s participation in “Fast for Families: A Call for Immigration Reform & Citizenship.”
Sister Rose Marie Tresp
Nun fasts for immigration reform
Alpha Boys’ School makes successful Branson pitch
Alpha Boys’ School received first place in the Pitch To Rich competition at the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship—Caribbean (BCoEC) earlier this month. Alpha’s clothing line, Alpha Wear JA, will be featured on Virgin Unite’s website, in addition to the school having access to a new loan program through the BCoEC. Please click here to read the complete story.