Religious
Life An
action plan for justice
By ARTHUR JONES
NCR Staff St. Louis
The 1999 chapter meeting, said Sr.
Betsy McMillan -- here with her colleague from Honduras, Sr. Eve Lallo, who
works with Honduran Mercy sisters at an AIDS babies center -- was a
continuation of what weve been about for 30 years. We started with the
external stuff. Now were at the heart, each discovering what we have to
offer.
I no longer say, Where do they need philosophy
teachers? No, I look to see where there are other needs. Period. And then
I see if Im being called to that.
And in Honduras, McMillan ended up teaching philosophy anyway --
along with conducting a campus ministry, teaching a diploma course in
professional ethics and going to the hospice to cradle AIDS
babies.
Whatever ones age, said McMillan, responding to a new call
brings with it qualms.
McMillan was chaplain at a huge hospital. I knew what I was
doing, most of it in English. I had all this claptrap around me. I was
comfortable. And 59, and saying, oh gee, I thought I was just expected to fade
away into the woodwork, when I got this call -- Honduras.
She agonized, she prayed, she talked -- and went.
In the next stage, in Honduras, the question has been How
long should I stay? I was looking for a big sign from God, she said.
Instead, at the chapter meeting last summer, she heard futurist Barbara Hubbard
Marx, the keynoter. McMillan ended up saying, Heck, Im young
enough, Im healthy. I did well with the language. Its been a grace
moment for me. Its been great and its been difficult. But I think
were called to do the difficult -- otherwise I dont think Id
be in this outfit.
Six thousand sisters and 1,700 Mercy associates were each invited
to contribute their ideas to the action plan for the millennium,
which the Sisters of Mercy adopted at their June 1999 chapter.
The plan they adopted committed the Mercys not only to opening 31
new inner-city Houses of Mercy, but called for:
- Developing forums for investigation and accountability
regarding justice for women, especially within the Roman Catholic church and
Mercy workplaces;
- Challenging the sisters personal attitudes and behaviors
of cultural domination and racism, and asking for forgiveness;
- Reducing resource consumption by 10 percent, and conducting a
social analysis of the global economic system and its impact on the earth and
people who are poor;
- Exploring the reconfiguration of the existing 25 regional Mercy
communities to maximize their human and financial resources for the common
good;
- Intensifying community life to nurture prayer, enliven
themselves for ministry, strengthen their identity and welcome and sustain new
members.
Theres already action behind these goals: three new Houses
of Mercy -- in Baltimore, San Francisco and Staten Island, N.Y. As an
indication of the shape of things to come, the San Francisco House, located in
St. Peters convent, includes three Mercy sisters, a Presentation sister
and three Mercy Corps volunteers who teach and work in the parish and local
community.
The parish shelters the homeless, has an after-school daycare
program and provides space for CARECEN, the Central American Resources Center
that offers legal and medical services to Central American immigrants.
Mercy moved to battle racism and white privilege, even within the
order. Were learning to be touched by our members from other
countries, said planning committee member Sr. Judith Carey of Hartford,
Conn. Mercys want to be multicultural.
Mercy has groups within groups. Theres an Alliance of
Sisters of Mercy of Color; theres a Mercy Latin-American Caribbean
Conference. (The chapter itself had a buddy system where each
non-English-speaking sister was paired with a sister-interpreter.)
Racism, said Belizes Sr. Carolee Chanona,
is almost part of the human condition. Were beginning to raise our
consciousness about it in our midst where theres been, perhaps
unwittingly, unconsciously, a predominant culture. I think its been
complicated by the fact theres also a religious culture that masks some
of the other cultural dominations or behavioral patterns or attitudes.
Racisms a problem in Guyana, said Sr. Mary Noel
Menezes. When it was British Guiana, she said, the Portuguese climbed the
economic ladder but were never allowed in the social milieu. These days the
country is 51 percent East Indian, 43 percent African, negligible whites and
there is a reverse racism.
The chapters renewed emphasis on spiritual life is not
a question of restoration of pre-Vatican II ways, said outgoing president
Sr. Doris Gottemoeller, but finding new ways to embody the values. We
opened up the churchs treasures, the churchs spirituality, the
whole biblical renewal was offered to us. Our new prayer book may sound like a
small thing, but it was a tremendous three-year project intended to embrace the
people-focused treasures of the church and our Mercy tradition and still leave
room for creativity.
Menezes, who lives and works in a Guyana orphanage, reached back
into Mercy history to explain how creative Mercys get.
The Mercys in Guyana were being called to a mission deep in the
countrys remote south. Only one sister volunteered, and the bishop
wouldnt let her go alone. Impossible.
A young woman who worked with the sisters offered to go, too.
Overnight, said Menezes, with a broad smile, the young
woman was postulated, noviced and professed. And off they went.
Mercys -- a flexible approach to the impossible.
They also have a very flexible approach to retirement. Indeed, the
Mercy retirement package is simplicity itself: Work until you drop or work
until you want to stop. Very few of them seem to ever want to stop.
National Catholic Reporter, February 18,
2000
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