Northeast Is a Bimonthly Publication for Sisters of Mercy, Companions in Mercy and Mercy Associates of the Northeast Northeast Community
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MERCY VOLUME 5 I Number 6 Mercy Northeast is a bimonthly publication for Sisters of Mercy, Companions in Mercy and Mercy Associates of the Northeast Northeast Community. Send comments to: The Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas [email protected]. Albany I Connecticut I New Hampshire I Portland I Providence I Vermont Catherine’s Facebook friends number 3,100+ Facebook is a phenomenon. This internet tool is credited with more than 300 million active users. Today, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are invaluable forms of communication – it’s fast, it’s easy, it’s free and the audience is huge. About a year ago, Northeast Community Mercy Associate Erin Saiz Hanna created a Facebook page for Catherine McAuley. It was done on a whim to entice her friend, Sister Marianna Sylvester, to join Facebook. The Mercy Associate morning after Catherine’s page went live, however, Erin was shocked to Erin Saiz Hanna find Catherine had 200 Facebook friend requests from around the world. To date, Catherine’s Facebook friends number over 3,100, and this number Facebook Statistics continues to grow daily. (Marianna joined many months later.) • Average users have 130 Erin spends approximately 15-30 minutes each day maintaining the site – friends on the site accepting friend requests, answering messages, posting ways to get involved • The fastest growing with Mercy ministries, and sharing Mercy news coverage received through demographic is individuals Google RSS feeds. Catherine belongs to 66 group pages and is a fan of 22 who are 35 years old and older pages, all of which are directly connected to Mercy ministries or schools. • More than 2 billion “Most of Catherine’s friends are students or former students of Mercy- photos are uploaded to sponsored schools and there is a sense of nostalgia and sisterhood for the the site monthly Mercy alum. The Sisters of Mercy have really incorporated the Mercy • Approximately 70 per - charism into their schools,” says Erin. cent of the users are A native of Rhode Island, she serves as the executive director of the outside the U.S. • More than 65 million Women’s Ordination Conference in Washington, DC, where she lives with users currently access her husband, Khushal Safi. Erin is a graduate of St. Mary Academy - Bay Facebook through their View and Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, and admits that she is mobile devices constantly inspired by the Sisters of Mercy and Catherine McAuley. In • More than 10 million 2000, she was blessed with an opportunity to volunteer for a couple of users become fans of weeks at Mercy International Centre, and in 2004 she became a Mercy pages each day Associate. Erin feels a special kinship with Catherine and says,“Whether theVatican declares it or not, she’s my saint.” To join Facebook, visit www.facebook.com. The membership is free. You Visit our can add Catherine by visiting http://facebook.com/Sisters.Of.Mercy. If you web site at have something for Catherine to share on Facebook, e-mail it to Erin at www.mercyne.org. [email protected]. By Chloe Van Aken MERCY Northeast I page 1 I November 2009 Capital campaign manager hired for Leadership Team Message Mercy Center, Madison Isn’t it exhilarating to live in the brilliance of autumn in the Northeast? Sarah Nikkel Many of you have been busy during this month participating in Mercy has been select - Circles meetings and attending Mercy conferences – Mercy Network on ed as the capital Aging, Mercy Elementary Education Network (MEEN), Mercy Secondary campaign man - Education Association (MSEA), and Water for the World. In all of these ager for Mercy meetings, we share the richness of the Northeast Community and the Center in Institute. The Community Leadership Team has also been busy attending Madison, annual meetings and Mercy Circles, as well as preparing our Accountability Connecticut. Report. She sees development as a ministry, We are grateful for your prayers as we participated in the pilgrimage to and will release plans for the fund - Catherine’s house. It was indeed a time of inspiration and connection with raising campaign in the near future. Catherine. The pilgrimage was led by Sister Mary Reynolds, the new direc - Since Sarah was hired in tor of Mercy International Centre. The pilgrimage had a daily theme – September, many people have wel - Catherine’s journey into the charism of Mercy, Catherine’s relationship with the comed her in the spirit of Catherine Church, Mercy gift and shadow, Being leaders in reframing crisis, and Integrating McAuley. “They are eager to share Catherine’s leadership with our own. Each session seemed to evoke more their love of and hopes for Mercy questions, some of which we pose for you: If this is the end time of religious Center,” she says. Their spirit life as we know it, what is the new life that we are called to? Are we willing to inspires her and fuels her enthusi - receive God’s Mercy so that we can be the compassionate face of God for each asm as she prepares to invite others other and our world? As women of Mercy, how do we hold to the charism of to enter into a partnership to Catherine to work for equality of women in Church and society? There was also strengthen and secure the future of time for reflecting, sharing, and visiting Coolock House, George’s Hill and Mercy Center. St. Theresa Church. You may wish to visit the Institute web site to read Sarah comes to the Northeast other reflections. Community from Yale University’s Listening to the words of past and current Irish leaders about the Ryan Office of Development, where she Report, Sisters Briege O’Neill and Coirle McCarthy brought us to tears as we was responsible for building and listened to their long, painful journey from 1996 to 2009. The Report gave strengthening relationships with the untold accounts of cruelty and abuse by the sisters, stories which have been university’s top donors. She has also told by the victims on public media. Coirle spoke of their sisters as being worked in educational marketing as “faithful and flawed.” Through this public crisis, conversion is taking place. a writer, editor and project manager. “Did it take something outside of ourselves to truly refound?” Coirle asked. Sarah is originally from Ohio, If we ponder together how we are faithful and how we are flawed, we can where she earned her bachelor’s find the truth. Perhaps the ApostolicVisitation is a source for our refound - degree in English and master’s ing. degree in education. She lives in We also reflected on how Catherine’s leadership was relational and trust - New Haven, Connecticut, with her ing. All members of the six Community Leadership Teams mentioned how husband, James, and their four-year- challenging it is to be relational with members in the new configurations. old daughter, Anja. There is much more to be pondered and to be said about the pilgrimage. Sarah’s office is located at Mercy You will read more in Mercy Now and ¡Viva Mercy!, and hear more from the Center, where she can be contacted team as we visit. at [email protected], or (203) We hope that you reflect on the questions above. We are on this Mercy 245-0401, Ext. 300. By Chloe Van Aken journey together. Let us live Catherine’s legacy of union and charity (love), as we greet each day. Know that you are in our prayers. Ellen, Eileen, Marie, Maureen, Michele and Kathleen MERCY Northeast I page 2 I November 2009 Bridging the Gap through Mercy Global Concern Under the empowering leadership visited Mercy Sister Karen Schneider, M.D. of Sister Deirdre Mullan (Ireland), Center in the (Mid-Atlantic), via PowerPoint, Mercy Global Concern provided an Bronx, where brought participants to Haiti, Peru opportunity for Sisters of Mercy miracles have and Guyana. Karen, a doctor of worldwide to gather in New York to been worked pediatric emergency medicine at participate in a week-long experi - in a violent, The Johns Hopkins Hospital in ence at the UN – Bridging the Gap – drug-infested Baltimore, takes medical students October 16-23. Partici pants were Sister Deirdre Mullan corner of New to Mercy health ministries outside Sisters of Mercy from around the York City. Rich persons have come the United States four times a year. globe: South Africa; England; Ire- to work with those who are poor, Karen gave startling statistics: 13 land, the Northern Province and the and in turn, those who are poor million children live in poverty, a Republic; Australia; the Philip pines have enlightened them. The cen - figure elevated by 1.3 million since and the United States. Each partici - ter exudes Catherine’s spirit. 2000; 9 million children die annu - pant brought a unique ministry ex - Sister Eileen Hogan (Northeast) ally because of the effects of being perience as well as her own culture. explained the work that she and poor; and 16,000 children die daily Sister Christine Jacobs from Sister Margaret Farley (West from malnutrition. Where would South Africa manages two HIV- Midwest) do with their All Africa Catherine want us? AIDS centers. She oversees med - Conference: Sister to Sister A gap is a break, a separation, a ical care of nearly 1,000 patients. (AACSS) project, a grassroots problem caused by some disparity. Sister Lynda Dearlove, who is from effort to stop the spread of HIV “Mercy is ‘Bridging the Gap’ all over London, runs a center for women AIDS in Africa and to provide the world,” said Sister Kathleen involved in street prostitution.