A Mission of Education With Friends Who Said, “Let Us Do T his Work With You.”
175 TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
WINTER 2016 • VOLUME 12 / ISSUE 1 Within weeks of About The First Sisters Sister Rosine Matagne arriving in Cincinnati in The first Sisters were selected from At 27, she was the only one of the among the best teachers of the time. group who did not teach. Instead, she 1840, the eight pioneer Together they made up a complete ran the house. She served as cook and cleaned and cared for oil lamps and Sister Mary Ann Sisters opened the first faculty, trained in all the subjects taught in Notre Dame schools in Belgium. open fireplaces. She died in 1896, and Director of Development Notre Dame school in never found the time to learn English. Sister Louis de Gonzague this country. Sister Humbelina de Montal Dear Friend, At 30, she was the leader. She had a boundless zeal for the work of the At 28, she was a novice. She professed Our work in this country is just as our Foundress Julie Billiart asked Church in America and loved her vows on the ship enroute to America. Namur, Belgium –1838 An art teacher, her studio in Cincinnati of her Sisters in 1804. “Go out into the world,” she said. “Teach the adopted country. She persuaded the was a magnet for students. She returned children. All the children. American Bishop John Purcell congregation’s leadership to send stepped up to give the homily. He more Sisters to Cincinnati. By 1890, to Belgium and left the congregation. Julie said we must stand with those living in poverty — with the was in Europe that winter asking 80 arrived from Europe. Sister Louise Van der Schrieck forgotten, the abandoned, the struggling. And always make known the religious congregations to help him Sister Xavier Houba At 26, she was the only one who spoke goodness of God.” start schools in his new diocese of At 51, she was a brilliant teacher. In 1846, English. Five years after the Sisters Cincinnati. arrived, she was named superior she was sent to open a pioneer outpost This is the mission of Notre Dame. This is our life. of the Sixth Street community in After visiting our schools, he in Toledo where a second Notre Dame Cincinnati. In 1848, she was named We began our first 175 years in this country believing we had to do this was convinced the Notre Dame house was founded. After serving there but a few months she was stricken provincial leader of all Notre Dame work by ourselves, even though taking on such an important mission educational model was perfect for with typhoid fever and died. establishments east of the Rocky alone is not God’s way. Or the American way. the children in his city. The Bishop Mountains. faced the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sister Melanie Hamoir Quickly, friends began saying to us, “Let us do this work with you.” Namur in the chapel and began. At 43, she was born in Namur and Sister Marie Pauline Herreboudt That produced a spark and the transforming power to change hearts, At 24, she was a native of Belgium For several minutes he delivered an personally acquainted with our minds and lives. and the youngest. She taught music, eloquent message about the spiritual Foundress Julie Billiart. Sister Melanie including voice and instruments such destitution of southern Ohio. Then had 20 years of experience teaching in These are the blessings that flow from our mission — a mission that as harp, piano and guitar. She fell he contrasted it with the rich spiritual Europe before coming to America. She endures because it is shared. For decades. For centuries. died of cancer in 1854. victim to the cholera epidemic and abundance of Namur. died at 33. As we mark the 175th anniversary of our arrival in this country, we The impact was potent and he Sister Ignatia Walle acknowledge all that has been accomplished with our friends. At 30, she struggled to speak English. captured the hearts of our Sisters. Still, she taught all classes and prepared Eight were chosen from among the We are grateful and we look forward to the next 175 years. adults for the sacraments. She was volunteers. With you. eventually named superior of the . Sisters who were sent to Dayton and Sincerely, Columbus.
Mary Ann Barnhorn, SNDdeN Director of Development
[email protected] 513-679-8117
2 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 3 Together with friends... Through The Years: Our first friends in this country were the Sisters o otre ame de amur Sisters of Charity, who invited our Sisters The first Notre Dame ent on to tea in more t an a to stay in their Cincinnati convent until school building in this dozen in innati area s ools other arrangements could be made. country opened on e in lude our Si t Street Permanent quarters for our Sisters turned January 18, 1841. It adem St Mar Hol rinit out to be the 30-room Spencer house on housed the Young St ilomena St aul St Sixth Street, where Procter and Gamble is Ladies Institute and ose St ugustine St headquartered today. Boarding School. In the LEGEND HAS IT: nt on St a ier St nn St classical tradition, it d ard St Lud ig St Henr The Sisters were able to buy the three story had a day school, a The choice not to include Notre Dame in St George St a ier building with the help of another friend — boarding school and a the name of our first school was deliberate. ommer ial orr ille at oli the home's owner. His niece had come to free school. On This is because our Sisters feared such a Sts eter and aul ur Lad o him with stories about the wonderful Sundays, our Sisters foreign sound could unnecessarily attract t e Sa red Heart St ames St "French Sisters" she had just met, and she also taught catechism the attention of the vocal anti-immigrant Mi ael St i ard o mentioned our need for a permanent home. classes there for about sentiment and Catholic opposition i ester ur Lord rist t e "They shall have mine," he said. He set a 100 children. of the time. ing St Susanna and St ran is price about half the market value and de Sales ur Sisters also o ened offered to carry a mortgage for seven years. Mount otre ame in eading The large home would become the first and Summit ountr a Notre Dame convent and school in this country. Other friends helped the Sisters furnish the building. Local shopkeepers gave them home goods. One woman sent them a dozen chairs, while another supplied curtains for the windows.
I C nc n
4 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 5 I Dayt Exp n ng t t E
Between 1849 and 1886, the Sisters established 26 convent homes and Through The Years: A group of our Sisters from Cincinnati headed to schools in Ohio and in the east, starting with Dayton. Sisters o otre ame de amur Massachusetts in 1849 to begin serving along the taug t in a ton area s ools eastern seaboard. Within weeks we took charge of We went to Dayton at the request of the pastor of the first Catholic e in lude mmanuel Hol our first parochial school. Sister Agnes, one of the parish in town — Emmanuel Church. Five Sisters from Cincinnati took rinit St Mar Hol osar St founding Sisters, wrote of her experience: the two-day canal boat trip north. They moved into our first home, the
Valandingham homestead on the corner of Franklin and Ludlow Streets, o n Hol ngels Hol amil a two minute walk from Emmanuel. St gnes St ames St ita mma ulate on e tion St At first, they had no furniture and very little food. The anti-Catholic Helen s ension and arroll Sister ane and ound oursel es at t e ur o t e Hol sentiment of the time drastically limited school enrollment, so their Hig S ool Sisters o otre edeemer in ast oston e little ard et een t e ne income came from the occasional parish "penny collection." But things ame de amur also uilt and ur and t e s ool as illed it ildren and t eir turned around, and by 1885 more than 1500 children were being taught o ned otre ame adem on mot ers aiting or us Sister ane ad a undred u ils by Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dayton. ran lin Street and ulienne Hig ile ad i t small ouse t e ur as our ome In 1886, we opened our Notre Dame Academy at Franklin and Ludlow. S ool oda along it t e ter some time a etter on ent as uilt and t e old When we outgrew the original building, a new one was constructed in So iet o Mar Sisters o otre ouse dis osed o it as ra led er od as generous its place. It opened in 1927 and was called Notre Dame Academy de ame de amur o n and o erate and a onsidera le sum as realized Julienne, or simply Julienne. aminade ulienne Hig S ool LEGEND HAS IT: Soon enrollment exceeded 1000 students. More During the great flood of 1913, much of Dayton Sisters were sent to the area — to Lowell, Roxbury, was submerged and water reached the second Chicoppe, Salem, Lawrence and beyond — eventually floor of our convent home on Franklin Street. Our to teach along the East Coast. Sisters rescued 14 people from drowning by pulling them inside through the high convent windows. When the floodwaters began to recede, friends came by in boats with food and water for the Sisters, which they used to feed more than 600 stranded neighbors.
6 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 7 Two pastors in Columbus asked us to come Together with friends... to their city to run schools — Holy Cross Our first home in Columbus and St. Patrick's. In late August four Sisters came furnished with just arrived and took charge of St. Patrick's eight chairs, two old tables, parish school. On the first day of classes, a kitchen stove and a few we had 80 students. A year later, the first utensils. Four chairs were M Nr Dm Ops always kept in the chapel. Sisters went to Holy Cross school to teach. By 1859, with space at a premium in both the Sisters' whom were novices. The formal opening of the school The Sisters carried around Cincinnati convent home and boarding school in town, took place the next year with 30 boarders. In spite of By 1875, our Sisters had built our own the other four from room to Provincial Leader Sister Louise Van der Schrieck set out unrest over the Civil War, school enrollment soon Notre Dame Academy, named in honor of room. When friends heard to find room to grow. The large Edwards farm nine increased to 112 boarders — including Minnie and St. Joseph, adjacent to our home on Rich this, one sent the Sisters a miles north of the city caught her attention and heart. Rachel Sherman, daughters of Union Army General Street. When it opened on September 6, half dozen chairs. Then It overlooked the village of Reading and the thriving William T. Sherman. 30 students were enrolled in primary and families contributed a carpet Millcreek Valley. There was not only plenty of land — secondary grades. Meanwhile, Sisters of for the chapel, as well as The boarding school closed in 1935 but Mount Notre 57 acres in all — there was a Catholic church nearby Notre Dame de Namur continued to teach candles and objects for the Dame Academy continued to grow as a day school, where the Sisters could teach. Sister Louise bought the at St. Patrick's and Holy Cross, preparing altar. Later, friends also made with classes for kindergarten through high school. It beautiful property for $135 an acre and named it children for First Communion and it possible for our Sisters to became a diocesan high school in 1956 and moved into Mount Notre Dame, in honor of the Blessed Mother. Confirmation by the thousands. purchase the 62 x 187 parcel a new and larger building in 1965. In 2015 Mount Notre of land on Rich Street where A new Notre Dame building was completed on the site Dame High School celebrated its 155th year. our first home was built. in September and became home to 21 Sisters, nine of Through The Years: n addition to our o n St ose adem Sisters o otre ame de amur ould go on to tea in anot er dozen area s ools in luding t e at edral aris S ool St lo sius St ugustine St risto er St gnes is o Hartle and St ose Montessori St o n Logan St aul ester ille and St Mar Lan aster
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8 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 9 In the spring, three Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur arrived in Hamilton, Ohio to start the first parish school in town at St. Joseph Church. Two more Sisters arrived in August and opened a second school at After first opening a Sunday St. Stephen's parish - both School for hearing-impaired G ng churches for German- children, our Sisters started speaking residents. Two Together with friends... classes for deaf students years later, our Sisters also • In 1926, when the attending Cincinnati's public W r W began teaching at St. Sisters needed to build schools. Classes were held Mary's, the parish for the and equip a Home after regular school hours at English-speaking Economics Department St. Ann's Church was the third Catholic parish in the St. Xavier parish school. Five Ar Nede community. We opened our at Notre Dame country exclusively dedicated to serve the African years later, as the number of own Notre Dame Academy Academy in Hamilton, American community. It was originally located on hearing-impaired students in 1902. the Parent-Teacher Longworth Street, between Race and Elm, three enrolled increased, our Sisters Association raised the started the Notre Dame blocks from the Sisters' Cincinnati home. Jesuit Through The Years: funds through a very School for the Deaf at the Fathers who had charge of the church decided to start ur Sisters e entuall taug t in successful bazaar. The Notre Dame Academy on a school for the children, and they asked our Sisters to si Hamilton s ools n addition cooking and sewing Sixth Street. In addition to By September 1864, Sisters of Notre teach there. All of the school's first 21 students were to our o n otre ame girls. None was Catholic. Sister Francis Regis taught at laboratories were said school children, our Sisters Dame de Namur in Cincinnati were adem t e in lude St to be the finest and best taught hearing-impaired teaching more than 1000 students in the school without pay, every day, until her death ose St Ste en St eroni a nearly 30 years later. equipped around. adults, preparing them for English-speaking schools and about St eter and is o adin confession every Saturday 3000 in area German parishes. afternoon. In 1915, the pupils ere are e in in innati ta ing an interest in lo al a airs were transferred to St. Rita's or in t e rogress o umanit o a e not eard o Sister School in Evendale. ran is egis atientl o e ul eroi all s e as stri en to guide and el t e oorest o God s oor lessed it a generosit di ine in t is greatness s e toiled till t e end t e ser i e as attended all t e s ool ildren o St nn s ur
– OBITUARY OF SISTER FRANCIS, "CATHOLIC TELEGRAPH," NOVEMBER 23, 1895
LEGEND HAS IT: Inventor Alexander Graham Bell was the founder of the Experimental School for the Deaf in Washington DC. He was also the father of hearing impaired children. In 1893 he paid a visit to the Notre Dame School for the Deaf to learn more about our Sisters' work. 10 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 11 LEGEND HAS IT:
The black and white marble tiles on the floor of the Summit's Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel were castoffs from a stone mason in town. He specialized in cutting perfectly round holes in slabs of marble, to make elegant sink tops. Someone S learned he had no use for the circles of stone that were After some hesitation because left over. So every day, at least one Sister would stop of the distance from home, our Just as the Sisters and their students were by the stone mason's shop, pick up a round of Sisters agreed to start a school running out of room at the Academy on Sixth marble, put it in her black cloth shoulder bag in Utica, Illinois at St. Mary's Street and at Mount Notre Dame in Reading, and carry it home. parish. Four years later we LEGEND HAS IT: a special piece of property came on the started a school at St. Paul market — eight acres on Grandin Road in East parish in Odell. By 1925, our After a visit to one of our schools in Cincinnati, Walnut Hills. Our Sisters outbid all others at a reach extended toward Chicago the pastor of St. Mary's in Utica requested Sisters public auction and bought the land. They when we began teaching at St. of Notre Dame de Namur establish a school for his parish. immediately began building a new home on Alexander parish on South When we initially turned down his invitation, he arranged the property. Cornell in Villa Park. for a priest from his diocese to hand-carry a second request to our Sisters. He was instructed to accept no refusal. It had space for new offices, as well as a home When the priest arrived at our convent, no one was home. where Sisters would live and novices could Through The Years: So he waited for nearly five hours to make his case. study. It also included a day academy to teach Sisters o otre ame de amur strong Christian leaders. It was called "The e entuall taug t in se en llinois Summit" because of the magnificent view and s ools in luding St le ander in the atmosphere of peace. Classes were held illa ar St i tor in alumet for the first time on Monday, September 15, it St eter anisius St o ert 1890 with 20 students registered. ellarmine and ur Lad o t e a side in i ago St eter in Sout eloit and St ita in o ord e also uilt and o ned otre ame Hig S ool on i ago s nort side
It Ins
12 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 13 B l ng, We opened St. Xavier Commercial High School, a two year high Gr w ng Hr school in downtown Sisters of Notre Dame Cincinnati, to prepare n Aroa incorporated Trinity women for a business College in Washington career. The curriculum DC, the first four-year included classes in Catholic liberal arts religion, business college for women. It By 1900, our Sisters correspondence, word Our Sisters started a missionary outpost in Wuchang, was founded to make a had built 14 Notre study, shorthand, China. Ten Sisters staffed our "Good Counsel Girls higher education Dame schools and bookkeeping, LEGEND HAS IT: Middle School," teaching 3,296 Chinese girls over 19 accessible to women were teaching in typewriting, business law, rapid calculation years despite wars and political upheavals. Classes who were denied another 65 parish Mildred Howard, a Republican and the use of office included "reading and writing Chinese characters, admission to the men’s schools around Ohio candidate for United States President in machines. Boys from English, arithmetic, history, geography, colleges in that era. The and along the 1992 and several elections after, attended St. Xavier High School civics, nature study, drawing, singing, school's 1911 catalogue eastern seaboard. St. Xavier Commercial High School nearby also took typing common sense and handy arts." described the school as in 1953. "a Catholic institution lessons at our St. Xavier In 1943, during the Japanese occupation devoted wholly to the Commercial. It of China, our Sisters were named "enemy needs of young women remained open until aliens" and interned in a camp at who desire to pursue 1960. Shanghai. We withdrew from the country advanced learning." in 1949. Sisters Mary Paula Peng and Agnes Pauline Peng, who were Chinese Trinity sought to nationals, were forced to leave their produce a true scholar. families and homeland to move to safety in Cincinnati.
St. Xavier Commercial High School
14 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 15 Together with friends... For seven decades, the famous "Our Lady" stained N r D m Hig glass window was at the heart of life at Notre Dame High School for Girls, Sch Fr Grs looking out from the landing in the center of the school. Much of the funding to create the piece was raised Five years later, there were Sisters broke ground on the night of March 5, more than 1000 students at for a girl's high school 1939 during a benefit Notre Dame High School for on North Mango concert sponsored by the Girls. For the next 70 years, our Avenue, in the Belmont contractor and builder of Sisters taught more than neighborhood of the new high school. When 13,000 women, preparing Chicago. When the the school building was them to become strong and doors opened, 200 closed, gifts from friends capable leaders of business, students were enrolled. made it possible to relocate law, medicine, performing arts, the window to its new home education and families. in our chapel in Cincinnati. In 2009, Notre Dame High School was incorporated by the Archdiocese of Chicago, making it part of the St. Ferdinand Parish Schools.
LEGEND HAS IT:
Until a convent home could be built in Chicago, some of the Sisters who taught at Notre Dame High School for Girls lived in a small house on Mango Avenue. When the house ran out of room, Sisters lived dormitory style in the school's second floor classrooms.
16 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 17 M i T A n LEGEND HAS IT: Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur arrived in Arizona on an especially hot day in August. Together with friends... Our second group of Sisters landed at Our They stepped off the train and headed When our Sisters first stepped from the train Lady of the Wayside in Sunnyslope, AZ. It was a small straight to Glendale to Our Lady of Perpetual in Arizona, they were surrounded by families mission church that preceded Most Holy Trinity. Help Church. It was a mission parish for the from Our Lady of Perpetual Help who took There was no school, but there was a little chapel that Mexican families in the neighborhood, and it them into their homes and hearts. The men seated 50 for Sunday Mass and a bingo hall that had no school. Within three weeks we started always came running the minute something accommodated twice that amount. Four classrooms were our first school in Arizona with more than broke or fell apart on the convent car. The quickly created out of two prefab buildings parked in the 200 children enrolled. Three years later, a women brought them baked goods, helped middle of a grapefruit grove. Used desks were rounded second group of our Sisters arrived and them with school events and became their up and our Sisters helped refinish them by sanding started the second Notre Dame school in friends. At Most Holy Trinity, one friend gave out the initials and carved hearts Arizona — Most Holy Trinity. our Sisters a used station wagon. The Sisters with arrows. and their students would pile into that During the school week our Sisters taught in station wagon during the summers and on the two parish schools. On weekends, they Friday after school and weekends, and travel drove out to the migrant labor camps to to the migrant camps outside of town. teach catechism, English and first aid classes Together, they taught the workers and their to the children and adults. children catechism, basic English and math, In addition to Our Lady of Perpetual Help first aid and nutrition. There were no and Most Holy Trinity Parish Schools in classrooms so they sat under the fruit trees Phoenix, our Sisters went on to teach at St. or on the ground in the shade of a building. Matthew Parish and at a Habitat neighborhood community center in Phoenix, and at the Casa Santa Julia in Mesa.
18 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province M i n i Aroa LEGEND HAS IT: Our Sisters went to Kenya to teach the children — Toward the end of the 60s, when our Sisters opened In October, five Sisters traveled to Rosario, Brazil to establish the especially girls. As their a secondary school for girls in the outskirts of Nairobi, the first Notre Dame community in the country. They began teaching in students have become local church was falling down and the people pitched in to fix it. lean-tos and church spaces — Bible study and preparation for the professionally-qualified Once the crumbling walls were stabilized with new cement, sacraments — and helped build strong Christian communities. Sister educators throughout the Sister Margaret Usuka looked at the windows and plain white walls Rebecca helped one indigenous tribe write the community's first country, our Sisters have and saw opportunity for beauty. She put pieces of chipped glass over alphabet. More Ohio Sisters soon joined them. been able to expand our the windows to create a mosaic effect. She also painted the chapel Today, about 20 American and Brazilian Sisters work in five areas reach, working with walls, adding the symbol of the Eucharist near the Blessed Sacrament, in the north and northeast of Brazil. They teach the women, refugees, street children, the image of Our Lady to the left of the altar and the "Last Supper" children and adolescents in one room schools, and help women city dwellers, and villagers. behind the altar. The people were delighted because they had never run businesses to support their families. The Sisters help the men Nearly two dozen Sisters seen such art. When Sister Mary Milano visited the church farm using sustainable techniques and they continue to fight are in Kenya today, and the in 2015, 50 years later, much of Sister Margaret's work alongside the farmers to safeguard their right to own property. school we started in the late was still there. 60s now has 900 girls enrolled.
n e ruar our Sister orot Stang o de ended arming amilies against ig land o ners as s ot and illed ealt lando ners o anted to sto er or s s e al ed along a dirt road in t e razilian rain orest t o ired gunmen a roa ed er s t e ired t eir guns s e read aloud rom er i le lessed are t e ea ema ers
20 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 21 A M i I N cragu Our Sisters went to Nicaragua in 1981, to the Siuna/Mulukuku Today, "Special regions, to start a range of programs in general education, Families" has about health and religious formation. 100 employees, each of whom has a In Matagalpa, Sister Rebecca Trujillo and friends founded disability or a disabled "Special Families of St. Julie Billiart" to support the large family member. Along number of families with special needs children. "Special with her friends, Sister Families" offers dozens of classes for children and adults, a host Rebecca's ministry of services that include physical therapy, emotional and serves more than nutritional support and vocational development. "Special 1,800 special family Families" also offers the first fully accessible park for special households in the needs children in Central America, and the only Horse Therapy Matagalpa region. program in Nicaragua.
LEGEND HAS IT:
Nearly 20 years ago, Sister Rebecca lost her way while walking home after meeting with the Bishop of Matagalpa. The two had discussed starting a new ministry to help families with disabled children. A kind woman saw her confusion and offered Sister a drink of water and a place to sit for a few minutes. Sister Rebecca told the woman about her idea and added, "How can I start such an important program when I can't even find my way home?" It turned out the woman, Marlene Hernandez, had a little girl with multiple disabilities and she agreed to help. From this completely random encounter, the two joined forces and started "Special Families of St. Julie Billiart."
22 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 23 Encouraged by the Second Vatican Council to be Power Inspires Progress was E uc i B n t Clr co-founded by Sister Judy open to serving the people of God in new ways, Tensing in 1986 when a group Sister Judy's ministry is of women in the West End now called Venice on our Sisters expanded our mission of education to community of Cincinnati Vine, and it has people and places beyond the conventional wanted to be more expanded to include a independent of welfare catering business and classroom. assistance. These women an event center in an were determined to make a Over-the-Rhine church. While we continued the work we’ve always done, better life for themselves and Today, throughout see that their children stayed Cincinnati, hundreds we branched out to begin neighborhood reading in school. of Power Inspires Progress graduates are clinics, parish religious education programs, Over the years, Power Inspires working in hotels, Progress has built a variety of restaurants and community GED prep and ESL classes. training opportunities community groups through small businesses. In with good jobs and We also began programs to address needs found 1990, with help from several benefits. business partners, Sister Judy often in generational poverty including job began a pizzaria, run by worker-trainees. The workers readiness, remedial reading and math for adults were required to attend and decision-making for children. in-house academic tutoring sessions, because successful employment requires competency in math, reading, computers and a GED.
LEGEND HAS IT:
The interior space of Venice on Vine, which was designed by University of Cincinnati students, relies heavily on recycled building materials. The floors are finished in a mix of leftover ceramic tile, all with different finishes and colors, cut in long horizontal pieces. A dining room wall is covered with thin slices of used structural beams made from engineered wood. Sitting above the wood is a unique sign the students made from the ends of 877 aluminum soft drink cans and 137 beer bottles they e ore met Sister ud collected one Saturday afternoon. The round amber glass bottoms are back-lit and spaced within the t oug t t e onl erson o silver cans to spell out “Venice.” lo ed me as m drug dealer
– A POWER INSPIRES PROGRESS GRAD
24 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 25 Sister Therese del Genio Sister Marietta Fritz was working founded Southwest Chicago as a prison chaplain in Saginaw. PADS (Public Action to She saw the sheer terror in the Deliver Shelter) to help eyes of the jailed women who people who are homeless on had nowhere to go, once they the southwest side of served their time. She found a Chicago. The store-front day rundown parish convent and shelter is across the street started taking in six women at a from Marquette Park, where Together with friends... time in her program called many homeless women and Friends are the engine Emmaus House. It was a safe men gather. With help from of Emmaus House. place to live. Plus, there was a friends Sister Therese built a They provide the food strict regimen requiring her thriving operation that that is served to the guests to attend 12-step offered GED classes, dental women who live there, programs, and to find a good services, hot meals, showers the clothes they wear job or go back to school. and clean clothes. After 20 and the cars they drive years, Sister Therese handed Today, Emmaus House consists to school, work and over the operation of PADS of 14 homes and Sister Marietta sobriety programs. to an independent board of cares for 50 women at a time. Sister Marietta's small directors. At that time, the She has welcomed nearly 1000 annual stipend also shelter was serving more than guests since 1988. Each stays as comes from friends. long as she needs to get 2100 homeless men, women established and on her feet. and children a year. They're not always successful the first time. But Sister always welcomes them back because, as she says, "Jesus welcomes us back. How can I do any less?"
F r Wth Hm
26 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 27 After hearing the voices of so many who Together with friends... asked to be part of Notre Dame in a deeper Since 1995 we have served way, we began our Associates program. I P rnr more than 500,000 Americans These are lay women and men who live the nationwide. We have recruited Gospel in the spirit of St. Julie Billiart. They and trained 105,745 volunteers are united with the Sisters of Notre Dame t Am C s who have tutored 89,160 de Namur in prayer and service, and they children, 29,690 adults and share our vision and goals. Associates are The Notre Dame Mission helped 49,576 students in bonded to the Sisters of Notre Dame de Volunteer Program was after-school programs. Notre Namur through ongoing communication started to help volunteers Dame AmeriCorps members and service that is focused on spiritual work alongside the have provided training and growth and the mission of Notre Dame. economically disadvantaged, support to 9,648 parents, by promoting literacy and Associates make a formal commitment with taught environmental education education. specified goals over a defined period of to 99,031 students, given life time. Today, nearly 500 Associates in Notre We expanded our reach in skills assistance to 56,713 Dame work alongside our Sisters and are 1995 by joining with community members and involved in parish ministry, in community AmeriCorps, a provided recruitment and organizations, in charitable works and in federally-funded service training for 981 mentors for work for social justice across the country. program. This partnership, children of incarcerated parents. which started with six volunteers, now supports more than 400 Notre Dame AmeriCorps members a year, serving in 23 cities across the country. In The Spirit of St. Julie Billiart
Sh ng t Mi
28 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 29 Many new immigrants come to this country with academic credentials that do not meet local requirements Together with friends... for a high school diploma. Without a Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur have had a For more than 15 years, diploma, it is virtually impossible to presence at Corryville Catholic Elementary about two dozen Reading get a job. The Dorothy Stang Popular School since its founding in 1877. Today, the Buddies have been coming Education Adult High School in school serves at-risk children in inner city to Corryville Catholic on F r Chicago is the only bilingual school for Cincinnati, providing a structured education Tuesdays and Thursdays. Latino adults in the region to address that blends strict academic standards and They volunteer to read with this need. Sisters of Notre Dame spiritual values in its curriculum. the children, working Wh Ne volunteer to serve and teach at the school named for our martyred Sister In 2000, we started the "Choices for alongside our Sisters to Dorothy Stang. Children" program at Corryville to address help the little ones who are Ll retention issues and low high school success struggling — especially first Graduates receive a state-certified rates. The program educates students on and second graders. The high school diploma through a how behavioral choices affect achievement Reading Buddies fill the gap Er H process that honors the life experience of long-term goals. It does so by providing every child needs for of participants, is focused on social adult volunteer mentors for seventh and complete and undivided justice, and uses a collaborative, eighth graders, guidance and support for attention from a grown-up student-centered learning model. decision-making and application to high — not something all school, and ongoing support throughout Corryville students get at Most Dorothy Stang students are high school. home. Just as they share the immigrants and parents. They come joy of reading, the children from Mexico, Central America, the Since its founding, more than 300 students and their Buddies share Caribbean, and Puerto Rico. Most have been part of the Choices for Children ideas and dreams. work full time in factories, in service program. All have graduated and the work such as landscaping and house majority have gone on to colleges or cleaning, or in entry-level positions in universities. Most are the first in their health care. A portion of the students families to reach such goals. are second-generation Latinos who dropped out of high school. All are working to earn a high school diploma as much for themselves as for their families.
30 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 31 T r Or N 175 Ye rs
We look ahead knowing we will continue the mission of Notre Dame with fewer Sisters than in our first decades in Cincinnati − but our friends will be more.
Like the Church, our largest numbers in the future will be in the southern hemisphere. But we will always be found in this country, exactly where we have been for nearly two centuries.
We will be the educators − teaching all of the children, often in places where no one else will go. And we will be there with our friends.
32 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 33 Cross Currents Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Change Lives By Making Known God’s Goodness With You.
WE KNOW TODAY, Throughout the world, we are committed to education and we take our stand with those JUST AS WE DID IN 1840, living in poverty, especially women and children THIS IS THE in the most abandoned places. GOODNESS OF GOD. Cross Currents is published three times a year for friends of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur by the Ohio Province Development Office. We invite reader responses on the content of the publication or on the work of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Comments may be submitted to Sister Mary Ann Barnhorn, Director of Development, at 755 [email protected]. United States Source material for this issue of Cross Currents comes largely from “The American Foundations of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur,” by Sister 166 Mary Patricia Butler, 1928; “Memoirs of Sister Louise,” by Mary E. Mannix, 1907; and “Sister Britain Louise, American Foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur,” by Sister Helen Louise. In addition, we are grateful for the significant 5 contributions through the work of Ohio Province 44 Archivists Sisters Agnes Immaculata Guswiler, 76 Italy Japan Louanna Orth and Kim Dalgarn. Belgium Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur 3 Ohio Province 701 E. Columbia Avenue Nicaragua 21 Cincinnati, Ohio 45215 513-761-7636 • 513-761-6159 (fax) Kenya www.sndohio.org 16 Leadership Team 96 Sister Carol Lichtenberg, SNDdeN, Provincial Brazil Sister Kathleen Harmon, SNDdeN Nigeria Sister Kristin Matthes, SNDdeN 10 Sister Linda Soucek, SNDdeN Peru Publisher 14 Sister Mary Ann Barnhorn, SNDdeN Writer Zimbabwe Nancy Macenko 120 SOUTH AFRICA Production Manager Congo- Angela Weisgerber Kinshasa On Our Cover: “Cincinnati 1848” lithograph by E. Engles
Photos: Pages 2 and 28 (top): Todd Muskopf, Page 7 (top): Author Unknown, 1913, Page10 (left): Historical Collections of Ohio by Henry Lowe, Vol.1, 1907, Page 10 (top): Author Unknown, 1895, Page 10, Page 20 (top) and Page 21 (left): Ohio Province S st rs Nr Dm d Nr Archives, Page20 (center): Dado Galdieri, Pages 22-23: Lucia Lezama España, Page 29 (right): Joe Wiesman, Page 31 (right column): Karen Callaway, Arn t Wrl all other photos by staff
34 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 35 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Non-Profit Org. 701 E. Columbia Avenue U.S. POSTAGE Cincinnati, OH 45215-3999 PAID Cincinnati, Ohio Permit No. 7172
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