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Published: April 28, 2008
Average age 73
Unable to attract novices, Sisters of Mercy begin merging communities
 Faced with aging nuns and few new vocations, the 175-year-old Sisters of Mercy religious order – with six communities in California -- has decided to undergo a major reorganization.
The “shrinking and aging of the order” is one factor that brought about the restructuring of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, reported the April 11 Catholic San Francisco, the weekly newspaper of the San Francisco archdiocese.
The Institute’s six California communities will merge with communities in the West and Midwest into an Omaha, Nebraska-based organization called the West Midwest Community. The restructuring was approved at a meeting in Chicago, March 24-30, and will take effect July 1.
The new organization will bring together 861 Sisters of Mercy and 525 associates. The Institute itself, covering the Americas, Guam, and the Philippines, numbers 4,194 sisters and 2,800 associates. The average age of sisters in the institute is 73.
Though the vocations office has “been very active across the Institute,” Liz Dossa, spokeswoman for the Mercy Sisters in Burlingame told Catholic San Francisco, its efforts have not been fruitful. The number of candidates, novices, and temporary professed in the West-Midwest Community is four, though “several women” are in the process of joining, Catholic San Francisco reported.
“The whole question of changes in religious life is huge, and there don’t seem to be any easy solutions,” Dossa told the archdiocesan newspaper. “I think the Mercy community will be a smaller community targeted to needs that aren’t being met in other ways.”
Among the needs to which the Mercy Sisters have been dedicated over the years are education, health care, parish work, spiritual direction, and social services. The ministries the Burlingame community has been involved in include Mercy High Schools, Catholic Healthcare West, and Mercy Center.
A “progressive” Catholic community, the Burlingame sisters were listed in Call to Action’s 1999 “Church Renewal Directory,” as among groups that “support the spirit of Call To Action’s 1990 ‘Call for Reform in the Catholic Church.’” Call to Action, which calls for women’s ordination and for Church acceptance of artificial birth control and the normalcy of homosexuality, has five regional chapters in Northern and Southern California.
The Mercy Retreat Center in Auburn, a ministry of the Auburn Sisters of Mercy, has in the past four years offered retreats by feminist theologian Edwina Gatelyon on the “feminine divine,” looking at “the history of God as Mother,” and by Sacred Heart Missionary Diarmuid O’Murchu on “the new cosmology.” O’Murchu’s retreat addressed replacing “the patriarchal sky-God with the divine life-force we encounter in the miracle of God’s creation.”
Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 2:18 AM By Commander Craig
You mean no one wants a deeper relationship with the divine life-force of the new cosmology? All those young women flocking to the Sisters of Life, the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal and the Nashville Domincans just don't know what they're missing.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 5:06 AM By Gaudalupe Guard
The real Sisters of Mercy, like so many other religious orders, ceased to exist some 40 years ago.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 5:10 AM By magdalen
There is no grace in liberalism. The feminist and secular orders will continue to decay and decline and eventually end. And in many cases, this ending cannot come too soon!
The abandoning of a charism is a death knell.
I pity those who have tried to live a religious life in the midst of the secularization of some of these orders.
But when some of these secularized orders embrace dissention and new age and spread them, apparently with the authority of the church behind them, they do incredible damage to souls.
Goodbye sisters. We cannot miss you.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 5:19 AM By JPeterman
Meanwhile, orders the Dominican Sisters of Mary in Michigan and Mother Angelica's nuns in Alabama have to turn away young women because they don't have room enough. It's no big mystery, wear the habit and preach the truth in season and out. If these women wanted to stay in the world it's very easy to do so without joining the "progressive community" of the Sisters of Mercy.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 5:25 AM By Tony
The Sisters abandoned us when they abandoned religious life in an effort to become more relevent, they have become irrelevent. The Sisters who are truly leading a religious life, with a schedule for community activies, including prayer, common apostleships and way of life, and who wear a religious habit are flurishing with vocations. Witness for example the Sisters of Life, the Poor Clares of Mother Angelica, the Sisters of Mother Theresa etc.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 6:34 AM By notanun
the "mercy" order transformed itself into something that is not palatable to anyone! Pure gobildy goop that drove good women away the same as the gay seminaries drove away good men!
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 7:24 AM By ChuckArtiste
Mother McCawley must be turning over in her grave. She founded a great order. Look what her Children have done with it under the guise of VCII
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 7:42 AM By neat62
"A “progressive” Catholic community..."
I imagine this is one of the reasons that this order has had a difficult time in recruiting vocations. I believe that young men and women today, are not seeking "activist" positions within the Church, but rather very traditional and devoutly Conservative vocations...in other words, they are looking for the Truth and are not seeking to join orders where tradition and Truth has been thrown out so to conform to "the worlds" way!
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 7:53 AM By Ken Misa
Religious orders who ignore their original reason for being
are in decline. That should not surprise anyone. Other
religious orders are growing because, in part, of their
community life, strong religious identity (religious garb)
and absence of radical feminism and a belief in God
as Mother.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 8:22 AM By David
Unorthodox communities are going to die off. Face it sister!!! Go back to your habits and original charism.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 8:30 AM By Susan
The last two paragraphs in this article explain the problem. The Mercy sisters have moved away from proclaiming Jesus Christ and Him crucified to proclaiming New Age and feminist ideas which do not follow the teachings of the Church. The religious orders that are faithful to the Church are growing and attracting new vocations.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 8:41 AM By Janek
There should be no suprise here, as in all of the Liberal, Leftwing, "former" Catholic orders they have ceased to be Roman Catholic years ago, time has caught up with them the 60's and it's time has ended long ago. Sadly these and other "nuns" lost their way decades ago, and will soon be only a minor page of history. Lets look at the current state Sisters out such as the Nashville Dominicans, Mother Angelca's Sisters, and others all young, wearing "full" habits, devout, waiting lists to join their convents, this is what happens when you are truly Roman Catholic in every sense of the word. The Springtime of Vatican 2 created these "nuns" and it also caused their demise, what they have left is yoga, spaceships, lesbian-gay agendas, womyn priests, folks this crap will not get you to Heaven to bad these former "nuns" have not repented and returned to the Roman Catholic Church. Pray for His Holiness Benedict the XVI and the return of the Traditional Latin Mass.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 9:08 AM By Dave
It's their own fault. If they'd never ditched the habit and stuck with Catholic orthodoxy instead of exploring this New Age, feminist nonsense, they wouldn't be having so much trouble attracting new members.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 9:43 AM By anthonypadua
What did they expect? What young woman would want to join an order that looks like a secular association? Women, as men, want a habit to distinguish themselves from the secular world. Become more traditional and you won't know what to do with all the applicants...
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 10:45 AM By Ann
Years ago a lovely older nun who had served nearly 50 years in a religious order commented that they were now living more like in a sorority house than a convent. There was a move to bring back a standard habit, but the progressives/feminists won. Pity the poor older Sisters who really would be willing to live as they did 40 or 50 years ago, but those in charge only add to their suffering, which they offer up in reparation for the damage done to religious life in the past 40 years. This is truly the springtime in the Church when we witness the burgeoning vocations of both men and women who truly follow the gospel, love the Holy Father, and willing sacrifice a secular life in convents and monasteries. We also need millions of stable Catholic families to model the life of the Holy Family, where Faith infuses their every decision, where prayer and the Holy Mass is paramount.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 10:55 AM By jan wnek
Janek: praying for the Pope and returning to, as you put it, the "traditional Latin Mass" will not solve the problems which confront the Church. When the Church returns to what Our Saviour so clearly expressed in the Lord's Prayer - "Thy Kingdom come, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH as it is in Heaven - all the problems it has, which stem from its collusion with the "kingdoms of this world" since the third century, will be resolved. You cannot serve God and Money....that, my Catholic and Christian (Protestant, Orthodox and Evangelical) friends, is the "bottom line".....let the Christian Churches divest themselves from their wealth and their unholy alliance with the State, their adoption of justified violence in the Name of Him who was the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace and preached the Gospel of Nonviolent Love of Friends AND Enemies, and you will see a flowering of TRUE Christianity which hasn't been seen since the Roman persecutions....are we, who call ourselves the followers of Jesus, up to the challenge? Think about it....
Pace e bene, Jan
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 11:10 AM By Gene Tullio
Ah, the Sisters of Mercy. Those dear, dear nuns who gave me my Traditional Roman Catholic Faith along w/ 53 other children in a classroom in the 1950's. No gun detectors, no assaults on teachers, no violence until.....the upheaval of the 1960s, the abomination of Vatican II and the targeting of the convents by bad people to decimate the ranks of God's mighty and selfless army. Today, we see how successful the attack on Holy Mother Church has been.
Fortunately, the solution to increase vocations so that convents and rectories burst at the seams is very, very easy.
First, consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Demand it of your Bishop. Then, war, communism, ateism, civil class warfare, immorality will melt away and a period of peace will be granted to mankind.
Second, demand of your bishop to give us our Church back. Give us the immemorial Latin Mass codified by the great SAINT Pius V. Give us back our Latin, our incense, our High Masses.
GIve us back the tabernacle in the center of the altar where we worship Jesus Christ and not somebody in a chair as the Masons do.
Give us back our Litanies, our Rogation Days, our Marian Devotions, our annual consecration to Mary.
Give us back our holy priests who give us sermons on the last 4 things: Death, Judgement, Heaven & Hell. Purge the seminaries of Modernist heretics, insipid homilies that inspire banality not holiness. GIVE US BACK OUR CHURCH!
The order will not be able to keep up w/ vocations. Pray for God to defeat His enemies.Pray the rosary DAILY!!!!!
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 11:12 AM By Dave
Once the baby boomers die off, we will see a return to tradition. Thanks to many of them, we have had to endure this for 40 yaers. Just like in Psalm 95. "Forty years we endured that generation. I'd say they were a people's whose hearts go astry and do not know my ways. So I swore in my anger, they will not enter into my rest.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 11:31 AM By Kelly Francis
I have very happy memories of being educated by the Sisters of Mercy when they were still a truely Catholic religious Order---nearly 50 years ago. I remember in 1st grade being in awe of the Sisters of Mercy Motherhouse in Merion, Pa. and seeing close to 100+ white veiled novices singing Gregorian chanting parts of the Mass at my cousin's First HolyCommunion Day. Even at that age, I was trhilled to see so many holy sisters, and young girls eager to join their ranks! I was attracted to it from a young age.
But by the time I was old enough to consider religious life, all the garbage from Vatican II was coming thru the Church, wiping out the Mass and traditional religious life. I gave up on a vocation after college, totally disgusted with the direction in religious life among nuns (femminism, radical liberalist, dissent, disobedience, lay clothes, aggitation for married priests, women priests, homosexual and lesbian rights, socio-economic protests etc. etc. etc.)
I live in an Archdiocese which once had about 350 teaching Sisters of Mercy, and about 6,500 teaching nuns in schools (out of 7,800 nuns in the whole Archdiocese). Today, there are about 10 Sisters of Mercy still teaching in parish schools, and about 300 in the whole Archdiocese.
The crisis in the Church, and religious Orders with regards to the destruction of the Mass, and the collapse of communities of priests and sisters-like the Sisters of Mercy began with Vatican II----and comes from it.
To restore the Catholic Church, it will be necessary to totally repudiate Vatican II and what came from it.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 11:37 AM By MaryRose
Good riddance! Why would any intelligent young woman want to join the "stretch pants nuns"? The RN's (real nuns) are flourishing. Get out of the way, Sisters of Mercy, the true and faithful Catholics are comin' through.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 12:25 PM By Elizabeth
Well if they were not SO LIBERAL ........
Maybe they would get the vocations like they did in the past.
I went to Mercy Sisters run schools in the 60's before Vatican II, and they had MANY novices.
They were SO STRICT with us children, you just woudlnt' believe it!!!!!
And now.................HOW SAD!!!!
But, I think it might be God's providence, that they die out.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 12:34 PM By Anne
The last 2 paragraphs tell it all: "progressive", and Edwina Gately presenting retreats!
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 1:26 PM By David
So much anger in these chat rooms, so many judgments, so little grace. If you really care for the spiritual welfare of these sisters you would be praying for them generously and kindly. It would seem that the desire to vent venom rules here though, as though THAT was faithful to God. Habits and orthodoxy are no replacement for God, who is love (1 John 4:8, 16). Many vocations is no sure sign of the presence of favor of God either, as I recall Jesus only had a few followers through most of his ministry, and the one time he had many they were following him for all the wrong reasons (John 6). I wish all the successful orders mentioned above every grace and success, but find it unimaginable that so many in this chat find so much energy to condemn the Sisters of Mercy who have done so much good through the years. I just don't understand you people.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 2:36 PM By John
1:26pm David: It's not wrong judgement it's desernment! I was introduced to Jesus by precious Sisters of Mercy many years ago. In recent years I have been a guest at the Mercy Center in Burlingame and and Auburn.I could feel the presence of unholy spirits. Why would a Christian worship gods from the east? because they don't know the One True God who is one with Jesus Christ together with the Holy Spirit.These women have fallen away and I pray that they come home soon.Jesus plus anything = less Jesus..
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 3:04 PM By Vincent DiCarlo
If the Sisters of Mercy have in fact allied themselves with Call to Action they have joined the culture of death. The culture of death dies, as the suicide of this and other orders that have traveled the same path again demonstrates. The good news is that the culture of life lives, and institutions allied with it will continue to flourish, regardless of the persecutions that may come.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 3:15 PM By Dan
" So much anger in these chat rooms, so many judgments, so little grace. If you really care for the spiritual welfare of these sisters you would be praying for them generously and kindly." David, people can get angry about what has happened in the Church since Vatican II, and by all rights should be angry at some of the developments. This has nothing to so with a lack of grace, but a discerning of the signs of the times. If you do not understand us maybe the lack of grace is in you. Think of it -- religious life is primarily a desire to seek God in Christ first and foremost before everything else. I think those of us frustrated with religious life of late feel that many orders have lost sight of this fact -- to the risk of countless souls. We feel the stakes are rather high. Venting venom? Now that's judgmental! Is it now unchristian to express one's opinion that an order has lost its way? It might rather be charity to do so.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 3:21 PM By Pre-Boomer
There were a number of things wrong with Vatican II - very true. However, you need to think about placing the blame for the destruction and decay of Catholicism where it truly belongs - in "the spirit of Vatican II". Had Vatican II been followed in a traditional vein, there would have been little destructive effect on our Holy Mother Church. However, there were many loose-cannon priests and religious who took up the chant of change in the Church "in the spirit of Vatican II". And the Bishops failed to step in and take control of these priests and religious and the wild-eyed changes that took place throughout the worldwide Church. See how we have suffered for it over these many years! The fact of the matter is, it was no good "spirit" that was underlying the terrible changes that we have seen taking place. It was, as Pope Paul VI said, that "the smoke of Satan has entered the Church". So much for the spirit of Vatican II.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 4:37 PM By Art of Redding
David, can't we all just get along and gather around the fire pit and sing "kum-by-ah"? Isn't that what "progressives" do?
John above got it right, it's DISCERNMENT not anger. And yes we will be praying that the sisters "Get Holy or Die Trying".
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 4:46 PM By Guadalupe Guard
Yes David, lets conclude all that has been rightly said with "May God have mercy on the Sisters of Mercy."
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 6:27 PM By Fr. M.P.
Pray that these sisters practice the Catholic faith, and then they will have vocations again. That is the root cause. Otherwise they will fade away with call to action and the like.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 7:34 PM By the other David
David's attitude is silly, not to mention he has missed some pretty obvious things in the New Testament, such as the feeding of the FIVE THOUSAND. Anyway, his is the the kind of attitude we have been plagued with for the last 40 years by novus ordo catholics: squishy fuzzie lovies, and anger (real anger) for those who announce that the emperor is naked. They just want to hold hands, and are forced to ignore the direction the Holy Ghost is leading the Church. I guess he doesn't like having to worship what he's been burning. (Kudos to whomever knows to what that last sentience refers.)
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 8:00 PM By Georgia
The Sisters were wise in selecting the diocese of Omaha, Nebraska as their new headquarters. If they had selected the dioceses of Lincoln, Nebraska they would have found themselves excommunicated.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 9:21 PM By Catholic
Just an FYI... the modernism veiled as "being progressive" that followed the Second Vatican Council was not the fruit of the Council itself. We're only beginning to see the fruits of the Council today, and as these elderly progressives die off, we will see more and more of the Coucil's fruits come to light. This is coming from someone who works in a chancery and has read all 16 documents of Vatican II and is firmly grounded in the Tradition, as well as the works of Cardinal Ratzinger.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 9:54 PM By Walter
The Sisters need our prayer that they return to radition and orthodoxy. As others have probably stated, why would young women want to be celibate social workers. The habit is a silent witness to God's Word and Mercy. Young faithful men and women today want a true devotion to God, His Church and Peter's Successor.
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Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 11:21 PM By David
Jesus was consistently angered by the self-righteous Pharisees who knew full well what was wrong with Jesus who cured on the Sabbath, and the disciples who took grain on the Sabbath, and the woman caught in adultery, and the man born blind who could finally see...But you folks don't see yourselves like the Pharisees do you? You feel good about yourselves because you're not like these other people who are sinners -- Jesus told a parable once about a fellow who felt just like that (Luke 18:10-14). Because you have "righteous anger" you get to cast the first stones, but then that has a Biblical reference too (John 8:3-11). Hide behind words like "discernment" if you want...sounds to me like one of those "kum-by-ah" (your phrase, Art of Redding) dodges allowing some to make harsh judgment of others not present in this chat-room, as though that were productive or grace-filled. And as for "squishy fuzzies lovies," do we really need to be reminded that it was Jesus, our Lord, who said that the greatest commandment of the LAW, and the second which was like it, was all about whole hearted love (Matt 22:35-40). And as for those who condemn an ecumenical council, and yes, I mean the Second Vatican Council, you can't really be Catholic and do that. No wonder there's so much anger here...when you leave the Church you are necessarily cut off from the very font of grace. I will pray for your reconversion to the one true Roman Catholic faith that defends the teachings of the ecumenical councils --- ALL of them, and not just the ones you find agreeable to a pick-and-choose kind of non-Catholicism. God bless you all and grant you the kind of peace you don't seem to have found here in each others' company. I'll be off to some other chat room.
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Posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008 6:54 AM By John L. Sillasen
David, it is not excommunicable to argue against a Church council, nor to chastise sinners. The clearest Church document I've read on this, outside Holy Scripture, is Humanum Genus by the late Pope Leo XIII ... in which he strongly urges the faithful to uncover corruption. We all know that corruption can be found anywhere on the planet, as there is no law which corruption will not violate. You trash "discernment", which is man's effort to do the will of God ... What you need to do, David, is follow your own advice and abide by all Church rules, instead of picking out some and casting out others.
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Posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008 7:21 AM By jan wnek
Well said, David...you are obviously fully cognizant of Jesus' Gospel of Nonviolent Love of friends and enemies....that's truly what needs to be prosyletized in the Christian evangelization process.
Pace e bene,
Jan
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Posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:48 AM By Elizabeth
David......
Yes we are all called to 'love' but that doesn't mean liking what a person is doing.
It is actually a spiritual work of mercy to instruct people in their wrongdoing.......of course in a charitable way!
Peace be with you!
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Posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008 1:47 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
The Assistant Vocations Director for Mahony, Sr. Kathy Bryant, was on the panel discussion on "Catholic Spirituality and Homosexuality" at the recent Congress, and when one of those present made the blasphemous claim that all the Apostles were homosexuals, nether she nor the others on the panel refuted it!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founder & Chairman
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
www.crcoa.com
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Posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008 2:14 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
The Assistant Vocations Director for Mahony, Sr. Kathy Bryant, was on the panel discussion on "Catholic Spirituality and Homosexuality" at the recent Congress, and when one of those present made the blasphemous claim that all the Apostles were homosexuals, nether she nor the others on the panel refuted it!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founder & Chairman
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
www.crcoa.com
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Posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008 4:02 PM By Dan
I can't help but note some irony here. David, with Jan Wnek's approval, considers us Pharisees -- we who have cast a juandiced eye at the goings on in Burlingame. Indeed, Jan goes a great deal further and says the Church lost its soul with Constantine and has yet to find it. The whole church is thereby populated with Pharisees. I can't think of anything more judgmental than all that.
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Posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008 6:05 PM By jan wnek
As "judgmental" as Jesus was with the Pharisees.....and as the Apostles and St. Paul were after the Lord's Resurrection.... Have a problem with that? Read your own posts and then accuse me of being judgmental.....Pace e bene,
Jan
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Posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:56 PM By John L. Sillasen
jan, how is it that you put pharisee costumes on those who dispute you? What kind of costume do you sport?
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Posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008 10:22 PM By Elaine
A lot of folks might not know about the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, which is alive and well and continues to be blessed with vocations. "Established in 1973 in response to the renewal called for in the Second Vatican Council, the Institute recognizes Venerable Catherine McAuley as its original foundress." Please see http://www.rsmofalma.org/. I had the privilege of visiting them once and was impressed by these devout and holy women.
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Posted Wednesday, April 30, 2008 2:12 AM By Dominic Dowling
I just looked up Diarmuid O Murchu on Google.
I recommend others to do likewise!
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Posted Wednesday, April 30, 2008 5:54 AM By jan wnek
John Sillasen: I wear the "costume" of the publican.....
Pace e bene, Jan
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Posted Wednesday, April 30, 2008 8:50 AM By Dan
Jan, I stand by my comments. I haven't seen such a supercilious attitude toward the Church since having gone to a Mormon presentation years ago and there learning that the light went out after the apostles only to go back on with Joseph Smith. You're a hundred fifty years after Smith...
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Posted Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:48 AM By John L. Sillasen
jan, I can tell that you're proud of your publican costume. And now that you point it out, I can see why you'd see me as a pharisee. But pharisees ruled the temple in Jerusalem; and of course the concept descends down the ages to those rulers who turn the law into a thing so complex that it ceases to be law, but depends on the rulers to rule according to their whims. The papacy is not like that, jan, but rules in place of God. I do not rule, but proclaim as best I can what the rule is. This effort is an act of discernment for myself; also, the public forum benefits many who converse over matters important to them. Maybe there are rulers who read such forums; such rule is properly guided by God, Who includes His faithful in conversation, not to change rules but to understand them. You might further engage the conversation in this site by partaking more rather than abridging the points made which you do not like.
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Posted Wednesday, April 30, 2008 12:44 PM By jan wnek
John s.:The Vatican has been know historically to occasionally sink into Phariseeism....seems you have no problem with changing the rules as Jesus laid them down, based on some "grasping at straws" interpretation....especially when it comes to murdering in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ...actually, you and some of your colleagues would have made marvelous Inquisitors.....
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Posted Saturday, May 03, 2008 6:33 PM By Robert Burns
The Sisters of Mercy are responsible for some children, not wanted by their birth parents, for being able to live and grow in an environment which the goo Sisters first nurtured for these children, and then helped advance through charitable and loving foster care services. The individuals on this board who post about these Sisters as having lost their way themselves have lost their way, as especially made evident in one poster's comments on how "gay" seminarians drove out "good" seminarians. As if a seminarian genuinely devoted to the Lord could be stopped by any human force at all. Such folderol, such balderdash, such despicable hate. I am sick and tired of the hypocricy and filth some post in the name of "Christianity."
I say God bless Elizabeth McCauley and those who followed her as Mercy Sisters and left Ireland to take care of the needy in this country. Now if only the conservative Bishops of this country would leave their mansions and Mercedes Benz cars to take care of those who truly need Christ, we would be a lot better off-- and not have to read posts by the dysfunctional, some of whom clearly post here.
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Posted Sunday, May 04, 2008 8:31 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
Robert Burns,
I know where Archbishop Chaput lives, I knew where Archbishop Khai lived and where many other good Shepherds live. The good Bishops (Real Bishops) dont drive Mercedes and they don't live in luxurious houses.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founder & Chairman
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
www.crcoa.com
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Posted Sunday, May 04, 2008 9:36 PM By simone dubois
thanks for the google tip dominic, this is what I found... "
Diarmuid O’Murchu rethinks the Incarnation, a Tom Fox interview Sacred Heart Missionary priest, social psychologist and author, Diarmuid O’Murchu lives in London, lectures internationally and has written extensively on the New Cosmology. In this interview, he talks with Tom Fox about his radical re-imagining of the Christian path and freeing Jesus from what he calls the captivity of ideological reductionism." I read some of his stuff, he's a nut frankly. I think the pod people got him too. Personally I just want Jesus freed to be brought back to the center of the Church rather than being locked away in a room next to the Church, where no one hardly goes, where He is almost always alone and they only let Him out for an hour or so on Sundays. Poor Jesus.
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Posted Tuesday, July 08, 2008 8:17 PM By Ckay
What happened after Vatican II, Our visible traditions and how we worshiped was radically changed. What we were taught and believed most Sacred The Traditional Mass was allowed only with permission. It appeared everything was allowed except that. We dismantled our communion rail, changed the altar to a table put the Tabernacle to the side, had the Priest face the people, communion in hand standing.
Where is the Sacredness the Holy The Traditional Latin Mass reflected how we believed. What happened to the sisters of Mercy, what happened to vocations the focus shifted. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to the New Order, the Cross or the ??? Just my opinion but how we worship is how we believe. The old Mass calls you to Christ, take up your cross and follow me, the traditional orders that know Jesus is first, and the only way numbers are up, anything else might as well be a social worker.
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Posted Monday, February 16, 2009 9:09 PM By Ryan
Surely there is a faction among the RSM's of the Americas, that wish there was still a habit, and yearn for a community-driven living situation, as was once the practice. We must remember that among sisters like the RSM's, are many that do often remind us of that "old school" Mercy nun. I recall a few from my days student teaching in a Catholic high school here in Phila. One in particular, I recall, always always wore a black suit with white blouse, no makeup, jewelry, etcl, just the Mercy cross that is still permitted...I always wanted to ask her if she was sad that the habit was essentially outlawed in the order. Many of these women do very good things for others, though the charism of how those ends are achieved to raise some eyebrows when contrasted with the teachings on religious life that still exist, but weren't followed post-Vatican II. Many Mercies work with the poor, homeless, etc. But there's no denying that community life is no longer a priority for many. The same Mercy motherhouse mentioned in an earlier post, is huge, and I can't imagine the rooms are used much. It is surprising that orders such as the Mercies don't pilot the idea of having a new house open using past charism, etc. Perhaps it would be a means to surviving as an order, and another time of renewal in that some old ideas, practices might further enhance the spiritual life even of some of the members that became active in the late 60's early 70's. By this I mean it's great that the RSM's of Alma have reembraced the old charism, but sad that the RSM's of the Americas have not thought, "Perhaps we should make room for this in our order, too?"
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Posted Thursday, February 26, 2009 7:00 PM By former sister
As a former religious dedicated to the "Heart of Christ," I lived with active alcoholics (beer cans in the cupboards), sisters who lived like married couples, sisters who could not hold a job (more of the younger ones!), sisters who shopped regularly at expensive markets like Whole foods, sisters who spent more money in a week than what I spend in several as a single, lay woman in ministry. Many, not all, sisters have lost their souls! For Lent, one sister gave up her nightly scotch-on-the-rocks, but made sure the community knew she would still have beer and wine during dinner. True story. Many apostolic sisters are no longer radical and are running around with no maturity, responsibility and accountability. Worse is their peter-pan spirituality and indulgent privilege, which is an insult to faithful, Catholic lay women who need to work, and balance family and prayer. Still, a few sisters who are older remain faithful. I feel sorry for them. No wonder attractive, young, dynamic women are flocking to the more traditional orders.
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Posted Tuesday, May 12, 2009 4:45 AM By Patrick-San Francisc
The archdiocese of San Francisco is crippled with the obsession of adhering to political-correctness.... Clearly this is the reason why the Sisters of Mercy and other religious orders that are pushing 'modernity' are failing to recruit novices.... With all of our tolerances, we simply cannot be afforded regular access to the 1962 version of the Latin Mass in ANY parish in the city of San Francisco. Meanwhile, the Sisters of Mercy are innovative in striving to focus on the more lucrative areas of serving the faithful. The pretend they want to serve the people where the people are not being served well....There is no talk whatsoever about channeling their energies to promoting the Latin Mass.... Hmm! -- How downright disgustingly disappointing this mission of theirs appears...
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Posted Thursday, December 17, 2009 7:45 AM By Fr.R
They went feral years ago, became irrelevent and an embarrassment to the people and the Church. Good riddance!
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Posted Thursday, December 17, 2009 9:14 AM By JLS
What great and illustrious imagery, Fr.R!!! "They went feral"! A pack of stray cats, bunnies, dogs, hogs, and hens wandering off the straight and narrow!
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Posted Friday, December 18, 2009 2:43 AM By Fr R
Yet such a tragedy, how many vocations have been lost to the Religious life due to the antics of the track suited permed haired feministas?
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