17 minute read
A Beloved and Enduring Mission
The entrance sign to the Mount gives students, faculty, and visitors insight into the fundamental nature of the University: “Founded in 1920 by the Sisters of Charity.” While the University has undoubtedly changed over the past 103 years, it remains rooted in the Catholic tradition of charity, justice, and the common good.
These values are articulated in a mission statement that guides every aspect of the University: prospective faculty and staff discuss the mission during interviews; incoming students take a class that explores the history and mission of the Mount; meetings begin with prayer and reflection; and sound financial decisions are made through the lens of how it will enable the mission. These are not words tucked away in a drawer but lived out personally and collectively by students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
“Here at the Mount, we have a certain set of values to live up to, and our mission speaks to this in a very powerful way, drawing from our Catholic identity, and the heritage and values of the Sisters of Charity,” says President H. James Williams, Ph.D. “Everything we do is about trying to make sure we are serving students the best we can.”
The mission of the Mount is inspired by the words of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who founded the first Sisters of Charity religious community in 1809: “Contemplate how you are being asked to give your heart to God amidst your everyday activities. Be prepared to meet your grace in every circumstance of life.”
The current mission statement reflects this authentic yet audacious challenge:
Mount St. Joseph University is a Catholic academic community grounded in the spiritual values and vision of its founders, the Sisters of Charity. The University educates its students through interdisciplinary liberal arts, and professional curricula emphasizing values, integrity, and social responsibility.
Members of the Mount Community embrace:
• Excellence in academic endeavors
• The integration of life and learning
• Respect and concern for all persons
• Diversity of cultures and beliefs
• Service to others.
“The mission is our why,” says Sister Karen Elliott, C.PP.S., the Mount’s chief mission & belonging officer. “The education you receive here is values-based, designed to encourage growth in the gift God created you to be for the world. We are given our gifts and talents to be of service to others. We’re not just educating people, but we’re helping them lean into the gifts and talents God has given them so they can bring others along, so they can serve the common good and make the world a better place.”
AN INNOVATIVE SOLUTION
For many decades, the Sisters of Charity were involved in every aspect of life at the Mount, from teaching classes to serving in the administration to living in the dorms with students. But as with religious communities throughout the
United States, the demographics of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati have changed. In 1960, the Sisters of Charity had approximately 1,600 sisters. Today, the order has fewer than 200, most of whom are over the age of 80.
In September 2022, the Sisters of Charity made the difficult decision to initiate the process of concluding their sponsorship of five ministries, including the Mount. In church terms, sponsorship enables institutions to have a canonical relationship with the Catholic Church. This pending change of sponsorship prompted conversations and forums across the University—with faculty, staff, students, and alumni—weighing in on the future of the Mount.
“It became apparent very quickly that maintaining our Catholic identity was important,” says Paige Ellerman, general counsel for the Mount. In short order, the option of the Mount becoming an independent, non-Catholic university was off the table, and the administration and board explored other ways to maintain the school’s Catholic identity.
Today, the Mount is on the cusp of an innovative solution that Ellerman believes will be a model for other institutions facing similar situations. A new group, the Setonian-Vincentian Ministries, has been formed, composed of three religious communities in the U.S., including the Sisters of Charity in Cincinnati. This new ministry is applying to become the Public Juridic Person (PJP) for the Mount—as well as three other Catholic universities and one high school across the country. Public Juridic Person is a canonical term, akin to sponsorship. A PJP acts as a congregational surrogate to sponsorship by a religious order, allowing institutions to remain in relationship with the Catholic Church. Guided by a well-respected canon lawyer, the Setonian-Vincentian Ministries plans to submit the PJP application to the Vatican by the end of the 2023-24 academic year, Ellerman says. Meanwhile, the Sisters of Charity have committed to maintaining their sponsorship of the Mount until a solution is in place.
Once the PJP is approved, a new trustees group—comprised of an equal number of women and men—will “hold us accountable for maintaining our Catholic identity,” Ellerman says. At the same time, she said, decisions about academics, budget, and infrastructure will continue under the purview of the University’s board and administration.
“Most people won’t see a difference in the day-to-day operations,” says Sister Monica Gundler, SC, president of the Sisters of Charity. Though the sponsorship will ultimately end, the strong bond between the Sisters of Charity and the Mount will live on. The Mount has experienced numerous changes over the years, Sr. Monica says, from starting as a college for women to becoming co-ed, expanding academic programs, and adding adult education initiatives, and transitioning from a college to a university.
“Yet the mission has remained,” Sr. Monica says. “The Mount has always been focused on teaching facts and asking the question, How can you contribute to making the world a better place?”
The Mount’s strong sense of mission is helping sophomore Annabel Vicars understand what she wants to do with her life. A commuter student from nearby Lawrenceburg, Indiana, Vicars started as an education major, but as she learned more about the mission and reflected on its meaning, she changed course and now wants to work for nonprofits. She is one of the Mount’s Mission Ambassadors, a program that offers a small stipend for students committed to living out the mission on campus and leading in their own faith communities. She participates in Bible studies and helps host campus events. She’s also been following the PJP application process.
“At first, I was a little nervous because our Catholic identity is so important to us,” she says. “But I’m confident that we’re moving in the right direction. We’re not losing what makes the Mount special.”
Vicars said she explains what the Mount is about to folks by telling them, “We’re a ‘hold-the-door campus’… Every time you go outside the door, no matter if the person is way ahead of you, they’re going to wait and hold the door. They’re willing to take an extra couple of minutes to help someone.”
Sr. Karen sees the mission play out in big and small ways. A while back, she was crossing the quad with a box of books. A student she didn’t know approached her and offered to carry the books.
“I had never seen him before, and I’ve never seen him since,” she says. “But these students really buy into the charism of charity. They embrace it. They live it.”
SOMETHING BIGGER THAN ANY OF US
Dr. Williams encountered this lifelong commitment to the mission before becoming the University’s president in 2016. The Sunday before his first interview at the Mount, he accidentally left his Bible in the pew at a church in Tennessee. After returning from Ohio, he called the church to see if the Bible was still there. One of the administrators had found the Bible and opened it to find some papers in the pages, including the agenda for the upcoming interview.
The woman happened to be a Mount alumna.
“She told me she had prayed for me,” Dr. Williams says. “I figured that was a sign the Lord was giving me that this was the right place.”
Seven years later, that Bible sits on his credenza with the same interview schedule tucked inside—a reminder, he says, that the “Lord was calling me to this place.”
When Andy Buechel-Rieger, Ph.D., interviewed for his religious studies position in the liberal arts department, he was a little nervous. A Catholic theologian, Buechel-Rieger is also openly gay.
“I had been told very explicitly at other Catholic schools that the work on Catholicism and LGBTQ questions I was doing was important—but I couldn’t do it there,” Buechel-Rieger says. “When I applied at the Mount, I was very clear who I was and what I am.”
The Mount embraced Buechel-Rieger, seeing him as “an asset in working toward a version of Catholic identity that doesn’t have to be defined by what it’s against,” he says. The University lives the mission of respect and concern for all people and diversity of cultures and beliefs.
“DEI [Diversity, Equity & Inclusion] is part of the mission, not some separate initiative,” Buechel-Rieger says. “There’s a commitment to making sure the mission is real and experienced on the ground.”
Michelle Arnold, assistant director of mission integration, likens the mission statement to Catholic social teaching, with each piece of the mission building upon the other elements.
“We start with the fundamental idea that we’re here to learn,” Arnold says. “When we excel in academics, then we can show respect and concern for other people because we understand them. Then, when we understand them better, we can serve them. It’s a puzzle that you can’t take one piece out of. Everything is interconnected.”
RESTORING AND CELEBRATING THE MATER DEI CHAPEL
At the heart of the campus is a huge piece of the puzzle: the Mater Dei Chapel. Worship services are held there, of course. But it’s also the home to special events like the Baccalaureate Mass, pinning ceremonies for nursing students, commissioning for education graduates, and increasingly for weddings and funerals for students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
Of all the Catholic college and university chapels in the United States, Mater Dei is the only one designed by six women at a time when women were all but absent from leadership roles in this realm: Sister Augusta Zimmer, SC, ’40; Sister Ann Austin Mooney, SC, ’42; Sister Loretto Ann McCarty, SC, ’38; Margaret Rolfes Brungs ’60; Judy Dettenwanger Ebbeler ’61; and Marlene Hoffman ’61—three professors and three students. And they excelled.
Although the mid-century design is simple, it’s not simplistic, with soaring stained-glass windows refracting a kaleidoscope of colors onto the floor and pews. The reredos, the area behind the altar, features 140,000 pieces of Venetian glass. The women incorporated their deep knowledge of faith and scripture, designing the light fixtures, tabernacle, statues, and the Stations of the Cross with an eye toward calling people into a deeper spiritual life. In the murals, Jesus is (rightly) depicted as a Sephardic Jew—an uncommon presentation in the 1950s when most images cast Jesus as white European.
The chapel “encapsulates the mission of the university,” Buechel-Rieger says. “Life and learning are integrated kinds of realities. Art is not just private homework, but a public offering.”
In this spirit, the chapel is poised to become an even more public offering. Buechel-Rieger joined Sr. Karen and a team to prepare an application to list the chapel on the National Register of Historic Places. In December, the Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board granted its approval for the consideration of Mater Dei Chapel at the Mount to be included in the National Register of Historic Places, and the proposal is now being considered by the Department of the Interior & National Park Service.
“We already know that the chapel is a treasure,” Sr. Karen says. But with approval for National Register status, “it becomes a treasure under the Department of Interior. We want it to be a place not only for our students and faculty but also for others to visit and enjoy. This chapel was built for the honor and glory of God, and it can inspire and feed the human soul.”
Despite the timelessness of its mission, the chapel is more than 60 years old and in need of restoration. A major initiative in 2019 included refinishing and refurbishing the pews, cushions, kneelers, and floor, and restoring the tile mosaics. But there’s still significant work to be done.
The lighting and sound system are both original to the chapel. Some call it vintage, joked Sr. Karen. Others, including Sr. Karen, say it is dismally antiquated. The lighting is so dim that it’s hard to see during evening programs or worship services. And even if programs are held during the day, it’s difficult to hear the speaker or priest because the sound system is so dysfunctional.
A capital campaign is underway to fund a new sound system, update the lighting, and purchase a new digital organ. These muchneeded updates would bring the chapel into the 21st century, enabling live-streaming and audio recording. But the renovations would also have a simpler yet vital impact: People could more fully participate in the liturgy, hearing the scriptures and praying the psalms. It’s also a matter of accessibility, especially for people with hearing or sight challenges.
The chapel “reminds us of who we are fundamentally and why we are called to do the work we do,” Dr. Williams says. “It is a place that calls us to our mission, and that mission is central to who we are. Our mission is what we hold onto when things are tough, when we’re not sure which way to go… We don’t ever want to lose the essence of who we are, the charisms of humility, charity, and simplicity instilled by the Sisters of Charity. Our mission hangs on our walls, but I believe it’s lived in our halls too, and in our hearts.”
SPONSORSHIP TRANSITION FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What does it mean that the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati “sponsor” the Mount?
The “sponsorship” of the Mount by the Sisters of Charity relates to the institution’s Catholic identity and certain governance matters. It does not have anything to do with the Mount’s finances or day-to-day operations.
Sponsorship by the Sisters of Charity has permitted the Mount to have a canonical relationship with the Catholic Church. The sponsorship transition requires the Mount to explore other options for maintaining its canonical relationship with the Catholic Church.
Will the sponsorship transition change the day-to-day operations of the Mount?
No. The day-to-day operations of the Mount will not change as a result of the sponsorship transition.
What day-to-day operations at the Mount will be affected by the transition of sponsorship?
None. Currently, the Sisters of Charity maintain a limited governance role with: (1) up to four seats on the Board of Trustees, (2) approval of the hiring of the Mount’s President and appointment of members of the Board of Trustees, (3) approval of the annual operating budget, and (4) approval of certain actions of the Board of Trustees through reserved powers, such as approving large investments.
With the sponsorship transition, the Sisters of Charity’s authority over these administrative operations will revert to the Board of Trustees, as is typical with other private, non-profit universities. The day-to-day operations of the Mount will not be impacted by the sponsorship transition.
Will the Mount have any connection to the Sisters of Charity after the sponsorship transition?
Yes. The Mount is grounded in the spiritual values and vision of the Sisters of Charity and is committed to honoring that legacy.
How does the sponsorship transition affect the finances of the Mount?
It does not. The Mount is and has been financially independent from the Sisters of Charity for many years. The Mount does not rely on funding from the Sisters of Charity to operate. Consequently, the sponsorship transition will not impact the Mount’s finances.
How does the sponsorship transition affect the property and real estate of the Mount?
It does not. The Sisters of Charity own certain grounds on, and facilities in, which the Mount operates. The lease agreements between the Sisters of Charity and the Mount provide that the Mount maintains control and use of these properties and facilities. The lease agreements, are unrelated to, and not impacted by the sponsorship transition.
Who is leading the sponsorship transition process for the Mount?
The Mount’s Board of Trustees has established a Sponsorship Transition Ad Hoc Committee, which leads the institution through the sponsorship transition process. The Mount Community will be kept informed about the process and about key decisions made by the Board of Trustees. The Sisters of Charity are working closely with the committee as well. Questions and comments can be shared by emailing sponsorship.transition@msj.edu.
Will there be opportunities for members of the Mount Community to be involved in the sponsorship transition process?
Forums with students, faculty, staff, and alumni to learn more about the sponsorship transition process and to engage in discussions about sponsorship options are taking place. Comments can also be shared at any time by emailing sponsorship.transition@msj.edu
What options for future sponsorship are being explored by the Mount?
The Sponsorship Transition Ad Hoc Committee has explored all sponsorship options available. As of April 24, 2023, through its thoughtful discernment process, the Board of Trustees has resolved that the Mount will take one of two paths forward: (1) create a group of Catholic institutions of higher education to seek sponsorship through Vatican approval to remain Catholic, or (2) join an existing group of Catholic institutions of higher education who have already obtained sponsorship approval from the Vatican to remain Catholic. Both of these sponsorship options will ensure that the Mount remains a Catholic institution.
Is sponsorship required for the Mount to remain Catholic?
Yes. As the sponsor of the Mount, the Sisters of Charity have maintained the Mount’s canonical relationship with the Catholic Church. As an institution of higher education, to remain recognized as a Catholic institution by the Vatican, the Mount must have a Catholic sponsor that is approved by the Vatican.
Will the Mount change without Sisters of Charity sponsorship?
Over its 103-year history, the Mount has evolved and transformed into the world-class living and learning community it is today. Yet, our mission, vision, and values have remained constant. The Mount is grounded in the spiritual values and vision of the Sisters of Charity and is committed to honoring that legacy.
The Sisters of Charity will provide resources and expertise to the Mount as it moves forward in the sponsorship transition process. While the Sisters of Charity sponsorship will eventually transition, its relationship with the Mount will endure.
RESTORE MATER DEI CHAPEL
Help us preserve this national treasure.
More than 60 years ago, Sister Augusta and five courageous women created the Mater Dei Chapel, a sanctuary of light and music, for the greater honor and glory of God. Its windows are a source of magnificent color, creating a sacred kaleidoscope of God’s light throughout the space, and for many years, majestic organ music filled the chapel. To this day, Mater Dei Chapel remains a symbol of God’s majesty and has inspired generations of MSJ students and alumni.
Since 2019, we restored the chapel’s sacred art, liturgical objects, pews, and bell tower; however, significant work remains. Our goals are to preserve its stained-glass windows, restore its organ and acoustic finishes, and renew the chapel with new accessibility features and live-streaming technology. Please prayerfully consider contributing to preserving our beautiful chapel and the legacy of those women who succeeded against all odds and cultural norms of their day—to Light the Way for future generations.
MSJ DAY OF GIVING IS TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2024.
While you can support any area of the University, a generous alumna has offered to double the impact of all gifts made to support the Mater Dei Chapel on our MSJ Day of Giving dollar-for-dollar, up to $5,000!
To give, please visit www.msj.edu/restore-chapel.
