SJC Magazine Supplement: Year of Mercy

SUPPLEMENT

Pope Francis declares a Holy Year of Mercy.

Mercy is alive at Saint Joseph’s College!

president’s letter

Welcome to Saint Joseph’s College!

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n his latest encyclical, Pope Francis asks us all to take responsibility for those around us who are in dire need. Perhaps they are homeless or they need help feeding their families; Pope Francis asks us to keep our eyes open and our hearts, too. The pontiff also urges each of us to take responsibility for the environment, to care for what is around us. It is very pleasing to me that at Saint Joseph’s College we are embracing this message through Catherine’s Cupboard, our food pantry in Standish; with service trips at home and abroad; and with sustainability and green initiatives involving campus waste, campus lighting, and SJC’s Pearson’s Town Farm.

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Pope Francis has declared a Holy Year of Mercy, a Jubilee year that is overflowing with significance for Saint Joseph’s College. Mercy clearly has been close to the pope for several years. On March 17, 2013, during his first Angelus address as the Bishop of Rome, he spoke of “feeling mercy...this word changes everything.” Surely Catherine McAuley understood that when she founded the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831. McAuley said, “Let charity be our badge of honor...so that it may truly be said, there is in us but one heart and one soul in God.” In this special Saint Joseph’s College papal magazine, you will read excerpts from two of our revered scholars on

staff at SJC, Dan Sheridan and Sister Marilyn Sunderman, about Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, who followed her calling in developing educational opportunities for women and children in poverty-ravaged Ireland as a means of helping them climb out of poverty, ignorance, sickness, and unemployment.

Sister Mary Scullion, an honorary doctoral degree recipient of Saint Joseph’s College, runs the homeless outreach program called Project HOME in Philadelphia. It is her goal that each homeless person is given a home to live in, food to eat, and a job.

It’s a tall order for the city of brotherly love, which, to date, has a 27 percent poverty rate, one of the highest in the nation. Sister Scullion is determined and shares her strategy with us and with the pope during his US visit.

Sister Scullion says, “I think the solution to homelessness lies in all of us . . . you have the answer within yourself, it’s just maybe giving it the time and energy and research that it takes to identify strategically how you can in fact impact the needs in your community.”

I am excited to share the launching of the Monks’ Francis Fund, as well. In honor of Pope Francis, this is a call to action from Saint Joseph’s College, an opportunity for giving on two levels: financial and service. All of the funds will go directly to Catherine’s Cupboard, and the entire SJC community will be encouraged to volunteer in service at the food pantry: help with set-up, food distribution, and spreading the message.

Good things are happening at Saint Joseph’s College. We extend a warm welcome to Pope Francis and applaud his message of mercy, compassion, and sustainability.

Jim Dlugos President

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Top: Pope Francis greets the faithful.

Left: Sisters of Mercy from Maine take a moment for the camera before boarding a plane to Peru, seen in this undated archival photo.

Bottom: Children work on an art project at the YMCA Camp in Standish, Maine.

Saint Joseph’s College volunteers provide school lunches for campers each summer.

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Tens of thousands of faithful gather in prayer outside Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Rome.

A Mission of Mercy

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e’s been called the Pope of Mercy, and now Pope Francis has declared 2016 a Holy Year of Mercy. The Jubilee begins on December 8, 2015, and ends on November 20, 2016. This specially declared year invites Catholics to rediscover works of mercy, and suggests that the Sacrament of Confession will be paramount. The pope will appoint priests in every diocese to be “convincing priests of mercy” and they will forgive particularly grave sins without having to ask permission from the Vatican. As an example, they will have authority to pardon sacrilege against the Eucharist.

Members of gangs will be asked to convert. The Jubilee will also propose dialogue with Jews and Muslims to avoid contempt or discrimination. The pope underscores that the Jubilee is an opportunity for every person. “Why a Jubilee of Mercy today? Simply because the Church, in this time of great historical change, is called to offer more evident signs of God’s presence and closeness. This is not the time to be distracted,” Pope Francis explained.

The pontiff told Vatican correspondent Ines San Martin that he “wants to make it evident that the Church’s mission is as a witness of compassion.” And, in the pope’s apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, he wrote, “The Church must be a place of mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven, and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel.”

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“I think we too are the people who, on the one hand, want to listen to Jesus, but on the other hand, at times, like to find a stick to beat others with. And Jesus has this message for us: mercy. I think—and I say it with humility— that this is the Lord’s most powerful message: mercy.”

—Pope Francis, March 17, 2013 The entire global Catholic community will celebrate the Holy Year of Mercy at each Sunday Mass, where readings will be taken from the Gospel of Luke, arguably the foremost Evangelist of God’s mercy. The theme of God’s merciful love is at the heart of Luke’s gospel and peppered throughout a cluster of parables. Luke portrays the distinctive characteristic of the Kingdom of God, beginning with the Magnificat, a hymn of thanksgiving to the God of mercy. In verses 46–50 of the Magnificat, Mary praises God for showering His mercy upon her: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, For He has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; For He who is mighty has done great things for me. And holy is His name; And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.”

From end to end of the globe and from generation to generation, Pope Francis has collected an army of ardent supporters, inspiring a renewal to faith for many and an all-out Catholic

conversion for more. His grassroots approach, calling on us to embrace compassion and love for one another, and to take responsibility for the poor around us, harkens back to the teachings of a modern-day mother of mercy: Catherine McAuley. The Dublin, Ireland, native founded the Sisters of Mercy in 1831. McAuley was struck by the many destitute women and children living in Dublin, suffering greatly and with no place to turn for help. The Sisters of Mercy provided them with a home, food, and education, with the goal to keep families as whole as possible. Their order and mission expanded, rapidly reaching every corner of the globe.

One September 26, 2015, Pope Francis will attend the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. The gathering, created by Pope John Paul II in 1994, has as its focus strengthening the sacred bonds of families around the world. The theme for this year is “Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive.” This international celebration of family, community, and faith is a global celebration of support and love.

Meet Sister Mary Scullion

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hiladelphia-based Mary Scullion, RSM plays a big role in the pope’s visit to Philadelphia. She chairs the Mercy and Justice Initiative and was selected to chair the Hunger and Homelessness Committee for the weeklong World Meeting of Families for Pope Francis’ first visit to the United States. Scullion, an ardent fighter for the rights of the homeless and founder of the Philadelphia-based Project HOME, says the committee was formed around Pope Francis’ commitment to “solidarity with those who are poor and his belief that not only do we have to have personal responsibility in alleviating the suffering of others” but also need to work to systemically change the growing income inequality in our country.

“Pope Francis believes that God’s name is Mercy and that mercy is intrinsic to who we are as Christians,” Scullion explained. “That really ties into the spirit of Saint Joseph’s College and the Sisters of Mercy.”

Sister Scullion understands how tightly the pope’s call to action weaves into the plight of tens of thousands in her area living without homes, barely staying alive. For decades, she has

worked tirelessly with communities in greater Philadelphia and poor communities in New Jersey, working to give a voice to the homeless, hope to those who have had no one to champion their needs, and, through her advocacy efforts, she helped win homeless individuals the right to vote as well as a landmark federal court decision that affects the fair housing rights of persons with disabilities. “Everyone can do something, whatever they are passionate about,” Scullion advised. “The single most important thing to ending homelessness in the future is a quality education for every single child.”

Sister Scullion has deep ties to Saint Joseph’s College. Beyond the connection as a Sister of Mercy, Scullion was selected to receive a honorary Doctor of Human Letters from the College.

And, in the planning stages for the Pope’s US visit, she tapped Joanne Bean, Saint Joseph’s chief advancement officer, to join the Mercy & Justice Committee. “As a native Philadelphian, and having been educated at a Sister’s of Mercy College (Gwynedd Mercy University), I am beyond honored,” Bean said. “The pope’s mission and his message of mercy resonate beautifully

with the mercy that Sister Mary lives each day.”

Sister Scullion, selected by Time Magazine as one of the “World’s Most Influential People” in 2009 and named the 2011 “Citizen of the Year” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, created The Francis Fund, “an opportunity,” she

“Pope Francis believes that God’s name is Mercy and that mercy is intrinsic to who we are as Christians.” says, “that allows those who want to help to be able to give a financial gift that will directly influence and improve the lives of our most vulnerable people, individuals and families who desperately need that kind of help.”

For more information on the Francis Fund, visit community.projecthome. org/francisfund. To learn more about Saint Joseph’s College’s Monks’ Francis Fund, see page 10.

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Catherine McAuley: A Woman of Mercy

BY DEACON DANIEL SHERIDAN, PHD

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atherine McAuley was born in Ireland, a land of sorrows and religious strife, on September 29, 1778. She was baptized as a Catholic shortly thereafter. However, her middle-class family, with a staunchly Catholic father but less committed mother, was very much immersed in the Protestant culture of Dublin. Her father, James, a builder, died in 1783 and the family’s fortunes declined. At the age of 19, she was confirmed and received her First Holy Communion.

When her mother, Elinor, died in 1798, Catherine, 20 years old, went to live with Protestant relatives who discouraged her practice of Catholicism. In 1803, she went to Cullock outside of Dublin to live with William and Catherine Callaghan, a childless Quaker couple who allowed only the most discrete practice of her faith. Mrs. Callaghan died in 1819, but not before converting through the power of Catherine’s example to her faith. Mr. Callaghan died in 1822, also converting, and leaving Catherine his entire fortune of 25,000 pounds (about one million dollars).

Catherine McAuley, now 44 years of age, and very experienced in suffering and death, returned to Dublin and ended her hidden life. As an act of faith, she determined that her inheritance would not be spent on herself, but be used for the relief and instruction of the poor and that she would build a refuge for distressed women. Thus she began to build the House of Our Lady of Mercy on the corner of Baggot and Herbert streets in Dublin. It was dedicated on September 24, 1827, the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy when Catherine was 49. A group of women began gathering around her to help in this apostolate of service, which led to the 5 | saint joseph’s supplement

founding of the Sisters of Mercy, a congregation of Catholic religious women.

Catherine and her companions professed vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty on December 12, 1833, and took a fourth vow to take care of the poor, the sick, and the uneducated.

In her book Tender Courage, author Sister M. Joanna Regan concluded of Catherine McAuley: “She connected the rich to the poor; the healthy to the sick; the educated and skilled to the uninstructed; the influential to those of no consequence; the powerful to the weak.”

Six words must be added to this quote: “to do the work of God.” This phrase is critical to the work underway at Saint Joseph’s College. For, the addition of “to do the work of God” allows SJC to truly be a Catholic College in the Mercy tradition.

In his book The Works of Mercy: The Heart of Catholicism, Father James F. Keenan writes, “God’s mercy makes human love possible.” Keenan defines mercy as willingness to enter into the chaos of others. Thus, the creation of the world by God is an act of mercy where God brought order out of chaos.

The Incarnation of the Word in the person of Jesus Christ is the entry of God into human chaos. “And redemption is bringing us out of the chaos of our slavery to sin.” When we experience God, we experience God’s mercy for us, the primary premise for an authentic human work of mercy. Keenan concludes with a meditation on the phrase from the Mass: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. The mercy that the Lamb of God grants us is union with God, one of Catherine McAuley’s foundational principles.

“We should be as shining lamps, giving light to all around us.”

—Catherine McAuley

This beautiful statue of Catherine McAuley outside Xavier Hall, Saint Joseph’s College, designed and sculpted by a Sister of Mercy

Saint Joseph’s College encourages each student to take part in a service trip to Haiti, Guatemala, New York City, or Kentucky.

Catherine’s Educational Vision

BY SISTER MARILYN SUNDERMAN, RSM, PHD

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n and through her abiding respect, love, and concern for the neediest of her day, Catherine McAuley demonstrated her commitment to the social justice dimension of her educational vision. She understood that to be merciful is to act justly by being in solidarity with poor persons. She was convinced that to live Mercy entails extending practical, active love to starving, homeless, sick, uneducated, and unemployed persons. Catherine’s statement, “The poor need help today, not next week,” conveys the urgency she felt for the neediest. She insisted that loving poor persons means empowering them, especially through education, to become the architects and agents of their own future. While consistently responding to people’s immediate needs for food, shelter, and clothing, Catherine sought to effect systemic change by establishing educational institutions. Integral to her strategy for fostering such change, she not only established schools for the economically disadvantaged but also founded pension schools in which middle-class students learned the importance of social responsibility.

In Catherine’s spirituality, it is possible to identify qualities essential to her

vision of the Mercy educator. These include: a spirit of patience and humility; prayerfulness; acceptance of the cross; attitudes of hospitality, mercy, and love; and enthusiasm for service. One of Catherine’s playful verses documented in Catherine McAuley, The first Sister of Mercy, reads: “Keep patience ever at your side. You’ll want it for a constant guide.” Humility, for Catherine, entails possessing self-knowledge that includes the realization of one’s inability to do even the smallest thing without the aid of both God and others.

In Catherine’s spirituality, prayer is essential in the life of the Mercy educator. To teach is to express in word and deed what one cherishes in the inner recesses of one’s being, i.e., that God is Love and that the life of one who abides in God must overflow in love toward others. Furthermore, for Catherine, the Mercy educator accepts the cross in his/her teaching experience. As outlined in Familiar Instructions Collected by the first Sisters of Mercy, Catherine perceptively notes that “Some great things which God designs to accomplish would be too much joy without a dash of bitterness in the cup.”

Twenty-first-century Mercy higher education seeks to develop in its students love for truth, critical intelligence to attain it, and the ability to articulate it and live it out. Such personal and professional educational experience enables students to: • learn the ways of mercy, forgiveness, and nonviolence; • become involved in community service projects; • benefit from exposure to differing perspectives on political, religious, and social issues, and to varying cultures and traditions; and • understand the serious responsibility to be earth conservators.

Those who embrace Venerable Catherine’s educational vision through involvement in ministry of higher education in the 21st century are called to uphold the values that are rooted and grounded in the Christian tradition, especially those of mercy and justice that were uppermost in Catherine’s lived spirituality. Like Catherine, these educators are called to be messengers and agents of God’s Good News of mercy and justice.

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Sisters of Mercy working in the SJC lab circa 1960s

Sisters of Mercy Celebrate 150 Years

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ercy has been at the heart of celebrations spanning the state of Maine in honor of the Sisters of Mercy. From a college campus dinner at Saint Joseph’s to a beautiful Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the Sisters of Mercy have been honored for the impact they have made over the past 150 years in the state.

The Maine sisters have served in a wide range of ministries, including education, health care, social services, parish ministry, and advocacy, striving to fulfill their fourth vow of service. They have worked tirelessly in parish and reservation schools and on catechetical missions in towns without a Catholic school.

Walton Street tea in the 1960s, celebrating the original SJC building

Sisters of Mercy ready to go to bat for the Monks, Saint Joseph’s College’s mascot

SAINT JOSEPH’S COLLEGE’S

Core Values FAITH EXCELLENCE INTEGRITY COMMUNITY RESPECT COMPASSION JUSTICE

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Saint Joseph’s College Sisters of Mercy Honored

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t the annual Alumni Awards ceremony in spring 2015, Saint Joseph’s College honored a special group of their own: the SJC Sisters of Mercy. Sisters Mary George O’Toole, Joyce Mahany, Michele Aronica, Kathleen Sullivan, Mary Kneeland, Marilyn Sunderman, Patricia Flynn, Fleurette Kennon, and Sylvia Comer were cited for their many years of service to the College through myriad roles including teaching, school development, archiving the College’s history, and providing important direction to students, staff, and faculty.

“We have one solid comfort amidst this little tripping about: our hearts can always be in the same place, centered in God, for whom alone we go forward or stay back.”

—Catherine McAuley

Saint Joseph’s College Sisters of Mercy honored

Mike Shea ’72 and Sister Mary George O’Toole ’51, Hon ’90

President Jim Dlugos and Sister Joyce Mahany

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“Safeguard Creation. If we destroy creation, creation will destroy us!”

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ope Francis’ stern warning was delivered on the heels of a five-day summit on sustainability titled “Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature, Our Responsibility,” which convened last year at the Vatican.

It’s a message heard loud and clear on the campus of Saint Joseph’s College.

The beautiful lakeside setting promotes the College’s campus-wide sustainability program, known to the community as ‘Attainable Sustainable.’ Campus sustainability accomplishments to date include signing the American College and University Climate Commitment, signing the Catholic Climate Covenant, and achieving a bronze rating through the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment,

and Rating System (STARS). These efforts can be attributed to dedicated, grassroots organizing on behalf of faculty and staff members.

For years, these passionate community members have been organizing engagement programs including student Eco-Reps and an employee Green Team, as well as measuring campus carbon emissions and launching a Green Revolving Fund for energy efficiency and community efforts. This year, in conjunction with mission-driven sustainability consulting firm Eco-Motion, the College will measure its own greenhouse gas footprint and will develop a climate action and sustainability plan.

In 2014, Saint Joseph’s College

Farming Sustainably at SJC’s Pearson’s Town Farm

Farm’s History of Education and Giving

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hen SJC’s resident farmer, Michial Russell, introduced permaculture to the College-owned farm, Pearson’s Town Farm, the gardens exploded in height, color, and yield.

Permaculture by definition is “a system of principles focused on simulating or taking advantage of the patterns and features found naturally in the world.”

At Pearson’s Town Farm, Russell’s design process is based on whole-systems thinking, incorporating 12 design principles that, together, combine the best of natural landscaping and edible landscaping, an ethical design of human systems for a sustainable future. “Diversity, stability, resilience.

These are the mainstays of creating a harmonious integration of landscape with food production, energy, biology, gardening, and community building,” he explained. “Pearson’s Town Farm is definitely a work in progress, but it’s a process that integrates people into nature’s design, not the other way around. In my opinion, it’s the only way forward.”

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hat began as a small garden project back in the summer of 2005 has expanded into a fully functioning farm that provides produce for both the College and the Standish community, as well as animals, from rabbits and chickens to goats, sheep, and alpacas.

In the spring of 2009, Michial Russell was hired to manage the farm. Interns were brought on board to expand the growing operation and develop a program that would better educate young people about agriculture and their food. Since then, the summer’s crops have been used in the College dining hall and donated to Catherine’s Cupboard, a partnership that has since flourished and bolstered the farm’s commitment to fighting the growing food-insecurity issues arising at the local level.

As an educational tool, the farm is an invaluable means for reconnecting people, both young and old, with simple, naked foods, and re-introducing others to the simplicity and superior health benefits of non-processed foods.

Pearson’s Town Farm is committed to reaching out into the community to

—Pope Francis

added a sustainability minor. The minor allows students of any major to integrate stewardship and the three pillars of sustainability, which include economics, environment, and society, into their coursework. The minor is designed so that students gain a broad understanding of sustainability through the integration of diverse forms of knowledge; students gain a technical understanding of sustainability challenges with opportunities to analyze issues and explore solutions; and they apply sustainability concepts within the core values of the College’s mission to solving a critical problem through community-based research, workplace experience, or service learning.

“The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change.”

—Pope Francis, from “Laudato Si (Be Praised), On the Care of Our Common Home”

encourage those who are able to recapture the practice of Victory Gardening, to empower the underserved to help subsidize for themselves, and to inspire small, at-home agriculture projects to, perhaps, subsidize incomes.

SJC’s farm, a tool for the entire community, has as its goal the creation of as many closed-system programs as practically possible to demonstrate the feasibility and ease of growing a variety of foods with as few outside sources as possible. And, in using the permaculture model, everything from the farm’s soil to the alpacas are interconnected for the greatest good of the whole of the farm, and ultimately, as the best teaching tool available for promoting a strong and more independent community.

Top: Vegetables grow in the ‘hoops’ at Pearson’s Town Farm.

Bottom: SJC students help organize donated food items at Catherine’s Cupboard.

Saint Joseph’s College:

Caring for Food-Insecure Residents Giving Spotlight: The Monks’ Francis Fund In early August 2015, a small group at SJC created The Monks’ Francis Fund. This fund, dedicated to both Pope Francis and the people served through Catherine’s Cupboard, will help promote the food pantry’s mission, asking for financial donations and volunteer assistance. The great hope is that this fund helps to reignite the spirit of Catherine’s Cupboard, that it serves as the match bringing together those who can give with those most desperately in need of that compassion.

To donate or to learn more about volunteer opportunities, contact Monica Gerrish mgerrish@sjcme.edu.

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n the tradition of Catherine McAuley and strengthening a commitment to aiding our neighbors, Saint Joseph’s College has created The Monks’ Francis Fund. It is a direct reflection of Pope Francis’ call for greater compassion and justice for the world’s poor, in which he said: “We have paid too little heed to those who are hungry…. The times talk to us of so much poverty in the world and this is a scandal. In a world where there is so much wealth, so many resources to feed everyone, it is unfathomable that there are so many hungry children, that there are so many children without an education, so many poor persons. Poverty today is a cry.”

Pope Francis has challenged each of us to take responsibility, to care for the homeless and the unfed, if only in our own corner of the world.

This call to action is something Saint Joseph’s College already holds dear.

In 2008, the College helped to create Catherine’s Cupboard, a food pantry serving Standish and surrounding communities. Operating out of a space in Standish’s Town Hall, the Cupboard serves nearly 1,500 men, women, and children each year.

Each Wednesday, Catherine’s Cupboard opens its doors to individuals and families from over 25 towns in the greater Standish area who are

food-challenged. Stuart Leckie, the food services manager at Saint Joseph’s College, played an integral role in founding Catherine’s Cupboard.

“People would be shocked to learn how many families simply don’t have enough food, how many children go to bed hungry,” said Leckie. “But simply handing out food is not the solution.

We work hard to educate families, teaching them how to garden, how to budget food costs, how to cook healthy food, and be responsible for their own actions.” The food pantry is helped run by volunteers and College faculty and staff like Leckie throughout the year.

Pearson’s Town Farm, owned by the College, and Rippling Waters Farm donate fresh, organic produce, while Hannaford and the community donate canned goods, frozen meat, and bakery goods. Many of the volunteers work at Saint Joseph’s College. They set up the pantry and help out when it’s open each Wednesday from 6 to 7 p.m.

During the summer, when food insecurities for school-aged children are at their highest, two SJC employees begin making hundreds upon hundreds of sandwiches and lunches at 4 a.m. and then drive them to towns scattered around Sebago Lake. For some of the children who receive them, the lovingly made lunches may be their only meal of the day.

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YEAR OF MERCY

December 8, 2015–November 20, 2016

E D I TO R David Svenson

A Catholic college in the Mercy tradition 278 Whites Bridge Road, Standish, Maine

1-855-752-4636 www.sjcme.edu

A R T D I R E C TO R Ian Marquis S E N I O R D I R E C TO R O F M A R K E T I N G & CO M M U N I C AT I O N S Tory Ryden