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THE A'NCHOR-Diocese of Fall River-Fri .. Feb. 4.1994
At diocesan health facilities
DR. LYNNE ROBERTSON, educator and consultant in food service management, oversees i.mplementation of the "GeriMenu" software system during a recen"t visit to Catholic Memorial Home,' Fall River. The program, used throughout the diocesan health facilitit:s system, helps streamline'menu preparatio路n. ASK LOUISE RESENDES about the care her mother, Catherine Mellen, is receiving at Ciltholic .Memoriall-tome, and her response IS:
"I can't say enough about the care:' the personal care of my mother and the cleanliness of the home. There's a certain special something about Catholic Memorial Home. The staff are very affectionate, and even if they are rushing by to help another resident, they'll stop to say hello to my mother by name. They take the time to make each person feel that they are special." Mrs. Mellen, 90, is a resident of the Considine Unit for persons with Alzheimer's Disease, and her daughter finds evidence of the staffs consideration, even in the smallest details: "My mother likes to have a mid-afternoon snack of a jam and peanut butter sandwich, and it is always there for her...and not just handed ioher, but taken out and broken up for her, so she can eat it easily." , Mrs. Mellen enjoys planned activities in the sun room, ~uch as modified baseball and basketball games, and her daughter appreciates the newly. formed support group for family members of the Considine Unit: "There was a warm feeling as we sat around the . table, ~s if you had been invited into someone's home. [Social worker] John Rogers and the other staff are so good .. .it's a wonderful group of people there."
LON A MURPHY
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LON A MURPHY is a quiet, cheerful lady who has lived at Madonna Manor, North Attleboro, for over a year. Her personal goal is to regain her ability to walk following a stroke - a challenge she meets every day at physical therapy sessions. She's able to walk a few steps now using the roIling walker. "Every step helps," she says. "I feel as if I'm coming along well. I couldn't be doing this at a better place than Madonna Manor," she says. "There's always someone here to help you when you need it. And the food is good!" Lona's point of view is "to take each day as it comes." ,
Catholic schools are different We were different and proud of after grade, school, Frank to the only Catholic boys' high school in it. Our路 parish school, the Ascentown. and I to public school. sion in north Minneapolis. M N; with 1,200 kids, was the biggest The Ascension was my only Catholic grade school in 路town. classroom Catholic education, but what I learned about my faith in Our classes were near the top in . size. too-around 50. Our athletic , those years never left me. teams often were city chal"Dps. Growing up Catholic and atBut those reasons weren't what tending a p~rochial school set us really made us different. We didn't apart in the 1920s and '30s. It was deemed a 'handicap then, unlike wear uniforms in those days .. We didn't get rides on the public school today when Catholics have made buses in the 1920s; we walked. For it socially. financially and edu- . us Casserly kids that was one mile cationally. each way four times a day; we went "No Catholics Need Apply" signs home for lunch. were nowhere to be seen then. but What really made us different I lost at least one daily newspaper was our faith. We got the fourth reporting job because I was a "R." religion. right along with Catholic. The publisher told me he read in'. 'ritin' and 'rithmetic. We had three too many Catholics went to Mass on Sunday. confes- working for him alre~dy and what路 sion on Saturday, we fasted before he needed was a good Lutheran. commun,ion and skipped meat on American Catholic grade schools Friday. ' have declined in number at the My years at Ascension came same time their academic superback vividly recently when I learned iority has been making headlines. of the death of an old classmate. The loss of sisters and their replaceFrank Liemandt. "Babe" (nick- ment by lay teachers who need a names were very big then) and I living wage has raised tuition rates often walked to school together. out of sight. We loved to leapfrog over some Discipline~ test scores and neighconcrete posts along the way until borhood location are often given' Babe tore his pants one day after as reasons parents want their kids lunch and ran home crying. It was in Catholic schools. There's another a very big rip. We separated fo~ever explanation. of course. even though
By
BERNARD
CASSERLY
ii's not always mentioned: religion. Support for this fourth "R" came from an unusual sourcewhe'n U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anonin Scalia told a father-daughter breakfast at Georgetown Visitation. a Catholic girls" high school in Washington. DC. t,) take pride in being out of step with the rest of the world. "When I was the age of you young ladies," he said. "the Church provided obtrusive reminders that we were different." citing meatless Fridays and Saturdays morning fasts before Communion. That sense of differentness. Scalia said, should have enabled Catholics "to be strong enough on bigger issues" such a~: abortion, contraception and divorce. The Church's unchanging positions on abortion. homosexuali ty and premarital sex could further mark Catholics as being out (If step with the rest of the world. he said. Being "different" and "out of step" with society is nol easy. But it helps to be the product of Catholic schools.
U.S. nuns head for Siberian missioll
SALINA, Kan. (CNS) -.: At age 73, when many people are thinking about retirement, Agnesian Sister Lucy Ann Wasinger is getting ready to start a new ministry in Siberia. . Originally she didn't jump at the opportunity. In fact, when she was first asked by Russian Bishop Joseph Werth to help him develop a Catholic community in Siberia, her response was, "If I were from "Why We Do What We younger, I'd go with you." Do, "a 1993 publication of DioceBut that, she said, was before san Health Facilities she experienced' a calling while * * * * reading a brochure that appealed ANNE MARIE KELLY, R.N., for religious ministers in the former c., and Irene M. Allie, R.N., c., of Soviet Union. ' Catholic Memorial Home recently "As I read the brochure. it said, earned certification in gerontolog'Are you interested?' and someical nursing from the American thing hit me. I wrote and said, Nurses Associatio'n. 'Someone is interested, me,''' SisThe certification program rec-' ter Wasinger told the Northwestognizes professional achievement ern Kansas Register, diocesan newsin specific areas of nursing. Geron- pape'r of Salina. tological nurses evaluate health She won't be alone when she needs of older adults, planning, l:Jeads to the Chelyabinsk, an and implementing care which uses industrial city of more than a miltheir strengths and assists them in lion people on the eastern slopes of maximizing their independence. Russia's Ural Mountains. Sister A Fall River resident, Mrs. Kelly Wasinger will be joined by three is director of staff development in others: Agnesian Sisters Mary Elise the nursing home and holds ANA Leiker. Mary Ann 'Schippers and certification in staff development Alice Ann Pfeifer. coordination. A graduate of St. The four sisters, all Kansas Anne's School of Nursing and the natives, were honored 'at a farewell University of Massach usetts / DartMass Jan. 8 with Salina Bishop mouth, she is a member of the George K. Fitzsimons. American Nurses Association, the It is no coincidence' the four nursing honor society Sigma Theta missionaries to Russia are from Tau, the National Nursing Staff Ellis County, Kan., nor that Bishop Development Organization, and Werth, the apostolic' administrathe Fall River Council of Catholic tor of Novosibirsk, Siberia, made Nurses. that area the main focus of his first Mrs. Allie, a head nurse at Cath- visit to the United States in 1992. olic Memorial Home,'holds a de- The sisters, as well as a sizable porgree from the nursing program at tion of Ellis County, are descendBristol C,ommunity College, Fall ants of German-speaking immigRiver. A Berkley resident, she is a rants who came from a dozen member of the Berkley Fire De- villages along Russia's Volga River. partment as an on-call firefight- They settled in the area between er/ emergency medical technician. 1876 and 1923. She serves on the Berkley public In June 1992, Sister Pfeifer. library board of trustees and is a along with two other sisters, visited member of the Dighton garden the mission region, covering an club. 850-square-mile radius. During the
visit. she said, they learned that many people in the rural villages had never heard of sisters. They knew nothing of the sisters' lifestyle or the vows they take. Sister Pfeifer said the sIsters will be setting up religious education for all ages as one of their first projects, particularly because the locals have "a hunger for theology and books." According to Sister Wasinger: another first, ministry might be simply to listen to people. "For so many years, they couldn't even tell their stories to each other. They. don't even know who to trust," she said. Sister. Leiker said many people have asked her why she wanted to go to Russia' when there is much work to be done in the United States. "Part of being a sister is you
councils on aging Edgartown . Birthday lunch 12:30 p.m. Feb. 8. African dance and music program I:30 p.m. Feb. 9. Blood pressure/wellnessclinic 1:15p.m. Feb. 15; reservation required by Feb. 14, Video, "90 in the '90s," 8:30 a.m. Feb. 16. Health talk on arthritis I:30 p.m. Feb. 16 by Linda Leonard, RN;' evening talk on menopause will be scheduled for later in the month. Mark Lovewell's Sea Chanteys I:30 p.m. Feb. 22. Information: COA, 627-4368. Yarmouth Valentine's Dance 8 p.m. Feb. II, senior center"528 Forest Rd., S. Yarmouth. Dennis Eight-week course in American art begins I:30 p.m. today. Estate planning seminar 2 p.m. Feb. 9. Program on home health care 2 p.m. Feb. 23. Vial of Life kits available at COA, 385-5067.
have to go where you are called to serve the church," .is her response. "This is another place where I've been called."
AUTHOR Sister Margherita Marchione was one of four New Jersey nal:ives recently honored by the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame. At age 71, the member of the Religious Teachers Filippini order received the honor along with Pulitzer Prizewinning author and ~:cientist Carl Sagan, sports columnist Robert Lipsyte and Patricia Gauch, a novelist and author of children's books. Sister Marchione, who lives at her order's motherhouse in Morristown, N.J., has a doctorate from New Yorlc's Co~ lumbia University, and has authored 30 books. Her scholarly writings include seven volumes on 18th-century Italian-born colonial Philip Mazzei; who was a friend of Thomas Jefferson.
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