The committee responsible for working on the beatification of Venerable Catherine McAuley met in MIC in Baggot Street in Dublin from  April 10-14.

It was wonderful for the group to meet face to face after working through conference calls for the past five years.The committee met to share on what is happening around the world for the Cause of Venerable Catherine. Symposia on Catherine’s life and charism of Mercy, retreats, presentations, reading circles, CDs on Catherine’s letters are just a few of the activities that are constantly happening.

Messages to Brenda Dolphin rsm - Postulator for the Cause of Catherine McAuley

Mary Ryan rsm and Sheila O'Gorman rsm from The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy (Ireland) and Members of the MIA Opposing Trafficking working group have been holding a series of meetings in Ireland  on the issue of Trafficking.

Danielle Hicks-Gallagher was present at one such meeting in Sligo Convent of Mercy on March 29. Her reflections on the presentation are linked to this item.

Messages to:
Mary Ryan rsm
Sheila O'Gorman rsm

The Conference for Mercy Higher Education is offering Mercy, the Principal Path, a day and a half program intended to focus on what it means to lead and to foster Catholic identity and Mercy mission within higher education in the twenty-first century.

Over 70 attendees from 14 the 16 CMHE colleges and universities will gather on June 5-6, 2012 at the Avon Old Farms Hotel in Connecticut for a series of conversations on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition in higher education, current issues relevant to Mercy colleges and universities, and topics important for our Mercy institutions with respect to the Obama administration’s higher education agenda.

Messages to: Moya K. Dittmeier - Executive Director, Conference for Mercy Higher Education (CMHE)

Editor:  The title of the CMHE program comes from the saying of Catherine McAuley: Mercy, the principal path pointed out by Jesus Christ to those who are desirous of following Him, has in all ages of the Church excited the faithful in a particular manner to instruct and comfort the sick and dying poor, as in them they regarded the person of our divine Master...

Original Rule, in Sullivan, Catherine McAuley and the Tradition of Mercy, p. 297

To access further quotations from the writings of Catherine McAuley on the mercyworld.org website, click here.

The Conference for Mercy Higher Education is this week's featured Mercy website.

April 19, 2012 - The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas respect the statement from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) stating their need for time to review a mandate from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and prepare a response.

As members of LCWR, the Institute Leadership Team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas believes that the organization has remained faithful to its mission of service to leaders of congregations of women religious. Our prayers and support are with them.

Please direct any inquiries on this matter to Sister Annmarie Sanders, IHM, director of communications for LCWR, at asanders@lcwr.org.

On April 13,  about 70 Sisters of Mercy and friends gathered in the International Room at Mercy International Centre in Dublin for the launch of two recent publications of interest to the Mercy world generally. They are Catherine McAuley and the Works of Mercy compiled by Peter Connell, Director of the Mercy Heritage Centre in Brisbane, and The Correspondence of Mother Vincent Whitty, 1839-1892, edited by Anne Hetherington rsm and Pauline Smoothy rsm, Sisters of the Brisbane Congregation...

After the launch speeches, the visitors were entertained to morning tea in the dining room of the Centre. Quite by accident, the launch was scheduled to take place at a time when a number of Mercy sisters from around the world were in Dublin for other reasons, so it was a very cosmopolitan group who gathered on the day.

Both books are marketed through the Mercy Heritage Centre, Brisbane, but limited supplies are available from the Mercy International Centre in Dublin as well.

Messages to Anne Hetherington rsm

Last week in Mercy E-news (Issue no 458) we included an article about Kris Wade speaking at the UN parallel event - organized by the NGO Committee to Stop Trafficking in Persons and co sponsored by Mercy International Association during the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations.

The article linked to this item highlights more about the Justice Project of which Kris Wade is executive director and Donna Ryan rsm is board chair,  which works to combat domestic trafficking. It is reprinted from Mercy Connection with kind permission of the Communications Team, Mercy West Mid West (WMW) USA.

Messages to Liz Dossa - Communications Manager Mercy WMW

Editor: Trafficking  has assumed greater prominence at the UN, and among NGOs, with the creation of an NGO Committee to Stop Trafficking in Persons. The “trafficking” NGO interest group was formerly joined with the “migration” interest group. Its new separate status has attracted a greater diversity of other NGO groups, resulting in its growth from about 8 persons to over 40. It has several subgroups under its umbrella, with UNANIMA International represented on the “Demand” task force. To be even more effective in shaping policy, the committee intends to work with the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, an independent “special investigator” appointed by the UN. Source: Unanima International

Soul Waves Radio supplies over 30 local and community radio stations throughout Ireland with live and recorded news, reaction stories and features.

Three Sisters of Mercy work closely with Soul Waves Radio - Clare Gunning rsm is the Administrator and Marie Stuart rsm and Ailish O'Brien rsm are on the Board of Directors. All three had a large part to play in the development of the new website. The Sisters of Mercy (Ireland) also lend financial support to the company.

You might like to visit Soul Waves Radio and listen to the latest three interviews posted there. Sign up for the newsletter and get weekly updates on the latest interviews.

Messages to Ailish O'Brien rsm - Communications Co-ordinator

Editor: The latest three interviews include one on the Eucharistic Congress that asks whether this year’s event can generate the same enthusiasm as the 1932 Congress.

The special events preceding, during, and after the Congress planned by Mercy International Association and the Irish Committee for the Cause of Catherine’s Canonisation  were the subject of the feature article in Mercy E-News (issue no 456) and can be accessed here. Space is still available for the Eucharistic retreat at MIC (Sunday 17 June – Friday 22 June 2012). Book now by contacting Madeleine.

More than 400 transplanted trees thriving as Arbor Day approaches

 JOPLIN, Mo.– As Joplin gets ready to observe its first Arbor Day since last May’s devastating tornado, there’s plenty of space for new trees and new beginnings. Nearly all the trees in the tornado’s path are gone or battered by the wind’s fury. So the rows and rows of saplings – more than 470 in all – with their plastic tags flapping in the wind at Kin-Kam Tree Farm in nearby Aurora, Mo., are an especially hopeful sight. These young trees started in Joplin. And they’ll be returning to their original site when Mercy Hospital Joplin opens in 2015...

While significant, these 400 trees are just a small number of those to be planted at Mercy’s new site. An additional 2,000-plus regionally-appropriate trees will be planted when construction is complete. They, along with grasses and wildflowers, are just one part of the landscape design.

“Because the land was once a farmstead, there was a lack of diversity due to man’s intervention,” said Bonnie Roy, principal of SWT Design. “We’ll be able to restore it to what’s appropriate for this eco-region. When Mercy Hospital Joplin opens, the surrounding grounds will have a greater variety of trees, native grasses and wildflowers than what was on the land previously. It will be a beautiful space.”

Messages to Nancy Corbett - Mercy Media Relations Director, Marketing and Communications

This year is the Bicentenary of the birth of the great architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin who died, aged only forty, in 1852. Pugin was responsible for an enormous quantity of buildings, including the interiors of the Houses of the English Parliament, and also for countless beautiful designs for tiles, metalwork, furniture, wallpaper, stained glass and ceramics

St Mary’s Convent Handsworth, Birmingham, the last house founded by Catherine McAuley (1841) recently hosted a number of special tours to mark the bicentenary of Pugin – the convent’s architect.

Messages to:
Jenny Smith - Union Archivist
Sisters of Mercy Handsworth

Editor: St Mary's conducts outreach and community work. A recent report by the BBC on the work of the sisters with vulnerable people, including victims of sex trafficking, can be accessed here. Lynda Dearlove rsm (GB Institute) and her work with sex workers at women@thewell - the organisation she founded - is reported on in a recent article in the Guardian.  Access the article here.

In his message for the 7th World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Tourism which commenced in Mexico yesterday, Pope Benedict condemned exploitative tourism for sex or organ harvesting. Read the message here.

1832: Sisters asked to take care of cholera victims, Townsend St Centre, Dublin
1832: M Elizabeth Harley (professed with Catherine '31) died, Baggot St
1872: Foundation to Meriden from Ennis - M Teresa Perry
1911: Foundation to Goondiwindi, Queensland from Brisbane - M Albert

Editor: The first thirteen deceased Sisters of Mercy were buried in the crypt of St Teresa’s Clarendon Street, Dublin. Elizabeth Harley was the third Sister of Mercy to be buried there. Access the interactive reflection here

Catherine McAuley and the Works of Mercy compiled by Peter Connell, Director of the Mercy Heritage Centre in Brisbane. Cost Euro 20

The Correspondence of Mother Vincent Whitty, 1839-1892, edited by Anne Hetherington rsm and Pauline Smoothy rsm. Cost Euro 40

Details of each of these works are linked to the book titles. Both books are marketed through the Mercy Heritage Centre, Brisbane, but limited supplies are available from the Mercy International Centre in Dublin as well.

The mission of the Conference for Mercy Higher Education is the preservation and development of the core Catholic identity and mission of Mercy higher education in accord with the spirit, mission, and heritage of the Sisters of Mercy.

"Just over 500 of the more than seven billion human beings that live on Earth have seen with their own eyes what the planet looks like from space. The experience, they say, is profound and humbling."

In celebration of Earth Day, a collection of reflections from Galileo to Glenn and beyond, with images from NASA about how our planet looks from orbit, has been gathered into this thought-provoking slideshow.

Source: the Atlantic