The month of May is a critical time for comprehensive immigration reform in the United States as amendments to Senate bill S744 are being drafted and reviewed.

As the (Americas) Institute Justice Office is is actively engaged in these meetings and discussions, let us support them with our prayers.

Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - Director MIA

The Aircoach Service which best served Mercy International Centre – Ballsbridge Route – and stopped at the Schoolhouse Hotel, has been suspended indefinitely. The Leopardstown Route now comes closest. However, this means a longer walk – the closest stop is at the Leeson Street Bridge.
Alternatives:
From the airport travel by Dublin Bus 747 to O’Connell Street and then by Bus 38 or 38a from the corner of O’Connell St and Cathedral Street to Stop 751 at the front door of Mercy International.
A taxi seems the best option, especially with luggage. The cost is approximately 30/35 euro.

Messages to: Sylvia Williams rsm - Assistant Director Administration & Finance
 

The inter-congregational group of religious,The Future We Need, was set up in Ireland to promote education and advocacy on sustainable development issues locally and globally. The group consists of the Sisters of Mercy, Presentation Sisters, Franciscan Friars, UNANIMA and the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and was formed after the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) that took place in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, in June 2012. Together, with our Associates, we represent approximately 11,000 people in Ireland and approximately 80,000 people worldwide. Members of our group belong to congregations with Special Consultative Status at the Economic and Social Council at the United Nations (UN) which informs our work at national level...

Download: The Future We Need Submission:The Heads of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill

Messages to: Mary Purcell - Assistant Director Mercy Global Action
 

Mercy Sisters (Western Province, Ireland) are involved in organizing a March against Monsanto rally in Sligo, other Irish rallies are being held in Dublin and Cork. Anywhere Mercy Sisters are involved with the land or with issues that are harmful to the health of all life, have the potential for initiating a March against Monsanto on Saturday 25 March.

To understand the reasons for the march, download the complete article here.

Messages to Catherine Gibbons rsm - Intern

' “The great gift that she had was that she was an extremely wise and virtuous leader, and she was always trying to improve the lives of others.”..

Friends of Sister Mary Venarda are remembering the former CEO of Mercy Iowa City (hospital) as a loyal friend, devoted community servant and remarkable leader.

Sister Mary died April 19 in her sleep in Chicago. She was 92.

Sister Joan Marie Hoffmann, 91, met Sister Mary in the 1940s while the two were studying at the Sisters of Mercy novitiate in Des Plaines, Ill.

What resulted was a life-long friendship.

“She led a wonderful life. She was one of the nicest people anyone could ever know,” Hoffmann said. “She came from a good background and she had high expectations and she lived up to them all.”..'

Messages to: Pat Kenny rsm - Institute Communications Office

Source: Iowa City Press Citizen

Editor: In issue No. 511 | 24 April 2013, we reported on the handing over by the Western Province of the property on Forster Street in Galway City to abuse charity Cope Galway on a 99-year lease as a result of the organisation approaching them earlier in the year. In  an article linked to this item, Suzanner Ryder rsm shares with us more of the story, including that the first Sisters of Mercy in Galway took over the laundry at the request of its founder a Ms Lynch who begged them on her death bed to do so. Sr Suzanne writes:

'We cannot change our past but we can avail of its wisdom creatively, build on it and allow a better future emerge because of it. This is what is happening at the site of a former convent on Forster Street in Galway. It has been given on a 99 year lease to COPE a refuge for victims of domestic abuse. The site was once the location of a Magdalen Laundry and now it will be a place, where women and children at risk can find a haven of safety...'

Messages to: Suzanne Ryder rsm

On 23 April, 2013, I was privileged to witness and participate in rituals to celebrate and acknowledge two significant, if not historic milestones in the continuing journey of the Sisters of Mercy, Brisbane and their institutional works of Mercy. The Congregation Leadership Team, joined by many Sisters of Mercy, partners in Ministry, invited guests and friends, took what can only be described as a courageous and visionary step to secure the future of two iconic Brisbane Mercy Ministries within the Catholic Church.

The canonical sponsorship and civil membership of Mater Misericordiae Health Services Brisbane Ltd, its associated entities of Mater Medial Research Institute and Mater Foundation Ltd and All Hallows’ School Ltd were transferred from the Sisters of Mercy Brisbane Congregation to Mercy Partners...

Messages to: Liz Orupold - Executive Officer to the Congregation Leadership Team

 Editor: Mercy Partners is this week's featured website.

...In 2013, as we see ourselves in a world with so many advancements, in a global community which holds ‘connection’ at its core, is it not shocking and startling that the theme of this two week Commission, [ the 57th meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)] ‘The Elimination and Prevention of all forms of Violence against Women and Girls’ has emerged as a priority theme? The purpose of this conference was to evaluate progress on gender equality and to formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment worldwide...

Extract from the Report on the 57th CSW by Patricia O’Donovan rsm and Mary Ryan rsm.

Messages to:
Patricia O’Donovan rsm - Congregation Leadership Team (CLT)
Mary Ryan rsm - Mercy Global Action Network (MGAN)

After 30 years in the role, Judith Redden rsm has retired from the position of principal of St Aloysius College, Adelaide.

The farewell speech given by Diandra Ciacciarelli (School leader) at the final school assembly in thanks for Sr Judith's remarkable era of wise and generous educational leadership is attached here.

Messages to:
Diandra Ciacciarelli (School leader) c/- Pat Feehan rsm
Judith Reddan rsm

Applications for a year of service with Mercy Volunteer Corps are due 31 May.
.
If you know of a lay person, male or female, who would be interested in an experience of simple lifestyle and spiritual growth in community while serving those in need in the continental U.S. and Guyana, South America, please direct them to the Mercy Volunteer Corps website at http://www.mercyvolunteers.org/volunteer/apply/.
 
Messages to: ContactUs@mercyvolunteers.org

The MAGnet group are ex-students from Sydney's five Mercy High Schools/Colleges who gathered to share their ideal: how to find fresh ways to continue to live out Mercy and Justice in their post-school lives.

On Sunday MAGnet were joined by 90 guests at Stormanston House for the "High Tea for Mums of PNG". It was a lovely event that raised approximately $4000 for the production and distribution of birthing kits produced by Mercy Works to help decrease the incidents of maternal and infant mortality rates in PNG.

Messages to: Kate Anderson - Social Justice and Mission Educator, North Sydney Congregation

Fourteen women from across the country will be gathering May 18-25 in Chicago, along with five Mercy vocation ministers, to pray, learn and serve together. They will be ministering at Misericordia, Heart of Mercy, a center for persons with developmental disabilities.

Please pray for all those involved in this week-long Mercy immersion experience.

Messages to: Pat Kenny rsm - Institute Communications Office
 

'...“Dance every evening” was scribbled atop a letter written by... Catherine McAuley in the 1800s. That legacy lives on today with Sisters of Mercy across the globe, including Sister Mary Roch Rocklage, who has long served as a leader in health care and is living proof of why being active keeps people young.

“I love to dance,” said Sister Roch, who did a jig along with others in a music rap video, Mercy Move It, Groove It. “It’s a joyous way to celebrate life, and it gets your blood pumping.”

The video celebrates “Healthification,” Mercy’s wellness program, which is designed to encourage well-balanced, healthy lifestyles through nutrition, physical activity, emotional and spiritual wellness, and smoking cessation...'

Messages to: Nancy Corbett

This is the sixth year that The Independent on Sunday newspaper has published its annual Happy List, 'naming 100 outstanding people whose volunteering, caring, fundraising, mentoring, charity founding or selflessness makes Britain a more contented, supportive, better-adjusted and happier place.'

Among those named this year is Lynda Dearlove rsm MBE, Director of the charity ‘women@the well’ which provides services  by and for women through a centre in Kings Cross. It is dedicated to women caught up in ‘pavement culture’ (homelessness, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, trafficking, violence, poor physical and mental ill health).

Messages to: Lynda Dearlove rsm

Tonight, at the annual meeting of the Luzerne Foundation, Pennsylvania, The Sisters of Mercy, DallasTownship, will receive the Mary Bevevino Community Service Award in recognition of 'their influence and untiring service touch[ing] the lives of thousands of people for several generations...

"The Sisters are truly amazing women," stated Charles Barber, President and CEO of The Luzerne Foundation. "They do so many things in our community, probably more than we know. It is their calling, and it is a blessing for all of us."

Today in Luzerne County, the Sisters of Mercy sponsor Misericordia University in Dallas Township and a number of non-traditional educational programs, including the McGlynn Center in Wilkes-Barre, a licensed skilled nursing and personal care facility at Mercy Center in Dallas, a shelter/housing system for homeless women and children at Catherine McAuley Center in Plymouth and Wilkes-Barre, counseling/spiritual direction services at Mercy Consultation Center in Dallas and outreach services to the elderly and the underserved population.

Messages to: Pat Kenny rsm - Institute Communications Office

Editor: Mercy E-news doesn't usually publish sports results. Just this once, we will because...

'It was the first time that two fellow Mercy schools – the only two Sisters of Mercy high schools in Connecticut would meet on the court for the CIAC Class LL Championship ( State Finals). Yes, it was the Crusaders of Lauralton Hall against the Tigers of Mercy High School of Middletown. But, there is much more to this story. The basketball semi-final games were played and the two winners are headed to the State Finals. The State Finals happen every year, why was this year so special? Read on..'

To access the complete story, click here.

Messages to: Marie Kalita-Leary - Director of Communication and Public Relations Mercy High
 

1863: Foundation to Cahir, Co Tipperary from Cappoquin, Co Waterford - M Teresa Phelan

No story of Mercyhurst University can be told without understanding the contributions of the Sisters of Mercy, their labor, love, and passion for this college. Many have written of the contributions of the Sisters of Mercy. Most of them, like Mother Borgia Egan and Mother Eustace Taylor, were a part of the college's history themselves.

The story of the college spans a time of great change in American higher education.
Mercyhurst's experience illustrates this.

Authored by: Roy Strausbaugh, Ph.D.

The 430-page volume includes 12 pages of black-and-white photos from the Sister Mary Lawrence Franklin Archives at Mercyhurst. It is available for sale in the Mercyhurst bookstores at Erie and North East. The book sells for $30, but is currently on special at $24.

The Mission of Mercy Partners is to contribute to the emergence of a world where the healing, liberating and life-giving mercy of God is experienced.

The Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference (ACBC) Communications Office has developed an eBook “Word Made Flesh and Shared Among Us” to mark World Communications Day, celebrated in Australia on 5 May, in other countries on the Sunday before Pentecost.

Access this free publication in pdf and other eformats. Note the article 'The Power of the Word' by the editor of Mercy eNews (page 126) which is also referenced on the Institute of Our lady of Mercy Great Britain website.