On Sunday, July 31, 2011

Baltimore is a very significant place for the Vincentian Family in the United States especially Federation of Sisters of Charity and Congregation of the Mission.  In June 1808 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton arrived to Baltimore invited by Archbishop William Luis Dubourg  SS. In Baltimore she opens her first school (St. Mary’s College) and in 1809 for the first time takes vows of chastity and obedience.  In 1816 by the invitation of the the same Archbishop, Fr. Felix DeAndreis CM and Fr. Joseph Rosati CM arrive to Baltimore from Europe initiating the Vincentian community in the United States. Two of 23 successors of St. Vincent de Paul are Baltimoreans.

During the Mass, Superioress General, Sr. Evelyne Franc DC installed administration of the new province. First she installed new Visitatrix (Provincial Superior) who is designated for a six-year term by the Superioress General with her Council (Constitutions, C73). She is Sr. Louise Gallahue DC, previously Visitatrice of Northeast Province (Albany, NY) since 2009, when she replaced Sister Kathleen Appler DC, now a member of the General Council. Sister Louise is recognized both as highly qualified psychiatric nurse and healthcare system manager. Before she was appointed head of  the former Northeast Province  (it was her second time as Province leader; her first term was 1992-2002) she was a Chairperson in the Board of Trustees of St. Vincent’s Medical Center and St. Vincent’s Health Services in Bridgeport, CT. She served in boards of trustees in many other hospitals across State of New York and New England which she is native. As she says herself, moving to St. Louis  is a challenge, because she never lived in the Midwest before and she will miss New England and closeness to  Ocean coast, she enjoyed in Albany. She joined Daughters of Charity in 1966, three years before the Northeast Province was erected. She earned BSN from Boston College School of Nursing and MSN in Psychiatric/Community Mental Health Nursing from Columbia University.

Next Sr. Evelyne installed new Provincial Council members, which are chosen in the same way the Visitatrix is designated. According to the Constitution Provincial leadership can be elected however Province members decided to use “consultation” instead of “election”.  The new 8-members Provincial Council consists of  Sr. Rose Ann Aguilar DC (previously Councilor in West Central Province), Sr. Nora Gatto DC (prev. Councilor in Northeast Prov.), Sr Janet Keim DC (from East Central Prov.), Sr. Mary Beth Kubera DC (from East Central Prov.), Sr. Jean Rhoads DC (prev. Councilor in Southeast Prov.), Sr. Joanne Vasa DC (prev. Councilor in West Central Prov.) , Sr. Mary Walz DC (prev. Visitatrix of West Central Prov.), and Sr. Mary Catherine Warehime DC (from Southeast Prov.). Afterwards, Sr. Gallahue installed new Provincial Treasurer who is Sr. Jane Graves DC (prev. Treasurer in Northeast Prov) and new Provincial Secretary, Sr. Maureen Schmalzreid DC.

Watch picture gallery from the inauguration gathering in Baltimore

The new leadership team has quite varied experiences in ministry. There are three sisters with education and formation experience, one sister in healthcare administration and one in clinical healthcare with a focus on geriatric health, one in youth work/Vincentian Family and two social workers, both with experience in Hispanic ministry and one with seniors.

Finally, according to Constitutions of Daughters of Charity Superior General, Rev. Gregory Gay CM, native of Baltimore, installed new Provincial Director, Rev. Thomas McKenna CM (US Eastern Province). Born June 11, 1943 in Brooklyn. NY,  he entered the Congregation of the Mission June 12, 1962, was incorporated in the Congregation June 13, 1967 and ordained May 30, 1970. He’s got M.A. in Philosophy from St. John’s University, NY (1973) and doctorate in systematic theology from the Catholic University of America (1980). For 10 years, Father McKenna taught spirituality as a member of the department of theology at St. John’s University. He has also taught at Tangaza College in Nairobi, Kenya. Visitor (Provincial Superior) of the US Eastern Province of the Congregation of the Mission, 1999-2009. Currently member of Campus Ministry in Niagara University.
“He is noted as a good speaker and writer in the areas of scripture and Vincentian spirituality. Many of the Sisters know him through retreats and conferences that he has given. To this new role he brings his gifts of intelligence, clear thinking, attentive listening and common sense.”,  wrote Superior General in the message on his appointment in December 2010. (Read more)
The Provincial Director is a priest of the Congregation of the Mission, who provides for a Province of the Daughters of Charity a service of Vincentian animation and accompaniment, in collaboration with the Visitatrix and her Council. He is appointed by the Superior General and represents him in the exercise of the functions that the proper law of the Company recognizes (Constitutions, C75)

This is low quality amateur video recording from the Eucharist in Baltimore Basilica presenting highlights of the event.

The process of unification called Visioning for the Mission began in 2007 with a gathering of the Daughters of Charity from all of the uniting provinces in Buffalo, New York, and a plan was developed to make their vision a reality. Today, Northeast (Albany,NY), Southeast (Emmitsburg, MD), East Central (Evansville, IN) and West Central (St. Louis, MO) Provinces became one, the Province of Saint Louise, taking the name after St. Louise de Marillac, Foundress of the Company of Daughters of Charity (along with St. Vincent de Paul).

Marillac Provincial House in St. Louis, MO (4330 Olive Street), previously the headquarters of West Central Province will continue its role in the new erected Province. St. Louis was chosen because of its central location, easy access to all types of transportation and reasonable costs of living. Various branches of the Vincentian Family in the USA (Vincentians Western Province, SSVP, Ladies of Charity, VMY) are headquartered in St. Louis, too. Also, Saint Louis allows for mobility required to meet needs of those who are poor with adequate access to public transportation. Daughters of Charity (actually Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph from Emmitsburg) came to St. Louis in 1828 to open the first hospital west of the Mississippi River.

Merger of the provinces brought some valuable benefits. New, full-time lay employee positions were created. Number of Daughters of Charity involved in the leadership was reduced significantly. More Sisters can be assigned to hands-on ministries. Reconfiguration of four provinces allows reorganizing current ministries and start new ones in new locations. Four former Provincial Houses will most of their activities. Senior-aged Sister Residences will be maintained. . The retreat center and co-op farm will continue in Evansville, IN.

In the new Province of Saint Louise 562 Sisters are working in over 70 communities in 22 of 34 US States, Washington, D.C. and  Montreal, Quebec, Canada. When the four currently merging Provinces were initiated in 1969, there were some 2,000 Sisters in all of them.  Decline in vocation was one of the reasons of reconfiguration to make the ministry more effective. They minister in 190 different works in those locations including as far south west as El Paso, Texas, and as far north east as Boston, Mass. The Sisters serve in inner cities in schools such as St. Mark’s Grade School in Harlem, N.Y., as well as in rural areas including Dumas, Ark., where they serve in a small, health center.  Province of St. Louise Sisters serve in foreign missions on every continent except Antarctica. Soon the number of ministries will increase.  The first new location will be in Greensboro, NC, where two Daughters of Charity soon will serve at St. Mary’s Parish, ministered by the Vincentians (Eastern Province). In recent years, the parish has grown with new members from the Ivory Coast, Mexico, Nigeria, Vietnam, and immigrants from other nations. The Daughters of Charity are not strangers to Greensboro; they served there at St. Leo’s Hospital from 1906 to 1954; St. Pius X School from 1926 to 1998; St Mary’s Mission School/Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal School from 1928 to 1972; and at St. Mary’s Center from 1973 to 1992.  According to Archdiocese of St. Louis new Province’s plans also include renovation of the former convent at St. James the Greater Parish in South St. Louis for postulant sisters (details not yet known). The Daughters believe that combining sister-personnel and their “best practices” would be the most effective way to continue to stand in solidarity with the increasing numbers who find themselves in circumstances of poverty.

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In collaboration with  Sr. Mary Frances Barnes DC
Picture credits: Filles-de-la-charite.org;Daughters-of-charity.org; Sr. Denise LaRock’s blog

On Friday, September 24 at 9:00 a.m. local time Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints presided at the Eucharist in the Hall of Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome (Via Paolo VI 25).  After the Mass he opened the conference “Mission and Charity” which took place in the Augustinianum, too.  In his speech Cardinal Martins said:

»They were pages of the Gospel lived with intensity« and continued, »they were two great masters of charity because they were primarily two great masters of spiritual life.« Next, Cardinal pointed out that »charism is a gift of the Holy Spirit granted to the Christian community which has the courage to evangelize, teach and heal but above all also to witness and love… In the seventeenth century, to respond to hunger for God, the Holy Spirit gave birth to St. Vincent and St. Louise who engaged in building a new society based on solidarity and charity. They were able to involve everyone in high-class and poor, king and queen, from large to small,« added Cardinal Saraiva Martins and continued, »they did not experience poor as something bulky but as someone to love in Christ as we love ourselves. A love that comes from a paternal sense, prophetic insights having worked with courage, their commitment to living as a real need for faith…« Addressing hundreds of members of Vincentian Family present in Sala dell’Augustinianum Cardinal added, »the Church and the world needs your work« and concluded his speech saying, »Vincentian charity, is not to surrender, but to resist.«

The conference, “Charity and Mission” continued with series of lectures delivered by

• Professor Barbara Negruzzi titled “France of the Great Century”;
• Father Luigi Mezzadri CM, “A new way of being priests: St. Vincent and the priesthood”;
• Father Nicholas Albanian CM, “Christ, the Rule of the Mission”.

Later on the day another lectures came from

• Professor Yvonne zu Dohna, “The Poor in Arts”;
• Professor Giuseppe De Rita, “Towards the New Culture of Charity: The Poor, »My Burden and My Pain«”;
• Father Erminio Antonello CM, “The Church, the Body of Christ, the Home of the Poor”; Father Jean Landousies CM, “The New Way of God Speaking To Men: St. Vincent and Evangelization”.

Meanwhile between first and latter series of lectures participants of the gathering were given ability to watch the latest documentary on Vincentian charism, “VINCENT DE PAUL CHARITY’S SAINT”. The film was prepared by DePaul University earlier this year to commemorate 350th Anniversary. (It can be ordered online from DePaul University Bookstore HERE )

On Saturday morning, September 25, the conference resumed. Another lectures were delivered by

• Professor Gabriella Bruna Zarri talkin on “Women in 1600s”;
• Doctor Marina Costa, “St. Vincent, St. Louise, Vincentian Volunteers and the Challenges of Poverty”; and finally
• Sister Evelyne Franc DC, Superioress General, “Saint Louise, spiritual guide”.

Then, at 17:00 local time, there was a highlight of the day, the Jubilee Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica attended by all Conference participants and numerous pilgrims from various countries and places as well as other people. It was presided by Cardinal Franc Rodé CM, the Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. In his homily the Cardinal said,

»the demand for love is as urgent today as it was in the seventeenth century, indeed perhaps more… To be a Vincentian today,« said Cardinal, »is once again to follow Christ, the Evangelizer of the poor and His mission; to be a missionary, to “inflame” human hearts with simple, humble, gentle, mortified lifestyle.« In this sense, he concluded, »a Vincentian must have a surplus of love and knowledge of the poor; the true Vincentian knows Christ, puts Him in the center, knows St. Vincent, St. Louise and Vincentian Saints and knows the poor. It is left to him to evangelize and change them, act and work for them. A Vincentian, first and foremost is all for God and for the benefit of all«.

Finally, earlier today, at 9:00 a.m. in Rome there was another Holy Mass in the Sala dell’Augustinianum presided by the Superior General, Father Gregory Gay CM.  Father Corpus Delgado CM delivered speech on “Saint Louise and the devotion to the Holy Spirit”. All participants of the “Charity and Mission” conference attended as well as most of the pilgrims who came to Rome for  closing of  the Jubilee Year of 350th Anniversary.

At noon, in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict XVI in his Angelus message, as part of the reflection on service to others, recalled that Monday is the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, a priest whom he said 350 years ago in France knew how to organize stable forms of service to marginalized people.  The Pope said:

»In this Sunday’s Gospel (Lk 16:19-31), Jesus tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The first lives in luxury and selfishness, and when he dies, ends up in hell. The poor, who eats the leftovers from the rich man’s table, his death is carried by the angels in the eternal abode of God and the saints. “Blessed are you the poor – had proclaimed the Lord to his disciples – for yours is the kingdom of God” (Lk 6:20). But the message of the parable goes further, it points out that, while we are in this world, we must listen to the Lord who speaks through the Scriptures and live according to his will, otherwise, after death, it will be too late to repent. So this story tells us two things: the first is that God loves the poor and relieve their humiliation and the second is that our eternal destiny is conditioned by our attitude. It’s up to us to follow the path God has shown us coming to life, and this street is love, not meant as feeling, but as a service to others, in the love of Christ.

By a happy coincidence, tomorrow we will celebrate the liturgical memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, patron of Catholic Charities, which marks the 350th anniversary of his death.  In France of 1600, he touched with his hand the sharp contrast between the richest and the poorest. In fact, as a priest, he was able to attend both the aristocratic circles, campaigns, as well as the slums of Paris. Driven by the love of Christ, Vincent de Paul was able to organize stable forms of service to the marginalized people, giving rise to so-called “Charitées”, the “Charity”, ie groups of women who put their time and their property available to more marginalized. Among these volunteers, some chose to devote themself completely to God and the poor, and thus, together with St. Louise de Marillac, St. Vincent founded the “Daughters of Charity”,  the first women’s congregation to live their consecrated lives  “in the world”, among the people, the sick and needy.«

[compiled from RadioVaticana,
Italian edition of  ZENIT.ORG of September 23 and September 26
and the website of the Holy See]

On Tuesday, June 29

« You can watch her address in French HERE »

« printable version of  English translation is  HERE »
« printable version of  origianl text in French is HERE »

Dear Father Gregory,
dear Fathers and Brothers of the Congregation of the Mission.

It is a joy for me to welcome you to the Mother House of the Daughters of Charity today, on this solemnity of the apostles Peter & Paul, a date which is certainly special for some of you.

We, the Daughters of Charity of the six international Communities who make up this great house, we are happy to welcome you for the celebration of your 41st general Assembly just begun, and whose theme ‘Creative fidelity to the Mission’ promises pertinent debate and
important decisions.

Permit me to pause for some moments to consider the context and the place of your gathering, marked by Providence. You are celebrating your Assembly in the midst of a jubilee year in Paris, the city where saint Vincent and saint Louise worked and laboured so much. Everything here speaks of them, everything reminds us of their heroic achievement, that of an immensely creative charity, in a missionary spirit without frontiers. In a word, the context of your Assembly is itself a challenge, a call to revive charity and mission, to reproduce the daring, the creativity and the holiness Vincent and Louise lived. (cf. VC n 37).

As for the place which you have chosen for your work, the Mother House of the Daughters of Charity, – it is the Blessed Virgin’s house, a sanctuary of grace and of mercy for a world parched and thirsting for love. I am convinced that you have been impressed to see how many hundreds and hundreds of pilgrims are daily received there by a team of lazarist Fathers, of laity and of Daughters of Charity. These pilgrims crowd around Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. She invites them to come to the foot of the altar, to listen to the voice of the Lord, to gather up all the graces which her Mother’s hands discretely distributes to them, like so many
beams of love.

We ask Mary’s intercession for the Congregation of the Mission. We ask her to accompany the unfolding of your Assembly, your debates and decisions: that she encourage your initiatives and projects, that she help you remain listening to the Holy Spirit, and respond to the prompting to transmit to the poor messages of love and hope, as the living expression of your fidelity which strengthens and renews itself in depth, making itself creative for the mission.

I would also like to invoke the year of the priest which has just ended with such solemnity in Rome, which you have lived with joy, united to the Holy Father and to all the Church. Our prayer has closely accompanied you and we have thanked the Lord for the inestimable gift of the priesthood and asked for all of you abundant blessings in the exercise of your ministry. Permit me now to rapidly develop two points: an act of thanksgiving, and a prayer Great and wonderful are your works, O Lord (Ap 15:3 )

I borrow from the book of the Apocalypse this verse to express our gratitude, our admiration and thanksgiving for all that the Company has received and continues to receive from the successor of saint Vincent and from the priests of the Congregation of the Mission.

Yes, Great and wonderful are your works, O Lord !

Today, as it is six years since your general Assembly in Rome, I am given the opportunity to thank the Lord who lovingly watches over our Company. It is appropriate to quote the recommendations which saint Vincent gave, on 7 february 1660, a few weeks before the death of saint Louise, to Father Jacques de la Fosse, to encourage him to take care of, and today we would say the Daughters of Charity: “ the action/the activity [La conduite] of God to bring to birth the little Company made use of our activity: and you know that the same things which God makes use of to bring things into being, he also uses to preserve them.” All through her life, it is important to recall, saint Louise showed with a holy insistence her desire that the Company of the Daughters of Charity would remain under the authority of saint Vincent. She also ardently desired that the Daughters of Charity would receive the spiritual help of the Fathers of the Congregation of the Mission.

And so, since the beginning of the Company, we have been enriched and supported by the help of the successors of saint Vincent, the Superiors General of the Congregation of the Mission, and of our brothers in saint Vincent. How could we not show our gratitude? Allow me to speak first of all to Father Gregory, to thank him for his close and cordial accompaniment, for his frequent visits to the sisters, linked to the visits made to his confreres, and even to the most distant corners of the Company (for example the Cook islands) to
support and encourage them to live with joy and fidelity their vocation as Daughters of Charity.

I would also underline the great availability of the Director General, the Superior General’s permanent representative to the Company, his untiring devotion to the mission of favouring fidelity to the charism.
In the same way I speak on behalf of the Sisters to thank the provincial Directors, the faithful fellow workers with the Sister Visitor [Visitatrice] and the counsellors in their respective Provinces. All of them are grateful to them for the Vincentian dynamism which they bring to the Provinces and for their delicate attention to the spiritual journeying.

It is also a joy for me to thank all the Priests and Brothers of the Congregation of the Mission who work together in many ways for the formation of the Sisters, may it be through the preaching of the annual retreat, monthly or quarterly days of reflection, the sessions and other activities which help us live the gift of the vincentian charism.
Yes, great are your works, O Lord!
After thanksgiving, here is prayer, that of the psalmist:
Lord, strengthen/ fortify the work of your hands! (Ps 137:8)

The experience of graces received pushes us to desire and ask of the Lord with great confidence that he brings to completion the work he has begun in the Company. The living witness, burning with an often discreet love, given by so many many saintly Sisters, who the whole length of our history, have spread the perfume of charity through a simple and humble service of the poor, realized with joy & gentleness, respect, compassion and devotion, fills us with admiration.

The Company is called to serve in a state of charity, and in a state of mission. Charity and mission are inseparably united. Charity without mission is inconceivable, and mission without love/charity makes no sense. Charity is fully completed in mission. Mission is nourished by charity. Right through this jubilee year we have been exploring together, you and we, with the rest of the Vincentian family, this duality ? (binome) and have deepened it.

In order to respond with an ever new fidelity, today as yesterday, to this call to live in state of charity and mission, we count on your support. We know that Saint Vincent, speaking to his Confreres and to the Daughters of Charity, liked to underline to the one and to the other, that direct acts of service and evangelization could not be separated. He wished that, you and we, be open to these two dimensions of our vocation, presenting them to us as complimentary.

We count on your service of animation, and of spiritual accompaniment, of collaboration in formation, of energy and of missionary dynamism, to revitalize our charism in order to respond to the challenges of the present which prepare the Company of the future. For the Lord speaks to our hearts of the suffering and the abandonment of so many many persons wounded by life, silent and left unnoticed in the great whirlwind of our noisy civilization, which is media exposed? (mediatise) to the extreme, which never dwells long on the true
causes of poverty.

We hope to work even more closely with you in the pastoral-care (apostlate?-la pastorale) of vocations, a pastoral-care we wish to be creative and dynamic, inserted into the pastoral care of the diocesan Church. A pastoral-care capable of attracting young people to Christ, and of showing them the beauty of the Christian life, of Vincentian service, the joy of giving one’s life in love, as Vincent and Louise did.

We are well aware that “The mission of consecrated life and the vitality of Institutes depends, certainly, on the active fidelity with which the consecrated religious respond to their vocation, but that their future is linked to the fact that other men and other women generously accept the Lord’s call” (V.C. 64).

We are ready for collaborative work, tighter, more intense, as brothers and sisters, inheritors of a charism entrusted to saint Vincent and saint Louise for the good of the Church and of humanity, a charism which is our responsibility.

As with Our Lord, there cannot be any poverty which is strange/foreign to us, to you or to us (cf. C.11a) and, from him, we can learn to welcome with love the poor, the little ones, to look with mercy and to serve the weak, the despairing, and to lift up again those who are fallen. Co-inheritors, we follow Jesus Christ in the way saint Vincent and saint Louise followed him; we are called to be experts in charity and in mission. Could we try to promote a network of charity which would regroup, gather and multiply our strengths in favour of our most disinherited brothers and sisters, in the framework of the wider Vincentian family of course, but in a particular way between ourselves?

This would constitute a gift for the Church and the world of today, three hundred and fifty years after saint Vincent and saint Louise returned to God, having left an evangelical harvest of love for the disinherited, of attention to the little ones and of works of charity and of mission of an incredible breadth. Our world needs new apostles of charity and of mission who speak to the poor of the God of Love, who make visible his face as merciful Father, as liberator and as defender of the oppressed.

Do you think that we could imagine new forms of collaboration, new ways of presenting the Vincentian charism to the Church and to the world, being more daring in the service of the poor?

How good it would be to act together, in a more intense way, for the promotion and the dignity of the poor, respect for human rights, the defence and care of life, the pastoral-care of the family, work for justice and peace, solidarity with the whole human family, supported by the social teaching of the Church!

Could we imagine together what saint Vincent and saint Louise would do today to run to put out so many fires, those of suffering and of pain, which disfigure the human landscape of the world and transform it into a planet where misery is visible here and everywhere, for sadly poverty has no geographical frontiers?

Finally, dear Fathers & Brothers, I wish to tell you that the Daughters of Charity are waiting and expecting from you that you help us let ourselves be transformed by the Spirit, as our last General Assembly asks of us.
It is a little more than a year since we celebrated it in this very place. I am certain that the walls which surround us are the silent witnesses of the joyful experience so strong in the action of the Holy Spirit which all the Visitatrices and delegates lived.

Count on the prayer of the Company which is asking the Holy Spirit to be in the middle of you, as for a new Pentecost. We are happy with your presence among us.

May the Lord bless you, may Mary accompany you!

Sister Evelyne Franc
Daughter of Charity