The date:  14th July, 1994.  The scene:  The National Basketball Arena in Tallaght, Co Dublin, Ireland, shaped as an amphitheatre, with rows of ascending seats overlooking a pool in the centre.  Some 3000 women will be gathered there, all imbued with a sense of history and a sense of purpose, the atmosphere one of prayer and reflection.  At a given signal a woman will stand up, holding up a jar of water and will advance slowly towards the pool.   A second will follow her lead, then a third, and so on until 27 women will be gathered around the pool.  Together they will empty their jars and a fountain will spring upward.  A celebratory dance, a reading of a declaration, a triumphal Magnificat, and the ritual will be complete.

This ritual will signify the coming together of Sisters of Mercy from twenty-six Irish diocesan Congregations and one South African.  The jars of water will symbolise the authority of these twenty-seven independent Congregations.  The simultaneous emptying of the jars into the central pool will indicate the voluntary handing over of that authority to a central administration which will henceforth be a single Mercy Congregation for Ireland and South Africa:  The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy.

This ritual will be the culmination of a process which began inauspiciously in the Galtee Hotel, Cahir, where on 6th March, 1971, at the request of Dr. Michael Russell, Bishop of Waterford, representatives of Mercy communities in the Archdiocese of Cashel met with Fr. F. Jones, CSsR to discuss the possibility of drafting a new Constitution in line with Vatican II for Mercy Sisters in the Archdiocese.  The Mercy situation then was graphically described by Fr. Jones as being uniquely negative in that communities were ‘boxed’ into sub-diocesan enclaves, each group zealously guarding its own independence.

Following that meeting, the Munster delegation expanded to include representatives from all Irish dioceses, including the Northern Federation which was eventually to set aside its own newly-written Constitution in the interests of national unity.  In due course, the Mercy Association of Ireland came into being, and over the following decade it had some notable achievements to its credit:

1. The preparation and acceptance of the Constitutions of the Sisters of Mercy of Ireland
2. The organisation of bi-centenary celebrations in honour of the birth of our Foundress Catherine McAuley in 1778.  These included a national pilgrimage to Knock in 1978.
3. The hosting of the first international gathering of the Sisters of Mercy, ‘Trocaire 81’, to mark the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Sisters of Mercy in December 12th, 1831
4. Annual General Meetings which helped strengthen bonds of friendship and co-operation between communities.

During the same decade, autonomous communities within dioceses were in process of uniting to form single Congregations, so that by the early eighties there were 26 diocesan Congregations, each autonomous, with Mother General and Council.  At the same time, the Cause of Mother McAuley was being actively promoted in Rome by Sr. Angela Bolster and Fr. Martin Nolan OSA; and Mercy Sisters worldwide rejoiced when she was eventually declared ‘Venerable’ on April 9th, 1990.

By 1984, the possibility of closer co-operation between diocesan congregations was being envisaged, and the need for a small policy making group with executive powers was felt.  Thus, in 1985 ‘Mercy Ireland’ was established with a full time team resident at 97 Donnybrook Manor, Belmont Avenue, Dublin 4.  One of its basic mandates was ‘to explore the possibility of becoming one Institute with canonical status, working through a National Chapter, its President a Major Superior, each of the 26 congregations to retain its autonomy’ – (Presentation of Mercy Ireland Project to the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, 1990).  Five years were allotted for the exploration.

At the 1987 Assembly, three options were presented:

• Retention of Mercy Ireland Structure;
• Canonical Federation on the Australian model;
• Union on the American model

These were presented to Sisters throughout the country, and after much prayer, soul searching and consultation over a number of years, a Union based on the American pattern won acceptance.  This involved a Congregational Leader and team, Provincial Leaders and teams, the former a centre of unity and vision for mission, the latter responsible for ongoing renewal and missioning of Sisters at provincial and local level.

In 1992, ‘Mercy Ireland’ team handed over to a ‘Transition Co-Ordinating Committee’ whose mandate was to prepare for the Inauguration of Union.  They set up a number of commissions aimed at bonding and revitalisation, among which were:

1. Diocesan Commissions to prepare for Chapter.  They organised meetings to reflect on the election of delegates.  113 delegates were elected.
2. Commissions on Liturgy, Communication, Decor, Hospitality and Catering to prepare for Inauguration Day.  Out of their combined insights came the ritual described in the opening paragraph.

Whence and Whither?

‘Catherine McAuley was a religious rebel who went out into the community to visit the sick and poor’, wrote Audrey Magee in the Irish Times, 16th May, 1994, commenting on the launching of the new Irish £5 note which features Catherine’s portrait.  She was indeed a gentle rebel who broke through the limitations imposed on women by Society, State and Church in 19th century Ireland, to reach out to the poor, the sick, the vulnerable.  In the face of the scorn of her social milieu, the inadequate educational facilities decreed by the State and rules of enclosure imposed by the Church, she became both educator and social worker, blazing a trail of mercy which women in six continents were eventually to follow.  Her ‘Walking Nuns’ were soon to walk to the ends of the earth.

Catherine met the challenges of her day with faith and courage and compassion, relying always on Divine Providence.  What are the challenges facing her newly structured Congregation today?  They are many:  the growing secularisation of society with a break down in traditional cultural and religious values; the broadening of horizons consequent on living in ‘the global village’; the call of lay people to live out their baptismal commitment; the changing self understanding of apostolic religious; the decline in vocations to religious life; the binding power of the unfreedoms of the past; the deinstitutionalisation of traditional apostolates with schools and hospitals being gradually handed over to lay administration.  In the wake of Vatican II, we have become more aware of Catherine’s imperative to serve the poor, the challenge is to make her charism come alive in today’s very different world.

Mission, Community, Prophetic Identity
The Union of Superiors General in Congress in Rome, November 1993, saw Religious as being on mission in community with a prophetic identity – (Religious Life Review, January/February 1994)

Mercy mission has already changed with a marked diversification of ministry stemming from renewal consequent on Vatican II.  The traditional corporate ministries of education and health are still operative and the newer ministries spring directly from them:  pastoral programmes in health care and education, rehabilitation programmes for addicts, youth employment and leisure activities with integrated literacy and social skills, ministry to travellers, retreat work, etc.  Now that competent lay people are ready and willing to administer and staff schools and hospitals, religious in schools are becoming fewer due to dwindling numbers and a whole new area of parish  ministry is opening up.  The Conference of Irish Religious in their submissions for the Synod on Consecrated Life call for ‘a move towards a model of Church were there is genuine partnership between religious, priests and laity’ –  (Religious Life Review January/February  1994)

The older conformist attitude to religion is giving way to a more person oriented experiential approach, and there is great need to build up pastoral programmes to help people cope with daily pressures.  Sisters are available to help build needed structures in collaboration with clergy and laity, if given the opportunity.  There are so many needs, particularly family needs, that can best be met in a community context at parish level; the need for reflection on prayer, scripture, liturgy, morality; for ongoing marital counselling before and during marriage; the needs of the abused family member, of the separated partner and the single parent, the need to sensitize the parish community to areas of injustice in relation to women, to travellers, to the unemployed.  Through such programmes, the people’s own therapeutic potential can be released to issue in networks of mutual support and encouragement.  There is of course the problem of funding, but parish resources can be mobilised for worthwhile programmes, and the possibility of outside funding explored.  Catherine was never one to be deterred from a worthwhile project by lack of money:  ‘Prayer will do more than all the money in the Bank of Ireland’.

There are two levels of community:  The larger community of the parish and the community of Sisters in religious life.  In the past, while Sisters were involved in the larger community mainly through their institutional apostolates, their common life together tended to be lived apart.  Today Sisters feel the need to be closer to their people, and are moving into smaller communities in council houses, etc.  Some are inviting lay associates to share their lifestyle and ministry which may involve an accumenical dimension.  Whatever the model chosen, the challenge is to preserve the value of a caring, compassionate, prayerful presence both in the smaller and wider community.  A parishioner once said to a Sister in Mobile, Alabama, ‘The witness of a loving community is your greatest gift to the parish in these days of broken homes’.  There is a danger that the move away from corporate apostolates would result in fragmentation, with Sisters ministering in different agencies, often in places far apart, hence the need to intensify commitment to community.   ‘Truly, community is a healing metaphor for a fragmented world’.  (Donna Markham, Review for Religious, November/December 1992)

Millions today are groaning under oppressive power structures; hopefully a central administration will identify and plan strategies for raising awareness of injustices on global, national and local levels.  There are so many calls for liberation:

1. Liberation of women from age old oppression and their empowerment in home, work place, board room, Church
2. Liberation of the Third World from economic thraildom to the First World
3. Liberation from racial and sectarian prejudice
4. Liberation of the environment from mindless exploitation
5. Liberation of the unemployed from the inequities of an economic policy that keeps them idle and frustrated into a milieu where they can assume creative responsibility for their own lives
6. Liberation of religious congregations from the unfreedoms of the past in order to develop new models of religious life more attractive to young people so that something of immense value ‘may not perish from the earth’.

A caveat is in order here.  There is a danger inherent in centralisation:  the more distant the locus of authority, the greater the danger of bureaucratisation.  The very urgency of meeting needs could lead to an emphasis on efficiency, perhaps at the expense of community.  Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic, in an address to the European Parliament, spoke of his initial admiration of the Maastricht Treaty giving way to a disturbing feeling of looking into the inner workings of ‘an immensely ingenious modern machine.  My reason was spoken to but not my heart’ – (The Irish Times,  April 1994).  There is a need to keep polarities in balance:  the global and the local, the institututional and the charismatic, the corporate and the individual, unity and diversity.  Emphasis on either pole can lead to impoverishment and ultimate distortion; we need both.

On July 23rd, Catherine’s original Institute in Baggot Street will be officially opened as a Mercy International Centre.  Through its components of Heritage, Pilgrimage, Hospitality and Ministry, it will enable Mercy Sisters from around the world to share presence and insights in mutual enrichment.  It will be a centre through which a distinctively Irish style Mercy Mission, with its roots deep in Irish culture and tradition toge6ther with an African dimension,  may be encouraged and fostered.

So the ritual of Union in Tallaght will mark a new beginning.  The road to it has not been easy; it has involved much pain, much letting go.  But it is a letting go into hope, hope that a more focused Mercy presence may, by the power of the ever creative Spirit, continue to bring comfort to troubled hearts, courage to troubled spirits and renewal of energy to those engaged in bettering a troubled world.

This article was first printed in Religious Life Review – July/August 1994

Rosetta Gray rsm
South Central Province