By Sister alies terese
HOUSTON – It’s hard to believe that Father Bob Dalton, the last of the Glenmary Fathers, will be leaving the Diocese of Jackson near the end of August. The rest of his order left the state in 2012.
The Glenmary Home Missioners were founded in 1939 with a purpose to establish a Catholic presence in rural areas and small towns of the United States.

The Glenmary Missioners have served in Mississippi since 1965, beginning with Aberdeen and New Albany and then over the years in Fulton, Ripley, Amory, Ackerman, Eupora, Bruce and Houston, where Father Dalton is currently serving.
According to Father Dalton, the Glenmary Missioners are leaving the diocese due to “our community retrenchment, so as to centralize Glenmary personnel.” That has now taken the form of missions in Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Georgia.
“I’m a great fan of Church history and I see what will rebuild the Church: We must let go, so something new can be built. There have been five big ‘deaths and new beginnings’, I think. Benedict, Francis, Ignatius, the Missionaries and now…what? We might be too close to see. But, in each of these cases something needed to die before a new and living thing could be born. I’m not sure what it will look like, but…we need discernment to discover new life…not a false hope,” says Father Dalton.
Maybe more than Church history, though, is how he feels about going. “I am sad, sad…I love the people and I’m gonna miss ‘um!”

(Sister alies terese is a vowed Catholic solitary who lives an eremitical life. Her days are formed around prayer, art and writing. She lives and writes in Mississippi.)

By Joanna Puddister King
JACKSON/NATCHEZ – A renewal of evangelization efforts has been underway for some time in the Catholic Church, ChristLife being one of those endeavors. The goal of ChristLife is to increase active participation in parishes and to call church members to a closer, more meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ.
Designed for Catholics, the three-part program consists of three courses of seven weeks each. The first course, Discovering Christ, invites people of all backgrounds to open the door to encountering Jesus and be a part of the Church. Following Christ, the second course, covers Catholic discipleship, including daily personal prayer, hearing God in Scripture, the power of the sacraments, forgiving one another and spiritual warfare, among others. The final component of the program, Sharing Christ, equips Catholics with the practical skills to proclaim the Gospel and invite others into a personal relationship with Jesus. All of these elements combine to enrich community members and build up spirits that will last long beyond the course dates.
The ChristLife program has been run at several parishes within the diocese with much success. Nancy McGhee, parishioner at Jackson St. Richard, attended the program at Flowood St. Paul several years ago, the first parish to offer the ChristLife program in the diocese.
“I personally experience renewal and spiritual growth from the ChristLife program. I am totally interested in evangelization of adults and being a part of helping others experience the power of the Holy Spirit and a deeper personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” said McGhee.
Having been involved in charismatic renewal, the Cursillo movement, Renew, developing the small church communities and a “Go Make Disciples” class at Jackson St. Richard, McGhee feels that ChristLife has some of the best parts of all those programs.
“I think people who really go through the whole ChristLife program with a sincere desire to gain a deeper faith relationship with Jesus and to be renewed in the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit do receive that,” says McGhee. “This in turn, makes all that we do as The Church more meaningful . . . the sacraments, getting involved in church activities, furthering religious education, helping the poor, wanting to be a part of a small faith community, feeling more a part of the parish in general and most importantly gain an excitement about lay discipleship . . . sharing your faith and the love of Christ with others in ordinary everyday ways, inviting people in, reaching out to people that our pastor would never see or know, doing our part in growing the Kingdom with the love of God shining through us in our imperfect beings.”
Natchez St. Mary Basilica will be using the ChristLife program for the first time this Fall. Out of a series of book studies, the Parish Council and a group of parishioners developed an action plan for moving the parish forward in a number of areas, including deepening the Christ-focus of both individual parishioners and of the parish as a whole. The first step was to find and implement a parish-wide program with this focus.
Ruth Powers, program coordinator at St. Mary Basilica, said, “After talking with parishioners from St. Jude in Pearl, who had taken part in the Discovering Christ program and seeing how excited they were about ChristLife, that is the one we chose. We have been working with a Christlife consultant since March on getting the necessary teams formed to implement the program.”
Powers “hope(s) that by the end of the program parishioners whose relationship with Christ is not a major focus in their lives will be moved toward Christ as a focus; that parishioners who have a relationship with Christ will have that relationship deepened and that those with a deep relationship will be on fire to share that relationship with others. We have found that Catholics in general do not seem to be comfortable with sharing Christ with others for a number of reasons. Our hope is that this experience will begin to break down those barriers, because God knows our communities and our world need Christ right now.”
Both Jackson St. Richard and Natchez St. Mary Basilica plan to offer the three-part series of ChristLife. There is no fee to participate and the program includes meals and childcare is offered if needed. All are welcome to register and attend.
Jackson St. Richard will be offering a daytime Discovering Christ program beginning on Thursday, August 29 in Foley Hall. Classes will meet Thursdays at 10 a.m. with a Saturday retreat scheduled for September 28. To register visit saintrichard.com/christlife or call Nancy McGhee at 601-942-2078.
Natchez St. Mary will begin their inaugural offering of the ChristLife series on Sunday, October 6 at the O’Conner Family Life Center. Classes will meet Sundays at 5:30 p.m. with a Saturday retreat scheduled for October 27. For more information or to volunteer contact Ruth Powers at 601-445-5616.

By Karen Gamble
VICKSBURG – A piece of Vicksburg’s cornerstone fell to the history books when the last resident members of the Religious Sisters of Mercy, Patricia Parker and Robyn Huser left the city. A reception, to honor the sisters, was held Sunday, July 28, at the parish hall of St. Michael Catholic Church.
Sister Patricia Parker, 85, and Sister Robyn Huser, 76, have called Vicksburg home for more than 50 years. They will move to their religious order’s retirement home in St. Louis, Mo., this August, ending a 159-year era of the sisters being leaders in health care and education in the city, Warren County and surrounding areas.

“It’s time to go – I had sworn I’d never leave, but we have to think about our health issues,” Sister Patricia said. “I found out a couple of months ago that I have a mild heart condition and I know it would not be good to just fall out some day and leave Sister Robyn to try to deal with it.” In 1988, Sister Robyn suffered a massive heart attack and was without oxygen for about 25 minutes. Sister Robyn’s survival and eventually “spending more than a year learning to walk again” was described as nothing short of a miracle, but she continues to need help with everyday chores.
Throughout their time in Vicksburg and several years in Jackson, Sisters Patricia and Robyn have followed their order’s vows of service to the poor, sick and uneducated. “We’ve had a ministry here in Vicksburg, and a lot of people have given us a lot of money and we’ve been able to help a lot of people,” she said. “We hate to leave here. I just love it, but it’s time.”
Just two months ago, during National Nurses Week, the two were honored by the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing. They were awarded a plaque and recognized for their roles in establishing the Mercy Delta Express, a traveling clinic staffed by medically trained Sisters of Mercy, volunteers and UMMC nursing students.
The sisters said the bus was a way to help train nurses and, more importantly, help those impoverished people whose plights were discussed in the federal government’s Delta Commission Report of 1990. The delivery of on-site health care began in Issaquena and Sharkey counties, the two Delta counties just north of Vicksburg and Warren County. The continuing result of that work today offers health care in Cary, Mayersville, Rolling Fork and Anguilla.
“We’d park in corn fields and people would come to get free medical care,” Sister Patricia said. “We had nurses from Vicksburg, all volunteers, who went with us to help these poor people. We gave immunizations to the children and we treated a lot of the parents.” At the May ceremony in Jackson, Sister Robyn remarked that she remains amazed at the impact of one simple idea, such as the medical bus. “It’s kind of an awesome thing,” she said. Yet, moving into uncharted territory was nothing new for this order of religious sisters.
Six members of the Sisters of Mercy came to Vicksburg from Baltimore, Md., in 1860. Their works began with the founding of St. Catherine’s School, which later became St. Francis Xavier Academy. After opening and operating a school where not even a public school existed, the “teaching sisters” stayed in the city and operated St. Francis and later St. Aloysius High School until 1999, when most of them moved to a retirement home near New Orleans.
As “hospital sisters,” Sister Robyn, a native of Lubbock, Texas, served as a registered nurse, director of nursing and hospital vice president; and Sister Patricia, a native of New Orleans who grew up in Biloxi, served as a registered nurse and supervisor of the operating room. Both left Vicksburg in the mid-’80s to begin their ministry of helping the chronically mentally ill in Jackson.
“We went into the personal care homes, we found people on the streets, we set up a clinic across from Stewpot Ministries,” Sister Patricia explained. “Some of these people were in the worst conditions you can imagine. But it was the best time of my life. Life is worthwhile when you can contribute some happiness to these poor people,” she said. “It was the joy of doing God’s work.”
“These two sisters represent what is so remarkable about the Sisters of Mercy,” Bishop Joseph Kopacz said. “They not only do their work with their ministries — health care, education and tending to the needy — they become involved personally with those people. Even after they’ve left a place, they are remembered for all their good, their prayers, their dedication and sometimes just consoling those who need it,” he remarked.
“It is amazing what the sisters have done in Vicksburg and throughout Mississippi since 1860,” Bishop Kopacz stated. “They have spent a lifetime preparing people for heaven.”
A member of the Sisters of Mercy who has spent years documenting the works of the religious order is Sister Paulinus Oakes, a Vicksburg native who at age 87 is “still doing a little outreach” from her retirement village in St. Louis, where Sisters Robyn and Patricia will take up residence. “I am so glad they are coming up to St. Louis,” said Sister Paulinus, who wrote and published Angels of Mercy and The Tapestry of Mercy, both historical accounts of the order in Mississippi and the United States.
“I was so glad to be a part of the Vicksburg ministry,” Sister Paulinus said. She is a graduate of St. Francis, a former principal at her alma mater, a former theology teacher at St. Aloysius Vicksburg and a pastoral care servant attached to Mercy Regional Medical Center.
The Father P.J. Curley, pastor emeritus of St. Michael Catholic Church and the longest-serving priest in Vicksburg, said he has been impressed by the two sisters since he met them. “I admire their dedication and commitment to the care of the sick and the needy across Mississippi,” Curley said. “I’ve always known the Mercy Sisters as educators, but I had no idea of the extent of their involvement in the well-being of the whole community.”
“Their caring nature and positive spirit have been inspirational to me,” Curley concluded, “We will miss them and they will be in my prayers.”
Shirley Farish of Vicksburg is a retired registered nurse who spent 45 years at Mercy Hospital and Mercy Regional Medical Center, 25 of those years as nursing supervisor in the emergency room. “That was before we had doctors in the E.R.,” she said. “If we needed one, we had to get a doctor from University (Medical Center in Jackson). I was in nursing school when Patricia came to Vicksburg, so I worked with her for 45 years,” Farish said. “I saw what the sisters did. I saw how Patricia and Robyn had a ministry of helping the needy. They were retired by then, but those people who needed them knew how to find them.”
The time at Mercy Hospital and with the sisters “were glorious years,” she said. The Sisters of Mercy began their health-care ministry during the Civil War when they tended Union and Confederate soldiers. The presidents of both sides praised the sister. “I can never forget your kindness to the sick and wounded during our darkest days,” Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, said after the war, according to Gordon Cotton, longtime curator of the Old Court House Museum, historian and author who has written about many of the people living in Vicksburg during the Union siege of the city.
At another time, Davis cited his “personal gratitude and respect for every member of your noble order,” Cotton said. On the opposite side, President Abraham Lincoln referred to the sisters as “… the most efficient…veritable angels of mercy.” Over the years since the Civil War, the nuns have cared for the sick during a yellow fever epidemic in the 1870s, a polio outbreak in the 1940s and the injured after a tornado hit the city in 1953, killing 38 people and injuring hundreds.
In 1943, the sisters took over Vicksburg’s Street Hospital and nursing school, which had been operated since 1901 by sibling physicians. Through the next 20 years, the sisters began operations of Mercy Hospital, later Mercy Regional Medical Center and Mercy School of Nursing. The school educated and trained nurses for the entire state of Mississippi and much of the Southeast until establishing a three-year degree program with the University of Southern Mississippi and later a two-year program with Hinds Community College. The hospital was sold to a corporation in the early 1990s.
The Sisters of Mercy order was founded in 1831 by Catherine McAuley of Dublin, Ireland, “who left as her legacy the largest community of religious women in the English-speaking world,” Sister Paulinus wrote in Angels of Mercy. “The sisters in Vicksburg have done exactly what the order was called to do,” she said, trailing off with a quote from Scripture: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my people…”

By Michael O’Loughlin
MILWAUKEE – On June 15, more than 30 School Sisters of St. Francis of the United States Province celebrated milestone anniversaries of service as women religious. In addition, three lay women in associate relationship with the community celebrated their 25-year jubilees.
These are the sisters celebrating Jubilee this year who have served in the Diocese of Jackson.

Sister Arlene Welding (80 Years)
Sister Arlene Welding was born in Oakdale, Nebraska She received a bachelor of science degree in education from Alverno College in Milwaukee and a master of science degree in religious education from the University of San Francisco in Calif.
In the Diocese of Jackson, Sister Arlene taught at St. Francis School in Yazoo City (1953-1962).
Other service: In the Diocese of Comayagua (Honduras), Sister Arlene served as a cursillo director in Comayagua (1966-1970). In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Sister served as campus minister at the Newman Center in Los Angeles (1979-1982) and as director of operations at Caring Hands in Los Angeles (1982-1985). In the Diocese of Nashville, Sister served as a community outreach worker at Catholic Social Services (1986-1989), where she also served as a volunteer social worker (1992-1993); served as a social ministry volunteer (1993-1997); and served as a part-time secretary at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Nashville (1997-1998), where she also served as coordinator of social concerns (1998-2004) and as volunteer coordinator (2004-2007). In the Diocese of Phoenix (Ariz.), Sister served as religious education coordinator at St. Matthew Parish in Phoenix (1970-1978) and at St. Edward Parish in Phoenix (1978-1979). In the Archdiocese of San Jose´ in Costa Rica, Sister taught at St. Francis Primary School in Moravia (1962-1966). In the Diocese of Tucson (Ariz.), Sister served as senior citizen counselor at the Pinal Gila Council for Senior Citizens in Casa Grande (1979). In the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Sister taught at St. Matthew School in Campbellsport (1943-1953) and served as a volunteer at St. Joseph Convent in Campbellsport (2008-2014) and at St. Joseph Convent in Milwaukee (2014-2017).

Sister currently serves in the ministry of prayer and presence at Our Lady of the Angels Convent in Greenfield, Wisconsin.
Sister Michele Doyle (75 Years)
Sister Michele Doyle was born in Forest Park, Illinois. She received a bachelor of science degree in education from Alverno College in Milwaukee; a master of arts degree in American history from Loyola University in Chicago; and a master’s degree in religious education from St. Thomas University in Houston.
In the Diocese of Jackson, Sister Michele taught at St. Francis High School in Yazoo City (1949-1969); at St. Joseph High School and Jackson State College in Jackson (1969-1976); served as director of adult religious education for the Diocese of Jackson (1976-1983); and director of education for St. Francis Assisi Parish in Madison (1991-1996). Since 2006, Sister Michele has served part-time in several parishes in the lay ministry program for the Jackson diocese.
Other service: In the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Sister served as provincial for her congregation’s U.S. Province in Milwaukee (1983-1991). In the Diocese of Rockford (Ill.), she taught at St. Mary School in McHenry (1947-1949).
Sister currently resides in Ridgeland, Mississippi.
Sister Amy Therese Kenealy (60 Years)

Sister Amy Therese Kenealy was born in Chicago, Illinois. She received a bachelor of arts degree in English from Alverno College in Milwaukee, a master of arts degree in English from the University of Chicago, a certificate of advanced study in education administration from the University of Illinois, a master of science degree in counseling from Chicago State University, and a master of arts degree in pastoral theology from St. Mary of the Woods College in Indiana.
In the Diocese of Jackson, Sister Amy Therese taught at Sacred Heart School in Walls (1965-1966), St. Francis High School in Yazoo City (1967-1968) and St. Mary School in Holly Springs (1968-1969).
Other Service: In the Diocese of Joliet (Ill.), Sister served as regional chaplain at Marriott Brighton Gardens in Burr Ridge (2001-2003). In the Archdiocese of Chicago, Sister taught at St. Cyprian School in River Grove (1962-1964), St. Joseph School in Wilmette (1964-1965), and St. Anne School in Barrington (1966-1967). She served as dean, counselor and teacher at Thornridge High School in Dolton (1970-1990), pastoral ministry project director at St. Xavier University in Chicago (1988-1992), pastoral associate at St. Joachim Parish in Chicago (1990-1992) and chaplain at Americana/ManorCare Health Center in South Holland (1992-2001). Sister also was director of pastoral care at Brighton Gardens in Orlando Park (2003-2007) and chaplain at Vitas Hospice in Chicago Heights (2005-2016).
Sister currently resides in Sauk Village, Illinois, where she has served as volunteer chaplain since 2016.
Sister Liana Mich (60 Years)

Sister Liana Mich was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received a bachelor of arts degree in elementary education and music from Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, a master of science degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and a master of arts degree in pastoral ministry from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis.
In the Diocese of Jackson, Sister Liana served as principal of Holy Family School in Jackson (1978-1986).
Other Service: In the Diocese of Gary (Ind.), Sister served as teacher/organist at SS Peter & Paul School in Gary (1962-1966). In the Diocese of La Crosse (Wis.), Sister served as teacher/organist at Sacred Heart School in Marshfield (1966-1968). In the Diocese of Memphis (Tenn.), she served as a pastoral education intern at Methodist Hospital Clinic in Memphis (1987-1988). In the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Sister served as chaplain at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City (1988-2006) where she also served as spiritual director (2006-2012). In the Archdiocese of San Antonio (Texas), Sister served in the ministry to ministers program at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio (1986-1987). In the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Sister in Milwaukee taught at St. Boniface School (1967-1971), St. Martin de Porres Catholic School (1971-1972) where she also served as administrator and curriculum coordinator (1972-1974), and at St. Albert School (1974-1975). She also served as a volunteer at Clement Manor Retirement Center in Greenfield and in the congregation’s U.S. Province Finance Office in Milwaukee from 2012-2018.
Sister currently resides at Clement Manor Retirement Community in Greenfield, Wisconsin.

(Cards and donations in honor of the sisters’ years of service may be mailed to Sister’s attention, c/o Jubilee Committee, School Sisters of St. Francis, 1545 S. Layton Blvd., Milwaukee, WI 53215.)

By Jen Pick
La Crosse, WISCONSIN – Sister Rita Mae (70 Years), a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She ministered as a primary school teacher in Wausau, Menomonie, Stanley, Pewaukee, Durand, Stanley and Edgar, Wisconsin. She also taught primary grades in Spokane, Washington, and Canton, Mississippi. Beginning in 1982, Sister Rita Mae ministered in libraries in Superior (Cathedral School), Wisconsin, Carroll (Holy Spirit School), Iowa, and West Point (Marquette), Iowa. In 1994, she moved to Villa St. Joseph, the FSPA skilled-care retirement home in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where she assisted in sister services before moving to care for her mother and serve part time as a library media specialist at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Sister Rita Mae went on to volunteer in libraries at Immaculate Conception School in Eau Claire, Wis. and St. Peter Claver School in St. Paul, Minn., before retiring to St. Rose Convent in La Crosse in 2008. She currently ministers as a volunteer in the St. Rose Media Center.
A jubilee celebration was held at St. Rose Convent on April 26.
Based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration is a community of vowed Franciscan women engaged in furthering the work of the Catholic church and the Gospel. Their partners in ministry, including affiliates and prayer partners, join them in service of God’s mission. Together, they collaborate to minister in areas of greatest need, demonstrating that Gospel living is both contemplative and active.