2010
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January
Carol Rittner RSM
Sondra Myers
Deirdre Mullan RSM
Patricia A. Hartigan RSM
Helena O’Donoghue RSM
Cathy Solano RSM
Rosemary Sabino RSM
Theresa Kane RSM
Thinking Outside the Box
Thinking about Mercy leadership these past weeks, I have been infused with the spirit of our founder, Catherine McAuley. There are so many qualities about her that one can appreciate and explore, but I am particularly struck with Catherine’s “crazy” decision to give away during her lifetime the inheritance bequeathed to her by the Callaghans.
Many of us can identify wealthy people, perhaps even people of modest means, who have bequeathed their entire fortunes to charity, but how many of us know people who have given away their fortunes before their deaths? Not many, I would say, which is why I think Catherine’s gesture is so unique and such a witness to our world.
We know her close relatives thought of her as a bit crazy, giving all her money away. Perhaps they did so because they hoped for, expected, and even needed some of her wealth. Some of the clergy of her day, bishops included, may even have hoped her monies would go to parishes in their dioceses. Yet all of it went to build that first House of Mercy on Baggot Street, where Catherine exercised her leadership and where those early Sisters of Mercy lived out her vision of Mercy service to “the poor, sick, and ignorant” of Dublin. (Today we might say she was “thinking outside the box”!)
In 1980, the Sisters of Mercy of the Union in the United States of America sold their Mercy Generalate (Motherhouse) in Potomoc, Maryland. I was the President of the Sisters of Mercy of the Union in 1980. I can still remember gathering in a ground-floor kitchen in the Generalate, along with a few strong activists who said that if and when we sold our Motherhouse, we had a responsibility to use the money from the sale of the building to house others. We were filled with zeal and generosity. But to be honest, we were doubtful that our idea of using the sale monies for the new building would get the affirmation of the Union Chapter body. We decided to try anyway. We developed a proposal for the General Chapter and − to our surprise − the delegates affirmed it rather quickly.
The beautiful building which had served the Sisters of Mercy of the Union in the United States for twenty-one years, and was considered by many to be somewhat of a “white elephant” for another need, was purchased by the United States Postal Service for $1.6 million dollars in cash, a veritable fortune in our eyes. In 1980, only the building was sold, although eventually all the land was also sold.
As a result of the Postal Service sale, the General Administrative Conference (GAC) – comprised of Mercy Provincials and the General Leadership Team – created the McAuley Institute for Housing with a foundation of $1.6 million dollars. The proceeds from the sale of the Union Motherhouse were effectively administered for many years by the McAuley Institute to help the poor and homeless. But there is a less well-known story that also should be remembered.
Before the McAuley Institute was established, the General Leadership Team engaged Father Bill Callahan, S. J. and the Quixote Center in Mt. Ranier, Maryland, to dream with us about how the proceeds from the Motherhouse might be used. We also engaged the late Msgr. Gino Baroni, a specialist in Housing and then Secretary for Health, Education, and Welfare in U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s administration, as a consultant. Both of them had ideas about what we should do with the money, of course, but Bill Callahan’s idea was really creative. A visionary and a prophet, Father Callahan had created the Quixote Center as a “think tank” and center for social activism. He and his staff submitted a proposal to the Union leadership team, recommending we draw down the entire $1.6 million dollars, create as much publicity as we could, then engage in a public action signifying that material goods were perishable. They recommended that we publicly burn the entire $1.6 million!
We did not support the recommendation, but Sister Betty Barrett of Chicago and I did not easily dismiss it. If our late and beloved Sisters Emily George, Rosemary Ronk and Mary Ellen Quinn were still with us, I am sure they could tell the story from their perspectives, which would add to our reflections about leadership in the 21st century and beyond.
What would have been the effects or consequences of doing such a creative, daring, even “reckless” deed?
One thing we do know is that Catherine McAuley did not “burn” her inheritance. She used it for good, but I would argue that what Catherine did in her day – using her money to build that first House of Mercy on Baggot Street in Dublin, Ireland – was just as daring and reckless in her day as burning $1.6 million dollars would have been in ours.
When it comes to leadership in the 21st century and beyond, the question for me is always: How can the life, spirit, and story of Catherine McAuley continue to inspire and impel farseeing and generous human action − even daring and seemingly “reckless” action − that will impact on “the poor, sick, and ignorant” of our day, in whatever part of the world we serve?
Like Catherine McAuley, we need to “think outside the box”. We need to be daring like she was, and we need to find ways to be like the prophet Isaiah who even went through the streets naked so as to draw attention to his message.
What can those elected to positions of leadership in our Mercy world do? What can I, what can you, what can we Sisters of Mercy do that years from now will inspire people to serve “the poor, sick, and ignorant” in Jesus’ name and spirit? Therein lies the challenge for all of us.
Theresa Kane RSM is a member of the Mid-Atlantic Community of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. She is an Associate Professor at Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, New York.
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