175-year legacy of Ursuline, St. Augustine sisters discussed at City Club

A sold-out crowd listened intently as four religious sisters discussed their ministry in the Diocese of Cleveland during an hourlong panel discussion July 16 at The City Club of Cleveland. Moderator was Christopher Larson, who recently became president and CEO of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Cleveland.

Panel members were Sister Laura Bregar, OSU, president of the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland leadership team; Sister Maureen Doyle, OSU, leadership team member; Sister Marian Durkin, CSA and Sister Judith Ann Karam, CSA, congregational leader, Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine. The conversation focused on “175 Years of Service: The Ursuline Sisters, the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine and a Legacy of a City Transformed.”

“There is so much love in this room,” Larson said. “Cleveland wouldn’t be what it is today without the dedicated work of these women,” he said, asking the sisters what they wanted people to know about them.

Sister Bregar said the Ursulines have a history of standing up for what they believe in, for seeing a need and filling it. When their predecessors arrived from France in 1850 at the invitation of Bishop Amadeus Rappe, first bishop of the diocese, they saw immigrants who needed an education. Within three weeks, the sisters had opened a school for 300 students. She used the terms “innovation, faith, fidelity and education” to describe the sisters’ work.

“We’ve never done it alone,” said Sister Karam. “We have been able to serve God’s people with those who partnered with us,” she said, sharing that the CSA sisters were invited to the diocese by Bishop Rappe a year after the Ursulines, in 1851. The Ursulines were brought here to minister in education while the CSA sisters brought health care expertise.

When asked how their work has evolved, Sister Doyle recalled her early days in the congregation. “It wasn’t 175 years ago, but 1968,” she quipped. “I was one of 16 women ages 18 or 19 who decided to try the Ursulines … We came to the convent to save the world.” She said their formation leaders found places for them to serve and as a result, “I saw how people on the margins lived and how our sisters help them and educated them.”

Sister Durkin said she had a career in education and was discerning her next chapter when she felt a nudge to minister among the gay community as the AIDS epidemic took hold. “I never wanted to be a nurse or to work in a hospital,” she said, but she embraced her new ministry and was instrumental in helping to establish a drop-in center. “I’ve stayed close to the gay and lesbian community. They are my friends and I love them.”

Sister Bregar said the Ursulines seek ways to be of service, including through social action. The murder of Sister Joanne Marie Mascha, OSU in the woods behind their Pepper Pike motherhouse in 1995 shocked the sisters but galvanized them in their opposition to the death penalty. They urged that the man convicted of her murder not face the death penalty. “And nearly 30 years later, we got an apology letter from her killer,” she said.

Sister Karam reflected on the work of Sister Ignatia Gavin, CSA, who she encountered while working in the pharmacy at the now-closed St. Vincent Charity Hospital in downtown Cleveland. Sister Gavin helped found Alcoholics Anonymous and was passionate about alcoholism being a disease, establishing Rosary Hall to help those struggling with addiction. “The Sister Ignatia Center for Addiction Medicine will open at our new Health and Healing Hub,” Sister Karam said.

As the sisters age and their numbers shrink, they agreed it’s important to work together. “The smaller we get, the closer we get,” Sister Doyle said. “We’re all in this together for the good of the people because Jesus called us,” she said, as the audience applauded.

The sisters also acknowledged the establishment of the Women Religious Archives Collaborative, with Sister Susan Durkin, OSU as executive director. Now under construction downtown, WRAC is scheduled to open next spring and will house the archives of dozens of orders of religious sisters, allowing the public to learn more about them and their ministries.

“I think I speak for all when I say we’ve received so much more than we’ve given,” Sister Bregar said.

Larson quipped that July should be “Hug a Nun Month” as a way to show appreciation for all they’ve done. “Think about the religious sisters in your life. If she’s passed on, say a prayer. If she’s still here, take her to lunch or make a donation in her honor. We owe it to these remarkable women to pick up the baton.”