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October 28, 2006
Pursuit of Goodness
Flames snapped and popped the dry cedar. It was too cold to wait for coals to roast our marshmallows over the bonfire. Instead, the St. Joseph Workers and I just took turns holding skewered marshmallows over the fire then quickly extinguishing the sugar torch before sandwiching them between graham crackers and chocolate. The temperature was dropping to below freezing, so we circled our chairs close to the bonfire, wrapped ourselves in blankets, and told stories for the next two hours. I was completely mesmerized by each St. Joseph Worker’s pursuit of goodness.
The stories were of home, friends, and each other. Strong threads of building community wove into each tale. These are women our world can depend on—WHEW! It’s time for good news!
St. Joseph Workers come to us from all over the United States. They spend one year living in community with other St. Joseph Workers. They serve in our Sisters’ network of programs for people who are poor; they accumulate leadership skills and mentors that will last a lifetime.
One father of a St. Joseph Worker said, “If parents knew what being a St. Joseph Worker really does for their daughters, they would fight to get them into the program.” He’s right.
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October 26, 2006
Safe Crossings
I was delayed at a stop sign this morning along with other cars filled with business executives, store clerks, lawyers, janitors, stock brokers, graduate students and those out for their morning lattes. Elementary school patrols held us at bay with their bright orange flags as they safely crossed a gaggle of small, energetic, backpack-laden children.
Each of us in that moment did the right thing for a greater good. “And there was peace,” I said to myself.
My heart filled with gratitude for the Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet who started the school patrol program back in 1921. One person can change the world.
Sister Carmela Hanggi, CSJ was principal of Saint Paul’s Cathedral Parish School on Kellogg Boulevard near Summit Avenue. She worried as her children crossed busy streets to reach their homes.
She happened to attend a convention in Atlanta City and there observed women assisting grade school children through the busy city intersections. She adapted the idea by using eighth grade boys at the intersections. She began with 17 recruits.
Sister Carmela brought the idea to the Commissioner of Public Safety, but he did not immediately accept the idea. However, with Sister’s return visits and the success of her existing patrol, the public safety office soon incorporated her program within the City of St. Paul. Within one year the number of school patrols rose to1000 in 86 schools!
Sister Carmela would never have considered herself an international trendsetter. She didn’t seek copyright or receive any commission for her idea. She simply did the right thing out of love for the dear neighbor.
Irene O’Neill, CSJ
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October 17, 2006
Human Trafficking
Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner’s article on human trafficking (“Human Trafficking, in Minnesota,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 9) is excellent! Susan was succinct and empowering. She clearly describes how to recognize trafficking and who to call if I encounter this dangerous, criminal activity. No one is exempt from responsibility to be alert.
Our first issue of Possumus, the Sisters of St. Joseph’s Ministries Foundation’s new magazine, unpacks the issue of trafficking as well. Embedded in one of the articles is one reason trafficking is so ubiquitous and aligned with deep criminal behavior. The girls, boys, women and men who are trafficked are reusable, unlike trafficked drugs that only have a one-time use. Request a copy of Possumus or read it online. Be sure to pass it around to your friends. It’s powerful.
I can hear leaves slicing through the air on the wake of early strong winter winds. It’s only October! The waning moon carries my thoughts to mittens and winter coats. While I wonder whether or not mine will last one more winter season, someone else is wondering if she will even live that long. God help us to help them.
Irene O’Neill, CSJ
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October 10, 2006
Global Goals
Young people I know truly believe that we will reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. At the Millennium Summit in 2000, 189 heads of state and governments firmly committed to work together and build a safer, more prosperous and equitable world for all by 2015. They adopted eight Millennium Development Goals that put a people-centered development at the heart of the global, national and local agendas.
The Goals committed rich and poor countries to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, eliminate gender inequity and environmental degradation, and ensure access to education, healthcare and clean water, all by 2015.
For young people, 2015 is a long way off; for me it feels like tomorrow. What I know is that I need to work towards those goals any way I can in my own life and sphere of influence so that I can look our youth in their eyes and say, “I believe in your future, the future of your children and their children as well.”
Not only can we accomplish these goals, but we must accomplish them!
On the local scene here the Sisters of St. Joseph’s network of programs work toward the achievement of the MDGs. We are profoundly present in the immigrant community. We serve women who have been tortured or seek asylum. We take care of children while we help their parents become self-sufficient. Through our system of health clinics we serve people who are uninsured, keep them well which keeps their families systems more viable.
An added value that we Sisters of St. Joseph have is that we have a global presence. We can act local and globally simultaneously. How fabulous is that?! If you are interested in our global reality, visit www.sistersofsaintjosephfederation.org – the website of the Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph. If you want to know more about our local reality, click on www.csjstpaul.org.
Millennium Development Goal # 8 is directed at those of us who live in developed countries. The Eighth Goal includes steps that developed countries can take in support of the campaigns in developing countries to win the first round at ultimately eradicating poverty. To read about the these goals go to www.un.org/millenniumgoals
I leave you with a Latin phrase our Sisters often use, Possumus. It means, “We can!”
Irene O’Neill, CSJ
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October 7, 2006
By Our Good Works You Will Know Us
One symbol the Sisters of St. Joseph use to illustrate who we are is the Tamarack Tree. Tamarack trees live on the edge of unstable ecosystems. They send down roots deep into marshy soil. Their roots stabilize the land. Once the ground becomes stable, tamarack roots seek the new, unstable edge. Again, it sends down its deep roots; the new edge stabilizes and on it goes.
You find Sisters of St. Joseph amidst unstable edges in your city. Here in the greater St. Paul and Minneapolis metropolitan area where the St. Paul Province of Sisters of St. Joseph is located, access to affordable healthcare is at one unstable societal edge.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens here juggle more than one job trying to support their families without the safety net of health care benefits. These uninsured working, poor folks live on the frightening edge between being productive, contributing citizens and welfare. Compared to people with insurance, uninsured children and adults in Minnesota experience worse health and die sooner. They are four times as likely to experience an avoidable hospitalization or require emergency care. Untreated illness can escalate to unemployment, which can tip their fate onto the unwanted slide into welfare.
Sisters of St. Joseph work to stabilize the health of thousands of people who are uninsured through a network of health clinics that provide comprehensive health care services as well as medically necessary outpatient, inpatient specialist services and prescription medications to patients who otherwise would go without health care.
St. Mary’s Health Clinics has a network of over 700 health care professionals including physicians, nurses, translators, and admissions personnel who volunteer their services. St. Mary’s Health Clinics also work to assist the uninsured in finding permanent health coverage under government or other available health care programs.
Our success with St. Mary’s Health Clinics is measured by the number of people not applying for welfare. You may not always see our face, but by our good works you will know us.
Deep peace,
Irene O’Neill, CSJ
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October 1, 2006
The Blogging Nun
I am a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet (CSJ). I always wanted to help people, but that isn’t why I joined this religious order. I became a nun because I met a group of fearless women who do more than help people: they are leaders dedicated to providing an entire network of help and hope to people in need. Their lives impact thousands upon thousands of individuals every year. When they see a need, their response is huge. They convert convents into homes for women who have been tortured, seeking asylum or are homeless. They establish an entire network of medical clinics free to people who are uninsured. They create a drop-by childcare for free to parents who were trying to get off welfare. They serve our elders who are poor, frail and homebound. They teach immigrants English so they can find work and support their families. They serve immediate needs and work for systemic changes to right the unjust systems.
You will find our sisters with the poorest of the poor and at your side in boardrooms. We are at the United Nations and we are in war-torn neighborhoods around the world. When the going gets tough, we don’t leave.
Sisters of St. Joseph care for you, pray for you, pray with you, care for your children, heal the sick, feed the hungry, open their homes, teach and inspire leadership in others. When a program is financially stretched, they contribute their own salary. Who wouldn’t want to belong to this group of women????
My life as a Sister of St. Joseph is freeing and fulfilling. The many challenges we each are handed as we respond to needs comes with the support of hundreds of my sisters and wisdom handed down from our fore-mothers on whose shoulders we stand. We began in 1650 A.D. We Sisters of St. Joseph, 356 years later are still here, still serving and still going strong and still serving in your neighborhood.
We are one of the best kept secrets around. Because we work behind the scenes with people who need us the most, so of course the rest of the world doesn’t see us or get to know us. Someone recently said to me, “If the Sisters of St. Joseph didn’t exist today we would have to invent them!”
We are 21st Century women so we use 21st Century media. That’s why I’ve become the Blogging Nun.
Sister Irene O’Neill, CSJ
Executive Director
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
Ministries Foundation
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