In this Issue:
Sr. Therese Joyce Prepares to Celebrate
Quarantine Across the Congregation
A Tribute to Sr. Clare Marie Figueroa
ICCR Investor Letter
In Memory
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Have a safe and happy Memorial Day!
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Sr. Therese Joyce Prepares for her 101st Birthday
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Sr. Therese Joyce wants to be in good physical shape when she celebrates her 101 birthday on August 10. Twice a week, she goes to physical therapy with Sherrie Droney, Therapist (seen in picture). According to Sherrie, Sr. Therese comes each time filled with enthusiasm to do whatever is required to stay in shape! May we all be blessed with such energy!
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Quarantine Activities Across the Congregation
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From Kathy Doyle, FSA Associate:
In mid-April, my husband Gus celebrated his 75th birthday. Our children and six grandchildren surprised us with a socially distant celebration. They decorated the driveway and sang Happy Birthday! What was a cold and dreary day weather-wise turned out to be a “sunny” day for us, except for the fact that there was no hugging!
Since it was also a school day the kids got a break from on-line classes to make the trek to see Grandpop. Our neighbors enjoyed it too!
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From St. Elizabeth Motherhouse:
Sisters at St. Elizabeth Motherhouse continue to practice social distancing. This doesn't stop them from
enjoying one another’s company. As pictured above, sisters make sure to leave appropriate space among themselves during conversations.
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A Walk Around Allegany
From: Margaret Magee OSF, Associate Minister
Saturday, May 16 - This weekend would have been the graduation for the Class of 2020 here at St. Bonaventure University. As I set out for my daily walk around the campus, I could see some graduates and their friends gathered in small groups to take pictures and trying to capture memories of what, if not for COVID-19, would have been a truly festive celebration.
So, to avoid the groups, the bikers, joggers and other walkers, I decided to walk off the campus and head for the town. These daily walks are blessings with the opportunities to listen to the birds and to take in the scent of the blossoming trees.
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I walked from campus to First Street and then came back through town along Main Street. At Seventh Street, I turned and walked to the side driveway of the Motherhouse, hoping to catch a glimpse of our sisters and to say hello.
I walked to the side entrance, the windows of our sisters in Healthcare, stopping to pray for them and for our nursing, housekeeping, dietary and maintenance staff and the sisters who are taking such good care of all at the Motherhouse. We are truly blessed!
At the side entrance and talking from a generous distance, I was happy to see Sr. Barbara Bartkowiak. Barbara sends love to everyone and says she is keeping busy learning to play the guitar and riding her bike around the grounds of the Motherhouse.
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After chatting with Barbara I heard some knocking from a window above. When I looked up I spotted Sr. Eva DiCamillo. You can’t see Eva but the red heart indicates her open window. We chatted for a few minutes and Eva mentioned that tomorrow is Fr. Neil O’Connell’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Neil!
Before leaving the Motherhouse grounds, I encountered one of our Ritiro sisters, Sr. Carol Ann Kenyon. Carol was out enjoying the sunshine and a stroll before lunch. Carol said that all the sisters at the Motherhouse and the sisters in the Ritiro are praying for everyone’s safety and continued health during this COVID crisis.
Let us keep praying for one another and remembering that although we may be separated and distanced from one another, we are all connected in love, prayers and in the beauty and goodness of God.
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In this time of COVID separation and quarantine we invite you to send in your experiences and pictures so that we can share them with all our sisters, associates and partners in ministry. Those who have already submitted their experiences will find them shared in our next edition!
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A Tribute to Sr. Clare Marie from the Allegany Associates
By: Margaret Jarrett, FSA Associate, Jamaica
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The Associates of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany are lay persons who commit to be in relationship with the Sisters in their initiatives in social action
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They seek to find ways to be instruments of peace, reconciliation and non-violence, in a broken world. We can see in Sr. Clare Marie’s life and ministry an inspiring example to emulate as we strive to live Gospel values while maintaining our chosen way of life.
We took special note of two instances of Sr. Clare Marie’s response to the call for social action during the turbulent decade from 1970 to 1980. Sr. Clare Marie assumed the role of Principal of St. Anne's Primary School, located in West Kingston, close to the epicenter of the violence that wreaked havoc and fear in the society. Someone told me that she started a Toy Library, a lending library stocked with toys and play resources that were loaned to the neighborhood children on a rotating basis. Her initiative was remarkable for bringing joy and healing to children. It was her way of being an instrument of peace in the broken West Kingston community.
It was also during her time as principal of St. Anne’s that she was one of a few who defended Fr. Richard Ho Lung in a public controversy over his creolisation of liturgical songs. Sr. Clare Marie is quoted as saying, “the hymn, ‘Enter into Jerusalem’ is a rhythmic, stirring invitation to worship and praise God, not unlike the psalm of which it is an echo. The majestic impelling invitation
to ‘
Enter into Jerusalem - Let us go to God’s house
’
is reinforced by the colloquial, ‘We go celebrate, O Israel’, because this line imitates exactly the idiom of the speaker whose ecstasy is there unmistakably”.
Sr. Clare Marie’s eloquent and strenuous defense of the language and customs of the people she chose to serve is another example of her commitment to living out the mission of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany. In another of her roles as an educator, she taught English Language and English Literature at Immaculate Conception High School. One of her former students, our Associate Lois Kirton, wrote about her this way: “She was a mixture of seriousness and warmth. She had a certain way of enunciating her words which I can still hear. I remember how she introduced us to West Indian literature and started me on a love affair that still continues. And the first wave of Caribbean writers whom we would later delve into at university were names she dropped on the palate with an invitation to taste: Naipaul, Lamming, Selvon, Mittelholzer.”
Sr. Clare Marie’s innovative approach to education was even more evident when somehow, she was able to have a university lecturer in her high school classroom as a “guest lecturer”, for a presentation to the students on Shakespearean theater. I am inclined to believe that this was not a
common practice then or now. So much so that more than 50 years later, Lois still remembers the day that Dr. John Ingledew came to teach her at Immaculate.
Sr. Clare Marie was both a pioneer and a pilgrim. Her life teaches us how we too can live our life to the fullest, and be “Guided by the right hand of God” as she was. We too can be advocates for the rights of the disadvantaged; warriors, striking out at envy, hate and greed; healers of broken bodies, minds and souls. And always seeking for the way God’s hand is pointing us to go. In you, Sr. Clare Marie, God planted the seeds of freedom, hope and love. Today, at last, you are one with the right hand of God.
Rest in peace, Sr. Clare Marie.
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Investors Call for Increased Protections for Meat Processing Workers Due to Covid-19
Press Release from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
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Investors released a
statement today highlighting risks to workers in the meat sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic along with recommendations they say will help safeguard all stakeholders, especially workers, and by extension, their families and communities.
The statement is endorsed by 118 institutions with $2.3 trillion USD in combined assets; many of these investors are direct stakeholders, via equity or debt, in meat processing companies, and have had prior engagements on worker health and safety concerns.
The investors say the recommendations should be adopted by all companies connected to the sector, however, focus companies are publicly-traded companies with U.S. operations including Hormel (HRL), JBS S.A (JBSAY), Marfrig Global Foods SA (MRRTY), Pilgrim's Pride (PPC), Sanderson Farms (SAFM), Seaboard (SEB), Smithfield/WH Group (SFD), and Tyson Foods (TSN).
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Sr. Anne Clare Gallagher
Date of Birth: September 6, 1920
Entered Eternal Life: May 23, 2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no eulogy is currently available.
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