Sister Mary Reap, president of the College of Our Lady of the Elms, reflects on how Sisters' ministry continues through Chicopee college.
By SISTER MARY REAP
Beginning March 8, our country will celebrate the first annual National Catholic Sisters Week. With a theme of "Celebrating Women of Character, Courage and Commitment," the week highlights the service that women religious have provided since the founding of the Catholic Church in America.
In our diocese, members of various congregations have served in a variety of capacities.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield are constant reminders of the commitment of women religious in the area of education. Early in the 20th century, they founded the College of Our Lady of the Elms as a school to train young women to become educators. The Sisters ensured that the college would be a place where women could prepare themselves for a career and prepare for a life of service to others in the Catholic intellectual tradition.
Mother John Berchmans, left, a Sister of St. Joseph of Springfield, whose secular family name was Somers, established Our Lady of the Elms College, in 1928, with the Most Rev. Thomas OâLeary, diocesan bishop. Sister Mary Cecelia Lucey, an accomplished musician and diocesan music teacher, succeeded her at the Elms. This photo was taken in 1948 on the Elms campus. It is reprinted in The Republican's "The Irish Legacy: A History of the Irish in Western Massachusetts," and is part of the Sisters' archives at Mount Marie in Holyoke. The college has expanded in many ways since then, and today the it educates men and women in graduate and undergraduate classes, both on and off campus. What has remained constant is the Sisters' charism. This legacy continues to teach belief in a world of compassion where human dignity is respected and where all people share the same basic rights and responsibilities.
An education that claims to be Catholic must make a contribution to the Church and to society through the quality of its academic programs based on a concern to show the full meaning and value of the human person.
This combined commitment to excellence and to faith is evident in the Elms' new Center for Natural and Health Sciences. The center provides classrooms and laboratories for the natural sciences, computer information technology, and nursing programs, all geared toward teaching students to serve society. It will offer science, technology, and nursing programs. with a strong ethical component.
The 22,000 square-foot building has 15 dedicated learning spaces including a student-faculty research laboratory, a 63-student capacity lecture hall, a 54-student “in the round” lecture hall, three computer information technology laboratories, a general and an advanced biology laboratory, a general and an advanced chemistry laboratory, two preparation and research rooms, two nursing simulation laboratories, one nursing skills laboratory, outfitted with 10 hospital beds, 10 total bathrooms, and three student lounge areas.
The Elms' community is unwavering in its belief that students -- while the focal point for us -- must see others as their focal point. The college is a community whose values include a commitment to the service of others, a service that seeks just solutions to the many problems of today's world. We challenge students to reach out to others and find ways to serve.
When asked about the role that Catholic higher education can play in today's society, Pope Benedict XVI, now Pope Emeritus, once explained that Catholic universities may more and more be places where, in the light of the Gospel, it is possible to experience the harmonious unity existing between faith and reason.
At its basic core, Catholic higher education is a well-rounded education founded on the principles of social justice and the dignity of humankind. These are the principles upon which the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield built the College of Our Lady of the Elms, and went on to staff the diocese's many parish schools. They are the principles that will continue to guide the college as it builds on their legacy and provides a Catholic education for future leaders of our community and our nation.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the many congregations of women religious who have provided our country with a Catholic school system and who taught us the values we cherish. They have given us numerous reasons to celebrate National Sisters Week.
Sister Mary Reap, who joined the Congregation of Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in 1961, has served as President of Elms College in Chicopee, since 2009. During her tenure she has overseen the completion of the new Center for Natural and Health Sciences, and was instrumental in developing the community college transfer program. In addition, she currently is on the board of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. She previously served as President of Marywood University in Scranton, Penn., from 1988 to 2007. The university, founded by Reap's order, was the first Catholic women's college in Pennsylvania.
National Catholic Sisters Week, being held for the first time as part of Women's History Month, is part of a larger SisterStory program initiative, supported by a three-year, $3.3 million grant the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation awarded to Minnesota's St. Catherine University, the country's largest women's undergraduate college, in late 2013.
More about the contributions of area women religious may be found in The Republican's "The Irish Legacy: A History of the Irish in Western Massachusetts.'