News

Move of provincial leadership like coming home

By Jaye Alderson
Compass Correspondent

	Related articles: from September 14, 2007 issue: • Provincial leader comes home     Sr. Sylvia Egan is Omro native, Mercy graduate • Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother Move to Oshkosh     Headquarters move unites community to ministry     already at Mercy Medical, Franciscan Courts

OSHKOSH -- As the provincial and assistant provincial of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother community get settled into new headquarters in Oshkosh, the leadership team is looking ahead to how their order might integrate its skills and interests into the life of the Green Bay Diocese.

All four councilors - Sr. Sylvia Egan, provincial; Sr. Jeanine Retzer, assistant provincial; Sr. Maria Vinton, councilor; and Sr. Raphael Narcisi, councilor - have ties to Wisconsin.

"We felt the Green Bay Diocese was an area where we would like to place our headquarters," said Sr. Egan. "There are not a lot of other (religious) houses in this area. We felt we could be a help to the diocese and some of these service areas."

She said that with Franciscan Courts, the order's national retirement center located here since 1989, along with Mercy Medical Center, which the community has sponsored since 1918, the move here seemed natural.

The order's last official motherhouse was in Broken Arrow, Okla., but that facility was no longer economically feasible to maintain, Sr. Sylvia said. So it was sold to St. John Health System to become a retirement facility.

"Historically, our center was in Milwaukee, so we're coming full circle here," she said.

The move to Oshkosh is a homecoming for Sr. Sylvia, a native of Omro who served in this area for several years while the order's retirement home was being established in Oshkosh. Her new office is at 2935 Universal Court. Srs. Egan and Retzer live at 800 S. Westhaven Drive, right next to St. Raphael's Church and across the street from Franciscan Courts retirement center.

"We felt it was divine providence that that house came up for sale right when we were starting to look," Sr. Sylvia said.

The Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother Province covers the entire United States and Caribbean, and its councilors oversee all the SSM missionary activities in the United States, Grenada, Trinidad, St. Lucia and the Dominican Republic, in areas including education, social justice and healthcare.

Sr. Sylvia said they also want to become involved in the Green Bay Diocese. She said some of their Sisters already are on committees for the diocese, some have worked with Father Carr's Place 2B and St. Vincent de Paul in Oshkosh, one is working with migrants in Wautoma and another works in prison ministry.

"We have a lot of nice things our sisters are doing that most people don't even know," Sr. Sylvia said.

"Once we're established, we'll see what needs there are, see how to get vocations and involve people and to use our religious community's ties and interest income to establish or continue mission things that are taking place here now," she added. "We want to do the hands-on kinds of things that one can do when you're located in an area - not just in Oshkosh, but broader in the whole diocese."

Sr. Jeanine Retzer, assistant provincial, is originally from Milwaukee, but has "been out of Wisconsin more often in religious life than in it," she said. "I enjoy Wisconsin and the people of Wisconsin."

Before being elected to the council, she was a pastoral associate at St. Mary in Waukesha, where she was involved in adult education, human concerns and liturgy planning.

"These are the types of things I would like to be involved with again," she said. "I'm looking forward to being involved in the diocese because I've always heard good things about it."

Sr. Maria Vinton grew up in Eau Claire, spent a lot of time in Milwaukee and currently lives in Tomahawk. She said provincial business frequently takes the councilors across the United States and Caribbean.

"We basically take care of the business of the province, so we can be any place at any time," she said. "I just move my office and set up my laptop wherever I am. When you're on line, you're back in business!"

She is happy with her return to Wisconsin.

"I think it's a very pretty state, but I'm a little partial," she said. "It always feels like coming home." She thinks that moving the headquarters to Oshkosh works well since so many of their retired Sisters are in the Oshkosh area. "We get a lot of affirmation," Sr. Maria said. "It's our powerhouse of prayer. It's our pulse. It's so nice to have them right in the back yard and interact with them."

One focus that particularly interests her is vocation promotion, and she would like to be a part of establishing a vocation culture in churches in the Green Bay Diocese.

"I'm interested in the process of trying to educate our sisters in the concept of vocation culture and to have them connect with the local parishes - just being there and sharing faith," she said. "That's very much part of the vocation culture - to be present for those who are trying to figure out life and their place in life, not just religious life but for anyone. I hope there will be some connection in the diocese to things that are going on in connection with vocations, and also what's happening at the diocesan level. I hope we could be involved in some way."

Sr. Raphael Narcisi was born in Pittsburgh, Penn., but, except for 12 years in the Caribbean, her service has been in Wisconsin. She currently lives in Milwaukee, where she is involved with Epiphany House, a house of prayer.

"I believe the move to Oshkosh of our provincial offices will add to our SSM presence in the diocese," she said, "and that as each opportunity presents itself to become involved, I believe we will discern and decide. We are all looking forward to the future with hope, anticipation and great trust in God."