Newspaper Page Text
OCTOBER 1, 1955
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
NINE
(By Luarme Kubec Simpkins)
“The waiting room will be
turned into a ward and there
are three or four doctors in the
little office which becomes an
examining room. There are peo
ple sitting in the hall, in the
waiting room, on the stairs lead
ing up to the Chapel, people
even sitting on the outside
steps,” smiled Sister Jacob.
“Once someone said to me “You
are about to burst your seams
here at the Clinic!’ and the only
thing I could reply was that we’d
already ‘burst our seams’.
Sister Jacob’s words sum up
the problem at the Catholic
Colored Clinic operated by the
Medical Mission Sisters in At
lanta. Founded as a foreign mis
sion group the sisters have found
an even greater need n the Neg
ro apostolate of the South.
The hospitals, dispensaries,
medical and training schools,
welfare centers, leprosaria and
health guidance activities de
monstrate Christianity in ac
tion, a language that all classes
and creeds understand. The
Catholic Medical Missionaries,
more popularly known as the
Medical Mission Sisters, under
the patronage of Our Lady,
Cause of Our Joy, bring the
benefits of health to the under
privileged sections of our coun
try as well as the entire world.
These spiritually and technically
trained religious were the first
to combine a life dedicated to
God and medicine.
At the Catholic Colored Clinic,
instituted in 1944, there is a rea
lization of the need for adminis
tering to the soul as well as to
the body. The sisters know that
kindness and help will do much
to spread the Kingdom of God
for it is written: ‘By their fruits
you shall know them.’
Handling the tremendous
amount of work in Atlanta are
four Medical Mission nurses and
four lay nurses. At present four
additional sisters are studying
at the Atlanta Medical Center
and at the Clinic itself.
The sisters practice nursing,
manage eaminations, laboratory
work and pharmaceutical duties,
assist at surgery, conduct book-
work and correspondence and
all other phases of work neces
sary at the Clinic. Medical Mis
sion Sisters are versatile and in
all parts of the world as well as
the United States they excel as
doctors, dentists, nurses," phar
macists, laboratory technicians,
X-ray technicians, physiotherap
ists, dieticians, administrators,
accountaints, bookkeepers, secre-
Sister M. Declan, R. N., with Mrs. Mary Robinson, R. N.,
cleaning operating room following minor surgery.
(Photo Van Buren Colley).
taries, teachers, printers, house
keepers, writers, artists, and
photographers.
A proud history is the heritage
of these busy sisters. Their mod
ern methods and ideas reflect
a community not too many years
in age.
Dr. Agnes McLaren left her
mission work, in 1920, to Dr.
Anna Dengel who after four
years in India came to America
to obtain help for the people of
the far East. On September 30,
1925, the Catholic Medical Mis
sionaries were founded in Wash
ington, D. C., with Dr. Dengel
at its head and Dr. Joanna Ly
ons, Marie Ulbrich, and Evelyn
Fleiger as her associates.
On February 11, 1936, the
canon law of the Church prohi
biting nuns from practicing sur
gery and obstetrics was lifted
and the Holy See decreed that
more communities of religious
women should be founded to al
leviate the suffering of the mil
lions in mission lands.
In 1939 the motherhouse was
moved to a 68 acre sight
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
where it . remains today with
Mother Anna Dengel M.D., still
in charge.
The Medical Mission commu
nity is not limited to doctors and
nurses but is primarily a religi
ous group taking the vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience.
The education of non-medical
members of the order wishing
to become doctors and nurses is
provided for. The community
carries the prestige of having
within its midst Sister Alma, the
first nun to win a doctor’s de-
g r e e after joining a religious
group.
Father Charles Mahoney, pas
tor of Saint Joseph’s Catholic
Mission in Augusta, instructed
the sisters in religion, Church
history, and medical ethics from
1943 to 1950 at the motherhouse.
A medium sized white build
ing on Forrest Avenue houses
the Clinic. On the ground floor
is the office and reception room,
a waiting room which can be
turned into a ward if conditions
require, a doctor’s office which
doubles as an examining room,
a laboratory, a pharmacy, one
ward of four beds, an operating
room, and a sitting room for the
sisters, doctors, and patients. On
the top floor are the sister’s
quarters, the Chapel, and a tem
porary dormitory converted from
the sacristy for the visiting nuns.
A backyard is also available for
the recreation of the patients.
The Chapel is simple but
warm. Attention is immediately
drawn to the cross above the al
tar. Hand carved from a heavy
piece of oak the cross was
brought from Austria for the
sisters by Mother Dengel. Con
temporary in design, it depicts
a humble Saviour, with hands
raised as if in the position of a
priest at Mass.
Seventeen doctors haye volun
teered their services to the Clin
ic for the care of two hundred
and fifty to three hundred in
patients and seven thousand
clinical visits per year. Often
several of the doctors will be
working together at the Clinic
at one time.
The Clinic handles almost all
types of cases. Obstetrical work
and certain technical and para
sitical cases are sent out: Ill
nesses and injuries are attended
to by the Clinic which practices
segregation in reverse. Existing
expressly for the purpose of at
tending the Negro apostolate, a
white patient would not be turn
ed away, but the colored are
given preference because so
many more facilities are open to
whites than to Negroes.
The sisters follow up their
cases, too, making home visits
and availing their patients to
products from the supply kept
on hand in the pharmacy of the
Clinic.
As the work of the Catholic
Church is universal, so is the
work of the Medical Mission Sis
ters. Not confined to the Cath
olic Colored Clinic in Atlanta,
the sisters are also located in
Sante Fe, New Mexico. Here
they operate the Catholic Mater
nity Institute and the Catholic
School of Nurse Midwifery, the
only one of its kind in the coun
try. Affiliated with the Catholic
University of America, the work
of the sisters has brought great
confidence to the hearts of the
Spanish American women and
at all hours of the day and night
their mud spattered cars can be
seen driving through the streets
of the city or over the winding
mountain roads to the homes of
their patients.
Besides the motherhouse in
Philadelphia, the sisters have
houses of study and formation in
Washington D. C., St. Louis,
Missouri, and Mountain View,
California.
"Hospitals and medical centers
MOTHER DENGEL M.D.
are found in South America,
Africa, India, Pakistan, and In
donesia. England, Holland, In
dia, and Indonesia locate houses
of study and formation.
The original idea of the Med
ical Mission Sisters, to aid the
women and children of far East
ern countries is still manifest be
cause of the custom of purdah,
when the women are veiled and
are not to be seen by the men,
necesitating women to care for
women.
Typical of the faith spread
among the women of mission
countries by the sisters is this
story from India. When the sis
ter informed the seventeen year
old mother that her son of six
months would soon be ‘God’s
baby’, the girl replied with re
signation, “I know this is God’s
baby. He just lent it to me for a
little while, because He knew I
would take good care of it. After
a while He’ll take it back again,
and then maybe He’ll give me
a new one that will be all right!”
And all of this without a quiver.
Plans are in progress for a
new hospital in Atlanta to carry
on the work of the crowded little
Clinic. More hospitals are need
ed, though, throughout the en
tire world.
A modern religious communi
ty such as this would not find
the sisters without some time for
recreation. With the same hands
'that help God heal, the sisters
create. Finger paintings decorate
their living guarters and drift
wood collected from all over can
be seen throughout the Clinic.
Sculpturing from Georgia r|ed
(Continued on Page 14)
ster M. Terence with patient drawing blood for lab test.
(Photo Van Bwen Colley).
SISTER M. JACOB ATTENDING PATIENTS IN WARD.
(Photo Van Buren Colley;.
THE CATHOLIC MEDICAL MISSIONARIES