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S6u ☆ Diocese of Savannah ☆ hern (joss Vol. 79, No. 43 $.50 per issue Thursday, December 9, 1999 Diocese sends 107 to National Catholic Youth Conference in Saint Louis, page 7 Local sisters benefit from Retirement Fund for Religious By Rita H. DeLorme Savannah 4 4tt rhen we brought sixteen retired sisters to VV Mercy Convent in 1974,” says Sister Mary Finbarr Kane, RSM, “we wanted everything to be so nice for them. Each sister selected her own room. Then, we planted flowers in the garden: tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and crocuses. The fol lowing spring, the garden was beautiful.” Sister Finbarr, who is now retired and gets about with a walker, made the comments as she and Sister Mary Felice Byrnes, a religious for almost 65 years, welcomed a visitor to Mercy Convent near Saint Joseph’s Hospital. Other sisters living at the convent include mem bers of the Mercy order whose names are familiar to generations of Catholics in the Savannah dio cese: Sister M. Annette Kennedy, Sister M. Rosarii Kennedy, Sister M. Consolata Manning, Sister M. Cecilia Coleman, Sister M. Clarice Millett, Sister M. Comile Dulohery, and Sister M. Graziana Sumner. Mrs. Mickey McNamara, administrator for eighteen years, and Gina McNamara, assistant administrator, head the staff. Sister Finbarr, a native of Dublin, Ireland, can relate all the facts about the convent; for it was she who made arrangements for older sisters under her care to be individually transported to their new home from Saint Vincent’s Academy. Sister Finbarr, who will be 90 next May, came to this country in 1926 as a girl of 16, eager to serve the Lord in these “foreign” surroundings. Sister Finbarr did not see her homeland again for 21 years. She served in many capacities throughout her career: teaching at Saint Vincent’s Academy, Cathedral Day and Blessed Sacrament Schools, and helping to found Nativity of our Lord School. Later, she began to work with the elderly reli gious and continued to do so for some time. Sister Felice, a native Savannahian, has had many “careers” since her reception into the Mercy Order in Baltimore on March 12, 1935. As she relates, she has taught “up and down the eastern coastline,” at sites including schools in Baltimore and Salisbury, Maryland; Birmingham, Alabama; Hopewell, Virginia; and Savannah. Sister Felice did “home work” for twelve years at Saint Mary’s Home in Savannah. She became known to many of the chil dren who lived there as “Mommy Felice.” She served as assistant mistress of novices and mistress of postulants in Baltimore, and later worked with older religious of her order at both Mercy Convent in Savannah and Mount de Sales Convent in Macon. Sister Felice later served in pastoral care and visitation of the sick and homebound. Presently in retirement, her sixth “career,” Sister Felice says, “now that I am in the twilight of my years, I pray my sixth career will lead me where the angels will meet me and lead me into paradise as a continuance and fulfillment of my loving God, who has been the joy and happiness of my earthly life.” This year’s campaign for the Retirement Fund for Religious is a reminder of the role played by reli- Sisters Mary Finbarr and Mary Felice, RSM gious such as Sister Finbarr and Sister Felice and other sisters, brothers and priests of the diocese in their ministry. In 1998, the Diocese of Savannah received $71,187.66 in contributions for this cause. The theme of this drive says it all: “I have been young and now am old” {Psalm 37:25). The collec tion will be taken up December 11-12. Much like the flowers planted so many years ago in the garden of Mercy Convent, the holiness of these religious continues to produce blooms. “The flowers remaining are stragglers like ourselves,” says Sister Finbarr. Mercy Convent remains fruitful and lovely like the lives of those who live there. “I love this place,” says Sister Finbarr, smiling. “Who wouldn’t?” Participants process into Saint Matthew Church, with parishioners walking behind their parish's banner Statesboro Deanery Millennium Celebration The people tell their story By Father Michael H. Smith, V.F. bout 150 people from 13 parish es and missions of the Statesboro Deanery gathered at their mother church, Saint Matthew, Statesboro, on Saturday, December 4, from 10:00 to 2:00 p.m. The purpose: to share the story of being Catholic in rural south Georgia, to celebrate the work of God in building up a Catho lic family of faith and to strengthen their faith to move together into the third millennium. When Father Charlie Hughes and the Glenmary missionaries moved into what is now the Statesboro Deanery in the mid 1940’s, there was not an estab lished Catholic community between Augusta and Savannah. He remembers almost literally being swept off the porch of one lady who thought Catho lics were too complicated and clut tered. But most welcomed the “new comers” and Father Hughes testified that their questions made him think more deeply about practices he had taken for granted as part of his Catho lic heritage. “Now,” he feels, “most Protestants recognize we are Christians too, not out to conquer them, but share, grow and work together as disciples of Jesus. We’ve entered a new stage in our relationship.” Ronnie Ruffo of Saint Matthew, Statesboro, is one of the minority of (Continued on page 11)