Mission of mercy

LITTLE ROCK — As she walks the corridors of St. Joseph’s Mercy Health Center in Hot Springs clad in a traditional black habit, Sister Dorothy Calhoun is a visible reminder of the hospital’s spiritual heritage.

A member of the Sisters of Mercy religious order, Calhoun was once one of dozens of nuns serving in hospitals across the state. Today, only six remain at Sisters of Mercy health centers in Arkansas.

Calhoun serves at St. Joseph’s along with Sister Teresa Kelone and Sister Liz Koehler. Sister Chabanel Finnegan carries out her ministry at St. Edward Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith and two nuns, Lisa Atkins and Anita DeSalvo, serve at Mercy Medical Center in Rogers.

Even as their numbers dwindle,the sisters continue to make an impact on patients, their families and their many co-workers, said Patrick McCruden, executive vice president at St. Joseph’s.

“They are able to talk the talk and walk the walk. That’s what their lives have been devoted to,” McCruden said. “Their presence helps make all of us a little bit better.”

On Friday, the sisters observed the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, a day that commemorates the founding of the House of Mercy.

Catherine McAuley, a Catholic laywoman, started the home for needy women and children on Sept.

24, 1827, in Dublin. She later took vows to become a nun and established a new religious order known as the Sisters of Mercy. Its mission was to help the poor, sick and uneducated. It’s a mission theyextended to America in 1843. They soon began setting up schools and hospitals across the country.

The sisters’ history in Arkansas dates to 1851 and the founding of St. Mary Academy in Little Rock. Bishop Andrew J. Byrne had traveled to Ireland to ask the Sisters of Mercy to come to Arkansas to help visit the sick and establish Catholic schools in the state.

A group of nine sailed to America, landing in New Orleans and then traveling to Little Rock. Their ministry expanded in 1853 when about half of the sisters left to start a convent and school in Fort Smith. The Civil War interrupted the sisters’ ministry as their convents and schools were used as hospitals by Confederate and Union forces. Although the sisters had received some basic health-care instruction from McAuley in Ireland, thewar was the Arkansas group’s first real experience in caring for the sick.

After the war, a priest in Hot Springs asked the Sisters of Mercy to set up a hospital in the city. Originally known as St. Joseph’s Infirmary, the hospital opened in 1888. Today it’s known as St. Joseph’s Mercy Health Center. In 1905, the growing group of sisters also started a hospital in Fort Smith. The Rogers hospital wasn’t started by the nuns but became affiliated with the Sisters of Mercy Health System in 1995.

Today, the system includes 28 hospitals and more than 200 outpatient facilities. The system has 36,000 employees in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. The religious order includes about 4,000 sisters working in North and South America and about 10,000 worldwide.

A St. Joseph representative said they would observe the day with some events around the hospital, lunch and a small gift.

EDUCATED BY SISTERS

Calhoun, 76, was educated by nuns with the Sisters of Mercy in New Orleans from grade school through high school. Impressed by her teachers and the ministry of the sisters, she joined the order in 1952.

“In addition to teaching, they really did a lot of reaching out to the sick, the poor in the area, the prisons,” Calhoun said. “[I was drawn to] the whole service aspect of being of service to people. And I could see the joy they showed in their communityliving, in their spirituality and their fidelity to prayer.”

Unlike some religious orders that focus solely on prayer and contemplation, the Sisters of Mercy are active in their communities. In addition to traditional vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, the Sisters of Mercy also take a vow of service.

“They live a life devoted to service ... and that’s apparent in the things they do and just in their way of being,” said McCruden. “It’s not an 8-to-5 job to them. This is what they’ve devoted their lives to and their ministries are really impactful on this institution.”

Calhoun has been serving at St. Joseph’s for 18 years and has been involved in health care throughout her religious life. She has worked as a nurse, a hospital administrator and now in pastoral care. Her current title is Mercy minister.In that role, her main job is to see that she lives out the Mercy spirit.

“I try to see that our Mercy charism [or gift], our spirit, is lived out with co-workers, and try to spread some of the witness of the healing of Jesus,” Calhoun said.

DAILY SCHEDULE

A typical day starts with rounds at the emergency room and the intensive careunit where she visits with patients and staff. Calhoun also responds to spiritual needs throughout the hospital during the day. Some days she also visits local nursing homes and brings the Eucharist to Catholic residents.

Despite being well past traditional retirement age, the sister continues to work full time, usually Monday through Friday. She also rotates her hours so she is available in the evenings for workers and patients in need.

Calhoun said she liked working as an obstetrics nurse and in administration but she especially enjoys the freedom of pastoral care and the time spent with patients and their families.

“When I left administration to go into pastoral care I felt the Spirit calling me to have more time for the spiritual aspect of ministering to patients rather than the business part of being an administrator,” Calhoun said. “I felt I could be more effective. I feel myself as more a people person that is approachable and can give some sense of peace and comfort and compassion.”

The nun also enjoys interacting with co-workers. Working at the faith-based facility, she said, is more than a job.

“We stress the fact thatworking at St. Joseph’s is not just a job. It’s a ministry,” she said. “Everything we do, we do in the name of Jesus. We do it as someone who wants people to experience the love of Christ through what we do for them.”

CHOOSES HABIT

Although many Catholic nuns today don’t wear a habit, Calhoun prefers the traditional garment.

“I see it as a witness to people,” she said. “We are a Catholic health facility and I just feel there’s a witness value to wearing a habit.”

McCruden said the sisters provide an important link to the hospital’s heritage. But unless more women enter the religious order, it’s possible that the Mercy hospitals of Arkansas could be left with no Sisters of Mercy on staff.

“That would be a real loss,” McCruden said.

To ensure the spirit of mercy and compassion continues, the sisters have taught members of the laity, including their co-workers, how to carry on the ministry.

“From the board members to the executives to co-workers, it’s very import that even if there are no Sisters of Mercy here ... that the heritage and values will be so deeply ingrained that it will continue,” McCruden said. “We have many, many co-workers who are that way already. They’ve been a part of Mercy and are so influenced by the sisters [that] they live it every day - that ‘good news’ lifestyle.”

Calhoun said the sister associates - those who feel called to live out the Sisters of Mercy spirit of compassion - often join the nuns in prayer time. They’ve also learned the history of the religious order and are poisedto carry on the tradition.

“Even when the day comes and we don’t have any sisters, we feel our co-workers will carry on in the spirit of Mercy and of Catherine McAuley, our founder,” she said.