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Fifth Sunday of Easter
10 May 2009
Dear Friends in Christ,
When our parish school opened in 1900, the Ursuline Sisters provided our principal and teachers, and they remained at St. Mary’s until 1933. From then until 2006, the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy (the diocesan congregation founded in 1829 by John England, the first Bishop of Charleston) provided our principal and many of our teachers. And since 2006, the Dominican Sisters of the Congregation of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee have provided the leadership of our school, giving us our principal and three classroom teachers.
One of the facts of life for a school staffed by a Congregation of Sisters is that continuity of leadership and in the classroom is provided by the Congregation, not by the individual Sisters. And this in turn means that on a regular basis Sisters are moved by their superior, in this case the Prioress General in Nashville, according to the needs of the Congregation, and it is time now for that to occur at St. Mary’s.
Our three teaching Sisters (Sister Mary Lucy Sundry, O.P., Sister John Thomas Armour, O.P., and Sister Marie Isaac Staub, O.P.) will return next academic year to continue their excellent work in the school. Our principal, however, has been assigned by Mother Anne Marie Karlovic, O.P. to new work: in the fall Sister Anna Grace Neenan, O.P. will move to Rome to spend a year there in study at the international Dominican University (called the Angelicum) before returning to Tennessee to assist in the formation of the young women who are entering the Nashville Dominicans in record numbers. This is an extraordinary opportunity for Sister Anna Grace, and though she will be sorely missed, we wish her well in this new adventure.
Our new principal will be Sister Mary John Slonkosky, O.P., who is presently serving as principal of a parish school in Nashville. Sister Mary John has been to Greenville before: in 2002 she came to St. Mary’s with another Sister over a long weekend to give talks on the vocation to religious life, and the seeds were planted which led four years later to the wondrous gift of the Nashville Dominicans in our parish and school. Sister Mary John is an accomplished and experienced principal, and we welcome her back to St. Mary’s with great joy.
To Sister Anna Grace go our gratitude, prayers, and love; thank you for your witness to the Lord Jesus and your splendid leadership in our school. May the LORD of mercies be gracious to you in your new assignment for the sake of your Congregation of St. Cecilia, the incomparable Nashville Dominicans.
Father Newman