|
By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer
DECATUR—After 50 years, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur
are saying goodbye to St. Thomas More School, which was founded by their order.
They leave behind their mark of academic excellence, faith in each
child and steadfast spirit rooted in the spirituality of their French
foundress, St. Julie Billiart.
The three members of the order currently at St. Thomas More,
Sisters Margaret Thomasine Grady, Grace O’Connor and Rita Adele Comber,
are leaving in June. Sister O’Connor will teach in Delaware while the
others will reside in an assisted living community in Maryland. The order that
established the school now lacks enough younger sisters to staff it. The
convent will close.
The school PTA threw a party for the nuns May 24. The parish will
host a farewell tea, open to all, in Mulhern Hall on Sunday, June 4 from 3-5
p.m.
While individual sisters teach at and administer Catholic schools,
they are the last religious order of nuns to be affiliated with a Catholic
school in metro Atlanta. St. Joseph’s School in Athens is the only
archdiocesan school led by a religious order of nuns, the Sisters, Servants of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Sister O’Connor and Sister Comber taught fourth and fifth
grades and Sister Grady, now retired, has served as principal and taught
seventh and eighth grades.
Sister Grady, who helped open the school and returned in 1971,
expressed mixed emotions.
“Our order was not anxious to close the convent. We’re
all older and we just don’t have the personnel and that’s what the
majority of orders are facing,” she said. “We love the people. We
love St. Thomas More. We love the whole spirit of the parish ... It’s hard
leaving and we know it’s the time for us to do it. We’ve been here 50
years. We’ll always have beautiful memories.”
In a letter to supporters, the sisters wrote: “We honestly
regret having to come to this decision. We have truly loved our service at St.
Thomas More School and in the parish. We have made lifelong friends among you,
and we’ll never forget you. ... We will keep all of you in our prayers,
and we ask you to pray for us. With St. Julie let us all acclaim, ‘God is
good.’”
This loss reflects the decline in Religious vocations nationally.
According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown
University, there are almost 83,000 nuns nationally, down more than one-quarter
from the 115,000 counted in 1985.
Sister O’Connor, who was first appointed to the school in
1963 and who returned in 1998, expressed pride in the school’s academic
program. The order focuses on education; St. Julie taught, trained teachers and
founded schools in France and Belgium at the time of the French Revolution.
Led by a sister principal until 1992, STM was named a National
School of Excellence in 1988. It has 465 students in kindergarten through
eighth grade and a waiting list.
“It has (developed) a good foundation over 50 years. The
school has good teachers and very dedicated teachers,” Sister
O’Connor said. “I think we’ve made our mark on the school.
It’s simply an outstanding school and I think it will continue.”
The school opened in 1950 with five sisters to staff five grades
of 155 students. In those pioneer years, the school added on four grades, built
a new lower school and hired several new lay teachers, Sister Grady recalled.
In 1958 St. Piux X High School in Atlanta, where the sisters have also served
through the decades, opened its doors.
“It was a new school and it was the only one around. We had
people from all over,” she said. “We did grow rapidly, but it was a
wonderful time. Everyone was excited about opening a school and we were excited
about being there. Those were very productive years.”
On weekends, sisters hit the road for Cedartown and Rome to teach
parish religious education.
In 1960 school enrollment hit near 700 and in that decade the
order had the most sisters in Atlanta with 18 filling the convent, according to
Sister Grady. School enrollment dropped off in the 1970s as other Catholic
schools opened.
“Now we are close to 500 (students) and that’s great.
STM has always been a blooming parish and if it went down in numbers it would
pick up again with new spirit. It sort of renews itself every couple of
decades,” she said. “It has been a real enthusiastic parish filled
with spirit, with good leadership from our pastors and our principals.
It’s been a delight and a privilege for me to be here and to have (seen)
about three generations. Our foundress has a saying that God is very good and
it’s indeed true here at STM. God has indeed been very good.”
When the order considered withdrawing the sisters from STM and
other schools in the mid-70s, the parish convinced provincial representatives
of the need.
“It was a worrisome time for several of our schools,”
Sister Grady said.
Sister Comber came in 1971 and remembers a large number of
non-Catholics who sent their children to the school at that time.
“I had never been in a Catholic school that had such a large
percentage of non-Catholics. They were lovely, lovely people,” said the
nun, who recently has been teaching handwriting in three grades and preparing
children for the sacraments. Catholic families are again filling STM and now
“there is no room for the non-Catholics.”
“I really enjoyed teaching here. I loved it very much, in
fact,” she said. Twenty-nine years has been by far her longest time of
serving in one location as a Religious; her next longest tenure was eight years
and it will be hard to leave STM.
“I wish there were some vocations, some young vocations we
could send,” Sister Comber said. “Now they are passing that cup
around (Elijah’s cup), praying for vocations. We should have done that 25
years ago.”
Sister O’Connor said sisters, in addition to teaching, have
also given leadership in the community “by attending daily Mass and
celebrating the sacraments and reaching out to other people in other
areas—not just in the school.”
Sisters have been involved in faith-sharing groups, fund-raisers,
eucharistic ministry and religious education. Sister O’Connor said she has
been in the women’s guild, on a parish bowling team and she even arranges
flowers for special occasions.
Sister Grady, who taught confirmation classes for many years,
described their parish ministry as one of presence. “Through the years, I
think the parish has felt that we’d be glad to help with anything and we
would — supporting the programs that are there and helping the children to
get that idea of their obligation to assist the parish.”
Sister Grady established a St. Julie Fund in 1995 that provides
temporary financial help to persons in need. Funds are raised through a bake
sale, which she has helped with even after retirement. She leads weekly morning
prayer for faculty and other activities.
In 1973 Sister Grady established a three-day retreat for
eighth-graders to prepare them for high school.
“I’ve had sisters who formerly taught at St. Pius
express the joy it was to teach students from STM. It’s very great to
hear,” she said.
She also recalls the “creativity notebooks” she had
language arts students complete nightly to teach them to see “God in each
other and in the beauty of nature ... the wonders of the beauty of creation,
especially in themselves.”
Many students testify that they have kept their drawing and
writing going throughout high school and college.
Sister Comber, a left-hander, remembers teaching children the
secret of writing clearly whether right- or left-handed. Sister O’Connor
recalls the pleasure of helping direct school plays. Her greatest joy was
simply teaching children, despite having to compete with television stars youth
try to emulate.
“Being with the children helps to keep you young and keep you
busy. I think people have to really love teaching to stay in the classroom
today.”
“When you look around our school we have very good children
and their families care for them. They have a good family life, which is very
important.”
Ann Dugan, a pastoral assistant for 10 years who taught at STM for
16 years and whose three children graduated from the school, poured out
examples of gifts received from the nuns.
She recalled “their generous training (of) the children in
every area of learning. They did foster this idea of awareness of your fellow
students and how you would like to be treated ... through every subject.”
“The nuns even babysat for us when we would go to family
things and so my kids knew them as friends as well as teachers,” said
Dugan, whose daughter now teaches kindergarten at STM.
“They have impacted our parish. They’ve followed the
mission of their foundress, St. Julie. They have been there for the poor. They
have been there for the senior citizens, for the bereaved people. They’ve
been there for the Sunday school.”
Dugan was one of those bereaved persons who experienced the
nuns’ compassion and support when her husband, Brian, died of cancer six
years ago. “They were wonderful in helping the kids, praying for Brian ...
Sister Margaret Thomasine was always present to Brian by visiting him and being
in contact the whole time he was dying. They would visit, call, send
meals,” she said.
“I haven’t even prepared myself for their leaving.
It’s going to be like a death to our community because they’ve been
so present for 50 years. They’ve been critically important to our
community in every way, church and school. I’m happy that they’ve
made this decision to move at this time, but I’m also sad that
they’re not going to be here. We always took for granted the nuns are in
the convent. It is going to be a great loss. They’re going to be missed by
many, many people.”
Principal Gail Msezane, who taught for 14 years at STM before
becoming its principal, expressed the school-wide sense of loss.
“We see how sad the children are. We’re all really sad
for them. That’s like what happens with your parents. We know they need
more care,” she said.
At the same time, she added, “We feel that we have their
traditions ... the impact they’ve had on training me in this job. I
wouldn’t be able to do it without their support and strength. I know
they’ll be praying for me wherever they are. I’ll probably be calling
them.”
Msezane recalled the nuns’ “faith in children.”
“When I wanted to give up on a student, I thought, they never
gave up on a student. Every teacher (is) carrying on that tradition of
educating every child. Four of our present faculty were taught at STM by the
nuns.”
As the sisters pack their bags, Sister Grady is confident their
presence will remain.
“I would hope that the spirit of St. Julie would continue. I
understand that the school would like to have a large statue of our foundress
in a place where it would be noticed and the children will know about it and
the spirit we’ve tried to give them through the years in reaching out to
others. I am positive it will continue.”
Msezane looks forward to the sisters’ visit in November for
the celebration of the school’s 50th anniversary.
“We will make sure we always honor them.”
Indeed, the St. Julie statue, a lasting reminder, will be moved
from the convent to the main school entrance. |
