Sister of Mercy of the Americas Thank Congresswoman McCollum

Sister of Mercy of the Americas
Hermanas de la Misericordia de las Americas

July 24, 2012

The Honorable Betty McCollum
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative McCollum,

As members of the Institute Leadership Team for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, we are writing to express our profound gratitude to you for sponsoring the House Resolution honoring Catholic Sisters’ contribution to the nation.

We receive your gesture of public support as a great source of encouragement and strength, as we have sought to respond to the Gospel’s call to love and serve God’s people, and to live out the Second Vatican Council call to “justice in the world.”

The Sisters of Mercy came to this country 150 years ago, and since, have been ministering in parishes, schools, social service centers, healthcare institutions and immigrant detention facilities. We couple our direct service with our work to encourage corporate responsibility and to advocate for just and humane public policies. Immersed in the lives of those most poor and marginalized, we try to bring the human face of their suffering and pain into the policy debates, including those of our Mercy community in Latin America and Caribbean, as well as Guam and the Philippines.

We are grateful to you and others in Congress who are working to fight for the downtrodden, to promote the common good, and to change unjust social and political systems that cause poverty and inequality and deny access to education, health care and safe housing for all.

Again, on behalf of the nearly 4,000 vowed members of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and the many more thousands of Mercy Associates and the co-workers in our social service centers, educational institutions and healthcare facilities, we thank you for the House Resolution, and we assure you of prayers and on-going collaboration in our shared mission to work for the “common good” so that all may have human dignity.

In Mercy,

Sister Patricia McDermott, RSM, President
Sister Eileen Campbell, RSM, Vice-President
Sister Anne Curtis, RSM
Sister Mary Garvin, RSM
Sister Deborah Troillett, RSM
The Institute Leadership Team
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas