‘Sisters of Troost’ Highlights Sisters Helping Those No One Else Will
Posted on May 1, 2016, by Donna Day SL
“It takes a village” to support a village. “They help people no one else will,” writes Kansas City (Mo.)Star reporter Donald Bradley. The Sisters of St. Joseph, Mercy, Notre Dame and Loretto are all featured in Bradley’s insightful article, “The sisters of Troost,” which ran on the front page of the newspaper’s April 3 edition.
Fifty years ago Vatican II called communities of religious women to new areas of service. We all know the stories, many of us have been on these same streets. The street names differ from Troost, but the realities of generational poverty are found in every large city in America.
Prostitutes meet the sisters on every corner on Troost. The drug addicts are there. The homeless lug old duffle bags around all day. Susan Roling, who has worked with the sisters on Troost for many years, told reporter Bradley, “These sisters help people nobody else would touch.”
Maureen Smith protested in Selma, Ala., on Bloody Sunday at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. She told the reporter, “That was a life-changing experience,” which moved her to work many years in Kansas City’s poorest neighborhoods. Maureen said, “Vatican II changed all our lives. Dramatically. And it needed to happen. I believe the good we did shapes the world today. I think we raised a light in the darkness that can never be put out.”
Bradley recounts that Maureen worked at a community center on 12th Street between Vine and Woodland in Kansas City. The work included tutoring children and running a thrift shop and food pantry. As a lawyer, Maureen spent many hours at the Jackson County jail providing pro bono legal advice.
Bradley asks, “What happens now? There are fewer nuns.” The work endures 50 years after Vatican II because many nonprofit organizations, agencies and religious communities sponsor lay leadership who make service to people who are poor a priority. Bradley notes, “It is the wit, fire and humor that will be harder to replace.”
The sisters and their associates are around. Go to Troost Street in Kansas City, and you will find them.
To read the entire article, click here.
Posted in
Topics:
