Cardinal Tobin joins IHM Sisters in Michigan to celebrate 175 years
Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM Sisters) celebrated their 175th anniversary. The weekend celebration concluded with a liturgy celebrated by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark. Cardinal Tobin was educated by IHM Sisters in Detroit. (Photo courtesy Calley Duffey/IHM Sisters)
MONROE, Mich. – Utilizing technology unimaginable in 1845, more than 600 sisters and associates from the three distinct branches of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHMs) – Monroe, Mich., Scranton, Pa., and Immaculata, Pa. – and the Oblate Sisters of Providence (OSPs) of Baltimore gathered virtually over two days and across the world to recognize their shared roots … and a 175th anniversary of the IHM founding delayed a year by COVID-19.
The days involved pre-recorded video, live presentations, and small breakout groups, all handled with the help of Nix Conference & Meeting Management. With more than three decades of experience in the meeting planning industry, Nix handled the planning, communications, and on-site detail of coordinating participants from across the United States and Mexico, Puerto Rico, Africa, and Peru.
The four congregations share a common consecration and dedication to God, as well as a common history and charism. Mother Mary Lange founded the OSPs in 1829, the first religious community of women of African descent in the Catholic Church. Theresa Maxis was among the first members of the OSPs and founded the IHM Sisters, along with Redemptorist priest Louis Florent Gillet on November 10, 1845.
The women’s roles were largely ignored by the IHM congregations; Mother Lange was not acknowledged, and Theresa’s race and her pivotal contribution in founding the IHMs were not mentioned. That changed in 1947 when No Greater Service, the extensive history of the IHM congregation’s first 100 years written by Sister Rosalita Kelly, IHM, was published. However, Theresa Maxis’ role continued to be downplayed.
In the 1960s, the three IHM communities began meeting for educational purposes every two years, but decades before, the Oblate Sisters were included in these opportunities. Since 1995, members of all four congregations have gathered to celebrate their shared connections during milestone anniversaries; the last took place in Scranton in 2015.
During the 2021 days, participants worked to educate themselves on how the dynamics of racism have shaped them as individuals and as congregations.
“We have been challenged to look at our white privilege and the issue of systemic racism,” said Monroe IHM President Mary Jane Herb. “As a congregation, we are committed to action on behalf of justice and to address the sin of racism within our congregation, our Church, and our global community.
“Our four congregations own and admit openly that the dynamics of racism influenced our beginnings and impacted the unfolding of our four histories,” she continued. “Racism led to barriers of separation among us for more than a century.”
“The task before us is to situate Mary and Theresa, and ourselves as well, in the broader history of America’s racial projects,” noted the days’ contributing voice Jeannine Hill Fletcher, Ph.D., a constructive theologian whose research is at the intersection of Christian systematic theology and issues of diversity (including gender, race and religious diversity). “What choices will we make in the next chapter of our national, congregational and institutional histories? What are the resources and relationships you can leverage to contribute to our moment’s racial project? In considering our vision for the future, we might look around and ask, what can we do together that we can’t do alone?”
Sessions during the gathering included “Living Faithfully the Value of Respect for all People;” “A Look at Institutions in History,” “Our Relation to our Roots;” and “Becoming a Transformative Network for Healing Racism.”
The weekend celebration concluded with a liturgy celebrated by Joseph Cardinal Tobin, CSsR, of the Diocese of Newark. Cardinal Tobin was educated by IHM Sisters in Detroit.
