Since September 18th 1874, the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown have responded to the most critical needs of the people in northeast Ohio. As they conclude their 150th anniversary celebration, the sisters continue to embrace change and look forward to future endeavors. Our Dennis Biviano recently had the chance to speak with two sisters who are very much apart of the order’s history and has this story.
“When the Ursuline’s first came to Youngstown, it was the beginning of a new chapter of a story, an old story, but a new chapter in that story,” says Sister Mary McCormick.
Sister Mary McCormick, a Ursuline Graduate, and Sister Norma Raupple, a Cardinal Mooney graduate have known one another for 50 years. On this day, they reflect upon their decades of experiences as Ursuline Sisters in Youngstown—many of the order’s traditions and values date back to foundress Saint Angela Merici.
“Saint Angela was a woman who was committed to the gospel, committed to the catholic church. She recognized, as I think everybody did in the church including church leaders, that the church needed some reform, but decided she wanted to stay in it. She also wanted to find a new way for women to be connected to the church.”
Sister Mary, is the 21st General Superior of the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown. She’s also a professor of Systematic Theology and the academic dean for St. Mary’s Seminary in Wickliffe. She says in 1874, six catholic nuns arrived from Cleveland to teach at what once was Saint Columba School. The original convent was located on Rayen Avenue. When Sister Mary joined in 1975, 12 years after the current motherhouse was built on Shields Road in Canfield, the catholic church was in the midst of a sea change—that brought nearly 200 sisters to religious life.
“In the 1950s and until the middle of the 1960s, literally, convents and seminaries were just bursting at the seams and that was true all over North America. There was just a great zeal after World War II to serve the church, be of service,” says Sister Mary McCormick.
Over the decades their mission expanded to not only acting as beacons of Christian values, but caring for the poor and fighting for social justice.
“We were a group of about 17 who joined in ’64,” says Sister Norma Raupple.
Sister Norma Raupple is part of the leadership team of the Ursuline sisters in the Diocese of Youngstown, and is the director of English as a Second Language Program and outreach to the Hispanic Community. And although there are only 26 sisters remaining, with a median age of 80, Sister Norma says their work with the Beatitude House, with young adults, their mission immigrant outreach program, and permanent supportive housing program—continues to fuel their passion.
“Church is evolving so differently right now, and we just want to be present and welcoming to young adults. It’s a very meaningful and fulfilling way of life and to reach out in love and service that’s different than family life,” says Sister Norma Raupple.
Both sisters say it’s been a joy to collect stories for “The Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown” book by Thomas Welsh. And although the Ursuline Sisters have adapted to changes, and embraced the power of social media, one constant that remains is a sense of continuity.
“A couple of our sisters who live here have been in religious life for 70 years. So nearly half of the entire history. It’s exciting to kind of look back at that and have people tell the story and reflect on it. Where is the continuity? Where is that sense of, I am still doing today, exactly what I thought I would be doing when I entered religious life, whether it was 50 years ago, or 60 years ago, or 70 years ago. But in many other ways my life is so different,” says Sister Mary McCormick.
