Wednesday, April 19, 2017 | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
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EMILY MILES | IDS
Sisters Alacoque Burger and Evelyn Forthofer flip through a set of boards commemorating sisters of St. Francis who have died. Alacoque and Evelyn directed pastoral care for each of the women.
‘Transitus’ “Through death to life” By Emily Miles elmiles@iu.edu | @EmilyLenetta
OLDENBURG, IN — Sister Alacoque Burger stands by herself in what was once a chapel of perpetual adoration. It is silent as ever but not for the quiet of prayer. It is the silence of emptiness. Just outside the stained glass windows, leaves turn and fall. Today at the Oldenburg Franciscan Center, there are not enough young nuns to fill the adoration shifts. In this same spot, at 2 a.m. in 1965, Alacoque was a novice at the motherhouse. She prayed for every sister who was on a mission and every one who was ill or dying, and she was not alone.
and Alacoque orchestrate their pastoral care. Over the past 165 years, the Oldenburg Franciscan Center has seen about eight generations of shifting religious life. Alacoque and Evelyn have witnessed three. Over the last two generations, the number of religious sisters has fallen steadily from almost 180,000 in the United States to just more than 47,000. There may not be enough sisters to fill the adoration chapel these days, but nuns are never abandoned on their last days. Transitus Sisters undertake the honor of witnessing the transition into eternal life. Leading the Transitus Sisters are Evelyn and Alacoque. * * *
* * * Only three sisters of St. Francis in Oldenburg died in 2016. Ordinarily, that number would be three or four times greater. Some say the nuns hold on because they won’t go without seeing completion of renovations to their home. Some say it’s just the Lord’s will. “We’re all in the sacrament of waiting,” Alacoque said. “We’re standing together.” Some of those nuns standing together have lived between 90 and 100 years. Some don’t wear habits anymore. Some cannot farm and dance and teach quite like they used to. Some cannot walk. Some cannot talk. So they live in the upper floors of St. Clare Hall, where Sisters Evelyn Forthofer
BASEBALL
Hoosiers aim to keep momentum By Taylor Lehman trlehman@indiana.edu | @TaylorRLehman
IU baseball answered strongly to a 2-series skid that featured just one victory against Purdue. Minnesota visited Bloomington and left Bart Kaufman Field with a series loss last weekend. In the series opener, it appeared that IU’s batting woes would continue against Big Ten-leading Minnesota. The Hoosiers lost 11-0 and only tallied two hits against Gophers’ ace Lucas Gilbreath. However, IU responded with a flurry of offense in game two and turned 18 hits into 13 runs. IU was able to own Sunday’s rubber match in shutout fashion thanks to six innings of 3-hit ball from sophomore starter Pauly Milto. With their second conference series victory behind them, the Hoosiers welcome the 22-12 Butler Bulldogs at 6:05 p.m. Wednesday, and the outcome of the mid-week matchup could hinge on who the Bulldogs start on the mound. If Butler starts any three of its weekend rotation starters, IU could struggle to generate runs. None of the three pitchers have an earned run average worse than 3.27, while ace senior Jeff Shank boasts a 1.31 earned run average and a team-high 69 strikeouts.
Butler’s two usual mid-week pitchers, junior Garrett Christman and sophomore Quentin Miller, have 4.98 and 5.56 earned run averages, respectively. The IU bats still find themselves spinning their wheels when it comes to scoring runs. IU tied Purdue in the series run totals, 22-22, and scored six fewer runs than Minnesota despite winning the last weekend series against the Gophers. The run totals have seen their peaks and valleys, but the Hoosiers continue to hit home runs. They started strong with the long ball and continue to lead the conference with 40 total home runs, including five against Minnesota from five different Hoosier batters. IU Coach Chris Lemonis said before the series that he is happy with where the starting rotation currently is, but the regular midweek starting pitcher sophomore Tim Herrin pitched the final three innings of the series finale Sunday. While Lemonis said he does not know if Herrin will be prepared to pitch Wednesday, freshman Andrew Saalfrank, who has started six games this season, has not pitched since game one against Minnesota on Friday when he went 1.2 innings while allowing four hits and a run.
The sisters take the elevator to the third floor of St. Clare Hall, over which Alacoque presides — Evelyn takes charge of pastoral care on the second. The first room they enter belongs to Sister Gloria, who lies flat on the bed in a vibrant pink sweatshirt and cupcake-print socks. Her hair has turned wispy and white, and much of it has departed to reveal a pinkish scalp. She smiles. A sophomore from Marian University sits at her side and practices osteopathic medicine, which focuses on the body’s ability to heal itself. “Are you Catholic?” Alacoque asks. The young woman pauses, and Gloria remains silent.
“I am for now,” the student says. “Because of Marian.” “Say you’re Franciscan,” says Alacoque, referring to the religious order to which she and Evelyn belong. “You’ll always be Franciscan. It’s in your blood.” “Your bone marrow,” adds Evelyn. The room is quiet except for the hum of the television across the room. A live stream of the church next door is idle now. There are no songs or prayers. Still, it comforts Gloria, who could not make it to morning mass. She likes the young 20-somethings from Marian and the young 60-something nuns and this screen, which allows her to be a young nun again. As Alacoque and Evelyn bustle down the hall, they spot Sister Francis Assisi. She was their formation director. She rests in a chair in the middle of the hall. Alacoque leans in toward Francis Assisi. “We love you,” she breathes. She kisses her former teacher on the forehead. Francis Assisi cannot say it back, but a gentle blinking reciprocation comes from behind large eyeglasses. She loves them, too. Evelyn often tells the nursing staff how each of the nuns once looked — beautiful, vibrant — and how each of the nuns once were — strong in body as well as spirit. Their habits concealed smooth curls. SEE SISTERS, PAGE 5
Printmaker discusses recent series inspired by refugee crisis By Kate McNeal khmcneal@umail.iu.edu | @katemcneal11
A printmaking professor’s most recent series was inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis, homelessness and migration. Tracy Templeton, who became the head of printmaking at IU in 2013, discussed her recent series “dis-PLACED” in a Tuesday event by the College Arts & Humanities Institute. The printmaking department itself is part of the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts. “I wanted to direct the gaze to quiet moments of uncertainty within more haunting events,” Templeton said. “They are universal, but they are personal in nature.” The prints are in various shades of gray, black and white, some with gold leafing on top, and show empty beds, which Templeton called a “metaphor for someone once having been there.” “I wanted it to be beautiful, something about an obscure world but also a gentle disquiet,” Templeton said. Her interest in displacement stems from her childhood in the prairies of Canada, where many homes and farmsteads have been abandoned, Templeton said. She would photograph abandoned farms and disappearing landscapes and draw from those for ideas for her prints.
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Tracy Templeton explains her history with displacement from her time living in Canada as a child. In her talk called "dis-PLACED," Templeton spoke about the places she stayed overseas to do her project.
“Although I source from specific events as inspiration, I’m not interested in articulating those specifically but rather generating questions about their source,” Templeton said. Templeton developed the series while she was at Proyecto Ace, a month-long artists’ residency in Buenos Aires, Argentina, focused on print and photographic media. The residency aims to promote contemporary artists’ practices, including printmaking and photography, and how those can be
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hybridized, Templeton said. Templeton created 12 prints while she was at the residency, which she called a record pace for herself. A lot of residencies are short because they’re made for research, not production, but at Proyecto Ace the artists are able to generate new ideas and explore their practice, Templeton said. She said artists often work in isolation, so having assistants SEE PRINTMAKING, PAGE 5