VOLUME XI, NUMBER 2
MAY 2006
At a March 6 associate gathering at Casa Ursulina with visitor Sister Ruth Gehres (center) are: Evelina Salas, Yolanda Moraga, Inés Gálvez, Sonia Pradenas, Carola Pulgar, Patricia Jamett, and Raquel Sepúlveda. These women helped Sister Mimi Ballard, OSU, develop Casa Ursulina. They became associates in 2001, when then major superior Sister Rose Marita O’Bryan, OSU, visited Chillán, Chile.
OUR ASSOCIATES IN CHILE: “PART OF A GREAT CIRCLE” “Someone had a dream — a dream of working in community, doing something for others, around work, around prayer — sharing the spirit in all. In the beginning, the dream wasn’t very clear. We opened ourselves to new possibilities.”
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n these words, Sonia Pradenas reflected on her life as an Associate of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, and of her membership in the community of Casa Ursulina in Chillán, a city in central Chile. She is one of seven women who officially became associates on March 13, 2001. Long before 2001, though, these future associates — Sister Ruth Gehres, OSU, associate director of Evelina, Yolanda, Inés, Sonia, Carola, Paty, and Raquel — communications, wrote this story after spending the were among the first co-workers with Sister Mary month of March at Casa Ursulina. Elizabeth (Mimi) Ballard, OSU, in the development of the Dianna Ortiz Center for Women. Known as Casa Ursulina, Sister Mimi and the women first gathered in the the center is located in the Población Vicente Pérez home of Carola Pulgar, using a tiny room to create Rosales, a large area of Chillán whose residents constantly fancywork and crafts — crocheted items, knitting, struggle to make an adequate — and better — life for their tatting, dolls and angels made with natural materials, families. and other products emerging from the talents of the Working with women in this struggle was a longtime group and what they were learning from one another. dream for Sister Mimi, who first worked in Chillán as a When they took these items to craft fairs in Chillán and pastoral minister from 1978-85. After several years’ other cities in the area, they found a good market. They absence, she returned in 1993 and began to gather the reinvested their profits in materials and began to women she had known earlier. Some had been teenagers in expand their project. Continued on page 4 her youth groups, and others were their mothers.
You are invited to Associates and Sisters Day Saturday, July 8, 2006 • Mount Saint Joseph Keynote Speaker: Rev. Timothy Sullivan of Memphis • Theme: Our Baptismal Call See Story on Page 3