Innovators helped provide care of elderly

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Sister Mary Catherine O’Gorman, CSJ, left, visited with Sister Jane Hassett, CSJ, at a recent 30th anniversary celebration of Mary Queen and Mother Center in Shrewsbury. Fourteen religious communities, Cardinal Ritter Institute and the archdiocese collaborated to build a community for people who lacked the resources to get the skilled care they needed.

Sister Mary Catherine O'Gorman was involved from the beginning and gives much of the credit for the establishment of Mary Queen and Mother nursing home in Shrewsbury to two Catholic Charities innovators -- Jack Lally and the late Msgr. Robert Slattery -- and the 14 religious communities that came together to start and operate the facility.

"It was the power of these communities" that allowed the dream to become a reality, Sister Mary Catherine said.

The goal was for the religious communities to work in the facility "so the spirit, the charism of all these communities would be together in this place. To this day we still have sisters there," she said.

The effort led the communities to collaborate on other projects in low-income housing and education. Marian Middle School, which stabilizes the lives of urban adolescent girls and shepherds them on through high school and college, is one example. Another is the English Tutoring Project, a ministry of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious that helps immigrant and refugee children in south St. Louis Catholic elementary schools acquire English language skills.

At one planning meeting for the nursing home, Sister Mary Catherine said, the representatives offered their communities' expertise -- one had an experienced administrator, another had an experienced director of nursing, one had a source for maintenance work and someone else had contacts with Alberici Construction as a consultant.

In 1976 the communities and Cardinal Ritter Institute formed the board of Corporate Action for the Care of the Elderly (CACE) to examine the need for affordable nursing home care, a problem they noticed when women religious would be forced to take leave to care for their elderly parents. Sister Mary Catherine was the first board chairperson. The goal was quality nursing care for those who could not otherwise afford the costs of a private nursing home.

A Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Sister Mary Catherine was on the board of the sisters' Nazareth Living Center along with Lally of Cardinal Ritter Senior Services (then called Cardinal Ritter Institute). They discussed the need. Lally involved Msgr. Slattery, executive director of Catholic Charities. The two men are "the people most responsible for this" idea coming into reality, Sister Mary Catherine said.

She noted that they even went to Washington, D.C., to lobby for changes that would make the project feasible.

CACE targeted a building in the city's Central West End, but it never materialized as a site for the nursing home. Instead the groundwork was laid for constructing Mary Queen and Mother Center at 7601 Watson Road as one of the first buildings on the Cardinal Carberry Campus. Sister Jeanne McGovern, CSJ, was the first administrator. The religious communities financed the costs of getting the home started.

The arrangement allowed the religious communities to provide the services in a manner each community could not do alone.

"It worked out. We worked together so well. We (planned) for 10 years. Then we broke ground," Sister Mary Catherine said.

Another hurdle was getting certification from the state for the additional nursing home beds. Sister Mary Catherine and Lally went to Jefferson City, Mo., to talk to state officials.

"We were sitting talking to (Gov. Joe Teasdale's) number-two man," who said that the state was already at capacity for approved nursing homes. "But as we were meeting with him, someone came in and handed him a memo. A nursing home was closing, and these beds were available. I mean while we were there we got those beds. It was the Lord's work."

The 14 communities asked cloistered sisters for prayers, asking them to become spiritual members of CACE, and they agreed. "We wanted their prayers. We sent them the minutes after every meeting so they knew what was going on.They prayed for this project from the very beginning. We had the Redemptoristines, the Passionists, the Poor Clares, Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration ...."

CACE built Mary Queen and Mother Center and managed it, continuing to meet until turning it over to Cardinal Ritter Senior Services.

Volunteers continue to make a big contribution there, Sister Mary Catherine said, including her own mother who lived a healthy, active life until her death at age 103.

Sister Mary Catherine, 79, went on to serve as provincial for seven years for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and later as personnel director. She retired seven years ago and has been busy ever since. She volunteers at the motherhouse one day a week and is active in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul at St. Michael Parish in Shrewsbury. She serves on the board of Nazareth Living Center and had served in various stints on the board of Fontbonne University.

Cardinal Ritter Senior Services operates Mary Queen and Mother and provides services to improve the quality of life for senior adults by promoting and providing social, health, and housing programs and services in St. Louis City and County, as well as in St. Charles, Jefferson, Franklin and Warren Counties.