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70 years in the City of Sisterly-Brotherly Love Giving gratitude for 70 wonderful years in Philadelphia is one of hundreds of ways in which Medical Mission Sisters around the world express their healing presence today. The year 2009 marks the 70th anniversary of our North American Headquarters in Philadelphia, PA. Invited by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Dennis Cardinal Dougherty, himself a former missionary, our Foundress, Doctor Anna Dengel, moved our Community from Washington, D.C., our “home” for 14 years. Our Sisters settled at 8400 Pine Road, in the Fox Chase section of Northeast Philadelphia, in 1939. Our North American Headquarters has been home to hundreds of our Sisters, and the center of a great variety of mission activities and ministries over the years. It was the place of initial formation for most of our North American Sisters. Hundreds of our Sisters departed from Fox Chase on ocean voyages to hospitals and health centers overseas. Others went “on the road” to make our Community known. In the 1940s, when World War II made it difficult to obtain visas, our missionary work began spreading from Philadelphia throughout the U.S. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, we opened the Catholic Maternity Institute, the first school of nurse-midwifery and the first freestanding birthing center in the U.S. In Atlanta, Georgia, our Sisters helped staff the first non-segregated hospital in the city. Later, in the Philadelphia area itself, we ministered at St. Vincent’s Hospital for Women and Children. Several Sisters became affiliated with Philadelphia’s influential centers of education and health care, including the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and Thomas Jefferson University. Others joined social service, pastoral and health activities within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Not far from Fox Chase, the impoverished area of North Philadelphia became home to several of our ministries. Women in recovery, in prison, and in transition, and area residents needing to learn English as a second language (ESL), all became part of our mission focus, along with local persons suffering with HIV/AIDS, families living in poverty, and persons in hospice care. In the 1980s, we opened on our property the Center for Human Integration (CHI), a wellness center which served local residents for 27 years. We also made available Peace Hermitages, one-room lodgings nestled in our woods, to persons seeking a quiet getaway or retreat. Also on our property is a Thrift Shop, which is now undergoing renovation. As we give thanks for our 70 years in the city of Philadelphia, we also look ahead to many more years of healing presence, locally and around the world. October 1, 2009
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