Women of Accomplishment

She’s 77 years old and has eschewed a life of comfortable retirement in favor of one dedicated to uninterrupted service for people in the poorest country of the western Hemisphere, Haiti.

Her name is Sister Mary Finnick. She is a member of the order of the Grey Nuns of Yardley Pennsylvania and runs Matthew 25 House, a rehabilitation center turned hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, one of the few such facilities which survived the earthquake that destroyed large swaths of Haitian cities and towns.

It was a photo highlighting her effervescent smile, as she was flanked by two Haitian children with the same happy expression that caught my attention. In our own very different culture, it’s hard to believe that people living amidst such extreme destitution can still retain the ability to internalize an I-will-survive attitude towards life despite continual setbacks – but such is the ethos of the Haitian people.

Sister Finnick is typical of modern nuns who, although greatly diminished in numbers, are still out in the world extending their work of service to others. The only outward hint – not counting the twinkle in her eyes -- that Finnick is a nun is the small crucifix protruding from a chain tucked under the collar of her yellow knit shirt.

There are six autonomous congregations of the Grey Nuns. The first was founded in the early 18th century by Marguerite d’Youville for the expressed purpose of serving society’s marginalized. Born in Quebec, Canada, Marguerite was formally recognized as a saint in 1990 by the Roman Catholic Church, the only Canadian to hold that distinction.

I can easily relate to these extraordinary women of accomplishment. It was teachers such as Sister Finnick – a professor before her current assignment – from the order of the Grey Nuns of the Cross who saw me through the first eight grades at Ste. Jeanne d’Arc, a bi-lingual grammar school in Lowell, Mass – Finnick’s home town, and one of the New England cities named in Bob Braun’s article which inspired this post.

Mr. Brown Goes to Washington?

The center of gravity in the national political arena has unexpectedly shifted from Washington, D.C. to Massachusetts. What was once expected to be an uneventful, solid Democrat win by Martha Coakley for the senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy upon his death is turning into the possibility of an earth-splitting defeat for her and the Democrat party.

If Scott Brown, the Republic contender who mere days ago was trailing Coakley by a wide margin wins, President Barack Obama will lose his filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate. The implications of such an upset are mind-boggling for the nation – everything would change overnight. The President would have to alter his ram-it-through attitude towards legislation, and Americans would be the better for it.

Bi-partisanship, discordant though it might be, could actually take hold.

If anyone reading this does not believe that Washington Democrat power brokers are pulling out all stops to abort the last-minute possibility that Republican candidate Scott Brown will ever see the light of day as a U.S. Senator, consider this: 

Observe what President Obama is doing, not what he is saying: The White House announced today that he is leaving for Massachusetts on Sunday to campaign on Coakley’s behalf.

There is one place that would benefit far more from his visitation– Haiti. Yet there’s been no announcement that he has any plans to personally reassure the Haitian people and to bolster their morale by his presence.

President Obama has more pressing things to do in Massachusetts.