by Norma Vavolizza

If each day is a step we take towards eternity, as Catherine McAuley once said, then the Regional Community of New York has indeed honored the legacy of its foundress. A new leadership team was elected in March to direct a Mercy presence that stretches from New York City to Massachusetts to Upper New York State. There were many steps on this particular road to Catherine’s eternity. What emerged is a team of five Sisters of Mercy ready for the journey.

“My values are rooted in Catherine’s vision to meet an immediate need, but also to make a lasting difference,” says Sr. Suzanne Elliott, RSM, President-elect who takes office in July along with her team. A native of Massena, NY, Sr. Suzanne served in various leadership roles for eight years before her election to President.

When she addressed the community following the ballot count, she cast her hopes in the Old Testament story of the widow and her child. The widow’s flour jar was almost empty and her oil flask almost dry when a stranger came to the door, asking for something to eat. She shared what she had, and from that day forward her flour jar never went empty and her oil flask never ran out.

“I believe that if we give as the widow did, in a radical way, we will be blessed with renewal and hope,” says Sr. Suzanne. Referring to the Mercy charism of service to women and the needy, she said, “I like to define solidarity as ‘mutual dependence’ with the poor, with women seeking equality, with our multi-cultural heritage, and with the earth. I see my very salvation—and liberation—as mutually dependent with all of these realities.”