Sister Jacinta Powers, sitting in the middle, sorts pills with Dora Dunkley and Becky Letcher at the Santa Cruz medical clinic last year.

       Six Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph and one Ursuline Associate are currently embarked on a fact-finding mission to Jamaica to determine if a full-time Ursuline presence is needed in the impoverished Mandeville Diocese.
       “My biggest hope is to have a sense that we could make a difference,” said Ursuline Sister Michele Ann Intravia. “Whether it’s through the field of education or health care, or something else. I’m interested at looking at working with AIDS victims, to learn what we could do.”
       Sister Michele works with the poor in the Sister Visitor Center in Louisville, Ky., and has previously worked with the Ursuline mission Casa Ursulina in Chile. She, like all but one of the sisters involved, is making her first mission trip to Jamaica.
      One big question she has is whether the Ursuline Sisters will be able to collaborate with religious communities already working in Jamaica to further the mission.
      “I don’t want to repeat what some other community has done,” Sister Michele said. “Can we make a difference?”
      The mission of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph is “freeing and nurturing women and children,” which fits perfectly with the need in Jamaica, Sister Michele said.
      Sister Betsy Moyer, administrator of the Saint Joseph Villa health care center at the Mount Saint Joseph Motherhouse, said she wants to see up close what the needs are in Jamaica, and where the Ursuline gifts can best be used.
      “I think we have the talent to assist them in whatever they need,” Sister Betsy said. “We’re compassionate people who want to be like Christ in someone else’s life.”

Local Jamaicans appreciate the work the sisters have done through the past four years.

      This effort began in the summer of 2007, when Sister Jacinta Powers, a nurse who has made three trips to Jamaica, asked the congregational leadership if a meeting could be scheduled during the annual Community Days for anyone interested in discussing a Jamaican ministry.
     More than 20 sisters showed up, Sister Jacinta said.
     Earlier in 2007, the leadership council set a goal of having five new Ursuline ministries by 2026. Sister Jacinta suggested that perhaps a Jamaican presence could be one of those ministries.
       Sister Michele Morek, congregational leader, said the call to see if there were unmet needs the sisters should be serving came from the entire Ursuline community at Mount Saint Joseph in 2004, prior to the election of the current leadership team.
      “They wanted to see what the needs of our society are, so we could find our niche in ministry,” she said. “Our founder, Saint Angela Merici, specifically said that we should change with the times.”

Poor housing conditions leave a lasting impression on volunteers.

      Sister Jacinta said there’s no succinct plan on how to decide whether a full-time Ursuline presence will work in Jamaica. Sisters from Mount Saint Joseph have been going to Jamaica for about four years, Sister Jacinta said. The Owensboro Diocese first began discussing a sister diocese relationship with Mandeville in 2001, with the first diocesan collection taken up on Ash Wednesday 2003.
      “We’ve never been there as Ursulines, only as volunteers for two to three weeks,” Sister Jacinta said. Ursuline Associate Mary Danhauer has been working as a nurse in Jamaica for three years.
      A Benedictine sister who’s worked in Jamaica will be taking the group to various places in the Mandeville Diocese, which incorporates the middle third of Jamaica, the poorest part of the island nation.
      “We’ll be talking to some officials,” Sister Jacinta said. “There’s some talk of wanting to start an AIDS ministry there.”
      She believes the Ursuline Sisters would be wanted in Jamaica, it’s just a matter of whether their gifts will work well there.
      When acting as teachers or nurses in Jamaica, it’s important to be able to relate to the residents in ways in which they are familiar, which in some cases is different than how the sisters work their ministries in this country, Sister Jacinta said.

Jamaican children are the primary concern of many sisters when ministering.

      Sister Michele Intravia said, “I know there’s a big need in education, but I’m not sure how we will be accepted if we go in as a community. We’ll bring Western culture ideas that may not be so readily accepted. But I know we could make a difference.”
      Bonnie Marks, an Ursuline Associate for 20 years and an elementary school teacher, said studying the words of Saint Angela Merici would guide her on this journey.
       “She was very flexible and she lived with the times,” Bonnie said. She’ll go to Jamaica with an open heart and a free spirit to learn, Bonnie said.
      “I’m taking my camera and my notebook and I’ll journal as I go,” she said. “You just have to ask the Holy Spirit to direct you.”
      The other sisters making the trip are Sister Kathleen Kaelin, Sister Martha Keller and Sister Monica Seaton. The group returned April 2, and will discuss whether an official Ursuline ministry is something that should be pursued. If so, they will then make a recommendation to the leadership council, Sister Jacinta said.
      Sister Michele Morek said if the recommendation is to begin a large ministry in Jamaica, it will be discussed with the entire Mount Saint Joseph community.
      While the focus may be on what the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph can do for the Jamaican people, the people do much for the sisters as well, Sister Jacinta said.
      “They are such a happy people, such contented people,” she said. “When they come to the clinic, they talk with each other and support each other. They are always conscious of the needs around them.”