“To know and love God, to make God known and loved, to proclaim
that Jesus Christ has come that all may have life.”
Those words encapsulate the mission of the Religious of the
Sacred Heart of Mary (RSHM), an international congregation of Catholic women
founded in 1849 in Béziers, France. That same religious community later
established Marymount University in 1950, striving to advance the development
of the whole person through education.
As we prepare to mark our 70-year anniversary as an institution,
we’re looking back and seeing how far we have come. What was once a nascent
two-year women’s college is now a doctoral-granting university with a
tremendous reputation for the liberal arts, career preparation, and personal
and professional development — and we still have so much further to go. We seek
to double our enrollment over the next five years, achieve even greater national
and international recognition, and usher in a new era of success at Marymount
through our strategic plan, “Momentum.”
Plenty of changes have been implemented already or are on the
way, and in a time of transition, it’s important to remember the values and
traditions that form the foundation of our university community. That’s why in
late June, seven Marymount staff and faculty members, two members of RSHM’s
Provincial Order in Tarrytown, N.Y., and I visited the Mother House in Béziers,
the birthplace of our visionary founders.
After my inauguration earlier this year, it was meaningful as a
newcomer at Marymount to be a part of this journey, which I described as a
pilgrimage and retreat. It really helped us establish a better understanding of
our history, and what makes the RSHM special. It also brought to mind our
distinctive identity at Marymount — how we are different from other
universities, and what makes the student experience here unique.
As an immigrant, I place great value on the importance of place
and being able to visit a location in person. Born in Cuba, I immigrated to the
United States with my parents as an infant and lived in Puerto Rico through
high school. Growing up away from my home country, I couldn’t regularly go to the
places where my parents and grandparents grew up, or the hospital where I was
born. To go and actually visit the place where the RSHM started was wonderful,
because it provides the historical context for who we are.
The trip, organized by Victor Betancourt Santiago and Brian
Doyle, placed our group in Béziers, one of France’s oldest cities, and exposed
us to what a day in the life of a religious sister was like. The Mother House originally
was divided into three areas — refuge, school and convent. Guided by the goals
of social justice and service, the founders of RSHM — Father Jean Gailhac and
Mother St. Jean Pelissier Cure, previously known as Appollonie Cure — sought to
work with the most marginalized of society. That started through providing
shelter to women who had fallen into a life of prostitution, and soon expanded
to include orphans. To financially support their service work, Father Gailhac
and Mother St. Jean also founded a boarding school for young women.
The faith and zeal of the RSHM founders inspired an international
movement. Today, the congregation has sisters in 13 countries on four
continents — no longer just in France or Europe, but in places such as Latin
America and Africa. They make a difference around the world through their
commitment to service, as they help women, children, immigrants, refugees and
so many others. We spent time with the religious sisters in Béziers and saw how
the heart and soul of the congregation’s past continues to live on in the
present. We also discovered how jovial all of the sisters are, and how much
they appreciated every single day — things that none of us will forget.
The work of faith is not limited to the RSHM sisters. We all have
a calling to use our God-given gifts to help others in extraordinary ways, so
“that all may have life.” With the lessons learned from Béziers, our trip
participants are motivated to carry on the RSHM mission in our own communities,
including at Marymount. Service to others is one of our core values, and I’m
proud to say that our students and faculty at Marymount contribute more than
16,000 hours of service annually both locally and around the world.
Just one example of how we’re using the heritage of Father
Gailhac and Mother St. Jean in our service work at Marymount is through
Appollonie’s Campus Cupboards. With the collective efforts of students, faculty
and staff, the university community established spaces where all students could
gather and access food, following the approach of “taking what you need and
giving when you can.” The cupboards are now in high foot-traffic areas around
campus, and are stocked with donations to promote food security and good
health. I can’t wait to see what we come up with next.
We always have our eyes on the future at Marymount — new academic
programs, state-of-the-art technology, modern housing. But we’ll always
remember what got us here — a values-based education grounded in the Catholic
and RSHM traditions, with a strong commitment to faith, ethics and service. We
will carry that legacy with us as we boldly move into our next 70 years.
Becerra is president of Marymount University in
Arlington.