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Year in review, #1: Ursuline Sisters PDF Print E-mail
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Written by Staff   
Wednesday, 31 December 2008 08:00
The Paola community received sad news in February when the Ursuline Sisters, who have been a staple in Paola for more than a century, announced their plans to merge with another Ursuline community in Maple Mount, Ky.

During the 20th century, the name “Ursuline Sisters” became synonymous with Paola by helping to create current city staples such as Medicalodge and Lakemary Center and molding generations of students at Ursuline Academy.

In 1896, the academy opened its doors to children and became a boarding school for high-school-level girls. It operated for more than 70 years before closing its doors in 1971.

The approval for the canonical merger was granted by the Sacred Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in Rome, Italy, in October, and a celebration of the merger will be held in January 2009 in Maple Mount. Paola Sisters will not begin to move until the summer of 2009.

The Ursuline congregation lost about half its sisters over the past decade with few new recruits. Today, fewer than 20 Sisters live in the large convent in the heart of Paola.
“Our median age is 78, and the youngest of us is 54,” Condry said in a letter mailed in February to selected community members.

Twelve of the Paola Sisters will be moving to Kentucky, seven will remain in their current ministries in the Kansas City and Paola areas, and four are uncertain where they will be, depending on their next ministry, according to an Ursuline release. The Maple Mount community will now consist of 186 Sisters.

The move will be a homecoming of sorts for the Ursuline Sisters of Paola, as both congregations were outgrowths of the original Ursuline community in Louisville, Ky.

The Ursuline Sisters of Paola are still looking for a buyer for their convent and 36.5-acre grounds fronting Wea and Miami streets. Superior Sister Kathleen Condry said there has been some interest but nothing serious enough to warrant a walkthrough. The property is listed on Crown Realty’s Web site with an asking price of $8.5 million.
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1) How creative is the real estate agent? Is s/he attempting to market it to big-time buyers, or just sitting around hoping someone will appear?

2) Why don't both Ursuline communities, Mt. St. Joseph AND Paola, reunite with the Louisville community? Bishops helped rend the communities apart; now they should help bring them back together.

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January 04, 2009

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