Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Love

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Love ( Congregatio Sororum Christianae Caritatis , abbreviation : SCC ) is the name of a religious community that was founded in August 1849 by Pauline von Mallinckrodt and on February 7, 1888 by Pope Leo XIII. has been confirmed.

aims

The order was founded by Pauline von Mallinckrodt with the primary goal of caring for and educating the blind in Westphalia . She became aware of the Paderborn district doctor Joseph Hermann Schmidt through her commitment to children in need in a day-care center she founded in 1840 . Since there was no organized education for the blind in what was then Westphalia , he arranged for her to take care of two blind children from his practice. Von Mallinckrodt made this task her destiny. Since there was no other order with a suitable focus, she founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Love in 1849, often called "Sisters of Love", especially in Westphalia. Although they also devoted themselves to other charitable tasks, the priority was always working with blind children and later also adults. The declared aim was to enable blind children at least partially to earn an independent living in order to discourage them from begging, which they perceive as "morally endangering" . Encouraged by the mentally handicapped student Margarethe Feichler, the order soon placed an emphasis on children with multiple disabilities .

history

The building acquired in 1847

In 1842 Pauline von Mallinckrodt founded a private asylum for the blind in Paderborn together with Hermann Schmidt . In 1844 this company received corporation rights , in 1847 a first building of its own was acquired after the institute had previously been housed in the local Capuchin monastery . Attempts to make the institute a public institution led to the opening of two institutes in 1847, one Protestant in Soest and one Catholic in Paderborn. The private institution was completely absorbed by the von Vincke'schen Provincial Blind Institute named after Ludwig von Vincke . By the time Mallinckrodts died, 152 blind children had already been admitted to the institution.

During the Kulturkampf , the sisters were not allowed to give lessons from 1878 to 1880. As a result, many members went into exile in 1873 and established offices in the United States and South America . From 1873 to 1920 several sisters worked in the Principality of Liechtenstein . They ran a daughter boarding school at Gutenberg in Balzers . In 1887 the sisters were allowed to return to Germany and reopened their mother house in Paderborn.

In 1907 a home for blind men was opened. After the First World War , a new task was added with the retraining of war blind people. During the Second World War , operations came to an almost complete standstill and most of the school's resources were destroyed. Since the 1960s, another focus has been placed on recreational activities for the blind. Due to the steadily growing number of students, a larger school building was built in 1960 and a boarding school in 1970. Systematic early care for blind preschool children has been in place since 1963. In 1978, the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe , now the sponsor of the school, renamed the institute the Westphalian School for the Blind (special school) .

Since 1968 it became apparent that two schools for the blind in Westphalia were too many. The Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Love therefore came to the conclusion to focus their care on children with multiple disabilities. Since 1975 only children have been admitted to Paderborn who, due to their retarded intellectual development, cannot meet the requirements of the Soest School for the Blind. In the 1984/85 school year 125 students attended the school, 111 of them with multiple disabilities. They were trained by 42 teachers.

Pending projects

In addition to the schools in Soest and Paderborn and the boarding school, the order also runs other projects. There are workshops and a dormitory for older blind people. As before, the sisters devote themselves to early education that is appropriate for the blind, which takes place in the families. Until 1982, the order was the sole holder of a printing company, the Braille publishing house and printing company Pauline von Mallinckrodt GmbH , which was then converted into a non-profit GmbH with additional shareholders. To date, this is the only Catholic Braille publisher in the German-speaking area. Since 1972 the order has also been involved in the International Blind Center IBZ in Münsterlingen (formerly Landschlacht) in Switzerland. In Thülen they run the Pauline von Mallinckrodt kindergarten and a school camp for blind children.

In Paderborn there is a small museum in the mother house, which is dedicated to the life and work of the order's founder and the order, the retreat and education house Haus Maria Immaculata and the nursing home Haus Pauline von Mallinckrodt . Other activities are hospital pastoral care in Attendorn , Castrop-Rauxel , Minden , Paderborn, Soest and Bad Oexen , the Catholic castle kindergarten in Rheda-Wiedenbrück , care for the homeless and others. Two international projects in which the German Order Province is particularly committed are the school education project for poor children in Uruguay and a mission for the blind in Manila .

In 1904, under the direction of the Sisters of Christian Love, the Sankt-Agnes-Stift girls' home opened in Bonn, which was operated by the Order until the beginning of the war.

SCC International

The General Council of the Order has its seat in Rome . The individual provinces are German Province, USA / Eastern Province, USA / Western Province, Chilean Province, Uruguayan-Argentine Province and the Mission in Manila.

The congregation has 380 sisters worldwide, 120 of them in Germany (as of August 2019).

Sister Maria de Rosario Castro has been Superior General since July 2013. Her predecessor was Sister Adalberta Mettem.

Campo Santo Teutonico

From 1920 the sisters of the congregation worked in the Campo Santo Teutonico in Rome . In 2013 the Sisters of the Divine Redeemer ("Niederbronn Sisters") took over the successor.

literature

  • Theresia Barkey: So that your life can succeed. Working with the blind using the example of the Sisters of Christian Love . Bonifatius Verlag, Paderborn 1984, ISBN 3-87088-390-1 .
  • Alfons Bungert: Pauline von Mallinckrodt. Sister of Christian love . Echter Verlag, Würzburg 1980, ISBN 3-429-00671-6 .
  • The Vincke'sche Provinzial-Blindenanstalt for Westphalia in Paderborn and Soest . Festschrift for the fifty-year existence of the same. Münster 1897, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 6: 1-61087 (ULB Münster).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Birgitta Negel-Täuber: founder of the "love sisters". Pauline von Mallinckrodt was born 200 years ago. In: KNA Journal, May 9, 2017, pp. 8–9.
  2. ^ Franz Näscher: Sisters of Christian Love (SCC). In: Historical Lexicon for the Principality of Liechtenstein online. December 31, 2011, accessed April 18, 2019 .
  3. ^ H. Bussmann: Places in Bonn-Castell - Agnes-Stift. In: Our papers No. 14/2005. Home Advisory Board St. Agnes Domizil, 2005, accessed on June 10, 2019 .
  4. SCC Worldwide - Generalate and Provinces / Regions , accessed August 24, 2019.
  5. ^ Catholic News Agency , August 22, 2019.
  6. Personal data , in: Die Tagespost , July 25, 2013, p. 4.
  7. ^ Gudrun Sailer: "German sisters are leaving Campo Santo" , Vatican Radio , November 22, 2013

Coordinates: 51 ° 42 ′ 55.4 "  N , 8 ° 45 ′ 39.8"  E