SCA celebrates Sisters of Mercy

In last night’s newscast we reported on a pageant being held to select “Mr. Nice Guy” from among the city’s high school population. Tonight we bring news of another high school pageant, this one of a slightly more serious nature.

Students Rehearsing

“I am Sister Rose Rivero. I live on Vernon Street. I teach at SCA.”

“I’m Sister Margaret Salisbury. I continue to impart knowledge to the girls here at St. Catherine’s.”

These girls have not entered the convent as yet, what they are doing is practicing for tonight’s on campus production that chronicles the birth of their high school. SCA’s principal, Alice Castillo, has been working very hard with the girls to get the show off the ground.

Alice Castillo, Principal, SCA

“Normally we do a community project. We would go out for a day and benefit the community in some way. But because of Keith and we had to make up time and we didn’t want to lose a day like that, but we still wanted to highlight the occasion. We decided to do a time line that would high point sixteen major occurrences in the history of Mercy and especially of SCA. Each class was assigned a time and they have to illustrate that time line to the best of their ability.”

The presentations are a journey through time from 1883 to 2001. Among the episodes that the students depict, is the issue of how the school deals with student pregnancy.

Yelena Rivera, Student

“The whole process was about in 1973 every single student in Belize who became pregnant had to immediately come out of school. But St. Catherine’s Academy wanted to give those particular students a chance to come back and continue their education. So after protests and letters sent from the Bishop and sisters in Rhode Island, then they decided that they will let them come back to school and this was the pregnancy policy which everyone was talking about.”

Maria Bezlac, Student

“Well it’s all to let us remember how SCA, the whole school started off, how everything came, the first Sisters came and how they started this whole school. So it makes us have memories of how the school first started.”

Nelson Longsworth, Vice Principal, SCA

“I think this is the first year I’ve seen them so involved with the Mercy concept, the Mercy week that we celebrate yearly. Because they are reliving what the sisters they had to go through, it has the biggest impact.”

Jose Sanchez

“So it gives them more respect for the sisters?”

Nelson Longsworth

“Oh yes, definitely. I think something like this should have been done a long time ago. Then maybe we’d have evolving Sisters of Mercy, which is kind of scarce today.”

Student Rehearsing

“We give thanks to God for the Sisters of Mercy for their one hundred and eighteen years of service to Belize and especially to us here at St. Catherine’s Academy.”

Reporting for News 5, Jose Sanchez.

The Sisters of Mercy in Belize originally consisted exclusively of foreign born nuns. The order later accepted Belizeans, first from the upper classes and later from a broad spectrum of society. In more recent times, they, like many Catholic orders, are having great trouble recruiting new members willing to dedicate their lives to the church.