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f r o m t h e a r c h i v e s

Sisters of Bon Secours s Sr. Rita Thomas.

Health Care ministry:

A History St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, in 1966. s

by Jenifer Kirin of
Special Collections Archivist
Courage
Courage
&

Compassion s Srs. Justine Cyr (l) Compassion

and Theophane
Klingelhofer (r)
in the 1960s.

tHE SiStErS oF BoN SECoUrS arE Familiar WitH liviNG
tHroUGH tryiNG timES tHat rEqUirE tUrNiNG to
FaitH, StayiNG CoNNECtEd to God aNd EaCH otHEr, ‘‘ to find a way forward, leadership teams led by Srs. rita thomas,

aNd rENEWiNG tHE StroNG iNtErCoNNECtioN WitH current provincial, and justine Cyr, who later succeeded her, were
tHE larGEr BoN SECoUrS Family. created. their work initiated the origins of the Bon Secours health
As summarized from the book “Courage and Compassion, Sisters of Bon Secours, USA, System, inc., which was formed in 1983 and was the solution to
1981-2016:” the issues that Bon Secours hospitals were facing.”

“Starting in the 1960s, the great benefit that Medicare and Medicaid brought in providing This happened thanks to many years of hard work. There was communal discernment to include
hospital care for elderly and impoverished Americans also resulted in the imposition of wage individual prayer, group prayer and conversation meetings in which sisters explored what God was
and price controls on hospitals. This added to challenges that the sisters were experiencing in calling them to do. Changes included Sr. Regina Clifton replacing Sr. Justine as health care coordinator
their independently run hospitals, where modest budgets for medical equipment could not keep in 1979 and Sr. Theophane Klingelhofer moving from nursing into hospital administration. In 1970,
pace with offerings of new lifesaving medical technologies, and shortages in sister nurses posed Sr. Theophane was replaced by Alvin Powers, the first lay CEO of a Bon Secours hospital. The Bon
staffing issues. Additionally, the doctrine from the Second Vatican Council enabled sisters to Secours family of lay persons shared their expertise and accepted leadership positions. Sr. Rita Thomas
engage in pastoral counseling and community health services in order to be of direct assistance instituted CEO roundtable meetings and other meetings a few times a year to share strategies and
to people impacted by recession, deindustrialization, the AIDS epidemic and violence and learnings, a practice that became an industry standard. And, just as it happens today in all Bon Secours
addiction related to drug trafficking. ministries, there were the sisters and affiliates engaging in ongoing prayer and discussion.

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