Ignorance Is Not Bliss
By Sister Patricia McCann, RSM — It is time to go back to the use of the word ignorant in our Mercy vocabulary. Catherine McAuley committed us to service among “the poor, sick and ignorant.” In recent years we changed wording to uneducated in many of our documents and in daily usage. Thinking of the vast network of Mercy educational institutions, we thought uneducated seemed more inclusive and less pejorative. And in that limited context it probably is. In contemporary times, though, we are discovering a new urgency about denouncing ignorance.