by Camille D'Arienzo
NCR Contributor
Mercy Sr. Doris Gottemoeller
Age: 77
Who she is: Vice chair, Partners in Catholic Health Ministries
Lives in: Cincinnati
Sr. Camille: On July 20, 1991, over 1,000 Sisters of Mercy who served in the United States and 11 countries in North, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Guam, and the Philippines gathered in a Buffalo, N.Y., hotel waiting for the doors to open into a new assembly hall and a new relationship. That day, we became the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, and we elected you our first president. How do you remember that momentous occasion?
Gottemoeller: Walking through those doors with 2,000 sisters singing and waving banners, into a new reality, was an experience I'll never forget. The reading of the decree from Rome and of our founding document – the memory still gives me chills. Then the election as president a few days later was a deeply humbling experience. I felt like I belonged to every sister there and wanted to embrace them all.
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