Educational Services names conference rooms after women religious
Staff Report
Highlighting the special role women religious have had in Catholic education, the Department of Educational Services has named the conference rooms in its Cincinnati office after the founders of religious orders with local ties.
In recent weeks, a print library was moved, creating space for a new conference area on the southeast side of the seventh floor at 100 East 8th Street, Cincinnati.
Jim Rigg, Director of Educational Services, decided to have a contest to name the new space.
“We solicited ideas from our departmental employees,” said Rigg. “We had several good ideas. Eventually, we asked our staff to vote for their favorite name.”
The staff vote selected St. Elizabeth Ann Seton as the namesake for the new conference room. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was the founder of the first Catholic school in the United States. She was also the founder of the Sisters of Charity, a prominent religious order in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. St. Elizabeth was the first canonized saint to be born in the United States.
“Given her history, we felt that St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was a highly appropriate namesake for our new conference room,” said Rigg. “Picking up on this theme, we decided to name our other two meeting spaces after women’s religious orders that feature strongly in our local Catholic educational programs. We thought this would connect well with our ministry of Catholic education, and be a fitting tribute to vowed religious for the upcoming Year of Consecrated Life.”
The two other conference rooms will be named the Mother Catherine Ann McAuley Room (after the founder of the Sisters of Mercy) and the St. Angela Merici Room (after the founder of the Ursulines).
Conference rooms in the Daniel E. Pilarczyk Center, the archdiocese offices in Dayton, are already named for the Notre Dame de Namur Sisters, the Precious Blood orders and the Marianists.
The Department of Educational Services encompasses the Catholic Schools Office, CISE, Office of Evangelization and Catechesis and the Office of the New Evangelization.
Posted Oct. 14, 2014
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