Sr. Dorothy Brogan, Vocation Formation Team
As a child in Donegal, Ireland, Sr. Dorothy didn’t meet a sister until she was nearly 12 years old. Though impressed, she doubted she would be “good enough” to become one herself. Soon after, her life took an exciting turn when she moved with her parents, sister and two brothers to Philadelphia, PA.
While still finding herself contemplating a vocation, she got to know the friendly, down-to-earth Sisters of Bon Secours through a priest and came to love our charism of caring for the sick and dying. Sr. Dorothy feels her desire for the religious life was always with her but grew over time. She entered the order as she was turning 20 and has already celebrated her Golden Anniversary.
The Vocation Formation Team on which she serves brings together complimentary personalities who work together to discern if God is calling a woman to religious life with Bon Secours. The team meets in person every other month, with a conference call on alternate months.
Each team member brings her personal experience of living the life of the Sisters of Bon Secours to her role on the team. Sr. Dorothy shares her sensitivity, intuitive gifts and past experience as Vocation Director. Together the team develops the various aspects of the formation program, such as the curriculum for novices which focuses on living the charism and mission in today’s changing world while remaining faithful to our history and foundress.
A long life of caring for the sick and dying
During the course of her long nursing career, Sr. Dorothy cared for cancer patients, worked in a clinic in Ecuador and currently serves as chaplain in hospice home care at St. Francis Hospital in Greenville, S.C. Among the thousands of people she’s been present to in their final weeks of life was a Florida woman suffering from constant stomach pain and nausea. One day Sr. Dorothy said to her, “What is it you want to be rid of?” The woman confided she was afraid to die because she was still estranged from her son after 30 years. Sr. Dorothy located him in California and when he visited his mother her pain subsided. They were able to reconcile and he was there holding her hand as she died.
“Hospice work is beautiful, especially experiencing the joy of bringing families together at sacred moments. There is the challenge of working with the chronically ill and people whose poverty is not just financial, but emotional and spiritual as they deal with the sheer loneliness of being 90 with all of their friends gone. The charism of the Sisters of Bon Secours is so needed today as older people are disregarded— and we do what we can by sharing our gifts to care for the sick and the dying.”
Although very energetic and a lover of the outdoors, Sr. Dorothy also loves quiet time, reading and classical music. She lives with a candidate in Greenville, S.C. and when asked what she looks for in a woman considering religious life this soft-spoken sister responded, “I would expect some fire in their belly, and that they be prayerful contemplatives in action.”
Sr. Dorothy embodies those qualities herself and the charism of Bon Secours has found expression in her work over the last half century.
