Mercy Day Message from Peta Goldburg rsm President of Mercy International Association

We are delighted to share the following message for Mercy Day 2026 from Peta Goldburg, President of Mercy International Association (MIA):

Anniversaries are a time to pause, reflect, remember and retell our history.  The Spanish word for remember recordéis means to ‘run through the heart once more’.   Each time we remember our story we might renew and reinvigorate our perception of the story, we might see ourselves in a new light and from a different position.

Today, 24 September 2026, we begin a year of remembering to mark the 200th anniversary of the opening of the House of Mercy on Baggot Street. This remembering of the founding story offers the opportunity of seeing and re-interpreting the call of mercy and how we might encourage mercy in our world.

In her forties, Catherine McAuley inherited significant wealth.  Having spent much of her life providing relief for the poor, she was determined to use her inheritance to make a long-term difference.  Building a large house on Baggot Street in a fashionable area of Dublin, she risked the ire of the wealthy by bringing the poor into their neighbourhood.  Here, at the House of Mercy, she not only fed and clothed the poor, but she also opened a school, trained young women for employment, and visited the sick.  Other women soon joined her and so a practical manifestation of the works of mercy began in nineteenth century Dublin.

Catherine had learned from her father that the poor should be treated with dignity.  She had also learned that if people’s lives were to change, then alms giving was not sufficient.   Valuing the dignity of each person, especially women, she appreciated the importance of education as a means of addressing the ills of society.   Writing about women she said: “no work…can be more productive … [than]…instruction of women…Since…their example and advice will always have great influence…”(Original Rule of the Sisters of Mercy).

Catherine’s work was ground-breaking, and collaborative.  The House of Mercy was innovative in several ways.  Its location amongst the Georgian mansions near the Grand Canal placed the poor in a direct line-of-sight of the wealthy. The women who worked with Catherine did not belong to a religious order and they defied the norms of the time by walking through the streets doing good works.  Her focus on education, healthcare and social services provided what today we refer to as ‘wrap around services’.  In a very practical way, she enacted the principles of Catholic Social Teaching long before the term was coined.  Her insistence that ordinary tasks be carried out with care and excellence provided a model which is still relevant today.

Two hundred years on, in a world marked by tension and violence, we remember and give thanks for Catherine and our ancestors in Mercy.  We pause to ‘run through our heart once more’ our commitment to enliven mercy in our world and to stand with the fragile. For

The mercy of God is limitless,

Mercy sustains, protects and promotes life anew.

Peta Goldburg rsm, President

Mercy International Association

24 September 2026