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Casa Ursulina began with a dream — a deep desire in the hearts and minds of Ursuline Sister Mary Elizabeth Ballard and seven Chilean women who worked to build a place where women could come together to work, to learn, and to find community and mutual support.

Women of Casa Ursulina. This photo includes director Sister Mimi Ballard (seated far left), North American volunteers, and the core group of Chilean women who assist in the management of the house and its ministry.

These are women who live in the Población Vicente Pérez Rosales in the city of Chillán in central Chile. It's a sprawling place that to American eyes might look like a vast government housing project, including some neighborhoods of extreme deprivation. For some 17,000 persons who live here, poverty and struggle are a daily fact of life. Many are unemployed or underemployed. The minimum wage in Chile is about $200 . . . per month.

In the mid-90s, while serving as a pastoral minister in Chillán, Sister Mary Elizabeth — "Mimi" to her family and friends — began to teach women to make crocheted pieces and other kinds of needlework which she had learned growing up. The eager women learned fast and began to teach one another. In fairs in and around Chillán, they found a market for their beautiful creations. For many of them, this was the first time they had been able to earn anything to help support their families. They were encouraged by their success and enriched by the spirit of community that was growing among them.

• CASA URSULINA WILL RECEIVE RASKOB GRANT! • A grant of $12,000 will soon be coming to Casa Ursulina for much needed renovation and expansion. The structure pictured here, which forms the northwest part of the house, will be razed and replaced by a multi-purpose room for classes and other activities. The grant will come from the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities, Inc., of Wilmington, Delaware. For more information about this exciting news, please click here.

The first workshop was a crowded room in the home of Carola Pulgar, who from the beginning had worked with Sister Mimi. The women dreamed of a house, a center — a place with more space for more activities for more women. By 1997, with support from Sister Mimi's home parish — St. Joseph, Bardstown — and a campaign led by the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, the Ursuline congregation was able to purchase half of a duplex house in the población. Sister Mimi and the core group transformed this limited but promising space into the Dianna Ortiz Ursuline Center for Women — Casa Ursulina.

In the past 11 years, Casa Ursulina and its ministries have never stopped growing. Physical expansion has included the purchase of the second half of the duplex and the replacement of attached wooden shacks with sturdy additions to the house.

From the original eight, the number of women coming to the center has increased to near 200. About 25
of these are volunteers who give their time, energy, and talents in teaching, providing daycare for children of women in classes, extending hospitality, and other tasks that keep the work of Casa Ursulina going.

Freeing and nurturing women and children, the primary focus of the ministries of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, is at the center of the ministry of Casa Ursulina. Now we invite you to come in, to get to know the women of Casa Ursulina, and to be amazed at the many ways in which God's love is shared among them.

You will also learn more about Chile and Chillán, and about the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, who also serve God's people in Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico, Minnesota, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.

We welcome you to Casa Ursulina. Come visit us often!

DID YOU MISS RECENT STORIES ON OUR WEB SITE?   These stories are still available in our archives:   • In March, the new program year began at Casa Ursulina -- with registration for an exciting list of classes and workshops. For photos and descriptions, click here! • As the school year began, skilled seamstresses at Casa Ursulina were busy making uniform sweatsuits for elementary students. Click here! • In March and April, Susan Pugh of Montezuma, Indiana, volunteered three weeks at Casa Ursulina teaching techniques of dyeing wool. For story and photos, click here! • Volunteers Andrea Martin and Julia Matson have dedicated 15 months of their lives to ministry at Casa Ursulina and in Chillán. To read about these energetic and generous young women, click here.

 

 

 

Would YOU like to be a part of the ministry of Casa Ursulina?   • To get in touch ... to learn more ... to help in any way ... click here! • To support our ministry financially or to make in-kind donations, click here!