Sr. Kateri Maureen (Nancy Jean) KOVERMAN

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Retreat for female veterans scheduled A weekend retreat for female military veterans is scheduled for May 26 to 28, at the Sisters of Charity motherhouse in Delhi. Women who served in Desert Shield/Desert Storm, in Iraq or Afghanistan, or in any deployment environment since 1990, are invited to take part in the weekend, which will be led by Sister of Charity Kateri Koverman. Sister Kateri is a licensed psychiatric social worker, chemical dependency counselor and spiritual director. After three-and-half years in Vietnam during the war, she spent an additional five years working in wars zones in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, along the Cambodian border, and in El Salvador. She also has extensive experience ministering to local veterans and is the founder and director of Them Bones Veteran Community. The retreat will enable participates to share their experiences in a confidential setting with other female veterans and explore alterations that may have occurred in their attitudes and insights, emotional reactivity, personal identity, worldview and spiritual beliefs. Participants will also learn how memories that are "buried alive" will stay alive inside and possibly cause physical, emotional and spiritual problems, how to stay "grounded" in the hear and now when intrusive memories flood their minds, along with coping skills to address these problems, and relaxation techniques. The retreat begins runs from Friday at 8 p.m. through Sunday at 2 p.m. The cost of $45 incl

S. Kateri Maureen Koverman

S. Kateri Maureen Koverman died Oct. 5, 2016, at the age of 73 in Mother Margaret Hall, the nursing facility of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. S. Kateri Maureen was born Nancy Jean Koverman on Jan. 13, 1943, to William and Theodora (Poeppelmeier) Koverman in Pocatello, Idaho. She was a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati for 55 years.

S. Kateri grew up in Centerville, Ohio, attended Centerville public schools and graduated from Centerville High School in 1961. She was familiar with the Sisters of Charity Congregation from family visits with her two great aunts who were members, Sisters Mary Naomi and Mary Walburga. The desire to be a missionary in a foreign land attracted her to religious life and in September 1961 she entered the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati.

S. Kateri earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology in 1966 from the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio. She later earned the Master of Social Work in 1968 from The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. and a masters in pastoral ministry from Mount St. Mary Seminary, Cincinnati, in 1980. All prepared her for the varied service opportunities ahead.

S. Kateri began her adventuresome ministries as a junior high teacher at Holy Family, Cincinnati, 1965-66, but then took a two-year break to earn her masters in social work. Upon returning she was assigned to Santa Maria in Cincinnati doing public welfare social work, 1968-70. It was then that she was learning of the crisis situation in Vietnam; she felt certain she was being called to Southeast Asia. She sought permission and connected with the Catholic agencies involved. She said of herself, Yes, I was both pushy and prayerful, feeling certain God was calling me to serve there.

The five-year ministry in Vietnam, 1970-75, included working with orphaned and abandoned children, helping to evacuate them from Saigon and secure homes in the U.S. through Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services. A novel has been written about her heroic work, bringing more than 350 Amerasian children from their war-torn conditions. This became known as Operation Babylift.

In 1976 S. Kateri answered the call to go to Sierra Leone, West Africa, and then to Ethiopia in 1977 with Catholic Relief Services. She brought those experiences to the college classroom when she became a teacher of theology at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, 1977-86. The foreign missions called again when civil war in El Salvador caused agencies to respond, 1986-88.

After seeing the devastation of war and poverty in these countries she saw the great need for therapists in the Cincinnati area with returning veterans who had seen hate and fear, war and poverty; they needed to see that their weaknesses could be turned into strengths. After five more years of teaching theology at the College of Mount St. Joseph, she co-founded St. Joseph House in 1993 in Cincinnati, serving as its clinical director the organization provided group therapy and one-on-one counseling. It continues to serve chronic, mentally ill homeless addicted veterans today.

In 2000 S. Kateri saw a new kind of pain among those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan; she founded and directed Them Bones, taken from Ezekiel 37:1-14, to provide help for those returning vets suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Them Bones offers a 12-step program for war trauma recovery, a program for panic attacks, and educational outreach for those returning from Iraq as well as interested civic groups who desire to help the veteran community. In 2001 S. Kateri also accompanied some veterans to visit the site of their trauma as a form of effective therapy. Jail diversion is another key aspect of her organization; she was a well-known visitor at the Justice Center.

In 2005 S. Kateri was called upon to assist in relief efforts for tsunami survivors in India. She has also hosted three reunions of survivors of the Vietnam Babylift and their adoptive parents, with the first occurring in 1990. The more recent ones, 2015 and 2016, brought together the now 40-something-year-old adoptees who appreciated the opportunity to learn more about their rescue and culture, along with hearing stories of their parents deep desire for them to live. S. Kateri recently expressed her hope, Now they can be a blessing in their own way, by meeting others who were with them at the time; may they offer to others an increased understanding of the effects of war.

More recently when her health caused her to slow down, she continued to visit those in jail, offering encouragement, as well as acknowledging the vets suffering. She believed that the whole person spiritual as well as psychological must accept the traumatic memories of war. Her work helped to fill a tremendous gap as well as meet the grace of the moment.

S. Kateri was honored with the Community Caretaker Award in 1999, a national award from the Shaklee Corporation as an advocate for veterans. In 1997 she received the Scholar of Life Award for establishing St. Joseph House as a way of helping others; they honored her for previously living through war, famine and homelessness. The Veterans of Foreign Wars presented her with the Gold Medal of Merit in 2006 for her work in battling PTSD among returning veterans. Mount St. Joseph University has twice awarded her; in 2011 she received the Sister Mary Lea Human Service Award, given to an alum who has lived out the mission of the university through a life of service to others, and in 1997 she was presented the Faculty Appreciation Award as a teacher touching students lives and a true advocate for justice.

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Sr. Kateri Maureen Koverman, S.C., beloved member of the Sisters of Charity, dear sister of Katherine Heyder, Gretchen Fink and Bill Koverman, survived by nieces and nephews. Departed Wednesday, October 5, 2016 at the age of 73. Sister has chosen to be cremated. The Sisters of Charity will receive guests in the Heritage Room of the Motherhouse at Mount Saint Joseph on Friday, October 21, 2016 from 2 pm until Mass of Christian Burial in the Motherhouse Chapel at 3 pm. Burial will follow in the Motherhouse Cemetery. Memorials to the Sisters of Charity Retirement Fund, 5900 Delhi Road, Mount Saint Joseph, OH 45051.

Published in The Cincinnati Enquirer from Oct. 19 to Oct. 20, 2016

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Titel	Kovermann 2024-03-30
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Hochgeladen	2024-03-30 18:22:21.0
Einsender	Andreas Kovermann
E-Mail	kovermann@freenet.de
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