She holds history in her hands

As the archivist for the Albany Diocese, Sister Mary Berchmans Mahoney, RSM, believes that her most vital task is deciding what documents and memorabilia to keep and what to throw away.

That being the case, Sister Berchmans seemed perfectly comfortable during a tour of the diocesan archives advising The Evangelist not to bother photographing a zuchetto (skull cap) belonging to Pope Pius XII.

"You can buy those for a dime a dozen," the archivist declared.

Stacked with history

The archives take up a huge room in the basement of the Pastoral Center in Albany. Everything from parish deeds to baptismal records for the Brady Maternity Hospital (that now houses the Pastoral Center) is contained in scores of file cabinets, folders and boxes.

On one shelf, a file on the first bishop of the Albany Diocese, John McCloskey, contains correspondence dating from 1847, the year the Diocese was founded. A file cabinet houses folders on organizations, like the Catholic Temperance Union, whose names have become a part of history. A bishop's crosier leans against a wall.

This has been Sister Berchmans' realm for 20 years. A sharp-witted Mercy Sister who describes herself only as "old enough to sit up and take notice," the archivist was well-prepared for her present position. She is a native of Troy and graduate of Catholic Central High School, where she also taught for several years before working in administration at the Mercy Motherhouse in Albany. She earned two master's degrees, one in Latin and Greek, and another in library science, and served as president of Maria College in Albany for nine years before joining the diocesan staff as archivist.

'Sense of history'

Her wealth of experience and "innate sense of history," Sister Berchmans said, "stood me in good stead" when working with the archives.

Her own recollections from the past include fellow women religious taking the Schenectady trolley car from Vincentian Institute to St. Margaret Mary's School in Albany and Msgr. Edmund Burns, who established Catholic High.

"He was a wonderful man," she remembered. "He put that school on a Regents basis; at one time, you couldn't graduate from there without a Regents diploma. He was followed by Father Gerald Mulqueen, who was a brilliant man and extremely sensitive to the students' needs."

Witness to time

Sister Berchmans has watched events in the evolution of the Church in the Albany Diocese, such as the founding of regional high schools to replace parochial schools and changes in the liturgy following the Second Vatican Council.

Living through such chapters in history gives her a great respect for it. When she became archivist in 1977, her first task was to create a plan for organizing the archives, then located in the basement of the old Chancery building on Albany's State Street.

"It was right after [Bishop Howard J. Hubbard's] ordination, and all the cards that every school child had sent were all around," Sister Berchmans recalled. "When the Tribunal wanted a record, they had to call over to State Street."

All in orderBY the following year, the archives were moved to their present home in the Pastoral Center. Today, Catholics can make an appointment to come in and research their parish histories or call with questions about the Church.

Most often, parishioners request either information for genealogies or records of closed parishes. In answer to the latter inquiry, Sister Berchmans explains that when a church closes, its records are sent to the closest parish.

However, some of the questions Sister Berchmans routinely fields are rather odd. While she can easily explain how parishes can contact a cathedral in Montreal to learn about their parishes' first priests (many of whom came from Canada), she puzzled over a recent caller who wanted to know if the Diocese kept old high-school yearbooks: He wanted to know the final score of a 1940s basketball game!

Giants of past

The archivist is a fan of several figures from diocesan history, especially Bishop Francis McNeirny, the third bishop of the Albany Diocese, who served from 1877-94.

"Bishop McNeirny did a lot toward putting the Diocese on a business level -- organizing the Chancery," she said. "He was the prototype of the modern businessman."

The records on past bishops are among thousands of other pieces of information in the archives, which contain files on deceased priests of the Diocese, Catholic Charities agencies, and correspondence from Bishop Hubbard and his predecessors. With a little time to search, Sister Berchmans can tell you on what day of the week Easter fell in 1942, find a 1956 Catholic Directory or look up a document issued by Rome decades ago.

The memorabilia, much of which was on display in the Diocese's Sesquicentennial exhibition, is even more fascinating: an 1894 theology book titled "The Glories of the Catholic Church," a medal containing a relic of St. John Neumann and Mass kits used by past bishops when they traveled the Diocese.

Enjoyment of history

"I think they're all interesting," Sister Berchmans said of the closets of chalices, photos and medals. "I enjoy history -- how things have changed; how the Church moves on in spite of the changes" in the world.

The archivist herself has had to change with the times. While plastic cover sheets were once touted as the perfect way to preserve historical documents, they were later discovered to be destroying those very papers. Today, acid-free storage boxes are the rage. To keep up with these changes, Sister Berchmans is a member of the Society of American Archivists and the Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists.

One change that has yet to take place is the leap to computerization. Not only would the task of transferring the cabinets of files to computer take decades, explained Sister Berchmans, but "what are you going to retain, what are you going to destroy, and when is this computer going to go out of date?"

'Jeopardy' fan

The archivist spends her spare time keeping up with modern "history" by wrestling with "Jeopardy" questions and listening to books on tape, particularly biographies.

But she admits that after working a full day answering calls, filing articles from The Evangelist and letters from the Bishop, and supervising visiting researchers, she doesn't have much leisure time.

"God's been very good to me," the archivist said simply. "I'll leave when I think I'm not needed anymore."

(To contact the diocesan archives, call 453-6633. An appointment is necessary to visit the archives.)

(07-31-97) [[In-content Ad]]