A Birmingham nun who started a program for mentally disabled youth in the Catholic Church in 1966 and then helped keep it running for more than 55 years has died.
Sister Mary Vernon Gentle, 79, died on Tuesday, Nov. 16, said the Rev. Patrick Cullen, director of the Nazareth House, where Sister Mary Vernon served as associate director.
“She was kind, but she had a strong streak when she was fighting for the rights of the people she served,” Cullen said. “She had to be. In the beginning, she wasn’t encouraged. It was her determination for the rights of these children she was concerned about. She would say by virtue of baptism, these children have the right to be served by the church.”
Sister Mary Vernon grew up in Birmingham, attended St. Anthony’s School in Ensley and then graduated from John Carroll High School. She joined the Sisters of Mercy in Baltimore.
She taught first grade at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Homewood from 1966-70.
“She wanted to include people with disabilities in the life of the church,” Cullen said. “She felt they should be allowed to participate.”
Over 55 years of ministry, Sister Mary Vernon served between 500 and 1,000 disabled youth, Cullen said.
“It was a small program she started,” he said. “She started with four children. She’d visit them.”
Cullen joined her in the work when he arrived in 1968 and over the years they used whatever church he was assigned to as pastor as their office for what in 1970 became an official program supported by the Catholic Diocese of Birmingham.
Many of the youth they served lived in State Department of Mental Health facilities such as the William D. Partlow Developmental Center in Tuscaloosa, which closed in 2011 as states shifted away from large residential facilities for the mentally disabled.
“That changed,” Cullen said. “They called them mentally retarded. The terminology changed.”
The program adapted as the mentally disabled were moved out of group homes.
“We no longer had to visit the larger institutions,” Cullen said. “They closed. People were moved into community residences. Once the institutions broke up, people were sent to their community of origin.”
Sister Mary Vernon continued to train high school students to work with her in teaching the disabled so that they could take full part in the life of the Catholic Church, Cullen said.
Anywhere from 15 to 30 teen volunteers would help the nun in teaching religious practice to the mentally disabled.
“She trained high school students to be the catechists, with new teenagers coming in every year,” Cullen said. “Whatever careers they go into, they will hopefully have sensitivity for people with disabilities.”
On Saturdays, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Birmingham hosts the weekly educational program that includes Mass for the disabled to help them acclimate to participation in larger church services.
“They still fight a battle in the local parishes to be included,” Cullen said. “It maybe requires extra personnel. Schools are required to include them. They expect churches to include them too.”
Sister Mary Vernon was driven to see “the least of these,” as Jesus said, fully included in spiritual life.
“That was the only thing that kept her going,” Cullen said.
A funeral will be held on Saturday, Nov. 20, what would have been her 80th birthday, at 11 a.m. at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Birmingham. Visitation begins at 10 a.m. Burial will follow in Elmwood Cemetery.
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