IHM Ministry Highlights-Prayer Ministers
Our new series of ministry highlights will focus on the prayer ministers who reside at OLP Residence written by our Sister Patt Walsh, IHM.
Sister Jane Gaughan, IHM
“Do not let your heart be troubled…” - John 14:1
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In high school, I was on the speech team. My event? Extemp. If the tournament was at my school, JV members were timekeepers in their event. I had Extemp Heroes. One of them was Jane Gaughan from Holy Rosary
Jane is the oldest of four children and the only girl (a blessing and a curse!) of Thomas and Mary Timlin Gaughan. Jane’s father “made electricity!” (Aka he worked for the PP&L!) Jane spent K-12 at Holy Rosary School in North Scranton with IHMs. As a Marywood freshman, she made the annual retreat at the Passionist Monastery on Green Ridge Street. Though seriously considering a vocation, Jane was doing so in a monastery with contemplative sisters. So, she did consider a call to the contemplative life until her father reminded her that contemplative sisters don’t speak! And, like so many, Jane’s final decision to become an IHM was that “they were happy!”
Professed Sister Thomas Maria, Jane decided to replicate her own high school experience. Jane taught English. She wanted to give to her students the same great memories she had, so she moderated the school’s Speech and Debate Teams and also directed the school play.
A “long-stayer,” in 24 years Jane only served in 3 locations. It was at St. John’s in Pittston that she realized she must be a capable teacher because the work always made her happy. Jane developed some deep relationships with many students. Returning for one 50th class reunion, Jane realized they were also celebrating her 75th birthday!
Jane moved on to Altoona. She discovered at Bishop Guilfoyle High School the value of building faculty friendships and, at East Stroudsburg, Notre Dame High School, some of those faculty friendships turned into “friendship vacations.”
In 1994, Jane was elected to IHM Leadership as the Northern Sector Superior. During her travels she discovered the giftedness of the sisters and watching them teach only increased her love for the community. For Jane, the hardest part was accompanying a sister who was making the journey to confront an addiction.
After serving as Sector, Jane needed to find a job and, because her mother had significant health issues, she needed one with a flexibile schedule. She connected with Father Steve Savoy, then Chaplain at Notre Dame High School, and current Pastor at St. Patrick’s Church in White Haven. He needed a Pastoral Minister. He hired Jane and she served for 20 years!
Back in Scranton, Jane, Susan Hadzima and Kathy Kurdziel separately contacted Terry O’Rourke about forming an independent community and the three of them lived together at The Florence Apartments until they were asked to form the core group of the formation community at the “House on Capouse.” Margo McCormick and Jane Connolly joined them to complete the professed community. One unique feature is that, at both locations, young sisters were always invited to be a part of their community.
Jane is a member of the OSP IHM Haiti Committee. She made one trip to Haiti and planned a second in 2010 but that year, Haiti was hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake killing more than 200,000 people.
In 2018, Jane began losing her balance and having trouble speaking. She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She retired from her ministry in White Haven and did both pastoral care and support services at OLP.
Of her residence here at OLP she says, “It’s the right place at the right time.” Of her Parkinson’s, Jane sees it as a gift as she has realized the deeper relationships she now has with those who have helped her along this part of her journey.
When it’s time to remember Jane, she hopes we experienced her gift of enthusiasm and, like the IHMs who attracted her in the first place, that we remember her as happy.
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Sister Beatrice Caulson, IHM
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The name Beatrice means “Blessed or Bringer of Joy and Happiness and a mirror upon which Divine Love is reflected and, consequently, serves as the pilgrim’s bridge to salvation.” For a person who has spent many years of her life in Spiritual Direction, one might say that Bea Caulson has just been living up to her name.
Prior to her entrance, Bea and her family lived in Dunmore, PA, and she not only was taught by IHM Sisters from first through twelfth grade, but also had aunts – Sisters Annchen and Laetitia Caulson.
The Caulson Family gathered regularly as a family to say the Rosary and made the movement’s saying – “The Family that Prays together, Stays together” a reality.
Though Bea was clear by 6th grade that she had a religious vocation, she did spend time in prayer trying to determine which community would be her home. She thought about being a Missionary. But, as she often repeated in our conversation, she would ask God “where are you leading me now?” Eventually that answer brought her to IHM, following in the footsteps of her older sister, Marge, in 1961 and, she was given the name Francesca.
Bea’s education ministry benefited from the Sister Formation Program which required that Sisters complete their first degree before a ministry assignment. So, in 1966, Bea spent her first year as a Jr. High School teacher at St. Ambrose, in CT, where she also learned the importance of a supportive community life. Symbolically, St. Ambrose was also the school she returned to in 1986 to complete her school ministry as its school principal.
In 1990 she was invited to live at the House of Prayer in Cresco as a member of the core team of spiritual directors. Bea accepted this assignment because it was a way for her to move closer to God. Sr. Redempta described Bea as a “wonderful spiritual director” because she was such a good listener. Bea continued to rely on those gifts as she followed her sister, Marge (Mary Ronan) into leadership in the Formation Program. Bea’s title was Director of Formation as she guided both postulants and novices. This ministry also relied on her gifts for spiritual direction and, between them, the Caulson sisters shepherded young women from entrance through final profession.
Then, Bea moved on to what would be her longest ministry assignment as the Director of Religious Formation, Adult Faith Formation and the RCIA program and an ever-widening Circle of Grace for Associates in Gainesville, Florida. However, as Florida is quite a distance from Dunmore, Bea’s life reflected that of many sisters who lived at a distance and who had to make choices about when they would be able to have a family visit. Luckily, Bea’s oldest sister, Mary Agnes, also lived in Florida and Bea always had family nearby for support.
 Sisters Bea and Marge |
 The Caulson Family |
Bea is not only a seamstress, but, I have had the pleasure of receiving some of her original, delicately-designed cards.
Now, Bea has joined us at OLP and is learning the important ministry of being dependent on others. She describes these moments as “precious” because she is in the presence of God in a way that she has never been before.
As the Congregation looks to discover its “emerging future,” her hope is that we discover that God has us in His Hands and will care for us. We just need to listen – as she is doing now – to hear where God is taking us. And, may
we know that “God wants to wrap us up in love.”
Sister Catherine Anne Mullaly, IHM
“Numbers 6:24–26”
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Catherine Anne, "Sister Ita," Mullaly is the oldest of five children and met the IHMs in Sayre, PA. Her father, Harold, who worked on the railroad, and her mother, Mame, a nurse, drew straws to see who would talk to the sisters about enrolling their oldest daughter in Epiphany Grade School. Lucky for the IHMs that Harold drew the short straw as they not only got a new student, they also had someone who looked out for them as they travelled the rails!
Though Catherine Anne had the IHMs in grade school, it seems that she really came to know them and discover her call to join them during her high school years when she was attending the local public high school. It was during that time that, because they had no janitor, the sisters spent many hours cleaning the school and convent. Catherine not only found them to be hard workers, she became one herself, finishing her school day and joining the nuns’ cleaning crew! It was there that she met Sister Joyce, whom many of us remember as the superior of the Marian Convent. She went on to be Catherine’s IHM sponsor. Catherine traces her recognition that she had a vocation to the time she spent on December 8th with the Blessed Sacrament as the sisters went for their feast day meal. What Catherine had noticed was that the IHMs were not just hard working but they were also “pleasant.” They were not just nice to those they served but to each other.
Catherine entered right after high school on September 8, 1946. Within days she was teaching Latin and Algebra for Marywood Seminary. Without any formal teacher training, she did the task well enough to repeat it again as a senior novice.
After first vows, it was off to St. Paul’s to a self-contained 9th grade classroom. She became the 4th teacher to face this class of 72 students that year! Those skills of being “a hard worker” were certainly put to the test.
In the early 1970s, while stationed in Wilmington, DE, Catherine Anne received an NSF Grant to learn computer programming and she became the first IHM computer programmer.
Chuckling and saying her theme song should be “I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say No!” Catherine admitted that she’d accepted some challenging assignments along the way, including serving as the principal of West Catholic High School. Without
an administrative credential (but, perhaps, more importantly, having a degree in guidance – no, she never served as a guidance counselor!), Catherine found herself midstream in the process of the Scranton Diocesan School Consolidation Program. I have wondered which is harder—closing one school or merging two or more?
Throughout the years, Catherine Anne has used her knowledge and skills where they could be helpful–from the Raisin River Project, to the EEI, to serving as the bookkeeper at St. Paul’s School in New Bern. Like many mathematicians, Catherine Anne enjoys patterns and puzzles. She spends hours crocheting and likes nothing more than to find a special home for the things she makes. Ask an OLP employee or my Godson, Paul, and my grandniece, Lucy!
When looking for a title quotation, naturally, I wondered what one would be from the Book of Numbers? So, I asked Google. How appropriate! This is what Numbers 6:24–26 says for Catherine Anne: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”
.JPG) L-R: Sisters Catherine Anne, Fran, Mary Mark, Dorothy, Sarah, and Joan |
.jpg) L-R: Sisters Catherine Ann, Linda Anne, Redempta and Lisbeth |
Sister Ann Belz, IHM and Sister Anne Manion, IHM
“Friendship is Another Word for Love”
One of my daily doses of “happy” is meeting Sister Anne Manion! It’s an interesting pattern. We spot each other. We smile, laugh, high 5 or hug and, as I move on, Anne’s best friend – Sister Ann Belz is next in line and I’m passing my joy on to her! So, it seems wrong not to profile them together.
Though seven years apart, Ann Belz and Anne Manion (AB and AM) share a birthday and are both the third child in birth order in their families. Anne Manion entered the IHMs the same year that Ann Belz made her final vows (1963). AM only had IHMs in school and she “loved them all.” While AB’s two older sisters were already IHMs, she did have a choice to make – she’d had the SSNDs in high school and was considering that congregation until she came to Scranton to attend her sister’s reception ceremony.
AB travelled north from Baltimore, MD, and AM came south from Cranston, RI, and their friendship began when they came together 42 years ago in 1981 in Carbondale at St. Rose School. While their time together in Carbondale lasted only a year, their friendship bond has grown stronger with each passing year.
When AB was received into the congregation, she was given the name “Sister Mary Lourdes.” As she, like St. Bernadette, suffered from asthma, AB began her devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes. Before coming to OLP in 2021, she’d spent 11 years at Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Poughkeepsie and, on the day we met in AM’s room, the view out the window was Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine. Both of Ann’s degrees are in music education. A testament to the quality of her work is that, while in Staten Island, her junior high chorus was selected over 74 other chorus groups to perform on Broadway in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” Her strategy: hard work and high expectations!
AM is a twin and her brother, Joe, is now deceased and she grieves to this day. I met her once and she took out his prayer card from her shirt pocket. It was banded together with other cards that focused on being happy! AM taught social studies in elementary schools and 38 of those teaching years were in Poughkeepsie, NY. Given its geographic location, AM took her students on annual field trips to Ellis Island to help them understand the experiences of immigrants and the importance of citizenship. Oh, I should note that much of what I learned about AM, I heard from AB and vice versa!
AB relayed that one of the keys to AM’s success is that she not only loved her students (that love was mutual!) but she also carried Tootsie Rolls in her pockets!
Their long years of friendship have included “wonderful vacations” like an extended trip to Alaska and many trips to the ocean. “AM was a wonderful driver with a flawless memory for directions if she’d been anywhere once before,” said AB.
Their friendship has expanded into each other’s families. Not only do they attend family gatherings together – like AB mother’s 100th birthday but their family members never send a card to one without sending one to the other.
If you stop in the dining room most mornings you’ll find AB playing the piano for her favorite audience of one. Their friendship witnesses what “Joyful, Loving, Self-Emptying Service” means and, on most days, you also get a chuckle and a hug to go!
L-R: Sisters Anne Manion, Ann Belz, with Sisters Sarah Holmes and Marilyn Muro in OLP Chapel
Sister Robert Mary Murphy, IHM
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Call, Mission and Relationship
After explaining to Sister Robert Mary that my interest in doing her profile was to discuss the Associate program, she not only said yes, she came to our meeting with her profile already written! So, in large part, Sister Robert Mary is the author of her own profile. I’m merely her editor.
The Associate Journal follows the pattern of Call, Mission and Relationship. I’ll begin by using that same pattern in describing my own Life’s Journey.
Call: My mother graduated from the original Laurel Hill Academy in Susquehanna. All of the teachers, my siblings, and I had at the new Academy were IHMs with the exception of Fr. Joe Kennedy (who graduated from St. Pat’s in Scranton – another IHM School.) I guess I was called to my IHM vocation rather intensely from the very beginning.
It was helpful to have been brought up in our faith before Vatican II, because these are the Catholics we meet in our parishes and whose children we have met in our schools. It is important to meet them where they are.
I have treasured the retreats, workshops, seminars offered by our Congregation. I was also enrolled in Marywood’s theology and scripture program. And then, by happenstance, I was led out of teaching Junior High School (often teaching music) and into Parish work.
RCIA – was my first assignment at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Vestal, NY in the Syracuse Diocese in 1986. I led adult Scripture and Spirituality classes and prepared people for liturgical ministries. I was called on to do spiritual direction so I earned advanced certification from the Spiritual Center in Syracuse. When the IHM Associate program began in 2008, it was a natural next step calling me.
In Vestal, we added twenty-two commissioned Associates who, uniquely, chose to meet as one large group. Within the four groups three women are now employed by the parish in Vestal: Diane Rigotti is the Director of Adult Education (my former position); Jackie Adams (who has twins at Marywood) is now the Pastoral Minister to the Sick and Homebound and Kelly Marconi is Parish Secretary and Receptionist. Peg Lagalbo volunteers to lead the discussion group preparing Sunday Readings. Barbara Kane has been appointed by the Bishop as Spiritual Leader of three parishes in the Syracuse Diocese. Most of the others are in various volunteer ministries in parishes in the area. Many of these Associates are also very active in the Silver Circle program.
Mission: The format of the Prayer Journal in preparation for Commissioning emphasizes that Our Call must be to make present the ministry of Jesus in our own time and place – sacramentally, humanly and in the ordinariness of life. We bring Jesus and find Him among God’s people.
Relationships: Our Circles of Grace are built to support and sustain us in life’s journeys and help us reach out to one another. Our Associate gatherings and retreats along with our inclusion at IHM gatherings help us get to know one another on a deeper level.
The Associate program is moving on while mourning the loss of Jane O’Neill, our former Director. At OLP, Mary Kay McHale is a Eucharistic Minister and also a Receptionist at the IHM Center. OLP Aides Mary Jane Prislupsky, Becky DePrato and Kate Baker have been commissioned and a new Circle is in process. Our Associates are our Hope for the Future. Now, they are attracting others to join the program and soon they will be leading Circles of their own.
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 L-R: Sr. Ellen Maroney, Mary Kay McHale, Sr. Robert Mary Murphy |
Sister Eileen Mary Coleman, IHM
"Mixed together, we can never be separated.”
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Lynn Coleman went to St. Patrick’s School, Olyphant and had Sister Charles, IHM, for French and thus, Sister Eileen Mary Coleman learned to love a language that would eventually make her the perfect candidate to lead the Tri-IHM/OSP Haiti Committee (now along with Sisters Jane Gaughan and Susan Hadzima) for the IHM Congregation in Scranton.
As the writer of this profile, I’m praying I can find the words to describe what has found a home in the deepest part of Eileen’s heart and is currently breaking it – the Haitian Little Sisters of St. Therese and the plight of the people of Haiti. This is not a hurricane or an earthquake story. As Eileen says, “In Haiti, they are always rebuilding.” But, this is a “teachable moment.” So, I made a choice to profile Eileen’s life or tell the story she prays we’ll never forget – even when she’s no longer here to tell it. When in doubt… go with legacy.
In 1992, the IHM Sesquicentennial Committee decided it would include an Outreach to Haiti component. It took the form of “twinning.” While twinning was a popular program for parishes, the IHMs were the first religious congregation to do so and we were also the first to twin with another religious congregation. The Haitian Little Sisters of St. Therese was selected because it’s Haiti’s oldest indigenous congregation. Sister Bernadette, then their “General Responsible,” was so excited, she exclaimed: “Our foundresses in heaven will bring us together!”
The formal framework of the Haiti Outreach Project is financial. Each congregation makes an annual monetary commitment to the Little Sisters. However, that’s not as simple as it sounds. The banking system in Haiti is so poor that the church/religious congregations there have created their own bank. A deposit is made; then call the Little Sisters; they find a way to travel to the bank to get it; they pray they get home without being robbed and find a safe spot to keep it.
Since 1995, Eileen, the sisters on the Haiti Committee and others who have responded to their pleas have been busy building a “house of love” around that framework. Eileen hasn’t just worked to find the money to send them (including a $100,000 grant!) but she’s visited there many times despite the danger in doing so. It’s the many years of our personal visits to Haiti and their visits here; the emails and the phone calls that the Little Sisters say are the most valued aspect of our twinning relationship. Ironically, it was their last visit here for the project’s 20th anniversary that ended in a fall that broke Eileen’s hip and began her journey of increasingly diminishing physical strength. Because it’s been too dangerous to travel to Haiti, right now it’s still Eileen who is getting the calls, reading/sharing the emails, hearing their pain while continuing to be inspired by their faith and perseverance and praying the IHM commitment will continue on even when she's not able.
As we consider our emerging future; plan for direction; re-commit to the challenges of racial justice and the climate crisis and recall St. Alphonsus’ call to ‘proclaim God’s unconditional love to the poor;' one does wonder if now is also the time to go even deeper into our commitment to Haiti and the Little Sisters for our own good.
Anchoring our hearts in the home of the poorest country in the world may teach us all what we have been saying we want to become, and it will make my former French teacher very happy and relieved!
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Donations for the Little Sisters of St. Therese in Haiti can be sent to the IHM Development Office, 2300 Adams Avenue, Scranton, PA 18509. Please note, "Haiti."
"When we stand with people who are poor and
marginalized, whether that's in Haiti, in Peru,
in downtown Scranton, in New York City, in our
neighborhoods, we run a risk: the risk that, when we
stand with the poor, they may shake us into a new way of
seeing; they may challenge us to move from learning their
names to standing beside them in the struggle for justice.
This is what solidarity does to us: we begin to claim the
deep, hidden sigh of our neighbor as our own."
- Sister Chris Koellhoffer, IHM
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 IHM Sisters Eileen Mary Coleman and Susan Hadzima |
Sister Thomas Mary Dougherty, IHM
“The Grace of Perseverance”
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There’s always some motivation behind the person I choose to profile. This time I selected Sister Thomas Mary because I noticed that she was one of the most active users of the tablets the congregation gave to the Sisters here to help them be connected to the rest of the congregation during Covid and our transition to “virtual connections” using Zoom or streaming. So, I was curious. The one sister who has sent me a Facebook friend request or invites me to play games with her has been Sister Thomas Mary, and I wanted to know who she was and how she was succeeding when others were giving up.
Born in Dunmore and given the name, Marie, she's the daughter of Thomas and Theresa Dougherty. She attended St. Mary of Mt. Carmel Elementary School where she was taught by the IHMs. While she had nothing but positive things to say about all of her teachers, she singled out one – Sister Harold – primarily because she did that one important thing: She told Marie that she thought she had a vocation. Invitations matter!
Marie has two siblings – Nancy and Thomas. Thomas died recently and she’s still grieving his loss.
Thomas Mary spent most of her teaching ministry in the intermediate grades and her favorite subject to teach was Math. Born in 1932, Thomas Mary will be 91 in August!
Thomas Mary made her first vows in August 1956 and, as was the custom, was a primary teacher by September. She did not complete her first degree until 1965! Though this often amazes me, I realized it was almost like having nine years of student teaching because sisters you lived with mentored you through your classes. In fact, I came to think of this as one of the best strategies for building community. The community was responsible not just for the ministerial life but, they also taught the young sister as well as modeled how to be a successful member of the local community and what it meant to be an IHM. Thomas Mary’s first assignment was in the primary classroom where one learns how to teach all of the subject areas to come!
After almost 40 years in the classroom, Thomas Mary went on family ministry. She cared for her mother while her sister took care of her husband.
After 11 years in the EEI, she volunteered to help out in the Development Office. She came to reside at OLP in 2019. Here she lists the "auction" as her favorite in-house activity but, whenever she can – she is off to Boscov’s or, more often, her true favorite - spending time with her family. She loves being at OLP and could be one of its best ambassadors! When it comes to what she hopes people remember about her – it’s that she’s patient and kind!
As to her use of technology – her success is based on several qualities – she’s curious and finds it useful (Facebook’s a great way to get family pictures and keep up to date with friends and the congregation).
 Theresa Dougherty, mother |
 Thomas Dougherty, father |
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 Sister Thomas Mary and EEI pupil |
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 Front: Sisters Thomas Mary, Dolores and Jane Frances Rear: Sisters Carol, Lenore, Joyce and Jeanne |
Sister Margaret Gannon, IHM by Patt Walsh, IHM
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One of Theresa’s Treasures
Margaret Gannon, born in Brooklyn, had sisters throughout her grade/high school, yet she had no connections to IHMs. But when Margaret was completing her College Board application, she designated three schools to which her results would be sent but the application allowed four. So, Margaret went to the hallway and saw a brochure on Marywood! Luckily, Marywood offered her a full scholarship. At Marywood, Margaret attended an IHM funeral and heard the chaplain ask, “Who will take her place?” Margaret heard that question personally.
The practice then was that Sister St. Mary would meet the new sisters and tell them what degree they would pursue. However, Margaret had had Sister Nazarene for history. Sister Nazarene told Sister St. Mary, “She’s mine!” The rest is history!
When Margaret was a senior faculty member at Marywood, Sister Anne Munley worked with the Union of International Superior Generals (UISG) in Rome. There Anne learned of the struggles of the sisters in Africa. She returned to Marywood and in collaboration with Sister Mary Reap, the two approached their LCWR Region to make their case. Three other PA congregations/colleges stepped forward and together formed ASEC (African Sisters Education Collaborative) “to serve the most vulnerable communities across Africa.” Charter members included Chestnut Hill/Sisters of St. Joseph, Neumann University/Sisters of St. Francis, and Rosemont College/Society of the Holy Child, Jesus. Now, it was time to make a plan and Margaret Gannon emerged as the IHM best equipped to help start this program. She travelled Africa in search of countries that both spoke English and were forward-thinking.
The Hilton Foundation offered them $20,000 to get started and, approving the initial results, committed $3,000,000 more. ASEC began with Sisters Leadership Development Initiative (SLDI). Core group members could not provide the education totally on site, but they could prepare the sisters initially by training them to use technology. Sister Kathleen Burns and Margaret offered a course on “Academia” preparing them for the practices of advanced study. Courses, now online or hybrid, were taught by core group faculty. ASEC now partners with 24 universities in the U.S. and ten African countries impacting more than 415 congregations of women religious!
After SLDI, the program, Higher Education for Sisters in Africa (HESA), began. Students have received degrees from BA/BS to PhD. A scholarship program has assisted sisters in earning high school diplomas. As Margaret enthusiastically shared about all of these projects, sisters and people served, she kept referring to ASEC’s magazine, Rays of Hope (the December issue is on their core value of reverence!) It even includes an article by Sister Mary Persico after her visit to give the commencement address at the Catholic University of East Africa, “a life-changing experience.”
Personally, I was more relieved to know they had a magazine (and a website, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter account)! There’s so much to tell! ASEC sisters are not only well trained but they return home to initiate practical and useful projects ranging from sustainable gardens to a radio show on pandemic issues (recognized recently by Bill Gates!). And, of course, participants have become leaders in their congregations.
I’m filled with pride! Margaret has brought us to reconcile with our African American Oblate Sisters and our Haitian heritage. That circle is now completed by our direct service to their true home–Africa! ASEC has always found its home on the Marywood campus and IHMs continue to serve as members of the ASEC Board of Directors and its Advisory Board. Sister Kathleen Lunsmann is its current board treasurer. Even the Sisters of St. Casimir have become major donors. Most of all, ASEC is an IHM co-sponsored ministry. Theresa Maxis must be proud!
Below IHM Sisters in Kenya
 Sister Anne Munley |
 Sister Mary Persico |
.jpg) Sister Kathleen Burns |
Sister Margaret passed away on October 14 2022. Click here to view her obituary.
Sister de Montfort Babb, IHM by Patt Walsh, IHM
“There is just One Church and I wasn’t in it!”
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Sr de Montfort at the Everhart MuseumHelen Lee Babb was born in Durham, N.C., the oldest child of Lucille (a Methodist) and Josiah (an Episcopalian) Babb. Josiah was a trained geologist but to better support his family he became an insurance agent. However, he passed on his love of geology to his daughter. As Sister de Montfort says “he taught me to love rocks!”
Helen went to the Methodist church with her mother but, when she was eleven, her mother joined the Episcopalian church to keep the family together. There Helen studied the history of the Church. At the end she decided that there was only one Church and, she wasn’t in it! She spent years researching the background of the Catholic Church though she didn’t think her parents would approve of a conversion.
When she moved away to college at Duke University where, incidentally, she became quite proficient in the sport of fencing—Helen was sure she’d found her truth—to become both a Catholic and a nun! After just two years at Duke, Helen returned home (now Raleigh, N.C.) and was advised to contact all of the local religious congregations. Luckily, she began with the IHMs! Knocking on the door of the Raleigh convent was her conversion moment! Helen met a smiling Sister Marianne Addy who invited her inside. Marianne gathered the community—Sisters Melissa, Alexius and Joseph Gabriel. Their IHM hospitality confirmed Helen’s decision! (The ministry of the IHMs in Raleigh was in the “black" elementary school).
Sister Gertrude Marie selected her name—de Montfort (the Parisian hometown of St. Louis de Montfort!) as both St. Louis and Helen shared a birthday on April 28. Since “de Montfort” means “strong mountain” and, as Helen was a student of the earth sciences, it seemed appropriate.
Once de Montfort realized that becoming an IHM meant taking vows—particularly obedience—she decided if that was the rule, she would follow it completely; teach what they assigned and figure out how to do it well. She had a degree in English, but was sent to the West to teach primary then middle school! Back in N.C. she taught science and was the principal. At Rockville Centre she taught earth science and was finally sent to Indiana to get a master's degree in it! She received an NSF grant to study at Hofstra and ended up being an adjunct faculty member there for more than ten years! She returned to the Diocese of Scranton to teach in two schools and chair the science department in each.
Finally, after knee surgery, she came to the IHM Center to work at both the console and the EEI and spend time with her good friend, Sister Claudette Naylor.
Probably for the first time ever Sister de Montfort made a ministry choice on her own. She called the Everhart Museum and convinced them that she would make a great docent in their geology department! She spent ten happy years there! Just in time for Covid she came to OLP where she consistently takes a regular walk around the grounds spending time observing her first love—rocks!
Sister de Montfort has a reserved personality that belies a woman of great knowledge, passion and complete surrender to her vow of obedience. If nothing else, I hope this profile gives a better picture of who she is and the fascination you’ll discover if, like me, you just make the time to sit with her and chat. Don’t forget to ask her about rocks—her transformation will astound you! (Thanks for the tip, Cor!)
 At the Everhart Museum |
 At the Everhart Museum |
 by the statue of Dr. Isaiah Fawkes Everhart |
 At the Everhart Museum |
 Sisters de Montfort and Claudette |
Profiles of IHM Holy Women by Patt Walsh, IHM
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Whenever we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception, I often think of the holy woman who never gets mentioned – St. Ann. After all, Mary’s conception was really God’s gift to her! So I asked a few OLP sisters to nominate a sister who also deserves to be recognized for her holiness. When I read their nominations, I discovered holiness seems to be connected to humility!
For me, it’s Sister Emerita Gasper. I came to know her when she was 100+ in the 3C household. A tall woman, she was able to walk along while sitting in a wheelchair. Each night when she finished her dinner, she attempted to bring her plate to the sink. She’d always say: “I come to serve, not to be served.” More than once I came to her room and she’d tell me she’d just been talking to St. Gertrude! I always believed her! On the night she died, someone suggested we save one of her habits for relics!
Sisters St. Anthony Radzikowski and deNeri McLane not only lived a life others wanted to imitate, but their recognition of a girl’s vocation and willingness to personally companion – to “sponsor” those young women through IHM entrance has resulted in those sisters now drawing a direct line between their vocation and these women.
Sisters Chrysta Lerhinan, St. Anthony and deNeri were described in terms that IHMs define personally – phrases like “contemplative in action” or “a living example of the IHM charism.” Sister St. Anthony spent her summers at the House of Prayer and deNeri was “joyful and loving.” But, the description that challenged me at first was that Chrysta lived “the Alphonsian and Ignatian Spirituality day in and day out.” Then I recalled Sister Redempta telling me that it was Sister Chrysta’s idea that sisters should be trained in spiritual direction. In short, Sister Chrysta “walked her talk.” As you sat with her for spiritual direction, you realized she was a living example of the spirituality she was teaching.
Some sisters like Agnes Shaw or Mother Beata Wertz were just kind in an ordinary way. Agnes’ signal for “well done” was a lollipop. A gift certificate for the grocery store was folded into the hands of a needy parent. Before becoming a Reverend Mother, Sister Beata took the mother of a “soon to be postulant” to NYC to help her shop for her daughter’s postulant needs. Sister St. Mel Wright would never ask the Marian Convent staff to do anything that she wouldn’t do. As a result, it was well known that St. Mel was “loved” by the entire staff – not a common way to describe a relationship with an administrator! Sister Agnes taught her students and staff to have a love for the Blessed Mother and the Eucharist. Any visit to St. Mel’s room might find her standing near her “prayer corner.”
Most of all, these sisters could distill their spirituality into a comment that was memorable. Sister Agnes would brush off comments that she was prayerful by “What did she say?!”; "Remember Christ loves you deeply and is always present through his Holy Spirit" (Sister Chrysta); “Put it in God’s hands” (Mother Beata); “The way we live reflects our prayer life” (Sister deNeri); and the one that was most powerful for me, "Pray every night for God to cleanse your heart!” (Sister Maria Regina Loures).
This December 8th take a moment to think of your “Holy Women” and tell them, “Thanks.”
Thanks for contributions from Sisters Marie Moore, Mary Ann Remus, Joanne Madden, Mary Jane Maloney, M. Celesta Sinisi, Redempta Sweeney and Mary Ehling.
 Sister Chrysta |
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 Sister St. Anthony |
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Sister Romaine Krug, IHM
  108th birthday cake  Sisters Romaine and Ellen Maroney, President |
An IHM Miracle
As we are celebrating the IHM 175th anniversary in its 176th year, this Founders Day must be the official IHM 175th anniversary. As such, instead of doing a profile this month, the following is more of “my testament” to the miracles that have blessed IHM through these years to remind us of the blessings that have brought us to this moment.
Several years before the Covid lockdown, my dear friend, Sister St. Kenneth’s sister, Janet, died. I made arrangements to go to Hughes Funeral Home (across from St. Ann’s Monastery) and brought St. Kenneth’s 2C hall mates – Sisters Angela Mary (90+) and Romaine (100+). Because Angela used a walker, she could manage if she held my arm. I got my passengers aboard and, of course, Sister Romaine led us in prayer. As we approached the funeral home, I thought I saw a concrete driveway and it would be better to drop them off there. I pulled in, walked around to get Angela, and as I turned back, I discovered I’d parked next to a grassy knoll between driveways! I opened the door to tell Angela not to get out and then I turned around. Romaine had bounded out the door, and up the hill and had not only fallen, but she was sitting there facing me like a child with her arms outstretched. Not thinking, I responded but failed. Again, not thinking, I went around and tried to lift her from behind. Again, I’m not strong enough, but as I put her down – CRACK! I knew a bone (her femur!) had broken! She was now sitting and resting her head against my legs. In the car I have another sister who needed my arm to walk! I was alone, had no phone and it was February
If I had a stop watch, I’d say… "Click it now”! Immediately, the funeral director was next to me—calling an ambulance. He lived next door and left to get a blanket. A woman I didn’t know arrived, asked to help and took Angela into the funeral home. Ann Marie Lynott pulled up. A familiar face! Turned left, Ellen Maroney was walking up the hill! She had Jean Coughlin’s cell phone number, and was getting someone to the ER. As for Romaine? No complaints! Enjoying the fuss! A woman arrived—an off-duty ambulance driver! She put on rubber gloves and used them to take notes on Romaine’s vital signs and called the ambulance and told them to rush! They arrive. Romaine informed them how old she was, that it was after 3 p.m. so she was hard of hearing! The ambulance crew needed to lift her on a board—“ow”—lifted her on a stretcher and into the ambulance. The driver came up to us to share, “I’d be screaming my head off by now!”
Thinking I was free, I went into the funeral home. I saw Angela and her new friend who was entertaining her. Katie Clauss arrived. Her Mother and Romaine were very good friends. I told Katie what had happened; said my condolences to the family, got Angela to leave with me and the ambulance was still there! The Passionists heard what happened; a priest was inside the ambulance with Romaine, and Katie Clauss was next in line to see Romaine.
Angela and I drove home, but I decided to check on Romaine in the ER. I arrived to find Sister Richard Mary on duty but no Romaine yet! Then the off-duty ambulance driver arrived; she knelt before Richard Mary and gave her an update.
A miracle for Romaine? A miracle for me? A miracle for the participants and witnesses? I don’t know, but anything that happens that quickly is definitely a miracle. People didn’t just arrive to help—the right people did!
 Sisters Romaine and Mary Persico |
Sister Romaine passed away on November 18, 2022. Click here to view her obituary.
Sister Redempta Sweeney, IHM
"Give me only your love and your grace, that’s enough for me.”
- Suscipe
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When looking for a person to profile for October, I didn’t realize that I had stumbled onto our own IHM Sankofa Bird in Sister Redempta Sweeney, IHM! She’s our “living history!" Through her we can look to our past so we can move forward into our “emerging future.”
From the moment I entered the novitiate building in 1969, there has always been Redempta. I’d forgotten that Redempta completed her congregational leadership responsibilities in 1994! Our younger members, who may be called to future congregational leadership positions, may not know of or have any lived experience of this part of Redempta’s story. At some point, it dawned on me that my task was to focus on Redempta, herself. What can I say that will help us all realize that we have an IHM wisdom figure alive in our midst? As we approach Chapter and determine our “emerging future,” she can speak to a large part of our past that she directly shaped and share some insights on how to “discern the signs of the times” so we can move forward effectively.
Luckily, much of the information one needs to know about Redempta is already on the IHM website. Search both “Canonical Superiors” and “Vocation Stories.” Redempta’s profiles there are prerequisite reading for this profile.
Redempta made her first profession in 1958. Ten years later she was appointed the directress of novices! In short, other than having been a novice herself, Redempta had no training for her new position. Amazingly, divine providence was at work! In 1968, Redempta was one of the first IHMs in formation leadership in a Post-Vatican II Church. It’s so much easier to move forward if you’re not carrying lots of baggage. When it came to teaching IHM spirituality to novices, the “teach what you need to learn” strategy worked well. However, she did spend a year in Rome with other formation directors. Ask her about her teachers, subjects, and the two amazing pilgrimages she took where saints became friends and the redemption story became real!
In 1978, Redempta was teaching religion at Bishop Hoban High School. She wasn’t even a delegate – but, a summer school student – when she got the call to come to Chapter as she’d just been elected to be the (newly-created leadership position) Director of Spiritual Renewal. At this point I direct you to the Canonical Superiors website section. Scan the section. It’s my impression that no other IHM superior profiled there comes anywhere close to having the specific and significant accomplishments listed for Redempta – including opening the House of Prayer in Verona.
Redempta’s approach to spirituality has been shaped by her Jesuit training. However, I think when she says “discern,” it’s essentially about getting to a space where you are able to listen to the Spirit, ask the question and be at peace with the answer. But when you couple it with “the signs of the times,” Redempta recalled her own struggle with implementing a Chapter directive to begin a Development Office. Believing in divine providence, it took four years for Redempta to understand that a Development Office provides a way for others to support our mission. Understanding that four year journey might be a great exercise for any delegate or elected leader.
Finally, when it comes to Redempta – pay attention! Let us all say to her what she asked me to say to all of you: “Redempta – You are precious in our eyes and glorious and we love you!”
 Leadership team 1978 L-R back: Joanne Barry, Mary Cephas Ryan, Redempta Sweeney. L-R seated: Michel Keenan, Eleanor Desaulniers |
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Sister Mary Ann Remus, IHM
“I fell in love with God while fishing, swimming and digging for Indian fossils in the Susquehanna River.”
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When Mary Ann Remus asked where she came from, her mother replied: “You came down the Susquehanna River in the ’36 flood!” She’d arrived in the Village of Port Griffith.
Mary Ann grew up when “Coal was no longer King.” Her father worked in the mines until he complained about mine safety and the owners started depriving him of supplies that would keep him personally safe. Then he worked for the Lehigh Railroad while continuing to be an activist for mine safety reform. He regularly contacted John L. Lewis to support the creation of the United Mine Workers Union. Miners breathed in so much coal dust that they developed “Miner’s Asthma.” Their homemade remedy for such pain was to stop on the way home for a “shot and a beer.” Not only did this lead to many miners developing alcoholism but many miners also left the Church as the priests regularly referred to them as “drunks.”
Living in such poverty, parents make getting their children a good education a priority. During grade school, Mary Ann’s teachers also brought their students to the Bernadine Sisters for “catechism class” three times a week! She first met the IHMs at St. John’s High School in Pittston and she got her degree with the Mercy Sisters at Misericordia College. When I asked Mary Ann why she picked IHM, she wasn’t sure it mattered. But then two things occurred to her: 1) Her sense of the IHMs was that they were very “knowledgeable” and 2) She’d met Sister St. Anthony Radzikowski – her first, non-Irish IHM! For years she visualized herself as “baseball nun,” “fisherman nun,” “girls’ basketball coach nun,” and eventually that visualized “nun” was wearing an IHM habit!
Mary Ann started out as a religion teacher in 1960. By the mid-sixties, she was teaching at Maria Regina High School in Uniondale and pursuing a MA in Religious Education at Manhattan College in the Bronx along with Sister Maria Rose Kelly. Studying religious education in NYC with world-renown theologians in the 60s during the Vietnam War (Yes, she joined the protesters!) with the Christian Brothers was a life-changing experience. Ironically, it made being a high school religion teacher even more frustrating! Students saw religion class as another version of studying the catechism and weren’t prepared to go “deeper.” So, Mary Ann began to transition into DRE/Parish Ministry by the mid-70s. It was here that she found colleagues and students who shared her vision and values.
Mary Ann’s first garden crop was radishes – age 6! At the IHM Center she secured funding for the raised beds that allow for “gardening for the body that no longer easily kneels.” At OLP, she’s growing tomatoes, cucumbers and squash on her porch! Having grown up along the Susquehanna, Mary Ann loves to go fishing! In fact, for a jubilee gift her family gave her a fishing trip on the St. Lawrence River!
In early 2020, Mary Ann was hospitalized and came to OLP (she thought!) to recover. Sadly, Covid arrived. She longed to return to the “freedoms” of the IHM Center only to realize that the Center was now just slightly “less free” than OLP. Then, she remembered her ministry as a “Home Instead” companion to the elderly – supporting elders who resist retirement home living. That program teaches that the elderly resist a) leaving their “real" home, b) their money/property, and, c) their friends. As an IHM, Mary Ann came to realize that OLP provides her with all three.
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Sister Mary Jane Maloney, IHM
“Let Go and Let God”
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Born in Port Washington, the oldest of three girls, Mary Jane Maloney had twelve years of IHM education. She also took piano lessons with a graduate of Juilliard - who told her she’d never be a performer, but she would be a music teacher. So, she pursued a degree in education. But her music background soon gave her multiple music-related responsibilities—the school concert, church music, and a ministry upon which that convent often financially depended—teaching piano lessons!
Her move, in 1975, to Goldsboro, N.C. was a turning point in her personal life. Mary Jane had entered the IHMs with a hereditary disease—alcoholism. For 25 years either Mary Jane successfully drank in private—though she never missed a day of class—or her local communities lived in denial or lacked the courage to confront her behavior. But, in Goldsboro, N.C., the sisters not only confronted Mary Jane, but they also companioned her into rehab at the Convent for Renewed Life in Middletown, NY. There she came to understand that alcoholism is a disease and that the best treatment was a cessation of alcohol consumption; the A.A. program and support by a fellow alcoholic—her sponsor. Each of us has much to learn from the alcoholic’s acceptance of Powerlessness; turning one’s life over to a Higher Power; taking life “One Day at a Time”; and paying attention to HALT – feeling Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired (pandemic, anyone?) Mary Jane even wrote a letter for the newsletter – both admitting her alcoholism and expressing gratitude to the congregation.
When Mary Jane returned to Goldsboro for the dedication of the new church, she not only received a warm welcome but also on the return home, found a rainbow circling the plane! Further, she was gifted by an assignment to St. Raymond’s Elementary School in East Rockaway and her 10 year experience with the school band! The band at St. Raymond’s seemed to be as important as football is to Notre Dame! Her 8th grade boys taught her to march and staff helped with instrument training. For 10 years the band placed first in the Garden City St. Patrick’s Day Parade! But the pinnacle of her band experience was taking 46 students (and 46 adults) to Dublin, Ireland, where the band placed 2nd in Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade!
After St. Raymond’s, Mary Jane had breast cancer (twice!). Despite surgery and treatments, she missed little school time.
In her mid-80s and considered “part-time,” Mary Jane put in a full-time schedule at St. Ephrem’s in Brooklyn. A small community, the convent stayed open because a group of Josephites joined them. One day Mary Jane’s swollen ankles started to weep. At the hospital she was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. From the hospital she went to rehab where she met John Edwards, whose book – Life’s Final Battle – Raging Against Immobility - has exercises she continues to this day.
Luckily, the day after she returned home, Covid arrived at the rehab!
Mary Jane arrived at OLP last August and immediately felt at peace with her surroundings and staff she already knew. However, the move to OLP has come with its own losses. In quarantine and no longer able to drive, she couldn’t return to Brooklyn for the funerals of two Josephites, who died after falls at the convent, or to visit her sister who had a stroke in Riverhead, L.I.
Now 89, Mary Jane continues to live by the A.A. belief – “Let Go and Let God.” May we all share that belief!
Sister Anysia Donohue, IHM
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Lucky?
When I interviewed Sister Anysia, she kept repeating (emphatically!) “I’ve been so lucky!” So, I’ve spent time thinking about the term “luck.”
Lillian Donohue and her four older siblings are first generation Americans. Her parents (Catherine and Timothy) were Irish immigrants. Her father came to America on the last voyage of the Lusitania. After her mother arrived in Pittsburgh, she went to work for a wealthy American family and sent much of her salary home to her family.
After completing eighth grade, Lillian had hoped to attend the Josephite Sisters’ Seminary, but, unfortunately, there wasn’t a space available. So, Lillian joined her sister at St. Mary of the Mount High School where she met the IHMs (perhaps the IHMs were lucky?). Lillian didn’t join some of her classmates on a trip to Scranton, so when Mother Marcella made a trip to Pittsburgh for a follow-up meeting, Lillian didn’t join them. However, she ran into Sister Elphege (lucky?) who insisted she join the group. At the end of the meeting, Mother Marcella approached Lillian and told her she was certain she would be seeing Lillian back in Scranton!
Lillian Donohue and friends from Pittsburgh entered the IHM Congregation in 1950. Having been given the name “Anysia,” Lillian completed her novitiate and went to live/teach at St. Paul’s as a primary teacher. It was here that Anysia believes she “lucked out.” Not just one, but all of the sisters in the convent became her mentors – assuring that she would be a successful teacher as she also continued to complete her degree in Elementary Education at Marywood.
Anysia spent ten years as an elementary teacher in the U.S. Then, she accepted an assignment to be one of the four sisters to open the IHM mission in Peru (Joel Marie, Ramona and Michael Marie). Anysia didn’t know any Spanish so she depended on a student in her second grade to serve as her translator! Five years later, Anysia began what would end up being a 42 year ministry back in her home town of Pittsburgh. Though some of these years also included family ministry, it was apparent that Anysia stayed in Pittsburgh because she loved it there – “They’re good people!” Being there for so long she got to teach several generations of the same families. Anysia only returned to Scranton because the school closed.
Her time at the IHM Center included teaching at the EEI and working at St. Joseph’s Baby Pantry.
Health issues brought Anysia to OLP in 2019 (just in time for the pandemic’s quarantine). Anysia’s health needs required her to leave the building regularly for treatment. She successfully navigated those trips and escaped a Covid infection and has seen a great improvement in her condition.
Because of her health issues, Anysia has definitely needed staff assistance. I was truly impressed with how deep is her gratitude for the help they have given her. Anysia’s nightly ritual is to review/count her blessings for the day and to pray for the needs of the nursing staff.
I’ve come to question Anysia’s belief that she’s led a “lucky” life. Luck just happens to you – but, given free will – you choose to cooperate with grace. Often, what happens to you is what you are open to and “blessings” continue because you articulate your deep gratitude for what you have already received. If there’s one word that describes Anysia, it’s “grateful” not “lucky.” Before now, Anysia and I had never spoken. Now, her sense of gratitude has infected me – because that’s how I feel about getting to spend time getting to know her.
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Pittsburgh, PA skyline
Sister M. Anysia passed away on April 22, 2023. Click here to view her obituary.
Sister Mary Pio Ferrario, IHM
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We saw service and so, we served.
Louise Ferrario experienced the concept of “service” shortly after her birth as she and her mother moved to an apartment in North Scranton because her father, Peo, was leaving to serve his country in WWII. Upon his return, the Ferrario family welcomed three more children: Joseph, Mary, and Pia. Each of their lives has also been characterized by service. Joseph, a former Jesuit, is a benefactor of the Jesuits. Mary Ferrario Rinaldi is an active member of UNICO, including staffing the UNICO table at St. Joseph’s Festival. Pio’s youngest sister, Pia, received the IHM Spirit Award in 2017 and currently serves as a Marywood University Trustee.
Louise Ferrario attended Marywood Seminary mainly because, “All of my friends were going there.”
If you entered the congregation after the Motherhouse fire, you may know very little of the Seminary experience. But knowing that the Seminary classrooms, boarders’ dormitories, dining room, and visiting parlors were housed within the Motherhouse building, it can easily be imagined that Seminary students like Louise Ferrario had plenty of opportunities to observe the IHMs and assume that they knew what those first years joining them would be like. For Louise Ferrario that didn’t end up to be true.
The day after entrance in 1959, Mother Kathleen informed the new arrivals that they were now part of a new phase of IHM formation “candidates” and would be moving to Our Lady of Grace in Manhasset until December 8 when they would officially become “postulants” and reside at the Motherhouse.
In 1950, Pope Pius XII expressed concern about the quality of education in Catholic schools. In 1952, Sister Mary Emil Penet, IHM (Monroe) took up that challenge and, as part of a group that predated LCWR, (CMSW) in 1959, Mother Kathleen began initiating the “Sister Formation Conference” with Louise Ferrario’s entrance band. It meant that sisters would not be sent out to teach before completing an academic degree that corresponded in quality to that demanded by the state.
Meanwhile, in the 1950s the Motherhouse accommodated space for new arrivals numbering in the 40s plus 90 novices (plus a high school, administrative offices and college faculty)! So by 1955 Mother Kathleen began to plan to build a novitiate. She created a group, including Pio's father, called “The Fathers and Friends” to assist with fundraising. This group of over 600 represented many geographic areas where IHMs served and continued to raise funds until 1974. Sister Mary Pio was among the first group making vows in the “house her father was helping to build for her.”
Though these profiles normally focus on just the life of the sister profiled, it seems important to include information on the SFC and the Fathers and Friends group because this is a time when the profile of one person intersects with a major part of the history of the congregation.
Pio herself spent most of her ministry teaching math in junior/senior high schools, following in the footsteps of her Seminary math teacher and IHM sponsor, Sister Samuel McKeown. During her last school ministry, Sister Mary Pio served students in a very close and personal way as a high school guidance counselor.
Becoming an IHM shows that Sister Mary Pio has followed her family’s call to service. But in this pandemic time her ministry as a guidance counselor may be the best way to understand her call to service—it is direct, personal and one-to-one.
Coming to OLP during this quarantine/lockdown time, Pio puts her decision in context. She’d been to OLP several times to recover. Her move here was a great relief. She’d been living by herself in an apartment, going to the store, putting out the garbage. Having OLP available is a blessing.
 L-R: John Murray, Foundation president, Sara Ferrario, Joe Ferrario, Sister Ellen Maroney, IHM, Foundation board member, Sister Mary Pio Ferrario, IHM, Rosebud Ferrario, Pia Ferrario, award recipient, Nick Ferrario, Mary Rinaldi, Sister Ann Monica Bubser, IHM, Foundation executive director. |
Sister Monique Dissen, IHM
“It’s not easy, but, work for His smile."
- Sister M. Josephus Bower, IHM
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Monique and her MomSister Monique Dissen became an OLP resident recently. That’s quite an adjustment from active ministry to a retirement home during a pandemic!
Baptized Lillian Frances, Monique was born in Pittsburgh, the fourth of five children of Robert and Margaret; and she spent years with the IHMs at St. Mary of the Mount. Even though she did have a boyfriend through high school, she felt strongly that she needed to come to Marywood to be certain about her sense that she was called to be an IHM. So, in 1955, she packed her suitcase and made her way to the Sweeney’s to travel to Scranton with her classmate whom we all know as Sister Redempta.
Having entered post Vatican II, this was the first time I considered what the reception experience might have been like for parents to see their daughter come into the chapel as a bride and leave it as a novice!
Monique spent 38 years as a primary teacher and considers the years she spent in the West in Twin Falls, Idaho, as one of her favorite missions. There she met a diversity of people who had a special relationship to the environment. Apparently, in the West, the mountains don’t have trees. They’re “masculine.” They have boulders with snow caps!
The year 1971 was a year of painful memories. Like many IHMs, Monique experienced the sadness of not being in Scranton after the Motherhouse fire. Also that year, the IHMs made the decision to close all missions in the West. Tragically, a sister that Monique had lived with in Idaho was killed in a car accident. So, even though Monique returned to her hometown, she has a strong connection to her inner spirit and she knew that “she was on E!” She needed a time to heal her soul and she decided that a year of service at St. Joseph’s Center would “fill her tank.”
We all pray for something. Monique prays that “God will increase her capacity.” Without sharing the details of her “Sacred Story,” know that God answered Monique’s prayer by filling her life with experiences that “stretched her capacity to the full.”
At one point her ministry did bring her back home to Pittsburgh and did give her time to companion her mother through to her death. What I appreciate about Monique is that when her spirit says she’s on empty, she – unlike many of us, pays attention. As the congregation had started to support sabbaticals, Monique asked to have one. She was attracted to spend that time at Blessing Place because its brochure had a “bench, a tree and a pond.”
Not long after this time, Monique accepted an invitation to begin what became a 22 year ministry as a pastoral associate in New Bern, N.C. When she
arrived at St. Paul’s convent, she knew she’d made the right choice – it had a “bench, a tree and a pond!
She insisted that her ministry team be called “Earthen Vessels.” It would seem that her “capacity” had been stretched to a point where if you can imagine the vast array of pain and loss a “pastor” might experience while bringing Eucharist to the sick - even the psych ward – to praying with prisoners or helping to bury the dead – Monique was able to say “I understand” and it was true.
Monique has a “Prayer Bear. It speaks! It’s (her) message to us – “Your Life is a Gift. Prayer is a Thank You!” Yes, Monique, that’s true! "Thank You!”
My family in 1966: Betty, me, Mom, Bobby, Patsy, Peggy, and Dad
50th Jubilee. L-R: Rita Ann Naughton, Margaret Gannon, Marilyn Muro, Redempta Sweeney, St. Francis Lyons, Monique Dissen, sitting Irene Swanteson, and Marguerite Green
Sister Marie Moore, IHM
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“Happy” is an emotion. Emotions are fleeting. “Living Joyfully for Others” is a Grace. And, it’s a “Choice” Sister Marie Moore, IHM, makes Marie was born in 1941, the middle child of five children. Her parents were born and lived through a pandemic (1918) and the Great Depression.
Marie’s father, Joseph, grew up with IHMs at St. Michael’s School for Boys at Hoban Heights. He aged out at 18 and found a job as a waiter in the Hotel Casey and a home with Kate McGarry (an Irish immigrant who worked in the Casey’s kitchen) and her sister and her husband in South Scranton. Marie’s grandmother died when her mother, Anna, was ten. The oldest, she helped raise her siblings. She worked at the telephone company. Her parents met in the alley that separated both buildings. Joseph Moore spent World War II in the Navy in a ship’s engine room. He returned home with damaged lungs.
Marie had the IHMs at St. Ann’s School in West Scranton. Her vocation was inspired by Sister Marthine’s reading the Lives of the Saints. Marie’s father wasn’t happy about her becoming an IHM. While surprised, Marie did wonder how strict she’d be if responsible for an orphan that would age out into a Depression. But with her father’s poor health, having Marie close to home was important. On her Entrance Day, Marie found her father in a lively discussion with his former Hoban Height’s IHMs!
Marie’s mother was a seamstress and taught Marie how to sew. Many IHMs wore a habit “Made by Marie!” Marie spent thirty years in her “Happy Place” – a middle school classroom.
Her time in Coeur d’Alene, ID was her happiest mission, but it snowed a lot in Idaho. Thus, there were many trips to the roof clearing off snow or turns throughout the night in nightgowns, mopping the water in the basement.
Marie spent a year in Mt. Holly, NJ – a blessing – she met Nancy LaCouture, a parent who turned into a bestfriend — and a curse – she needed gall bladder surgery and her mother died of heart failure. She ended her classroom days at St. Matthew’s in Wilmington. Marie had begun to suffer back pain. She recalled a fall from a cliff in Idaho landing on her back on a boulder. Sadly, during repair surgery, a nerve in the lumbar region was severed. Marie suffers extreme pain and has mobility issues.
No longer able to teach, Marie joined the support staff at the Marian Convent, mainly as a seamstress. Trish Davis, a nursing aide at both OLP and the Marian, recalls Marie’s visits to the third floor solarium sisters. “Here comes fun!” Marie prepares the deceased sisters’ clothing. Tragically, her youngest sister, Elaine, died alone and her body was found days later, decayed beyond a point where an open coffin was possible.
Marie’s surgeon had designed a spinal stimulator and Marie was one of the first to have it implanted. The device scrambles the pain signals that go to the brain to make the pain manageable. Marie wants to walk as long as she can and recently purchased her own sewing machine so she can continue to “serve her customers!”
At home, Marie sat with her father, Joseph, nightly and reviewed her day. Now, she does the same thing with St. Joseph. Then, she says an Act of Contrition (I did my best and I’ll try again tomorrow) and an Act of Love. A good post-election suggestion!
If you remember Marie for anything, know she doesn’t want your sympathy; instead, she says: “Remember the “Happy Times!”
Sister Marie Moore, third from left top row, with her band.
Sister Marionette Coll, IHM
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I recently discovered I was writing a profile for the Newsletter of the very IHM Sister who created this publication! Could this series ever be complete without including hers?
Sister Marionette was born in Pittsburgh on November 17, 1921 (she’ll be 99 this year!) and baptized Marjorie. She’s the middle child of the nine children of Francis (“FrankX”) and Mary Broderick Coll (pronounced “Call”). Marjorie went to St. Rosalia’s Grade School and High School.
Sister Josephine Brennan, IHM, was not only her sponsor but seemed to “orchestrate” her entrance process in 1939! While Marjorie was wondering if she was worthy, Sister Josephine was buying the train ticket and arranging with her own father to pick Marjorie up at the train station. However, once Marjorie met Sister Anasyia and experienced her kindness and IHM hospitality, she knew she belonged and soon became Sister Marionette.
Marionette spent one year teaching primary and two years in intermediate classrooms. Though English was her favorite subject, it was decided that Marionette should attend Fordham for a math degree. Thus Marionette spent the next eighteen years teaching high school math and science. She has fond memories of her decade at Immaculata High School in NYC. This was also a time when her extracurricular assignments included the newspaper, yearbook, speech and debate.
In 1964 she came to Marywood and was soon on the road with the outside company the college had hired to do fundraising for a capitol campaign. Recognizing her skills in this area, Marionette was appointed director of development and she formalized the college’s fundraising programs. In 1968, Marywood went through a re-structuring and Marionette becoming Marywood’s vice president for development. Her term in office included both the year of the Marywood Motherhouse fire and its aftermath.
In 1978, Marywood’s V.P. for Academic Affairs, Sister Michel Keenan, became IHM Congregation general superior. She invited Sister Marionette to join her. Sister Marionette suggested her skills would be best used in public relations. Thus, the Office of Communications was established and Sister Marionette was appointed its first director. The IHM Newsletter replaced the general superior’s periodic letters to the sisters. Marionette established a committee to create Journey. Returning to her office after a conversation with Sister Michel about the need to formalize fundraising efforts to meet growing retirement needs, Marionette found herself singing the line, "When your hair has turned to Silver.” Soon she sketched out what continues to this day as the Silver Circle Retirement Fund Fundraising Program. At 98, Marionette is still a seller!
At 73, Sister Marionette became an office assistant at St. Agnes School in Baltimore. Happily, she was reunited with her dear friend, Sister Maureen Schrimpe. They’d met in the 70s when Maureen was in charge of the kitchen at the IHM Center. Maureen and Marionette have been best friends for 40+ years. Maureen shared a poem that describes their relationship: “Why we need best friends...because they laugh at the same silly things we do…because they give us honest advice…because they will be there for us - even if they are thousands of miles away...because they celebrate with us when we are at our best, but still love us at our worst.”
At 84, Marionette returned to Scranton to “retire” but ended up living at the IHM Center and spending hours during the week at OLP as a Telespond volunteer!
In 2012, she came to live at OLP—her “true retirement.” She’s written her own obituary and longs for the end of this pandemic so she and Maureen can continue their “vacation adventures.” A life well-lived!
Sister Marionette's siblings: Lillian,
Eleanor, Bill, Marionette, Ed, and Patricia
Sister Marionette in Boston while
on vacation with her friend, Sister Maureen.
Sister Marie Lourdes Vanston, IHM
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Marie Lourdes Vanston, 1992, Superintendent of Schools, Diocese of Wilmington, DE
Marie Lourdes with best friend Elise Bier, RSM at Elise’s 80th birthday celebration in 2019
“Empathy and a Sense of Resurrection”
“I was born and raised above a funeral home. I am definitely a funeral director’s Daughter!” Thus began one of the most amazing conversations I’ve had in a very long time!
Sister Marie Lourdes Vanston (born Nan – “Nance”) is from West Scranton, the oldest of four children of Marian and Thomas Vanston (Tom, Marian and Jim). Nance was only six when she “entered the family business” – arranging chairs and moving flowers. In the 1940s, transitioning from being “waked at home” to “the funeral parlor” meant viewing hours went from 7am to 11pm and the director’s family provided three meals a day to the grieving family in their residence upstairs. During those hours, Nance had the opportunity to observe her mother as she consoled families and, because many of the final services were at the funeral home, to listen to her father’s “sermons.” Thus, Marie learned empathy from her mother and “a sense of resurrection” from her dad. However, having listened to the rest of her story, I would add that Marie also learned what “daily resurrection” means from both her parents – that ability to “rise up, face the day and move on!”
Being the oldest daughter in an Irish family, Nance came to St. Patrick’s School with the subconscious expectation that she would become a nun. Marie does, however, give special credit to her IHM teachers - Sisters Eva, Marionette, Benedicta and Rose Angela – and her sponsor, Sister Celine Duffy.
The Marian Year was 1954. The IHMs prayed that they would have 54 postulants. Nan Vanston was one of them! “Marie Lourdes” did suggest (in writing!) that she might be “the IHM funeral director.”
Marie’s sister, Marian, was also a member of the congregation – Sister Mary David – for 18 years. She went on Home Ministry to care for her mother. During Marie’s time as superintendent in Wilmington, her sister was in a car accident. Marie travelled to Scranton on weekends to care for her. Oh…and…at that time, Marie had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and was delaying surgery/chemo so she could do so! Gratefully, the congregation welcomed Marian home and cared for her at the Marian Convent until her death.
In 2001, the unspeakable happened. Marie’s baby brother – Jimmy – living in Chicago – had gone missing. He’d been brutally murdered in an attempted robbery. Marie wrote to anyone she thought might have influence over the charges. While she wanted justice for her brother, she did not want anyone given the death penalty. Perhaps, more amazingly, was the grace Marie displayed during the trial as she met for prayer each morning with the families of the accused.
After the trial and a sabbatical, now cancer-free Marie joined the Education Department of St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue, L.I. At one point, while driving, Marie had a seizure that resulted in physical injuries that required her to first experience life at OLP as a temporary resident in therapy. It was also a time when she was diagnosed with “post-polio-syndrome” (she’d had polio in the novitiate).
This syndrome dramatically impacts her ministry and living choices. And now while doing data-processing support for Friends of the Poor, she’s become a permanent resident of OLP.
You should know that doing this interview was like going to an Irish wake. We laughed a lot! Because we do not live on the same floor, we had to find a mutually acceptable interview location. Yep! Marie and I talked in “the IHM funeral parlor” and, once again, Marie lives on the second floor!
Tom, Marian (Sister Mary David), Mother (Marian F. Wagstaff Vanston),
Jim, Father (Thomas J. Vanston), Nance (Sister Marie Lourdes) 1959 at Marian’s profession
Sister M. Celesta Sinisi, IHM
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Former students from Asbury Park come for a visit
“A Spiritual Awakening”
Life at OLP continues to be mostly in the “Red Zone” (with some “shades of Pink”!) One of the greatest sacrifices is the lack of contact with the outside world—both because of travel restrictions and the limitations on visitors. For so many, technology has offered options that can minimize that loss of human contact. And so, I’ve selected to profile my newest Facebook
friend, Sister Celesta Sinisi! What sealed this deal for me was her recent call for some computer help. When I arrived at her room, I discovered that she was “streaming” the Mass for the Feast of the Sacred Heart on Facebook and there was some problem with sound!
Sister Celesta, now in her 73rd year of profession, was baptized Sylvia, the fifth of seven siblings. Her parents were Italian immigrants who’d settled in Altoona, PA. Celesta is one of a number of sisters I’ve interviewed who’ve survived or had parents survive the 1918 pandemic, the Great Depression, World Wars I and II and, if you think of the historical timeline, so many other national and international crisis that, just knowing that fact, reminds us that OLP is a “House of Survivors.” In these times, that should give each of us great hope!
Sylvia met the IHM sisters through Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish’s CCD program and was influenced to consider an IHM vocation as she prepared for her first communion with Sister Ann Helene Coyne.
She entered the IHMs in 1944 and she taught all grades from primary to junior high. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel had a strong influence on her life as it’s also the name of her first and favorite mission in Asbury Park, NJ, where she spent 15 years. After 35 years of teaching, Celesta moved into a ministry that is dear to her heart—religious education of children at St. Rocco’s in Pittston where she served for another 15 years. Then, Sister Celesta moved to the IHM Center and served as a tutor in the E.E.I. Special mention should be made of Sasha Power, an African American girl with special learning needs. Sister Celesta worked with her for 19 years! Sasha left the E.E.I. when she was 31!
Celesta hopes when she dies people will remember her “dedication to the Apostolate of the Enthronement of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.” Begun in 1945 as a collaborative effort between the Bishop of Scranton (Hafey), Marywood College and the IHM Congregation, the Apostolate’s Sister Moderator was an IHM. Celesta replaced Sister Eamon O'Neill who replaced Sister Romaine Krug. In this ministry, technology has been a tool to both communicate about and support those engaged in this work.
Last fall, Celesta’s computer stopped working. At that time, her dear friend, Sister Monica Byrne, was dying. One day I stopped in to visit Monica and found Celesta praying at her bedside. I noticed there was a small note attached to Monica's laptop. Monica had left directions that upon her death her laptop was to go to Celesta! Divine Providence?
At OLP, Celesta reaches out to the needs of the sisters by using her technology skills to make cards and banners that make some days for people just a little more special.
Sister Celesta still actively engages in the Enthronement’s ministry and with its current coordinator, Maria Pappa. When Sister Celesta has time, her spiritual reading includes a biblical commentary! So it should come as no surprise that Celesta describes her journey and her life now as a “spiritual awakening” ever evolving as she journeys home.
 Sacred Heart Guild |
 Sister Celesta and Maria Papa |
Sister Mary William Philbin, IHM
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“We are blest to have her here. Amen!”
Until now, I have exclusively focused on OLP residents. However, recently I ran into Sister Mary William. I then went into the nurses’ station and asked how often Mary William helped out here. The nurse replied, "I’m not sure, but she’s here more often than I am!” So, though she resides at St. Clare’s Convent, Sister Mary William Philbin is definitely an important member of the OLP community and she seems a perfect subject for an OLP profile.
While I will include some background, I’ve decided to mostly focus on her time here at OLP and supplement her remarks with comments from her OLP colleagues.
Born in Scranton and baptized Mary Therese, one of five girls, she entered the IHMs in 1964 and was given the name of her parents, Mary William. She served as an elementary school teacher from 1969 to 2016, including as a first grade teacher at St. Clare’s School from 1987 to 2016.
After her retirement from teaching, Mary William came to OLP as a Telespond Volunteer. However, she spends so much time at OLP; she is described as a member of the OLP support services.
Some of the staffing in Household 1C comes from the LIFE program, but all of the residents in 1C have challenges. Having observed Mary William as a first grade teacher, it seems to me that many of her skills make her quite suited to the work she is now doing.
But, I’m thinking of an experience I had observing her in her first grade classroom. One day, I was in her classroom with a camera, waiting for someone to come and observe her teach. When I alerted her that the "observer" was near, Mary William turned to the class that was actively and noisily engaged in some project and said, “Boys and Girls! Boys and Girls! The one 'who knows a lot' is coming!” While I found myself chuckling at her phrasing, I turned and looked at the students. They’d immediately stopped and she had their attention. More importantly, they were standing tall and eager and I realized that “knows a lot” was just the right phrasing for the age group she was addressing.
Mary William respects the sisters on first floor and even stoops down to be sure she’s at their eye-level when talking with them. She convinces them that she has conferred with the doctors to get them to eat, drink and cooperate with the staff. When visitors arrive she’ll even dance with the sisters. She is sad that the quarantine means the sisters’ lives aren’t “brightened by good friends and loving relatives.”
Beyond her ministry to the residents, it’s apparent that Mary William also ministers to the staff as well. The 1A and 1B staffs were eager to add these comments to her profile:
• She is filled with energy, positivity, and compassion.
• She is the “sunshine of the IHM.”
• I have never met any human being with such warmth, kindness, and sincerity.
• She makes my day.
• The sisters depend on her and would be lost without her.
• She sees the good in everyone.
Yes, Amen!
Sister Mary William passed away on December 22, 2021. Click here to view her obituary.
Sister Loretta Mulry, IHM
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“If I am going to teach… why not teach for God.”
Loretta Mulry was born in Brooklyn, the oldest of 3 children followed by a brother, Philip, Jr., and sister, Evelyn. With a mother caring for two children under the age of two, Loretta learned responsibility young, doing tasks outside the home to help her mother.
The family moved to Port Washington, where Loretta met the IHMs in 7th grade at St. Peter's School. They had a tradition of sending two students dressed as IHMs to a diocesan mass. Loretta’s name was selected! She wondered if this was a “sign from God.” She wanted to become a teacher and concluded “if I’m going to be a teacher, why not teach for God?” At St. Mary’s Loretta met and was influenced greatly by Sister Susan McMenamin, her chorus and band director.
By profession of her profession, Loretta, aka, Sister St. Laurence, had decided to be a science teacher. So Loretta taught elementary school in Clarks Green for four years and commuted on Saturdays to complete her degree.
Loretta taught high school science for sixteen years. Her favorite mission was St. John’s in Pittston, where she increased her physics’ background watching “Sunrise Semester” (on CBS). At least 30 students have remained good friends and she has tapped about 100 of them for the Silver Circle program!
After five years on the science faculty at Marywood College, Loretta served there as dean of the Gillet School for six years. Then she joined her family in Florida becoming the dean at Barry University where she served for eleven years.
Moving to FL allowed Loretta to spend time with her sister. After an accident when she was nineteen years old, Evelyn became a severe quadriplegic. Nonetheless, she travelled extensively, pursued a degree, worked as a social worker, had a child and was also a para-olympian!
After her service as dean and because of Evelyn’s husband’s premature death, Loretta moved to live with her sister. She continued serving Barry University as middle management in web design, grants research, and marketing.
In Florida only five years, Loretta fell and injured her left quadricep tendon. She managed her last twenty years by surgery/therapy/a walker, a cane and, at times, a wheel chair.
In 2006, her brother purchased a seventeen room house (Casa Maria) to be used as a convent. Besides her sister, one IHM and one SCC lived there. Loretta also invited other IHMs to vacation and retreat there. Loretta surrounded herself with members of her Titusville parish’s Council of Catholic Women.
After 25 years Loretta returned to OLP where she helps maintain the building’s inventory and has edited documents for the African Sisters Education Collaborative (ASEC).
Loretta is also drawn to a “contemplative” life, being especially impacted by doing the 19th Annotations.
Loretta believes the OLP Sisters should participate in the congregation’s governance. She takes the time to watch the Advisory Board meetings and takes copious notes. She’s organized “The Centennials” who meet after the meeting to discuss agenda topics.
She meets with her former Marywood colleagues who socialize and play games… now they continue to meet using Zoom!
In the time of COVID-19, Loretta has more time and fills it with communications and prayer. Not going to the main dining room—a source of in-house news—and with the depressing quality of the national news, having stimulating dinner conversation is challenging. Loretta has taken to “surprising her household” by cooking part of one evening meal weekly… mostly by using leftovers from the day’s noontime dinner.
Loretta believes “life is what you make it” and, at OLP, she has been able to create a fulfilling life.
Sister Mary Ehling, IHM
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September 1966, Mary Ehling, formerly known as Sister M. St. Gregory
1991, St. Mary's Girls High School, Manhasset, NY, where Sister Mary The Grace of Perseverance
Being in quarantine at OLP means this month’s interview was being done via Zoom. Luckily, I had selected Sister Mary Ehling. She represents a new residential experience at OLP known affectionately as the “4Bs.” Five sisters live as a local community on the fourth floor at OLP. They live as an independent community without the regular nursing services provided to other households.
Born in Queens, Mary’s father was a CPA and his mathematical skills were definitely passed along to Mary! She decided to attend St. Mary’s Girls’ School in Manhasset and rode Mr. Jablonski’s (father of Sister Barbara) bus to school! St. Mary's was often the source of many vocations, and Mary was one of five graduates who entered the congregation after graduation.
Mary taught math for 15 years before she was assigned to Bishop O’Hara High School in Dunmore, and became the school’s vice-principal.
At Seton Catholic in Pittston, Mary was the principal of a K-12 school. Here she experienced the painful task of having to close a school. The congregation decided the grade school’s enrollment was too low. Despite such a difficult experience for faculty, students and parents, Mary does look back at Seton as one of her fondest experiences – primarily because of the support she had from her local community at the time.
While at Bishop Klonowski High School, she finally pursued a school administration credential (from Catholic University). After only two years, the diocese told Mary that the school was going to close. Mary, however, insisted the school not close but “merge” with Bishop Hannan High School.
Later when she returned home to her alma mater, St. Mary's in Manhasset as principal, Mary learned that the boys’ and girls’ high schools were going to merge and the principal of the boys’ school would become the principal of both.
I share these experiences to show that Mary understands the challenges of small business closings today during this coronavirus crisis.
After a sabbatical at Weston School of Theology, Mary served the poor and homeless AIDS patients, making sure they got their benefits.
In 2000, while visiting her brother for the holidays, Mary suffered a major stroke during Christmas Eve Mass. She returned to the Marian Convent for rehab. The therapists set goals so she could return to school - including managing the subway and living at a convent without an elevator. Mary moved from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane and says that she would walk on the treadmill “until she was blue in the face.”
Then, Mary returned to NYC to the business office at the Dominican Academy. Though a financially elite institution, the students had a strong service ministry to the poor. Desiring to live in an IHM community, Mary moved to East Harlem and traveled to Dominican Academy every day on public transportation.
With the closure of the East Harlem convent, Mary moved in with the Charity Sisters until that convent also closed. Finally, she decided it was time to come to Scranton and work in the congregation’s business office. Then, the 4B community at OLP was created. The railings in the hallway, the handicapped-access bathrooms and elevator meet her remaining physical limitations.
OLP has given her a new outlook on the end of life and death. Funerals here are a time of celebration and, like the building’s name, a place of peace. Her only discomfort is listening to the stories at the sisters' wakes. She wonders what people will say about her… has she lived “a good enough life?” Well, I can easily tell her she need not worry! She has obediently carried out difficult decisions and worked with great determination to return to service. Though all IHMs have been called to pray for the “grace of perseverance,” it is obvious that Mary has been given that grace! And, in these days of struggle and worry about the future, Mary serves as our beacon of hope!
 OLP 4B community. L-R standing, Lenore Thomas, Joyce Marks. Seated, Raymond Mary McIntyre, Mary Ehling. Not pictured, Eileen Coleman |
Sister Mary Ann Adams, IHM
“Do not fear what will happen tomorrow…” - St. Francis de Sales
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Sister Mary Ann Adams’ story includes wisdom so needed for these times!
By first grade, Mary Ann was certain that she wanted to be a sister/teacher. She attended most of her grade school with the IHMs at St. Matthew School, Wilmington, DE. Mary Ann was attracted to the IHMs because they were friendly, happy and excellent teachers. She also knew the IHMs because her parents served as the sisters’ drivers and Mary Ann often was a passenger on those trips. One does wonder if the number of vocations dwindled once the sisters got their drivers’ licenses!
Mary Ann’s early IHM years were impacted by the pre-Vatican II creation of The Sister Formation Program. It formally established the Juniorate for the purpose of guaranteeing that sisters would not go on Mission until they had first received their degrees.
Mary Ann’s became a Junior High/High School history teacher. She often speaks “in stories” and, her laughter, as she tells – often tragic - health tales, reflects the fact that her greatest strength is her sense of humor.
When she was 27, she was sent to Puerto Rico. Not long after that, she developed her first autoimmune disease. Though it took almost eight months to get her home, she was certain that the congregation was always concerned about her health and getting her the medical treatment she needed.
When she returned to the states, she began her ministry at Little Flower School in Bethesda, MD. In part, to insure the stability of her medical care, Mary Ann remained at Little Flower for 33 years! She taught two generations of students. Perhaps the best example of her impact on her students was the return of a former student who’d become a famous musician. He needed a picture of the Little Flower. He wanted a tattoo of it so it would always be with him!
Mary Ann’s time in Bethesda was also a journey of accumulating multiple health issues and autoimmune diseases. As we fear infection by the Coronavirus, her mother’s assurance that “whatever I can do from heaven, I will do” should comfort us all as we think of our deceased family and IHM Sisters.
Though her physical limitations grew especially challenging at Bethesda, Mary Ann says that the faculty “enabled” her to continue ministry there for at least ten extra years. She did, however, come to the decision herself, that it was time; that she was ready to come back to Scranton.
Though she resides at OLP for its medical support, she continues as the congregation’s Director of Ministry Resources at the IHM Center or, like many these days, from her remote office at OLP. She works for Sister Ellen Maroney as the congregation’s direct contact with every diocese in which IHMs serve. As an historian, it’s clear that she has an incredible number of facts about the congregation in her knowledge base. One task she performs is to proofread obituaries. “Sisters gave their lives to the ministry of the congregation, so we owe them the most accurate obituary we can give them.”
Perhaps her greatest message to us these days is the fact that she daily says the prayer of St. Francis DeSales:
“Be at Peace! God, whose very own you are, will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand it, God will carry you in His arms. Do not fear what may happen tomorrow; the same understanding Father who cares for you today will take care of you then and every day. Amen!”
October 31, 1995 Halloween Parade – Little Flower School, L-R: Linda Pastorek, faculty, Francisco, student, Sister Mary Ann. Francisco is now Revered Francisco Aguirre of The Archdiocese of Washington. He visited Sister Mary Ann a few weeks ago.
Sister Kathleen McNulty, IHM
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Kathleen McNulty was born in West Side (“West Side the Best Side”) Scranton in 1929 on October 30th (“The first witch to come early!” – the day before Halloween) and the day after the stock market crash! Kathleen was the baby of her family (“I may be spoiled, but I will be burying you all!”) and had an older sister, Mary and a brother, Joseph.
She attended St. Patrick’s grade and high school. Though she realized she had a call to religious life in her freshman year, she kept it a secret until the last possible date in her Senior Year (when she had to explain why she didn’t want a scholarship to Marywood!). Kathleen had hopes of a fun and active social life and didn’t want it limited by the stereotype of a “future religious.”
Kathleen (Sister Spiritus) chose IHM because they laughed and seemed to have fun together! She was strongly influenced by both Sister Cormac and Sister Davida. From Sister Cormac she developed a desire to be a math teacher (and her organizational skills) but, as many have already guessed, it was Sister Davida who taught her how to love poetry and literature and whose influence guided many of her ministry choices.
Kathleen entered in 1948 and, shortly thereafter, three sisters died and she discovered the practice of saying nine rosaries for each sister! (29 in all!). She confessed that she didn’t quite complete that task!
Her first assignment was in “the White (elementary) School” in Washington, NC. She didn’t understand racism until the consolidation of the “White and the Black” churches and the need to cross picket lines!
From the mid-1950s through the mid-1980s, Kathleen taught secondary English and moderated the school newspaper. These assignments finely tuned Kathleen’s proofreading and editorial skills. She says her happiest day was when the Immaculata High School (33rd St., NYC) newspaper was submitted to a competition and won First Place Overall! Later, Kathleen and her students paraded their trophy down 5th Ave.! (She doesn’t claim full responsibility for that award – she did follow Sister Marionette Coll!). In fact, in 1977, she accepted Sister Marionette’s invitation to be Marywood’s Director of Public Relations and Editor!
Later, she worked in the Scranton Diocesan Office as the Director of Strategic Planning. There she also first worked with Sister Terry O’Rourke, who came to appreciate her editing skills.
In 1994 she came to live at the IHM Center (in the local community that included the Novices – which is where she met her dearest friend, Sister Joan McCusker). She was the co-chair of the sesquicentennial celebrations—there were six!
In 1998, she returned to the IHM Center until her final move to OLP in 2018. Along with Sister Eleanor Desaluniers, she started and computerized the IHM Archives. In 2007, she officially became the “Congregation’s Editor.”
We also know that Kathleen spent most chapter and assembly meetings as “the Official Meeting Secretary.” You will find Kathleen’s signature on many documents in the Archives - that means Kathleen has not only “edited” but has also recorded much of the Scranton IHM Story.
Joan McCusker was present for Kathleen’s interview. "How lucky, having survived a stroke, to have a friend who’s also your 'memory.'" So, I asked Joan if she’d like to say something to Kathleen now that one ordinarily saved until a vesper service. Joan’s response was that her dear friend is “sharp-witted, tremendously kind, fair and genuine. (She tells it like it is!) She’s honest, has integrity and is “funny as a crutch!” Ask Joan! What more can I add?
Sister Josephine Cioffi, IHM
“I always wanted to be with the children.”
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John Cioffi arrived from Italy having had his immigration process accelerated because he’d fought on the American side during WWI. Later he returned home for his brother’s ordination. There he met Luisa (also) Cioffi. Luisa was a widow with one daughter—Jeanette. Their mothers were good friends and they decided that their children should marry! John returned to New York while Luisa needed permission from the dictator, Mussolini, to bring her daughter to America. Surprisingly, the Italian dictator did give his permission as he believed in the "integrity of the family.”
Thus, John and Luisa settled on East 118th Street in East Harlem. Josephine has another older sister—Frances. Josephine grew up in the primarily Italian section of East Harlem. A “first generation” American, when Josephine was only in fourth grade, she helped her mother prepare for her
citizenship test.
Josephine travelled to 33rd Street to attend Immaculata High School where she first met the Scranton IHMs. Here she met Sister Herberta. Josephine recalls that Sister Herberta seemed to have an insight into potential vocations and took a particular interest in them.
Josephine arrived in Scranton in 1959. Her first question about the city: “Where’s the subway!?” Entering the IHMs in those pre-Vatican II years, Josephine had another problem —she couldn’t sing! But, ever the problem-solver, Josephine realized she just needed to find a skill she could do well. So, she learned to lector! Soon, many special celebrations found her at the lectern. Josephine took the name Lucia, the patroness of the blind, as Josephine suffered from vision loss which was later able to be corrected by cataract surgery.
Josephine spent ten years teaching in the elementary classroom. When she went to Nativity School in Scranton, she was assigned to teach Junior High Math. She discovered she loved it! Classroom management became easier because students had to really follow her as she taught them to solve problems. Thus, she enrolled in a Masters in Teaching Math degree at Catholic University. Soon, however, she was also being asked to assume the role of principal.
In 1984 Josephine moved to St. Ann’s in Eastern Harlem and stayed for thirty years! In many ways Josephine was home! While principal, she always continued to teach at least one class and knew all of the students by name. As a first generation American, Josephine had an affinity for students with special learning needs. Thus, St. Ann School became the first school in the diocese to have a program for special needs students. However, Josephine’s motivation for doing so was not so much for the special needs students, but rather for the “regular” students. She hoped to raise their level of empathy and acceptance of special needs students. She also met the needs of her faculty, providing them special support to teach in a way that met their needs.
Josephine’s leadership—in this area as well as in integrating technology, choral music and an aftercare program—brought her special recognition not only on a diocesan level but as an NCEA Distinguished Principal. She received, as well, the National U.S. Distinguished Principal Award.
Josephine retired after having been the founding principal of the NativityMiguel School in Scranton. She lives here at OLP, finding her way in this newest adventure of her life’s journey. She’s begun with the same technique she used when she first entered. She’s lectoring—a skill at which she knows she excels. It’s been my blessing, not just to hear her story but to also record it for posterity. May we never forget her dedication to the children and the remarkable things she is still accomplishing.
 Cooking Class at NativityMiguel School |
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Sister Josephine passed away on May 20, 2023. Click here to view her obituary.
Sister Rita Ann Naughton, IHM
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“If I could… I would teach each child to be positive, to smile, to love and be loved!”
Sister Rita Ann Naughton and I have one very important fact in common. We share a birthday—March 20th (hers – 1937)—the first day of spring! Sister Rita Ann is the older daughter of Ida and Paul, born in Cascade, PA, a suburb of Williamsport.
Rita was taught by IHM sisters in St. Joseph’s School in Williamsport. Sister Rosalita began to cultivate Rita's IHM vocation by inviting her to church on Saturdays to work as a sacristan. In her senior year, she met Sister Barbara DuMont. Sister Barbara was kind, approachable and her math tutor.
Entering right after high school, Rita Ann was sent out to teach before she’d completed her degree. She secretly hoped she’d be sent to teach “black” students. Her wish came true when her first mission was to Upper Marlboro where she taught first and second grade in “the black school.” The “black” and the “white” schools were not only separate but they were unequal and all black families were required to sit in the back of the church.
Later, Sister Rita Ann's mother’s health deteriorated enough that Rita needed to go on home ministry. She earned a salary teaching religious education at St. Boniface Church. While she was on home ministry, Rita also initiated an IHM Circle of Grace to bring women into an IHM Associate
Relationship.
Rita also made the decision that she wanted a “therapy dog” and, thus began a 17 year relationship with Curly who first had to complete all of the necessary training courses before he was officially certified.
When her mother died, Rita was now faced with finding her own employment. She took a position as the activity director in the Alzheimer wing of a local nursing home. Later, her knees began to deteriorate. A neighbor asked if she could just “check on her Mother.” Her new ministry of “companion to the elderly” had begun. Initially, she performed this support while the woman lived at home. The woman—Mrs. Baird—who lived to be 101!— later went to a personal care home. It wasn’t long before Rita and Curly were orchestrating events for all residents. By now Rita had developed a reputation and within the week after Mrs. Baird’s death, she was called to companion another woman.
She’d met a student from Africa who at one point went back home. However, when Rena became pregnant, she wanted her child to be born in America. Rita invited Rena to live with her. She also companioned her in birthing training and accompanied her to the delivery room where Alysia was born!
Sister Rita Ann’s Williamsport ministries came to an unexpected end one weekend. She became ill and came to OLP to recuperate. She also stayed with her friend, Jane Roche, a well-known IHM Associate. Later, given her mobility challenges, it was decided she should move to OLP. Here she is still giving back. She can be found calling Bingo or leading other game activities. If there’s a special party, she often comes in costume!
As she ages, she has one wish—“don’t let me lose my hearing!” She loves music! The IHMs gave her piano lessons for years!
Finally, she shared a quote with me that she values: “I would teach each child (and sister) that it is O.K. to show their feelings by laughing, crying, or touching someone they care about. Every day I would have each child (adult) feel special and, through my actions, each one would know how much I really care.”
Sister M. Carleen Boehlert, IHM
“My eyes were opened and I did something about it.”
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Grace Therese Boehlert was born in Oneida, NY on September 28, 1929, less than a month before the Wall Street Crash. She is the fifth of nine children of Grace and Carl. Carl was a WWI veteran and Columbia University-trained pharmacist. Though her early years were lived during the depression and her father both owned and lost ownership of a pharmacy, Sister Carleen described her home life as “one happy family.”
Sister Carleen attended St. Patrick’s grade school where she met the IHMs. After high school she attended nursing school in Utica, NY. Sensing a call to religious life, Carleen approached the superior of St. Patrick’s Convent and her pastor and then decided to apply to the Scranton IHMs. Carleen came to Scranton in November 1950. Up until then she remained home to take her Nursing State Boards. After profession, Carleen remained at the Motherhouse specifically to provide nursing care to Reverend Mother Marcella Gill, IHM, who spent her final years in office battling cancer. Mother Marcella completed her term but died not long after in the fall of 1955. By 1956 Sister Carleen was off to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Carbondale. During those early years she trained in Allentown to become a nurse anesthetist, after which she spent much of her time in the operating room at St. Joseph’s Hospital. In addition to that work, Carleen also joined the nursing staff at the hospital’s newly-opened oncology clinic. A local newspaper review of the facility described it as a “family” and, despite their diagnosis, the patients there were happily exchanging recipes!
After 26 years in Carbondale, Carleen accepted the position of administrator of the Marian Convent. Though her resume of the twelve years she spent there lists a number of achievements, Carleen considers her greatest accomplishment the creation of a prayer chapel on third floor. She approached her own family to donate the furnishings, including the tabernacle that came from Rome. The Chapel’s crucifix was brought to Scranton from Florida by her brother who made a donation from his wife’s antique collection!
At age 65, Carleen thought of retirement and trained as a VISTA volunteer. The first phase of her “retirement” lasted 23 years working for Friends of the Poor. She says she “saved the best for last!” Carleen provided simple nursing care to the poor in the Valley View Terrace Housing Project. “I thought I knew about poverty before, but people must really go and see for themselves – even in Scranton – what the poor must endure.” One of the permanent signs of Carleen’s time there is the plaque at the playground. Sister Carleen coordinated the construction of that playground.
In 2017 Carleen needed a knee replacement. Though her hope was to return to her ministry at Friends of the Poor, she was never able to recover her balance and thus she began the final phase of her retirement at Our Lady of Peace Residence. One of the great comforts here is that she’d convinced the administration to set aside a space on the fourth floor where all of the chapel furnishing from the Marian Convent could be transferred. In September, the Boehlert family organized a surprise 90th birthday party and as part of the celebration, they gifted her with a stain-glassed window that honors their “Aunt Grace” by naming the space “The Grace Chapel.”
These days Carleen has a daily routine. She sets out after lunch and begins “her visits.” If people recall anything about her, she hopes it’s “when my eyes were opened, I did something about it.” There’s no worry, there will be many who will definitely remember.
Sister Claire Kulp, IHM
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Sisters Claire, Margaret Benfield, Anne Fulwiler
Sisters Mary Ann Cody
Immaculata Sisters Margo, Paula, and Peggy with Claire“Remember Me As Funny”
Sister Claire Marie Kulp, IHM was known as the “Princess” in her family. Born in Philadelphia, the Kulp children read the “Landmarks” books and spent hours touring those locations.
When an opportunity came along for college students to teach in diocesan schools while they pursued their degrees, Claire reached out to second grade students in an elementary school run by the Philadelphia IHMs. There she met Sister Margaret Benfield, IHM and the two women travelled together while completing their degrees. Thus began a lifelong friendship. Claire entered the Philadelphia IHMs when she was 26.
Claire was called to religious life but was not destined to be a Philadelphia IHM. Margaret mentioned there were two other IHM Congregations – Monroe and Scranton. Claire was still called to IHM. She just needed a turnpike drive to get to the right Motherhouse! But, those early months can build powerful relationships. Several Philadelphia IHMs from her original band recently visited to celebrate their 40th Jubilee!
Claire met with the Scranton IHM Vocation Director and began her Affiliate Year - living at home and quarterly attending weekends with other Affiliates. Before Claire entered, her friend, Margaret, had already transferred and was completing the process of incorporation.
Sister Johanne Barry IHM impacted Claire’s ministry choices—convincing her to pursue a degree in Secondary Education/History. Johanne believed high schools were the source of our vocations! Later, she convinced Claire to pursue a degree in social studies. Finally, Johanne became Principal at Seton Catholic High School.
After first profession, Claire went to St. Dominic’s High School in Oyster Bay. There Sister Mary Ann Cody helped Claire continue her journey. As the local community's coordinator, Mary Ann was responsible for mentoring Claire through to her final vows. Later, Claire came to Seton Catholic and they either lived near each other or together in the rectory of the parish in which Mary Ann now serves.
Claire’s favorite mission—where she served for more than 20 years—was Seton Catholic High School in Pittston. To help seniors be better prepared for college writing assignments, she brought them to the IHM monthly prayer services! She recalled boys from the baseball team coming in uniform, covered in grime! She also took them on service trips with Sister Ancilla and to the IHM Summer Splash program. Claire’s classroom was filled with IHM posters—the Charism, the Mission Statement, the Core Values and the Direction Statement. Students were tested on them! Claire says “I discovered I’d fallen in love with Seton Catholic – the school, faculty, students and even the parents!”
In 2007, Seton Catholic and two other high schools merged into one school, Holy Redeemer in Wilkes Barre. Claire’s growing medical issues resulted in her retirement from teaching shortly thereafter.
Claire suffers from a number of medical challenges. She has rheumatoid arthritis; a heart condition and a pulmonary condition that requires her to be on oxygen. She’s had knee replacements and a foot condition that requires her to use a walker. Despite that, for four years, Claire volunteered as a receptionist at the McAuley Center, a ministry which serves homeless women and children At OLP, through her prayer ministry, Claire is able to pray for those she used to serve actively.
Despite these struggles, Claire enthusiastically shared that the Magnificat was her favorite Gospel—especially the phrase... ”and God has done great things for me...” Why such gratitude? Claire replied, it’s because the Scranton IHMs made a home for her. They care for her—despite the costs of her medical needs. She knows she’s called to the IHM charism of joyful, loving service.
As I left her room, she said “I hope they remember me as funny!”
Sister Claire and Seton Catholic Student Council Officers
Sister Claire passed away on August 28, 2020. Click here to view her obituary.
Sister Louis Marie Verchick, IHM
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L-R with Sister Louis Marie are IHM maintenance staff Tony Mascaro, Steve Gatto, and "I Was Born Happy!”
Sister Louis Marie Verchick, IHM (“Louie”) was born in Marsteller, PA – a small mining town outside of Pittsburg, population 500. She was baptized Mary Lois. The oldest child of Louis and Edna, she has three sisters and four brothers. Louie’s father was a school bus driver and, while her mother stayed at home, she was a big fan of BINGO!
After high school, Lois spent three years working in a factory in Cleveland assembling that “new invention”—the television!
Becoming an IHM was a struggle for Louie. The IHMs are predominately a “teaching” community but she didn’t want to teach. Louie has a hearing impairment. She even returned home for surgery. Though the surgery was not successful, her aunt, Sister Cyprian Weakland, IHM, advocated for her return. Louie was sent out to do what she didn’t want to do—teach. However, she did have a “super power.” She’d been sent for training at a school for the deaf and hearing impaired. Louie can read lips! Sister Katie Gilvary asked Louie what she’d learned. She replied, “I learned that you are ‘Lip-Lazy’!” Sadly, in her early thirties, Louie developed a cold that resulted in even greater hearing loss.
After 9 years in a primary classroom, Louie was assigned to the Marian Convent and trained to be a nurse’s aide. She really liked working with the older sisters—they called her “Momma!” After nine happy years, Louie spent a year and a half at St. Joseph’s Center. Then Mother Beata again approached Louie and told her she really belonged back at the Marian—“You make the sisters happy!” I suspect, however, in her own wisdom, Mother Beata knew that working at the Marian would also make Louie happy. Given the age of the sister-residents—many have a hearing impairment. Louie’s disability no longer made her unique. Staff and residents often spoke louder to each other. Louie can also give you that “what did you say?” look and she gets you to do what she needs—look directly at her and articulate clearly. Now you are communicating with her in a way that helps a “lip reader” be successful!
After thirty-five years, Louie moved to the IHM Center to supervise the maintenance and housekeeping staff. She chuckles and as she confesses that she “liked the guys the best.” They didn’t talk much. They did their work! Her partiality to the maintenance staff was not limited to the IHM Center. If you travelled around the campus at noontime, you’d often see Louie briskly walking with her rosary beads swinging at her side. She regularly stopped to greet the university’s maintenance staff.
Louie will long be remembered for two virtues. Her generosity is evident in the more than 860 afghans she’s made and gave to family, friends, sisters, staff or sold at Heartworks. And her name has often topped the list of Silver Circle Sellers contributing untold thousands of dollars towards the IHM Retirement Fund. Louie’s technique is simple. She comes from a large family of very generous people.
Most of all, Louie describes herself as happy. She was born into a happy home and learned to be happy just by observing her parents. “Life is what you make it. If you’re not happy, it’s your own fault!” says the woman who has had a stroke and is now confined to a wheelchair with a brace on her arm. In fact, when you talk to her, she seems to giggle as she speaks. More importantly, after spending time with her, YOU leave feeling happy yourself!
Band members 1995 at the Sesquicentennial in Monroe. L-R: Lillian Marie Farrell, Vincentia Dorsey, Mariam Pfeifer,
Louis Marie Verchick, and Catherine Ann Gilvary
Sister St. Mel Wright, IHM by Sister Patt Walsh, IHM and Sister Mary Ellen Malloy, IHM
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L-R: Sister St. Mel and
L-R: Sister St. Mel and Anne Boylan“I don’t know her name… but… I know she’s my best friend.” At Our Lady of Peace Residence at least twenty-five percent of the sisters aren’t able to tell me their stories. They have set off on that “long journey home” known as dementia. Unless, of course, your name is Sister St. Mel Wright and you have a “best friend” in Sister Mary Ellen Malloy who can serve as your living memory.
Barbara Catherine Wright is the sixth of Catherine and Leland Burgess Wright’s seven children. When Mel was four her mother, pregnant with her seventh child—Jimmy —took a fall. Mrs. Wright was physically disabled for the rest of her life. Thus, at an early age, Mel learned how to teach the young and care for the old.
Barbara attended St. Bernadine’s School in Baltimore and was trained by the IHMs—including a Sister Kathleen who went on to become Mother Kathleen Hart, IHM Superior General.
Mel experienced death early. Her parents travelled to a Virginia Naval Base when Mel’s oldest brother, Jack, set off for WWII Europe. By the time they returned to Baltimore, they learned that Jack’s ship had been bombed by the Germans and he was dead. In the ‘80s, Mel’s youngest brother, Jimmy, was a victim of a hit and run. But the greatest trauma of all was Mel’s mother’s death when Mel was a junior in high school.
As an IHM, Mel ministered as a first and second grade teacher. Her first mission was St. Ephrem’s in Brooklyn and there she met Mary Ellen Malloy who came to the convent to speak to the sisters about becoming a sister. Mary Ellen says their friendship was “love at first sight”—a bonding of opposites—the loud and the quiet!
Throughout her life, Sister St. Mel showed her versatility and leadership in a series of ministries. Mel left teaching first grade to become the Directress of Postulants at St. Rocco’s Convent in Pittston. However, she never quite adjusted to using her primary teaching skills to train young adult women!
She was then elected Western Sector Superior. Next, St. Mel moved to Cresco to be trained in spiritual direction. Then she got a phone call from Sister Redempta Sweeney about a “dream job.” Mel loved the older sisters and she’d always wanted to work at the Marian Convent. She was going to be responsible for the sisters’ direct care needs. One wonders what Mel thought when she noticed her own initial signs of dementia having companioned so many sisters on that journey.
Mary Ellen wanted a picture of Anne Boylan, currently the second floor day shift nurse, with this article because Mel has been so proud of Anne. Anne believes Mel cared for all the staff. She related how, in winter weather, staff arrived with overnight bags and Mel greeted them at the door. She’d already prepared their rooms each with a basket of treats! Mel later carried on that practice at the IHM Center. Remember her when you enjoy those snacks! Anne says the staff were so grateful that Mel started her long journey home on second floor. They love #St.Melhugs—that’s “twitter-ese” for St. Mel Hugs & Kisses! Finally, Anne concluded, "Well, maybe it was because she knew I was a single mother.” Ah!
These days Mel spends time looking through her pictures and visiting Mary Ellen’s room. I’m jealous of Mary Ellen. She can still get Mel to smile. But, Mary Ellen immediately and sincerely answers, “That’s enough for me!” Smiles, more than sixty 60 years’ worth of memories, including a trip to Ireland and a visit to St. Mel’s Cathedral, and a “holy story” recorded for posterity! Amen!
 L-R: Sister Mary Ellen and Sister St. Mel |
Sister St. Mel passed away on May 20, 2021. Click here to view her obituary.
Sister Dolores M. Filicko, IHM
A Woman of Integrity and Servant to the Truth
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Elizabeth Ligda arrived from Slovakia in 1908 and met her future husband, John Filicko, in Wilkes-Barre, PA and there they raised a family of five.
Born on September 13th, 1928, which was followed by the Feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14th) and the feast of Our Lady of the Seven Dolors—the Patroness of Slovakia (September 15th), her parents honored this link to their Slovak Heritage by naming their youngest child “Dolores” at her Baptism ten days later. To this day, Dolores honors these three spiritual events as a completion to the celebration of her birthday.
For six years after graduation, Dolores worked in various office positions. Though dating during this time, she’d become convinced that she was called to a religious vocation. However, like all major life choices, there seems to be the big picture call—married, single, religious life—and the specific decision of a person or a congregation to commit to for life. The decision to become an IHM may not have happened if it wasn’t for a friendship with a school principal—Sister Maria Clement Buckley, IHM. Dolores was the secretary for the Parochial Child Health Association which provided medical care to diocesan schools. Friendly office phone calls were followed by an invitation to see the convent’s Christmas tree, to conversations about religious life, to a surprise formal visit to Marywood to meet Reverend Mother Marcella Gill, IHM, to Entrance Day on September 8, 1952!
Dolores spent 15 years teaching students from middle school through high school. During this time, Sister Dolores was sent to Notre Dame where she earned an MBA. Soon, Sister Dolores moved to Marywood College where she served in various positions for 39 years!
Many of Dolores’ positions begin with the word “Director”—from student accounts and dorm director through to registrar. There are few support service areas at Marywood that haven’t known her handprint. It’s clear that Dolores provided leadership to the departments that formed its backbone and assured the smooth running of the university plant itself. Though she completed her Marywood years as an executive officer as the secretary of the university, Dolores always appreciated the way her superiors shared their vision but allowed her the creativity to carry it out in her own areas.
It is perhaps in her roles as both secretary of the university and assistant secretary to the board of trustees that one can understand some of her greatest gifts and values. Secretaries take the meeting’s minutes, what is often not appreciated; however, is the great effort a good secretary makes to hold back her own opinion and be “a servant to the truth.” Entrusted with the university’s official seal and empowered to be the signatory on official documents, when researchers come to write this period of the university’s history, the name Sister Dolores M. Filicko, IHM will appear there with high frequency.
In her post-Marywood years, Dolores continued to provide support services to both Friends of the Poor and the IHM Center. She is now delighted to be retired and living at Our Lady of Peace Residence. In her own words, “My ship has come in!” She takes seriously her role as a prayer minister and enjoys the slower tempo and the freedom to choose which activities she does and does not attend. Most of all, she is consoled by the presence of round-the-clock medical support staff if needed.
I’m sure at the end of her days, people will remember Sister Dolores as a woman of integrity and a servant to the truth.
 Sister Dolores and her parents |
Sister St. Kenneth Polley, IHM
Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life. -Psalm 23:6
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Sister St. Kenneth (Jule) Polley is one of four children—Joan, Janet, and Kenny. She attended IHM-staffed schools—Cathedral grade school; Marywood Seminary and Marywood College.
Jule took piano lessons in grade school, was influenced by her sister, Joan’s, musical gifts and was encouraged to study the violin by Sister Maria Walter, IHM.
Her father insisted she wait before entering and begin classes at Marywood. Jule Polley was quite a tomboy and regularly played baseball with the boys. Mr. Polley wasn’t convinced nuns and tomboys went together! After graduation, Sister St. Kenneth went south to teach first grade—not her calling! She then became a high school music teacher (which also meant piano lessons before and after school bringing in much needed income).
Her favorite mission was South Catholic/Bishop Klonowski High School in Scranton. She finally felt confident and she’d discovered Gertrude Hawk (aka fundraising!) Now she could take students to NYC and Broadway!
Her time at South Catholic was interrupted. Kenneth’s sister, Joan, had won a Fulbright Scholarship and studied Opera in Italy at LaScalla. She returned to NYC hoping to perform at the Met. She married and had three children (a boy and two girls). Sadly, Joan developed cancer. Like many single fathers, Joan’s husband couldn’t work and care for young children. So, the children came to Scranton to be raised by their grandparents and Kenneth’s sister, Janet. Kenneth took a leave of absence to help raise the children (ages 11 months to 11 years) while Janet worked to support the family.
Later in life, Kenneth would return to “weekend home ministry” to care both for her elderly mother and Janet when she, too, developed cancer.
Kenneth did return to South Catholic and we met there in 1972 and became pals. I had the good fortune to be the accompanist for her glee club. To meet her now, you might think of Kenneth as somewhat timid. But, when I would begin an introduction, she would magically transform into a confident conductor! Kenneth taught me to sing through my eyes and tell my face to smile.
Deep and long-lasting friendships are a hallmark of Kenneth’s life. At Klonowski, Kenneth met Carol Schaffer—whose daughters were in Glee Club. Like many IHMs who have faithful lay friendships, Carol and Kenneth have been travelling companions since then.
Her commitment to friendship has been evident most of all in her compassionate relationship with Dolie—Sister Dolorosa. Years earlier on playground duty, Dolie’s eye was hit by a rock and she began to lose her vision. Later, the bones in her neck began to deteriorate. In her final years, when Dolie couldn’t raise her head, Kenneth became her eyes.
Kenneth joined support services initially at the Marian Convent, then OLP while living at Cathedral Convent. Later, the OLP Administration invited both St. Kenneth and Dolie to retire to OLP. Though both her sister, Janet, and her friend, Dolie, have died within the last two years, Kenneth says that “she has never been happier.” Why? She’s grateful for how well the staff cares for her and the freedom she has to live her life in a household of sisters she loves.
Interviewing her on her birthday, I was amazed at how many sisters and staff stopped by! As Psalm 23 says: St. Kenneth is a woman of “goodness and loving kindness.” What a great legacy!
L-R: Sister Dolorosa Loughney, Sister St. Kenneth Polley, Carol Schaffer, and Janet Polley
Sister St. Kenneth passed away on December 19, 2019. Click here to view her obituary.
Sister Richard Mary Peters, IHM
"A Lucky Duck"
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L-R: Sisters Richard Mary
No one better embodies the ministry of “Support Staff” at Our Lady of Peace Residence than Sister Richard Mary Peters, IHM. Whether you meet her in the morning delivering the paper, or receive Communion from her at Mass, or ride with her as she takes you to your doctor, or pay her for the things she picked up for you at the drugstore, or, most importantly, are companioned by her on a late night trip to the emergency room, Richard’s ministry at OLP easily, at some point, touches every sister who lives there.
Richard met the IHMs as a student at St. Dominic’s School in Oyster Bay, Long Island. One of the most significant factors in her choice of religious life was her observation of the way the sisters related to each other. They were a living example of “joyful, loving service” and Richard wanted that kind of future for herself. Sister St. John Ortner prepared Richard for her IHM entrance. She belonged to “The Vocations Club,” and true to the IHM custom, members of the club were even given numbers!
Richard was born “Marilynn” which was not, as she was told by Mother Kathleen, a name after a patron saint. She was named for Marilynn Miller, a famous dancer. Richard’s mother hoped that her Marilynn would follow in the dancer’s footsteps. Thus, Marilynn began dancing class at age 3, flunked out of class by age 4, but, by age 5 she had become a champion cart-wheeler!
Richard’s father was not a Catholic, so when his daughter announced that she had a vocation he went to talk to the fireman’s chaplain at work. He returned home and told his daughter that she was doing a brave thing.
Richard was a second grade teacher for twenty-eight years. She coped with asthma all her life. But the combination of her asthma, a bad cold and a visit to a home of people who had dogs, caused Richard to go into respiratory arrest (earning her the title of “the Blue Nun”). Her treatment included prednisone, a steroid. As a result, her hip bone disintegrated and she ended up at the Marian Convent recovering from a hip replacement. One day Richard found herself in the hallway with Sister Rosemary Goulet who needed to take a sister to the hospital but had no one to accompany the sister. Richard volunteered to go, and the rest of the story, as they say, is history!
Because she goes to the emergency room at any time of day or night, unlike other staff, Richard resides at OLP. The walls in her room are covered with crucifixes! She can tell the story of each one and she prays for the creators and their home countries.
Nothing better characterizes this woman of service than her “emergency room ministry.” Richard is not just a sister's companion, she’s her advocate and she is well known and respected by all the ER staff she meets regularly.
She often spends late night and early morning hours at the hospital, many times with sisters who have hearing challenges and cognitive impairments. Most significantly, she brings with her the sister’s final directives. On more than one occasion, she has had to call a member of the leadership team to inquire if a DNR should be implemented. She then becomes the IHM representative for this sister in her final moments.
Richard entered the IHMs in those early post-Vatican II days. When it was time for her to come back to Marywood for the month-long retreat before final vows, her superior insisted she go to her second grade students, tell them where she was going and why, and promise them "she would be back!" One student remarked, “It’s like marrying God. You’re a lucky duck!” And… so are we!
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Sister Richard Mary in her room
Sister Janet Milan, IHM
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Back L-R: Janet and
"The Grace of Perseverance"
Sisters come to OLP for many reasons: age and the physical and/or cognitive challenges common among the elderly. But others, like Sister Janet Milan, come mentally young but with a body that will no longer support a life lived independently. To put together a profile of Janet includes her physical health journey, but the bigger picture is of a generous life lived courageously.
Janet was born in Pittsburgh. She learned compassion by observing her parents—her mother’s simple acts of kindness and her father—a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society—who volunteered to care for the poor without claiming the credit. Janet was IHM educated—a graduate of St. Rosalia’s High School but she also attended a grade school staffed by another congregation. In the end, charism counts! Janet became an IHM because she’d met young sisters who had an obvious outreach to the poor.
Janet, formerly known as Sister M. Maliya, taught middle school and junior high. Unexpectedly, things changed. Janet shared that this year is 40 years since her diagnosis with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Janet is now 72. Her response to her diagnosis was relief after months looking for an explanation for the various physical symptoms of this disease that affects the nervous system. Once you know; you can take action! For Janet, action included leaving teaching and coming to the Marian Convent for 18 months of physical therapy. Surprising as it may seem, those months of therapy did put Janet’s MS into remission… a period of time with no active disease—that is still in place today. While Janet continued to experience numbness in her extremities, she returned to teaching for the next 35+ years!
Janet lists her 18 years of teaching in her hometown of Pittsburgh as her favorite ministry, not only because it was home but also because it allowed her to spend time with her aging parents before their deaths. Dealing with the challenges of MS would seem to be enough for one lifetime, but that was not to be for Janet. She not only needed to confront breast cancer and a mastectomy but, 20 years later, they discovered that the reconstruction procedure had left a small piece of the cancer behind and a second surgery was necessary.
Undaunted, Janet went to Clinton, MD where, 5 years ago, she fell and the pain called for a knee replacement. Somehow, an infection got into the wound. The on-going series of surgeries and infections and the fact that Medicare would no longer cover the costs of Janet’s therapy in a Clinton Nursing Home brought Janet to OLP.
Janet is not to be pitied. Though she spends much of her time confined to a wheelchair, Janet says that her favorite thing about being at OLP is its freedom! She has pieced together her own patchwork of jobs that make up her OLP ministry. For example, she helps handle the sisters’ personal accounts—distributing stipends or providing assistance to those who only access their accounts when needed.
What’s ahead for Janet? Another surgery on May 7th, hopefully, to completely remove the infection, and, six weeks later, another knee replacement. An optimist, Janet’s believes that, one day, she will return to walking unaided. (I’m sure she would appreciate your prayers that she is successful in all of these goals!)
As all IHMs are encouraged to do, it’s obvious that Janet has prayed for the “grace of perseverance” and, it is apparent that God has given her that grace a hundredfold!
L-R: Sisters Eleanor Mary Marconi and Janet Milan
Sister Angela Mary Parker, IHM
"Remember Me as Always Smiling"
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Parker's Restaurant in Rocky Mount, NC, 1948. L-R Grace, Mama, Chris, Lillie, Daddy, Evelyn
Sister Angela Mary Parker and her nephew, Steve Campbell
Sister Angela Mary Parker was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and given the name Christine. Her father was in the restaurant business which began with a kind of “soda pop” shop and three restaurants later, developed into a full-fledged restaurant in downtown Rocky Mount. Christine spent much of her early life working in that restaurant and, it seems, that work was truly formative for her.
Though Christine did have IHMs for grade six and she socialized with them. She believed that her vocation was to get married and have lots of children. She went on to a college run by Mercy Sisters who approached her, told her they thought she had a vocation and convinced her to meet with the head of their congregation. Christine left that meeting convinced they were wrong and soon returned home hoping to meet that “special someone.”
As the years went by, that never happened, so she approached the local IHMs and asked if she could join them for prayer to determine if she had a vocation to religious life. She clearly remembers that it was in March—“right around now” (that is, March 25th, the Annunciation and her personal Feast Day as “Angela Mary”)—that she finally came to the conclusion that she did, indeed, have a vocation to the Scranton IHMs.
Christine was 25 when she entered and, given her age, she was sent out immediately to teach high school students! That experience, gratefully, lasted only a few frightening months and, through the intercession of one of the professed sisters, Sister Angela Mary returned to the Motherhouse to be in formation as a postulant. As a professed sister, she did become a teacher but after years of teaching she decided to ask the congregation if she could take a sabbatical.
However, life intervened and she got a call from a local priest asking if she would be willing to help open and run a soup kitchen. She describes this time as her favorite ministry mainly, she believes, because it not only brought back so many happy memories of working in her family’s restaurant business but because she also felt well-prepared to do this work because of that experience. Before the soup kitchen opened each day, the staff gathered to pray. It was then that she discovered the way Protestants prayed—from the heart—whereas Catholics used formulaic prayers. That experience strongly influenced her future approach to prayer.
Angela next received an invitation to serve as a parish minister in a nearby parish. The IHM congregation, however, denied that request believing the parish was “too affluent.” Instead, they asked her to come to serve in Scranton at St. Joseph’s Center. Initially, she performed secretarial tasks but, over the fifteen years she was there, she took the initiative to determine where she could be of most service.
After completing her service at St. Joseph’s Center, Angela came to live at OLP and she “loves it here.” She pointed to her living space, as well as the activities and the freedom here among the items on her gratitude list. Currently, at the request of Jane O’Neill, Director of IHM Associate Relationship, Angela is serving as the “Wisdom Figure” in Jane’s own Circle of Grace; she provides insights about the time before she entered as well as her knowledge of the IHM presence and history in the South.
When asked how she’d like to be remembered, Angela said “I hope they remember me as always smiling!” Of that, I have no doubt!
Sister Angela Mary passed away on August 9, 2021. Click here to view her obituary.
Sister Eleanor Desaulniers, IHM
"I Have Chosen You"
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Leadership Team, 1978As I interviewed Sister Eleanor for this profile, I realized her ministry experiences make her a time capsule of the entire history of the Scranton IHMs! Born in Williamsport, PA, the year after the canonization of the Little Flower, she was baptized Eleanor Therese. By the age of five, Eleanor’s family and her entire grade school (at the direction of Sister Brigida) were calling on the intercession of St. Thérèse because Eleanor had contracted polio. She describes a particular day as her “miracle!” On that day her mother opened their front door and discovered a box of red roses! Sometime after that day, Eleanor’s father picked up his paralyzed child and placed her on the floor and she was able to stand and began to walk! It was later discovered that the florist’s driver was unable to deliver his roses; he saw the sign: “Infantile Paralysis” and decided to leave the roses as a gift. Coincidence?
At 18, in the middle of WWII, Eleanor entered the IHMs. Sister St. Joseph, who taught her commercial subjects, prepared her for entrance. However, Eleanor does not credit Sister St. Joseph for her vocation. Rather, she came to realize in her novitiate (she was a member of the Centennial Band!) that the line from scripture: “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” was true for her.
Eleanor’s ministries took her from the East to the West Coast and by the early ‘70s she returned to what she calls her “favorite ministry” – Adams Avenue! It started at Marywood College as the Dean of Students but soon Eleanor was called to congregational leadership via a special election to replace Sister Jane Kehoe, the Western Sector Superior, who died of cancer while in office. At the next election, Eleanor became first assistant to the IHM president, Sister Anne Fulwiler, and, four years later, Eleanor became the congregation’s treasurer. At a conference for treasurers, she was inspired by the words of Sister Joan Chittister: “Your job is not about money but about ministry.” Her next Adams Avenue address was St. Joseph’s Center where she continued being in charge of a business office. Eleanor’s last active ministry was as the congregation’s archivist. If you’re keeping track, Eleanor not only maintained the files of the IHM past, but she also lived through, at an administrative level, all of the major leadership and government changes in the congregation’s post-Vatican II history.
She is quick to note, however, that many of those experiences helped her to realize that one of the congregation’s greatest achievements has been to be humble enough to seek out lay support and advice to help us make many of our major decisions.
At OLP Eleanor is grateful for many things, most of all, the name of the building—Our Lady of Peace. Her list also includes the building’s closed circuit TV because it has allowed her to continue to participate in congregation meetings and prayer services as well as to attend Mass when she’s not able to travel to the chapel. Household 3B is a group of sisters who actively work at making community and Eleanor considers the OLP staff an important part of that community. Her prayer now is “Thy Will Be Done” and Psalm 46’s “Be still and know that I am God.”
Knowing I was in the presence of a true congregation wisdom figure, I asked Eleanor if she had any advice she wanted to pass on. She responded: “I go to as many meetings as I can and I raise my hand and tell them what I think.” Amen!
Sisters Eleanor, Anitra Nemotko, and Father David Cinquegrani, C.P.
Sister Eleanor passed away on January 12, 2021. Click here to view her obituary.
Sister Jean Toolan, IHM
"A Caring Woman"
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Sister Jean and her family
L-R: Sisters Terry O'Rourke and Jean Toolan |
Sister Jean Toolan (aka Sister Dermot) was born in Carbondale in 1922 (she is now 96). She had an older brother, Walter, and two younger siblings, Lois and Charlie. Jean’s father worked for the railroad in Wilkes-Barre so her mother moved the family there. When Jean was eight, her mother developed pneumonia. One evening Jean left her room and heard her mother—realizing she was dying—cry out, “Who will care for my children?” That virtue, the virtue of caring, came to shape the rest of Jean’s life. Now a single parent working for the railroad, Jean’s father was told to do something common in those days—send his children to the orphanage! Luckily, he resisted and moved his family back to Carbondale where Jean and her siblings were raised primarily by relatives, especially by her uncle, Father Toolan.
Jean credits her eleventh grade teacher as being the IHM who most influenced her vocation but, she added, in those days women could be teachers, nurses and (if Catholic) nuns! She recalls sisters being lined up on the back porch of the Motherhouse and being interviewed by Sister St. Mary who then decided Jean should be a teacher. Jean began teaching third grade and ended teaching English in high school (“…the hardest subject of all with all those papers to correct!”). Jean was mentored by the sisters at home. She had a routine of teaching, coming home to cook and clean and then, on weekends, traveling to Marywood to complete her degree. Eventually, Jean joined the many sisters who spent summers at Notre Dame completing their Master’s degrees. Though an avid Penn State football fan, her heart belongs with her alma mater—Notre Dame! Jean, herself, played baseball—she was a pitcher!
Jean ended her teaching career as the assistant superintendent for elementary education for the Scranton Diocese. She worked with Sister Terry O’Rourke, who supervised secondary education, and Msgr. John Jordan, superintendent. Terry first knew Jean as her freshman English teacher in Kingston. Terry describes Jean as, “a woman of prayer; a broad and courageous thinker with impeccable integrity; a natural leader, a master teacher and a lifelong learner.”
Jean left education to become the administrator of the IHM Center and later moved on to be a receptionist at St. Joseph’s Center which she describes as her favorite ministry. Though Jean came to OLP to heal from an injury, she stayed because she said, "it was time." She was 90 and had recently given up driving! Jean loves being at OLP because she has much more time for prayer. She says at least three rosaries a day and appreciates the way her prayer life has been expanded by the intentions Sister Eleanor Mary mentions prior to daily liturgy. Most of all, she enjoys just having time to sit and be quiet.
Jean lives next to me at OLP so I also have the opportunity to observe her interactions with her family. They have truly answered Jean’s mother’s prayer—they care for her a lot. Her nephew, Jeff, visits every Sunday and often they just sit there and read the Sunday paper together. Her niece, Deb, who lives in Florida, visits often, calls daily and, because Jean has difficulty hearing, purchased a special phone for the hearing impaired. Her niece regularly sends her large print books so Jean can continue to enjoy her love of reading.
In short, Jean has spent her life as her mother did—as a Caring woman—and, in turn, she has so many friends and family who truly care about her.
Sister Jean talking to her family on her phone for the hearing impaired.
Sister Celeste Parry, IHM
“Kind and Generous”
 Sisters Celeste Parry and Ellen Maroney |
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Sisters Celeste and Jeannine ParryI met Sister Celeste Parry in her room at OLP and asked her many of the questions I had listed in what I plan on making a consistent list to ask each sister profiled monthly. Keep in mind that Celeste is now 91. Celeste was born in Pittston and is the third of four children. The oldest was a brother, next was her older and somewhat maternal sister, Marion, whom many of us knew as Sister Jeannine. Sister Celeste described herself as shy and retiring. Given the name Joan at birth, she did have some IHM influence in her early years, before her family moved to New Jersey. So, when asked, Celeste indicated that she couldn’t recall any IHM who had influenced her vocation.
That may seem odd because Celeste’s oldest sister did enter the IHMs before her. Joan suggested that one of the biggest influences was really visiting days at the motherhouse when she got to experience life in the novitiate. However, her clearest memory (and recall we are talking about almost 70 years in her past!) was when her sister’s pastor from Bellefonte happened to be visiting in New Jersey and invited the Parry family to spend the weekend in Bellefonte with Jeannine and the other IHMs living in that convent. Somehow being with the sisters that weekend seems to have been the primary experience that brought Joan to IHM. It was less than six months after her return home that she made arrangements to enter the congregation.
All of Celeste’s professional life was spent teaching in either first or second grade. Even though she received her diploma in 1954, she was actually out teaching in 1951! It’s hard to imagine having 60 students in the morning and a different 60 students in the afternoon which was the reality in her first classroom in Carbondale. Later in Forest Hills, where she wasn’t even able to move around a classroom, she taught 80 students each session. In those days not only did families have large numbers of children but also a Catholic education was rather inexpensive.
Sister Celeste is a game player with a definite affection for bingo and Uno, and continues playing those games here at OLP. She often amused others by dancing for the sisters! Celeste can only dance with one foot! Her demonstration of that skill is pretty amusing even
Sister Celeste did not hesitate to come to OLP because she and Jeannine had visited both the Marian Convent and OLP frequently and Jeannine had come to live there first. Celeste has truly embraced being a prayer minister. She’s a frequent lector and Eucharistic minister. But her most inspiring service is the many hours she spends daily visiting the sisters who are sick, or recuperating, or cognitively impaired. To anyone who hesitates coming to OLP, Celeste would say, “It’s just a different kind of service!” now.
When I concluded our interview, I asked Celeste how she would like to be remembered. She quickly responded, “I would like to be remembered as being kind and generous to everyone.” From what I have observed in my years here, no truer words could be spoken of Sister Celeste Parry!
Sister Celeste passed away on January 17, 2022. Click here to view her obituary.
