8 The Catholic News & Herald
May 28, 2010
from the the cover from cover
Sisters of St. Joseph ‘ready for any good work’ Pictures of the sisters in their early years of service SISTERS, from page 1
lives in Winston-Salem. They are among eight Sisters of St. Joseph currently serving the Diocese of Charlotte. Sister Joan is a ‘homegrown’ vocation, a graduate of St. Leo School in Winston-Salem and Bishop McGuinness High School in Kernersville. She was taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph and “thought they were just wonderful … just good nuns,” she says. They made such an impression on her that she asked Bishop McGuinness High School’s principal, Sister Martin Anthony, about how to join the order once she graduated. Sister Joan entered the convent in Chestnut Hill, Pa., right after graduation in 1970. “From the day I walked in I thought, ‘This is for me,’” Sister Joan says. “I love serving the Church and God.” Over the past 40 years she has lived the order’s apostolate of “caring for dear neighbor” by teaching in elementary schools, serving as supervisor and house mother for delinquent teenage girls, and working with troubled youths. In the Diocese of Charlotte, Sister Joan worked as the Hispanic vicariate coordinator in Hickory and Salisbury. She helps run the Hispanic track at the Eucharistic Congress and she leads workshops on Protecting God’s Children and topics dealing with self-esteem and communication skills, which utilize her bachelor’s degree in psychology and her master’s degree in counseling. Currently she is working in faith formation at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Lenoir, training catechists and the new catechist director there. Sister Judy Monahan, also a pastoral associate, serves at St. Ann Church in Charlotte. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph 53 years ago after graduating from high school. She has always had a devotion to the Blessed Mother and credits Our Lady for her vocation. “My senior year I knew I had a vocation, that the Lord was calling,” says Sister Judy. “One of the sisters called me a ‘diamond in the rough.’” After completing her formation at the Chestnut Hill, Pa., convent, Sister Judy briefly taught first grade, then was reassigned to teach the seventh and eighth grades before becoming principal of a school in Baltimore, Md. “I knew my calling was with people,” Sister Judy says. She has spent the past 32 years in the Charlotte diocese, serving 10 years at St. Leo Church in Winston-Salem as director of youth ministry and pastoral associate before relocating to St. Ann Church in Charlotte. Sister Judy lives her call to be ready for any good work as a Sister of St. Joseph by helping people in the community who suffer from AIDS. She is the first one in her community to do so. She holds a Bachelor of Science in education and master’s degrees in education, counseling and psychology. “Our call is from the Gospel,” she
SISTER JOAN PEARSON, SSJ
SISTER JUDY MONAHAN, SSJ
SISTER HELENE NAGLE, SSJ
THE SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH The Sisters of St. Joseph can trace their roots back to 1648 in France. Jesuit Father Jean-Pierre Medaille formed the order originally consisting of six women under the pastoral care of Henri de Maupas, Bishop of Le Puy. Father Medaille believed women religious could live religious life completely, without cloister, as an apostolic presence in the world. From 1651, when it obtained canonical status, the community lived openly as apostolic women religious “dedicated to the practice of all the spiritual and corporal works of mercy … which will most benefit the dear neighbor.” The Sisters of St. Joseph were persecuted during the French Revolution. Their convents were suppressed, their goods confiscated, and the congregation disbanded. Five sisters were guillotined. Their foundress, Mother Saint John Fontbonne, was imprisoned but escaped execution. She helped rebuild the order and established the motherhouse in Lyons in 1829. The Sisters of St. Joseph first came to the U.S. in 1836, settling in St. Louis, Mo. Carondelet was the name given to this first foundation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in North America. Mother Saint John Fontbonne passed away in 1843, but saw the Congregation go from 12 members to more than 3,000 before her death. St. John Neumann helped them acquire the first motherhouse in McSherrystown, Pa., in 1854. Four years later he found a new site at Mount St. Joseph, Chestnut Hill – the motherhouse today for 1,100 sisters. Currently more than 1,100 Sisters of St. Joseph work primarily in the Mid-Atlantic states, but as far away as Alaska and Peru. ― Sources: The Constitutions of the Sisters of St. Joseph; Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia Web site (www.ssjphila.org).
HOW TO JOIN
Photo provided by Sister Judy Monahan, SSJ
(Above left) Sister Helene Nagle is pictured helping one of the residents at a Missionary of the Poor home in Jamaica during one of the mission trips she took there with St. Ann Church members in 2000. says. “We are to go out among the people to help them, to do what Jesus would do.” For the past 19 years Sister Helene Nagle, also at St. Ann Church, has lived and worked with Sister Judy. Sister Helene has been a Sister of St. Joseph for 55 years and cherishes the simplicity, humility and charity exemplified by the order. She grew up in Philadelphia, where the motherhouse is located. She knew the sisters well, as her father was one of the volunteers who drove the sisters around back in those days. Eventually Sister Helene became a driver for them as well. She fondly recalls the sisters: “I found they were real people, called in a special way.” Despite her mother ’s initial disapproval, Sister Helene entered the order after high school. “I knew when I entered I belonged,” she says. Sister Helene served in parishes in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa., as well
as Vienna, Va., teaching in the Catholic schools there. She became principal of her old high school in Philadelphia and a school in Washington, D.C. In addition to her bachelor’s degree in elementary education, she earned her master’s degree in educational administration at Catholic University of America and a master’s degree in counseling and psychology as well. She came to the Diocese of Charlotte in 1989, where she taught at St. Leo School before she moved to St. Ann School to become principal in 1991. She retired from St. Ann School in 2008 but still helps the students, especially on Friday mornings, to prepare for their participation at Mass at St. Ann Church. Sister Helene continues to live her vocation as a Sister of St. Joseph by helping the poor and marginalized in the community. She has been on missions to Haiti and Jamaica and lives her community’s call to “consider first the dear neighbor” daily in her service to the Church.
For more information about how to become a Sister of St. Joseph in the Diocese of Charlotte, contact Sister Mary Timothy Warren, diocesan director of women religious, at 704-370-3213 or Sister Helene Nagle at St. Ann Church, 704-5234641. The Sisters of St. Joseph Web site can be found at www.ssjphila.org.