Loretto Magazine - Summer 2014

Loretto M A G A Z I N E Summer 2014

Volume 56, No. 2

Loretto celebrates 2014 Diamond, Golden and Silver Jubilarians Community continues tradition of working for restorative justice

I was in prison and you visited me.

St. Matthew 25:36

About this issue . . .

, page 8..........................................................................................

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ur summer edition continues the “mission work” theme of the Spring 2014 Loretto Magazine by taking a close look at the ministries of Loretto Community members reaching out to those who are imprisoned. This type of service is not conducted under the auspices of any formal Loretto oversight committee. It is rather the choice of individual members who are passionate about a particular aspect of working with the imprisoned and those nearing release.

They work singly, in small groups, or as associates of established programs. Some Loretto Community members are active in state and national legislative issues involving prison terms, prison life, sentencing matters, and death penalty laws. Others teach reading and skills of daily living. Some provide legal counsel or support to inmates. Others work closely with the victims’ families whose loved ones have been injured or killed as a result of terrible crimes.

Loretto is not new to prison ministry. Over its 202-year history, Loretto has always embraced every merciful work to which Jesus has called us as a religious community and as individual Christians. Our volunteers have interesting, powerful stories to share, page 9.

Contents Notes & News.............................................4 Remembrances ........................................ 7 Loretto reaches out to those in prison........8 2014 Loretto Jubilarians shine................. 16 Memorials & Tributes of Honor.................18

On the Cover: Kenneth Carson with Mary Ann McGivern SL. Carson, who is serving a lengthy sentence in a Missouri prison, has worked together with McGivern since she was director of Project COPE. See story, page 9.

Photo courtesy of Mary Ann McGivern SL.

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LORETTO COMMUNITY Sisters of Loretto • Co-members of Loretto

We work for justice and act for peace because the Gospel urges us.

Loretto Community members teach, nurse, care for the elderly, lobby, minister in hospitals, provide spirtual direction and counseling, resettle refugees, staff parishes, try to stop this country’s nuclear weapons build-up, work with the rural poor, and minister to handicapped, alcoholic and mentally ill adults. Our ministries are diverse.

The Loretto Community, founded in 1812 as the Sisters of Loretto, is a congregation of Catholic vowed Sisters and both lay and religious Co-members. Loretto Co-members are those who, by mutual commitment, belong to the Community through a sharing of spirit and values and participating in activities that further our mission.

For more information contact: Loretto Community Membership Staff 4000 So. Wadsworth Blvd.

Littleton, CO 80123-1308 Phone: 303-783-0450 Fax: 303-783-0611 Web: www.lorettocommunity.org Loretto Magazine is published three times a year by the Loretto Development Office: Development Director: Denise Ann Clifford SL Communications Director: Jean M. Schildz Data Systems Mgr./Event Coordinator: Kelly Marie Darby Editing, Layout, and Production: Carolyn Dunbar Financial Accountant: Chris Molina Special Development Projects: Lydia Peña SL

Advisory Panel: Denise Ann Clifford SL Jean M. Schildz Carolyn Dunbar Rebecca Sallee-Hanson Editorial Office: Loretto Central Office 4000 So. Wadsworth Blvd.

Littleton, CO 80123-1308 303-783-0450, ext. 1718 Circulation Office: Loretto Staff Office 590 E. Lockwood Ave. Webster Groves, MO 63119 314-962-8112

Dear Friends of Loretto,

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oretto is a community called to live the Gospel, walking in the footsteps of Jesus throughout our time in history. As such, we seek to be the loving presence of the Christ who is forgiveness. Hence, the significance of our ministries with, among, and for our incarcerated brothers and sisters are reviewed in this issue of Loretto Magazine.

Recently I encountered some startling statistics in an article in Sojourners’ Magazine. In the 1970s, 350,000 persons were incarcerated in the U.S.; in 2000, 2 million were. Illustrating “a rich boy’s prank is a poor boy’s felon,” (Elaine Roulet CSJ) 60 million of Christ’s beloved in our society were classified tragically as “criminals ” in the year 2000 and stigmatized in seeking jobs, homes and renewed lives. Eighty percent of women in prison are mothers, making children the “hidden victims of our penal system.” (Roulet)

According to Maria Harris CSJ, forgiveness is to be the Christian’s “way of being in the world.”

Our scriptures invite us to recognize repentance, restitution and restoration of right relationships as the path to trod as we pray Our Father “to forgive us ... as we forgive those who....” A system of justice based on punishment and revenge is not of God. Rather we are called to remember always the humanity of prisoners, who, as we, are created in the image of God.

Pearl McGivney SL Loretto President

Loretto thanks those among us who have found ways to help prisoners “return home to themselves and to forgiveness and to interior freedom; to come to terms with their memories; and to recreate their lives.” (Harris) We lovingly reflect on Jesus’ initiation of his ministry as he read from the book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ... to proclaim release to the captives ... to set free the oppressed....”

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned ...

O

— Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

ne of the Corporal Works of Mercy that I learned in my early years of catechism class was our responsibility to “comfort the prisoners.” How often have I or you thought about prisoners? Comforted or consoled them?

As I previewed the content of this issue of Loretto Magazine, I was amazed at the varied ways in which Loretto has ministered to our incarcerated brothers and sisters through the years. I was also mindful of a special group of friends who dedicate themselves to working with inmates who are serving life sentences, with no hope of reprieve.

Those imprisoned are often the forgotten ones of our society. They have been apprehended, tried, found guilty and locked away — no longer a menace to society. But they are also our brothers and sisters who leave behind family members, spouses, children, friends and are often separated by great distances that limit or prohibit contact with loved ones. Some of us may have a family member, close friend, acquaintance who is serving or has served time in prison.

We know from experience that those left behind need support, comfort and consolation, too.

Many others suffer with loved ones “imprisoned” by addiction, fear, anxiety, dementia, guilt.

We can become “prisoners” of our material possessions, our prejudices and opinions, social or professional status, investments, technology. How do we free ourselves and those we love from these imprisonments? What comfort and consolation do we provide?

Denise Ann Clifford SL Loretto Development Director

Jesus came to teach us how to be free from all these things to become the persons we are destined to be ... sons and daughters of God ... forgiving, pardoning, accepting and loving each other as we want to be forgiven, pardoned, accepted and loved by our God. Summer 2014 • 3

notes & news

University of Notre Dame purchases Loretto’s historic Badin Bible

Displayed to public for first time in more than 100 years

From materials prepared and written

by Eleanor Craig SL

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he University of Notre Dame, near South Bend, Ind., received the Badin Bible on July 15, a rare three-volume set previously held by the Loretto Archives Heritage Center. After lengthy negotiations, officials at Notre Dame purchased the set for a significant sum and will display it to the public and make it available to researchers. The sale was approved by the Loretto Executive Committee, many of whom were on hand for a reception ceremony at the university.

The books tell the story of Catholicism in the earliest years of the United States, said Loretto Archivist Eleanor Craig SL. They were originally given “to the Reverend Stephen Badin by his affectionate Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore,” reads the inscription in each of the three books.

“The story of these books is the story of Stephen Theodore Badin, a refugee seminarian from revolution-torn France. He completed his studies in Baltimore and was the first priest ordained in the United States by John Carroll, the first bishop ordained for the United States. In 1793, Bishop Carroll sent the 25-year-old Badin to frontier Kentucky with these bright new books,” said Sister Eleanor as she shared some of the Badin Bible’s history at a Mass of 4 • Loretto Magazine

From left: Former and current Loretto Archivists Kate Misbauer SL and Eleanor Craig SL respectively, with Loretto President Pearl McGivney SL and Vice President Vicki Schwartz SL at a ceremony marking the University of Notre Dame’s purchase of Loretto’s historic Babin Bible. The event took place at Notre Dame.

Photo by Donna Mattingly SL

Blessing at Loretto Motherhouse, Nerinx, Ky., July 6.

These books tell “the story of the early settlers of the Kentucky Holy Land to whom Badin was both a dedicated and stern mentor. ...

Badin supported the first Kentucky community of women, the Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross, in their earliest educational efforts. It is very likely that Badin gave these volumes to the Sisters of Loretto sometime in their first six years at Little Loretto.

“For 200 years these three books have borne mute witness to

the story of Loretto’s work in Kentucky. They were brought back to St. Stephen’s Farm, when the Sisters came in 1824, and we have no reason to believe they have ever left these grounds. Kept carefully for years, stored in the archives at least from 1908, these books in recent decades have been in the vault beneath the Infirmary.

Safe but not seen, treasured but not admired, preserved but not available for use,” said Sister Eleanor.

Now they will be safe, admired and used at the University of Notre Dame.

Loretto Heritage Center wins national history award

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he Loretto Heritage Center, Nerinx, Ky., shown at right, has won a 2014 Award of Merit from the Leadership in History Committee of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).

The award will be formally presented Sept. 19 at the annual AASLH meeting in St. Paul, Minn.

According to a letter received at the Loretto Heritage Center from AASLH President Terry L. Davis, “The AASLH Leadership in History Awards is the nation’s most prestigious competition for recognition of achievement in state and local history. We congratulate you

Loretto Heritage Center Planning Committee Denise Ann Clifford SL Eleanor Craig SL Antoinette Doyle SL Marie Ego SL Roberta Hudlow SL Donna Mattingly SL Kate Misbauer SL Janet Rabideau SL Anthony Mary Sartorius SL Robert Strobridge CoL † Susan Swain SL Photo by Donna Mattingly SL

for the work that has brought this honor.” Loretto Archivist Eleanor Craig SL sent the news to Loretto Executive Committee saying, “I think this wonderfully recognizes the hard work that Kate Misbauer SL did along with her team

Loretto welcomes new Volunteer Coordinator

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s of June 1, Justina Shaw has been named the new Loretto Volunteer Coordinator, announced Sisters Pearl McGivney and Vicki Schwartz, president and vice-president of the Loretto Community. Justina has supervised 36 volunteers at OPPORTUNITIES-PA, a nonprofit organization serving at-risk and homeless youth. She served as program director for four years.

“While we will sincerely miss Katie Jones and are most grateful for her outstanding contributions to the program, we welcome Justina in this role and wish her every success,” they wrote.

and committees to create the new Heritage Center facility and the excellent museum. My colleagues and I have had a wonderful place to work and a great space in which to introduce the public to Loretto’s story.”

Photo courtesy of Katie Jones, pictured left; Justina Shaw on right.

program will continue under the direction of Justina Shaw, who is based in Washington, D.C., with support from Claudia Calzetta SL in St. Louis.”

Jones said, “I have had the privilege of serving the Loretto Community as Volunteer Coordinator since 2010. This past June, I moved to another job. The

Jones said Shaw brings valuable experience in nonprofit management, consulting and fundraising to the Loretto Volunteer Program. Getting started, Shaw was able to join the summer high school service trip to the Motherhouse, Nerinx, Ky. Summer 2014 • 5

notes & news

New Denver Public School officially named for Loretto Heights

By Carolyn Dunbar

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new Denver Public School, the Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST), has been officially named “Loretto Heights Campus,” in recognition of the significant contribution to Colorado education made by Loretto Heights College from 1918 to 1988.

The former Loretto Heights College is now known as the Colorado Heights University, and Loretto has had no ownership position for 26 years. Part of that property on a hill in southwest Denver is now the site of the DSST Middle School, which opened to sixth and seventh graders in the fall 2013. During the 2014-2015 academic year, the middle school will welcome eighth graders. The high school is now under construction and expected to open this fall with a ninth-grade class.

Above: The completed middle school of Denver Public School’s Loretto Heights Campus is now open. Below: Construction on the high school continues.

Sisters and alumnae receive honors at Loretto Heights College Reunion

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he Loretto Heights College (LHC) Reunion Mass and luncheon, July 19, was the venue for two Sisters of Loretto and two LHC graduates to receive awards for distinguished service and accomplishments.

Held in Machebeuf Hall cafeteria on the original LHC campus, the Spirit of Loretto Committee gathered alumnae and alumni to honor Mary Ann Cunningham SL (photo left) and Mary Ann Coyle SL (photo right) with the Lumen Christi Award given to outstanding and beloved members of the LHC faculty and staff. The Distinguished Alumnae Award was given to Sally Beatty (Class of 1969) and Mary Kay Connors Murphy (Class of 1960) for outstanding lifetime achievement and significant contributions to the community.

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The DSST has several locations throughout the Denver area.

Originally, this new site was known as the College View Campus. School District No. 1 of the City and County of Denver convened a small committee to suggest a permanent name for the middle school and high school campus. Lydia Peña SL was invited to be part of the committee. Seven people — politicians, parents, community leaders — recommended different names.

Sister Lydia put forward the name “Loretto Heights Campus” mentioning that the Sisters of Loretto granted the first high school diploma in the territory of Colorado in 1875. “Members of the committee felt that ‘Loretto Heights Campus’ was very appropriate because that campus, even though it is now another name, is still known as Loretto Heights by the surrounding community,” Sister Lydia said.

The Denver Board of Education of School District No. 1 officially resolved to name the new DSST campus in the southwest region on West Dartmouth Ave., “Loretto Heights Campus.” The school was officially dedicated with the new name on July 19. Sister Lydia said, “As an alumna of LHC and a faculty member for 23 years, I am delighted that the campus is serving the community as an education center.”

loretto community members to remember

Margaret Fitzgerald SL (formerly Sister Gerald Ann)

Sept. 25, 1913 — June 29, 2014 Sister Margaret was 100 years old at the time of her death and in her 82nd year as a Sister of Loretto.

Readers are encouraged to view detailed remembrances and more photos by visiting www.lorettocommunity.org, then selecting the News tab.

Margaret was born in Sterling, Ill., the fourth of 15 children of Earle Fitzgerald and Virginia Schiltz Fitzgerald. Margaret wrote in one of her three autobiographies, “As long as I can remember I wanted to be a Sister. I feel I would have joined the Franciscans in South Dakota had we not moved back to Illinois when I was ready to enter seventh grade. This was my first contact with the Sisters of Loretto. Sister Francis Ellen was my first teacher.

Even as a child I felt that in Sterling our nuns were the ‘cream of the crop’ as far as their being good religious and good teachers.”

Margaret entered Loretto in 1931 and was received the following spring on the traditional reception date of April 25. She took the religious name Sister Gerald Ann in honor of her brother who had died as a child on June 29 just days after completing grade school. Remarkably, Sister Margaret died on the same day decades later.

Her first mission assignment began in 1933 in Highwood, Ill. She went on to teach music and other subjects in schools in Missouri, Denver, Illinois, California and Kentucky.

During that time Margaret earned her bachelor’s degree at Webster College, Webster Groves, Mo., in 1947. In 1963 she earned a bachelor’s degree in music at Loretto Heights College, Denver. In 1983 she joined the staff office at the St. Louis Loretto Center as tape librarian and secretary, a job she enjoyed for 11 years before retiring to the Center in St. Louis. In 2002 she moved to the Loretto Motherhouse infirmary, Nerinx, Ky., where she enjoyed the company of her Community for 12 years until her peaceful death.

Carina Vetter SL

Nov. 6, 1919 — June 26, 2014 Sister Carina was 94 years old at the time of her death and in her 72nd year as a Sister of Loretto.

Loretto Magazine thanks Eleanor Craig SL for providing the information for these remembrances.

Carina Vetter was the seventh and youngest child born to Bernard Vetter and Bertha Pittrick Vetter. Her parents were first-generation German-Americans, born in Cole County, Mo., to German immigrants in the decade following the Civil War. Carina was born and raised in Jefferson City, Mo., where she attended St. Peter’s parish grade and high school, taught by the Notre Dame Sisters. Graduating in 1937, during the lean years of the Great Depression, she put aside her desire to attend college and went to work as a bookkeeper in an uncle’s machine shop. She planned to attend Webster College in St. Louis, but instead entered the Loretto Community in 1941 and received the habit the following spring.

For her first mission assignment, Sister Carina taught in Louisville, Ky., and later at Manton Public School, completing her degree in elementary education from Webster College in 1953. She traveled to St. Ann’s, a Loretto school in Arlington, Va., where she taught primary grades and seventh grade until 1962. At that time she was transferred to the St. Louis area where she lived and worked on one side of the Mississippi or the other until the final months of her life.

Retiring in 2000, Carina picked up a book titled “Anybody Can Draw,” and proceeded to prove that it was so. Her paintings and drawings embellish the Loretto Center in St. Louis; one was recently hung in the Commerce Bank in Webster Groves.

Of her last few years of a full life, Carina wrote, “[I’m enjoying] more time for praying, reading, being with our Sisters, more time to spend on my hobbies. I haven’t thought much about fears — just grateful for the wonderful care we are given.”

Summer 2014 • 7

DOES ANYONE KNOW I’M STILL HERE? Editor’s Note:

In Catholic teaching, the Corporal Works of Mercy — a formal name for words the Savior spoke in his Sermon on the Mount — tell all human beings, every one a child of God, how to treat one another with physical acts of kindness. We are admonished to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, comfort the imprisoned, visit the sick, and bury the dead. These acts underpin all Loretto mission work.

An important ministry, and one in which significant, measurable differences are continually made, is Loretto’s ongoing work with incarcerated men and women. Although Loretto has no formal prison ministry committee or dedicated funds, many Loretto members over the years have volunteered for this work as individuals, small groups, or affiliates of much larger ministries.

The work began long ago. Within the current collective memory, Joan Marie Rapier SL and Paula Caretto SL, teachers in the 1950s at Nerinx Hall High School and Webster College, St. Louis, engaged their students in preparing care packages of toiletries, books and small items for people in nearby jails and prisons. In this feature piece, students of those teachers at the time, Denise Ann Clifford SL and Vicki Schwartz SL, recount their memories of this work 60 years ago.

The main feature segment, authored by Mary Ann McGivern SL, tells of her extensive efforts in many aspects of the Missouri prison system working directly with inmates and with other organizations devoted to changing inequities in the law. Mary Ann also tells of Kathleen Vonderhaar SL’s years of work in literacy programs at the county jail serving three central Kentucky counties. Mary Ellen McElroy SL writes of her years working with the Making Choices Program for Colorado parolees. And Co-member Mary Nelson relates a personal story of a woman she worked with who was finally able choose alternatives to despair. In so doing, she lived to put away bitterness and thoughts of suicide in favor of a restored life.

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I was in priso n and yo u visite d me.

s

Seeking Criminal Justice

About Project COPE

By Mary Ann McGivern SL

Project COPE, a program designed for men or women in Missouri prisons who are nearing release, provides community re-entry support for selected ex-offenders through faith-based team partnerships and transitional housing.

I

was hired in 2006 as the director of Project COPE, a prisoner re-entry program for men and women, not because I knew anything about prisons, but because I had worked for 30 years at the Catholic Worker with families who had no resources. But I learned.

Most Project COPE partners have served long sentences, 10 to 30 years. I understood these men and women would have trouble finding jobs, that they needed to rebuild family relationships, that they needed to learn how to shop, how to cook, how to find and nurture romantic relationships.

COPE uses the word “partner,” not “client,” and pairs these partners with teams from faith congregations: Jewish, Muslim, Christian. It’s a wonderful support system. Roberta Hudlow SL, my housemate in St. Louis, joined a support team and has worked with half a dozen partners.

More than 500 inmates apply to COPE every year. Part of my job was to travel to Missouri’s 20 prisons to interview them, investigate if they were telling the truth, accept about 25 each year and find teams to partner with them. I also had to raise the money for the program, as most directors do.

Among the many things I didn’t know: Those with felony drug convictions were barred for life from food stamps (We changed this!)

During the release process, everyone has to sign a paper promising to repay the state for their incarceration Almost no one was released with identification, e.g., a birth certificate or social security card, and they couldn’t get a job without identification (We changed this!)

Everyone has to pay the state $30 a month during their parole to pay for parole services

Its goals are to assist released inmates in meeting their own goals of reintegrating into society by gaining meaningful work, rebuilding family relationships, making new friends and growing in compassionate selfknowledge. Project COPE also assists members of faith communities in meeting and working with people whose life experiences are very different from their own; learning from these men and women as well as helping them.

A Note on Language Departments of Corrections refer to inmates as “offenders” and to released inmates as “ex-offenders” (except for sex offenders). “Felon,” “criminal” and “convict” are frequently used synonyms.

But the People First Movement changed “disabled” to “person with a disability”; “illegal” to “person without documents”; and “AIDS victim” to “person living with HIV.” If we want to support people released from prison, it is important to respect them as persons, not as felons or ex-offenders.

continued on p. 10

Summer 2014 • 9

Let the storm rage,violence pass, that after a time,in stillness, living things may grow. continued from p. 9

When a small daycare center opened a block-and-a-half away, those convicted of sex offenses could no longer live at COPE . . . . . . the list goes on.

A more subtle thing I didn’t know was that these men and women had spent decades learning not to make mistakes — not to miss count, not to walk in the door with a cigarette, not to talk back to a corrections officer under any circumstances, not to have an unauthorized piece of paper in their pockets — and, of course, not to fight or even punch a wall in anger. We all make mistakes, and part of daily life is owning up to a forgotten appointment or the inversion of numbers on a form or misjudgment of someone’s behavior.

Kenneth Carter, in the cover photo with me, has gone for six years without a single infraction. He leads a circumscribed life, and if he is ever granted parole, he will have to learn a lot about making mistakes.

Missouri sentences are longer than in most states. Missouri has 30,000 inmates in its 20 prisons throughout rural Missouri. However, the juvenile justice system here is better than many; the prison system is committed to re-entry education and reduction of recidivism; and the appointment of most of our judges depends on Bar Association nomination and selection, not on a popular vote.

When I retired from COPE, I set to visiting all the St. Louis state legislators to see if they knew what I had learned about the system. None of them, not even criminal defense lawyers and former chiefs of police and a judge knew the obstacles people face upon release from prison. So I became an active Criminal Justice Task Force member. We’ve had a few successes.

This year Missouri finally opted out of the food stamp ban for drug offenses. The legislature passed a revised criminal code that ends prison time for most drug possessions.

But the governor vetoed a bill that would have removed from the public sex offense register those who committed their crimes as juveniles. (I always talk about harsh sex offense sentencing of the registry because it is safe for me to raise such an uncomfortable subject.)

This fall I’ll be looking for legislators to champion parole board reform, put an end to the debt released prisoners carry, and retroactive benefits, including expungement, for those with drug felony convictions.

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Two Nerinx Hall High School classmates remember a Loretto prison project in the mid-1950s

By Denise Ann Clifford SL

A

lthough I have never pretended to be a foreign language scholar, I do remember my freshman Latin teacher Joan Marie Rapier SL at Nerinx Hall High School, St. Louis. What I enjoyed most were her “real life stories” about visiting the St. Louis City Jail to minister to the inmates. Joan Marie and Paula Caretto SL, who taught voice at Webster College, visited the inmates almost every weekend. During Monday’s Latin class she would share some of her experiences and their stories, always being very discreet about their identities.

As the holiday season approached, Sister Joan Marie announced that she had a special project she wanted to share with us. Each year, she invited her students to prepare gift boxes that she and Sister Paula would take and distribute to the inmates at the St. Louis Jail.

There were specific items that we could purchase and include in our gift boxes. We were given a list of acceptable items: toothbrush, toothpaste, bar soap, hard candies, playing cards, puzzle books, pencils are a few I can remember.

By Vicki Schwartz SL

I

n 1954 I began my freshman year at Nerinx Hall.

One of the highlights that still lives in me is preparing shoebox Christmas presents for inmates in the city jail, a project sponsored by Sister Joan Marie, our Latin teacher, and her friend Sister Paula.

They visited the prison regularly. We decorated shoeboxes and filled them with soap, candy, toothpaste and other useful items.

I think the memory sticks with me — more so than the Latin — because until then I had never thought that prison work was on Loretto’s radar. I think I was even a little shocked. It was the first time I thought of inmates as real people, people with families, people heartsick and lonely. That experience was just one of the many lessons I learned at Nerinx Hall.

In this small way we were taught to practice the corporal work of mercy to “visit the imprisoned” — those lonely persons, sometimes rejected and forgotten by family, friends, society.

Summer 2014 • 11

In Gratitude The Buddha explained that in the dark, you see a snake, you scream. But when you have a light, you see it is a rope. Sometimes we see a person as a snake, whereas she is only a rope. When I change my perception of the situation, my anger (fear) is transformed. — Sister Chan Khong

By Mary Ellen McElroy SL

P

eople in prison were strangers to me. Growing up in a small ranching community, I had never experienced meeting or talking with or ever knowing a person who was in prison. Probably from watching Western movies I got the notion that prisoners did bad things, and I built up a fear of them.

One experience I had when I was about 8 years old softened that notion a bit. Before the end of World War II, several German soldier prisoners were kept in a prison camp at the end of our town. They worked at the town ice plant. That Christmas Eve, the prisoners walked from their camp to the Catholic Church to attend midnight Mass. As we ended the service with our last hymn, “Silent Night,” the German men joined their voices to ours singing in their native language.

As I recalled, they sang heartily, with great devotion, and I thought they can’t be all that bad! After all, they were in the church singing Silent Night with us! I saw them in a different light! (As the Buddha explained, “in the dark you see a snake, and when you have light you see it is a rope.”)

Years later I had the opportunity and privilege to volunteer as a mentor in the Making Choices Program sponsored and facilitated by the Center for Spirituality at Work, a nonprofit organization begun by Dr. Vie Thorgren. Begun in 1999, Making Choices Program is designed to help women who are incarcerated at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility (DWCF) learn decision-making and life-planning skills. It is a 10-week structured program offered twice a year and consists of a two-hour weekly class and one-hour weekly mentoring session.

12 • Loretto Magazine

Teachers and mentors receive special training for this program, as well as ongoing updates every year. Since 1999, 650 incarcerated women have graduated from the program, which has a success rate of 90 percent.

For the DWFC women who have not gone through the program, the rate is 48 percent. See the Making Choices website for more information: www.info@ cfsaw.org People in prison were still strangers to me when I volunteered for Making Choices. This was a new and different experience. Yet, during the nine years I volunteered as a mentor, the most important learning for me was the awareness that these women are truly my sisters — I discovered we have much in common!

And they have been good teachers for me. I have learned to be compassionate in a new way — this experience has changed me. “When my perception changed, my fear was transformed!” I am truly grateful.

Mary Ellen McElroy SL, left, with a graduate of the Making Choices Program at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility. Photo courtesy of McElroy.

Women in Prison — Why, Where and Who? Editor’s note: In a 2009 edition of the Loretto newsletter Interchange, Mary Ann

McGivern SL wrote an article on Loretto members working with the incarcerated. McGivern wrote, “Mary Nelson CoL works with women who had husbands or lovers or parents or children in prison through Kairos Prison Ministry International for Women in Prison. Women who have family in prison are a hidden population, with few resources and little or no support. For many years Mary was on the Kairos board in Florida. Now, semiretired in New Mexico, Mary stays in touch with Kairos in the northern part of the state, helping the women as they support one another.”

Kairos ministries today are run by 36,000 volunteers donating more than 3 million hours of service every year. In the United States they serve in 400 institutions across 35 states and in nine other countries spanning the globe.

By Mary Nelson CoL

A

fter entering my first prison as a volunteer in 1975, three questions burned in my heart.

Why, Where and Who? Volunteering for close to 40 years, I believe I found some of the answers.

killing him. She was sentenced to death but told if she provided names of the gang they would reduce her sentence to life in prison. Her answer was simple: “If I provide names, that will be my death sentence.”

The WHY is pretty universal ... relationships, drugs and Madison Avenue. Women with low self-esteem are vulnerable in these three areas. Even though they often have been victimized by others (fathers, mothers, uncles, just to name a few) they seek not only approval but acceptance in situations that just naturally lead to incarceration. A young girl might have been an outstanding daughter and student but might become infatuated with the lure of another culture.

What role does Madison Avenue play in all this?

Women are bombarded by images thought up by advertising firms. You can never be too thin, too blond, too curvy, too tan. Women with low self-esteem are willing to do anything to live up to these fantasies.

Often they sell themselves short and wind up behind barbed wire where unmonitored TV in cell blocks tells them the same thing. One evening I walked into a cell block with 100 inmates glued to the movie “Scarface.”

When I asked the officers why they would permit a movie all about cocaine, they told me to mind my own business.

One of the women I worked with in prison took that path. For her, it was exciting. It was unique. And it destroyed her life and the life of her “old man.” She was his property to be passed around among his biker gang.

Drugs, of course, played a vital role in all of this.

By prostitution, she could afford drugs, not only for herself, but for her “old man.” With meth so easy to come by (many cook the stuff in their kitchens) it becomes a guaranteed trip to prison. After 10 years, she could take it no longer. She believed her only way out was to kill herself. They struggled with the gun,

WHERE a woman is incarcerated is extremely important. Parts of this country support restorative justice. If a woman is serving time in a prison that supports wellness programs, she stands a much better chance of not recidivating. If a prison supports mental wellness, she stands a better chance of living life on life’s terms. If a woman is serving time in a prison continued on p. 14

Summer 2014 • 13

Restorative Justice: A more effective goal continued from p. 13

near her family — especially if her children can visit — she stands a better chance of turning her life around.

In the south, retributive justice is practiced. As they said about Jesus ... crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. States with capital punishment fit this model, and nothing has a more detrimental effect than a pending execution. It serves as a reminder to all inmates that their lives are not worth saving. As Sister Helen Prejean reminds us, no one should be judged for the worst things they have ever done.

Just WHO is doing time? The children, wives, mothers, grandmothers, daughters and aunts serve time in the free world right along with their incarcerated loved one. The price they pay is beyond measure.

I’ve known wives who have been forced out of their homes and onto welfare. I’ve met young mothers who have to work two jobs to make ends meet. Often her husband demands that she send money to his canteen account ... money that might have kept more food in her home. I’ve met women who have not been able to pay for electricity because they were expected to keep the phone available for expensive collect calls from prison. Besides the heartbreak of a loved one being sentenced, the family feels isolated and rejected, often by their own family, friends and church.

Finally, my friend who was sentenced to life was granted clemency by Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles shortly before he died. The Women’s Clemency Project worked with my friend for four years, all expenses paid, to make this happen. Upon her release she worked in the Public Defender’s Office in Pinellas Park, Fla., while going to school, eventually receiving her master’s degree. Many doors are not open in her chosen field, but she’s managed to accept that which she cannot change, have the courage to change what she can, and today, knows the difference!

14 • Loretto Magazine

Most Recent Available U.S. Prison Population Statistics From Department of Justice

R

eleased in December 2013, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Statistics announced that the total U.S. correctional population (on probation, parole, in prison or jail), decreased for the fourth consecutive year during 2012. The population was down 0.7 percent from 2011, or 51,000 “offenders” (DOJ term), the smallest decrease since 2009.

At the end of 2012, about 6.94 million people were supervised by the U.S. adult correctional systems, or about 1 in 35 American adults (or 2.9 percent of the adult resident population). This is the lowest rate observed since 1997, according to the Bureau of Statistics.

Facts about prison populations in 2012 About 3.94 million people were supervised in the public community on probation 851,200 were on parole Approximately 1.35 million adults were incarcerated in state prisons 217,800 in federal prisons 744,500 in local jails The federal prison system had the largest sentenced prison population (196,600 inmates) in 2012, followed by Texas (157,900), California (134,200), Florida (101,900) and New York (54,100) California had the largest prison population decrease in 2012 (down 10 percent) followed

by Arkansas (down 9 percent), Wisconsin and Colorado (down 7 percent each) Overall, black males were 6 times and Hispanic males 2.5 times more likely to be imprisoned than white males in 2012 Black males aged 18 to 19 were almost 9.5 times more likely than white males of the same age group to be in prison Between 1991 and 2011, the number of females admitted to state prison for newly committed violent offenses increased 83 percent

For years Kathleen Vonderhaar SL taught jailed Kentucky women how to read

Funding for literacy program recently cut, and Sister Kathleen had to step away

By Mary Ann McGivern SL

For many years Kathleen Vonderhaar SL, a Loretto Motherhouse resident, visited the women in the jail that serves Marion County and two other Kentucky counties two days a week. Kathleen tutored the women for the GED, the high school equivalency test.

Anywhere from seven to 35 women were being held on any day, in small accommodations, not allowed to go out to work or exercise, always in the shadow of the much larger population of men who do have these privileges. Sometimes as many as seven or more women would come to the General Educational Development class, far more than Kathleen could work with and often including several who didn’t want to work. Sometimes whoever came was carrying the burden of whatever emotional trauma just happened — conviction of someone they all agree is innocent, a fight over a blanket or contraband candy, or unjust treatment from a guard. Then Kathleen listened, soothed, distributed colored paper or hard candy, and sent back those who could only disrupt the work of others.

The best work was done when only two students arrived, hoping to learn how to focus on arithmetic or how to write a topic sentence and develop it into the required essay on whether smoking should be banned from public places or whether music should be taught in public schools.

Kathleen loved working one-on-one with adults, and she grew to love the women at the jail — if they stayed long enough and were not transferred abruptly to another facility. For quite awhile, Kathleen visited the mother of an abused woman convicted of killing her husband and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Above: Kathleen Vonderhaar, second from left, with her students in county jail. Below: More incarcerated women who studied with Sister Kathleen. Photos courtesy of Vonderhaar.

And Kathleen always celebrated whenever any of her students passed the GED test to earn a Certificate of High School Equivalency. She was proud of each one.

Often they promised to visit when they were released or else to come back to her for classes to complete their GED. But Kathleen knew once they were released it would be much more difficult to focus on getting a high school diploma. She smiled and told them if they were able to come she would be very glad to see them.

Summer 2014 • 15

Shout Jubilee!

A Covenant, A Relationship, A Celebration Loretto 2014 Jubilarians keep the faith, go the distance

Golden Jubilarian

Susan Carol McDonald SL St. Louis, Missouri

T

he Sisters of Loretto came to the small town where I grew up to teach vacation school for two weeks every summer. For 17 continuous years, Sister Marie Anthony and others came to Akron, Colo. Early on, when I was four, I observed these Sisters seemed to love everyone. To them, everyone was special and deserving of love. I wanted to be like that, and from that age was determined to be a member of Loretto.

I have such gratitude to the Community.

Since the early years I wanted to care for orphans. Community members have been so supportive. I have had treasured experiences with children and adults in the U.S., Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand, Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Vietnam.

Being a Sister of Loretto has been a passport for me to learn from other cultures, to appreciate the awesome richness of diversity, the beauty and face of God in each individual.

I worked with the Friends for All Children agency, and I nursed infants with no known parents or relatives during the war in Vietnam. We received such infants from hundreds of orphanages throughout South Vietnam, and most were severely malnourished. Families were found throughout the world for those who survived.

The babies were initially left in varying places: near an orphanage, at a hospital, alongside a road, under a bus seat — with no information accompanying them. Due to the dire circumstances of the horrible war, including bombed villages and disease, literally thousands of children were left with no known families. No money was left in Vietnam’s stripped economy to care for the orphans. Religious communities cared for orphans, and in the overcrowded orphanages little food, few childcare workers and no medications were available. Ninety percent of children under age 5 in orphanages did not survive. Since 1967, Vietnam looked to other nations to assist caring for their

16 • Loretto Magazine

children. Vietnamese families were already surfeited with orphans since the country had been at war for over 90 years.

More than 4,000 adoptees were in our database, with the number growing daily.

Most orphans from Vietnam went to adoptive families before the Babylift operation in 1975.

Today, almost every day, I receive e-mails and Facebook messages from adoptees and hear from adoptees who are just beginning to question. Now the adoptees are in many countries — countries of Europe, Canada, Australia, U.S., and Singapore. Adoptees were initially cared for by various agencies including Catholic Relief, Pearl Buck Foundation, International Social Service, military adoptions, Friends of Children of Vietnam, HOLT, and our own agency, Friends for All Children.

“You must be surprised to hear from me after all these years,” they say, “I hope you can help me find my birth parents; tell me what orphanage I came from; give me any information you can about my beginning days.” Or, “I saw your name on the web, and I’ve wanted to talk with you for years. Can you put me in touch with others who have experiences similar to mine?”

I have the rosters of several large orphanages, and photos, which assists with some answers. I give the adoptees information regarding DNA, which has helped some to find first cousins among the other adoptees, and provides the hope to find family members in Vietnam. For some I have first photos when they were babies in Vietnam. I have been able to accompany adoptees and their families to Vietnam so they can see every place there that is important to them; I also assist with reunions here in the U.S.

Congratulations to all 2014 Loretto Jubilarians diamond Jubilee – 75 Years Mary Genevieve Cavanaugh SL Golden Jubilee – 50 Years Susan carol McDonald SL

Diamond Jubilarian

Mary Genevieve Cavanaugh SL Nerinx, Kentucky

O

n April 25 the Loretto Motherhouse community enjoyed the activities connected with my celebration as a Sister of Loretto for 75 years. This celebration confirmed the fact that our energy and mental gifts are invited to grasp the challenging materials awaiting us to read, discuss and understand the treasures that will enable us to begin to appreciate the death and resurrection of Jesus.

In 1926 I entered primer at Loretto Academy in Kansas City, Mo., my home town. The world opened up to me as I learned the interesting and dull materials that made up grade school years. High school brought more practical and grown-up subjects. Time to graduate? How could that be?

I was just getting the hang of things; the why for all these topics, languages and skills, in areas that would be useful in further studies.

June of 1938 I graduated from years spent in a study of piano, drama, debates, math and literature. All these activities — really for what? Gulp! Knowing there was God in whom I was very interested!

Silver Jubilee – 25 Years Janis Rothermel CoL Pam Solo CoL Lucy Walsh CoL Paul Wexler CoL

October of 1938 saw my father and me headed for Kentucky after the struggle of leaving my mother and grandmother at home.

In 1984 Sr. Mary Judith and I moved to Casper, Wyo., and managed a senior citizen high-rise facility. These six residents were lovely people with whom we have wonderful memories. The community room was always busy with a variety of activities. They enjoyed book clubs, planning for outings and a variety of entertainments.

The beauties of Wyoming are breathtaking. Such surroundings added another dimension to our living.

Diversity is the name of the game in Wyoming.

The summer of 2014 finds me with two master’s degrees — one in the theory of music and the other in religious education as I live out my life at the Motherhouse. Thanks to wonderful, vibrant Loretto for letting me be a part of you!

Silver Jubilarian

Lucy Walsh, CoL Kirkwood, Missouri

M

y acquaintance with Loretto began as a young child — our favorite babysitter was Sister Deborah Pearson. And we had wonderful neighbors, the McCormack family, who gave their daughter Maureen to Loretto. Both suggested I go to Webster College for a year or two, the purpose being to get to know more Loretto Sisters. I then went to the Motherhouse for about two-and-a-half years.

I loved it, but became rather sure the Lord didn’t want me there; He had other plans for my life. So I went on to spend about 32 years as a Deputy Juvenile Officer working with juvenile girls in trouble with the law. I retired because of health problems and so was more free to help more

in parish life in small ways such as being in the funeral choir. I gave my car away about four years ago as I was not able to be a safe driver.

But thanks to a wonderful St. Louis Community, I am able to get to Loretto Center for group meetings and other happenings.

I believe I have felt Loretto had a part of me as I had a part of Loretto. So when co-membership became available to me it was a joy. I am most grateful to God and the Loretto Community for the gift.

Summer 2014 • 17

gifts

Memorials and Tributes of Honor April — May 2014 In Memory of: Requested by: John & Mary Antoine Albert & Valerie Antoine Rita Brian The Loretto Community Mary Margaret Conter SL Sharlene Piper Hower Theresa Danna Marie Joann Rekart SL Virginia Dekle Susan Evans Maria Ann Dillon SL Barbara Brooks Rancour Jeannette Marie Donnelly SL The Loretto Community Carol Ann Ptacek SL Nancy C. Redding Rosemary Sarka Therese Stawowy* Walter & Gayna Sullivan Janice Dunbar Lois Buckley Claudia & Kelly Carter Tammy Hermstad JoAnn Loughran Ron McGinley Kathleen & Bryan Vescio Donna Zeitz Nancy Welsh Edelman The Loretto Community Leon Emery Maria Brann* Teresa Emnett Elizabeth McWilliams SL

18 • Loretto Magazine

Throughout this list of Memorials and Tributes, an asterisk ( *) following a name identifies that person as a Loretto Co-member.

Betty Finneran Cabrini Bartolo SL Ann Francis Gleason SL Lois Buckley Therese Stawowy* Valerie Stewart Robert Ivancic Jean Ivancic Abby Marie Lanners Patricia & Larry Lanners Rose Annette Liddell SL Janel Crumb OSF* Mary Mangan SL Tanya Sue Hartman Marilyn Rose (Hamilton) Manion Richard Manion Marasco & Newton Family Members Helen Teter Roberta & Ed McCormack The Loretto Community Shelia Marie McCormick SL Anonymous Phil McKnight Kelly Marie Darby Robert Mitchell Mary & Thomas

Sosnowski Eugene O’Neill Joan O’Neill Francis Ratermann SL Anonymous

Jane Marie Richardson SL Joelle & Larry

Richardson Kathleen & Patrick

Jordan Rosemary Schwartz Barbara Light* Clara Shaw Albert & Valerie Antoine Helen Swain Marie Warnock Barbara Thompson The Loretto Community Bob Vincent The Loretto Community Charles Maureen Walker SL Carol Ann Ptacek SL John Walsh Elizabeth McWilliams SL Bud Wamhoff The Loretto Community Ann White SL Therese Stawowy* Rosemary Wilcox SL Anonymous Marita Woodruff* Therese Stawowy* Gene Zoller The Loretto Community

In Honor of: Requested by: Genevieve Cavanaugh SL, 75th Jubilee

Carol Ann Ptacek SL Denise Ann Clifford SL Anonymous Marie Ego SL

Jean Ivancic

Trish & Bill Lewis Benedicta Feeney SL Anonymous Sylvia Ginder SL Anonymous Mary Katherine Hammett SL

Marilyn Montenegro Jean Johnson SL

Barbara A. Johnson Marasco & Newton Family Members

Helen Teter Imelda Therese Marquez SL Anonymous Susan Carol McDonald SL, 50th Jubilee

Mary Bundy*

Carol Ann Ptacek SL Mary & Donald McKnight

Kelly Marie Darby Ruth Routten* Anonymous La Quae (DeVischer) Smyth

Kelly Marie Darby Joan Spero SL Anonymous Mary Swain SL, 55th Jubilee

Katherine Lottes SL Mary Catherine Widger SL Anonymous

CELEBRATE ST. MARY’S ACADEMY — 150 YEARS OF INSPIRING GENERATIONS

Make Plans Now: St. Mary’s Academy Sesquicentennial Tour in partnership with History Colorado Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2014, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Led by SMA Historian Regina Drey SL, this bus tour takes you to the three locations of St. Mary’s Academy plus Loretto Heights that was built to accommodate St. Mary’s Academy boarding students.

• Cost: $41 for History Colorado members; $51 for non-members • Includes bus transportation, a boxed lunch, all guides and interpretation

The same tour is offered Thursday, Oct. 2, for St. Mary’s Academy alumnae.

Seating is limited. Register through History Colorado Center by calling 303-866-2394.

The tour begins and ends at History Colorado Center.

For more information, contact Regina Drey SL at 303-762-8300, ext. 261 or at rdrey@smanet.org

Save the Date:

SMA 150th CELEBRATION

Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014

Hyatt Regency at the Colorado Convention Center (the first site of St. Mary’s Academy) 5:30 – 6:45 p.m. Cocktail Hour 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Dinner and Program Cost: $150 per person or $250 per couple

For further information, contact Susan Hennessy at 303-762-8300, ext. 343, or at shennessy@smanet.org

Loretto Magazine

590 E. Lockwood St. Louis, MO 63119-3279

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You still have time to . . . . //////////////// Swing into Action

and support the Sisters of Loretto Retirement Fund!

The Sisters of Loretto 19th Annual Golf Tournament and Mini-Silent Auction Saturday, August 23, 2014 Arrowhead Golf Course 10850 W. Sundown Trail, Littleton, CO 80125

Don’t live in Colorado and still want to help?

Sponsor a hole In Honor and/or In Memory of a Sister of Loretto.

For more information on the tournament visit www.lorettocommunity.org/golf or contact Kelly Darby at 303-783-0450 X1712 kdarby@lorettocommunity.org