SISTERS
SISTER TESA Fitzgerald, C.S.J. talks to kids from Hour Children foster care home she helped found. “I love the way my life turned out, “ says Sister T.
Sister T: A mom to moms behind bars by
Jo Piazza is the author of the bestselling book If Nuns Ruled the World, in which she profiles Sister Tesa Fitzgerald, C.S.J. and nine other Catholic sisters. A former New Yorker, she now lives in San Francisco with her husband and giant dog.
Jo Piazza. Photos by Steve Pfost (courtesy of Opus Prize Foundation).
Everyone knows “Sister T,” who high-fives her way down the streets of Queens, New York. She has helped thousands of women inmates and their kids get through prison terms and rebuild their lives.
S
ISTER TESA FITZGERALD, C.S.J. never thought she would be a mother. But—and she is the first to admit it—God works in mysterious ways. Those enigmatic ways have led Fitzgerald to help raise thousands of children for mothers who are incarcerated—and become a mother to the women themselves. “They’re all my babies,” she says, talking about her unconventional and very large family. Today Fitzgerald, best known throughout her neighborhood in Queens, New York as “Sister T,” is the executive director of Hour Children, a nonprofit that
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