The Loretto Community is committed to the gospel which compels us to work for justice and act for peace.  We take our work and friendships seriously.  In doing so, we invite one another to laugh, to cry, to dance, to enjoy one another’s company.

Justice and Peace
Loretto has a long tradition of education in the broadest sense.  Such education has always had for content not only knowledge of the arts and sciences but learning with a view toward responsible citizenship and dedication to the common good. But most important of all is the instilling of the Gospel values of mercy, compassion, justice and the care for the neighbor. We see our task today as working for justice and acting for peace. We hope to educate others as well as ourselves to truth, beauty and the ways of peace.

Disarmament /Economic Conversion Committee
Investment Committee
Committee for Racial Justice
Special Needs Committee
Loretto Women's Network

Environment
We affirm the underlying mystery and creative source of all life, the presence of a spiritual power beyond the tangible beauties and trials of the world.  Sometimes alone and sometimes together, we express our need to tune our lives with the Divine, ever present and manifest in the cosmic realities of existence.

We see simplicity of life as extending to our care of the planet.  We respect its dignity and beauty, and we work against systems and conditions that violate the planet and its creatures.  We work to act in partnership and interdependence with all creation, reverencing and nurturing our planet.

Loretto Earth Network
Loretto Land Use Committee

Global Loretto
Because nothing cuts us off from other human beings we try to live so that everything about us promotes understanding and peace among ourselves and others.

A true understanding of community necessitates a looking outward, a going forth to meet our neighbors near and far in their human needs and aspirations. 

We are called to respect diversity of being and diversity of gifts.  We seek to reach out beyond boundaries—to live on the frontiers of a global world.

Loretto Mission in Pakistan
Sister Communities: Holy Family Sisters (Guatemala), FST Sisters (Ghana)
Latin America/Caribbean Committee
United Nations/NGO
Loretto Hunger Fund
Loretto Africa Project

Education
The founding work of the Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross was education.  Opening the first Loretto school at Hardin’s Creek, Kentucky in 1812 was certainly only the beginning.  Loretto opened over 225 more schools almost always at the request of a bishop or a pastor because of our reputation as educators par excellence!  Loretto staffed parochial and diocesan schools and established our own academies and two colleges, Webster College in St. Louis in 1916 (link) and Loretto Heights College in Denver in 1891.  Many of the locations were on the frontier and risky when we arrived.  Our final foundation was the Redmond Learning Center in El Paso in 1976.

Loretto’s educational tradition then spread to China, Bolivia, Peru, and currently in Africa with the Akokoamong school in Ghana.

The tradition of education continues today with schools in Denver, El Paso, and St. Louis.

Education Committee
Loretto-sponsored Schools