2025 Jubilarians
Posted on July 7, 2025, by Loretto Community
80+ Jubilee
Kathleen Tighe SL
Kathleen Tighe was received into Loretto on April 25, 1944, following the vocation call of her five siblings: Lucina, Alice Eugene, Ann Virginia, Carolyn Mary and Helen. Her family’s years of service to the Church and the world total 389 years and counting!
In 1976, Sister Kathleen took part in the Loretto Third World Experience, serving in Majuro in the Marshall Islands. Afterward, her mission work took her to the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif., as both a student and in the field of education.
Sister Kathleen (then known as Sister Venard) began her ministry service in Denver. She then taught for the next few years in Illinois and Missouri before returning to Colorado to teach in Colorado Springs. In 1958 she earned a bachelor’s degree in music, with a minor in piano, from Webster University, St. Louis. She taught in St. Louis at Nerinx Hall High School in 1959, with another year there as principal, and then was principal at Loretto Academy High School in Kansas City, Mo., for four more years. In 1964, Sister Kathleen earned a master’s in education from DePaul University in Chicago. Her master’s supported her work at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles and Holy Family Parish in South Pasadena, Calif., as a piano teacher.
Sister Kathleen has served in senior citizen housing and as a creator of the Loretto Spirituality Network. She served on the Loretto staff, retiring in 2000 in Danville, Calif., where she and her housemate, Loretto Sister Kay Lane, developed an extended Loretto community that prayed and celebrated together. Sister Kathleen and Sister Kay moved to Kentucky in 2013. Sister Kay died in 2020. Sister Kathleen resides at Loretto Living Center on the grounds of the Motherhouse, where she loves to listen to classical music and read stories, particularly some of the classics. She said she loves “to hear a good story, and I love telling my stories about Loretto.” Last but not least, Sister Kathleen noted, “I enjoy having visitors.” All are welcome!
75th Jubilee
Ceciliana Skees SL
Looking back at your life in Loretto, was joining the Congregation what you thought it would be?
“Pretty much so. I felt like that was what God wanted me to do. Even though I didn’t get to have children of my own, I had hundreds of children in my life while teaching.”
As you reflect on your various mission experiences, which one brought out your gifts?
“The work I did with children. I chose to teach because I love children.”
What aspects of belonging to Loretto have meant the most to you?
“The work I was able to do with children. It was blessed by the parents of the children I taught and worked with.”
70th Jubliee
Joan Spero SL
“Growing up in North Denver and for several years living just one block from Holy Family Church and School, I was a student there for 12 years and became acquainted with the Loretto sisters who staffed the school. I knew it to be a caring and happy community. It was not difficult then when considering religious life to choose Loretto. During the past 70 years I have been happy being part of this Community and with Loretto’s work to bring about the evolution of religious life for our times.
“I have been fortunate to have participated in a variety of ministry works during these years, including teaching and nursing. These have brought great satisfaction and many blessings. Of these, possibly the most heart-engaging was providing health care for persons experiencing homelessness.”
Barbara Schulte SL
Looking back at your life in Loretto, was joining the Congregation what you thought it would be?
“The answer to the question is both YES and NO. YES, in that I thought religious life offered a way to draw closer to God. This proved to be true as I have had the time and opportunity in my life to seek God. NO, in that in 1954, I could not have imagined that there would be a Vatican Council that would change the way women religious lived their daily lives, dressed and were governed. This was all good, but different from what we had observed when we entered in 1954.”
As you reflect on your various mission experiences, which one brought out your gifts?
“When I was in high school, I was told that I was good with children. I was able to use this gift in my teaching career. It was great to have a group of young children to be with daily and to help them learn and, hopefully, to learn to love school. When I was asked to leave the classroom for an administrative job, I still saw the children daily in the halls at Havern School and tried to make them feel comfortable and enjoy school. What I miss most in retirement is the children.”
What aspects of belonging to Loretto have meant the most to you?
“I think that the aspect of belonging to Loretto that has meant the most to me, especially as I get older, is community — being a part of this beautiful group of people who make up Loretto is priceless. I would not be the person I am today were it not for the Community.”
Elisa Rodriguez SL
Elisa met the Sisters of Loretto as a high school sophomore. She saw them as “living angels, so nice, so beautiful, so tender with us and everything.” In that moment, she vowed to one day become one of them.
Elisa’s passion for teaching began in childhood as she taught her siblings and little girls on her street. She always had the desire to teach and bring that into her community. With a generous spirit, she eagerly shared whatever she learned. As a Sister of Loretto, Elisa first worked with students from first to eighth grade. Then, sent to Peru for three years, she taught teachers how to teach science.
She next worked in adult ministry at a Mexican American Cultural Center in El Paso. Elisa was an integral member of the El Paso community for many years and helped to create the El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization with fellow organizers. Of this time, Elisa reflected, “It was my desire to pass on whatever I have learned. Community has been very important to me because I came from a big family. When I entered we were over 100 novices. More than 100 sisters lived in the Community. Community is always important. Community has always been family.”
What aspects of belonging to Loretto have meant the most to her? Elisa replied, “The great gift of education. I was prepared for everything I did. And the sensitivity of the Community. We talked about social justice. Sister Felicia opened my eyes to the fact that the Church has responsibility [to the community]. Teachers are like farmers who lead horses to pasture, and let the animals go and feed. We open the gates for you, and it’s what you want to learn from here on out. Loretto has opened the gate for me a number of times. After the Vatican Council, reinforced by Mary Luke Tobin, and on and on and on.”
65th Jubilee
Mary Ann McGivern SL
“I have loved being in the company of women. Yes, some of my best friends are men. Men are good. But every once in a while, my eyes open wide with appreciation of women.
“For instance, at Loretto Assemblies we wear our best outfits. We bring goods to sell for a myriad of causes. We listen to one another even as we disagree strenuously. One time Pat Kenoyer got up to congratulate us on our discussion of money. She said it was even harder to talk about money than sex. Pat McCormick got up to ask when she had missed the discussion on sex. We laughed and kept on talking about how we balance mission and maintenance, about where to spend the money.
“We learned, painfully, that the white majority was insensitive to the Hispanic experience and now we learn again that we are insensitive to the Pakistani experience. But what do those words mean? How do we do better? What does reparations mean? We walk on land that was home to Indian tribes. And as women we have not always been treated well. Cesar Chavez said Catholic sisters are so supportive of farmworkers because we are the farmworkers of the Church. We name oppression. We strive to swim against its tide. I do better in community than I would do alone.
“How do we honor our different experiences of God? Our different practice of spirituality? How do we find ways to pray together? Every day? From the day I arrived at Loretto and my seniority partner was Hispanic and from El Paso and so homesick, my life has been one of building community in this company of women.”
Mary Kay Widger SL
“The first question filled me with laughter and gratitude. Entering Loretto before Vatican II and then three years later being invited to adapt to the changes brought by the Council was not easy for me. But what never changed was Loretto’s basic charism of loving service that meets the needs of the times – to live as Jesus lived. Ministry and life with intellectually limited folks emerged silently at times and I did not realize God’s work. I “adored” my 4th grade teacher, Sister Jane Mary Mouradian, who asked me to sit and help a fellow student who was having a hard time. That was the beginning. Sister Jean Patrice Golden asked me to help the severely disabled young man across the street from our convent and so began another phase that led to being hired (1976) by the Archdiocese of Denver to work with folks with special needs. An overwhelming need to educate people to the importance and gift of life with these folks led to the opening of the Bridge Community (1985) which celebrated 40 years of shared life this past April. Over all my years in Loretto I have felt supported, encouraged and richly blessed by the Community’s trust. I am grateful and rejoice in all the incredibly beautiful work my Sisters and co-members have done in following the Spirit’s guidance.”
Mary Kay Brannan SL
Many SLs have wonderful things to say about Mary Kay.
Sisters Mary Catherine Widger and Mary Ann McGivern describe fellow classmate and jubilarian Mary Kay as “a Colorado person, raised on the western slope,” with a subtle sense of humor. “She worked for so many years with homeless women in New Mexico, her great love. Mary Kay loved being part of small groups that could share ideas and the ‘heart-felt’ beliefs behind them. She loved the Colorado mountains and the gorgeous plains among them.”
Sister Maria Visse recalls how Mary Kay foresaw before others the need for safe housing for women. “At first she brought women to stay at the convent, but she raised the money to construct secure housing. She made a difference in Taos (N.M.).”
In St. Louis, Mary Kay taught junior high grades at Mary, Queen of Peace, was principal at Immaculate Conception in Maplewood and taught at St. Rose’s. Each location represented a different socioeconomic strata – rural, inner city, wealthy. Those experiences, she said, “gave me such a great insight into how alike we are despite our circumstances of life.”
Mary Kay also worked at the Motherhouse Infirmary as a nurse’s aide, and that’s where she began to love caring for the elderly. She studied Spanish in Mexico before ministering in rural New Mexico as a parish assistant pastor. In Taos, she worked for and later became director of a battered women’s project for some eight years. During that time, she secured a $1 million grant to build a new transitional housing shelter. Later, she worked as a CNA in home health care and at the Denver Loretto Center, and served as director at Knobs Haven Retreat Center, which she describes as “a really wonderful time in my life.”
60th Jubilee
Mary Louise Denny SL
“I’ve never used the term “mission” to describe the work I’ve done over the last 60 years. That term seemed to artificially elevate or sprinkle holy water on what was employment, work. I never heard the other women I worked with describe what we did together as a “mission.” That being said, let me say that my work over the last 60 years can be described as a spiral. A pattern of working, learning, applying those experiences into a new work, more learning, combining these experiences into yet another work, more learning. An example would be teaching, then wanting to learn more about the human body, realizing that the one thing humans have in common with each other is our human bodies; then nursing school, the combining and teaching nursing to unemployed people. … All the while, trying to integrate values I learned in Loretto with employment — to unionize nurses at City Hospital in St. Louis, to take part in starting a women’s free clinic in St. Louis. Working on the administrative staff of the Loretto Community called on every creative thread I might have. That work called on my skill as a teacher, a nurse, an organizer, a member of a community and a responsible member of the world community. Along with my work life, I have learned the value of friendship. We are Friends of Mary, not team members, colleagues or relatives. We are friends. A skill not easily learned and sometimes even harder to live. But this gift is one that is perhaps the most important of all. All of this, a spiral of working, learning, creating and learning again. I am grateful to Loretto for encouraging me, supporting me in this creative adventure for the last 60 years.
Regina Drey SL
“Loretto’s commitment to educate ourselves and others to truth, beauty, and the ways of peace resonates with me as a person who has spent my career in Loretto-affiliated schools. Beginning with the sisters who taught me at Bishop Toolen High School in Mobile, Alabama, I saw bright, caring, interesting individuals who skillfully combined their enthusiasm for subject matter with concerns for the world beyond the classroom. That continued when teaching at Loretto High School in Louisville and Loretto Academy in El Paso, and now at St. Mary’s Academy in Denver.
“I see that commitment underlying everything that happens in the course of a school year, beginning with living the Loretto School Values of faith, community, justice and respect and continuing with service learning, studying global issues, supporting the Loretto Hunger Fund and Pakistan mission, and traditions such as Earth Day, International Peace Day, and Diversity Day. Loretto’s commitment to truth, beauty, and the ways of peace is my North Star.”
Cathy Mueller SL
“My life in Loretto had been beyond any expectations I might have had at 17. I have received an excellent education in math, counseling, Scripture and life. I have been challenged to go beyond what is comfortable through teaching high school, working in multicultural parishes, working in a hospice, founding EarthLinks (a small nonprofit in Denver building community with people living on the margins and Earth) and serving in various leadership roles in Loretto.
“Each place I went I pulled the talents and insights from my previous work to the new ministry, using and adapting those skills while developing more. Even my volunteer work reflected variety, including time with migrant farm workers, people living with HIV/AIDS, giving retreats, facilitating meetings and working with retired adults.
“My whole life is about building community. I learned this from my family, and it was reinforced by Loretto. I have been led by the creative Spirit of God, grounded in Loretto and surrounded by many friends and companions. I have been blessed. I am very grateful.”
Mary Margaret Murphy SL
“My heart overflows with gratitude as I reflect on and acknowledge all I learned and how I’ve grown from those to whom ‘I was sent.’ Unknown to me, what I learned and experienced from my first missions would ground me and enhance my presence at my last mission. These include the importance of networking, advocacy, community organizing and systemic change.
“My last mission was El Paso Villa Maria, a beautiful transitional living center for unhoused women. The women who come here are welcomed into a compassionate, supportive, healing environment.
“As a case manager there, I accompanied the women as they addressed the root causes of their being unhoused. This empowered them to move from crisis to sustainability. In turn, the women blessed and taught me many things, including compassionate listening, determination, acceptance, hope, faith, courage, resilience. What an abundance of gifts!
“For all that has been during my 60 years as a Sister of Loretto, I am deeply grateful.”
Mary Catherine Rabbitt SL
“I entered the Sisters of Loretto on Sept. 15, 1964, at age 18, having graduated that spring from Nerinx Hall High School in Webster Groves, Mo. Our senior trip in the spring of ’64 was to the Motherhouse in Kentucky, so I had an idea of what the ‘place’ looked like, and I knew many postulants and novices who had graduated ahead of me. But I had no idea of what the ‘life’ would be like! I just knew that the Sisters who taught me (from kindergarten through high school) were wonderful role models; they enjoyed one another’s company and were very available to us.
“After some time at Loretto, I began to realize that there were many aspects of the life that I didn’t have a clue about! We also entered at a time of great change within the Order; the Mother Superior, Mother Mary Luke, was in Rome that fall, attending the sessions of Vatican II. When she came home, things began to change and I tried to roll with the punches. Having a sense of humor helped a great deal as well as being there with old and new friends.
“I graduated from Webster in 1969 with a dual degree in theology and history; I spent that summer and the following summer at the Catholic Worker Hospitality House in the Bowery in New York City, then began my teaching career at Loretto in Kansas City, Mo. In the fall of 1970, I moved to Fairfield, Iowa, where I spent the next four years serving as high school and adult religious education coordinator in a rural parish and in campus ministry at Parsons College. In the fall of 1975, I began studies in applied theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. After that I was appointed as social advocate for the Sisters of Loretto/Loretto Community by both Presidents Helen Sanders and Marian McAvoy. In that capacity, I focused on the social justice agenda of the Loretto Community. In the fall of 1981, I began studies at the University of Denver College of Law, where I received my juris doctor degree in 1984.
“After passing the Colorado bar exam in the fall of 1984, I began working as a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Denver, where I happily served for 16 years until I was elected president of the Sisters of Loretto (my term in office was from 2000-2006). I returned to the practice of law in 2008 with Disability Law Colorado (formerly known as the Legal Center), where I worked as Colorado Legal Assistance Developer until I retired in 2018. I can honestly say that my nearly 40 years as a lawyer brought me the greatest personal and professional satisfaction because that work drew upon my lifelong interests in theology and social justice work. I specialized in elder law (an emerging new field of practice). In that capacity, I assisted in the development and passage of laws in Colorado benefiting older adults, persons with disabilities around end-of-life issues and access to Medicaid and needed healthcare and housing benefits through litigation and advocacy efforts. I was also able to draw on those experiences and knowledge as President of the Sisters of Loretto and as a member of five different Executive Committees in Loretto.
“From the very beginning, I was drawn to mission and Community in Loretto. I take seriously our commitment to ‘work for justice and act for peace because the Gospel urges us.’ It has been — and continues to be — a rich and fulfilling life. I can hardly believe that it has been 60 years since my first one-way plane ticket to Kentucky (I just took the second one in February when I moved back to the Motherhouse). I am very grateful for all that has transpired in those intervening 60 years and for all my companions along the way.”
Janet Rabideau SL
Looking back at your life in Loretto, was joining the Congregation what you thought it would be?
“When I entered, I entered because I wanted to become a teacher, and I taught for over 30 years. And then I became assistant archivist at the Motherhouse for 13 years. That was interesting, knowing the history of a lot of schools where we taught. I always wanted to serve children and wanted to teach, that was my life. I wanted to try it out so I did and I’m still trying.”
As you reflect on your various mission experiences, which one brought out your gifts?
“Teaching, I loved being around kids. I loved working with other people and I’ve been in some pretty good schools. Pius V in St. Louis was the longest and I really liked that. The history of Loretto being is there. I got to witness real change in the neighborhood and was there long enough to see families grow up. Mostly I taught in schools that had the history of Loretto.”
What aspects of belonging to Loretto have meant the most to you?
“Being open to letting people be able to do different things. I lived by myself most of the time and taught and was connected to Loretto with different things. I didn’t live in the Community very often and I appreciated the freedom to do what you wanted to do.”
Barbara Roche SL
“When I joined Loretto in the fall of 1964, I had pictured that my life would be pretty much like that of the sisters I admired and liked so much. … I would be a teacher and live in a convent with other sisters; we would have regular prayer times together and go to Mass every day. However, we were just on the verge of many changes. In fact, Sister Mary Luke left the morning after we arrived at the Motherhouse to participate in Vatican II.
“In fact, things turned out much differently and much better. By the time we had finished with our college educations, Sister Helen Sanders (provincial in St. Louis at the time) consulted with each of us about what we wanted to do. When I said that I wanted to move to Washington, D.C., and try to work in a Congressional office, she was very supportive. From there, I went on to do many different things, none of them teaching in a classroom, and to live in many different settings throughout the past 55 years.
“Serving as president of Nerinx Hall for 27 years was the work I did that most brought out my gifts. I chose to apply for the position because several people who were on the faculty at the time urged me to and because, as a Nerinx alum, I was excited about the prospect of working there. Since being President focused on the ‘administrative’ rather than the ‘academic’ parts of running a school, I could bring the variety of experiences I had had to the job. I had written grants and done other fundraising for a statewide housing advocacy group; I had supervised staff and developed budgets while working at the National Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign; and I had learned about facility management when working for an energy conservation project. Most importantly, all of my previous jobs had involved working with a wide variety of people so I was able to relate to faculty and staff, parents, students and alums. In fact, one of the Nerinx Board members said he had told the others that, “if she’s lobbied legislators in Jefferson City, she’s the one we want to run the school.”
“What means the most to me about belonging to Loretto is community … being part of a group that challenges me and broadens my perspective. I’ve always felt that I didn’t have to do everything, because Loretto Sisters and Co-members (and now Loretto Link) are doing so many things. I am a part of the struggle for farmworker rights because Loretto is there; I am supporting and advocating for migrants, because Loretto is doing it; I am part of a worldwide movement for peace and non-violence because Loretto is there; and I am fighting for climate justice because Loretto is. Having Loretto involved in so many areas keeps me aware and invites me to do my small part to ‘work for justice and act for peace.’”
50th – Golden Jubilee
Sharon Palma CoL
“Expecting a life of prayer, community and a teaching career, it never occurred to me that my life could be as full as it has been since joining Loretto in 1966. Since then, the unfolding of my life has been full of surprise and expansion, all the way from the opening of the windows of Vatican II to the freshest air of attending the Lutheran Seminary across the street from the House of Studies in Webster Groves to take a course from Walter Bruggeman, to being taught by Father Louis (Thomas Merton) from Gethesemani at the Loretto Motherhouse in the novitiate, and to have Sister Mary Luke, then Mother Luke, share her guests with us from the Vatican II Council, as each one came to visit with her, some becoming our novitiate teachers, such as Father Carroll Stuhlmueller and Father Barnabas Ahern, and more.
“And this was just the beginning, the novitiate. There were all of those wonderful retired women, Sisters of Loretto, who were teaching us the history of Loretto, right from their own experiences and stories.
“Once ‘out in the field,’ life in Loretto offered and supported service work like it was impossible to dream of as a 21 year old, like attending the U.N. with Betty Obal, going to Chiapas, Mexico, with Mary Peter Bruce, attending another year at the U.N. in New York where we were witnessing the Japanese victims of the bombing of Hiroshima forgiving us, their perpetrators; then on to the SOA for many years, in Fort Benning, Ga., and more locally and later, in Arizona, at Nogales where we welcomed and bandaged those immigrants who were blindly finding their way to safety through the scorching desert.
The experience of Susan Carol McDonald and Mary Nelle Gage, in Saigon, Vietnam, impacted me deeply, so much so that right before the war that should never have happened ended, I found myself with my first child, a baby boy from a Saigon orphanage, and two teenage girls who had worked at one of the orphanages with both Mary Nelle and Susan Carol. The girls, Hua and Thuan, joined us and became family! And eventually this new family was the inspiration for my latest work with immigrants in El Paso for the past five years. In between, there was Peru, Africa, Nicaragua and Pakistan, that many Loretto members experienced and continue to experience to this day. There is so much more I could tell you about, like my 30 years in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico working with and learning from the Jemez Native American Pueblo, but the lasting truth is that I believe I have been exposed to love, prayer in many forms and to service throughout my life in Loretto. The God I thought I knew as a young 21 year old has exploded into a God of all nationalities, all faiths, all colors, all faces, all possibilities and all parts of the world. For my life and all of the lives lived in Loretto, I am eternally grateful.”
Marcella Shields CoL
“I am deeply grateful to the Loretto Community for the many opportunities and encouragement I was given in my work in a maximum security prison hospital, in the founding of the Toronto Children’s Peace Theatre (which is still a beacon of hope in our violent world) and the opportunity to work with our Loretto office at the U.N. on a disarmament, peace and security committee. My life has been truly enriched beyond words for being invited and encouraged ‘to work for justice and act for peace because the Gospel urges us.’”
Mary Jean Friel CoL
“When I joined Loretto, part of our group went to Denver to the newly established novitiate. This is where I was first introduced to migrants and Sister Jean Patrice. We worked with migrants and then, with the encouragement of many sisters, I was able to become an organizer with the United Farm Workers, Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Worker Ministry. These experiences and work on Loretto Community committees are with me today. In 1975, my life changed from vowed to co-membership, and my life continued in Loretto. My life in Loretto Community has been a joyous journey. Community is so important for our mission. Loretto has supported me and my family my whole life. Our Community, our Spirit-filled life, our friends far and near are so precious and empowers us to keep on trekking through each day.”
25th – Silver Jubilee
Cathy O’Grady-Melvin CoL
“Joining the Loretto Community was everything and more I envisioned it to be. Life is made rich by the people you walk with. In Loretto I walked with some of the best! The women I have met enhanced my faith and spirituality. They were role models and mentors. I so admire the work many of our women have done. Membership in the Loretto Community has increased my faith and brought a source of new life. Aspects of belonging to Loretto that have helped most are the Community Groups and the monthly Loose Group Book Club where ideas and actions are shared in a warm and nurturing environment. I find I am challenged personally, intellectually and spiritually.”
Carol Colligan CoL
“I fell in love with Loretto totally when I went to Webster in fall of 1966 as a 24-year-old freshman non-traditional student. The nuns were older than I but not by so much, but they embraced me as a peer. Being at Webster provided such a rich life, and I got very involved with school and just loved it.” Added Carol, “Sister Gabriel Mary was my dearest friend in the world.”
“I never felt I joined a congregation but rather a community. I fell in love with worship life. Each decade things changed so much. The people change, faces change and there’s a spirit there, the Loretto spirit throughout all of it.” These days Carol stays connected by Zoom and participates in a weekly virtual coffee klatch and also in regional Loretto Link meetings. She adds, “It means a lot to me, just connecting with the community.”
When asked about her sense of belonging to Loretto she said, “It’s the whole feeling of belonging to people and to a community. Just knowing that you can pick up the phone to any member and say, ‘I need help.’ I never hesitate to reach out. We all approach belonging in our own way and I feel like I’m a happy camper!”
Kathy Baldwin-Heitman CoL
“My life in Loretto has been built in layers over many decades, each layer adding to the richness of my understanding of the significance of committing to be in this Community. I was first introduced to Loretto at the age of 12 when I entered Loretto education in Kansas City, Mo., in the seventh grade. That earliest layer created an understanding of the essential practices of creative problem-solving, collaboration and conflict resolution, along with loads of encouragement to find and express myself – to find my voice. Later, in my mid-20s, the next layer was added. I began to see clearly how the early lessons applied to my professional work and adult relationships, kicking off my personal walk with Spirit. At almost 40, I joined Loretto as a co-member – another layer that both bolstered and challenged my life journey. Now in my 60s, I am clear that the layers have together formed the very core of my life. I’m certain the layers continue to be formed as I now participate in new ways and find new perspectives for who I am and how I am called to participate in our world. I am forever grateful for growing up, growing outward and growing inward with Loretto at center.”
Patty Kane CoL
“Being a Co-member of Loretto has been a blessing to me these past 25 years and has exceeded my expectations. As a Nerinx Hall alum ‘66, the Loretto seeds were planted. I drifted away from the Catholic Church, but the seeds were still growing and beginning to bud. Nursing led me to be a VISTA volunteer with the Utah Migrant Council. As a nurse with Denver Public Health I worked in a community health center in an impoverished area. Later, I reconnected with the Catholic Church and Loretto. My last 11 years in public health nursing was in the tuberculosis clinic, where I had the opportunity to work in the county jail, homeless shelters and with immigrants and refugees. Loretto roots were now deep, and I could flower with the support of Loretto to spread the love of God.
“Belonging to Loretto has enriched my life by engaging me in actions for peace and justice, and involvement with learning and educational experiences. I participate in Community Group 4 and have served on committees and in study groups. So much of Loretto is about friendships and relationships and our connection and caring for each other.”
James Raab
Looking back at your life in Loretto was joining the congregation what you thought it would be?
“For the initial years, the answer is a resounding yes. I think for the most part it is because I worked at Loretto Academy and spent a lot of time with the community that was there. I have had the chance to meet with many sisters both in Colorado and El Paso. The reason I joined the Congregation was to support these Sisters of Loretto in their mission and vision. I truly believed in what they did and what they were doing. I wanted to make sure it continued for as long as possible. The Sisters of Loretto have been part of my marriage, birth of my children, mentors of my teaching career and spiritual journey. I do not think life has allowed me to be as integrated in the Loretto Community as I should be. I have travelled in several cities and states, and this created challenges for me to be a more active member. I most realize the wisdom that has been shared when I find myself sticking up for Loretto values in daily ministry or work. I also realize it or reflect on Sisters when the wisdom used is from those who have been called home.”
As you reflect on your various mission experiences, which one brought you out your gifts.
“Throughout my time with the Sisters of Loretto, I have been a musician, a teacher and a computer resource. Of these, I have been a musician the most. I have learned from Sister Francis Ratterman that sometimes it’s not about the music but it’s about the kids. I think this was probably one of the greatest lessons that I have learned in the music ministry that I’ve done through many parishes. I find myself now an advocate for the kids and making music more of a supporting characteristic. This is more problematic as I have had a mild stroke and do not play as well as I did in my youth. Dealing with these challenges, I see a gift from Sister Pat Joyce, another wise person, who shared how to continue after facing medical challenges.”
What aspects of belonging to Loretto have meant the most to you
“I would have to say the aspects of belonging to Loretto that mean most to me center around the sharing of stories. I get to carry these rich and full stories in any ministry I do. I have talked to Sisters that have shared stories of working with Native Americans, underprivileged families and rural communities. The Community of Loretto is a wonderful group of people. There is a rich history, wisdom, laughter and joy that just cannot be found anywhere else. My life would not be as nearly as rich as it is without my time with the Loretto Community.”
We also extend hearty congratulations to Linda Gonzalez CoL, Gretta Collins CoL and Jill Webb-Hill CoL!
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