Author archive

Mary Ann McGivern SL

Mary Ann recently moved from St. Louis to the Loretto Motherhouse in Kentucky. She is searching for entry points into Marian County, Ky., civic life — funding the day care center, improving jail services, helping stop a pipeline through Bernheim Forest. She is on the roster of homilists at Loretto Chapel’s Sunday Communion service. Mary Ann has been a Sister of Loretto since 1960.

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Hiroshima: A Peace Committee Call for a Community Read

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / August 10, 2022 /

In 1946 The New Yorker devoted an entire edition to publishing John Hersey’s “Hiroshima.” Hersey reported on six residents. They were there in the city and, by turns of fate,…

Use Your Voice! Call Your Senators!

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / July 20, 2022 /

The easy way to reach your senator or congressional representative is to call the congressional switchboard (202-224-3121). Call to say you are dismayed at the Supreme Court action on — just about…

Nuclear Ban Week in Vienna

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / June 15, 2022 /

A pink banner with a white dove in the middle has blue lettering around it saying "Lorettos for Disarmament"

It’s finally happening, the first Meeting of States Parties to the U.N. Ban Treaty! Eighty-six countries have signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and 61 states have ratified it!…

Thinking About Wills

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / September 1, 2021 /

I was 18 when I wrote my will, leaving all my possessions, including future royalties, inheritance and payments for service, to the Sisters of Loretto. What I knew when I…

César Chávez and Loretto: Seeing the movie

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / October 29, 2020 /

Mary Jean Friel CoL and her three grown children, Nathan, Michael and Carolyn, attended the San Diego premier of the 2014 movie “Cesar Chavez.” During the years the movie covers,…

Mary Swain’s Letter Writing Campaign To Block LG&E’s Natural Gas Pipeline

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / November 1, 2019 /

A woman with white hair and oval glasses smiling while sitting at an oak wood desk and writing a letter on lined paper on top of a bright pink folder. She is wearing a short-sleeved, white, collared, button up shirt and patterned bottoms and the oak desk she is sitting at is indoors.

Last spring Mary Swain received a call for help from an organizer from Cedar Grove in Bullitt County, Ky., north of Nelson and adjoining Jefferson County. The utility company LG&E…

Loretto Welcomes New Motherhouse Service Coordinator

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / July 1, 2019 /

Two women and a man smiling together for a group picture at a social event. The women are wearing dresses, the man is wearing a collared shirt.

There’s something new at the Motherhouse. Anthony Mary Sartorius is getting to retire at last after two-and-a-half terms as service coordinator. After extensive searching for a person to take on…

El Paso Celebrates Mary Margaret’s Retirement from Villa Maria

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / September 1, 2018 /

Two women hugging each other indoors. The woman facing the camera has papers in her hands wrapped around her friend.

For 11 years Mary Margaret Murphy has been the caseworker at Villa Maria in El Paso, accompanying and guiding women through transition from homelessness, addiction, mental illness and incarceration to…

Can Loretto Help Guatemalan Sisters Learn English?

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / May 1, 2018 /

21 diverse women smiling together for a group picture in an outdoor courtyard in front of a yellow building.

The Holy Family sisters in Guatemala have asked Loretto to help them learn English and teach English in their schools. It is a daunting request, and the Guatemala Sister Community…

Money for Mission: When Will We Spend It?

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / November 1, 2016 /

At out Zoom Assembly in September, the Finance Committee asked us how we would like to spend money for mission. There was a splendid array of creative answers, all heartfelt…

President Signs Letters in Name of Loretto

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / September 1, 2016 /

Pearl McGivney signs a lot of letters on behalf of the Loretto Community. Like the rest of us, she receives email requests to sign letters and petitions, and , like…

Kim Klein Publishes New Edition

By Mary Ann McGivern SL / July 1, 2016 /

A woman with short brown hair wearing a blue graphic t-shirt and black-framed glasses smiling outdoors while holding a book in her hands to display it to the camera.

Co-member and veteran fund raiser Kim Klein has just published the seventh edition of her classic book, Fundraising for Social Change. For more than 30 years, Fundraising for Social Change…

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The Loretto Community consists of the congregation of the Sisters of Loretto and Loretto Co-members. The congregation of the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross was founded in rural Kentucky in 1812. Today, our Sisters and Co-members continue to live out the Loretto Community’s mission to “work for justice and act for peace because the Gospel urges us.” In the United States and throughout the world, Loretto Community members serve in many fields, including education, healthcare, elder care, environmental stewardship and advocacy.