Features
Connect with Loretto through our stories of action, conscience-raising, education, faith, history, human interest, humor, hope, justice and peace, reflection, remembrance and vision – all embracing the common good. Learn more about the Loretto Community.
by Donna Day
Interchange Online
In 1874, 24 years after Loretto Sisters came to the St. Louis area, Loretto Academy on Lafayette Street was opened and began an important presence in the inner city. It quickly grew in students, faculty and curriculum. In its day, hundreds of students sat before these blackboards, learning and loving their Loretto Academy.
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By Mary Ann McGivern
Interchange Online
The National Farmworker Ministry (NFM) held a gala to honor Director Virginia Nesmith’s retirement. Loretto co-member Mary Jean Friel chaired the gala committee. Co-member Carolyn Jaramillo, who represents Loretto on the NFM board, chaired the decorations committee. It was a great day and the gala raised over $30,000 for the NFM.
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by Eleanor Craig
Interchange Online
With a great deal of enthusiasm, fourteen of the thirty-six members of the Novitiate class of 1963 reunited at Loretto Motherhouse over the Labor Day weekend, grateful to Maureen O’Connell and committee for months of finding people and planning activities.
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By Eleanor Craig
Interchange Online
The Loretto Motherhouse Coordinating Board and Services Coordinator have announced a decision which will significantly strengthen Loretto’s ability to plan a sustainable future for the farm and land at Loretto’s traditional “home place” in Marion County, Kentucky. At its meeting on August 30th, the Coordinating Board approved the establishment of a new position at Loretto Motherhouse, the Director of Farm and Land Development.
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by Matt Myers
Interchange Online
Maureen Fiedler celebrated her 50th jubilee of religious life on Saturday, September 15th at St. Andrew Church near Washington, DC. Friends and colleagues participated in an interfaith prayer celebration punctuated with reflections by Rabbi Fred Scherlinder-Dobb, Dr. Mary Hunt, C. Naseer Ahmad, and Jeannine Gramick, SL.
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by Alice Kitchen
Interchange Online
On August 3rd, a “Women in Resistance” delegation lead by the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (GHRC) landed in Guatemala City for an 8 day visit to meet with women leaders. Loretto member Alice Kitchen reports on the experience.
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by Mary Ann McGivern
Interchange Online
What Do I Know of Territory, God? That’s the question Bob Ernst posed on the cover of the program for his Celebration of Commitment as a Loretto Co-Member September 1, 2013. He began by welcoming the community and saying, “I stand before you as a seeker of God’s ways, God’s dream, a cosmic traveler with his feet on the ground, a simple man…”
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An Interview by Mary Ann McGivern
Interchange Online
On August 15th, Mary Gutzwiller celebrated 25 years as a Sister of Loretto. She came to the Motherhouse to join the community in celebrating this special Loretto day for so many. During the feast day Mass, Mary Swain gave the homily. She noted that this day is “a day to celebrate life and commitment and community.”
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by Matt Myers, Special Needs Committee
Since 1973, the Loretto Community has used a portion of its annual income to operate a Special Needs Fund to benefit people in need – and we are pleased to announce our grant recipients this season.
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by Elaine Riot, Loretto at the UN International Peace Day is September 21. Honor it with peace art. The United Nations is charged with global peacekeeping and peace building efforts, and the artwork on the grounds and within the complex reflects the spirit of that immense undertaking. In our third joint peace blog in honor…
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This poem by Cecily Jones SL appeared as a Letter to the Editor in the Lebanon Enterprise, September 11, 2013. Perhaps my age — late 80s — leads me to reflect on the past even while I am gravely concerned about the present, specifically now the proposed U.S. strike on Syria. Memory brings up the…
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Loretto Motherhouse Community members have been concerned about a proposed pipeline carrying highly explosive, toxic byproducts of fracking since we heard about it coming through neighboring counties in June. That concern catapulted us into an energetic response in mid-July when a company representative came to the Motherhouse seeking permission for the pipeline on Loretto property.…
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