Loretto Magazine and Annual Donor Report – Spring/Summer 2023

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Loretto Spotlight Video – Jessie Rathburn CoL

A letter from Loretto president Barbara Nicholas SL

Recently, I received a letter from a fifth grader at St. Mary’s Academy in Englewood, Colo. I’ll call her Bridget. “I love helping others, drawing and building things to help people,” Bridget wrote. “I like being a Loretto Leader because I get to meet more of our community and I get to help others. I was wondering what you have done or do to show leadership. Also, what advice would you give me for being a better Loretto Leader?”

You can read the entire letter here.

The award-winning Infirmary is now Loretto Living Center at Loretto Motherhouse

The Loretto Infirmary, now called Loretto Living Center at Loretto Motherhouse, continues the award-winning standard of providing holistic care that promotes comfort, security and dignity in a homelike environment.

You can read the whole story here.

Loretto launches new Justice Fellowship program

Loretto’s leadership has approved the Loretto Justice Fellowship as the successor to the Loretto Volunteer Program. The Loretto Justice Fellowship begins its pilot year in El Paso in 2023 in partnership with the School of Social Work at the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP), the Law School Preparation Institute at UTEP and local social justice organizations. The program will provide students with paid social justice internships, intentional community programming and holistic support for their personal and professional journeys in justice.

You can read the whole story here.

Ann Manganero SL: Physician

Ann Manganaro SL, M.D., arrived in El Salvador in 1988, living alongside the locals in a stone and mud home, providing medical care and training in the village of Guarjila and surrounding areas. She died in 1993 at age 46. A memorial stone in the chapel garden at the clinic she established expresses the community’s feelings, “Thank you for your solidarity. You will always live in our hearts.” In five years, Hermana Ana (Sister Ana), as she was known, created a living legacy in El Salvador that produces bountiful fruit to this day. Inspired by her example, an Ann Manganaro clinic and educational center for the Indigenous community is planned for Cobán, Guatemala.

You can read the entire story here.

Ann Manganero SL: Poet

Ann Manganaro SL wrote, “I sing of the light behind the sky” (1/1/1981). In her poetry, she sings, laments, shares life’s beauty and struggles. Her bold imagination and keen sense of rhythm and sound captivate the reader (“The foam raced over the shore to slide away / Leaving the sand a slick slatemirror”). Though light is a recurring motif, Ann never fears to reach into the dark corners of the human condition, especially in the later poems written in war-torn El Salvador where she arrived in 1988 to live and work. Her reference in an early poem to “my own determined tenderness” is a thread that runs through her life and poetry.

You can read the whole story here.

Loretto protects generous swath of land at the Motherhouse in Kentucky

The Loretto Community has entered into an agreement with Bluegrass Land Conservancy to conserve more than 650 acres of land at the Motherhouse in Nerinx, Ky. The conservancy will steward the land, ensuring that it remains protected. This is a step that has been in the making for decades.

You can read the whole story here.

Responding to Earth’s cry

As Loretto responds to Earth’s cry, we look at how to increase our impact. Providing grants to others who are responding is one way we do so, and this often gives us the opportunity to stand in solidarity with those most affected by climate change.

In 2022, the Loretto Community Carbon Reduction Fund awarded grants to 16 projects. Planting trees in Haiti, building apiaries in Cleveland and installing solar panels in California — these are a few of the creative solutions funded. The fund invests in projects that bring about immediate improvement and effect wherever possible.

You can read the entire story here.

Help for Haiti

I made my first trip to Haiti with Fonkoze USA in 2002. Loretto had been involved with Fonkoze through loans to its loan fund. Haitians’ faith, hope and perseverance under very dismal conditions were inspirational and challenging.

You can read the whole story here.

‘Ti pa, ti pa na rive!’ Little by little, we will continue! Resourceful Haitians put one foot in front of the other

When Barbara Wander CoL retired from 30 years of public school teaching in 2000, she decided to visit the countries from which her students had emigrated, starting with Haiti. It soon became clear she wouldn’t make it to the other countries. The Haitians had captured her heart. Ever since, she has helped in whatever ways she could.

You can read the whole story here.

Visiting Loretto in Pakistan

Anna Koop SL and Mary Ann McGivern SL recently visited the Loretto Community in Pakistan for seven weeks. Anna and Mary Ann wrote colorful and informative missives to keep the Community apprised of their experiences. Enjoy these excerpts, along with a sampling of Mary Ann’s photos.

You can read the whole story here.

Loretto’s 2022 Annual Donor Report

Memorials and Tributes of Honor: January-April 2023

Obituaries

Postscript

Dear Loretto Friends,
Summer is upon us as you receive this, and I hope it brings as many gifts of wonder as spring has brought me. Where I live I especially enjoy watching the redbud and dogwood trees bloom. I smile at daffodils popping up, robins taking their first bath of the season and the squirrels doing gymnastics from tree to tree. We send videos of such spring activities to our 4-year-old granddaughter who loves to get them.

No matter the season, we love to hear from you and to receive your gifts. Each donation, each note about your connection to Loretto, each prayer request, honorarium or memorial touches our hearts. You may be giving in appreciation of a recent encounter with Loretto or one that goes back 60 years. You trust Loretto with your concerns and your joy.

We are so grateful that you support the many ways Loretto carries out its mission. You care about Loretto’s work with the poor as lived by Ann Manganaro SL and by the many Loretto members today who feed the hungry, shelter the weary and work for a just society. You appreciate the exceptional nursing of loved ones at the Motherhouse, the care of its property, the new trees regularly planted and the conservation easement for the future. You support the hard work done by our Loretto sisters in Pakistan and that of sisters we have come to know in Haiti and Ghana. You want the sisters who taught and inspired you to be well cared for in their retirement. The annual report lists all the areas where 1,300 of you donated in 2022, along with eight whose support came as a bequest.

You are a very generous community of givers who fills us with hope! May Loretto’s continued commitment to “work for justice and act for peace,” and our prayers and gratitude for each of you, give you hope today.

Virginia Nesmith
Development Director