Ministries | JPIC Ministries After Vatican II

Click on the person's name to learn more about them.

Brief description	Author
Anne (Nance) O'Neil The foundation in Indonesia which "was aimed at strengthening ties between East and West, between Muslims and Catholics, officially began with the arrival of Nance O’Neil, RSCJ, in Jakarta, on the island of Java, in February of 1989." (From an article in Heart Magazine) To learn more about Nance O'Neil's life, click on the links underneath...	lbehrens
Ruth Dowd Ruth Dowd, a distinguished educator and Philosopher, was responsible for starting Harlem Prep in the late 1960’s. The program began as a weekend tutorial with the kids at All Saints catholic School and evolved into an actual school for former high school drop outs. (Adapted from an email about Ruth from her friend Dr Nancy McMahon) ........	droche
Bienvenida Velez In 1973, after Religious of the Sacred Heart were no longer cloistered, Bienvenida and and a group of RSCJ left for Naranja in Homestead, Florida, where they worked with migrants at Saint Anne’s Mission. In 1979 the community moved to LaBelle, Florida where Bienvenda continued her educational and pastoral outreach to migrants continued until...	lbehrens
Mary Bernstein Before coming to New Orleans, Mary worked doing faith based organizing addressing issues of housing and unemployment in the South Suburbs of Chicago. In New Orleans Mary connected with a sister organizing group (PICO) addressing housing, crime, and education, which helped the group at Duchesne House get in touch with significant inner dynamics...	lbehrens
Sara Ann (Sally) Rude St. Madeleine Sophie's Center got its start in 1966 when parents of children attending Convent of the Sacred Heart in El Cajon asked the sisters to provide religious education for the students' developmentally disabled siblings. Sister Mary (Be) Mardel opend the school for students 3-9 years old and appointed Sister Sara Ann Rude as its first...	lbehrens
Mary Finlayson The fifteen young women in their late teens through early thirties hailed from Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States. They were drawn to an international summer service project born of many conversations among RSCJ who wanted to come together across provinces and reach out to young adults, while providing them with a concrete...	lbehrens
Imma De Stefanis In writing about the International Summer Service program that she designed, Imma wrote: "In a ritual of sending that ended our time together,each woman was given a black wooden ring as a symbol of her solidarity with the poor and her commitment to work for justice. Perhaps more importantly, participants left impressed by the simplicity and...	lbehrens
Reyna Gonzalez The most pivotal experience on (Reyna's) path to becoming an RSCJ occurred when she worked with indigenous communities in Mexico. In this role, she spent the week traveling to different parishes within several communities, many of which did not have electricity or water. She refers to this time as her “school of life” because she “learned that...	lbehrens
Marianna Torrano Sister Torrano’s favorite ministry is her current work on the Soboba Indian Reservation in Southern California. She began this service in 1994 after feeling the same irresistible pull toward it as she had twice before. Here, she covers many areas: fundraising, spiritual advising, choir directing, maintenance and construction work, and anything...	lbehrens
Madeleine Desloge In 1982 (Madeleine) joined Sisters Rosa Maria Orjuela, Mercedes Posada, and Bienvenida (Charlie) Velez in La Belle, Florida. They were living in simple housing among a large community of migrant farmworkers and serving their many needs. Madeleine’s visit to the La Belle Community convinced her that she belonged there, where she was needed so...	lbehrens
Flavia Augustine After serving for many years as a college admissions director at Sheridan Rd, Flavia began a third career in 1983 at the Howard Area Community Center where she spent ten years teaching in the G.E.D. program, helping women finish their education and acquire good jobs (from her obituary). The Howard Area Community Center was founded by a...	droche
Mary Lamphier Brady "As a Religious of the Sacred Heart, Sister [Mary] Brady was drawn to the suffering in the world and called to address the needs of children, women and the marginalized. Though a social worker at heart, her ministry began in the classrooms of the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich." "In 1976, she began her social service ministry as an...	rcunnings
Esperanza Jasso Beltrán Sister Esperanza Jasso Beltrán began doing social justice work in Mexico, including popular education and community organization. “In the 1980's Esperanza left Mexico to join Carol Putnam, RSCJ, in Indiantown, Florida, where Carol had established a beautiful work of education for poor migrant Hispanic children.” Her ministry included working as...	rcunnings
Maryellen Harmon Sister Maryellen Harmon’s obituary includes tributes that remark on the combination of intellect and heart that formed and informed her. Marge Seitz, RSCJ remembered, “For me, she is up with the 'greats' in Society education. She never once forgot that her knowledge was at the service of others. . . Her intelligence was keen and she brought it...	rcunnings
Margaret Mary (Mavie) Coakley In 1974 after service as Provincial, Sister Mavie Coakley studied Liberation Theology at Berkeley. “The role of the U.S. government in suppressing democratic change in Latin America sparked a new kind of church activism to which Mavie committed herself in the years that followed. When she returned east in 1976, she joined the 49th Street...	rcunnings
Marguerite Green Sister Marguerite Green studied in the graduate school at Catholic University. “Researching for her dissertation on the labor movement gave her a powerful encounter with social justice and injustice, which revealed the process of history to her. Issues of justice remained important to her all her life.” She served many years on the faculty of...	rcunnings
Hildegarde Hellmuth After years of financial management, Hilly began ministry to the retirement community at St. Charles. This led to five years of ministry with the elder sisters in Malta. She said it was the "most unexpected and rewarding of my life." She returned to St Charles from 1987-2000 doing what she called community service: taking people for rides,...	mlorenz
Nancy Kane While teaching at Barat College, Lake Forest, IL, Nancy joined protesters in the march for civil rights in Selma, Alabama, 3/7-21/1965.	droche
Carole Sargent Carole Sargent, an RSCJ Associate and literary scholar at Georgetown University, lived at Anne Montgomery House from 2018 to 2019. She devoted a full chapter to Anne Montgomery RSCJ's antinuclear and peace activism in her book Transform Now Plowshares: Megan Rice, Gregory Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli (Liturgical Press 2022).	cs432
Patricia (Pat) Barrett Pat Barret began her college years at Maryville University just as the Stock Market crashed in 1929. She was deeply moved by the poverty and desperation she saw during those years. In 1931 she took a Sociology class taught by Dr.	droche
Carol Putnam In 1968 (Carol) was invited to join the Boston Archdiocese's Urban Task Force which comprised a team of Sisters from various congregations collaborating to bring about change in Boston's Roxbury-South End [inner-city] Parochial Schools. This 3- year project was funded by Cardinal Cushing; during its progress Carol's teaching load at Newton was...	droche
Loretta (Retsy) Piper "In 1983, responding to her own prayer and attention to the needs surrounding her and belief in the necessity of action, Retsy cut her responsibilities at Stuart to half-time so as to establish and coordinate the Martin House Learning Center at Martin House, an inner city ministry of the Diocese of Trenton. Her work at Martin House became full...	droche
Beatrice Brennan Sister Beatrice Brennan began her ministry in the Network of Sacred Heart Schools. “In 1974, Bea, a woman with a heart as big as the world, was sent by the Society to Egypt where she spent time both in the classroom in Cairo and with our sisters in one of the poorest areas in Upper Egypt. She studied Arabic extensively and was one of the very...	rcunnings
Rosemary Bearss In (my) wonderful 20 years (at the Barnyard run by Coconut Groves Cares) a great deal was done for the children, the staff worked so hard to figure out how to help the children to get their homework done. Some of those young people on the Staff had been to the Barnyard when they were young.	droche
Katherine (Kate) McDonnell In 1969, with the encouragement of her cousin, Father Horace McKenna, S.J., Kate was among the RSCJ who moved into Sursum Corda Village in Washington, D.C. a brand new housing development for low-income families. Of that time, Kate writes, "Reflection became a daily reality around the issues of...	droche