March 5, 2010

Daughters of Charity celebrate 2010 jubilees

Eight Daughters of Charity from the East Central Province have special Jubilees in 2010. Sister Mary Lawrence Ryan’s 70th anniversary was January 31. Sisters celebrating their 60th anniversaries are Sister Mary Josephine Benoit and Sister Thérèse Noble. Golden Anniversary celebrants include Sis-ters Sharon Hagen, Teresita Heenan, Sharon Richardt and Mary Satala. Sister Louise Bus-by will be celebrating her Silver Jubilee.

70-year Jubilarian

Sister Mary Lawrence Ryan joined the Daughters of Charity on January 31, 1940, and spent most of her years of ministry in nursing and nursing education. After completing nurse’s certification at St. Vincent Hospital, in Indianapolis, she became head nurse and instructor there. In 1948, she moved to Mary’s Help Hospital in San Francisco, where she served as Supervisor of Medical Surgical and a faculty member for over nine years. During that time, Sister Mary Lawrence earned a bachelor’s in nursing education.

For the next two years, she worked toward and completed a master’s in nursing education and then became a teacher at Marillac College in St. Louis for the following ten and a half years. From 1969-1973, Sister Mary Lawrence served as group leader, Directress of Juniorate and local superior at the Mar-illac Provincial House in St. Louis. She was missioned to St. Vincent Hospital in Birmingham for the next 15 years, where she was local superior, clinical spe-cialist and patient representa-tive. Sister Mary Lawrence served as hostess at Seton Shrine Cen-ter in Emmitsburg, Md., from 1988-1989, before becoming a receptionist at St. Thomas Hos-pital in Nashville, Tenn. In 1995, she came to Seton Residence in Evansville, to join the Ministry of Prayer.

60-year Jubilarians

Sister Mary Josephine Benoit’s vocation date was December 18, 1950. Health care was also her ministry. From 1952-1969, she was a nurse at Seton Institute, Baltimore, Md., and the following hospitals: St. Mary’s, Ro-chester, N.Y.; St. Agnes, Balti-more; and Providence, South-field, Mich. After earning a bachelor’s in nursing in 1970, Sister Mary Josephine was missioned to Providence Hospital, Mobile, Ala., where she served as Director of Nursing Services for the next eight years. Her ministry for the following 10 years was at Providence Hospi-tal, Southfield, Mich., where Sister Mary Josephine was Di-rector of Purchasing, Laundry and Dietary.

From 1988 until the present, Sister has lived and served in Evansville. For the first five years, she was Coordinator of Support Services and Acting Administrator at Seton Manor, and then Assistant Administra-tor and Local Superior at Seton Residence. Sister Mary Jose-phine became Inventory Con-trol Manager for Mater Dei Pro-vincialate in 1993, until she joined the Ministry of Prayer at Seton in January 1996.

Sister Thérèse Noble entered the Daughters of Charity Com-munity on October 25, 1950. She has shared her gift of teaching throughout most of her ministry. From 1951 through 1979, Sister Thérèse taught in the following schools: St. Louise de Marillac, St. Louis; St. Vin-cent, Perryville, Mo.; Our Lady of Talpa, Los Angeles; St. Ther-esa, Carson City, Nev.; St. Tho-mas, Birmingham, Ala.; Notre Dame, Price, Utah; St. Barna-bas, Birmingham; St. Christine, Youngstown, Ohio; St. Thomas, Long Beach, Miss.; Holy Rosary, Evansville; and St. Patrick, La Salle, Ill.

Sister Thérèse served as tutor at St. Bede School in Montgom-ery, Ala., for the next two years.

In 1981, Sister came to Evansville as a patient visitor at Re-gina Pacis nursing home, and then served in parish ministry at St. Mary’s Parish in Hunting-burg, Ind., from 1983-1985. Sis-ter Thérèse returned to teaching at Cathedral Schools in Natchez, Miss., until she was missioned to Evansville to do clerical work for the Daughters of Charity National Health Services-

East Central for the next six years. From 1992-1997, she became a pa-tient visitor at Allen Memorial, Mobile. After a year as docent for the Seton Shrine in Emmits-burg, Sister Thérèse went back to St. Patrick School to serve as a tu-tor and aide for almost two years, before moving to Evansville to volunteer at Seton Resi-dence for three years. Sister served another year as docent at Seton Shrine, before resuming her current role as volunteer for Seton Resi-dence in Evansville.

50-year Jubilarians

Sister Sharon Hagen’s vocation date was June 5, 1960. After completing a bachelor’s in ad-vanced math, Sister Sharon spent the next 21 years of her ministry teaching. The schools where she taught were St. Vin-cent de Paul, Phoenix, Ariz.; Marillac, Northfield, Ill.; and Cathedral, Natchez. During this time, Sister Sharon also earned a master’s in advanced math research.

From 1985-1996, Sister Shar-on’s ministry was in Evansville, where she served as computer assistant and consultant for Mater Dei Provincialate and program analyst for St. Mary’s Hospital. Her next mission was De Paul University, Chicago, where she was campus minis-ter, taught classes and completed a master’s in pastoral counseling. Sister Sharon began her current ministry as a psycho-logical and spiritual therapist at Providence Hospital, South-field, in October 2001.

Sister Teresita Heenan also joined the Community on June 5, 1960. After completing a bachelor’s in history, English and education, she began a teaching ministry, which lasted for the next 20 years. Schools where Sister Teresita taught during this time include: Marillac, St. Louis; St. Theresa, New Orleans; Most Precious Blood, Denver, Colo.; Cathedral, Natchez; St. Francis de Sales, Lake Zurich, Ill.; St. Barnabas, Birmingham; and St. Christine, Youngstown, Ohio. Moving to the Evansville area, Sister began serving in parish ministry at St. John’s Parish. Two years later, Sister Teresita changed to pastoral care at St. Mary’s Hospital and then completed certification in Pastoral Education.

In 1993, Sister went back to teaching at Our Lady of Roses Academy in Chicago, until she became docent for a year at Seton Shrine, Emmitsburg. Sister Teresita served as a tutor and aide at Our Lady of the Gardens School in Chicago in 1997 and then moved to Evansville. After serving as an archival assistant at Mater Dei Provincialate, she started her current position as a pastoral care associate at Seton Residence in June1999.

Sister Sharon Richardt is a native of Evansville, and gra-duated from Mater Dei High School in 1959. Sister entered the Daughters of Charity Com-munity on June 5, 1960. After earning a bachelor’s in nursing in 1964 and completing her practicum in nursing, Sister Sharon held supervisory positions at St. Vincent Hospi-tal, Indianapolis; St. Mary Hos-pital, Milwaukee; and St. Joseph Hospital, Chicago. She earned a master’s in psychology and spirituality in 1972, before re-turning to St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago, where she initiated the role of mission integration in the hospital and served in formation and retreat ministry for the Daughters of Charity.

Sister Sharon was missioned to Evansville in 1981, where she served as an assistant admin-istrator in Ambulatory Services and, later, Mission Integration at St. Mary’s Medical Center, as well as local superior. From 1989-1994, Sister worked with the Daughters of Charity Na-tional Health System-EC as Regional Vice President of Miss-ion Integration. In 1994, she completed a doctorate in For-mative Spirituality and was sent to Indianapolis, to serve at St. Vincent Hos-pital and Health System as Vice President of Mission Services and Ministry Formation and Local Superior. In December 2005, Sister Sharon was appointed to serve in her current role as a member of the Mater Dei Provincialate Council in Evansville.

Sister Mary Satala’s vocation date was January 25, 1960. After earning a bachelor’s in nursing in 1963, Sister Mary completed a year-long practicum in psychiatric nursing at St. Vincent Hospital, St. Louis. She served for the next four years at De Paul Hospital, New Orleans; then transferred to De Paul Hospital, St. Louis, to become head nurse.

Sister Mary completed a master’s in religion and personality in 1972 and moved to Evansville to work in nursing services and serve as local superior at St. Mary’s until 1977. She was Pos-tulant Director at Mater Dei Provincialate, Evansville, and Student Services Coordinator at Providence School of Nursing, Mobile, before changing her ministry to Mission Services in 1984. Sister Mary began as Coordinator of Miss-ion Services at St. Joseph Health Centers and Hospital, Chicago; then became director of the program and served in this capacity at St. Vin-cent New Hope, Indianapolis; St. Vincent’s In-ternational Services, Warsaw, Poland; and St. Vincent Hospital, Indianapolis. After completing a doctorate of ministry in pastoral care and counseling in 2001, Sister Mary began her current job as Mental Health Counselor at St. Vincent Stress Center, Indianapolis.

25 years

Sister Louise Busby began her initial formation with the Daughters on March 15, 1985. Sister’s ministry was education, as she had earned a bachelor’s in secondary education and psychology and taught school for five years, before joining the Community. Her first mission was serving as Tutor and Education Supervisor at the House of Providence, Farmington Hills, Mich., until 1988, when Sister Louise was sent to Indianapolis. During the next 13 years, she taught at St. Rita School and Cardinal Ritter High; then became Principal at Holy Cross School.