Photo courtesy of Venny Villapando

Sister James Therese Joseph was honored on her 60th anniversary of religious life with a potluck banquet at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa on April 27. Here she is pictured at the celebration with her fellow Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet who celebrate 70 years in Hawaii this year.

 

She is the epitome of what a modern historical person could look like. Dark eyed, tanned, and always with a welcoming smile, Sisters James Therese Joseph from Honolulu’s St. Theresa convent, fills the bill. Just as Anne Eliza Dillon was the first American postulant to enter the CSJ (Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet) congregation in St. Louis, so Sister James Therese (Wilhelmina Joseph, fondly called Willie) is the first vocation from Hawaii to enter the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States.

This year, she not only celebrates her 60th anniversary as a CSJ but will also enjoy a double celebration in August when the Hawaii vice-province commemorates its founding 70 years ago.

Her calling has made the trappings of a movie made in Heaven. As a sixth grader, her walks from her Honolulu hillside home through rustic streets dotted with fragrant plumeria and mango trees sometimes called for a short cut route via her parish church, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus. One day on such a trek, she met Sister Mary Faber VanderWerf.

Thus, James Therese, Willie, met one of the first CSJ Sisters who arrived in Honolulu to teach at her home parish school. The sisters gave young girls many chores. James spent many hours cleaning and dusting the sanctuary. As a member of the Sodality of Mary, Willie and her friends proudly wore blue capes and white dresses while celebrating May crownings and parish Masses.

Outings at sandy beaches or playing the ukulele and singing under coconut trees were some church-sponsored activities and through it all the “good sisters” were there, especially her favorites — stern but kind Sister Mary Faber and constantly cheerful and chuckling Sister Mary Anne Bahner. Their markedly contrasting personalities had an impact on her choice to enter the CSJs. “I loved all the Sisters because of their prayerful and lively presence; they were so kind and helpful to the children and always there when we needed them. I wanted to be like them,” she said.

After entering the Los Angeles province, James taught for six years in California. Returning to Hawaii, she held several positions as teacher, principal and superior. In recent years, she served as a student advisor at St. Theresa School and assists Sisters Giovanna Marie Marcoccia in development work for the Hawaii vice-province.

True to her melting pot ethnic heritage of being Hawaiian, Portuguese, German, English and Welsh, Sister James has the gift of “talk story.” Once while visiting the Hansen’s disease settlement of Kalaupapa, she felt a tug on her blouse. She turned and saw an ancient resident who lovingly said, “Let’s get married and start a family.” In the novitiate, “She loved to talk about her family,” said Sister Eileen Mitchell. “Her descriptions of Hawaii, beautiful Diamond Head, the Pali, beaches and Hawaiian specialty foods envisioned an enchanted isle for us, her reception.”

An ambassador of warm Hawaiian and CSJ hospitality, she fulfills her task of doing all that a woman is capable of doing. With dwindling Hawaiian vocations, the ever-cheerful sister said, “I have hope for our islands — despite declining energy and numbers. God will take care,” and why not? With a surname of Joseph she can’t lose. She has a successful patron.