Sister Kathleen Marie Shields’ new book tells the joyous story of the Carondelets in paradise

By Patrick Downes

One of my memories (there aren’t many left) of kindergarten at St. Anthony School in Kailua in 1957 is that of my teacher, Sister Laurentia, a very tall and very wonderful nun who towered above us in a mysterious black habit full of pleats, pockets and pins, with a stiff, spotless white bib the size of our desktops. How we loved Sister Laurentia.

Our feelings toward our second grade teacher — Sister Tomasina — were more mixed. She was older, more or less our height, or so it seemed, and she inexplicably called us by our last names. I can still picture her, and she is not smiling.

Then there was Sister Ana Brigid, our fourth grade teacher — a young, bouncy nun, shorter than Sister Laurentia but taller than Sister Tomasina, with a most splendid accent. (She told us she was from a place called Georgia.) Meeting her many years later, without her familiar black habit, I was surprised to find her head covered with curls.

If you are one of the thousands of former Hawaii students of the more than 200 Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet who have served in the islands, Sister Kathleen Marie Shields’ new book “Aloha Ke Akua” (The Love of God) will stir up similar recollections.

The 192-page paperback, published late last year by the sisters’ own publishing house in St. Paul, Minn., Good Ground Press, tells the story of the Carondelet Sisters in Hawaii, from 1938 to the present, in 14 informative chapters, with 45 pictures, and several detailed appendixes.

“Ours is a holy and happy heritage,” Sister Kathleen Marie begins, giving the reader a glimpse of order’s origins in a “tumultuous, revolutionary mid-17th century France.” After establishing themselves for nearly 150 years in the United States (Carondelet is the name of a village where they settled outside of St. Louis, Mo.), they branched out to Hawaii in 1938, answering the urgent plea of Bishop Stephen Alencastre.

The superior of the mid-continent-based congregation at first declined the Hawaii bishop’s appeal. The bishop persisted, decreasing his request for 12 sisters for St. Theresa School in Honolulu to six. “OTHERWISE OBLIGED TO CLOSE SCHOOL,” the bishop telegrammed.

Moved by Bishop Alencastre’s perseverance, and recalling Jesus’ request to his apostles to “put off a little from the shore,” the superior reconsidered and St. Theresa soon had nine Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. And the rest, as they say…

Using letters, sisters’ journals, earlier congregational histories and reports, Sister Kathleen Marie paints the picture of an energetic congregation on a new adventure in a multi-cultured, multi-island environment.

The book chronicles the World War II years, the spurt of local vocations, the staffing of many Catholic grade schools throughout the territory and state, the considerable contribution in catechetical ministry and the branching out to the far ends and edges of the Pacific including Peru, the Marshall Islands, Christmas Island, Johnston Atoll, Chile, Samoa and Japan.

Sister Kathleen also weaves into her narrative the environment of ecclesial, social, economic, political and cultural changes within which the Sisters of St. Joseph have lived, adapted and thrived.

Those who know the author, who spent more than 20 years directing catechetical ministry in Hawaii, can easily hear her enthusiasm and affection for Hawaii’s Catholic community. “Hers is most definitely a labor of love,” as one jacket reviewer put it.

The author ends the book as she started. “Ours is a holy and happy heritage,” she repeats, adding, “We have reason to build a Spirited future filled with hope and surrounded with the love of God, Aloha Ke Akua.”

To order the book, call Sister Sara Sanders, CSJ, at 373-3850, or write to her at Carondelet Administration Center, 5311 Apo Drive, Honolulu, HI 96821, or e-mail her at sanderssara@verizon.net. The cost of the book is $10, plus $2 for postage.