After 79 years, the Maryknoll Sisters in Hawaii continue to be ‘responsive to what the Spirit wants’

By Patrick Downes, Hawaii Catholic Herald

The last two remaining Maryknoll Sisters working at Maryknoll School retired last month. Sister Maria Rosario Daley and Sister Marie Patrice Kehoe on June 2 left the institution their congregation founded 79 years ago. But the Maryknoll Sisters did not treat the occasion as any kind of portentous milestone. That’s

Local vocations Hawaii contributed at least 15 vocations to the Maryknoll Sisters. The first local-born Maryknoll Sister was Sister Marie Mediatrice Botelho from Olaa on the Big Island. During the 1930s, 40s, 50s and later, the island church watched her daughters being sent to assignments in fields afar, mostly through the pages of the Hawaii Catholic Herald. The reports went something like this: -- Sister Jean Xavier, the former Jean Yamashiro, a Roosevelt grad, is sent to Middle America… -- Sister Consuela Torrecer, of Puunene, Maui, a member of the Maryknoll Sisters Cloister in Ossining , N.Y., leaves for a special assignment in Guatemala to establish a contemplative community there… -- Sister Roberta Marie, the former Roberta Ann Chang of Honolulu, makes her final vows on Aug. 22, 1965, in her mission in Korea… -- The “Higa girls,” both graduates of St. Francis Hospital in Honolulu, take their final vows as Maryknoll Sisters on the same day half a world apart, Sister Regina Therese (Mary Louise Higa) in Ceylon and Sister Marie Bernadette (Theresa Bernadette Higa) in Kansas City, before embarking on her assignment in Hong Kong… -- Sister Cordis Marie, the former Mary Fukuda of Honolulu, makes her profession in Los Angeles… -- Sister Rose Jacinta, the former Evelyn Kitabayashi of Anahola, Kauai, makes her profession at the Motherhouse at Maryknoll, N.Y… -- Sister Rose Ancilla, the former Charlotte Anderson and graduate of Maryknoll High School, is named superior of Corepto, Chile… -- Sister Anna Marian, the former Ida Pavao of Honolulu, is the superior of Likiep in the Marshall Islands… -- Sister Rose Damien, the former Beatrice Carvalho of Wailuku, is named superior of Puerto Armuelles, Panama… -- Sister Corinne Marie, the former Isabel Adoracion Rabbon, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dionisio Rabbon of Lanai city, pronounces her first vows at the Maryknoll Sisters Motherhouse in New York… -- Maryknoll Sister Leonila Bermisa, a former paralegal from Kalihi, is working with battered women as justice and peace coordinator for the Philippine Catholic prelature of Ipil, Zamboanga del Sur… -- Hawaii-born Sister Harriet Lum is appointed principal of St. Paulo Catholic high school, the only Catholic high school in Aileu, East Timor. She also serves as an English language newscaster for Vatican radio in Indonesia during Pope John Paul II visit there in 1989…

not their style. In fact, they will point out that they have been joyfully leaving jobs and changing positions for years, that it is, quite frankly, the transitory nature of their work as missionaries: to go where invited; to move on when required; to be gladly replaced.

Four senior Hawaii Maryknoll Sisters talked to the Hawaii Catholic Herald on June 13 about the work their order has done here over the years. Sisters Mary Powers, Dolores Rosso, Marie Rosso and Joan Chatfield relaxed in the airy living room of their modest Manoa home at the narrow end of Oahu Avenue, dressed in comfortable muumuus, long the habit of choice for many of their members. Names, dates, figures and stories flowed fast and freely from their sharp educated minds as they ignored the neighbor sweeping a noisy weed-whacker over his vast front lawn next door.

Through the two-hour conversation, the house maintained a normal buzz of activity. The phone rang a few times and people came to the door. One sister hurried away to an appointment before the session was over.

The sisters found it difficult to squeeze the contributions of the Maryknoll Sisters in Hawaii in a neat little box, having spent so many years operating outside of it. The word “unique” emerged as the adjective of consensus.

“That’s it,” exclaimed Sister Dolores. “We’re unique!”

As a metaphor for Maryknoll’s long Hawaii assignment, one might use the life of any one of its senior sisters today — one who saw her heyday 20, 30, 40 years ago and who now lives out her older years, perhaps not as spry as before, but still busy, committed, reflective, happy and fulfilled.

The Maryknoll Sisters original mission of education, ignited in small island parish schools some eight decades ago, quickly exploded like fireworks over a Hawaiian sky into a myriad of callings. Today, the sparks may be fading but the afterglow will last a very long time.

School teachers

The first Maryknoll Sisters came to Hawaii on Sept. 5, 1927, as school teachers.

“We came by invitation of Bishop (Stephen) Alencastre who at that time wanted parochial schools,” said Sister Dolores.

The Sacred Hearts Sisters and Marianist Brothers had established “private” Catholic schools, but the bishop wanted parish schools, she explained. There were none.

Negotiations with Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, the foundress of the newly established Maryknoll order, resulted in 10 sisters arriving in Honolulu. Four went to St. Ann Parish School in Heeia, a lay run grade school on Oahu’s windward side. The remaining six opened Maryknoll School, the parish school for Sacred Heart Church, Punahou, which earlier that year had been given to the Maryknoll Fathers to run.

Almost immediately, local requests for Maryknoll Sisters multiplied. More began flowing into the islands, eagerly soaked up by the mission’s educational and other needs.

By 1930, the sisters were working at St. Anthony School in Kalihi, St. Anthony School and Children’s Home on Maui, and assisting at the hospital stations for Hansen’s Disease patients in Pearl City and Kalihi.

Before long they were running seven elementary schools — Maryknoll School; St Ann, Kaneohe; St. Anthony, Kalihi; St. Anthony, Maui; St. Michael, Waialua; St. Augustine, Waikiki; and St. John the Baptist in Kalihi — and three high schools, Maryknoll, St. Ann and St. Anthony, Maui.

The order had sent some of its best educators to Hawaii, Sister Dolores said. Also, the regional superior organized annual educational conferences employing experts from the University of Hawaii and the sisters’ own research to help the sisters improve their teaching skills.

From the beginning, the sisters “were very conscious of being professional teachers,” Sister Dolores said — even though they were only making $30 a month.

“They just weren’t filling in slots in a Catholic school,” she said.

Still, many of these young adventurous 20th century American women had joined Maryknoll with dreams of a foreign mission in China, not a parochial school in Waikiki. So in Hawaii, their eager missionary temperaments quickly found expression in weekly home visitations and other forms of extra-curricular outreach.

“We actually got to go to the families and see where the children lived and visit them,” Sister Dolores said. “That meant a lot to the parents. We did it by families. We became very close to the parents of our children that way.”

Social workers

Bishop Alencastre’s successor, Bishop James J. Sweeney, had a new job for the Maryknoll Sisters. With the establishment of the Diocese of Honolulu in 1941, the new diocesan bishop wanted a Catholic department of social services. In 1944, he turned to the Maryknoll Sisters to set it up.

From New York, Maryknoll sent four sisters, including “one of the best of the congregation,” to found Catholic Social Services, now Catholic Charities Hawaii. Their leader was Sister Victoria Francis Larmour, already a pioneer in modern social work in New York and New England.

According to Sister Dolores, it was the first time women religious in the United States had ever worked as professional case workers. And to do so required a master’s degree in social work.

At one time, the Maryknoll Sisters had 18 degreed social workers living in one convent.

“We’ve never had more academia in one house,” laughed Sister Joan, referring to the two-story convent the bishop built for the sisters on the grounds of St. Stephen Church in Nuuanu. The building now houses Catholic Charities Hawaii programs.

It was the Maryknoll Sisters who introduced adoption, social action, parish outreach, group homes, Project Rachel for women who had abortions, foster care and other programs that Catholic Charities maintains today.

Maryknoll social workers also helped out Maryknoll school teachers, speaking to their classes and counseling their students.

In 1945, Bishop Sweeney needed another position filled and again called on Maryknoll. Two sisters come to Hawaii to open an office for the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, or CCD, the precursor of today’s diocesan religious education department.

In the 1950s, Sister Mary Clotilde, a survivor of a Japanese World War II internment camp in the Philippines, brought her 25 years of missionary catechetical experience to the new department. She set up an inter-island program to train parish catechists, writing her own nationally-acclaimed instruction booklets, “Lay Catechist Training Program” and “Manual for Training Catechists.”

At their peak in the early 1960s, Maryknoll had 165 sisters in Hawaii staffing seven elementary schools, three high schools and Catholic Social Services and working in the Catholic School Department, the office for the Confraternity for Christian Doctrine, and other ministries. During this time they also reaped the benefits of more than a dozen local vocations.

Later they could be found in the Catholic Youth Organization, the diocesan business office, the diocesan Tribunal, the Chancellor’s office, the Hawaii Catholic Herald, the Office of Clergy and a number of parishes.

Because of Hawaii’s cultural and geographical position, the large Maryknoll presence served as a boost and a bridge to other Maryknoll missions. For the order, Hawaii had became a missionary training ground, an ethnic studies resource center, and a school for interfaith relations.

“When sisters came to visit, they began to understand what we have,” said Sister Marie.

Two recent visiting Maryknoll recruits were amazed at Hawaii’s diversity and opportunity for ecumenical and inter-faith ministry, she said. “Their minds were just boggled.”

“We had sisters who spent 25 years here and then spent 25 years someplace else,” said Sister Joan, the equivalent of two complete and often different careers.

One can recognize in Latin America, Africa and Japan, Maryknoll traditions begun in Hawaii, said Sister Dolores.

Maryknoll High School’s special graduating ritual where candles held by the outgoing class light the candles of next year’s class — “nobleness enkindling nobleness” — can be witnessed in Hong Kong.

Changing times

The decade of the 60s ushered in changing times for the church, beginning with the renewal begun by the Second Vatican Council.

The number of Maryknoll Sisters in Hawaii was declining as the thrust of the congregation was changing, said Sister Marie. The sisters sought to give more priority to their core aspirations of peace and justice and an “option for the poor.”

A pivotal moment came around 1971 when the Hawaii sisters, after much serious regional self-examination, produced what Sister Dolores called their “famous green paper,” which “sketched out how many sisters were needed” to continue their present work.

“We went to see Bishop (John) Scanlan to give him the news that we were no longer able to give him ‘eight sisters for eight grades,’” Sister Dolores said.

As the sisters exited the classroom, Sister Marie said, “they looked around and just began volunteering in different places.”

“They were very creative in the kinds of things they found to do,” she said. “Nobody sat down in a rocking chair twiddling their thumbs. Everybody was out there doing something.”

The ministry of Sister Mary Powers is a typical example. Maryknoll’s now senior Hawaii member came here first in 1949 in the middle of the year to replace a sixth grade teacher who was very ill. It was the start of many years assigned to Hawaii schools, including being named principal of St. Anthony School, Kalihi, and principal of St. John the Baptist School in Kalihi.

During that time, as Maryknoll Sisters are required, she gave several years of service to Maryknoll, N.Y. Back in Hawaii, her classroom service behind her, she directed an interfaith outreach program for the elderly, initially funded by Johnson & Johnson, called Project Respect.

For 15 years she and other volunteers would go into the homes of the elderly, acting “as companions,” taking them shopping and assisting in other ways. She helped a Buddhist group establish its own elderly project which, she said, “is still going on and has expanded greatly.”

Sister Mary, 89, is now retired.

Distinctive contributions

The contributions of Maryknoll Sisters were often distinctive.

Maryknoll Sister Mary St. Lawrence Demanche, as a member of the Hawaiian Academy of Science, spent two years writing the popular book series “Exploring Nature in Hawaii” to supplement the mainland science texts featuring apple trees and snow rabbits being used in Hawaii schools.

Three Maryknoll Sisters served here as medical doctors. Sister Irene Solzbacher, received her degree from the University of Hawaii in 1975 and practiced psychiatry in Waianae. Sister Maria Rieckelman integrated psychiatry and spirituality in her work as a psychiatrist. Sister Mary Lou Townsend served as an emergency physician in Hilo.

On Molokai, Sister Ardis Kremer has served for years as a public health nurse and veterinarian.

Sister Anna McAnany first taught for 40 years in Hawaii parochial schools before moving to Waianae where she embraced an activism for peace, within families, communities and between nations. She helped organize the Citizens Against Nuclear Armament, protested American military policies, and developed a peace curriculum that she taught in public high schools.

Maryknoll Sister Grace Dorothy Lim held several positions in the Diocese of Honolulu during the administration of Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo including chancellor, tribunal official, director of the Office for Ethnic Ministries and director for Catholic Relief Services in Hawaii.

Over the years, her ministry extended deep into the local grassroot — primarily Filipino — community, where she worked in youth ministry, small Christian communities, and fundraising for charitable causes.

Former classroom teacher and principal Sister Katherine Theiler’s interest in spirituality and houses of prayer in the 1970s led to the establishment of the Spiritual Life Center. The small ecumenical project grew, through the support and endorsement of various people including Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario, into a diocesan program.

The center, whose trained staff offered opportunities for live-in retreats, spiritual direction and contemplative prayer, blossomed under the influence of Sister Katherine. Later, Bishop DiLorenzo removed diocesan sponsorship of the center, which today has no Maryknoll connection and a different focus.

Sister Katherine’s efforts, however, endure in Hawaii in centering prayer and contemplative outreach movements.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Sister Joan Chatfield’s 1956 arrival in the islands to teach in parochial schools. In between and after assignments at St. Ann School in Kaneohe, St. Anthony School, Wailuku, and Maryknoll High School in Honolulu, she earned a degree in theology and a doctorate in sociology of religion.

Her post-parochial classroom work has included the executive directorship for the Institute for Religion and Social Change, serving as dean of humanities and fine arts at Chaminade University of Honolulu, and research and educational planning at Maryknoll headquarters in New York.

By the end of the 1990s, the ministries of the Maryknoll Sisters in Hawaii were diverse and imaginative. They volunteered in hospitals, parishes, prisons and women’s shelters, worked with children, abused women, immigrants and the elderly. At Maryknoll School, the original assignment, Sister Marie Patrice was a staff nurse and Sister Maria Rosario worked in the college guidance department.

The future

Since 1927, a total of 398 Maryknoll Sisters have worked in Hawaii at one time or other. Today there are about 20, continuing to serve in ways that are, as Sister Joan puts it, “responsive to what the Spirit wants.”

The sisters don’t seem too worried about their future in Hawaii. Their enterprise here has never been a material one. They don’t have schools or hospitals or institutions to maintain or divest themselves of.

“We don’t own our ministries,” Sister Dolores said.

“That’s a very important point,” she emphasized. “We never owned anything. That is a part of the Maryknoll charism. You don’t go anywhere in the world and set up a monument to yourself.”

On the other hand, the many lives the Maryknoll Sisters have touched and molded serve as their memorials.

Sister Joan has been out of the schoolroom for years but, the last time she counted, 41 of her former students are now teachers. So she’s still there, chalk in hand, replicated in those who have emulated her first calling. She’s also in hospitals, engineering offices, newsrooms, and behind supermarket cashier counters through the hundreds of others she has taught.

The sisters themselves each have somewhere to go when the time comes, a retirement home in California, a full-care facility in New York, a community cemetery.

Sister Joan said their outlook is like that recently expressed by Sister Rosario: “As long as I can stay here, I will stay here.”

“Most of us can plan that out one way or another,” she said.

Sister Marie said the sisters have made some rough projections to 2010 or 2015, but no arrangements. “We are not actively planning to phase out,” she said.

They may not necessarily be replaced either. But the mark they have already made on Hawaii has been indelible, the lives touched innumerable, their contribution incalculable and their generosity incredible.

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