April 6, 2021
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Women ages 18-45 are invited to hear the personal stories of School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) as they share their lived experiences responding to internationality and interculturality from the perspective of our SSND charism, life and mission. Seeking to witness to unity in our divided world, we engage fully in the lifelong process of conversion of heart and return to love.
REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS NOW CLOSED.
If you have questions, please contact sisters@ssnd.org.
About our speakers:
Sister Joan Doyle was born and raised in a large, Irish Catholic family in Boston and received an SSND education through elementary and high school. Both of these sources rooted her deeply in faith, a yearning for God and a sense of giving something back for all her blessings. She professed as a School Sister of Notre Dame in 1958 and grew through years of teaching elementary, and high school, missionary experiences in Peru and Brazil, Provincial Council Leadership, formation ministry in Peru, Brazil, North America and recently in our Congregational Novitiate in Rome (2018-2020). “Over the years, I have been graced with a more international heart and a passion to further God’s dream for all people,” she says.
Sister Pat Ferrick was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, where she attended an SSND high school and entered the congregation after graduation. She has been an elementary and high school teacher, a hospital chaplain and a pastoral associate in various parishes. She has also accompanied people with AIDS, been involved in prison and migrant ministry and is currently volunteering as an interpreter in a legal clinic for people with immigration difficulties. Along the way, she has lived in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arizona, Chile, Paraguay, Guatemala, Colombia and Japan. She currently resides in Woodhaven, New York.
Sister Rosemary Howarth was born, raised and educated in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada where her faith formation came from family, parish and school. SSND teachers were a great inspiration and nurtured her desire to become an educator and to give her life to God as an SSND. Her worldview and global perspective were further shaped over the past 55 years through experiences in formal education, missionary activities in Perú, congregational leadership in Italy and initial formation with women of many cultures. “Beyond a doubt, I know that I am a global citizen and that together we are one global community,” she says.
Sister Celeste Reinhart is a native of Ontario, Canada, and entered the SSND community in 1963. She lived 10 of her more youthful years in Bolivia and currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She became interested in other cultures by having a father who listened to the evening international news with the family globe in hand, by being educated by a wonderful social studies teacher in elementary school, and by becoming a teacher of geography in high school. “When I had a chance to travel,” she says, “I promised to learn!”
Sister M.(Mária=Mary) Sára is a temporarily professed sister from Hungary. She spent two years in Rome at our Congregational Novitiate from 2018-2020 where she lived together with 17 women from 10 different countries. After making her first vows in July 2020, she is now living in Debrecen, Hungary, in a community of seven sisters. She teaches Religion and Chemistry to 7-12 grade students as a boarding school teacher.
Sister Comfort Anum is from Nigeria and is studying at Mount Mary University in Milwaukee. She made her first vows in 2009 and final vows in 2015. She has lived and ministered in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. To Sister Comfort, “Living and studying in the United States has been a gift. The call to live in a multicultural community is a gift that has enabled me to share in the giftedness of each sister and her culture.”
Sister Raquel Ortez was born and raised in Honduras, Central America, and entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame there. She moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, to be with SSND and has served in ministry as a social worker and in pastoral positions at Catholic parishes, ministering with immigrants since 2000. She is also involved in a collaborative service project of medical personnel from the U.S. giving assistance and social services to impoverished areas of Honduras.