Celebrating the World Day for Consecrated Life, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz asked women and men religious to cast their minds back to “the first ‘yes’ that you gave to the call of Christ, the call of Christ to come and follow him.”
He noted that every person baptized Catholic has had this opportunity.
“And guess what?” he asked during a Mass he celebrated at St. John Paul II Church to honor jubilarians in religious life. “We get a chance every morning when we get out of bed to reaffirm that yes.”
The Mass called attention to 57 men and women who are marking major anniversaries in religious life in 2021. Marking 80 years this year is Sister of Loretto Theresa Louise Wiseman. Five women are marking 75 years in religious life and another 21 are marking 70 years.
Jubilarians, many of whom are elderly, couldn’t attend as they normally would because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the liturgy was live-streamed. In the meantime, some have received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccination.
To highlight consecrated life in his homily, Archbishop Kurtz turned to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s document “Deus Caritas Est,” which says in the introduction:
“Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”
With that quote in mind, the archbishop noted that nowhere in Scripture does Jesus say he wants to be admired. Instead, he asks people to follow him.
“You can admire someone and not change one iota,” the archbishop said. “You can’t follow someone without changing your life.”
“So it is that the women and men of the consecrated life experienced at some point in their life the call to say yes to Christ. It was a call not to simply admire from a distance, but a call to follow, shape their lives over an event, a person, to understand and expect new horizons — things they never dreamed would happen in serving others — when they first said yes.
“And to make a decisive direction, to say yes to Christ and no to so many things in this world,” he added.
Archbishop Kurtz gave thanks for the gift of consecrated life and prayed for the renewal of their gift of service, their generous hearts and their spirit of gratitude.
Following the Mass, the names of men and women who are marking jubilee years of religious life were read aloud. Those names, which were provided to the Archdiocese of Louisville Vocation Office by their communities, are:
80 years
Sr. Theresa Louise Wiseman, SL
75 years
Sr. Mary Brendan Conlon, OSU
Sr. Benedicta Feeney, SL
Sr. Marina Gibbons, OP
Sr. Mary Esther Owens, OP
Sr. Mary Judith Seman, SCN
70 years
Sr. Susanne Bauer, OSU MSJ
Sr. Virginia Blair, SCN
Sr. Maria Vincent Brocato, SCN
Sr. Jean Delaney, OP
Sr. Earline Hobbs, SCN
Sr. Evelyn Houlihan, SL
Sr. Mary Joyce Kernan, SCN
Sr. Bea Klebba, SL
Sr. Theresa Kruml, OSU
Sr. Claudette LoPorto, SL
Sr. Maria Goretti Lovett, OSU
Sr. Clarence Marie Luckett, OSU MSJ
Sr. Imelda Therese Marquez, SL
Sr. Marian McAvoy, SL
Sr. Anna Marie Rhodes, SCN
Sr. Mary Jane Rhodes, SCN
Sr. Margaret Philip Shaw, OP
Sr. Delores Ann Therasse, SCN
Sr. Kathleen Vonderhaar, SL
Sr. Rose Andrew Waller, SCN
Sr. Nancy Wittwer, SL
60 years
Sr. Catherine Mary Albright, OP
Sr. Narcisa Barreto-Perez, OP
Sr. Rose Marie Cummins, OP
Sr. Margaret Lillian Davenport, SCN
Sr. Lorraine Marie Ferlin, SCN
Sr. Helena Fischer, OSU MSJ
Sr. Mary Cabrini Hatley, OSU
Sr. Julia Marie Head, OSU MSJ
Sr. Kathleen Kaelin, OSU MSJ
Sr. Anne Mary Lochner, OSU
Sr. Rose Marie Mayock, lsp
Sr. Claire McGowan, OP
Sr. Joyce Montgomery, OP
Sr. Nancy Murphy, OSU MSJ
Sr. Anndavid Naeger, SL
Br. Ignatius Timothy Perkins, OP
Sr. Judith Raley, SCN
Sr. Wilma Ross, SCN
Sr. Carol Rueff, SCN
Sr. Sylvia Sedillo, SL
Sr. Rosanne Spalding, OSU MSJ
Fr. Jorge Stanfield, CP
Sr. Ann Whittaker, SCN
50 years
Sr. Marie-Therese Brown, SCN
Sr. Betsy Moyer, OSU MSJ
Sr. Mary Angela Shaughnessy, SCN
25 Years
Sr. Beverly Hoffman, SCN
Sr. Yuli Oncihuay, OSU
Fr. John Pozhathuparambil, OFM Conv
Fr. Shaju Puthussery, OFM Conv
