Sisters of Loretto with local ties celebrate anniversaries

Eleven Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross are celebrating jubilee years in 2014. They are:

80 years

Sister Margaret Rose Knoll, formerly Sister Ann Mark, taught at Christ the King School from 1955 to 1957. She also taught at schools in Colorado, Illinois, Missouri and Wyoming. She served as a principal in New Mexico, Colorado and Illinois. She served as superior of the Loretto Convent in Illinois from 1966 to 1969.

She will turn 100 years old on Aug. 27.

Sister Charlotte Marie Schwartz, a native of St. Louis, taught at Loretto High School from 1938 to 1944 and worked as a librarian from 1971 to 1974 at Parkland Junior High School and from 1974 to 1977 at Central High School. She also taught at schools in Alabama, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas and served in archdiocesan ministry in Denver. Since 2009, Sister Schwartz has lived at the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary in Nerinx, Ky.At 103 years old, Sister Schwartz is the oldest living member of the Loretto Community. At age 101, she was the Grand Marshal of the first Christmas Parade in Loretto, Ky.

75 years

Sister Mary Genevieve Cavanaugh, a native of Kansas City, Mo., taught music, literature, English and religion at schools in California, Colorado, Missouri and Texas. In 2010, she moved from Casper, Wyo., to the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary in Nerinx, Ky., where she carries out a ministry of prayer and service.

70 years

Sister Mary Judith Brown, a native of Elwood, Ind. taught at schools in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois and Missouri. Since 2010, Sister Brown has lived at the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary in Nerinx, Ky., where she carrries out a ministry of prayer and service.

Sister Mary Katherine Hammett, formerly Sister Mary Odile, a native of Colorado Springs, Colo., taught music at schools in California, Colorado, Missouri and Texas. She also served for nearly two decades in religious education at various California parishes.
In 2012, she moved to the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary in Nerinx, Ky.

Sister Veronica Marie Schneider, formerly Sister Mary Thomas, is a native of Los Angeles. She taught at schools in California, Colorado, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas. In El Paso, she served as infirmarian and was a nursing assistant at Loretto Academy Convent. She moved to the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary in Nerinx in 2002 where she carries out a ministry of prayer and service.

Sister Kathleen Tighe, formerly Sister Mary Venard, is a native of Elizabeth, Colo., and was the seventh of eight Tighe children — including six girls, all of whom became women religious. She taught in schools in  California,  Colorado, Illinois and Missouri and served as principal at two schools in Missouri. She was a staff member for the Loretto Community from 1991 to 1997.
In 2013 she moved from Danville, Calif., to Lebanon, Ky., where she carries out a ministry of prayer and service.

Sister M. Concett Torrillo, a native of Granite City, Ill., taught in schools in Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas, and she also taught at the Loretto Center for Learning in Webster Groves, Mo. She also served for a time at the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary in Nerinx, and became a resident there in April of 2013.

60 years

Sister Margaret Quayhagen, formerly Sister Mary Damian, is a native of Denver. She served at the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary in Nerinx, where she was administrator from 1965 to 1966 and again in 1970. Since November of 2012, she has resided at the Loretto Motherhouse, where she continues her gerontology and psychology outreach ministry.

Sister Agnes Ann Schum, a native of Champaign, Ill., taught at the old St. Benedict School in Louisville from 1958 to 1961, and was executive director of Project AIMM (Archdiocesan Intercongregational Ministry Model) from 2001 to 2005 in the Archdiocese of Louisville. She also served as interim executive director of The Caring Place, a domestic violence shelter in Marion County, Ky., and helped create the pastoral team at the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary. She now serves part time on that team and lives in Lebanon, Ky.

50 years

Sister Susan Carol McDonald, a native of Pueblo, Colo., served a year as a member of the nursing staff at the Loretto Motherhouse, and was administrator of the old St. Joseph Infirmary in Louisville from 1970 to 1973. For many years she was a member of the nursing staff at the Loretto Motherhouse Infirmary, and continued that work from 1967 to 1975 serving Vietnamese adoptees and their families.

Sister McDonald has also served as a nurse at New Haven Nursery in Saigon, South Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, she helped care for hundreds of Vietnamese orphans who eventually were placed with families throughout the U.S. She has also worked as a nurse in Dacca, Bangladesh, working with Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity in orphanages and refugee camps. She also worked with Guatemalans following an earthquake, nursed in Nicaragua and lived and worked in Haiti. She now resides in St. Louis, where since 1998 she has served Vietnamese adoptees through Vietnamese Adoptee Service, which she founded.