Not every woman religious, priest and brother who helped to pack the pews Feb. 9 at St. Bernard of Clairvaux Church in Riverdale Park, Maryland, was a jubilarian. But they turned out in force to support their sisters, priests and brothers in ministry as they were honored for celebrating milestone anniversaries in religious life.
In all, 20 jubilarians were feted during the Mass, and at a luncheon afterward in the church hall.
Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who two years ago observed the golden jubilee of his own priestly ordination, congratulated the jubilarians for “all the years of your vowed religious commitment.”
The cardinal said it was an appropriate time to honor the jubilarians for their service, since Pope Francis’s monthly prayer intention for February is that “more young people hear the call to a religious vocation.”
The Mass’ Scripture readings, from the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, echoed the call heard by the jubilarians all those years ago. The Gospel passage from Luke 5:1-11 recounted Jesus’ call to Simon Peter and James and John to be “fishers of men,” while in the first reading, the prophet Isaiah, hearing God’s cry, “Whom shall I send?” replied, “Here I am, send me!”
The Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, a Nigerian order, brought that point home during the preparation of the gifts, singing from their pews a Nigerian hymn, “In Thanksgiving and Love,” accompanying themselves on such indigenous percussion instruments as the udu (a tall vase-like metal pot struck over its opening with something resembling a duster), and the ogene (similar to a cowbell, but longer and narrower).
One of the honorees was a Handmaid of the Holy Child Jesus, Sister Joanna Okereke, who marked 40 years since her first vows. She said her mother was a daily Mass-goer, and that she often followed her mother to church, as she thought the nuns also attending Mass were “angels.”
When Sister Joanna Okereke first told her father she wanted to join a convent, or at least attend a school where the nuns taught, he initially rejected her request, but ultimately relented. She later learned her mother had likewise sought to join a convent in her youth, but that her parents refused. Afterward, she told her daughter that she prayed that if God ever gave her children, that at least one would go into religious life.
Upon taking vows, she took care of other young women who had joined the Handmaids, then became a bursar for its many schools. She came to the United States 25 years ago, first ministering in Houston, then in Madison, Wisconsin, before working for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in ministry to African immigrants, first for their Migration and Refugee Services arm, and, since 2008, in the Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church.
Sister Joseph Miriam Sewell, a Little Sister of the Poor and a 50-year jubilarian, said at the luncheon she entered the order’s motherhouse in Louisville from her home in Fern Creek, about 15 miles away.
She said she was attracted to the community for “its style of caring” to the poor elderly who had come to live at their homes in Louisville and other cities where she was assigned. Sister Sewell has been serving at the Jeanne Jugan Residence operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Washington, D.C.
Sister Maria Orlandini, a Sister of St. Francis of Philadelphia, another golden jubilarian, was born and raised in northern Italy’s Brescia region and was sent to the United States to minister to the Italian Catholic population.
She said she spent a good deal of time in and around Albuquerque, New Mexico, in varied ministries, including that of parish religious education director and pastoral associate. “I also did Africa for six years,” she added, “then I came back to the United States.”
Sister Maria Orlandini later switched her affiliation from the Canossians – the same religious institute that was home to St. Josephine Bakhita – to the Sisters of St. Francis. She also began ministering in Chester, Pennsylvania, the state’s oldest city founded in 1644 by Swedish settlers that is now one of its poorest, as deindustrialization has shrunk its population to less than one-half of its post-World War II peak.
When Sister Maria Orlandini started asking herself why the city’s poor remained that way, she looked for a new ministry opportunity and joined the Washington-based Franciscan Action Network, where she serves as director of advocacy.
The jubilarians recognized Feb. 9, by years of service:
70 years – Jesuit Father Otto Hentz, Daughter of Charity Sister Suzanne Baumgartner, and Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Rosemaron Rynn.
60 years – Religious of Jesus and Mary Sisters Margaret Perron and Eileen Reid.
50 years – Religious of Mary Immaculate Sister Maria Rosario Merin, Jesuit Father Kevin Gillespie, Missionaries of Charity Sister M. Kiron Moyi Martin, Daughter of Charity Sister Regina Hlavac, Sister Maria Orlandini of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, and Sister Joseph Miriam Sewell of the Little Sisters of the Poor.
40 years – Sister Joanna Nkechinyere Okereke of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus; Sister M. Frances Gabriel Saw, Sister M. Shanti Shalini Joseph, Sister Veronica Irene Neubauer and Sister M. Carmelina Tirkey of the Missionaries of Charity; and Sister Ibeh Miriam Mercy of the Daughters of Divine Love.
25 years –Sister Marirose Rudek of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, Missionaries of Charity Sister Marie Josefa Senilla and Jesuit Father Rodrigue Ntungu.
