Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet 80th anniversary in Hawaii: Educators and more

For eight decades, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet helped shape the modern church in Hawaii

By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald

It took some pleading in 1936 from Hawaii’s Bishop Stephen Alencastre to get the mother superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Louis, Missouri, to send sisters to Hawaii.

“Otherwise obliged to close school,” the bishop stated in his second cable to Mother Rose Columba McGinness requesting “at least six” sisters. (The first appeal was for 12.) The school in question was St. Theresa, opened in 1931 by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts who were leaving to attend to growing responsibilities elsewhere.

The petition proved to be persuasive. Nine sisters arrived on the U.S. Lurline 80 years ago this month on Aug. 24, 1938, five from the St. Louis Province, four from the Los Angeles Province.

They ranged in age from 21 to 58. From St. Louis were the superior Sister Mary Virginia Becker, the assistant superior Sister Mary Zenaide, Sister Mary Felix Jochem, Sister Frances Celine Leahy and Sister Alice Josephine Tornovich.

From Los Angeles were Sister Mary Faber Vanderwerf, Sister Adele Marie Lemon, Sister Mary Anne Bahner and Sister Ann Patrice O’Connor.

“What a happy Aloha was ours!” wrote Sister Adele Marie, recalling their morning arrival at Honolulu’s Pier 11 as the clock on the Aloha Tower marked 10 minutes to nine.

According to the late Sister Kathleen Marie Shields’ recounting of the historic day in her 2004 book “Aloha Ke Akua,” the sisters were met by a “waving crowd of aloha.” Disembarking, they together received nearly 100 leis.

On Sept. 1, eight days after they arrived, the sisters opened the school year for 730 students, kindergarten through grade nine. According to Sister Kathleen Marie, their greatest challenge was “to pronounce and to spell correctly the names of the children.”

The sisters’ quick success prompted Bishop Alencastre a few months later to ask for more of them, this time to run Holy Rosary School in Paia, Maui.

On July 19, 1939, Mother Rose Columba sent from St. Louis Mother Mary Albert Carroll, Sister Carlotta Whitmore and Sister Julienne Fennerty. On Aug. 2, Sister Miriam Ruth Karl also arrived from St. Louis.

In the summer of 1941, three sisters briefly branched off to Kauai to teach catechism classes there.

During World War II, the sisters broadened their ministry to include praying with parishioners, offering hospitality to servicemen, writing letters to their anxious families on the Mainland, and taking turns before the Blessed Sacrament in evening adoration.

After the war

The war saw the Catholic Church in Hawaii pivot from a missionary outpost to a new emerging American diocese with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet contributing greatly in the transition.

Before and after the war, the sisters and their trained catechists staffed numerous parish catechism programs across Oahu providing religious instruction to thousands of children.

They ended up running a total of six Catholic schools in Hawaii, two on Maui and four on Oahu.

Here are the schools they administered and the year they started: St. Theresa, Honolulu, 1938; Holy Rosary, Paia, 1939; St. Joseph, Waipahu, 1946; St. Anthony, Kailua, 1952; Christ the King, Kahului, 1955; and Holy Trinity, Honolulu, 1965.

At one time or another they could also be found on the faculties of St. Anthony Grade School and St Anthony Junior-Senior High School in Wailuku; Star of the Sea, Honolulu; St. Patrick, Honolulu; Sacred Hearts Academy, Damien Memorial School and Chaminade University.

In 1965, the Hawaii congregation was elevated to the status of vice province. From the late 1960s, it expanded its horizons sending sisters to mission in Peru, the Marshall Islands, Johnston Atoll, Christmas Island, Chile, Samoa and Japan. Back in Hawaii, some also found assignments on Lanai and the Big Island.

Outside the classroom, the work has been varied and diverse. The sisters have lived among and advocated for the poor, volunteered in homeless shelters, worked in communications, catechetics and counseling and have ministered to the sick, the imprisoned, the elderly and the homebound. They have served in parishes as religious educators, eucharistic ministers, lectors, choir directors, RCIA team leaders and outreach coordinators.

Today, advancing age has added for some Hawaii sisters a ministry of “prayer and witness,” while others have welcomed the responsibility of caregiver for their elderly companions.

The Hawaii Vice-Province joined the Los Angeles Province on July 1, 2017. Also part of the Los Angeles Province are all of California, Japan, the Pacific Northwest and Arizona.

More than 200 Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet have served in Hawaii since the first group of nine came in 1938. For 80 years, as educational leaders and missionaries, they helped shape the modern church in Hawaii, educating and ministering to four generations of Catholics. In the process, they also attracted many local women to the religious life.

The work continues

Hawaii’s Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet today are engaged in numerous full time, part time and volunteer ministries. They continue their work “with the dear neighbor,” said Sister Mary Kathleen Dugard, quoting a directive of the order’s founder Father Jean Pierre Medaille.

Four sisters minister in full-time or part-time positions on Maui and Oahu in teaching, religious education and grant writing. Other sisters on Maui and Oahu volunteer in parish ministry as cantors, parish office volunteers, in religious education programs, various senior programs and sign language interpretation.

Others serve in programs for women coming out of prison, choir ministry, Eucharistic ministry in care homes, food bank ministry, walking spiritually with individuals and the diocesan safe environment program.

Others are involved in family and friends caregiving, in overseeing the congregation’s Associate program, and in presence and prayer ministry, and two serve the Hawaii sisters as a coordinator and health coordinator.

The Hawaii sisters are all on Oahu except where noted:

• Sister Catherine Anthony Acain (on Maui)
• Sister Rosita Aranita
• Sister Ann Faber Chang
• Sister Patty Chang
• Sister Francine Costello
• Sister Mary Kathleen Dugar
• Sister Roselani Enomoto (on Maui)
• Sister Marcelina Felipe
• Sister John Joseph Gilligan (returning to Albany Province in the fall)
• Sister James Therese Joseph
• Sister Jean Larm
• Sister Brenda Lau
• Sister Angela Laurenzo (on Maui)
• Sister Giovanna Marie Marcoccia (from Albany Province)
• Sister Tomasa Marcos
• Sister Eva Joseph Mesina (on Maui)
• Sister Margaret Leonard Perreira
• Sister Anita Marie Rosco
• Sister Sara Sanders (on Maui)
• Sister Marian Tung
• Sister Claudia Wong