DIOCESAN NEWS
12/08/06
..............................................................................................................................................
Religious sisters, brothers honored at Mass story below

By Fabvienen Taylor
    JACKSON — “Go forth and be counter-cultural,” said Sister Mary Jean Morris, a Sister of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate. Sister Morris, pastoral coordinator of Bruce St. Luke the Evangelist Mission, said being counter-cultural is one of her biggest challenges as a religious sister.
    “You know the way you are living as a Catholic Christian is different from the way many think life should be lived, and the values are sometimes different,” she said at the reception following a Mass of Thanksgiving in Celebration of the Consecrated Life on Sunday, Dec. 3, at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle.
    “A consolation for me is that it is not just religious who live this way, it’s a Christian commitment, not just a Catholic commitment. Each of us, everyone, has a separate calling to be faithful to what we are called to do,” she said.
    Sister Morris, 70, celebrating her 50th anniversary, was one of 19 religious sisters and brothers honored for 25, 50 and 60 years as religious.
    Bishop Joseph Latino was the principal celebrant and Father Elvin Sunds concelebrated. The sisters and brothers celebrating their jubilees, said Bishop     Latino, had accepted the invitation to follow Christ at their baptisms — through their parents — and again when they accepted the challenge of religious life.
    They were being celebrated and acknowledged, he said, for more than their anniversaries of consecrated life. “We also congratulate you for the example you are to the universal church; we commend you for leaving your mothers, fathers, and other family and being obedient to your superiors; we commend you for your model of commitment to us,” Bishop Latino said.
    For 70-year-old Brother Senten Gallagher, it was the Marist Brothers who taught at his school who inspired his vocation.
    “They were such fine men,” said the New York City native and Trinitarian (Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity) brother celebrating 50 years. He serves as pastoral minister at Charleston St. John Parish.
    Sister Janita Cureo, 77, works part time as a tutor at Canton Elementary School. She is celebrating 60 years as a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “I so appreciate my life and the work I have done and am doing,” said Sister Cureo who will work as long as she is healthy and useful.
    “It has been a wonderful, great life with a few bumps along the road,” she said.

Back to Diocesan News