Sister Laura Fucito

September 2004 - Sister Laura Fucito
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"On St. Nick's Day, thanks to good friends like you, we're able to get coats and scarves and put a little money into the shoes and stockings of the young people who make their home here, so that they can do their Christmas shopping," Sister said. "We also include a little spiritual prayer sheet to remind them of what Christmas is all about," she said.

Sister Mary Alvin's ministry has always involved children: first as a 3rd and 4th grade teacher in Baltimore and then as a 5th grade teacher in Savannah from 1966 to 1968. The impact that she had on young lives is apparent in that many of her students (even from the 60's) come back periodically to see how she's doing and affirm her importance in their lives.

She took an administrator role at St. Mary's Home in 1969, and has been there ever since, overseeing the therapeutic programs, holding Bible study sessions, tutoring, and locating runaways in search of safety and stability in their lives.

Sister Mary Alvin felt it was a calling from God that she couldn't ignore. In 1969, St. Mary's Home had just lost its license and the current caretaker was retiring. She could have had a secure and steady teaching position in Baltimore, but Sister Mary Alvin invited God in on the decision - and went to St. Mary's shortly after it was clear what God's plan was for her.

Armed with a Master's degree in Psychology of the Emotionally Disturbed, Sister went about tackling the difficult problems the sad and emotionally tortured child brought through the door. She helps them build back trust, and creates a safe haven for them - a sense of real "home" that few had known before.

She seeks out generous souls willing to donate their services and talents to the home, and is gratified when people respond.

September 2004 - Sister Laura Fucito
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Sister squeezes her meager annual budget until it all but cries "Uncle.
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Sister grew up the fifth of nine children in a very Catholic family in the small fishing town of Astoria, Ore. She even worked one summer after high school in a tuna cannery, so she understands the life of the small Alaskan villages.

Having joined the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia in 1973, she's seen both urban and rural scenery. After six years of teaching and youth ministry in California, her sense of challenge first led her to the Diocese of Juneau, Alaska, where she continued her youth work and served as pastoral administrator of several remote parishes. After finishing a master's degree in clinical social work and doing some counseling work in the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Sister remembers the invitation from Father Theodore Kestler, SJ, to come to the tundraland of Fairbanks Diocese: "We are desperate!"

September 2004 - Sister Laura Fucito
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Five years ago, Sister found herself furnishing a new home in a 47-year-old rectory that had been vacant for several years and starting a new career as the pastoral associate of St. Joseph's parish in Fertile. Sister remembers opening the cabinets of the rectory only to find them bare. St. Joseph's - whose weekly collection averages a little more than $400 - had sold the rectory's pots, pans and housewares to help meet church expenses.

"I told my mother, little did I know at this stage of my life that I would be furnishing a new home," Sister Mary Jean recalls.

Determined not to further strain the parish budget, Sister embarked on a 150-mile roundtrip to fetch housewares from a Benedictine convent that was downsizing. At local thrift shops, she found a used couch for $30 and a small desk, and an old table and chairs, which she stripped and refinished herself.

It's that kind of resourcefulness, sacrifice and take-charge attitude that has made Sister a vital asset to this rural Catholic parish. She is the every day pastoral presence for the some 85 Catholic families who live and worship here.
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But foremost, says Sister, is being present when people need her, and helping to bring Christ to them in all circumstances.

"I so love to work with the people," she says.
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After her husband died in the nursing home, one woman told Sister, "There are things I can talk to you about that I don't want to talk to my family about."

Many people turn more to God in times of crisis and grief, but Sister also reaches out to those attracted to the Faith through the example of loved ones.

"We have many mixed marriages...the non-Catholic spouse (generally the husband) accompanies the family to church quite regularly," she says. Many times a 'gentle invitation' is all it takes to attract someone to the Faith, says Sister Mary Jean, "especially as their children prepare to receive the sacraments."

As many as 15 parents help Sister teach religious education, and she is thrilled with how they express their faith and pitch in to keep St. Joseph's running. A former teacher and principal, Sr.

September 2004 - Sister Laura Fucito
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Sister also agreed to become a chaplain at a major poultry processing plant in the nearby town of Monett. No desk job, Sr.

September 2004 - Sister Laura Fucito
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Since August 1997, Sister has directed the religious education program at Holy Rosary Church, where more than 50 students ride the senior citizen bus from the local public school to the quiet parish hall each Wednesday for classes after school.
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Sister provides guidance, training, and has regular "faculty meetings" because it makes her teachers feel "as if they're part of a team."

This July, Sister Dolores will be retiring toher order's convent in Tacoma, Washington, though she shows no sign of slowing down.

"I'm very happy being of service to people, developing their spiritual life,"says this Sister,who put in many 12-hour days praying for and serving the communities she loves.

September 2004 - Sister Laura Fucito
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Sister recalls the time two tough-looking young men came sauntering into the small kitchen area one evening and offered, in a semi-threatening way, to sell her a picture. "I don't know where you got it and I don't want to know," she replied, and one of them asked, after taking a menacing sidelong glance around the church, "Are you all alone here? Sister remembers the moment very well. "That scared me." But when the boys took some soda that was meant for a parish event, she got feisty: "You know the Lord says, 'Thou shalt not steal,'" she admonished in as stern a voice as she could muster. The boys sheepishly looked at their shoes and left.

Sister Theresa made known her wish to become a nun on the day of her first communion, when she prayed, "Jesus, make me a sister. The daughter of Croatian immigrants, Sister Theresa grew up during the depression in a the ethnic neighborhoods of Columbus, Ohio, where the melting pot roiled with Hungarians, Italians, Irish, Lithuanians, and African Americans. Although her family was not wealthy by any means, she didn't seem to miss the things she couldn't have - like new clothes, for example. "We grew up with hand-me-downs," she recalls, "But we were so happy it didn't matter." She entered the convent at age 18 to become an Ursuline, and spent the next fifty years teaching and serving as Principal in Catholic schools, heading up religious programs.

In high school, Sister took Spanish classes and dreamed of one day working in a Hispanic mission. Her prayers were answered two years ago when she took over for Sister Mary Walden at El Cenizo, a cluster of boxy, modest homes in the desert. Here, with the help of devoted parishioners, Sister Theresa took on some major renovation projects such as the furnace with its missing parts, broken linoleum floors, and scattershot records. She organized and tends to a filing system for baptismal and marriage records, and she recruited bilingual high school students to teach children catechism. She regularly makes home visits to the sick and discouraged, and offers guidance whenever and wherever the need arises. And in the past year, under Sister's tutelage, nearly 100 children received the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist this past season.

Although her means are modest, her brown eyes sparkle with hope, and she knows that she is exactly where the Lord needs her to be right now.