Florida Catholic | Religious Sisters Mark Jubilees

Four religious sisters celebrate jubilees

Published: 02.01.08

The following biographies are of four sisters who are celebrating 60, 50 and 25 years of religious profession in 2008. They will be honored during a Mass to be celebrated Sunday, Feb. 3, 10 a.m., at St. Mary Cathedral, 7525 Pope John Paul II Ave. (Northwest Second Avenue), Miami. Archbishop John C. Favalora will preside. The public is welcome.

DIAMOND — 60 YEARS

Sister Clemencia Fernandez

Sister Fernandez was born in Nuevitas, Camagüey, Cuba. She studied at Maria Auxiliadora School in Nuevitas and started as a postulant with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul at the Real Casa de Beneficencia y Maternidad (charity and maternity home) in Havana Sept. 8, 1948.

After completing her novitiate, she was assigned to Nuestra Señora de la Caridad (Our Lady of Charity) School in Güines, Havana. Later, she was sent again to care for poor orphan girls at the Real Casa de Beneficencia y Maternidad in Havana. After five years, she was transferred to Mina Truffin School in Marianao, Havana, until 1961 when the Cuban government took over all the private schools.

She was exiled to Puerto Rico that same year. She worked at Hospital Auxilio Mutuo (Mutual Aid) in Hato Rey until 1971 when she was able to go work as a missionary as she always wanted to do. She was sent to Istanbul, Turkey, first to Bebeq School for poor Christian girls from Iran’s border zone. Later she was transferred to the psychiatric and geriatric hospital of La Paix where she worked for 26 years.

In 1998, due to health problems, she returned to the Puerto Rico province of the Daughters of Charity. Since then, she has resided at the St. Vincent de Paul Convent in Miami, where she helps with the mission of the community and also with the Christian formation of adults at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, Miami.

Sister John Norton

Sister John Norton Although Sister Norton was never educated by or worked with the Adrian Dominican Sisters, the Holy Spirit guided her to their motherhouse in Adrian, Mich., where she entered on June 24, 1948.

Following her first profession, she was assigned to St. Mary’s Elementary School in downtown Adrian. After two and a half years, she was missioned to Mount Carmel Elementary School in Chicago where she taught third grade to mostly Italian students. From there, she worked in the primarily Irish parish of St. Killian’s for four years.

She then took a train ride to Jacksonville and served as principal of St. Matthew School. When her six-year term as superior was up, she found her way to St. Patrick Parish, Miami Beach, where she happily worked with many of the young Cubans new to the United States.

For the past 42 years, Sister Norton has served the family of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, as math teacher, principal and coordinator of special events.

GOLDEN — 50 YEARS

Sister Kathleenjoy Cooper

Sister Cooper was born in Philadelphia, where upon graduating from Ancilla Domini Academy, operated by the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart, she began her postulancy in 1958.

After tertianship, a period before final vows, during the 1966-67 school year in the Handmaids’ Rome headquarters, Sister Cooper worked in elementary and high school teaching and administration in Baltimore and Philadelphia. She was missioned to Miami for the archdiocesan divorce ministry, which led her to pursue a graduate degree at St. Thomas University in marriage and family therapy.

Twice a kidney transplant recipient, she is active in the archdiocese in young adult ministries, pastoral counseling and marriage and family practice in English and Spanish. Through many years’ involvement in Handmaid formation ministries, she is relearning guitar to enjoy with women in formation and young adult groups.

SILVER — 25 YEARS

Sister Rosa Lopez

Sister Lopez was born in Havana, the sixth of nine siblings. Her parents were Rosa and Roberto Lopez. They arrived in the United States in 1965. She attended Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School and Immaculata-La Salle High School in Miami, graduating in 1979. She then studied at the University of Miami, where she graduated in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in science education.

She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine in 1983. She has taught at St. Mary Cathedral, St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, St. Peter Claver in Tampa and presently teaches at Archbishop Curley Notre Dame High School, Miami.

During the past few years, Sister Lopez has taken up higher studies in theology and spirituality at La Salle University in Philadelphia and Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.

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Four religious sisters celebrate jubilees

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