Jewels from Jane, Feb. 4

"The school in Chimbote [Peru], placed under the patronage of Saint Rose of Lima, was considerably larger than Cristo Rey in Ica. Not surprisingly, life seemed to be more complicated for the sisters in Chimbote than in Ica. The sisters summarized the history of their first year saying:

On February 4, 1963, Sisters Martina, Kathleen and David Marie [Eileen O'Loughlin, Rosemary O'Malley and Teresa Avalos] arrived in Chimbote amidst much luggage and excitement and took up temporary dwelling in a small gray house commonly referred to as Casa 41. We were joined on March 12 by two Dominican Sisters, Dominica and Herman Marie who were to help staff the school with us for one year, or until they could launch out on their own catechetical work. After living in Casa 41 for two months we moved into our present larger house thanks to the efforts of our Prelate Nullius, Monsenor Burke. Monsenor Burke, a Dominican, arrived in Chimbote about a week after we did, and was quick to offer us his support and backing in our work.
All during the month of March we had registration of pupils and by April 1, we considered ourselves ready to begin the year. However, the minister of Education had other ideas and instead of commencing classes on April 1st, he scheduled a week-long session of teachers' meetings - all in Spanish, of course. Finally, after the second rescheduling, classes got underway on April 8 with seven classrooms...from Kindergarten to Quinto ano (equivalent to sixth grade). Sister Kathleen taught Kindergarten, Sister David Marie presided in first grade and Sister Dominica had second grade. Sister Herman Marie was placed in the upper grades teaching fourth grade. The other grades were taught by lay teachers...
Part of the 'getting adjusted' pains of the first year was the task of filling out countless forms of every kind for the Minister of Education. Report cards are given out every two months, and with this, much red tape and endless papers... Included in our work during the school year was the teaching of catechism in a 'barriada' in our neighborhood...On December 1, a group of these children passed a small quiz on the fundamentals of their religion given by the Dominican Fathers and were able to receive their first Holy Communion. The Dominican Fathers are in charge of our parish, San Pedro...
Since the whole system of education in Peru is a little different from ours, and since everything was new, we passed our first year in Chimbote trying to keep one step ahead of the Minister of Education and thus our first adventurous year flew by quickly and the last month of school, December, was upon us without any warning. On December 13, we officially ended our first school year in Chimbote with a small program in the evening during which our pastor passed out the report cards.
Looking back on our activities, we realize how powerful the grace of God was to have helped us through that difficult apprenticeship of learning and adjusting to a completely new system of education and the Latin mentality too."

from Mary McGlone's book: Comunidad para el Mundo: The History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the Vice Province of Peru

Jewels from Jane, July 2

"The day finally arrived when the sisters and their house became the target of violence. When it happened, it was the terrorists rather than the military who were behind the mayhem. Sister Francine Costello explained the events of that fateful July 2, 1991.

At around 2 p.m., I returned to Moho [from a trip to Puno, Peru]. There were no signs of any presence at that time.

I went into the house where Gloria [Zapata] and Celia [DuRea] were resting. I washed my clothes to get ready to travel to Lima because I was about to go to visit my family in Hawaii...For some reason, I had already taken my suitcases into Puno, I don't know why, but if I hand't, I would have lost everything.

I put down my wallet and then I heard shots. I ran out of the house and Gloria and Celia arrived. We talked about what we were hearing. "It must be the police station...It must be Sendero or Tupac Amaru... No, maybe it's a fight...That can't be; it has to be Sendero..." Then we said, "Maybe we should go into the house. They could come here." The sounds of shots continued... "It would be better to go to the Church because the walls are thicker and from there we can get out into the plaza or into our yard." They knew that we would be at home.

I was especially afraid because I knew that some of them had been looking for me in Puno...So I sat outside of the Church.

When I went into the church, Gloria wasn't there. She had gone up the street toward the police station to see what was happening. When she ran across a number of men with machine guns, she turned around and came back, absolutely pallid.

She came into the church and said, "Sendero is here." Ramon [the parish caretaker] was there and we closed the door...The armed men came down the street and went to the newly constructed municipal building right next door to our old convent and the parish office...

They opened everything up and told the people "Take whatever you want."

We went back into the house to put on more clothes, and Gloria went to put the padlock on the gate. I said, "Gloria, it's worthless, they'll shoot it off. Let's get to the church."

We heard shots hitting the door. Then we went out the main door and I said, "Let's go to the house of a particular elderly woman four blocks down the street."

With that, we met a family who said, "Sister, they know where you are...and that you are going to the grandmother's house." They rushed us into their house where we were crying and holding onto one another. I said, "I want the other two sisters to find refuge somewhere else, but I won't be with them because I think they are going to be looking for me."

Celia and Gloria said, "No, we are staying together." With that, we heard another explosion.

The family said "You can't go down to so and so's house, because they just blew up the Bank of the Nation and she lives right there." So then, what? We didn't know.

"Sisters, stay calm, we're going to find a place." Then they took out a ladder and put it against the wall...we went over the wall, and from there we could see everything...

I was worried about Celia because Gloria and I were not so noticeable. The terrorists were now going from house to house. The family looked for blankets for Celia, sent her up to the attic, and said, "No matter what you hear, don't move." Gloria and I stayed below with Celia above.

It was a cold night, so we prepared tea and shared some bread. One of our friends went up to our house and tried to prevent people from stealing everything...Others came and told us that the terrorists had left, but that people continued to ransack the house...that everything was gone...

"When Sister Celia DuRea talked about that day, she remembered the woman who opened her home to the sisters. She said:

Francine Costello and Gloria Zapata were there, and because I was the only white person in the town, Frannie felt that I needed to hide. So we went across the street and I climbed up in the roof of our neighbors' house and was there for about six hours, listening to gunshots...

Late in the evening, Frannie and Gloria and I and the woman that had harbored us sat together and prayed. She was a very valiant woman because, if they had found us in her house, she would have been assassinated. Her husband was not there; she had two younger daughters...I will never forget how she risked her life for us.

"When the sisters returned to their house, they found it in a state of utter chaos from the looting."

from Mary McGlone's book: Comunidad para el Mundo: The History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the Vice Province of Peru

Jewels from Jane, July 2

"The day finally arrived when the sisters and their house became the target of violence. When it happened, it was the terrorists rather than the military who were behind the mayhem. Sister Francine Costello explained the events of that fateful July 2, 1991.

At around 2 p.m., I returned to Moho [from a trip to Puno, Peru]. There were no signs of any presence at that time.

I went into the house where Gloria [Zapata] and Celia [DuRea] were resting. I washed my clothes to get ready to travel to Lima because I was about to go to visit my family in Hawaii...For some reason, I had already taken my suitcases into Puno, I don't know why, but if I hand't, I would have lost everything.

I put down my wallet and then I heard shots. I ran out of the house and Gloria and Celia arrived. We talked about what we were hearing. "It must be the police station...It must be Sendero or Tupac Amaru... No, maybe it's a fight...That can't be; it has to be Sendero..." Then we said, "Maybe we should go into the house. They could come here." The sounds of shots continued... "It would be better to go to the Church because the walls are thicker and from there we can get out into the plaza or into our yard." They knew that we would be at home.

I was especially afraid because I knew that some of them had been looking for me in Puno...So I sat outside of the Church.

When I went into the church, Gloria wasn't there. She had gone up the street toward the police station to see what was happening. When she ran across a number of men with machine guns, she turned around and came back, absolutely pallid.

She came into the church and said, "Sendero is here." Ramon [the parish caretaker] was there and we closed the door...The armed men came down the street and went to the newly constructed municipal building right next door to our old convent and the parish office...

They opened everything up and told the people "Take whatever you want."

We went back into the house to put on more clothes, and Gloria went to put the padlock on the gate. I said, "Gloria, it's worthless, they'll shoot it off. Let's get to the church."

We heard shots hitting the door. Then we went out the main door and I said, "Let's go to the house of a particular elderly woman four blocks down the street."

With that, we met a family who said, "Sister, they know where you are...and that you are going to the grandmother's house." They rushed us into their house where we were crying and holding onto one another. I said, "I want the other two sisters to find refuge somewhere else, but I won't be with them because I think they are going to be looking for me."

Celia and Gloria said, "No, we are staying together." With that, we heard another explosion.

The family said "You can't go down to so and so's house, because they just blew up the Bank of the Nation and she lives right there." So then, what? We didn't know.

"Sisters, stay calm, we're going to find a place." Then they took out a ladder and put it against the wall...we went over the wall, and from there we could see everything...

I was worried about Celia because Gloria and I were not so noticeable. The terrorists were now going from house to house. The family looked for blankets for Celia, sent her up to the attic, and said, "No matter what you hear, don't move." Gloria and I stayed below with Celia above.

It was a cold night, so we prepared tea and shared some bread. One of our friends went up to our house and tried to prevent people from stealing everything...Others came and told us that the terrorists had left, but that people continued to ransack the house...that everything was gone...

"When Sister Celia DuRea talked about that day, she remembered the woman who opened her home to the sisters. She said:

Francine Costello and Gloria Zapata were there, and because I was the only white person in the town, Frannie felt that I needed to hide. So we went across the street and I climbed up in the roof of our neighbors' house and was there for about six hours, listening to gunshots...
Late in the evening, Frannie and Gloria and I and the woman that had harbored us sat together and prayed. She was a very valiant woman because, if they had found us in her house, she would have been assassinated. Her husband was not there; she had two younger daughters...I will never forget how she risked her life for us.

"When the sisters returned to their house, they found it in a state of utter chaos from the looting."


from Mary McGlone's book: Comunidad para el Mundo: The History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the Vice Province of Peru

Jewels from Jane, May 31 (2)

"On May 31, 1970, the most extensive earthquake in the history of Peru caused the disappearance of entire towns, killing 50,000 people and leaving more than a half a million without homes. On that day, the Sisters of St. Joseph shared not just the life of the people, but also their tragedy and death. Among the thousands who lost their lives was Sister Gabriel Joseph Gussin, one of the founders of the mission in Peru. The day after the earthquake, Sister Patricia McHale, the Regional Superior, wrote to Sister Albina Gussin, Sister Gabriel Joseph's sister who was a member of the St. Louis Province. She said,

Dear Sister Albina,
...I was praying beside your dear sister's coffin this morning. I had just been thinking what a woman of faith Sister Gabriel Joseph was. From what I know of you and your brothers, you will accept in faith God's calling her so suddenly to himself.
Sister Gabriel and I had a very satisfying visit on Saturday morning. She planned to go to the Dominican Sisters' convent in the area of Chimbote known as Laderas del Norte to make a day of recollection....Before she left here Saturday evening, she took out a pretty little white handherchief with your nametape on it. "Isn't this pretty?" she said, "My sister gave it to me."
The quake hit on Sunday at about 3:25 p.m. Sister Gabriel was in the Dominican Sisters' chapel with Sister Catherine, O.P., Sister Edith Mary, O.S.F., and Sister John Cassian. They ran downstairs, but when they got to the door, it was already caving in. Sister Catherine broke her way through; Sister John Cassian was trapped, but her hand was sticking out and she could call, so the Sisters were able to get her out (her back is injured, but it is not known how severly.) The convent went down like a house of cards, with sisters Gabriel Joseph and Edith Mary still within. As we discovered later, Sister Gabriel suffered a blow on the back of her head, which must have produced instant death. Apparently, Sister Edith Mary was also killed outright.
Several of the Dominican priests saw the house collapsing. Some went right over to help, another, (Father Linus Dolan) came to tell us. They worked heroically, and at great risk to their own lives, to try to tunnel through to the Sisters. At last, they found them and anointed them. Some hours later, using a wrecker and a bulldozer, they managed to remove enough of the rubble to get the Sisters' bodies out. It was 8:45 p.m. when they brought out Sister Gabriel.
The priests who assumed charge of the rescue operation were Father David Butler, whose face was bloodstained from a head injury sustained when his own house caved in; and Father Ted Breshin, O.P. who just would not give up trying to reach the Sisters, no matter how dangerous it was, since we still hoped they might be alive. It was Father Ted who found Sister Gabriel and was able to reach in and anoint her between the shoulders.
Father Enrique Camacho took Sister Edith's body to the convent where she lived, and Father Jules Roos and Father Damien Myett took Sister Gabriel's back here. We rode in the truck with him. Father Jules provided us with a wooden coffin, plain, painted black, with a cross on top.
Sister Catherine Patrick [Sister Lucy Tubbs] and I started to wash the body, but found only a few drops of water. (The water main was broken, as were our water containers also.) Sister Mary Kay Kottenstette said the water filter in their barriada convent was intact, so she went over and got some. Father Damien, Sister Mary Kay, and the neighbor, Senora Carmela de Sarmiento, prepared the body. I put my rosary in Sister's hands.
You will be relieved to know that her body was not mangled and her face looked at peace. She was always prayerful and it seems a special providence that she was on her knees before the Blessed Sacrament when the call of God reached her.
This morning, Father John Core and Brother Albian Morris came over to help us put Sister Gabriel's body in the coffin. You understand, here people do not follow our North American (pagan?) custom of embalming. I like the simple, natural, Peruvian way much better. It seems not to be putting "artificialities" between the person and God. I nailed the coffin shut and Sister Francine put a little bouquet of white chrysanthemums and a red rose on it. It is now in our chapel before the altar - Sister Gabriel's charge, of which she took such loving care.
One detail I forgot to mention: during the time the men were trying to reach the Sisters under the ruins of the convent...an elderly (70 year-old) Dominican, Father William Cassidy, came over to stand beside us and pray. As we were saying the De Profundis, one of the rescue workers came over and put the tabernacle, which he had clawed out of the debris, into Father Cassidy's hands. So we finished the psalm in the sacramental presence of Our Lord.
The Dominican Sisters at whose convent Sisters Gabriel, Edith [a Franciscan from Pittsburgh], and John Cassian [Sister of St. Joseph of Nazareth, Michigan]were making their day of recollection said that at noon the retreatants had a very happy discussion. They remembered Sister Gabriel saying, "We must go out to the people and let them know we are their friends." She herself did that in life, and will rise to glory among the Chimbotanos on the last day.
Although it is almost 24 hours since the quake, the earth begins trembling again at irregular intervals. Having run out of the house four times since beginning this letter, I am finishing it sitting on the curb in front of the house. Light, water, and telephone lines are all disrupted. There is not mail service either, but I am hoping to be able to send this to Lima with someone to be mailed from there.
I would appreciate it if you would share this letter with your brothers of whom Sister Gabriel was so proud, and with Sister Mary Seraphine. There couldn't have been anyone better prepared than Sister Gabriel. I am sure she will be an intercessor for us all. She was a woman deeply spiritual and zealously apostolic.
Sister Gabriel mentioned a number of times how much she enjoyed her home visit this year. It will be a joy for you to remember also.
Our prayers are with you. May Christ be your consolation.

In Him,
Sister Marie Esterre (Sister Patricia McHale)."

from Sister Mary McGlone's book: Comunidad para el Mundo: The History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the Vice Province of Peru

Jewels from Jane, April 18

"The Moho [Peru] mission was founded on April 18, 1972, when Sisters Teresa [Avalos] and Maureen [Freeman] arrived in their car, a Land Rover donated by Monsignor Tighe from Kansas City, Missouri. The following day, Sister Maria Dolores [Munoz] arrived with her mother who had come from Los Angeles to visit and help the sisters with the move. Sister Maria Dolores wrote:

' This week has been devoted to setting up housekeeping. My Mom has been a godsend, making curtains, etc...She came into Lima on the 27th of March, and we spent two weeks in Arequipa getting her adjusted to the altitude. So far, she's had no trouble at all. Thank God. She'll be here 'til June. It's a great vacation for her, she seldom gets that opportunity.'

"...The sisters chose the mission in Moho out of a desire to serve the most marginated people and because the Prelature of Juli seemed to be well organized and welcoming. In truth, at the beginning, their ministry was not well defined. Among the four founders, Sister Maria Rubina had the greatest ministerial focus because she was a nurse and because the Juli Prelature had decided to collaborate with the government health services. Because of that, soon after her arrival, Sister Maria received an offical appointment from the Health Department to work in the local 'posta medica.'

"For the teaching sisters, the move to Moho was more challenging than they had anticipated. Remembering it, Sister Teresa Said:

' During my first year in Moho, [I did] a lot of crying, [there was] a lot of not knowing what I should be doing. I had been taken out of something that I knew how to do well, which was teaching; and I enjoyed it very, very much. I had a wonderful rapport with our students in the States and even more so with our students in Santa Rosa. I loved them; they loved me; we went to visit their homes and we just got very involved. To go to a new culture, a new language and figure out what I was doing...was a difficult transition for me. And I did cry a lot...thinking I wasn't doing anything, and I was wasting the community's money and that kind of thing. (We were being subsidized.)

Eventually, we got into catechetical programs, we got to visiting the schools; we set up a nice [educational program] based on Montessori, a kind of hands-on for children. We invited the different first grades to come up and...little by little that first year worked out...

By the second year and for the rest of my five years there, I was able to handle it well. I got to know the teachers there very well; it was a wonderful feeling of community, extended, not just the five or six of us who were there later on, but extended into that whole wide Moho community. It was a wonderful experience.

It was an enrichment as far as the culture. We were lucky to [be with] Maria Rubina who was from Peru, because she could help us...If you asked her, and if you were open to listening, she was very open to explaining the customs and why this was that way and why it didn't coincide with my way of thinking or looking at things. That was very helpful.'

"With mutual help and the time necessary to get settled in a new place, the sisters finished their first year convinced that they had made a good decision by choosing Moho as the Congregation's first mission in the Peruvian highlands."

From Mary McGlone's book: Comunidad para el Mundo: The History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the Vice Province of Peru

Jewels from Jane, March 19

"The sisters celebrated their first Feast of St. Joseph in Peru on March 19, 1963. They were pleasantly surprised to receive a large bouquet of roses from a delegation of the nursing staff [at the Military Hospital in Lima] in honor of this important Feast. The presentation of the flowers was followed by the giving of Peruvian abrazos [embraces] to each of the Sisters [Sister Mary Arthur Meyer (Alice) (LA), Sister Jeanne Teresa Deiman (Pat)(SP), Sister Richard Clare O'Brien (SL)]. The occasion seemed to demonstrate the general feeling of good will towards the North American Sisters who had recently come to their country and specifically to their hospital."

Year end report from the Hospital Sisters to the Generalate, 1963. Excerpted from Mary McGlone's book: Comunidad para el Mundo: The History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the Vice Province of Peru.