story by Libby Hyde and Helen Wheatley, photos by Katherine Mediavilla

It was the fall of 1962 that Sr. Rose McLarney decided to join the convent shortly after her graduation from the college of St. Teresa, then housed in Donnelly Hall. She joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, and now serves on the board at STA.

Though she fondly remembers her time at the college of St. Teresa, she never attended STA high school. However, she did have the opportunity to interact with many of the nuns on campus.

“The sisters played softball with us, they were real people and very friendly and very relational,” McLarney said. “That’s what attracted me, and I didn’t really think about becoming a sister until my junior year of college.”

McLarney said the biggest influence on her decision to join the convent was her interaction with nuns during those formative years of her life. Looking back at that time, she reflected that the most noticeable difference between those days and STA now is the presence of Catholic religious on campus. McLarney said that in the 1960s, most of the teachers and administrators of the school were sisters.

More than 50 years later, life at STA looks spectacularly different.

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Sr. Patty Clune, a graduate of STA and a former member of the board, said that this decline of presence of CSJ on campus is a result of two things: less need, and less women entering the convent.

Positions that were traditionally only filled by sisters are now filled by lay people.

“Many of [the CSJ sisters] are not in the education field anymore,” Clune said. “I think there’s a cyclical side of it and there will be time where there’s a greater need… I trust the working of the spirit and when there are people that are called to this lifestyle they’ll come.”

The Sisters of St. Joseph have an associate program for people who identify with the spirituality and mission of CSJ, but do not desire to become a sister. Many people in the STA community have gone through this program, including president Nan Bone and principal of student affairs Mary Beth Compton. Clune and McLarney agreed that while the number of Sisters of St. Joseph is declining, the number of people interested in becoming associates of CSJ is increasing.

“It’s just a really great way for faculty, if they feel they want to do so, to discover the meaning of the mission of the Sisters of St. Joseph more deeply,” Bone said.

Clune said that lay people began to come forward who were excellent educators and the Sisters of St. Joseph expanded their mission to fill the needs of the community. In the 1960s, that need was in education. Now that there are willing and able educators to fill those positions, the sisters have begun to fill other needs in the community, such as McLarney’s programs concerning restorative justice or Clune’s hope to someday work with children in Uganda.

“Today we have a variety of needs that we’re trying to respond to,” Clune said.

This willingness to respond to the needs of the community was inspired by a statue of Mother St. John Fontbonne who founded sisters of St. Joseph in France in 1650. Her statue shows her posture with one hand reaching out and one foot stepping forward. This symbolizes the sisters’ willingness to see the needs of the community they are serving, and address those needs.

Though there are less CSJ on campus today then there were 50 years ago, McLarney and Clune agree that the spirit of the sisters of St. Joseph is still alive and well on campus.

The idea of serving the dear neighbor is one that is closely held to the Sisters of St. Joseph, and this is true for the students of STA as well.

“I think the sisters that are on the  board on a regular basis will bring what’s going on in the community  [to mind] when praying,” Clune said. “Maybe three times out of six years faculty and students would come before us and give us a real flavor for what’s happening.”

Sister Rosemary Flanigan, who now works in the library with the archives, explained the declining numbers of nuns on campus as a trend that is happening all over the world.

“How do you explain that this school is still going?” Flanigan said. “It’s stronger now than it used to be. And who’s running this school? The people we taught. We took our know-how and passed it on, and now those people are doing the job. Nan Bone was a student here and Nan Bone is now running it. Thats exactly the way history develops and so there isn’t the need for [CSJ] and therefore there aren’t the numbers.”

Flanigan concluded by saying that since 1650, CSJ have identified with the idea of “serving the dear neighbor,” something they passed down to the women of STA.

“That’s just an expression that rolls off our tongue,” Flanigan said. “And that’s exactly what you guys are doing. What are you doing your service project for? So you can serve the dear neighbor.”

Flanigan said that though the women of STA live in an individualistic society and culture, there will always be people to serve others.

“The spirit of what St. Teresa’s is all about is alive in your DNA,” Flanigan said. “I think it’s just so amazing… There will always be people who look outside themselves. There will always be people who are looking out for the dear neighbor, and as long as we can educate those people, and shoot ‘em out into the world so they can serve the dear neighbor, the spirit of St. Teresa’s Academy will be alive and well.”