Summoned to Go Forth with Passion Sister Mary Gerald McCloskey, D.C. and Contributors Krohmaly’s Printing, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania © Daughters of Charity, Province of St. Louise All rights reserved First edition, 2020 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to: Permissions, Department of Communications Daughters of Charity, Province of St. Louise 4330 Olive Street St. Louis, Missouri 63108-2622 Dedication This book was developed and published to highlight the extraordinary “call to mission” life that all Daughters of Charity represent, and the collection of stories found here highlights in particular the journey of Sister Mary Gerald (Geralda) McCloskey, D.C., who spent over fifty years on mission in Cochabamba, Bolivia, embracing the charism of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac to “serve the poor wherever they may be.” She grew to love this poor but vibrant country, and those whom she met along the way found in her a true friend, a champion of God’s love and staunch supporter of those she had come to serve. Sister Mary Gerald returned to the States in 2019 and began working on this book. By grace, Sister Mary Gerald’s longtime companion and colleague on mission in Bolivia for over twenty-five years, Sister Maritza Garcia, came to the U.S. in February 2020 to assist her friend with this project. Before completing her task, Sister Mary Gerald died on April 1, 2020, with Sister Maritza at her bedside. She had completed her mission on earth and is now resting in heaven with God whom she so faithfully served, and her parents, family, Daughters, and the people of Bolivia whom she so greatly loved. It is difficult to summarize or even know the impact that Sr. Mary Gerald McCloskey had on the lives of the people she loved and served for decades in the remote Bolivian mountains and tropical rainforests located thousands of miles away from where she was born and raised. The below testimonial penned by Fernando Vargas, President of TIPNIS (Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory) captures the essence of her passion and contributions to the people she loved so dearly. Thus, it is easy to imagine that the greeting: “Well Done Thou Good and Faithful Servant” was rightly extended when she was welcomed by Our Lord into Heaven! He wrote on Facebook: “The people of this territory, TIPNIS is in mourning. The Mother of the inhabitants of the TIPNIS has left. Sister Geralda gave her life for each of us. She gave us her love, her dedication, her spirit of goodness, her love of justice. She challenged us to fight defending our territory so that we could continue to exist as indigenous people. We were taught to confront great powerful politicians of the country to demand respect for our rights and our entire territory of TIPNIS. Sister Geralda, you put your life out there fighting and protecting the rights of our people. You made the greatest of your dreams, the education of our children and young people to be agricultural technicians so that they are great in their lives. It seems that you left us but you have not left because your voice is heard in the distance, screaming freedom.” Sister Maritza Garcia of the Province of Guatemala, by “following her star,” would serve alongside Sister Mary Gerald in the Beni, Bolivia for many years. Following Sister Mary Gerald’s death and with the pandemic travel ban in effect, Sister Maritza remained in the States and contributed greatly to translating and completing the project Sister Mary Gerald had begun. There was certainly no shortage of experiences and adventures that the two Daughters had to draw on for material in the making of this book. They shared with one another and those they served the joy, tragedy, loss, and love of living a life on mission. Sister Maritza has since returned to her country, and although she misses dearly her “Sister on Mission,” she cherishes in her heart the gift of “following one’s star” and finding faith in God that He knows best what she has been called to do and with whom she can do the greatest good. 4 Contents 6 Maps 8 Introductions 14 Stories from the Sisters 56 Memories from Sister Maritza Garcia, D.C. 75 Father Gregory Gay, C.M., Visits the Beni 79 A Personal Account: Faith Moves Mountains 80 Stories from the Sisters of the Central American Province 87 Poems by Sister Madeline Kavanagh, D.C. 89 Acknowledgments 4 5 6 6 7 Introductions Sister Mary Gerald (Geralda) McCloskey, D.C. Sister Mary Gerald was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 14, 1934. Along with her parents (Marie and Gerald) and three brothers, she was part of a large and proudly Irish Catholic family. She attended a local parochial grade school (St. Dominic’s) and a Daughters of Charity-run girls’ high school (Seton High School). Although Sister’s eldest brother Gerald was ten years older, she tried to exceed him whenever the opportunity presented itself….be it in swimming, hitting a baseball, or throwing a basketball. She had red hair and, at times, a fiery disposition to match. Her mom died when Sister was ten years old, and she became a nurturing support for her younger siblings, Joseph and Richard. On September 8, 1953, Sister entered the Postulancy of the Daughters of Charity at St. Joseph’s Provincial House in Emmitsburg, Maryland and thus began her life’s journey to the service of God’s poor. Her formal vocation date was December 31, 1953. She received her habit in January 1955 and made vows for the first time on February 2, 1959. After a period of initial formation, she was sent on her first mission and taught at a Catholic school in Washington, D.C., for five years. This was followed by a year’s teaching assignment in Emmitsburg. In 1961, Sister responded to a call to a “traditional” missionary life and was sent to Bolivia, South America. For the next fifty-six years she devoted her life and talents to the service of God’s poor in this country. Initially, she taught in Elizabeth Seton School for girls, a primary and secondary school in Trinidad. She was then asked to help establish a mission high in the Altiplano region of the Andes Mountains near Lake Titicaca for the Aymara Indians. In the mid-1960s, she accepted a mission transfer to the remote jungle areas of the Amazon Basin. It is here that her love for, and dedication to, the Indigenous people of the region flourished and led to more than a half century of service to them. She became a skilled navigator along the many tributaries of the Amazon River. People living in the many communities along these rivers grew to love and anticipate visits from both the Sisters from her Community as well as the Pastoral team, which she helped establish to bring the Word and Spirt of Our Lord to them. Lest one think that the work of Sister Mary Gerald and her fellow missionaries was solely focused on traditional preaching and religious services, one need only read the following stories to gain a broader understanding of the meaning of “Missionary Spirit.” Pope Francis, in his encyclicals today, exhorts us to the same…to be ever more missionary in our ministries: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. 8 “Wherever we are, whatever our ministry, each one of us is missionary.” In the Assemblies, each Daughter is called to demonstrate a missionary boldness and to respond to the challenges of our times; each Assembly has reminded us that the heart of our vocation as Daughters of Charity is to be “missionary.” (Reference to Daughters of Charity Constitution 25.) Sister Mary Gerald built schools and helped expand educational opportunities for both boys and girls throughout the region. She developed and secured funding for a government- approved technical program for young adults that provided agricultural, wood-crafting and mechanical training to enhance their ability to have a more secure future. During St. John Paul II’s visit to Bolivia in 1988, Sister was delighted to join two members of the local Indian communities in presenting him with a special gift they had crafted for the Pontiff. The team’s primary vessel for travel throughout the entire expansive area, a boat named Siloé, was equipped with a complete health suite and allowed for many basic needs to be met. In addition, volunteer members in the villages were trained to help support their community in preventing infections, assisting in childbirth and treating wounds. She provided “building expertise” for homes, bridges and roads. Often, she was the one driving the tractor. To highlight just a few examples of her insightful skills: The tropical climate of the Amazon Basin rainforest essentially has two seasons – dry and rainy. Each one lasts about six months and when the rainy season arrives, rivers swell, overflow banks and can even wash away the nearby simple thatched-roofed homes. But if the houses are elevated on “stilts,” and living quarters located on the upper floor, their ability to survive during the rainy season is greatly enhanced. One of the stories included here, “Puerto Geralda,” provides yet another example of her creative input which always focused on making things better for the people. Sister Mary Gerald championed women’s rights at a time and within a culture where few existed.