Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Taunton, Massachusetts. May father, Robert, was a construction laborer and my mother, Shirley, was a nursing aide. I had five siblings. We had a very simple family life. We all went to Fr. Jim Nunes, M.S.public schools and were involved in Catholic Religious Education in Sacred Heart Parish, in the Weir Section of Taunton.
How did you first hear about La Salette?
Since we were a half-hour drive from the Attleboro Shrine, we came regularly to the Christmas Festival of Lights since I was a youngster. My first contact with the La Salette Missionaries was during a Young Adult Retreat Program called Emmaus. When I was at the University of Massachusetts at North Dartmouth, and was involved in my undergraduate studies in marketing, many of the retreat leaders of the Emmaus program were affiliated with the La Salette Retreat House in Attleboro.
After the Emmaus Retreat, they invited me to join them as a Family Retreat Counselor at the Retreat House, and I volunteered. I worked with the yearly Family Labor Day Festival – about five days of booths, food and games for the hundreds of families that came day-to-day. That’s where I met my first La Salette, newly ordained Fr. Ted Brown, part of the retreat center staff.
Through all my involvement there at La Salette and after graduating from the University, I began being involved in the La Salette Formation process, exploring the possibility of entering the community.
What experiences in ministry have you had?
After Ordination in June of 1991, I served a few years at Our Lady of the Cape Parish, two years at the Enfield Shrine, and then began my involvement in the health care ministry in Long Island, New York at Catholic Charities, in their HIV/AIDS Day Treatment Center. In the early 1990s this ministry involved forming a safe and welcoming environment for our clients: sometimes 18-20 people a day. Our community was ethnically and religiously diverse, but a very mutually supportive community. Jamaica Hospital Medical Center,
Jamaica, Queens, NYI then served as chaplain for a catholic visiting nurse program and then moved to Queens, NY, and served for 14 years as Chaplain for Jamaica Hospital Medical Center A-Level One Trauma Center in Jamaica, Queens, NY. I was ministering to 450 patients and provided spiritual and a sacramental care to a wide range and diverse network of religious and ethnic populations. I was the sole Staff Chaplain for this facility and fortunately lived next door to the hospital for fourteen years.
While I was there at the trauma center, our facility became certified as a Palliative Care and Hospice Center. I found this ministry very exciting, filled with drama and a true privilege to accompany families through the Palliative and Hospice aspects of health care. It was a unique privilege to help people meet the end of their life with dignity and compassion.
I was also working with them and their families make end-of-life decisions, and deal with the emotional and spiritual aspects of life and death. Now I am in the Metropolitan Boston area in Health Care, continuing my ministry with several hospitals.
My ministry experiences have taught me that life is a gift and I’ve learned what’s important and most meaningful by ministering in these intense, beautiful and spiritual encounters. And, more personally, I have had multiple physical health issues all my life and this makes me more aware and sensitive to the health care needs of others. In brief, I’ve learned to eat dessert first and not dwell on the petty situations in life.
How do see your call to this ministry as a ministry of reconciliation?
It strikes me that Mary was present to the two children and created a safe and welcoming environment for them, so that they could accept and eventually proclaim her message. Reconciliation happens in my ministry when people need to deal with their broken relationships, life’s regrets and dreams unfulfilled.
Also I’ve helped people to celebrate and rejoice in life well lived as well as teach family members that they too can experience a peaceful and dignified death when their time comes. Death is ultimately a transition, we believe in faith, into the merciful embrace of God.
Panoramic view of the Holy Mountain of La Salette in France surrounded by a sea of clouds