Jubilarians celebrate milestone anniversaries in consecrated service

PISCATAWAY — Celebrating a collective 830 years of consecrated life, 15 religious jubilarians from the diocese were honored at a Sept. 12 luncheon at the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center.
One of this year’s jubilarians, Religious Teachers Filippini Sister Dolores Toscano, who celebrated 75 years of consecrated life, took her final vows when she was 18.
“I never knew I would reach 75 years of consecrated life at 93 years old,” said Sister Dolores. “But it’s whatever God wants. He has our lives in his hands.”
Sister Dolores, who was the longest-serving religious brother or sister at the table, said God has richly blessed her in her ministry, especially in her service to the elderly and homebound.
For the last 10 years, Sister Dolores has traveled to the Religious Teachers Filippini’s motherhouse in Morristown, where she cuts hair, and gives facials and manicures to the other religious sisters, mostly in their last 80s and 90s. At 93, she still gladly makes the 20-mile trip from her residence at the St. Ann Convent in Raritan Borough to the congregation’s motherhouse.
“The homebound are full of wisdom,” she said. “They teach me.”
The jubilarians were joined at the luncheon by Bishop James F. Checchio, Msgr. Edward C. Puleo, Episcopal Vicar for Clergy and Consecrated Life, and Christian Charity Sister Anna Nguyen, Delegate for Religious.
In celebration of the jubilarians and their milestone anniversaries – 25, 50, 60, 70 and 75 years – Msgr. Puleo toasted the group.
“Serving the young, the old, the rich, the poor, males and females, you have given of yourselves – your mind, your body, your hearts and souls – to Christ and His Church,” said Msgr. Puleo. “As Christ worked with human hands, thought with a human mind and loved with a human heart, so you have been imitations of the Master.”
Each jubilarian was presented with a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in honor of the diocese’s consecration to Jesus, through the powerful intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and was asked to pray, in a special way, for the bishop as he leads a pilgrimage to Mexico from Oct. 20-24. They were also given chaplets, handmade by Sister Wilma at the Our Lady of Tenderness Hermitage in Piscataway.
Before blessing the statues and the chaplets, Bishop Checchio thanked the jubilarians for their years of consecrated life and for attending the luncheon.
“We are grateful to have you and are even more grateful for your witness, for the lives that you live and the prayers that you say for our Church,” said Bishop Checchio. “You can imagine the graces and the souls that have been affected by your witness, your evangelization, and by your work through your collective 830 years of service…it’s an honor to be present with you and I’m grateful we had this moment to, in a small way, thank you.”
Tara Smith


2019 Jubilarians

75 Years
Sister Dolores Toscano, MPF

70 Years
Sister Joan Gavron, RSM
Sister Mary Karen Horan, RSM
Sister Joyce Marie Riley, RSM
Sister Mary Edwina Rudolph, RSM

60 Years
Sister Eileen McNamee, RSM
Sister Benda Rowe, RSM
Sister Mary Stanislaus Zita, RSM
Sister Barbara Ortmann, OP
Brother Richard Leven, SC

50 Years
Sister M. Antonia Cooper, OSF
Sister M. Veronica Simpson, OSF

25 Years
Sister Lorraine Doiron, SJH
Sister Donna Marie Lasota, SJH
Sister Judith Andrews, SJH