Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee
On Sunday, after the 9 a.m. radio Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, I hustled down to St. Patrick Church in Kankakee, Illinois for a 1 p.m. Mass celebrating the anniversary of the religious life of my former major seminary patristic teacher, fellow faculty member at St. Mary of the Lake and dear friend, Sr. Agnes Cunningham, SSCM (Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary). It was the 75th anniversary of her first profession. If you enter at 18, and it’s 75 years later – well, you do the math. This was very significant. We were blessed to have Sr. Agnes on the faculty as one of the most influential female religious in the Church. Her intellectual competence, deep spirituality and commitment to the Church was a model for all of us studying for the priesthood.
Years later, I had the privilege of being a faculty member with her. An example of the respect that fellow faculty members held for Sr. Agnes was expressed by Fr. Patrick Boyle, S.J. He jokingly stated that, as faculty members, we should never fly on the same airplane with Sr. Agnes because if the plane crashed and the authorities decided to start a cause for canonization, it should be obvious that the declaration from the congregation would state, “St. Agnes Cunningham and Companions.”
Her theological area was Patristics – this is the study of the Church Fathers, who are privileged witnesses of the apostolic tradition (St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Basil, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome, just to name a few). There was one incident when Sr. Agnes was lecturing on the Church Fathers. St. Jerome, who could be very prickly, was termed by his contemporaries to be “ugly and irascible.” When she said this, she turned to me and, in front of my classmates, said, “Of course, not our Jerome,” which evoked the guffaws.
Patristics is an extremely important area of theological thinking. Some evangelicals have converted to the Roman Catholic faith after studying the Church Fathers. Our own Fr. John Gibson, chaplain at Catholic Memorial High School and associate pastor of St. Mary’s Visitation Parish in Elm Grove, received his STL (Ecclesiastical Masters) in Patristic Theology.
Women religious have been, and continue to be, a significant element in the life of the Church. I have heard it said that, next to family, the most influential persons in the generation of vocations were the religious in our schools. I would be the first to tell you that it wasn’t the priests who promoted and preserved my vocation, but the religious sisters. The affection for the sisters that has been generated in our past history through parishes and schools is undeniable. Movies have captured that affection in roles played by Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary’s, and Rosalind Russell in The Trouble with Angels.
My quasi-law partner, Mr. Walter Maranda, had a sixth-grade teacher, Sr. Stanisak. His affection for her throughout his life was always evident. His wife, Kay, often joked that if she couldn’t get Walter to do something, she would threaten to call Sister, and Walter would acquiesce immediately. This was the ploy she would use on Walter well into his 70s. Sr. Stanisak lived into her late 80s, and was always treated as a member of the family.
Most of us who were in Catholic schools or parishes in the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s usually have a favorite religious sister who encouraged, empowered or supported us in our dreams. They helped us to understand that alone, we can do nothing, but with God, all things were possible. They reminded us that it all begins with God’s love for us, and continues as we, in turn, LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
Note: This blog originally appeared as the August 7, 2018 "Love One Another" email sent to Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki. If you are interested in signing up for these email messages, please click here.