Maryknoll Sisters

Sister Lourdes Fernandez, M.M. celebrated her 50^th Golden Jubilee on Sunday, September 24 in the Main Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center..

Sister Lourdes was born and raised in Ramon, Isabela of Northeast Luzon in the Philippines.   She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Saint Rita’s College in Manila, Philippines.  Before entering the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation in 1967, she was a teacher for two years in the Philippines at La Salette Elementary School and at the Maryknoll Grade School.

Sister Lourdes’s first mission assignment was in Hawaii, where she taught grade school at Saint Ann’s School in Kaneohe from 1969-1971. She was then assigned to Hong Kong in 1971, where she was a teacher for special needs students at Meng Tak School. From 1974-1985, she served as the Co-Founder and Director of the Workers Formation Program for industrial workers at the Kwun Tong Pastoral Center in Hong Kong. The program offered social, cultural, educational and spiritual services to youth in the workforce. From 1986-1991, she was a teacher at the Asian Workers Exchange in Hong Kong.

In 1991, Sister Lourdes returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center in the U.S. and worked as a journalist, photographer, graphic artist and filmmaker in the Maryknoll Sisters Communications Office until 1994. In 1995, she was assigned to Albania to do pastoral work, where she made home visits to families in need.

In 2014, Sister Lourdes was assigned to the Vocation Ministry Team of the Congregation based in the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary in Baguio City, Philippines. Today, she still serves on the Vocation Ministry Team.

“I can say my Golden Jubilee is truly a Celebration of God’s Love.”-Sister Lourdes Fernandez

Sister Margaret Rose Ibe, M.M.  celebrated her 50^th Golden Jubilee on Sunday, September 24 in the Main Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.

Sister Margaret Rose  was born in Queens, New York in 1942.  She entered the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation in 1967. She worked at the Maryknoll Sisters Center from 1969-1972, in the treasury department, local bursar’s office, and on the switchboard; while studying for her Bachelor’s Degree in Adult Education, which she received from Mary Rogers College in Maryknoll, New York in 1972.

Sister Margaret Rose’s first foreign mission assignment was to Indonesia in 1972. After language study in Bandung, she taught short courses on home economics and budgeting in 1972. She then served as a staff member at KUPERDA, an organization for the education of village leaders, from 1974-1976.

She then returned to New York, where she completed her year of reflection, earning a Master of Arts Degree in Religious Studies from the Maryknoll Graduate School of Theology in 1977.  Following graduation, Sister Margaret Rose became involved in literacy training and human rights group work and was a staff member of the Brazilian Bishops Program of International Study Days. She also worked several days a week at an outreach program sponsored by the Department of Community Medicine at Saint Vincent’s Hospital, in New York City.

In 1978, Sister Margaret Rose received her second foreign mission assignment to Peru. Following six months of language study in Cochabamba, she began work at the Ciudad de Dios Parish in Lima, where she worked in adult education and community organization with women. She also co-founded and worked on the Vicariate Commission of Human Rights for 18 years, until the vicariate was made into the Diocese of Lurin. At that time, she was named Director of the Diocesan Human Dignity Commission. The Commission operates four centers of justice for low- or no-income people, with a total of ten legal offices and four resolutions of conflict offices. They also have a multidisciplinary education team that gives workshops in leadership training for leaders in 47 parishes of the diocese. The training topics include: ethics and values, children’s and women’s rights, adolescent and women’s issues, and topics related to the family.

Sister Margaret Rose has worked in Peru since 1978 where she is still on mission today.  She was involved with human rights advocacy on the local, metropolitan and national levels, both church and civic. She has been actively involved in the “building of the city of God” in the Lurin Diocese on the southern outskirts of Lima.

Sister Teresita Perez celebrated her 50^th Golden Jubilee on Sunday, September 24 in the Main Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.

Sister Teresita was born in Altavas in the province of Aklan in the Philippines. She grew up in Makati City, Philippines and was the only girl among seven brothers. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines. In 1967, she entered the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation from the Archdiocese of Manila.

She was assigned to Peru in 1969, where she made her First Profession of Vows in 1970 in Arequipa and her Final Vows in the same city in 1975.  In Arequipa, Lima and Tacna, her ministries varied from secondary teaching, parish work among families, pastoral leadership training and youth ministry to hospital chaplaincy. She founded and coordinated hospital Eucharistic ministers in Lima as well as coordinating the Health Commission of the Conference of Religious.

After 24 years as a missioner in Peru, Sister Teresita was assigned to the Philippines in 1993, where she shared the richness of her mission experiences as well as learned about all that had changed in her absence. At Miriam College (formerly Maryknoll College), she taught Theology and Spanish and organized the Campus Ministry Office of the Higher Education Unit, serving 2,200 students. She facilitated retreats to faculty, students and staff, mentored the Liturgy Committee and incorporated liturgical dance in special celebrations.

In 1995, on World Youth Day in Manila, Philippines she coordinated the Catechetical Section, the liturgical celebrations and the thematic event; where she taught the Universal Dances of Peace to 2,000 foreign and local delegates meeting there for 3 full days. In the summer months, she was a member of the group that served the adoptive community of Miriam College in its literacy program among the indigenous peoples in Tanay, Rizal.

At the invitation of Bishop Paul Gwong from Myanmar (Burma), Sister Teresita gave a month-long workshop, “Teaching English as a Second Language” to 30 high school teachers.

Presently, she resides at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, New York where she remains an active volunteer for the local community.  She volunteers as a bi-lingual interpreter at Brookside Elementary School and at Maryknoll Neighbors Link (a local immigration program). She also volunteers at the Ossining Library in their “Reading Buddies Program” to help people who need to improve their reading skills.