Current Ministry Location: Maryknoll Sisters Center-Maryknoll, NY
Sister Charlotte was born November 11th, 1928 to Loretta F. (Drushler) Hobler and John G. Hobler in Baltimore, MD. She had 2 older brothers.
Sister Charlotte graduated in 1946 from the Institute of Notre Dame High School in Baltimore and entered the Congregation in 1947 at their novitiate in Valley Park, MO. She pronounced First Vows May 8th, 1950 in Valley Park and Final Vows on the same day in 1953 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY. In 1953, she received her first assignment to St. Bernard’s Grade School in St. Louis, MO; a staff of three Sisters covered the needs of all eight grades in a parish which was diminishing as a superhighway was being routed through it. Summer sessions were spent attending the University Of Notre Dame, Indiana, for a five year theology program.
During that time, Charlotte was assigned to join the Maryknoll Sisters Formation team at Topsfield, MA, and spent the following nine years living there and at the Center in NY teaching in either of the Novitiate sites.
She received her first overseas assignment to the Philippines in 1965. At Maryknoll College in Quezon City she taught and coordinated the philosophy and theology sections and later joined the Sisters Formation Institute in Manila teaching New Testament.
Sister Charlotte began her first furlough (renewal program) in 1972. This included studying Nursing and Clinical Pastoral Education. That time also allowed for some volunteer time spent in telephone crisis counseling. She returned to the Maryknoll Center in 1976 and obtained a license to practice nursing in the State of New York. The congregations Personnel department director invited her to do nursing at our Bethany convent, and from that year until the move into the Sisters’ Nursing Home in 1978, Charlotte continued giving nursing care to our community. She was then Director of Nursing care until 1981.
Responding to a request for nurses from the National Council of Churches for medical personnel to send to Beirut, Lebanon, Sister Charlotte , accepted the invitation to a three-month program; being assigned to a Palestinian Hospital in west Beirut. It had been badly damaged by recent bombing from the coast.
In 1983, Sister Charlotte was invited to the Guatemala Region to join Sisters in the Department of the Petén. This was a tropical, rural area; the program was opened to women. The Sisters packed a jeep with hammocks and teaching materials, and visited women gathered in groups of thirty or so at village centers for six-day sharing sessions. There were opportunities to share Gospel values, help promote health in the home and encourage leadership among women. When this ministry was turned over to Maryknoll Lay Missioners in 1994, Sister Charlotte returned for Mission Service at the Center. Later, she returned to Guatemala, living in both central Guatemala and the southwestern area of San Marcos, working on health education in Aids, in the Sisters’ Health Clinic and promoting leadership among women
In 2007, after another time of Mission Service at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY Sisters Charlotte was asked to replace a Sister in Baltimore who was in need of medical care at the Center. Becoming members of the Eastern U.S. Region was an opportunity to understand mission USA and to meet other religious from the Archdiocese of Baltimore who rounded out an education that started with Vatican II.
In 2015, Sister Charlotte completed the residence in Baltimore and returned to Maryknoll Sisters Center in NY where she continues to reside and serves in the Volunteer Services Office.