When I think of my life and the incredible things I’ve experienced, I say ‘who has this life?’ It’s been that rich.”
Energetic. Action-oriented. A dreamer with deep hope and a trust in God’s goodness.
Those qualities have served well Sister Annie and the people she ministered to since she became a Sister of St. Francis in Millvale, Pennsylvania. Now she will use those assets to benefit her sisters in community as general minister.
In the 45 years between entrance and leadership installation, Sister Annie says she’s had “an incredible journey.”
“When I think of my life and the incredible things I’ve experienced, I say ‘who has this life?’ It’s been that rich.”
She wanted to be a nurse, but because she had several education credits, leadership directed that she earn her education degree. She started teaching in Pittsburgh but when the opportunity arose to do an ‘in country mission,’ she volunteered, joining two other sisters in Slaton, Texas.
“It was cotton farm country,” Sister Annie recalls. “We taught school, and I loved it. In the summer I went to Puerto Rico to work with our sisters there.”
Three years after she returned to Pittsburgh, she ministered at a hospital the sisters founded in 1865. She earned a master’s degree in hospital administration at St. Louis University and rose from vice president to chief operating officer. Challenged by financial issues and a changing Pittsburgh healthcare scene, the hospital closed in 2002, leaving Sister Annie to work with attorneys for a year. When leadership asked what she wanted next, she asked for a pilgrimage to Assisi.
“It was life-changing,” she said. “When I came back, I asked permission to study Franciscanism.” When the program that organized her trip asked her to join the staff, she earned her degree in Franciscan Studies at St. Bonaventure University and went on the road.
“Pilgrimage Programs took me all over the world. It took me to Australia, Ireland, France and Germany. It took me to Italy, Prague and Mexico. Then there were retreats throughout the U.S. and in Hong Kong,” she says. Family issues in 2012 convinced her it was time to stay stateside; a priest friend asked her to be a pastoral associate for a parish near Pittsburgh.
“I hadn’t a clue what a pastoral associate did, but something moved me to say OK,” Sister Annie says. She led the merger of seven parishes into one, created a single faith formation program from four, and consolidated and expanded parish outreach programs including a food pantry, holiday gift donations and a partnership with Our Hearts to Your Soles, which works with Red Wing Shoes, for a socks and shoe giveaway. Seven years later, she, like St. Francis, has done what was hers to do. “I know the parish is in good hands and it’s time for me to let go,” she says.
Her most significant challenge now is “just getting to know the playing field.”
“What are the many things leadership has to do? I know about the care of the sisters, but what are all those other meetings about? What are the leadership elements?” Sister Annie does not seem daunted, however.
“It’s kind of like going into the hospital the first time — what do I do now? OK, I’ll learn. Going into parish ministry — OK, I’ll learn. I’ve never been one to say, ‘no I can’t.’ And I’ve asked people to pray for me.”
