Fanning a small spark into a flaming fire   by Sister Madeline Therese Wilhoit, CSC

"Join Holy Cross and see the world!"

These words, spoken to me by Sister Mary Helen years ago when I was in the seventh grade, caught my attention and sparked a hope in my heart to join Holy Cross. Then Sister Francelia, another Sister of the Holy Cross home from her mission in East Pakistan (today Bangladesh), came to visit my class at St. Didacus, and her words and witness to the church's missionary activity flamed that yearning to follow in her footsteps.

Throughout high school, my teachers, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, added fuel to my desire to serve God as a foreign missionary. Although the St. Joseph sisters captured my attention, as graduation approached I knew that Holy Cross was to be my destination. I was brought up in a good Catholic family where the church was an important part of our lives. My mother had gone to Saint Mary's in Notre Dame, Indiana, and through the years had kept in contact with the sisters she appreciated so much. Saint Mary's and Holy Cross were already a part of our family. So in 1947, with graduation behind me, my mother and I set out for Saint Mary's where, after visits with relatives in Iowa, I entered the candidacy program for the Sisters of the Holy Cross.

I honestly did not enter Holy Cross to do any particular ministry but to be a religious, answering a call to follow Jesus in his life, death and resurrection, reaching out to spread the good news of his presence and action in the world. My heart did cherish a deep desire to be a missionary though, especially to Bangladesh.

A few months before final profession, when I was about to complete three years of teaching in Salt Lake City, Utah, Mother Rose Elizabeth, superior general, asked me if I wished to go to Bangladesh after final profession. Spontaneously, I answered, "Yes." There was a condition, however. Mother Rose Elizabeth was a friend of my mother and she asked me to write to my mother and ask if she and my father minded my going out of the country. Their response was a strong, "We do not want her to leave the country!" So I missed that chance. However, on the day that our group went into retreat before the profession ceremony, a letter came from my father.

1953 – Sister Madeline Therese at her final profession of vows

 
My father said that he and my mother had reflected on my desire and felt that if it was God's will that I go, they would not put anything in the way. I rushed over to Mother Rose Elizabeth with the letter, but it was too late. Two sisters were already assigned to go in the fall. Mother Rose Elizabeth could only say that she would try to get me there before she went out of office.

Several years passed and each year my name was not on the assignment list for foreign service. Then, at the end of one summer session when I was working on my chemistry degree, I received word that I was assigned to go to the missions after I completed my bachelor's degree at Saint Mary's College. My dream and desire were on the road to fulfillment and my eagerness to spread the good news abroad fanned a small spark into a flaming fire – I wanted to follow Jesus in his life and minister to people of all ethnic backgrounds. My heart continued to be intent on Bangladesh, but I learned the summer before I expected to leave that I was being assigned to Brazil. During the previous year Sister Joan of Arc had been helping me with Bengali, but now I needed to learn Portuguese!

In the company of Mother Kathryn Marie, superior general, and Sister Basil Anthony, her secretary, I left for São Paulo, Brazil, to join the Holy Cross community there. I was assigned to be a sponsor for the second-year ginasio (high school) class and to teach religion and English, all with Portuguese as the basic language. Fortunately, a good portion of my day was spent studying Portuguese. Sister Olivette, director of the school at Vila Betânia, claimed that nothing was impossible for those who put their hearts and minds to accomplish whatever task was given to them.

Those years of teaching were very rewarding. Then Sister Olivette asked Sister Eleanor Snyder and me to open a house and ministry in nearby Cidade Dutra, a parish staffed by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Each morning Sister Eleanor and I got the catechetical program going and in the afternoon we drove into the city to study in the two-year program in pastoral theology. After classes we drove back to Cidade Dutra for soup and bread before meeting with our adult circles in the evening. Vatican II Council was in session then and we profited by every document that came out of it. We had the great fortune to study in groups each document as it was released and to be in the initial stages of establishing small Christian communities. That time of church renewal powerfully challenged each of us.

The time came, however, when Sister Aline Marie, superior of the area, asked for a volunteer to replace Sister Anna Maria in Paraná, Brazil. My immediate thought was, "Not me, Lord!" It was too early to leave the work begun in Cidade Dutra. But the day came when the Lord had his way, and I realized that I had to offer. After a crash course in leadership training for the lay people in my small Christian communities, I turned my work over to them and my Oblate teammate and I headed for Paraná.

1988 – Sister Madeline Therese in Takoradi with the first West African sister, Margaret Mary Nimo

In Telêmaco Borba, Paraná, I set up a program to address the needs of the poor in this newly established town where ex-factory workers from the Klabin Paper Factory in Harmonia were pouring in after loosing their jobs. The mayor's wife, Giomar Ribas, and I visited businesses along the town's main street asking the owners not to give handouts to the poor, but to send them to us together with their own donations. We would assess the needs and offer assistance to the most needy. Each day we collected leftover bones and pig heads from the meat markets to make soup.

In 1973 I was asked to take Sister Carmen's place as mission coordinator for the Congregation at Saint Mary's. For the next six years I ministeed to our sisters in all our missions outside the United States, visiting them and addressing their needs. In addition, I gave mission talks to all our missions, schools and parishes in the United States.

At the end of this ministry I was permitted to participate in a religious renewal program in Rome, the ARC Program. Together with religious from about 30 different countries, I studied, prayed, toured and enjoyed an enriching year of renewal, preparing myself to return to Brazil.

While waiting for my documents to return to Brazil, I was given the opportunity to go to Thailand to work with the Cambodian refugees, where many Holy Cross sisters had already gone for short-term assignments. I was to coordinate and direct the unaccompanied minors' camp within the larger Khao-I-Dang Refugee Camp near the town of Aranyapathet, Thailand. There were 1,200 children under 18 years of age, gathered in groups of 10, with a Cambodian couple in charge of each group. With my Cambodian staff we coordinated the children's educational, health and recreational programs, while collaborating with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to find relatives for the children. At the end of my three months there, I was asked to direct the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Social Services' Office in Bangkok until a permanent director arrived. This meant working with all the camps under the auspices of CRS. Each day I grew even more appreciative of the richness of different cultures and their religious beliefs. In that part of the world most people were Buddhists; the Christian community was small.

From Thailand I returned to Brazil for two years and worked under the direction of an American Redemptorist bishop who wanted me to help him begin work with the almost one million street children of São Paulo. Establishing a training program for these children went slowly but surely, and after two years I was able to turn the work over to a Brazilian congregation. That experience with the children touched my heart deeply. 

Lebanon was my next venture. Sister Francis Bernard, regional superior for the Apostolate Abroad, asked me if I wanted to go. Joseph Curtin, director of CRS there, asked if I might go to help out. I had worked with him in Thailand. Sister asked me if I could take the war! I had to respond that I did not know, having never been in a war before, but I wanted to try.
	1986 – Catholic Relief Services team member Susan O'Connor with Sister Madeline Therese in Jerusalem

So off I went to Beirut and the fighting. My work was to administer an American grant for the restoration of damaged buildings in the country, especially schools, orphanages, hospitals and homes for the disabled. How grateful I was for my vocation to Holy Cross because I was able to join the efforts to help the needy, and was available to perform this ministry in many countries. I felt that I was following in the spirit of St. Paul, going from place to place, witnessing to Christ's saving action among his people through my life and ministry. I was free to do so with the explicit support of my Holy Cross congregation. And, as a woman religious, I was recognized by the Muslims and Druse as a woman who had dedicated her life to God. This they respected.

This interesting and challenging time in my life ended with the kidnapping of my co-worker, Father Lawrence Jenco, a Servite priest who was the director of CRS in Beirut. We were the last remaining Americans in the country working in CRS. With his disappearance, I took over as director of CRS for about a month when I was advised to take a break and return to the United States. Thinking that I would return, I said no "good-byes," nor closed my apartment. Upon arriving in New York, I was told that I would not be permitted to return – the danger was too great. (Thankfully, Father Lawrence was eventually released.)

1986 – Sister's students from West Bank towns destroyed by Israel

So I came back to Saint Mary's wondering what was next. The providence of God was powerfully at work and soon I was on my way to Israel, to Mater Ecclesiae Center in Tiberias. Perhaps in Jerusalem, CRS would have an opening for me. It did. I joined a team with a physical therapist, a nurse and a social worker to implement an American grant to address the needs of handicapped/disabled children, infants through age 6, among the Palestinians on the West Bank. We went into the towns and villages on the West Bank and Gaza to help families work with their developmentally challenged children. On weekends we visited the holy places in Jerusalem and enjoyed the company of our Holy Cross community in Tiberias. This was another rich experience of living and working with people of different cultures and religious beliefs. As in Lebanon, the majority of the people in Jerusalem and the West Bank were Muslims and Druse.

After a little more than a year there, I was asked to seriously consider going to Ghana, West Africa, where personnel was needed. While I wanted to stay in the Holy Land, I realized that I had an opportunity to practice my vow of obedience. Without commanding me to go, I knew that my superior wanted me to go, and this was for the good of the Holy Cross community there. So I went and spent 14 wonderful years there directing the religious education department in the Takoradi/Sekondi diocese. At the same time, I was able to collaborate with other religious in the Ghana Conference of Religious, serving as president and then executive secretary. Our formation program was beginning there also, and I had the privilege of accompanying our first Ghanaian vocation through her first two years in formation to Holy Cross.

Some health problems then necessitated my return to the United States and instead of returning to Ghana, I was asked if I would direct the Office of International Services at Saint Mary's. While hoping to return to Africa before too long, I have found that being at Saint Mary's has been a special grace – a time to reflect on so many years of grace-filled experiences of giving and receiving from so many people of different cultures and religious traditions. My initial hope and expectation when I entered Holy Cross has been more than fulfilled.

Little did I know sitting at my desk in that seventh grade classroom that one day I could honestly say that I have seen the world, experienced its loving people, and for more than 55 years have lived the life of a Holy Cross sister – a life of walking with the Lord in communities of friendship, prayer and service to God's people in need. It has been an exciting life in its diversity of assignments, works and living situations. For me it has been living our Holy Cross charism given to us by our founder, Father Basil Moreau. For my life, I say, "Thank you!"

1996 – Sister Madeline Therese holds little Madeline Therese, daughter of co-worker John Essuman, with John's family in Takoradi, Ghana.