Religious sisters in the Diocese of Cleveland and across the country will celebrate Catholic Sisters Week March 8-14. “Beacons of Hope Changing the World” is this year’s theme.
Formerly known as National Catholic Sisters Week, the observance, which began in 2019, is under the direction of Communicators for Women Religious. The organization is committed to advancing the mission of Catholic sisters.
Locally, religious congregations in the eight-county diocese will be recognizing and honoring Catholic sisters who give hope through their work. A different theme will be the focus of each day. Sisters who exemplify these themes will be highlighted.
March 9 will recognize and honor sisters who advocate for justice and peace. The work of three sisters –– Sister Catherine Pinkerton, CSJ, Sister Ellis McCulloh, HM, and Sister Erin Zubal, OSU –– will be highlighted.
The late Sister Pinkerton worked as an advocate for more than 25 years lobbying for comprehensive health care reform. Those who worked with her said every time she traveled to Congress, she spoke truth to power. Although she died in 2017, her dedication to working for justice left an imprint on millions of people who benefit from her advocacy for health care.
Sister McCulloh serves as the grassroots education and organizing coordinator for NETWORK Advocates for Justice. She has ministered alongside asylum seekers, refugees, DACA recipients and other immigrants from many countries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Guatemala, Haiti and other Central American countries. She said her ongoing work is the result of her belief that all people deserve the opportunity to apply for asylum.
Sister Zubal is chief of staff at NETWORK, the Catholic social justice lobby in Washington, D.C. She has served in many roles including as a social worker, educator and principal. She said she finds her most effective and meaningful form of prayer is through daily action.
March 10 will recognize and honor Catholic sisters who give hope in the transformation of healing.
Four religious sisters and a lay missionary who were killed will be the focus of this day: Ursuline Sisters Dorothy Kazel and Joanne Marie Mascha, Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, and Jean Donovan. Sister Mascha was killed by a troubled neighbor while she was walking in the woods bordering the Ursuline property in Pepper Pike. Sisters Kazel, Ford and Clarke and Donovan, a lay missionary, were killed on Dec. 2, 1980 during the civil war in El Salvador by Salvadoran guardsmen. The archbishop in El Salvador is seeking the canonization of more than 40 companions of St. Oscar Romero, who was killed while celebrating Mass during the civil war. The four women are among them.
March 11 will recognize and honor Catholic sisters who give hope with the hospitality, joy and love they share at the United States/Mexico border.
Two Notre Dame sisters, Sister Joyce Bates of Toledo, Ohio, and Sister Roseanna Mellert of Chardon, founded the House of Hospitality (Casa de Hospitalidad) in Laredo, Texas. In July 2024, Sister Cristina Marie Buczkowski of California joined their work. She is employed by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Laredo and works at La Frontera Respite Center.
Casa de Hospitalidad provides lodging, transportation and some meals for sisters, associates, young adults and others who want to volunteer with the respite center for migrants of the Catholic Charities Diocese of Loredo. The facility consists of seven bedrooms to accommodate volunteers.
March 12 will recognize and honors Catholic sisters who give hope by choosing to treat strangers as family.
Sister Catherine Walsh, CSA, and Sister Dorothy Pagosa, SSJ-TOSJ, are among the examples of this ministry.
Sister Walsh’s work has taken her from Cleveland’s inner city during the civil rights movement of the 1960s to El Salvador in the 1990s and back to Akron, where she advocated for immigrants and refugees who were arriving from Mexico, Central and South America. She served as a pastoral minister to the Hispanic community, later co-founding the Catholic Worker House.
Sister Pagosa is a member of the leadership team of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis. She has worked in social justice for more than 40 years on issues of unhoused people, School of the Americas and immigration. For 33 years, she was a member of the 8thDay Center for Justice, where she worked on systemic change.
March 13 will recognize Sister Dorothy Strang, SNDdeN, a symbol of resistance and commitment to social and environmental justice. Sister Strang worked in the Amazon showing people it was possible to balance production and preservation. She was killed in 2005 and 20 years later, her legacy remains. Her death became a call to action, exposing the risks faced by those trying to protect the Amazon.
March 14 will honor and recognize two Catholic sisters who give hope in their work to end human trafficking, Sister Ann Victory, HM, and Sister Cecilia Liberatore, SND.
Sister Victory serves as a member of the Sisters of the Humility of Mary leadership team. For 32 years she ministered in health care, often seeing the effects caused by not addressing the root causes of human trafficking. She has been in the forefront of that work since the 2007 founding of the Collaborative to End Human Trafficking in Cleveland. During her time with the collaborative, she has served in many roles. Currently, she is a volunteer speaker. She also was a founding member of the U.S Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking, now known as the Alliance to End Human Trafficking. She served as board president 2016-2020. Sister Victory also worked with Talitha Kum, the International Network of Consecrated Life Against Human Trafficking. Last year, she was one of three laureates of the Sisters’ Anti-Trafficking Award by Arise, USIG and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. She received the Servant Leadership Award.
Sister Liberatore was drawn to her work addressing human trafficking after witnessing a presentation on global trafficking in Rome in 2004. She learned trafficking was going on in Northeast Ohio and she felt called to get involved in the fight. She ministered on the streets for women and young girls who were being trafficked in Greater Cleveland. She became active in the Collaborative to End Human Trafficking and worked with Sister Victory. Sister Liberatore knew the importance of developing relationships to build a network of law enforcement agencies, lawyers, judges, social workers and health care workers to help the women and girls being trafficked and to offer hope for them. She said she felt honored to walk with the victims and to be present in their most broken times and to be trusted. She said there is always hope to build a strong community that can help victims find healing, restoration of dignity and empowerment.
Catholic Sisters Week began in 2015 as a part of National Women’s History Month. Now it is an official component of the month. It was authorized by Molly Murphy MacGregor, co-founder of National Women’s History Project, who was educated and deeply influenced by Catholic sisters. In 1981, Women’s History Month launched as a single week. By 1987, U.S. Congress formally expanded it to the full month of March.
Click here to learn more about Catholic Sisters Week.