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 United
States of America
In May 1952, the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary planned to visit the United States to raise funds and interest in the missions; by September, they decided to open a foundation there. Thirty years earlier, Philomena Fox, a native of Philadelphia, sailed to Ireland to become one of the first members of the new congregation. In 1954, Sister Philomena returned to Philadelphia with Mother Augustine Cahill to begin a foundation. Assured of a residence in Philadelphia, they soon set off to Chicago, Boston, and Cincinnati to show their feature-length film, “Out of Darkness,” to raise funds, and to increase awareness about the missions in Africa. This trip throughout the United States was a preview of the Holy Rosary Sisters’ efforts during the next five decades of unflagging work in changing times in the Church and in the country. The Archbishop of Philadelphia asked the sisters to participate in the diocesan census-taking; they visited nearly 40,000 homes in six years, which also made their missionary activity known. New friends formed guilds to assist the sisters through fund-raising activities, invited them to speak at civic groups, and wrote about their work. Within 18 months, the first three of many postulants arrived at their door. By 1956, ten sisters were at work in the region; a nursing home in a poor parish had been committed to their care; they were teaching in high schools as a means of contact for vocations and publishing a regular mission magazine. Over the years, Holy Rosary Sisters extended their mission ministry to other parts of the United States. They opened a house in inner-city Kansas City, where sisters engaged in pastoral and community development ministries. That house closed when members returned to missions in Africa and Brazil. In 1993, feeling the call to Hispanic ministry, four sisters established a mission in Texas; three of the sisters engaged in pastoral ministry and parish administration. Sister Margaret Ledwith served as chaplain in a community hospital and subsequently became the Director of Pastoral Care, the first woman and Catholic to do so in that part of Texas. Today… From a small house in Philadelphia, to an old mansion in Villanova and its substantial replacement after a fire, and to other locations according to the varying needs of the sisters, the mission spirit of moving on and letting go has marked the U.S. region.
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By
1979, on its 25th anniversary, the U.S. region had sent 14 professed
sisters to missions in Africa and Brazil.