Community Corner

In Mother Teresa's Footsteps

More than 45 orders of religious men and women labor in Silicon Valley providing service to the community.

It all began with Paco Gomes.

The Marianist brother, an unordained Roman Catholic religious worker, lived in the Cupertino Marianist Center back in 1993. A staff member of St. Maria Goretti Church, he began reaching out to people in the drug-filled and crime-ridden eastside San Jose neighborhood near the intersection of Story Road and McLaughlin Avenue.

The 1.39-square-mile-area has 23,401 people living in it, and more than 50 percent of them are immigrants. Most are Hispanic, but an increasing number are Vietnamese and Filipino and about 18 percent are below the poverty line, said Roberta Ward, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of San Jose. The average age is 25 years.

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Then, in 1995, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in Los Gatos came to help in the neighborhood.

The women organized a weekly Mass at various locations, each time with growing attendance. Today, the service is held in the Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School's cafeteria on Lucretia Avenue with Sister Guadalupe Maria Johnston directing music and Sister Mary Becker, who's a social worker, offering adult education and coordinating religious education classes.

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According to 76-year-old Johnston, who goes by "Sister Guadalupe," nearly 400 people attend Mass services on Sundays in the cafeteria. The diocese has now purchased a church on Lucretia Avenue, about half a mile from the school, where a new parish will be established early next year.

"This is something the sisters have wanted for years," Sister Guadalupe said, mentioning the early nuns that helped transform the neighborhood such as the late Sister Martha Bendorf, and the now retired sisters Catherine Irene Thoeni and Miriam Daniel Fahey.

Sister Guadalupe said the nuns were invited to come to the neighborhood 16 years ago by former St. Maria Goretti Father Kevin Joyce. The area took on the name of "Santee Mission" because of the street in its core named Santee Drive. At first, the mission was called "Casa Guadalupana."

Sister Guadalupe was one of the first to arrive along with Sister Martha. They worked at local schools and lived in the community. However, two years after moving in, two other women joined them and that's when the work took off.

Sister Guadalupe said their effort first began as a prayer presence, meaning they weren't actively working with the Santee residents; they just lived in the neighborhood and prayed for them. Little by little, they began different programs such as the religious education classes, English-as-a-second courses, music ministry and advocating for those in the neighborhood.

The women were involved in social advocacy and civic involvement working to combat violence and drug trafficking. They worked with the organization People Acting in Community Together, or PACT, to improve the area and reduce gang affiliation.

"Things don't look so bad right now," Sister Guadalupe said, seated in her Santee Mission apartment on Tami Lee Drive, "but they were awful then. There were no lawns, no fences, every building needed painting and the alley wasn't paved. It was terrible."

Sister Mary, 68, who holds a master's degree in social work from San Francisco State University, has only been working in the Santee Mission for about a year. "The people and their willingness to educate their children in the Catholic faith, it's quite impressive. Among the adults who have taken on some responsibilities, there's an amazing capability among the people in initiative and leadership that are going to be necessary for the future of the Catholic Church, especially in the Latino community."

The Marianists

Although Gomes is now living in Hawaii, a couple of brothers and priests at the Cupertino Marianist Center provide service in the community such as giving talks, workshops and celebrating Mass at St. Joseph Church, said Marianist Brother Stanley Murakami.

Murakami, however, said most of the 26 religious men who live at the center are retired. He said many were assigned to different parochial schools where they taught.

The calling

Sister Guadalupe, who's bilingual, biliterate and bicultural, has been with the order for 54 years. While attending her first year at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles, she began thinking that "serving God" full time was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She entered the order in Southern California and has been assigned to many places having served in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Arequipa, Peru and San Jose.

"It [the call to serve as a religious woman] became stronger and I prayed more and asked for guidance," she said, adding that her mother was quite religious.

"It's been a very happy life. I'm still here and active," she said.

She said she was also inspired to join the order after having Holy Names  nuns teach her in the fifth and sixth grades and attending boarding school.

Sister Mary joined the order in 1962 and has been a "religious" woman for 49 years.

The women don't marry and don't wear a habit. Other religious orders of women do wear clothing that identifies them as nuns.

"It was a call from God to serve in this particular way," said Sister Mary, adding that she felt in her heart as a child while living in Santa Cruz and attending Catholic parochial schools that she would dedicate her life to serving others.

Sister Mary, who's the youngest of four children, has a brother who was a priest. "I always wanted to be a sister."

The convent in Los Gatos tells the community of the good works done by the sisters. Many benefactors to their cause are from Los Gatos and make donations specifying the money needs to go to the Santee Mission for outreach and the people.

Sister Guadalupe also said they receive support from the parishioners at St. Mary's Church in Los Gatos who help by volunteering to teach English and provide other services to the people of Santee such as blood tests, blood pressure and diabetes checks.


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