By Gary Topping–
Of all the religious orders who have ministered in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, the Holy Cross Sisters have been by far the most numerous. Although they have served mostly as teachers and administrators of schools and hospitals, they have done a wide variety of other things as well. I did a formal interview with one of them, Sr. Patricia Riley, in 2009, and when I asked her what the charism, or the function, of the Holy Cross order was, her answer astonished me. “We meet the needs of the Church,” she replied. I thought, “Wow, that’s a pretty big order.” But as she went on to tell me about her life and ministry, I learned that that’s exactly what she had done.
When Bishop William K. Weigand took over the diocese in 1980, he was well aware of the difficult circumstances within which he and his priests were going to be ministering. He himself had been born in rural eastern Oregon, grown up in rural eastern Washington, and ministered in rural Idaho. He knew very well how isolated Catholics could feel in those rural areas where pastoral care was infrequent and rudimentary. So at one point in about 1982 he called in Sr. Patty and Sr. Eileen Dewsnup, another Holy Cross sister, and told them he wanted them to go to Cedar City and work among Catholics in that part of the diocese, from Kanab to St. George and as far north as Richfield.
“What do you want us to do”? they asked.
“I don’t actually know,” he replied. “Why don’t you just go down there and talk to the people and do whatever they say they need”?
So they took up residence in a mobile home on the grounds of Christ the King parish in Cedar City and took up a wandering ministry among those farflung parishes and missions. Over time, because they were always on the road, they became known as the “Gypsy Sisters.”
What did they do? They met needs. They taught religious education and catechism classes. Sr. Eileen was a musician, so they developed liturgy and music programs. They ran book clubs, introducing people to current Catholic literature. They taught Bible study classes. And I’m sure that doesn’t exhaust the list. In short, the Gypsy Sisters extended the ministerial reach of the few priests who were serving that part of the diocese, so that those rural Catholics received a wide range of pastoral care not dissimilar to what they might have gotten in one of our urban parishes.
It was a beautiful ministry, and it was so appreciated and so vital that when Srs. Patty and Eileen moved on to other things after a few years, they were replaced by other members of their order who kept the ministry alive.
The story, though, does not have a happy ending. Vocations to the Holy Cross order have dwindled to nothing in this country. Although young women from other parts of the world continue to accept calls to the order, they come here for their training, but return home for their ministries. When Sr. Yvonne Hatt retired from Cedar City earlier this year and moved to California, the Holy Cross order had no one else whom they could send to replace her. The intrepid Gypsy Sisters are no more.
