What Really Matters EnduresFebruary 17, 2025

What Really Matters Endures

As an adolescent, I struggled as I explored choices for my future. I wanted to know clearly what God’s Will might be in my life. (Talk about Mission Impossible!) Answering this question was more than puzzling. What I did know was the experiences that had mattered to me to that point: playing school with neighborhood friends, taking long walks in the woods near our home, babysitting for young families, reading, flower arranging,gardening and learning skills of knitting, sewing as well as getting together socially with friends. I liked being with people, but I also valued personal quiet time and went with my Father to Gesu for monthly holy hours or rode my bike to Mass on Saturdays. School was very important to me intellectually, personally, psychologically and spiritually as I attended Catholic schools from Kindergarten through 12th grade. All of these experiences reinforced a desire to make a difference that was greater than my individual efforts by supporting people in some way and doing this with others. At the same time, there was the persistent call to enter religious life: first when I was in elementary school, resisted when I was beginning high school, and finally answered early in my senior year.

The questions about God’s Will remained, but they were usually addressed through the decisions of religious Superiors who determined my college major, whether I would teach elementary or secondary school, as well as the schools where I would teach. As in all of our lives, there were constantly new experiences that asked me to discover a deeper meaning to all that I was doing. To me, it mattered very much that each person that I encountered would be supported to become the person God created them to be, that I realized joy in the personal growth of others. These growth experiences, particularly in the lives of students, were often the result of their participation in the Sophomore Service Program, the first U.S. released time opportunity for high school students to provide service in the broader community to individuals in need, whether disabled youngsters, or the confined elderly, or students at Urban Community School, or the impoverished in the central city. etc. I also was deeply touched by groups of students who organized school-wide Focus Days in order to put into action their commitment to values of Human Dignity, Quality of Life and Social Justice through service activities in the Cleveland community.

It was during my 16 years at Villa Angela Academy that I experienced a much greater challenge to the meaning of my life and the life I shared with my Ursuline Sisters. In December of 1980, the murder of Sister Dorothy Kazel in El Salvador with the other three missionaries was traumatic. Dorothy had entered the convent a year ahead of me and we shared seven years of the same formation program. God had called her to be a martyr. Her witness led to a great deal of soul-searching and then to action. The Ursuline Sisters took a corporate stand in opposition to the School of the Americas/WHINSEC because the military who had authorized the killing of the four women had been trained by the United States at Fort Benning, Georgia. The bullets they used were American bullets. We wanted the school closed and the training ended. Many of us protested and traveled to Fort Benning annually to amplify the message.

Future losses occurred closer to home. Several years later, one of our Sisters was killed when she crossed Mayfield Road near St. Clare Parish. The response of our leadership was immediate; forgiveness was extendedto the woman who drove the car that struck Sister Lucina. That act of compassion made a difference in her life.

It was in 1995 while I was in ministry at Ursuline College, that Sister Joanne Marie Masha was strangled and raped not far from the Ursuline community property. Again, our community leadership witnessed to the Ursuline Sisters’ unwavering value of each person’s life. As a community we took a corporate stand against the Death Penalty before, during and after the trial of her assailant. He received a life sentence. As a consequence of Sister Joanne Marie’s death, an annual recognition of the women in Cleveland who have lost their lives in violence was begun: Women’s Watch.

When I turned 75, I “retired” from active ministry yet the desire to know and respond to God’s Will for me continues. In many ways, I have come to know that the Holy Spirit provides the situations, experiences, people and Gospel message that will call me forward. The Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy nudge me to action personally every day. But what about being a part of something greater than myself? What about making a larger difference with others? During our Community meeting last Saturday, these questions were answered. We remembered our three Sisters lost to us by violence and our desire for healing. In a time of political retribution, we seek to support those who seek forgiveness and reconciliation. As a Community we are renewing our efforts to end the Death Penalty in the United States. This is today’s call to act with greater purpose and meaning. It is a call to be about something much greater than ourselves. We are inviting our families, colleagues and friends to collaborate with us. Will you join us? It matters!

Sister Anne Marie Diederich