Sister Loretta Harriman will celebrate her 60th year with Maryknoll.
BY GAYLA CAWLEY
LYNN — Sister Loretta Harriman, a St. Mary’s Girls High School graduate, will celebrate her 60th year as a Maryknoll Sister this year.
The Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic is an order of nuns founded in 1912. They describe themselves as the first U.S.-based congregation of Roman Catholic women dedicated to a foreign mission.
Sister Loretta is currently teaching in the Philippines, where she teaches three months each year at St. Mary’s Theologate in Ozamiz City, according to information provided by the Maryknoll Sisters.
Born in North Conway, N.H., she grew up in Massachusetts, attending St. Mary’s in Lynn and graduating in 1956. She entered Maryknoll in 1956, from St. Mary’s Parish in Lynn and received the religious name Sister Loretta Paul.
When she is not in the Philippines, Sister Loretta continues her service work by volunteering as a receptionist and ESL instructor at Catholic Charities North in Lynn, according to the Maryknoll Sisters.
Anna DeBiasi, development director for Catholic Charities North, said Sister Loretta volunteers for the organization a couple of days a week. She said Sister Loretta answers the phone and greets clients.
“She’s awesome,” DeBiasi said.
DeBiasi said she only knows Sister Loretta from the couple of mornings she’s at Catholic Charities North, but said she “seems like a go-getter” and “has a lot of spunk.” Although DeBiasi said Sister Loretta is “very caring and compassionate, (but) she can also draw the line when it needs to be drawn.”
“Service is very important to her,” DeBiasi said. “She’s a great person to have at our front desk.”
Sister Loretta graduated from Maryknoll Teachers College in 1965, earning a bachelor’s degree in education. She received her master’s degree in theology from Boston College in 1979 and a master’s degree in sacred theology, with a specialization in spirituality, from the Jesuit School of Theology in California in 1997, according to the Maryknoll Sisters.
Sister Loretta made her first and final vows at the Maryknoll Sisters Motherhouse in Ossining, N.Y., and started her work at Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. After receiving her bachelor’s degree, she was appointed to the Philippines, serving there consistently for the next 30 years, teaching from grade school to university level.
Sister Loretta has also served in the United States in Congregational Services at the Motherhouse, now known as the Maryknoll Sisters Center. From 1990 to 1993, she was the secretary to the president of the congregation. She also served as the director of the congregation’s Vocation Ministry from the early 2000s to 2005, after another stint in the Philippines.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected].
