Holy Family mission: local schools, africa and Belize - Sylvia Thibodeaux named head of Holy Family

National Catholic Reporter, March 5, 1999 by Arthur Jones

In Dangriga, a two-hour drive from the Capital, there is a "Little Academy" that educates young women who haven't been able to make the grade to enter high school elsewhere, and catechetical work continues in the villages.

Belize abuts Guatemala; political stability is never guaranteed but prayed for.

For the congregation overall, Thibodeaux said she is not upset by the declining numbers. "We do what we can in the times in which we're living," she said.

The superior said she would "like to see us embrace the full realization of who are as an African-American foundation. Not to live in the past but to remember it and to respond today the way our earlier women responded to their times." She does articulate a clear vision.

"I don't see us fully in education anymore -- we have educated and empowered women and men to carry on some of those ministries. We are in a supportive role, encouraging them to live out our charism -- they learned from us. If we can do that gracefully, withdraw and allow the lay people to take over, we would move into maybe catechetical ministries with women, children, youth who are abused -- looking at those needs which in large part are the needs of this particular section of the country."

Is there a climate among the sisters for these changes" "I'm gradually presenting it," she said, "as a way to ritualize the New Evangelization."

What, NCR asked the sister who was gone for so long in a unique ministry, "do the sisters think they have in you?" Replied Thibodeaux, calmly, "I don't think they're quite sure."

The Sisters of the Holy Family New Orleans

Founded: In New Orleans in 1842 by Henriette Delille, a "free woman of color" who described her work as being "a servant of slaves." They are seeking Henriette Delille's canonization.

Membership: 177 sisters in the United States and Belize, including 30 Belizean sisters. The age range is 25 to 101. Seventy percent are active, the majority in education, 10 percent in social services. They are currently anticipating one new vocation each in the United States and Belize.

Apostolates: The sisters are in eight schools in the New Orleans archdiocese: All Saints elementary, Corpus Christi elementary, Holy Ghost elementary, House of the Holy Family, grades 1-3, St. Joan of Arc elementary, St. Mary's Academy (on the Motherhouse campus) middle and secondary, St. Raphael the Archangel middle, and St. Raymond elementary. They staff two childhood development centers, operate three apartment buildings for the elderly and a licensed skilled nursing home across the road from the motherhouse. They are in St. Albert the Great elementary and Queen of Angels secondary schools in Los Angeles; Holy Family, Immaculate Heart of Mary and Holy Ghost elementary schools in the Lafayette diocese; Our Mother of Mercy elementary in Galveston-Houston and Holy Ghost elementary in Alexandria. Sisters provide social services in three New Orleans settings. In Belize the sisters have trained lay leadership in schools, including Delille Academy in the capital. During the past 150 years they have created almost 100 facilities, primarily schools. They have closed 53 and handed a further 13 over to lay leadership.