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By RENEE WINKLER
Courier-Post Staff
In a South Jersey neighborhood some think too dangerous to visit, a half-dozen women are sharing a life of commitment, sanctified by prayer and spiced with laughter and lots of talk.
Using their skills as physicians, counselors and administrators, the six battle poverty on their North Camden doorstep. They live in a convent that was opened in 1927 to house the Sisters of St. Joseph who would teach in the Holy Name parish school.
Although Holy Name still operates classes for kindergarten through eighth grade, sisters stopped teaching in the school in 2000. The double-lot three-story house continues as home base for the women.
Sisters of different orders, they live together, sharing daily chores and helping each other deal with the stress of violence and homelessness.
You'd pass these women on the street without thinking of their vocations. They have stylish haircuts and don't wear traditional habits.
After Vatican II modernized the Catholic Church in the 1960s, it was suggested sisters wear clothing that would permit them to blend in with the community they worked in, said Sister Connie Trainor, a Sister of St. Joseph. "We're a few fashion trends behind," she said.
At home or on the job, their fashion in the winter leans toward turtleneck shirts, sweaters and stunningly hued jogging suits. Sister Helen Cole, a Sister of Saint Joseph, the youngest of the group but the longest resident of the house, has never been seen wearing anything other than a dark skirt and sweater or jacket.
All are eager to talk about their ministry among the poor and those affected by tragedy. They agree their life together is about compromise and agreement.
Their day begins with prayer in a second-floor chapel and the only day each week they are committed to share any other time together is Tuesday night for dinner.
Their clients call it "nuns night," said Sister Jean Mouch, a Medical Missionary sister who runs a medical practice based at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden.
Technically, they aren't nuns, because they are not members of contemplative orders, like those in cloistered monasteries. The proper reference is sisters.
Aged 44 to 74, these women have foregone assignments to middle-class or wealthy communities or possible retirement. Their neighborhood today is primarily Hispanic, a mix of families from Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and San Salvador. Few in the residential neighborhood speak English.
The Rev. Rick Malloy, an assistant pastor of the Holy Name parish, who has lived on State Street for 15 years, said the group brings a hope of redemption and not just spiritual redemption but a hope of physical renewal and rebirth of the neighborhood.
"What they do every day, what they've done over the years, makes the neighborhood a holier place and more whole. This neighborhood still is broken and they've helped heal it with prayer and service," said Malloy, who splits his time between the parish and teaching assignments at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
"In some ways," he continued, "they've given up a family life of their own, giving up the challenge and the beauty of mothering children, to take care of many more people. They're there every day for people who need help. They go looking for them and here, in Camden, they're easy to find."
The sisters don't paint their decision to live in the community as unusual.
"We face the same difficulties as other people who live here," said Sister Trainor.
"My car was stolen one night. The cops caught him on Ninth Street. He didn't even have time to change the radio station," she said, remembering she was so happy she " kissed the cop."
Sister Elise Gittrich, a Sister of Charity of Convent Station, who works primarily with AIDS patients, joined the house a little more than a year ago. One night, she dropped personal items including her driver's license and credit card when she got out of the car. "They were returned," she said, seeing it as evidence neighbors keep an eye out on the nuns.
"That they look out for us is the plus of living here," said Sister Win Grelis, also a Sister of Saint Joseph, who once taught at Archbishop Prendergast High School in Upper Darby, Pa. It was there she met Sister Trainor (then a student), both said. Sister Grelis never tires of telling people the two "were in high school together," despite an age gap of about 20 years.
Their North Camden neighborhood is best known to non- residents for heavy-duty drug dealing. The nuns try to fight it with a personal campaign of what they call "blitz and blockade." A few years ago, they took to the streets with signs reading, "Your addiction is our affliction," in an effort to alert drug buyers of how the street traffic affected the neighborhood.
"Oh, yeah! It really worked. We stopped the drug flow on this block of North Camden for, oh, about a few hours," said Sister Cole sardonically.
Police cars prowl almost continually through the neighborhood, on the street once known as lawyers' row, now showing strong signs of renewal and renovation as the result of beautification grants and strong community pressure.
Winter is a quiet time on State Street, the nuns agreed. In the summer, when heat drives residents out of the oven- like brick buildings, children and adults are up almost all night.
Sister Gittrich, who joined her religious order only six years ago after marriage and raising four sons, compared the life of their neighbors to people living in San Salvador, where she recently visited a friend. She found strong family connections coming up short in North Camden, but said it's balanced by the willingness of people with differing ethnic backgrounds to learn about other cultures.
Before joining this Sisters of Charity of Convent Station, Sister Gittrich had taught special education, focusing on autistic children.
"The hardest thing for me was giving up my car. I had to turn the keys in when I joined and that was difficult. The best part of being a sister is the ability to do so much more because I have no family responsibilities," she said.
Unlike neighborhoods in South and East Camden, North Camden has no business district, no professional offices and only a few neighborhood grocery stores or restaurants. Many of the people there go to work every day somewhere else or work all night, the sisters said.
And unlike Sacred Heart, another parish in Camden, the work at Holy Name is not supported by suburban visitors or families who consider it their home parish even though they live in Cherry Hill or Haddonfield.
Everyone who attends Mass at Holy Name lives within a few blocks, said Sister Cole. Society expects sisters and other religious people to dedicate themselves to caring for the poor and needy, they say, and the six living in the convent spread their ability to minister among the poor and needy.
One outlet for their healing abilities seems surprising: Sister Lucy Klein-Gebbicck, a Medical Missionary sister, is a certified massage therapist and coordinates the Camden Wellness program based in the 2700 block of Federal Street.
Some therapists who work through the program are paid, while others volunteer. Clients - seniors, youth, the homeless - pay what they can afford. This year, the group did more than 1,000 massages.
"We all yearn to be touched, safe-touched. It's so important for people who may have had experiences only in sexual or abusive touches. For one hour, one person is focused entirely on you. The massage helps people let their body tissue relax, helps them learn how to deal with stress and invites them to do other things to better their health," said Sister Klein-Gebbicck.
She spoke of one man who became homeless after his leg was shattered by a gunshot wound. He lost his job and then his home. "We started working with him, taught him how to care for his feet, got him using different foot soaps. He became able to work again, at first only a few days. But then, he was able to get his own apartment.
"The steps we help people take are small," but they helped that client heal enough to climb stairs and get back the control of his life, Sister Klein-Gebbicck said.
Through grants and volunteer work from a Camden County employer, the first-floor rooms once used as a kindergarten for Holy Name School now are a taller, the Spanish word for workshop. The street side of the room holds a hand-crafted Guatemalan loom and a master weaver teaches local women to use it.
The area also is used for computer lessons and English classes and a seamstress teaches women sewing tasks that help them find jobs in local manufacturing plants.
Surrounded mostly by Hispanic neighbors, the sisters work to improve their Spanish. "People speak to me in Spanish and if they go slow I can understand," said Sister Cole, the counselor who for a while worked out of the emergency room at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and now is at Guadalupe Family Services, next to the convent.
"But I always answer in English, just as slowly."
Sister Trainor has given homilies in Spanish. Director of religious education at St. Joseph's Pro-Cathedral, she coordinates religious education classes for public school children and visits families who want their children baptized or are preparing for First Communion.
"Sometimes what I hear in the conversation is just a blur. I have to ask people to slow down," she said.
"I said something to one of our neighbors one day," said Sister Klein-Gebbicck. "He laughed so hard he fell against the wall. He wouldn't tell me what I said.
"I felt like the groom-to-be in My Big Fat Greek Wedding," she said.
Sister Cole, who has stood by families of murder victims in Camden for more than a decade, said her parents worry about her safety. "We had a plumber in to fix something and he said we shouldn't have to live here because of the violence in the neighborhood. But we choose to be here."
Said Sister Mouch, "We're not the only ones giving. Being here is such a learning thing for use. We learn a lot from our neighbors."
Mass to recognize religious
The Diocese of Camden will recognize about 380 men and women who are members of religious orders in an 11 a.m. Mass today at St. Mary's Church in Williamstown.
The observation of World Day for Consecrated Life, a day set aside by the Pope, coincides with the Feast of the Presentation, the day religious leaders celebrate the presentation of the Christ Child by his parents in the temple, 40 days after His birth.
The Mass will be celebrated by Bishop of Camden Nicholas DiMarzio and will include a renewal of vows by the religious. Persons who have served the diocese for more than 25 years will receive special recognition.
According to Andrew Walton, spokesman for the Diocese of Camden, there are 315 women religious serving the diocese, representing 25 religious orders. Seventy-seven are teachers or administrators in Catholic schools. The others work in religious education, hospital work, health care, counseling or parish ministry.
In addition, Walton said, 55 religious priests, those who are members of a community, and 10 brothers live and work in the diocese.
The Diocese of Camden covers Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester, Atlantic, Cape May and Salem counties and represents 445,000 Catholics.
Reach Renee Winkler at (856) 486-2455 or rwinkler@courierpostonline.com.
