Cardinal Dolan Visits the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate
By: Steven Schwankert
Three sisters take their perpetual vows at Marycrest on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary
Cardinal Timothy Dolan celebrated Mass for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary as three new sisters of the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate professed their perpetual vows.
“What an appropriate day to have our perpetual vows,” Cardinal Dolan said in his opening remarks.
In his homily, Cardinal Dolan referred to the Assumption as when “Mary reaches her goal.” Speaking to the three sisters taking their vows, he said, “We never stop moving. We never park the car. We never put away our walking shoes,” until we are united with Christ in Heaven.
Cardinal Dolan then participated in the profession rite and examination part of the Mass, followed by the prayer of consecration over the newly professed. Sister Rebecca Miriam Lasota, Sister Alina Marie Nieser, and Sister Marie Meaghan Baldwin then took their perpetual vows before Parish Visitors’ General Superior, Mother Maria Catherine Iannotti.
Among the nine concelebrants of the Mass were Father Dennis A. Nikolić, dean of the Orange County and pastor of the Church of St. Joseph in Middletown, and Rev. Father Douglas R. Arcoleo, pastor of St. Catherine of Sienna in Franklin Square, in the Diocese of Rockville Center.
Sisters from the Sisters of Life, the Hawthorne Dominicans, the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, and other orders attended the Mass.
“We are a small community so we are not very well known, but I think that the internet and priests especially, priests refer young women to us,” Mother Maria Catherine told The Good Newsroom after Mass. “I think the beauty of our lives and our prayers lives, that’s really what attracts them to us,” she said about attracting new sisters to the Parish Visitors.
Founded in New York, the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate was founded on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, August 15, 1920. Their mother house is now at Marycrest in Monroe, about 50 miles northwest of Manhattan in Orange County. The Parish Visitors’ founder, Mother Mary Teresa Tallon, was declared a Servant of God in 2013. She is buried in the chapel at Marycrest.
The Sisters describe themselves as contemplative missionaries working with local parishes to reach lapsed Catholics and non-Catholics through home visitation.