Mary Ellen Caldwell, BVM: Powerhouse in a Small Package
by Mary A. Healey, BVM
“I am an American sister. I do not
speak the language.” Mary Ellen Caldwell,
BVM (Eugenio) has learned to say this
phrase in eight foreign tongues. When
she began teaching preschool over 70
years ago, it looked like a lifework. The
oldest of eight children, she had a lot
of experience with little ones and loved
Tutor Mary Ellen
Caldwell, BVM (r.)
presents Madeleine
Gendry, OCSO with an
achievement certificate
in English.
teaching them; at 5 feet tall, she was safe
from the backaches that often affect
teachers of tiny people.
However, in 1956 she was appointed
principal of St. Patrick School in
Dubuque, Iowa, and taught eighth graders bigger than she. While there, she
studied theology in Marquette University’s
summer program in Milwaukee, newly
opened to non-seminarians; in 1962 she
moved uphill in Dubuque to teach theology and scripture at Clarke University and
stayed 25 years, during which she took
more summer theology classes and workshops across the country.
Other Ministries Beckon
In 1973, Mary Ellen and BVMs Carol
Frances Jegen and Betty Pleas (St. Laura)
had a free day after an institute on Ignatian
Spirituality in San Francisco. They spent it
picketing with farm worker advocate Cesar
Chavez, were arrested, and entered—not
another nation—but another world in a
Fresno jail for two weeks.
Mary Ellen said, “I was angry about
the treatment given to hardworking farm
workers; they didn’t deserve to be treated
as criminals. It was an honor to be with
them and a special privilege to spend time
with Dorothy Day who came to California to join us.”
This unexpected sojourn delayed Mary
Ellen’s departure for a year’s study at the
Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
The following summer, she and her BVM
little (in both senses) sister, Mary Remi
Caldwell, toured western Europe and
added more languages to her pet phrase.
The next year Mary Ellen became a
member of the BVM committee writing
a new Constitution, as directed by Vatican
Council II. That was a 15-year project,
with many meetings and much input
from BVMs, canonists, and other religious congregations doing the same work.
Deanna Marie Carr, BVM (Bernita) initially led the committee and Mary Ellen
chaired at the end.
In 1988, Mary Ellen retired from
Clarke to complete Constitution work and
prepare the records for the Mount Carmel
Archives. “Membership on the Constitution committee, working with wonderful
people, was a privilege,” she said. “When
Helen Garvey and her Council went to
Rome for approval of the document, they
didn’t have to take me, but I loved being
in Rome again and participating in the
dialogue at the Vatican.”
Teaching Expands Globally
While in Rome, Mary Ellen visited one of her former instructors who
prompted, “In Africa they are desperate
for seminary teachers.” Having spent an
earlier summer in Kenya, she was open to
going again. For 2½ years she taught at
St. Hubert Seminary in Kumasi, Ghana,
where Mary Ann Hoope, BVM (Bernarde
Marie), another theologian, works at the
Centre for Spiritual Renewal. In Ghana
she added some new languages for her
favorite phrase and got used to being
addressed as “old woman,” a title of high
respect there, where most people don’t live
long and revere those who do.
When Mary Ellen returned to the
United States, the Leadership Conference
of Women Religious (LCWR) was recruiting volunteers for the Catholic Bishops’
Program of Aid to the Catholic Church in
central and eastern Europe. “The bishops
could send money, but they asked LCWR
for help sisters could give—mostly education, but some sisters did oral histories
and a film about sisters’ experience under
Communism,” Mary Ellen shared.
Four times she went to Budapest for
two-month sessions to teach English in
classes organized by the Hungarian Sisters’
Council. More languages. Some young
Hungarian sisters had been admitted to
graduate schools in the United States.
Mary Ellen arranged for them to live with
retired BVMs in Chicago while improving
their English.
Coming home for good, Mary Ellen
taught Scripture classes in the Roberta
Kuhn Center (RKC) at Mount Carmel,
Dubuque, for five years, but finally retired
to private tutoring in English for select
foreign students. However, she is open to
other possibilities!
About the author: Mary A. Healey, BVM
(Michael Edward) is retired and volunteers at
Mount Carmel in Dubuque, Iowa.
FALL TWO THOUSAND FIFTEEN
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