Maxyne Schneider is the new president of the Roman Catholic order.
The newly elected leadership team for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield includes, seated from left, Sister Maxyne Schneider, president and Sister Elizabeth T. Sullivan, vice president and standing, from left Sisters Carol Hebert, Lillian Reilly and Virginia Maitland.HOLYOKE – A new team of leaders for the 267-member Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield will take office Sunday during a ceremony at the congregation’s motherhouse, Mont Marie.
Assuming six-year terms will be Sisters of St. Joseph Maxyne D. Schneider as president, Elizabeth T. Sullivan as vice president and Lillian Reilly, Carol Hebert and Virginia Maitland as leadership team members.
Schneider is a native of North Adams who entered the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1960. She earned a doctorate in chemistry from Boston College and served as professor and later dean at the College of Our Lady of the Elms in Chicopee before serving as a congregational leadership team member. She was the co-founder and director of House of Peace and Education in Gardner and a grant writer for Weston Center for Women in Holyoke.
The Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, is scheduled to be present at Sunday afternoon’s transfer of leadership ceremony that begins at 1:30 p.m. at the Mont Marie Chapel, 34 Lower Westfield Road.
The election process began in October with a chapter of affairs when the members of the congregation gathered to set goals for the next six years and to begin the selection process for new leaders to carry out those goals.
The goals chosen for the next term include advocating for “people who are poor or alienated” and being “responsible, concerned stewards of the earth and universe.”
The election took place in April at Mont Marie during the congregation’s chapter of election.
The goals are not new to the congregation.
“We must keep our eye on the most disadvantaged in our society; that’s the example we see in the Gospel. That’s what Jesus Christ did,” Schneider said. “We are committed to keeping that focus (of service) very, very strong.”
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield had been known for teaching, but members now also serve in such areas as health care, parish ministries, social services, Earth ministries, youth ministries and communications.
Schneider said the sisters’ concern for the earth continues to grow stronger “in light of the very real concerns of global warming, climate change and destruction of habitats for wildlife.”
All involve God’s creation and affect the lives of all peoples, especially the poor, she added.
The congregation is in the early stages of serious consideration of alternative energy use on its property.
“We believe creation is holy,” Schneider said. “If we don’t take steps to implement what we believe, it’s just pretty words.”
For years the sisters have been involved in conservation work where they live and work.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield operate the Mont Marie Health Care Center and the Mont Marie Child Care Center. The latter is slated to close at the end of August after years of caring for and educating preschoolers from Holyoke and surrounding communities.
Sisters currently serve in Springfield, Worcester, Fall River and the Berkshires in Massachusetts and in Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Louisiana Maryland and Africa.
“We’re very much aware of the traditional role for religious congregations of women and men to be prophetic,” Schneider said, “to be the voice that challenges the status quo if the status quo goes against the values we see embodied in the Gospel, a voice that consistently speaks what we see as the Gospel values of Jesus Christ embodied in his life.”
The congregation was founded in LePuy, France, more than 350 years ago. In 1836, a small group of sisters went to Carondolet, Mo., to begin a school for the deaf. From there, members of the congregation moved to other locations in the United States and Canada.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield was founded in 1883 following a request by the pastor of St. Patrick Church in Chicopee Falls to help begin a parish school.
By the mid 1960s the Springfield congregation had more than 1,000 members and had founded or staffed 60 schools and established the College of Our Lady of the Elms.
In the mid 1970s, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Fall River merged with the Springfield congregation; so too in 2001 did the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rutland, Vt.