St. Joseph School losing religious order

PETERSBURG After 132 years ministering to the city of Petersburg, the Daughters of Charity will leave June 30.

The withdrawal of the Catholic religious order ends a long-standing association with St. Joseph School, which the sisters opened on Oct. 2, 1876, shortly after arriving in Petersburg. Last year, the school was saved from being closed because of financial and other difficulties when the community rallied to raise funds.

St. Joseph will remain open and faculty members won't be affected by the sisters' withdrawal, Sister Margaret Mary Scally, a member of the order and the school's principal, said this week.

"For no reason should anything cease happening because the sisters are leaving," she said.

The decision to withdraw the sisters was made by the Daughters of Charity's Emmitsburg, Md., province, which serves the southeastern part of the country, including Virginia.

"The Daughters are very aware that their numbers continue to be fewer, and their realities as a province challenge their ability to sustain all of their ministries," said Lori Stewart, director of communications for the religious community.

The five sisters of the Daughters of Charity who are in Petersburg will be reassigned to missions elsewhere, Scally said.

At St. Joseph, a search for a new principal is under way and "we're looking for a dynamic individual to carry forward the legacy the sisters began," said Annette Parsons, chief education administrator of the Office of Catholic Schools for the Catholic Diocese of Richmond.

Last spring, the school's future looked bleak. Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo had imposed an April 21 deadline for St. Joseph to raise $1 million to remain open. After a community effort raised $900,000 by that date, diocesan and parish leaders decided to keep the school open, and money continued to trickle in.

St. Joseph now has an enrollment of 117 students, two more than the school's target number for the current school year.

The Maryland-based Daughters of Charity province currently has 158 members, 54 of whom are retired and live at the Provincial House in Emmitsburg. As recently as 1991, there were 359 members of the order.

The order was established in America by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first saint born in America. Daughters of Charity have served in Petersburg since 1876. Besides St. Joseph School, their ministries in the city include a food pantry at St. Joseph Catholic Church, visiting elderly and homebound parishioners and community outreach.

Their missions outside Virginia include the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Mother Seton School in Emmitsburg, Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg, Md., the Seton Center in Emmitsburg, and other health, education, social service and parish ministries.

The Provincial Council will determine the sisters' placement this month, Stewart said.

The other ministries the sisters oversee in Petersburg are being turned over to the St. Joseph Catholic Church parish.

As the sisters end their time in Petersburg, they look back fondly on their time in the city. Sister Patricia Nee, who is outreach coordinator, and Sister Dorothy Ann Pyle, who is in charge of the church's food pantry and outreach volunteers, said they will miss the people they've worked with the past few years.

"You get close to the people you're working with," said Nee, who has been in Petersburg four times for close to 17 years. "But at the same time, we know that the people we have with us are very dedicated and that they'll continue our ministry."

During her five years in Petersburg, Pyle said she's built relationships with many of the needy people who passed through the doors of the church.

"They end up being more like friends than somebody we're just here to help," she said.

Contact Jeremy Slayton at (804) 649-6861 or .