MARLBOROUGH - Sister Mary Jane Gates, RGS (Sr. Mary Christine) died
Thursday, April 8, 2010, at Marie Esther Health Center in Marlborough, after
a long illness. She was 87 years of age and had been a Sister of the Good
Shepherd for 60 years.
Sister Mary Jane was born February 16, 1923, in New York City,
the daughter of. the late Leroy Frederick and Anna Zolenez (Schurn) Gates.
She was educated in the public schools of New York and graduated from Julia
Richman High School, N.Y., in 1941, majoring in business. From 1942 to 1947
she worked in a defense plant where her skills as a draftsman were greatly
valued, and at the same time she was serving as a volunteer at the New York
Foundling Hospital. Sister Mary Jane entered the Good Shepherd Novitiate in
Peekskill, N.Y. in 1949 to begin her formal training at St. Germaine's Home
in caring for the poor and marginalized of society, with special focus on
teenage girls. An artist, Sister Mary Jane was much in demand in the
printing room and in the art department in N.Y. and Hartford, Conn., where
she was a child-care supervisor and provided vocational training for the
students, and subsequently at E. 17th Street, where she also served as
bookkeeper and was involved in fund raising for Good Shepherd programs.
Sister Mary Jane made Final Vows during this period, and in 1961 her
considerable talents and compassion found further expression as a child-care
supervisor at Villa Loretto, Peekskill, where she moderated, edited and
published "The Villa Voice," a newspaper by and for the girls in residence.
This included being photography manager, teacher, and librarian for the Job
Training program. She opened and operated a campus shop for the students,
and anxious to meet their needs on many levels, Sister Mary Jane formed a
liturgical orchestra with girls who were interested in learning to play the
guitar.
In 1970 after nine years of intense activity at the Villa, she was invited
back to E. 17th St., where she opened an arts and crafts department for the
youngsters and created a very popular ceramics department, a film study
group, and even formed an orchestra for the girls. In addition she served as
a child-care supervisor with the youngsters in detention and operated a
thrift shop.
It seems that any time she saw a need, Sister Mary Jane put all her talents
at the service of the needy. She received her graduate degree from Fordham
University. While involved with practical and artistic pursuits, she was
not unaware of the spiritual dimension of each student. She began to offer
spiritual counseling, Days of Recollection and retreats in Harriman, N.Y.
She became involved in the Charismatic Renewal of 1972 and once again
developed a music ministry for this group as well. She eventually
co-founded a House of Prayer with retreat directors including a priest, a
lawyer, a young teacher and herself. A pilgrimage to Israel and a retreat
at a Benedictine monastery in New Mexico provided nourishment for the House
of Prayer, which offered retreats, Days of Recollection, Spiritual
Direction, and comfort for the soul.
The fruits of her prayer seemed to include every possible need, from
teaching CCD and liturgical music in New York schools, volunteering at the
Francis Xavier Society for the Blind, working at Rosalie Hall, Misericordia
Hospital for unwed mothers, the Park Slope Thrift Shop, supervising many
nights at the Francis Xavier Men's Shelter, and escorting young disabled
adults to Mass each Sunday. Every week she drove to Hunt's Point wholesale
produce area to collect donations of food for the Catholic Worker. She
still managed to contribute her drafting skills by drawing up the floor
plans for Villa Loretto, plans now needed to sell the building. Always
willing to speak up for the voiceless, she was arrested with Fr. Daniel
Berrigan and several others when they were protesting the government's
plans to expand its military forces with a "Star Wars" project. The case was
dismissed in April 1987.
In 1981 she worked at Cor Mariae, a Good Shepherd community program designed
for women in need, particularly the homeless - a project very dear to her
heart. Founded with three other Good Shepherd Sisters, she also served as a
care giver, teacher and shelter volunteer until the house closed in 1994.
During these years she provided secretarial and fiscal services for St.
Helena's Residence, a Good Shepherd community program, which provided a
residence for young women who went out to work or school. At the conclusion
of her assignments at E. 17th Street, Sister Mary Jane spent the next 15
years in social service work at Epiphany Parish in New York City. She
retired in 2004 to become involved in prayer ministry and congregational
service at Good Shepherd Center in Marlborough.
Sister Mary Jane is survived by her sister-in-law, Mrs. Leroy Gates of
Warrington, Va.; her stepbrother, Thomas Gates of New York City; and her
dear friends, Patricia O'Regan and Mary Seele, both of New York City.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered Tuesday, April 13, at 10 a.m., by
Rev. Robert Rivard at Good Shepherd Center Chapel. Visiting hours are Monday at
Good Shepherd Center Chapel from 4 to 8 p.m., with a prayer service at 7
p.m. Burial will be in St. Johns' Cemetery, Queens, N.Y. Funeral
arrangements are under the direction of Fitzgerald & Collins Funeral Home
(www.CollinsFuneral.com), 378 Lincoln Street, Marlborough.
Expressions of sympathy may be made to the Good Shepherd Retirement Fund,
406 Hemenway Street, Marlborough, MA 01752. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd
were founded by St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in France in 1835, in the U.S.
(Louisville, KY) in 1843, New York City, 1857; Boston, 1867, and
Harwichport, 1993.