When Sister Judy Oliver, SSJ, was a student at St. Hubert’s High School, she was taught by sisters from several religious orders, but for many reasons, the Sisters of St. Joseph appealed to her.
“I graduated high school in 1965 and worked for a year as a teacher. In 1966, when I entered (the order), I had already made contact with the sisters, and my great aunt was a Sister of St. Joseph,” she recalls. “In Catholic high schools in those days, you had all different kinds of sisters and a small population of lay teachers, so you had Sisters of St. Joseph who lived in one convent, there were 10 Sisters of Mercy, and they lived up the road, and so on.
“But there was something that was attractive about the charism and mission of the Sisters of St. Joseph that I think, for me, was a grace. I don’t know if, when you’re 18, you know that you’re being led by grace, but it really was a grace of invitation for the Sisters of St. Joseph, and as I’ve lived the vocation, I have found more and more that our charism and mission really do fit who I am and who I’ve become.”
Sister Judy initially lived in the Holmesburg neighborhood of Philadelphia—that would be St. Dominic’s parish. When she started high school, the family moved to Torresdale—St. Katherine’s parish. Her solid Catholic upbringing prepared her for the life she ultimately chose to live.
No one spoke about their heritage in those days, she says—“It was before the age of Ancestry.com”—but she claims Swedish, English and Irish heritage.
On the Irish side of things, her mother’s grandmother came from Ireland—the family name then was “Friel”—and she believes her great-grandfather also came from Ireland. Sister Judy has also visited Ireland. While she was there, she says, “there was a feeling of being connected to that place, that country.”
Over the years, Sister Judy—a woman with a kind face and easy smile, topped with wavy white hair—has “become” many things, including teacher and school administrator for about 40 years. Today, she manages Bethlehem Village in Flourtown, Montgomery County, a 100-room-plus public housing complex for low-income seniors of limited income, overseen by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and owned and operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph since 1984. Sister Judy has occupied that position for 12 years. Managing Bethlehem Village has given her the opportunity to live out the order’s charism and mission in a big way.
On the Irish side of things, her mother’s grandmother came from Ireland—the family name then was “Friel”—and she believes her great-grandfather also came from Ireland. Sister Judy has also visited Ireland. While she was there, she says, “there was a feeling of being connected to that place, that country.”
It has always been a continuation of the grace that drew Sister Judy to the SSJs that she has been able to live out that important mission—important now, perhaps, more than ever.
“The gift of our charism, as we call it in the congregation,” she says, “is one of unity. Our mission is that we live and work so that all people may be united to God and to one another. And being able to be an instrument of something that brings people closer to God and closer to themselves has been a real privilege—whether it is through the ministry of education or a ministry like this. We’re federal housing, you know, even though we’re owned and operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph. You don’t have to be a Catholic to be here. However, I believe the three of us—Sister Rita and Sister Anna and myself—believe that we want to live out our mission through this public ministry. The residents themselves give opportunities for community, for socialization. We try to be aware of residents as persons and what their needs are and be of service where we can.”
Before Sister Judy took on this ministry, she remembers her brother asking if she knew what she was going to do. A career in school administration, she knew, made her an effective administrator—but managing a public housing unit, one of the most sought after in the area, was new territory. He told her, well, you’re the landlord.
“I said ‘yeah,’ she laughs, but then in all seriousness goes on to say, “but we want to be a different landlord. We want to bring who we are as a congregation and as Sisters of St. Joseph into our ministry here. That’s the underlying principle by which we try to run the business.”
This need for affordable housing, Sister Judy says, will only become greater as the community ages. The minimum age for acceptance into Bethlehem Village is 62. The facility is so popular that there is a four-year waiting list.
That means, unfortunately, having to say no to many with an immediate need. It’s one of the hardest things she has to do. But the situation is much the same throughout the Delaware Valley, she says. For some senior housing facilities, the need so far exceeds capacity that their waiting lists are effectively closed.
“Nobody has immediate housing available for immediate needs, and that’s why I always advocate to people, send us your application. If you qualify, you get on the list. It only costs you a stamp.”
As much as Bethlehem Village gives Sister Judy an opportunity to live out her mission, she says the residents, in their own way, do much the same.
“I am always touched by the kindness of our residents,” she says. “We have several charities that our residents donate to. For example, our maintenance man and a resident had grandchildren with cancer, so they organized an Alex’s Lemonade kind of thing and gave the proceeds to the Children’s Hospital. They do a meal, what you would call a soup and bread night, at which time people give a free-will donation, and that helps the St. Francis Inn down in Kensington.
“Sometimes you think, ‘Oh, I’m too busy for this’ or ‘I don’t have time for that,’ and then you see someone who maybe is retired but busy, and they take the time to be aware of other people’s needs.”
Proof, perhaps, that the charism and mission of the Sisters of St. Joseph—and the path by which Sister Judy Oliver has chosen to live her life—are infectious.
This article is reprinted from the February 2019 issue of the Irish Edition.
