Conversations with Sr. Camille

At 52, Mercy Sr. Lisa Gambacorto is known as the competent, well-respected directress of Mount Saint Mary Academy in Watchung, N.J. Along the way, she's accumulated other proficiencies: She also taught elementary and high school and served as a student counselor and campus minister. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and two master's degrees in school administration and counseling psychology. She's a licensed marriage and family therapist and had a private practice for seven years before becoming the directress.

Kerry Weber has accumulated more experience and more miles in her 29 years than many of us do in a lifetime.

She grew up in western Massachusetts, where she attended Catholic elementary and high schools. She graduated from Providence College in Rhode Island in 2004, having spent her junior year abroad at Oxford University. In 2009, she earned her Master of Science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

On Dec. 9, Miss Vida Toppin, 81, invited a few friends to celebrate her son Paul's 46th birthday.

Vida Toppin, left, and Mercy Sr. Camille D'ArienzoThose who came to her assisted-living apartment in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y., enjoyed soft drinks and snacks, conversation and blessings. Paul's close friend, Daniel Escalera, was there, but Paul was not. He was murdered in October 1992, when he went to the aid of a friend being menaced by a 16-year-old with a gun. Paul, thinking he had diffused the volatile situation, turned to walk away. Bullets in his lung, arm and leg put him in the hospital, where he died 10 days later without regaining consciousness.

D'Arienzo: I am so sorry you suffered that loss. Are you able to talk about that night?

It's been a dozen years since I first met Sr. Rita Clare Gerardot, 85, at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. Her community, Sisters of Providence, generously gave me hospitality during the 30 or so visits I made to visit David Hammer, who is on death row in the federal penitentiary in nearby Terre Haute.

Providence Sr. Rita Clare GerardotRita Clare's friendship became an unanticipated gift when she agreed to visit David more regularly than distance allowed me to do. I cannot introduce her to you without acknowledging her wholesome holiness, incredible energy and expansive generosity. The only gift she lacks is the ability to sleep late. Often she begins her day walking around St. Mary's beautiful campus while stars are still out.

Sr. Camille: Rita Clare, how does this fit into your daily prayer?

Julia Occhiogrosso, 50, was the sixth of seven children born to Frank and Gloria Occhiogrosso. Her twin sister, Christa, followed her by 3 minutes.

Julia Occhiogrosso (Michael Wisniewski)Her parents, respected leaders in their local parish of St. Jerome in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, sent their children to its elementary school. And as owners and agents of Ideal World Travel, they could arrange trips for anyone to go anywhere in the world, taking particular delight in sending tourists to the Holy Land.

They could not have guessed that three of their daughters would journey across the country to live among the destitute served by Catholic Worker communities in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. These are lands made holy by those who devote themselves to serving society's homeless and hungry men, women and children.

Julia, what values did your parents instill in you?

Sherry Warden grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich., on the same street on which she's lived with her husband, Eric, since they married 45 years ago. Their two children, Evalyn and David, are on their own now. Evalyn has given her parents a granddaughter.

Sherry WardenThe University of Michigan always has been part of the family's lives. Sherry's father, Edward Stasheff, was a legendary, beloved professor, who came from New York with his wife, Evelyn Maher Stasheff, after a pioneering career in commercial television. He directed Bishop Fulton Sheen's first television program. "Prof," as he was affectionately known, came from a Jewish tradition. His parents sat shiva when he married someone from another faith.

But later, Sherry recalls, "When my dad's father was ill and my mother cared for him, my grandfather declared, 'She may be a shiksa but she has a Jewish heart.'"