In retirement: ‘I won’t be sitting still’
By Margaret Gabriel

Dedicated Missioner: Sister Maria Goretti talks with Glenmary donors during a tour led by planned giving officer Susan Lambert. Sister Maria was always a favorite host of donors on these annual tours because of the enthusiasm she showed for her work and the mission community.

Dominican Sister Maria Goretti Browne, a long-time Glenmary partner in mission, retired as pastoral coordinator of the Glenmary mission in Grayson, Ky., in August. Although she is moving on with another phase of her life and ministry, Sister Maria plans to stay connected to Glenmary by continuing to tell Glenmary’s story—and her own—in mission appeal presentations.

This native of Detroit, Mich., has ministered in Eastern Kentucky counties since the 1980s. “God brought me to the mountains,” she says. And once there, she stayed. She moved to Eastern Kentucky in the late 1980s and worked in a diocesan parish in Jackson County.

In 1990, she began her association with Glenmary when she was hired as the pastoral coordinator of Glenmary’s mission in Morehead, Ky. In so doing, she became the first lay pastoral minister to lead a Glenmary mission.

The Morehead mission was returned to the Diocese of Lexington in 1994 and Sister Maria moved on to a diocesan parish in Harrodsburg, Ky. But her ties to Glenmary weren’t severed for long. In 1998 she returned to Glenmary as the pastoral coordinator of Sts. John and Elizabeth mission in Grayson, Ky.

She talks enthusiastically about the people of the mission and of the county. And she proudly says that despite the mission’s small size “We’re known (throughout the county) as the church that helps people!”

Sister Maria was originally attracted to Glenmary’s ministry because it dovetails with her Dominican charism so well. “I believe we need to reach out to the poor and Glenmary does that. I believe we need to evangelize and Glenmary emphasizes evangelization,” she says. “Glenmary really lives the philosophy of community and simple lifestyle.”

Even as Sister Maria was planning her post-retirement move to Lexington, Ky., she continued to focus on the needs of the Grayson mission community. She helped them make the transition to their new pastoral coordinator: Sister Colette Gerry. Sister Colette is no stranger to Glenmary either. She ministered in Morgantown, Ky., a former Glenmary mission in Western Kentucky, until 2004.

Sister Maria’s post-retirement ministry options are still open. “A woman I know in Lexington is a social worker who works with children and I may do some work with her, or I might do some volunteer work with hospice or with St. Joseph Hospital,” Sister Maria says. “There are possibilities everywhere.”

Sister Maria says she will take some time to find a parish community in the Lexington area. Although the large parishes in the Lexington metropolitan area are very different from her 50-family community in Grayson, she is looking forward to exploring them and finding the right fit for her. “And after I settle in, I’m sure I’ll get involved in parish ministry,” she says.

Sister Maria sees her “retirement” as a chance to focus on things she cares about, like Glenmary. She will continue as a speaker for the Missionary Cooperation Plan, a program that sends missionaries from Glenmary and other missionary societies to parishes in the United States to promote mission awareness and support. She will also give mission appeals on behalf of the Diocese of Lexington and on behalf of her Dominican congregation.

“I’m also the delegate for the religious in the Diocese of Lexington,” she says, “which will give me the opportunity to travel around the diocese and meet sisters and priests serving here.”
As she retires, many of Sister Maria’s plans are still up in the air. But she is sure of at least one thing: “I won’t be sitting still!”

The story above first appeared in the Autumn 2007Glenmary Challenge.
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