Daughters of the Cross: Winds of

WINDS OF CHANGE The year is 1960. In the world, the winds of change are blowing. Teenagers are picking up a racy new dance, the twist. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration launches the first passive communications satellite, Echo. The first televised presidential debates, between Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy, are beamed into the living rooms of approximately 66 million Americans, about three-eighths of the population. Kennedy is elected, becoming the first Roman Catholic president of the United States. Changes are also occurring in the Church and in the convent of the Daughters of the Cross. The sisters’ habits, unchanged since their arrival in Louisiana in 1855, are redesigned in 1953 after a tragic automobile accident is attributed to the driver’s inability to see an oncoming vehicle because of her bonnet. The Sister Formation Movement leads to the foundation of Marillac College in St. Louis, Missouri, where training and formation is centralized for religious orders across the nation. The Daughters of the Cross establish a juniorate there for

Courtesy of the Monroe News-Star

A farewell hug between Andrew Wieseman and Sister Maria Smith, D. C., Principal of Jesus the Good Shepherd School, May 29, 1997. their young professed sisters, who stay with the Franciscans while studying at the college. Variations appear in the liturgy, and the Daughters of the Cross revise their Rule. Weaknesses in the structure of the convent are appearing, and although repairs are made, it becomes apparent in the late 1950’s that the beloved Gothic convent and school built by Father Roulleaux will have to be replaced. Plans for a new St. Vincent’s are drawn up, and financing is acquired through a fund drive and the sale of a portion of the property which encompasses the last of the St. Vincent’s woods. The sisters are operating ten schools for the 1960-1961 school year, two high schools and eight elementary schools: St. Vincent’s (grades 8-12, the last year of phasing out the elementary school), St. John’s, St. Catherine’s, and St. Theresa’s in Shreveport; Christ the King in Bossier City; Presentation Academy in Marksville; Sacred Heart in Moreauville; St. Patrick’s in Lake Providence; and St. Matthew’s (Grades 9-12) and the newly opened Jesus the Good Shepherd in Monroe. Most of the 77 sisters are American; only a dozen remain of the ones who came from France. The French Sisters are aging; three are given school assignments, five assigned to jobs around the motherhouse, and five are too frail to work. A new era is ushered in with the completion of the new St. Vincent’s Academy on Fairfield Avenue in August, 1962. The

daughters of the cross

sisters and students work together cleaning and moving furniture and supplies and setting up the classrooms. With the move to the new building, the boarding school is closed. The modern, airconditioned building is soon filled with students in sharp new uniforms consisting of plaid pleated skirts, white blouses, and blue blazers. In Monroe, a parallel shift takes place with the closing of St. Matthew’s and the opening of St. Frederick’s in 1964. The Second Vatican Council, in three sessions from 1962 to 1965, brings about sweeping changes to the liturgy (including saying Mass in the vernacular and no longer requiring women to cover their heads) and to religious orders, loosening restrictions on dress and practice. These changes, together with the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, the Vietnam War, and widespread social unrest, protests and rioting, have religious orders throughout the country whirling, trying to keep up with making adjustments and addressing the challenges of the times. This produces a wave of sisters doffing their habits and priests leaving the priesthood. In 1967, the Daughters of the Cross in Louisiana are reduced by 25 as a large group leaves the convent to work elsewhere. The Daughters of the Cross have already stopped teaching at Sacred Heart in Moreauville in 1965. Now, with their numbers reduced, they leave St. Patrick’s in Lake Providence in 1967, and in 1968 they withdraw from St. Frederick’s in Monroe and Christ the King in Bossier City. In 1972, the sisters move into their new motherhouse, which is attached to the new St. Vincent’s, and hold an auction for the furnishings of the old convent. The land is leased out for the planned Mall St. Vincent, and the old motherhouse is torn down in 1973. The Sisters’ graves have already been transferred to Forest Park cemetery in 1963. Another watershed event occurs in 1973: Presentation Academy in Marksville is closed, 117 years after its founding by Mother Hyacinthe. The school closings continue into the next decade with St. Catherine’s in 1984 and St. Theresa’s in 1988. St. John’s is transferred to lay leadership in 1984, but the Sisters continue to teach until 1997. Despite declining enrollment through the 1980’s, St. Vincent’s hangs on until Loyola College Prep begins accepting female students; one year later, in 1988, the all-girls flagship of the Daughters of the Cross closes after 120 years.

Daughters of the Cross 2000; Diocese of Shreveport Daughters of the Cross with Bishop William B. Friend, November 1, 2000, L-R: Sister Mary Louise Parisy, Sister Maria Smith, Bishop Friend, Sister Mary Evelyn Story, Sister Mary Grace Lagana, and Sister Lucy Scallan.

In 1997, the Daughters of the Cross has dwindled to 16 sisters. They have continued to teach in two schools in the Diocese: St. John Berchmans in Shreveport and Jesus the Good Shepherd in Monroe, where Sister Maria Smith has been principal for 17 years. A proposal is made to join another Order with a similar charism and mission, the Marianites of the Holy Cross, based in New Orleans. The matter is put to a vote, and seven Sisters vote to go; the remaining nine, preferring to stay in their order and in their home city, build a new convent on the grounds of The Glen Retirement Home. With their retirement from the schools, the sisters have to find new ways of living out their vocation. For guidance, they need look no further than the example of the elderly Sisters of their own order whom they have known, loved and observed through the years. Their days consist of Mass, prayer, and acts of charity and service towards family, friends and each other, always offering up their works, prayers and sufferings – for you and for me. The last mother superior, Sister Maria Smith, D. C., dies on Holy Thursday, April 18, 2019, leaving behind just one Daughter of the Cross: Sister Lucy Scallan, D. C.

PATTI UNDERWOOD is a lover of history and is blessed to be a graduate of St. Vincent’s Academy and LSU-Shreveport.