Print Issue: October 10, 2002

Golden Jubilee Year - Sister At Transfiguration Church Marks 50 Years Of Religious Life

Sister Celeste Schoppy, IHM (Photos by Michael Alexander)

By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer

MARIETTA - "For I long to feel your touch; I long to hear your voice; I live to love your name, O God."

The message printed on prayer cards for her golden jubilee are words by which Sister Celeste Schoppy, IHM, has tried to live, reflecting the love of God she has brought to her ministry over the past 50 years.

A member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, she has been a pastoral associate at Transfiguration Church since 1998 where she leads the Health and Wellness Ministry and a prism of parish services to the sick, bereaved and caregivers, bringing together spiritual and physical well-being.

Throughout five decades of service, she has been a teacher, parish pastoral minister, spiritual director and counselor and a certified Catholic and ecumenical hospital chaplain, among many ministries.

Born and raised in Mount Carmel, Pa., one of seven children, Sister Schoppy was the "keystone" between three older sisters and three younger brothers.

They had "lots of fun" as a family, she said, including Sunday afternoon picnics and Sunday evenings making waffles. "Faith was very central to my parents," she said. "My dad was always in church."

She attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School, where she was the class valedictorian in 1951, with a wide range of accomplishments in English, French, debating, editing and science. She received nursing training during her senior year, but the thought of religious life was in her heart.

"No one had (become a sister) in 25 years from our parish . . . but my dad had a second cousin who was a sister." The sisters who taught in her school also impressed her. "I always admired them because they were so joyful. They had fun and they involved us in their fun. That attracted me."

(L-r) As Sister Celeste Schoppy, IHM, and Ministry of Caring member Mary Galvin stand in front of their display table on "Time and Talent Sunday," Gabrielle Bennett and her 5-month-old child Kensley stop by for a visit.

Ultimately the "service aspect" and the desire to help people convinced her. She became a postulant in the Pennsylvania branch of the IHM order on Sept. 8, 1951 and on March 11, 1952, she entered religious life. After completing formation and with a bachelor's degree in theology and English, Sister Schoppy spent the next 20 years teaching at Catholic schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and in religious education in Virginia and Florida.

While the Philadelphia IHMs were devoted to the education of youth, the IHM sisters in Monroe, Mich., where the order was founded, diversified their ministry following the Second Vatican Council.

"I really felt called to work with adults," Sister Schoppy said. So in 1972, she transferred to Monroe where the sisters had opened their first House of Prayer and began training directors. There are now 625 Monroe IHM sisters ministering throughout the United States and abroad.

After receiving her master's degree in religious studies from LaSalle University in Philadelphia, Sister Schoppy over the next several years served in various parishes in Michigan as a pastoral associate. In 1978 she went to a Virginia Beach, Va., parish where she started the Christian initiation program and facilitated renewal programs, later serving in two other Virginia parishes.

In the early 1980s she began serving at parishes in South Carolina. In July 1985, she became pastoral associate at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., providing counseling and spiritual direction. She was appointed associate director of the Cursillo movement in the Charleston Diocese. She has also served in Alabama parishes.

After a sabbatical year in 1988-89, in which she studied at Oblate Seminary in San Antonio, Texas, she went into clinical pastoral education at St. Louis University and Deaconess Hospitals. She became certified in the National Association of Catholic Chaplains in 1991 and was invited to become associate director of the national office of the Rural Ministry Education Institute in St. Louis. During this time she served as the editor of the bimonthly periodical "Rural Roots" and a monthly newsletter, while traveling around the country. At the same time, she served as spiritual director for the Institute of Religious Formation of St. Louis University from 1991-94 and taught seminarians at St. John Seminary. She was certified as an ecumenical chaplain in 1993 in order to become the first neuroclinical chaplain at Barnes Medical Center in St. Louis.

She has been a member of a retreat team of Jesuit priests, women Religious and laity and active in "Bridges," the nine-month annotated exercises of St. Ignatius, a retreat for active lay people. She has completed the Mercy Center Internship in the Art of Spiritual Direction.

After serving in hospital chaplaincy and hospice formation in the Midwest, Sister Schoppy joined the staff at Transfiguration four years ago and was tapped to lead its Health and Wellness Ministry. Through this ministry, flu and pneumonia shots, mammograms, CPR training, screenings for prostate cancer, and blood pressure and cholesterol checks are held at the parish. Sister Schoppy also coordinates the anointing of the sick by parish priests, as well as the Ministry of Caring, in which parishioners visit the sick and homebound. She also initiated bereavement groups and one-on-one Good Mourning Caregivers and works closely with the Mercy Guild, which offers receptions for families after funerals.

Golden jubilarian Sister Celeste Schoppy, IHM, left, is shown with Sister Frances Whitman, a Grey Nun of the Sacred Heart for over 35 years. Both received their formation as women Religious in the Philadelphia area. Sister Whitman is court administrator of the Metropolitan Tribunal of the archdiocese.

Msgr. Pat Bishop, Transfiguration pastor, said that his parish has learned a lot from the golden jubilarian, who was honored at a parish Mass of thanksgiving in April attended by her family, longtime friends and IHM sisters.

"She's opened our understanding of the responsibility a parish has to minister to body and soul," he said. "One's spiritual life is more difficult when one's physical needs are so distracting to the inner search . . . Through Sister Celeste, we have become more aware of the need for providing prevention testing . . . She also leads the Ministry of Caring, which helps in any way it can. That's a graced presence for us."

Sister Schoppy, 69, walks two miles nearly every day and believes strongly in the marriage between health and faith.

"Spirituality and the importance of prayer are so integral in times of health crisis," she said.

Sister Celeste Schoppy, IHM, left, is the pastoral associate at Church of the Transfiguration, Marietta. Sister Schoppy also coordinates the Ministry of Caring and the Health/Wellness ministry for the Cobb County parish.

Msgr. Bishop said that he also respects Sister Schoppy's vocation, reaffirmed as she renewed her vows at the jubilee Mass.

"The fact that she has been a Religious for 50 years, through so much change in the religious community, and has stuck with it, is something we all admire," he said.

But the admiration from the parish is mutual.

"It's exciting. It's never boring and it's always growing," she said of the parish in which she serves. "The beautiful faith of the people supports and inspires me."

With her quiet manner and joyful presence, Sister Schoppy has a unique gift for listening to others. Serving others is the reason she became a Religious 50 years ago and it is the reason she continues to minister each day.

"Prayer, guidance, spiritual direction and retreats are my first love and it remains that way," she said. "That's just a special union with God - relating to people in faith and helping them grow."