Sister Jacinta Millán retires, would do it all again

Intermountain Catholic

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Sister Jacinta Millán said it has been wonderful being a religious. She has been able to travel and has had many opportunities. Her experiences growing up have assisted her in becoming a peace and justice advocate.IC photo by Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — "It has been wonderful," said Holy Cross Sister Jacinta Millán of her ministry as she began to tear up and become sentimental.

Sr. Jacinta entered the novitiate when she was 18, and she said she fought it.

"Lord, don’t pick me," she said. "But I was on a retreat, and the Franciscan priest said something about vocations. I knew that was it, and that was what God wanted me to do."

Sr. Jacinta grew up in Ventura, Calif. Her parents were immigrants from Mexico, and she did not learn English until she went to school. She was taught by the Holy Cross Sisters in elementary school, so she was influenced by them at an early age.

"I loved the Holy Cross sisters dearly from an early age. I was taught by them in high school at Saint Catherine’s Academy in Ventura. They really impressed me. They were so compassionate, and had a wonderful sense of humor. They seemed to integrate their humanity with their spirituality. It was so beautiful, and I was really attracted to them.

"After high school, I went back to the Sisters of the Holy Cross to the novitiate at Notre Dame, Ind., in 1947," said Sr. Jacinta. "My folks were a little reluctant, but they let me go. I have two brothers and two older sisters. This was during World War II. We grew up during the Depression.

"Being Mexican was really hard during the Depression," said Sr. Jacinta. "My parents were not American citizens, although they were permanent residents. We had wonderful neighbors and relatives who looked out for one another. That is what people do in hard times. And that is what is happening now, people are looking out for one another."

Sr. Jacinta went to college at St. Mary College in Indiana, for two years. Then they sent her to Saint Mary of the Wasatch in Salt Lake City for summer school during her junior year. But they were also in need of teachers, so she also taught at the time.

"They were desperate for teachers," said Sr. Jacinta. "Then I started teaching in Sacramento in 1950. I taught in Fresno, and Los Angeles for 10 years. I taught for 15 years at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. I loved it. Then I also taught at a Holy Cross high school in Mountain View, Calif. I also taught at Saint Francis High School for 15 years.

"Then we had such an influx of the Latino community, so I was part of a group that started the Pastoral Center for Hispanics called Centro Pastoral in San Jose, Calif. A priest was our director and we also had lay people. It became the Office of Hispanic Ministries when we became a diocese. This was originally under the San Francisco Diocese, and then San Jose became a separate diocese.

"At that point, I was quite involved in the United Farm Worker (UFW) movement under Cesar Chavez," said Sr. Jacinta. "I think I became so involved because during the Depression my family lived in a migrant camp for a month. It was at a very young age that I learned of the injustices and inequalities in life.

"Supporters of the (UFW) movement were involved in pickets, and passed out leaflets. I also worked in youth ministry. We helped at conventions when they were in San Jose, with telephone campaigns, and in getting people to vote for propositions. These were exciting times.

"In the meantime I had been to Guatemala, to spend the summer," said Sr. Jacinta. "That was during the summer when I was still teaching high school. This experience turned my world around and was a life-changing experience for me. I had never seen that kind of poverty. I did not realize how involved the United States was in providing arms. They were really tumultuous times in Guatemala, the summer I was there. This would have been 1967. I was asked to go down there for the summer because I spoke Spanish.

"I was in a village. It was life-changing because these people lived in such poverty, but at the same time, they were so faith-filled. They did not have anything but hope. I was down there taking census, so that meant we had to go to all these little houses, huts, and shacks," said Sr. Jacinta. "I will never forget that experience.

"Then I got involved in an Al Viso Project in San Jose when I got back," said Sr. Jacinta. "It was mostly Hispanic, in between San Jose and Mountain View. It is Silicon Valley now. It was a small town. I got the high school students involved. It is still going on. It was an after-school program. Every Friday we would either cook, sew, do sports, or have a party. Now they do tutoring."

Sr. Jacinta said in 1977, they started a Hispanic committee with all branches of the Holy Cross priests, brothers, and sisters. She was invited to be part of that by the priest who organized it.

"That was how we started the Hispanic Ministry Committee," said Sr. Jacinta. "That was how I got to know Holy Cross Sisters Suzanne Brennan and Mary Ann Pajakowski. They joined because they were interested in Hispanic Ministries. We would meet once a year in different parts of the country, and that is how we became knowledgeable about the different ministries for Hispanics."

In 1984, Sr. Jacinta came to central Utah. Bishop William K. Weigand, then bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City (1980-1993) asked the Holy Cross Mother Superior for a bilingual sister to go to Richfield. Holy Cross Sister Patricia Riley and another sister were covering a lot of territory from Cedar City to Mount Pleasant.

"I was in that area for five and a half years," said Sr. Jacinta. "It was at the time of the amnesty, so Bishop Weigand asked me if I would do immigration work the last year and a half. I would help them fill out their forms without charging them an extravagant fee. The fee was $75 and some were charging them $2,000. We had a grant to pay for our gas because we traveled to St. George, Cedar City, Richfield, Ephraim, and all through that area.

"Now it is so wonderful to see some of the people after all these years, because they are now American citizens trying to get their parents legalized, or the parents are trying to get children or other relatives legalized from Mexico," said Sr. Jacinta. "It was a great experience. I would translate Father Mike Winterer’s homilies for him (pastor of Christ the King Parish, Cedar City). He was a traveling priest for this area. Ephraim, especially had a lot of Hispanics.

"After that I received an invitation to go to Assumption Seminary to be on the formation faculty in San Antonio, Texas. I directed the Spanish language and cultural program from 1989 to 1993. It was for the Oblate School of Theology.

"I loved San Antonio. It was a fiesta city," said Sr. Jacinta. "It is so Hispanic, so I did not have that much of a difficult time transitioning to Mexico, which is where I was invited to go next. I was invited by the Sisters of the Holy Cross to go to the parish that the Holy Cross priests had outside of Monterrey, Mexico.

"It was a mini-diocese really. It was a huge parish," said Sr. Jacinta. "We did parish ministry work. It is not like here where you travel distances. They have a lot of missions within a small area, and they are packed with people. There were only two priests. They have a lot of vocations there. We did bible studies with women’s groups and I helped coordinate catechists. I also worked with marriage encounter called Dinamicas Matrimoniales. This was a weekend experience which included the children. It occurred four times a year, and was for spirituality as well as emotional support. Then after that they would continue in support groups.

"I was nearing 70, so Sr. Suzanne Brennan invited me to come to Utah to join Holy Cross Ministries in 1999. Holy Cross Sister Catherine Kamphaus invited me to live at her house at Our Lady of Lourdes. I said that was the sign I needed.

"So I have been working part time for Holy Cross Sister Miriam Joanne Frankenfield in the parish health program," said Sr. Jacinta. "I serve as an interpreter and help screen for high blood pressure, hypertension, and diabetes. We have such a large population to serve at six parishes including Saints Peter and Paul, Saint Patrick, Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus, and San Felipe in Wendover. I also do parish home visits to four parishes in which I take Communion to the home bound. I visit the sick and the dying. That is a very humbling experience. But it is such a wonderful opportunity, because I visit children too. It is hard, and emotionally draining."

Sr. Jacinta decided she would retire when she was 80. She still has a lot of energy and is in good health. She will return to Saint Catherine’s in Ventura, Calif., where she began, and said it is away from the snow.

"I will be in a retirement house with 27 sisters. Holy Cross Sister Linda Bellemore, with whom I was in Richfield is the superior. I will be working in the spirituality center helping out with spiritual direction and visiting the sick.

"I have been very lucky," said Sr. Jacinta. "At age 30, I was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph glands. It was a misdiagnosis, but I did not know for 15 years. It was a blessing in disguise. It changed my perspective, along with a Spanish-speaking cursillo I did in San Francisco, and my experience in Guatemala. They showed me the giftedness of life, and gratitude. I would do it all over again.