Sr. Miriam Therese Larkin, CSJ, former LCWR president, dies

Funeral services were held May 26 at Carondelet Center for Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Miriam Therese Larkin, who died May 21 at the Carondelet Center in Los Angeles. She was 80.

A former president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the mid-1980s, she had been a member of the CSJ community since 1949.

Born Jan. 7, 1930 in Los Angeles, she was baptized in Transfiguration Church and attended St. John the Evangelist before moving with her family to Immaculate Heart of Mary, Hollywood. She attended St Mary's Academy grade school and high school, and graduated from Mount St Mary's College.

"From my parents' lives," she once said, "I learned that God is real, God is to be trusted and God will always give you what you need."

After graduate studies at Regina Mundi in Rome, the University of Notre Dame and UCLA, Sister Larkin taught philosophy at Mount St. Mary's College from 1965 to 1982. For six of those years, she also ministered as director of novices for the L.A. Province.

While general superior of the CSJ congregation from 1982-1990, she served in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious from 1984-1987. She was on the writing committee for the revision of LCWR bylaws and facilitated the response of a group of congregational leaders to a controversial New York Times ad of Oct. 7, 1984.

In her speech accepting the presidency of LCWR, she uttered prophetic words about the importance of dialog: "In the Conference we have often identified dialog as a means to communion. This dialog is not simply a means to be used until we achieve our ends. Dialog is, as Paul VI has said, of the essence of the Church --- relationships within the Church must have the character of a dialog. To engage in dialog, as we have committed ourselves, is to engage primarily in the process of changing relationships."

Sister Larkin also served as president of the U.S. Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph from 1984-1988 and, as a member of The International Union of Superiors General, she was a councilor for the North American Region from 1986-1989. She spent the last 20 years of her ministry in theological education and spiritual development and also served as a member of the Board of Trustees at Mount St. Mary's College.

Memorial donations may be sent to: Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, 11999 Chalon Road, Los Angeles, CA 90049. Burial was at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

Sr. Miriam Genevieve Flavin, OSF
Funeral services were held May 10 at Holy Family Convent in Manitowoc, Wis., for Franciscan Sister Miriam Genevieve Flavin, 85, who died May 5. She had been a professed member of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity for 64 years.

Born in Delaware, Ohio, Sister Flavin (Mary Rita) entered the convent in 1942 and professed her vows three years later. She earned a BA degree from Holy Family College, Manitowoc and a MS degree from Notre Dame University.

She taught in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and California. From 1964 to 1973, she taught chemistry and physics at Bishop Amat High School, La Puente, where she also served as the chair of the science department. Besides her love of science, which she nurtured in many of her students, she also enjoyed sports, music and the arts.

Survivors include a sister, Franciscan Sister Martin Flavin, and brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Virginia Flavin, of Fullerton. To view online memorials for Sister Flavin, log on to Bishop Amat's website: www.bishopamat.org and click on "Remembering Sister Genevieve" on the home page.

Sr. Annette Petty, BVM
Funeral services were held recently in Dubuque, Iowa, for Sister of Charity Annette Petty, 74, who died May 6 at Marian Hall in Dubuque. She had been a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary for 48 years.

Born in Glendale, she entered the BVM congregation in 1961 from Holy Redeemer Church, Montrose. She taught in California, Illinois and Kansas City. Locally, she taught at Assumption School (1968-69), St. Philip School (1969-70), St. Mary School in Apple Valley (1975-77), and at North Shore Elementary School in Big Bear Lake from 1977-96.

She also served as a substitute teacher at St. Joseph Catholic Community and a volunteer at Bear Valley Recreation & Parks Dept. Memorials may be sent to the Sisters of Charity, BVM Support Fund, 1100 Carmel Drive, Dubuque, IA 52003 or online at www.bvmcong.org/whatsnew_obits.cfm.

Clifford Gilb
Funeral services were held June 2 at Queen of Heaven Cemetery and Mortuary in Rowland Heights for Clifford Gilb, 82, who died May 22. Surviving family members include his brother, Msgr. Eugene A. Gilb, pastor emeritus, St. John Fisher Church, Rancho Palos Verdes.

Sr. Constance Loughran, CHF
A Memorial Mass was recently held at St. John of God Convent in Norwalk for the late Holy Faith Sister Constance Loughran (Mary Cabrini).

Born in Robinstown, County Meath, Ireland in 1928, she was given the religious name, Cabrini, when she entered the congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Faith. This proved to be prophetic since her future mission would be in America. Her ministry, always in leadership roles, took her from Northern to Southern California. Locally, she served as principal of St. John of God School in Norwalk.

When she returned to Ireland in the 1980s to assume a General Leadership position, her creativity came to fruition in pastoral work in the Dublin Diocese, in restructuring the CHF Novitiate Building into a new Medical Center for Aging Sisters and in promoting the on-going education of all the Sisters. At her Memorial Mass, she was remembered as a woman of strength, deep faith, a great visionary, a dedicated catechist and a strong leader in the implementation of the Documents of Vatican II.