Jubilarian Sister Lois M. Friedman
ministered at
Indianapolis parish
Sister Lois M. Friedman, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Family in Dubuque, Iowa, who recently ministered at St. Christopher Parish in Indianapolis, will celebrate her golden jubilee during a Mass on June 25 at Mount St. Francis in Dubuque.
A native of Halbur, Iowa, she joined the order on Aug. 25, 1954, following high school graduation and was formally received in the community on Aug. 15, 1955, when she received the name Mary Raphaela. She professed her first vows in 1957 and her perpetual vows in 1960.
Sister Lois received teacher training through the order’s Briar Cliff College and began teaching in 1957. She taught at Holy Trinity School in Dubuque from 1957-62 and St. Mary School in Waterloo, Iowa, from 1962-66. She served as a teacher and principal at Sacred Heart School in Templeton, Iowa, in 1966-67. She taught English and was in charge of freshman English classes at Wahlert High School in Dubuque from 1967-69.
From 1969-75, she pursued a master’s degree and doctorate in English from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., while serving as a teaching assistant, part-time teacher and coordinator of the writing laboratory she established there. She earned her doctoral degree in 1978.
Sister Lois taught English at Lander College in Greenwood, S.C., from 1975-83, St. Bonaventure University in Olean, N.Y., from 1986-87 and Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, N.C., from 1987-91, where she also served as associate vice chancellor for academic affairs from 1989-91.
She also ministered for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in Washington, D.C., and worked for a consulting firm in Collegeville, Pa., from 1983-86 to gain experience for later college and university administrative positions.
Sister Lois moved to Indianapolis in 1991 and served St. Christopher Parish as a eucharistic minister, parish visitor and companion to a nursing home resident and in several other pastoral ministries while working in a federal job assisting individuals and companies needing assistance with government agencies.
She retired in 2004 and will move from Indianapolis to Mount St. Francis in Dubuque this summer.
She will celebrate her 50th anniversary of profession with two brothers and two sisters as well as friends from Indianapolis who would like to join her for the liturgy and reception. †