Meet Columban Sister Carmen Maldonado.

Sister Carmen’s contact with the Columban Sisters began at a very early age. Her home parish is Our Lady of Guadalupe ( Hammel St.) in Los Angeles, California where the Columban Sisters formally administered the parish school.   Carmen’s parents were very involved in parish life and Carmen and her four brothers followed their example.

Carmen attended Bishop Conaty Catholic Girls’ High School, and later completed her B.A. degree at the Chalon campus of Mount St. Mary’s College.

Following three years teaching she joined the Columban Sisters  and moved to Silver Creek New York as a postulant.  Her Novitiate formation was in Boston.   On Pentecost Sunday in 1985 she made her First Profession of Vows and was assigned to Chile.

Since then Carmen has spent most of her missionary religious life in  Chile in the shanty towns, where our Sisters live among the poor working in a variety of ministries with a particular emphasis on faith formation of families and of  young people.     In 1997 Carmen returned home to the United States for  Graduate studies in Theology in Boston After which she returned  to our mission in Chile again.   Since September 2005  she has been assigned in the U.S.

Sister Carmen with Sister Betty Monaghan from Philadelphia who was the U.S. Vocation Sister and accompanied Sister Carmen in the initial stages of her vocation.

Carmen who coordinates Vocation Ministry in Chile is seen here with our Chilean Columban novice, Anita Jara.

Sister Carmen shares pastoral concerns with Dominican Sister Gloria during a seminar.

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