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NCNWR 16th Annual Conference 
SEPTEMBER 21-24, 2010
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News

Sr. Emmanuela Le professes final vows

February 18, 2009

(Grand Prairie, TX -- January 2009) -- Sr. Emmanuela Le professed her perpetual vows of chastity, poverty and obedience during a special Mass Jan. 31 in Grand Prairie, Texas.

The Most Rev. Kevin W. Vann, JCD, DD, bishop of Ft. Worth, TX, presided at the mass and accepted Sr. Emmanuela’s vows on behalf of the whole Church.  Sr. Sally Marie Kiepura, CSFN, provincial superior, accepted Sr. Emmanuela’s profession on behalf of the province and the entire international congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth (CSFN).

Sr. Emmanuela, 30, became a CSFN affiliate in 1999 and joined the congregation as a postulant in 2000. She spent nine years in formation -- two years as a postulant, two years as a novice and the past five years as a temporarily professed sister, making her temporary vows on an annual basis. 

A native of Vietnam, Sr. Emmanuela emigrated to the U.S. with her family when she was 7.  After a year in Baltimore, the family settled in New Jersey.  The youngest of nine (six boys, three girls), Emmanuela attended Catholic elementary and high schools, where she was taught by Franciscans and Sisters of Charity. She first encountered the CSFNs in 1999 while on a Marian Day Pilgrimage in Carthage, Missouri, and soon found herself on a two-week visit to the Grand Prairie, Texas, convent.

During her years of formation with the community, Emmanuela completed her B.A. in interdisciplinary studies at the University of Texas at Arlington, while working part-time at Holy Family of Nazareth Parish serving Grand Prairie and Irving, and volunteering on weekends at the local Vietnamese parish, St. Joseph. 

Another step in the formation process included an August 2008 pilgrimage to Poland, an experience Emmanuela calls "very profound." "My whole formation, I learned about our Mother Foundress (Blessed Frances Siedliska), so to be able to walk in her footsteps -- it just had a great impact on my life. It was like going back to the roots of my own mother."

Provincial Superior Sr. Sally Marie Kiepura, CSFN, said, "I speak for our  Nazareth community in the U.S. when I say how delighted we are to welcome Sr. Emmanuela.  Her youth, her joy in the Lord bode well for our Nazareth mission -- to spread the kingdom of God’s love to families."

Sr. Edyta Krawczyk, CSFN, a provincial counselor and initial formation liaison for the CSFNs’ Holy Family Province (U.S.), says of Sr. Emmanuela: “She came to our Nazareth family bringing with her the love that she has received in her family of origin. Through Sr. Emmanuela, God has enriched our Nazareth family with her quiet yet strong, loving presence and her gentle yet courageous heart. Witnessing her process of growth and "falling in love" with God and Nazareth’s spirit and mission, I often felt called to rekindle the freshness of my love for God and Nazareth and its spirit and mission."

On March 28, the Sisters of the Holy Family will welcome another sister professing her perpetual vows: Sr. Nahida Al Sawa. 

In the U.S., the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth have some 370 sisters in Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Puerto Rico. The international congregation, headquartered in Rome, has some 1,400 sisters serving in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. 

Media contact:
Judith A. Horak
National Director of Communications
847-298-6760, x144
jhorak@nazarethcsfn.org