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Old 06-26-2020, 11:38 AM
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Arrow Sister Angela Marie Rooney, 103, Dies; Oldest Member of Her Order in New York

Sister Angela Marie Rooney, 103, Dies; Oldest Member of Her Order in New York
By: John Leland - New York Times - 06-26-20
Re: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/o...ronavirus.html

Photo link: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020...y=90&auto=webp
Sister Angela Marie Rooney, a member of the Sisters of Charity, at her 100th-birthday party in 2017. It was a big leap for her when she left her convent for assisted living. Credit...Elena Miranda

When Sister Angela Marie Rooney was 98 years old, she moved out of the Roman Catholic Convent of Mary the Queen in Yonkers, N.Y., and into an assisted living facility run by Jewish Home Lifecare in the Bronx. Isn’t that the way faith goes in New York?

The moves by Sister Angela and 22 other Sisters of Charity into the home that year were inevitable. Fewer young women were becoming nuns, meaning there was not enough money in the order to maintain the convent; the existing nuns were aging into advanced care; and the Jewish Home was one of the few places that could accommodate so many new residents at once.

But it was a leap for the nuns. “I wanted my convent, my great big chapel, my Stations of the Cross,” Sister Angela told The Associated Press in 2015, describing her first impressions. “The very name ‘Jewish Home’ turned me off.” She added, “I don’t think anyone came here with a heavier heart than me.”

But nuns adapt; facilities, likewise. The home offered daily Mass for the new residents. And Sister Angela took to attending both Jewish and Protestant services as well, on the logic that all were serving “one God, worshiped in different ways,” her cousin Susan Hearty said.

At her 100th-birthday party there, in 2017, Sister Angela recorded a message of gratitude to the home, saying, “It should be spread abroad and all over the world: The Jewish Home could not have been more loving and caring.”

Sister Angela, proud of her digital skills, designed the party program and place cards herself on a computer.

The oldest member of the Sisters of Charity of New York, she celebrated her 103rd birthday in February, before the coronavirus — which hit hard at facilities for older adults — caught up with her. She died on May 27 at St. Vincent de Paul Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in the Bronx, where she had moved after contracting the virus, the order said.

“She was grateful that her health was as good as it was for as long as it was,” Ms. Hearty said, “but she was prepared, mentally and spiritually, to meet her Lord, and she looked forward to it.”

Catherine Cecilia Rooney was born on Feb. 22, 1917, in Manhattan, the oldest of three children of Hugh and Bridget Rooney. Her father, from County Donegal in Ireland, was a firefighter; her mother, from County Armagh, kept the household.

She entered the Sisters of Charity in 1939, receiving the name Sister Angela Marie, and took her final vows in 1945.

One of her aunts was a Carmelite nun, and two first cousins were Sisters of Charity. Her brother, Msgr. Hugh Rooney, was a priest. Her brother and her sister, Ann T. Rooney, died before her.

Sister Angela taught first through eighth grade at several Catholic schools from 1939 to 1979, then worked another 31 years at the Sisters of Charity Center in the Bronx, first as a secretary and then as a volunteer.

Sister Ann Costello, for whom she worked at the center, remembered Sister Angela hopping the bus to the subway to the B. Altman department store in Manhattan, returning with sharp outfits. “She was a spiffy dresser,” Sister Ann said. “She always looked very nice and precise.”

She made a point of knowing the names of everyone who worked at Jewish Home Lifecare, now the New Jewish Home. Ms. Hearty recalled giving her a shawl there as a present.

“The next time I saw her,” Ms. Hearty said, “she thanked me for it and said how lovely it was, and she hoped I didn’t mind, but she gave it to one of the ladies who worked in the home, because she had been so kind to her.”

John Leland, a Metro reporter, joined The Times in 2000. His most recent book is “Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons From a Year Among the Oldest Old,” based on a Times series. @johnleland

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Personal note: It seems even the good one's die young. Such dedication should not go down without reward. New York another Angle was lost in your state. My she rest in peace and the Lord our God - Bless You For Your Service to All.

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O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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