Gulf Pine Catholic

24 Gulf Pine Catholic • November 22, 2024 More consultation is needed before Bishop Cozzens officially opens a cause, Zurface told OSV News . However, Sister Annella’s “life was a testament to heroic virtue, and it offers us a profound witness of how suffering can be transformed into an offering of love for Christ and his church,” Msgr. Baumgartner said. Speaking to the bishops Nov. 12, Bishop Cozzens called Sister Annella an “apostle of suffering for our day.” “Many people have expressed that her witness to the value of suffering has helped them embrace their own suffering with faith in God’s goodness,” he said. “Sister Annella is a true teacher of our Catholic faith, witnessing that each person, regard- less of their struggle, has great dignity and is created for intimacy with God. And she teaches us that God is our truest friend, and our vocations are good even when they take a different path than we might expect.” While those who knew Sister Annella in life have since died, memories of Gertrude Barber are still fresh for those with whom she worked and cared. Born 11 years after Sister Annella in Erie, Pennsylvania, Barber grew up in a large Catholic family, attended Penn State University and began a teaching career in the Erie School District in 1931. She eventually became a school psycholo- gist, where her job included turning stu- dents away from the school because of their intellectual disabilities. “She was deeply affected as she saw parents face the agony of either keeping their chil- dren at home with- out access to an education or sending them away to a distant institu- tion where they would be segregat- ed from the world,” states a short biog- raphy circulated by leaders of her can- onization cause. “Dr. Barber was determined to find another way.” Her deep faith USCCB FALL24 Cause Consultations From page 22 and view of all as children of God led Barber to begin a decades-long crusade to educate children with special needs. In 1952, she opened a classroom in Erie for students with intellectual disabilities, which expanded to meet the needs of other students with special needs as well as adults. She founded the Dr. Gertrude A. Barber Center, which included ser- vices for people with intellectual disabilities at every life stage, and her work received significant educa- tional, civic and religious recognition. In 1990, at age 78, she traveled to Washington to witness the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act . Barber’s cause officially opened in 2019, and she is now titled a “servant of God.” “So many people have been inspired by her, and that’s what’s motivated all of this -- you look at the life of somebody like Gertrude, who followed Christ so closely in her mission,” Msgr. Tom McSweeney, a priest of the Diocese of Erie and the cause’s postulator, told OSV News . As the executive vice president of what is now named the Barber National Institute, Maureen Barber-Carey carries on her aunt’s legacy. She recalls Barber’s work as driven by her deep faith. She noted that Barber once gave her one of her jackets, and pinned to the inside of the sleeve was a prayer. “She truly believed she was a servant of God, and she was doing God’s work on earth,” Barber-Carey said. “It was to have persons with disabilities acknowl- edged -- that they were children of God, just as a person without a disability is, and as a child of God, they deserve every right to have every opportunity to be the best they can possibly be.” Erie Mayor Joe Schember warmly recalls Barber’s work with his daughter, Jodi, who is now 39. “She did seem holy to me,” Schember, a Catholic, said of Barber. “She was a very open person, a very friendly person.” Speaking to his fellow bishops Nov. 12, Bishop Lohse said that Barber’s “life and witness call us to remember and honor the presence of Christ, even in the most vulnerable of our brothers and sis- ters, and to see reflected in them the beauty of a loving Creator.” After the “positio” for each woman is sent to Rome, it is to be reviewed and sent to the pope for a decree of heroic virtues. If the pope grants that decree, the person is given the title “venerable.” In general, for a cause to proceed to beatification, a confirmed miracle must be attributed to the vener- able’s intercession. A second miracle must be con- firmed before a person is canonized. “Especially in this time, people are longing for God,” said Norton, Sister Annella’s longtime pro- moter. “These saints can bring souls to God. Not just one, not just two, but thousands and millions.” Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News. Sister Annella Zervas, a professed religious of the Order of St. Benedict, is pictured in this undated photo. Her cause for canonization was presented to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 12. OSV News photo/courtesy of The Sister Annella Zervas, OSB, Guild Pray for an increase of vocations to the priesthood, to the diaconate, and to the religious life, especially in the Diocese of Biloxi.