Led Franciscans through era of seismic changes
She brought expertise in organizational dynamics as she helped groups such as her own religious order navigate seismic social changes.
But as painful and tense as those changes could be, she could lighten the atmosphere by drawing from her quick wit and a storehouse of memorized passages from Shakespeare.
Sister Ann Carville died Saturday at age 77 at the Mount Alvernia campus in Millvale of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities. She had been ill with heart and kidney problems.
In more than 59 years as a Franciscan, she worked as a schoolteacher, internationally known organizational consultant, community minister to her own congregation of sisters, and associate director of an umbrella group of religious orders.
“She had a keen mind in her ability to analyze and see dynamics that were going on,” said her longtime colleague and fellow Franciscan, Sister Margaret Carney. “But she had a sense of humor that was absolutely delightful.”
Numerous religious orders and other organizations consulted her as they navigated massive social and institutional change.
That included helping her own Millvale-based sisters, who merged with other congregations in the Neumann Communities. Even as its members aged and declined in number, she and others were determined that they keep active fostering education, environmental stewardship and other outreaches. “Our greatest fear is to lose a sense of mission,” she once said.
Sister Carney said of that experience: “Anyone would love to be in the founding phase of an organization. It’s not a lot of fun to be a leader in the declining phase. But she didn’t shrink from the responsibility.”
Sister Carney met Sister Carville decades ago, when the Vatican was revising canon law that governed Catholic religious orders. It was seeking input from dioceses around the world. In Pittsburgh, hundreds of religious sisters came to hearings that were convened to discuss the matter — a welcome but overwhelming amount of input.
That was when Sister Carville introduced herself to Sister Carney, who was helping coordinate the effort, and said: “I think you need help. I think I can help you get through this.”
The sisters went on to organize such a thorough report that it made a strong impression on Vatican officials, standing out among reports from all over the world, recalled Sister Carney.
Sister Carville was also vice chair of the St. Francis Health System in 2002, when it sold the landmark St. Francis Medical Center in Lawrenceville, which the sisters had operated for generations and which was a go-to hospital for many of the city’s poor. The hospital was ultimately replaced with Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.
As with many faith-based hospitals, the sisters had found they could no longer afford to operate the medical center. But Sister Carville told the press at the time of the sale that the sisters were determined to find new ways to carry out their mission of serving the needy.
“Providing health care to the sick and the poor is a priority of the Gospel itself,” she said. “The Gospel priorities don’t go away.”
She was born Nov. 6, 1940, in Pittsburgh, the daughter of Catherine Carville.
Sister Carville entered the Franciscans in 1958. She earned a Bachelor of Arts at Carlow College; a Master of Arts at St. Louis University, with focuses on Shakespeare and educational administration; and eventually a doctorate in human and organizational development at the Fielding Institute in California.
She taught in Catholic schools around Johnstown, Butler and Pittsburgh.
She served as the associate director of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men Religious, the first woman to hold such a position in 41 years. She also worked in the planning office of the Missionary Congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers and Brothers in Pittsburgh.
When it became clear that her illness was terminal, Sister Carville decided to enter hospice care forgo medical interventions that might have extended her life but would not have cured her.
“She was crystal, crystal clear that the grace of her life was to accept it was coming to an end,” said Sister Carney said.
Her funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Mount Alvernia.