Current Ministry Location: Maryknoll Sisters Center – Maryknoll, NY
Sister Marcella was born June 23rd, 1935 to Elizabeth (Ploeger) and Frank Hoesl in Cincinnati, Ohio. She had one older brother, Francis, who died as a child.
Sister Marcella entered the Congregation September 2nd, 1957 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY after graduation from Mother of Mercy High School in Cincinnati in 1953 and from Villa Madonna College (now Thomas More) in Covington, KY in 1957. She pronounced First Vows June 24th, 1960 at the Sisters Center and Final Vows June 24th, 1966 in Mexico.
Sister Marcella’s first foreign assignment was to Mexico. She served from 1961 – 1999 in Mexico, Guatemala, southern Sudan and Great Britain. She has taught at Maryknoll School of Theology in NY, was Dean and Head of the Department of Mission Studies at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, England (an ecumenical consortium) and Assistant Director of the Theological Institute of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, Scotland. She served briefly, from 1994 – 2005, as pastoral associate at St. Ignatius Loyola Parish, Cincinnati before becoming Academic Dean and Professor of Systematic Theology at the Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas. This School of Theology has prepared persons of many nationalities for ministry within several cultures, and particularly within the Hispanic community.
Working alongside a Maryknoll Father, Sister Marcella also helped to form the Maryknoll Mission Renewal Program.
Over the years Sister Marcella studied and earned degrees at:
∙ Inst. Sup De Pastoral Cat, Paris, France Religious Education in 1968
∙ Institute Catholique, Paris France, Licentiate/Sacred Theology in 1970
∙ Institute Catholique, Paris France, Doctor/Sacred Theology in 1973
∙ St. Paul’s University, Ottawa, Canada, Master of Arts in Pastoral Counselling in 1980.
After retiring as a theology teacher in the Maryknoll Sisters Eastern U.S. Region, Sister Marcella lived in Hamilton, OH. There, she was a regular reviewer of books for Missiology, and volunteered at St. Raphael’s Social Service Agency in Hamilton, devoting her time to helping the poor and homeless; serving as facilitator for care-givers with Catholic Charities; and performed care-giving for her own cousin.
Sister Marcella is currently retired, and a member of the Eden community at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, NY.