Sister Rosemary Kane

Current Ministry Location: Maryknoll Sisters Center-Maryknoll, NY

Sister Rosemary was born June 15th, 1927 in New York City to Katharine (Feurer) Kane and Francis Kane. She had 2 brothers and 1 sister. Sister Rosemary graduated from St. Agnes High School, Rockville Center, NY in 1945.

Sister Rosemary entered the Congregation at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY on October 5, 1946. She pronounced First Vows April 6th, 1949 at the Sisters Center and she pronounced Final Vows April 6th, 1952 in Hawaii.

After her First Profession of Vows in 1949, Sister Rosemary was assigned to Hawaii and spent her first year on Maui, teaching in the primary school. During the next nine years she taught primary and secondary school on the island of Oahu.

In 1959, she returned to the Sisters Center and did promotion work for two years before studying at Maryknoll Teachers College, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Education. Following graduation in 1963, she was assigned to St. Anthony of Padua Primary School in the South Bronx, NY as school principal, sixth grade teacher and house superior. In 1964, she also attended classes for Leadership in Elementary School at Hunter College, New York, NY, and Fordham University in the Bronx.

In 1967, Sister Rosemary was assigned to Bolivia. After studying the Spanish language, she did home visiting and river trips, preparing the people who lived along the nearby Beni River for Mass and the sacraments. In 1968, after Vatican 2, she returned to her Baptismal name, Sister Rosemary. That same year she co-founded Radio San Miguel in collaboration with a Maryknoll priest, setting up the communication system of the Vicariate. The station served as the main source of communication, education and entertainment for all the people of Riberalta.

At the invitation of the head of the Communication Department of Indiana University in 1977, Sister Rosemary studied TV and video for two years, then went to Cochabamba, a city set in the foothills of the towering Andes Mountains, where she worked with the Maryknoll Fathers, producing video programs for children and as their bookkeeper. In 1984 she was named as manager of Radio San Raphael, an archdiocesan radio station in Cochabamba where she worked for eighteen years.

Sister Rosemary continued to minister in Cochabamba, satisfied by the opportunity her life has given her to impact the people of Bolivia’s Amazon Basin and Andes foothills, to help them understand their worth and grow in a faith that informs and strengthens their lives.

Sister Rosemary was most often found most days working at a soup kitchen in Cochbamba, Bolivia, where she also directed a group of young people in an annual English language play, and served on the Board of Directors of the Archdiocesan Institute for the Blind and on the religious formation team at Maryknoll High School.

Sister Rosemary retired in 2016 to the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY.