Sister Cecilia Van Zandt preparing to leave Utah

Friday, Jun. 10, 2016

LAYTON — After more than a decade in Utah, Daughter of Charity Sister Cecilia Van Zandt will return to the Daughters of Charity Provincialate in Los Altos, Calif.

Sr. Cecilia retired as an assistant in the Diocese of Salt Lake City Special Needs Program in 2011; the program provides scholarships to children to attend Utah Catholic schools. Since then she occasionally assisted Daughter of Charity Sister Stella Marie Zahner, then director of the Special Needs Program, and helped with community records and fulfilled other duties. 

“Sr. Cecilia has been a faithful servant, who has admirably fulfilled the charism of the Daughters of Charity here in the Diocese of Salt Lake City these many years,” said Msgr. Colin F. Bircumshaw, diocesan administrator. “By so doing, she has developed strong roots of friendship and admiration in this Utah soil that will be difficult to uproot.  We will miss her generous and kind presence and ministry.”

Sr. Cecilia professed her first vows in 1945. Looking back at all of the places she has been assigned, she has served in Utah the longest, she said. “I have been in Utah 17 years, about 12 years in Alabama, 10 years in New Orleans, and they go down from there,” she said. “I’ve been in Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington State, St. Louis, and that is something to think about.”

The sisters are not usually asked where they want to go; their education and qualifications are considered, Sr. Cecilia said. “I’ve gone many different places, none of which were my choice,” she said. “As I think about all the different places and experiences I’ve had, I see how they have impacted my life; the friends I have in these places, how they have affected me, helped me spirituality and how things have developed.” 

The median age for the Daughters of Charity is now about 75, said Sr. Cecilia. “We tend to keep sisters out in the mission as long as their health will allow, but there comes a point when it’s better for a younger sister to develop new ideas and allow things to grow, and in the long run they get better,” she said. 

Returning to the Provincialate, where many meetings and events are held, “is one of the things that I am looking forward to; being there to see people,” Sr. Cecilia said. “I have been very happy in Layton, but I haven’t been able to see my friends very often. I’m also looking forward to getting to know the younger sisters.” 

Life in Utah has been different than it was in New Orleans, St. Louis, Los Angeles, or “other places that I served,” Sr. Cecilia said. “I saw the Church from a new perspective in Utah. The culture here is different from other places. For example in Los Angeles there are more Catholics and priests; there are fewer in Utah, but you have the ability to get to know them and the bishop easier.”

While sitting in the first pew at Mass watching people come forth for Communion Sr. Cecilia has observed the culture in Utah, she said. 

“I’ve noticed that Church is family, my spiritual family,” she said. “There are men, women, young, old, people with children, those with canes and walkers, those in jeans, those more dressed up, women who get their children to fold their hands, people who receive Communion in their hands, on their tongue; I just keep thinking Church is family, we are all one family,” she said. “We need to get over culture wars, and not worry about how people do their devotion – it doesn’t matter as long as we are all faithful and accepting of one another.” 

Thinking back, Sr. Cecilia recalled beginning her career as a sister and a school teacher when she was 18. 

“I was concentrating on being successful,” she said. “The first 12 years I was thinking, ‘Am I treating and teaching these children in the right way? I am being evaluated.’ I was concentrating on myself.”

Then Sr. Cecilia was asked to be a principal and then a superior, to which she thought, “No, I don’t think I can do that,” she said.

Her superior assured her she would gain confidence and guidance and she shouldn’t expect to be successful all at once; she needed to be humble and patient, and keep working at it and she would achieve, “and that is what happened,” she said. 

“What you find as you go along is there are disappointments, things that need to be changed, but if you concentrate on what your motive is and follow your vocation, things will work out,” Sr. Cecilia said. “Prayer gives you peace. Community in religious life offers people who have been through more or less the same experiences who can offer guidance; the sacraments also offer guidance and peace.”

WHAT: Farewell BBQ for Sr. Cecilia Van Zandt

WHEN: Sunday, June 12, 12:30-2 p.m. 

WHERE: St. Olaf Parish's McNamara Center, 1800 S. Orchard Drive, Bountiful 

TICKETS: $10/per person, $25 per family

Proceeds benefit those in need.