50-year Jubilarian - Sister Bernadette Mulick

Intermountain Catholic

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Sister Bernadette Mulick

SALT LAKE CITY — Holy Cross Sister Bernadette Mulick was greatly influenced by the Holy Cross sisters early in her life. She will celebrate her Jubilee Aug. 15 of this year.

Sr. Bernadette was born in Omaha, Neb., but raised in Pocatello, Idaho, the third of eight children. She attended a Catholic grade school and was taught by Holy Cross sisters. "I was impressed with how prayerful, reflective and compassionate they were, but yet when they entertained they were empathetic and playful and had fun; they celebrated life," she said.

Sr. Bernadette graduated from a public high school in 1958 and went to Notre Dame, Ind., to enter the Holy Cross order. She took her first vows in 1961 and her final vows in 1964.

"My parents were in shock that I wanted to become a sister because I was a tomboy," Sr. Bernadette said. "I liked playing softball, sleigh riding and skiing with my brothers. We would come to Salt Lake to ski at Brighton on the Union Pacific Railroad because my father worked for the railroad.

"But then I decided there was much more to life," she said. "In the beginning, I thought I was going to save the world, but really the people saved me. They had such an impact on my life. I received so much love and compassion from the people in my ministry."

Sr. Bernadette attended the Holy Cross School of Nursing in Salt Lake City; she became a licensed practical nurse in 1961and a registered nurse in 1964. In 1974 she received a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University. From 1974 to 1979, she was a nursing director at Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, Calif. From 1979 to 1985, Sr. Bernadette was a nurse epidemiologist at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, Calif. She was an administrative assistant/counselor from 1985 to 1986 at Saint Mary’s College in the Rome, Italy Program.

From there Sr. Bernadette was the area coordinator at a home health agency in Raymondville, Texas. She moved to Utah in 1987, where she became director of mission services at Holy Cross Jordan Valley Hospital until 1994 when Holy Cross Hospital was sold. From 1994 to 1996 she was in school at the University of Utah School of Medicine and became a physician’s assistant in family and preventive medicine.

"I worked in various offices, including St. Joseph Villa, from 2000 to 2006," she said. "I was a chaplain at Jordan Valley Hospital from 2004 to 2006.

"When I first became a religious, I thought I was going to save my brothers and sisters, and everybody, when in fact, it was people in my life in many ways who saved me," Sr. Bernadette said. "It was in the suffering of other people that I saw the suffering Christ. I saw in other people their compassion, empathy and their love of God that brought me closer to Christ. I found more of God in them, and it made me look at myself and how I was bringing Christ to them as a religious. I saw in my family and friends a good example in their everyday living. They were helping me come closer to the God I had committed myself to. In my Jubilee year I can see God working. I have a profound gratitude for everything other people have given me."

Sr. Bernadette will move in August to Saint Catherine by the Sea Convent in Ventura, Calif., to work with and attend to the retired sisters there.