A legacy of service: Holy Cross Ministries marks 150 years of care in Utah

Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

SALT LAKE CITY — Friends, supporters and staff past and present celebrated Holy Cross Ministries’ 150-year legacy of service at the Fiesta 150 event on Oct. 4 at the University of Utah Alumni House. The evening featured indigenous Latin American cuisine, a mariachi band and inspiring words from leaders, including Bishop Oscar A. Solis and Sister Sharlet Ann Wagner, CSC, president of the Congregation of Holy Cross. 

For her remarks, Sr. Sharlet donned a habit like those worn by the sisters who first came to Utah in 1875. The habit included a floor-length black tunic and a starched white headpiece known as a halo that framed the face.

“I have to say that putting all of this on leads me feeling so deeply grateful to be changed from the old habit to something that cost far less time and energy and material,” Sr. Sharlet said.

She then shared a brief history of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Utah, noting that the first Sisters in the state, Mother Augusta Anderson and Sister Raymond Sullivan, very quickly founded several schools and a hospital to take care of the local Catholic population. She outlined the many years of service the Sisters provided before they founded Holy Cross Ministries in 1994 to continue their work after the sale of the Holy Cross hospitals in Utah; the last sister to serve with Holy Cross Ministries retired in 2024.

“Running through all those stories and binding them together was the strong thread of our Holy Cross charism of doing what needs doing,” Sr. Sharlet said. “We were founded to meet the needs of the time, whatever those needs may be.”

Having served in Utah twice, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2008 to 2009 as an immigration attorney and director of the legal immigration program, Sr. Sharlet’s own story is intertwined with that of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in the state, she said.

“The work of Mother Augusta and Sister Raymond and of those early pioneers, lives on today in Holy Cross Ministries,” she said. “I feel confident that they would be pleased were they to return and see this evolution and continuation of their early work in Utah.”

In his comments at the celebration, Bishop Oscar A. Solis said that after eight years in the diocese, “I learned what Holy Cross stands for: 150 years of service to this community. They did not only build schools, ministries, orphanages and other kinds of charitable services, they helped build this kind of community that we enjoy today: a community that cares, a community that welcomes people of every race, culture, language and any kind of background, a community that is a heart for the poor, the marginalized.”

The event’s keynote speaker, Utah Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, said that while she is a member of another faith, her admiration for the Catholic Church and the Sisters of the Holy Cross stems from her high school years at a Catholic school in San Diego.

“A place where I felt safe, loved and respected was in my education at that Catholic school,” she said. “And it resonates now more than ever to know that Holy Cross Ministries is probably one of the few, if not the only organization, that continues with persistence, with compassion, love, helping and serving my brothers and sisters in our immigrant community now.  So I want to say thank you … because without you and what’s happening here, the hope is leaving the lives of many.”

Escamilla went on to recount that as a young woman, freshly graduated from the University of Utah and working for the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition, she was filled with admiration for the work Sr. Sharlet was doing at Holy Cross Ministries.

“As a young woman, woman of color, Latina immigrant, she was one of my biggest inspirations and I wanted to be like her,” she said.

Escamilla praised the work of Holy Cross Ministries over the last 150 years, particularly in the present political climate where life in the United States can be difficult for immigrants. 

“I want to make sure we understand how critical the services are, because no one else is providing them, and there is a lack of help,” she said. “The compassion and respect and love that’s delivered, and the continuity is what makes this celebration bigger than ever.”

Escamilla then presented Sr. Sharlet with a citation from the Utah State Senate commending the Sisters of the Holy Cross for their work in Utah. Following that, Judith Puhr with St. Martha’s Baby Project presented Sr. Sharlet with two dozen roses in honor of the work Holy Cross Ministries has accomplished.

Fiesta 150 finished off with a live auction that raised funds for Holy Cross Ministries.