Sister accepts award for Sister

By Tanya Connor  | The Catholic Free Press

You’d have thought she was the awardee, the way children and adults showed up for the Mass, and gathered around her for photos afterwards.
But then, the award had been given posthumously to her twin, who died in June.
The occasion was the annual Mass where Retired Religious awards are presented. It was held Sunday at St. Paul Cathedral, this time with just one award – for Felician Sister Mary Valenta Akalski, who, among other things, taught religion to kindergartners at St. Joseph Elementary School in Webster.
“She’s probably doing an Irish jig in heaven in honor of Bishop McManus,” her twin, Felician Sister Jeanne Marie Akalski, said after the Mass at which the bishop had presented her with her sister’s award.  “The Polish is out today – Irish win.”
The Committee for the Retirement Fund for Religious had already planned to give Sister Mary Valenta the award, Sister Paula Kelleher, of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph – Springfield, told worshippers Sunday. After she died, the decision was made to give it posthumously.
She told students from St. Joseph Elementary School attending the Mass to look around at the religious sisters there, and said that at one time every grade in their school was taught by a religious woman. She expressed hope that the “grace of the charism” of the sisters “finds its way into some hearts in Webster.”
She said Valenta means strength, generous and kind “and Sister was all of those things.” Religious women are often called simply “Sister,” but Sister Mary Valenta was called “Valie,” she said.
“She was truly everyone’s Valentine,” she said. “We miss you Valie.”
“She always had a hug for me, and a smile,” Jacob Sirard, a St. Joseph’s seventh-grader, told The Catholic Free Press, when asked about this “Valentine.”
“She gave me a religious movie,” said Andrew Bergeron, a fifth-grader. “She said I was her favorite. She taught me how to color well.”
In his homily at the Mass, Bishop McManus taught worshippers a bit about religious life and religious education.
He said it was fitting to celebrate this Mass in October, a month dedicated to the Blessed Mother, who is held up as a model among all women, indeed all people.
“Her entire life was a life of self surrender,” he said. She played a role in the history of salvation.
“Isn’t that what consecrated life is all about?” he asked. “The consecrated life … is a gift of self surrender … to the mysterious call of God … to follow … as a poor, chaste, obedient person.” He said the religious, like the young man in the Gospel, are hoping they will receive the gift of eternal life.
Speaking of St. Paul’s chastisement of the Galatians for straying from the true faith, Bishop McManus said, “In every part of the Church there are false teachers” who try to pull people off the right road.
“We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ,” he said. “Christ alone is our way, our truth and our life – no one else.”
He expressed disappointment in inadequate teaching of the faith in recent decades and said, “We are trying to catechize unevangelized people.” Being a Christian is the result of an encounter with a Person – Christ – he said, referring to a point made by Pope Benedict XVI.
“You cannot love what you do not know,” Bishop McManus said.  He spoke of the Eucharist at Mass as “a moment of privileged encounter with Jesus.”
 
Sister Mary  Valenta ministered at many Felecian schools

By William T. Clew
The Catholic Free Press
Sister Mary Valenta Akalski, born Bertha Akalski, recipient of this year’s Retired Religious award, came into this world just a few minutes after her twin, Sister Jeanne Marie Akalski.
And on the day she died, June 21, Sister Jeanne was with her at St. Vincent Hospital.
They were born in the Bronx, N.Y. on July 12, 1939, to Joseph and Sally (Slawinski) Akalski. Two brothers, Robert and Joseph, came later.
The two sisters attended St. Adalbert School in the Bronx, taught by Felician Sisters, or more formally, the Congregation of Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice.
After high school, Sister Jeanne became a postulant at the Felician Motherhouse in Enfield, Conn. Her sister Bertha entered the business world,  according to her biography provided by the Felician Congregation.
“We had our own vocations,” Sister Jeanne said.
On Aug. 1, 1959, Bertha became a postulant at the Felician Convent in Lodi, New Jersey. On Aug. 14, 1960, she received the Felician Franciscan habit and was given her name in religion, Sister Mary Valenta. The next year she made her first profession of vows. Six years later, on Aug. 15, 1967, she professed her final vows, according to the biography.
“As a Felician Sister, she was a relentless educator,” her biography states. “She loved little children and most of the time she was assigned first or second grade. She ministered in schools staffed by the Felician Sisters in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Massachusetts.
“But sometimes her teaching career was interrupted as she shared her other talents. In 1973 and 1974 she practiced her culinary skills at the Holy House in Washington, New Jersey. She also helped with the World Fatima Apostolate there. She returned to the Holy House again in 1983 for a year.
When her mother became ill the Felician Sisters gave her permission to be caregiver until her mother’s death in November 1982.
In 1985 she joined the culinary staff of the Felician Sisters’ Generalate in Rome.  
“Since the Generalate offered hospitality to countless Felician Sisters and other visitors, Sister Valenta and the kitchen crew were always busy,” her biography states.
Among those many visitors was Pope John Paul II. In her personal file, according to her biography, there is a picture of her with the pope, now St. John Paul II.
In 1989 she returned to Lodi and taught at the Felician College Child Care Center. She was a “pioneer member” of the Cenacle of Prayer, which met Thursdays to pray for priests, according to her biography.
She helped found the Guardian Angel Child Care in Wilmington, Delaware, which serves children of low-income working parents. In 2001 she moved to Immaculate Conception Parish in Spotswood, New Jersey. She began a weekly rosary prayer session in a local restaurant after getting permission from the owner.
In 2010 she joined her sister at St. Joseph’s Convent in Webster. Sister Jeanne had taught at schools in Enfield, Connecticut; Rutland, Vermont; Lowell and Fall River; Amsterdam, New York, and even in her old elementary school in the Bronx.
When Sister Valenta came to Webster, it was the first time the twins had worked together in religious life.
They didn’t do that in those days,” Sister Jeanne said.
Sister Jeanne teaches fourth-graders at St. Joseph School. Her sister taught religion to kindergarteners and was an aide to the teacher.
She went into cardiac arrest when they were returning to the convent after working at the annual parish picnic.
She was on a life-support respirator for six days. Doctors said there was no hope for recovery. Sister Jeanne said she asked her comatose sister, whom she called “Valie,” to open her eyes if she was willing to have the respirator removed.
Sister Jeanne said “Valie” opened her eyes. The respirator was removed and a short time later, she passed away.