Sept. 26, 2018

By Deacon Kevin Mastellon
Contributing Writer

WATERTOWN – Sister Mary Catherine Pham, a Sister Adorer of the Precious Blood, professed final vows as a consecrated religious on Sept. 14.

Bishop Terry R. LaValley presided at the ceremony and celebrated Mass with 10 concelebrants at St. Patrick’s Church in Watertown.

The Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood are contemplatives, who live their lives in prayer.

"Called to a way of sanctity rooted in the wisdom of the past, yet adapted to needs of our present day," the Sisters live and pray in their Monastery in Watertown.

Sister Mary Catherine is a native of Vietnam. She is one of nine children.

In her vocation story, published in the community's newsletter, Cloister Echoes, Sister Mary Catherine wrote, "we (she and her siblings) were among those later known as the 'boat people' who escaped communism in the 1980s."

She grew up in California and earned a degree in biochemistry.

Her vocation journey led her to Watertown in January 2012 for a two-week Come-and-see" visit.

She received the habit of the Community in 2013, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Watertown Monastery.

The Order has Monasteries in Manchester, New Hampshire, Portland, Maine, and Brooklyn, New York, as well as in Canada and Japan.

The Sisters came to Watertown from New Hampshire at the invitation of Most Reverend Leo R. Smith, then Bishop of Ogdensburg.