At 92, nun is citizen at last

After several years of research and following the citizenship application process without success, her order appealed to Congressman Michael R. McNulty (D-Albany) for help. With his assistance and the INS' cooperation, Sister Julia, who is 92, finally became a U.S. citizen.

Sister Julia was born Maria Edna Dupuis in Roxton Falls, Canada, on May 1, 1908 (she will turn 93 in less than two weeks). According to the Judicial Archives in Boston, she entered the United States on April 29, 1914, when she was almost six, with her parents, Orpha and Eva Dupuis, and her two younger siblings.

Sister Julia's parents became naturalized citizens well after she had reached the age of majority and entered religious life, so their citizenship did not extend to her. Only recently, at the time of Sister Julia's admission to a nursing home, did the order realize she was not a citizen.

An alien registration card was obtained based on documentation of her 50 years of teaching ministry at the Academy of the Holy Names in Albany and Tampa, St. Catherine of Siena School in Albany, St. Thomas School in Delmar, and other Catholic schools where the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary serve.

The occasion for her to become a citizen had not arisen before because Sister Julia never received a paycheck, never drove a car and only recently has lived away from the convent on New Scotland Avenue in Albany.

Sister Grace R. Diaz, provincial director of the Sisters of the Holy Names, says of Sister Julia's newly gained citizenship, "We always knew she was a model citizen. Now we have the paperwork to confirm this."

The Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary expressed their gratitude to Congressman McNulty, and to Gary Hale and Duane Kennison of the INS for "their kind assistance in making official Sister Julia's lifetime of good citizenship."

(04-19-01) [[In-content Ad]]