Nun, 90, keeps busy caring for others

Mittens, hats, scarves, sweaters and baby blankets are just the latest expression of Sister Mary Angela Baniak's ministry.

In 72 years as a Sister of Mercy, her contributions have also taken the form of letters in French, lessons in Latin and light housework for two of her brothers, Victor and Rev. Walter Baniak, who live in the Watervliet home where she grew up.

"My body is still able to do things," declared the 90-year-old nun who gets around with the help of a walker. "My hands are still good, and I still have my senses. I have more than enough to keep me busy."

Coming to order

Sister Angela's busy-ness began early in life when she helped to care for her nine younger siblings and attended Holy Trinity parish in Troy (now closed) with her proudly Polish family.

She always wanted to enter religious life but had to choose among the three communities she encountered: the Mercy sisters and Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, who taught her at Catholic Central High School in Troy; and the Resurrection sisters, who started an after-school program to teach students of Polish descent how to read and write that language.

The Mercies won out because of their dedication to Mary, a devotion Sister Angela shared. She also shared their ministry of teaching, confessing that when she played school at home with her siblings, she always wanted to be the teacher.

"The teachers [at school] would send us with messages to the principal. I enjoyed that, and I did the same thing at home," she recalled with a smile.

Class act

Sister Angela entered her order in 1931, at the height of the Depression. Simultaneously, a teacher at St. Paul's School in Troy (now closed) became ill, so the new sister was sent in immediately as a substitute -- while still a student herself.

For several years, she taught first grade during the week and attended "normal school" for teacher training on weekends.

Eventually, Sister Angela would teach nearly every grade, from elementary school through college, and bounce from Ilion to Rensselaer, Watervliet and Albany in her many assignments. She taught at every Catholic high school in the Albany Diocese except since-closed Mercy High in Albany, including six years at her alma mater and more than 25 at Bishop Maginn.

Lingo

She also delved into languages along the way, becoming an expert French, Latin and Russian teacher. A master of understatement, she said simply, "I did well, and I liked it."

In fact, Sister Angela's fluency in French got her another job: translating letters from an American soldier to French counterparts he'd bonded with while liberating a French village during World War II. With her help, the communication lasted so long that the children of the original soldier and villagers now write to one another.

After more than six decades as a teacher, Sister Angela retired in 1990. She kept her hand in by tutoring two home-schooled students in Latin, joking that she was a strict teacher because she saw the pair only once a week, so she assigned a week's worth of homework after every class.

Still active

These days, the active senior divides her time among helping her brothers (she noted with pride that Father Baniak celebrates Mass at home every day), knitting and crocheting items for the needy, and translating letters for sisters at the Mercy motherhouse who have French relatives.

Sister Angela remarked that she tried living at McAuley Residence in Albany with other retired sisters but soon realized she was too independent for assisted-living services it offers, and moved to the motherhouse.

She told The Evangelist that "it's unbelievable how things were different 72 years ago when I entered [religious life]. It seemed to happen so quickly."

Eyeing the good

Disturbed by the decrease in vocations, the closing of Catholic schools and the abuse crisis in the Church, she offered some advice: "There's a lot of good going on right now which is not expressed. The Evangelist is concentrating on the good; the other newspapers only concentrate on the awful."

"The good," to Sister Angela, includes efforts to involve teenagers in the life of the Church, teaching younger children about the needy through food collections and other activities, and using holidays to remind Catholics of the needs of the elderly and those who live in poverty.

Sister Angela's own life has been rich in all the ways that count. As she's gotten older, she said, "my faith has become greater, because I've had more time -- time for prayer, time to help others. The Lord has given me the health to keep working. I haven't stopped."

(Sister Angela spends much of her time knitting and crocheting a clothing for the needy. At the end of every year, she sends a box of her creations to Conserns-U or the Circles of Mercy program in Rensselaer. Recently, attempting to finish a sweater someone else had started, she said: "I knit, and then I rip because I find a mistake. The leftover yarn, I put into rugs. I produce a good product.")

(3/25/04) [[In-content Ad]]