Retirement to south brought nun to Albany

Alaska isn't the same, thanks to Sister Arlene Boyd, RSM, who spent 33 years making it better.

While there, she developed a model of religious education for the Archdiocese of Anchorage, established a diaconate training program and a grade school, taught religious ed, and founded a refuge for homeless girls.

Sister Arlene, a Waterford native, has now retired to the Albany Diocese.

Northern exposure

Sister Arlene taught science and English to high school students in the Albany Diocese for a few years. Then, in 1967, she responded to a call from the newly established Archdiocese of Anchorage, headed by Archbishop Joseph Ryan, a native of Albany. Previously, there had been just two dioceses in Alaska: Fairbanks and Juneau.

"He invited three of our sisters to go there for the summer," she recalled. "He wanted to find out how many Catholic families were in the diocese."

The Sisters of Mercy were part of a group of brothers and other religious whose summer mission was to go door-to-door and establish an accurate count of Catholics.

Stay a while

When the census was complete, Archbishop Ryan invited the three sisters to stay in order to establish Catholic education and train catechists for the three parishes that comprised the new archdiocese.

Each sister was assigned to one of the three parishes that made up the archdiocese, and Sister Arlene went to St. Anthony's in Anchorage. She was appointed director of religious education.

In 1976, she was appointed diocesan director of religious education. Part of her work involved training the first group of permanent deacons.

Youth work

Sister Arlene yearned to work again with youth and volunteered at a juvenile prison in Anchorage.

"I just wanted to do something different," she explained. "I decided to go there on Sunday afternoons and meet with them in small groups. In the beginning, we worked on value systems. I wanted them to know that each individual is loved and cared for."

Sister Arlene discovered that many of the girls were there because they had no other place to go. They had been picked up for living on the streets of Anchorage, not because they were lawbreakers.

"These were not bad kids; they were throw-away kids," she said.

Home for teens

Sister Arlene wanted to find a place for the teens when their time in the prison was up. "I didn't want them falling through the cracks again," she said.

Archbishop Ryan gave her the use of a house that had been donated to the archdiocese, and it became a place where the girls could go when released. Sister Arlene named it McAuley Manor in honor of the founder of her order, Mother Catherine McAuley.

"Before we could receive the teens, we had to apply for a state license. They were underage and considered orphans," she said.

Alaska did not have any such license, so it established one, making McAuley Manor the very first such home in the entire state.

House rules

"I remember in the beginning, I had to establish house rules immediately," Sister Arlene said. "We had some tough times, but it really has been very successful.

"I remember one day when a mother dropped her daughter off after school. The girl was about 13 or 14. The mother told the girl that she was leaving her there for good and left.

"Together, we sat up all night. That little girl cried and wailed. It was like an Irish 'keening,' a sound, a grief that I will never forget. I think McAuley Manor was the toughest thing I ever did in my life."

(9/23/04)