Franciscan Sister Marietta Culhane, former director of pastoral life, dies at 94

A funeral Mass for Franciscan Sister Marietta Culhane will be offered at 11 a.m. Jan. 10 at Assisi House in Aston, Pennsylvania. Sister Marietta died on January 6. She was 94 years old and had been a professed member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 71 years.

Sister Marietta was born Mary Lucy Culhane in Chicago. She entered the Franciscan Sisters of Philadelphia in 1951 and took her first vows in 1953. She earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Villanova University, a master’s degree in English from St. Bonaventure University in New York and a doctorate in philosophy from Georgetown. University of Washington, D.C.

Sister Marietta ministered for 31 years in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. She began teaching elementary school at the Little Flower Shrine for a year. She taught high school for the next 11 years – one year at Baltimore Catholic High School and 10 years at Towson Catholic High School. During this time, she also served as Archdiocesan Supervisor of Mathematics. She later served as dean of education at Essex Community College and as an ethics consultant.

Sister Marietta ministered at St. Mary in Cumberland from 1989 to 1991 as a pastoral associate. She then served as regional pastoral associate for the Western Vicariate of the Archdiocese of Baltimore from 1991 to 1994. She was director of pastoral life at St. Mary of the Annunciation in Lonaconing from 1991 to 2004 before serving as pastoral associate at Saint-Joseph de Midland from 2004 to 2006. She was director of pastoral life at the sanctuary St. Anthony in Emmitsburg and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Thurmont from 2007 to 2011, then served as a volunteer there.

Elsewhere, she served in Pennsylvania and Delaware. She has also led more than 250 math workshops in 18 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; is the author of a National Science Foundation Institute on Mathematics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; and received the Pro Ecclesia and Pontifice medal from Pope John Paul II in 2004.

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