Laughing with Baltimore’s ‘church ladies’

PIKESVILLE – Over platters of turkey wraps, egg salad sandwiches, fresh fruit and cannoli, laughter filled the room as 10 women reminisced about their days working together at the Catholic Center in Baltimore.

It didn’t matter that some worked on the seventh floor where the bishops are located, others on the fifth in education and evangelization offices or a few on the second that houses various management services, they saw each other daily and formed friendships in the late 1980s through early 2000s. While most of them no longer work for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the “church ladies,” as they affectionately call themselves, are still a close bunch.

“When I walked in the office every morning, it felt like I was home,” said Dorothy Weidner, 85, a parishioner of St. Isaac Jogues in Carney who previously worked with then-Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski when he was the eastern vicar for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He now serves as the archbishop of St. Louis. 

“The people were so wonderful,” Weidner said.

Pat Phebus Hagen, 86, a parishioner of St. Thomas More in Baltimore, remembered being a little uneasy about working with other women at first when she started in 1989.

“I had always worked in a one-person office, one secretary, one doctor,” said Phebus Hagen, who was one of Cardinal William H. Keeler’s administrative assistants. “People would say ‘Thank the Lord you don’t work with a bunch of women. They’re catty.’ No. We were like family.”

She enjoyed her job so much, her husband suggested one of his co-workers, who was unhappy with her job, apply for a position at the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Myrtle Wright, 70, still works on Cathedral Street today as an administrative assistant in the archdiocese’s Facilities and Real Estate Management Division.

“It’s been a wonderful experience,” Wright said.

Like all families, however, the church ladies saw both the good and the bad of the Catholic Church. They like to focus on the positive, including a special way they support people throughout the archdiocese in prayer.

Pat Nadony, who served under Cardinal Keeler, Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien and Archbishop William E. Lori, gathered all the ladies for the Friday luncheon at her home in Pikesville. She started a prayer chain at the archdiocese before she retired years ago that is still active today. Maureen Parker is an honorary church lady, not because she is the mother of Auxiliary Bishop Adam J. Parker, but because she is an avid participant in the prayer chain.

“It’s important to have each other praying for each other,” said Nadony, a parishioner of St. Charles Borromeo in Pikesville.

Weidner credits the prayer chain for helping her get through a difficult period of illnesses.

“A couple of times I didn’t think I would make it,” Weidner said. “I know everybody praying helped me to heal.”

They shared memories of Cardinal Keeler before he was a cardinal and beyond. Phebus Hagen was able to travel to Rome to see Cardinal Keeler get his red cap while Nadony visited him when he was residing with Little Sisters of the Poor at St. Martin’s Home for the Aged in Catonsville, where she would leave with a hug and an “I love you” after each visit.

“His voice was failing but one day I did that and he looked at me and creaked out  ‘I love you,’” Nadony said. “I left and cried in the car.”

They remembered Cardinal Keeler’s thoughtfulness during Pope John Paul II’s visit to Baltimore in 1995. Sitting in the back of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, the church ladies were touched when Cardinal Keeler ushered the pope over to meet them.

“’This is my office staff,’” he said, Phebus Hagen recalled, fondly. “I got to shake hands with the pope. It was the most thrilling moment of my life. Cardinal Keeler was so gracious to do that.”

Others remembered the thrill of looking down from the top of the Catholic Center and seeing Mother Teresa of Kolkata sitting on the basilica steps across the street during her 1996 visit to Baltimore. Bragging rights of seeing two saints was thick in the air.

Some of the church ladies who worked with Cardinal O’Brien still keep in touch with the former Baltimore archbishop. And Weidner still receives phone calls on her birthday, as well as cards throughout the year from her old boss, now-Archbishop Rozanski.

“I can’t believe someone like him, so important and so busy, has the time,” Weidner said. “It touches my heart.”

Working for the church opened a “whole new world,” she said.

“I always felt I got more than I gave,” Weidner said.  

Nadolny is thankful for the prayerful support and friendship of her fellow “church ladies.”

“I always believed that we were women who were brought together to serve the Lord’s Church,” she said, “and that it was important that we stay together.”

Email Katie Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org

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