New Provincial for the USA Named

Yesterday, on the Feast of the Transfiguration, Sr. Mary Ann Azanza was named Provincial of the North American Province by Sr. Diana Wauters and her new General Council. Her mandate is for three years.

We welcome Sr. Mary Ann to her new responsibility and accompany her with our prayers and good wishes!

Get to know our new Provincial:

Sr. Mary Ann, a Filipina, was missioned to the North American Province in 1996 and has lived in the Worcester community since then. She is a pastoral minister at St. Peter's Church where she directs the Youth Mentoring Program and the English as a Second Language program for adult immigrants. She is also the Province Vocation Director and responsible, with Mrs. Beth Fleming, for our lay volunteer program, the Associate Missionaries of the Assumption (AMA).

While in the Philippines, Sr. Mary Ann taught in various Assumption High Schools and spent seven years in the San Simon community, where she was an administrator of Assumpta Technical High School.

Sr. Mary Ann graduated from Assumption College in Manila with a BA in Philippine Studies. She has an MA in Theological Studies from the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University.

While a college student, Sr. Mary Ann spent several months under house arrest during the Martial Law regime of then President Ferdinand Marcos. Upon graduation from college she left for the United States and after working for a year in San Francisco, lived with the Sisters in Philadelphia for a time of discernment. She returned to Manila after a few months and entered as a postulant in the Philippine-Thai Province in 1984.

Our new Provincial made her first profession of vows (Mandaluyong) in 1987 and her final profession (San Simon) in 1993.

Sr. Mary Ann was born in New York City in 1959. When she was two years old she returned with her family to the Philippines and grew up there. She is the youngest child of Roman and Conchita Azanza and has three brothers and a sister. Her mother resides in Manila.