Sister Laura Urbano 50th Jubilee

Sister Laura Urbano grew up in Queens, New York, the first of four girls in a loving Catholic family. When she began studying the scriptures and reading the Gospel of St. Matthew she was called by Matthew’s conversion experience.

It was at that point in her life when Laura began to feel called to vowed religious life. “Matthew’s faith in leaving behind everything to follow Jesus really took hold of me,” she explains.

Entering St. Michael’s in the ninth grade only deepened this call. “God was leading the whole process,” she shares. “I fell in love with the sisters. But Sister Dolores Harrison would challenge me to be less shy and quiet if I was considering becoming a sister.”

Her family moved after two years at St. Michael’s, but Laura would travel by train up to 33^rd Street to visit St. Michael’s every chance she got.

After graduating high school, she attended community college and worked for one year. She then studied in France for the summer. Upon returning from France, Sister entered the congregation in September 1974. She stayed at the motherhouse for a year after she was professed to complete her last year of college work at Mount St. Mary College. During that time, she was also able to teach French at a Montessori school in New Windsor and help with religious education classes at a nearby parish.

Sister always wanted to be a teacher, and her first assignment was a St. Jude’s in Manhattan. “I had the fifth grade, and they were marvelous!” she shares. “They rose up to meet the standards I set and were exceptional students.”

One moment Laura will never forget is when she was teaching and had a student struggling with reading. She always ran a bilingual classroom, so she started to read with him and teach him vowel sounds in Spanish. He began to read in Spanish and suddenly was able to read in English. “Everyone stopped and they just sat and listened when they heard him reading for the first time. When he finished, they all applauded!” she explains.

Sister first taught at the high school level at John S. Burke; she learned a great deal from this experience before heading back to the city to teach junior high at St. Jude’s. Upon moving on to St. Nicholas of Tolentine School, Sister implemented an immersion Spanish class that included literature and vocabulary.

All along this journey in education Laura kept the dream she had when she first entered, to serve in a foreign mission. She reached out to Presentation Sisters serving in Mexico and Bolivia to see where she might find a good fit. When she decided she was ready to move forward with this plan, she had to complete a six-month program in Hispanic pastoral ministry in Bolivia. After the time spent there, she realized that is where she wanted to serve.

After a discernment program back in the States, Sister began ministry in Bolivia in 1991. She served alongside the Dubuque Presentation Sisters in Entre Rios for several years before being asked to help run the new youth ministry house in Tarija. This youth house then also became a retreat center, and Laura began helping to run that ministry as well.

Being involved with the youth pastoral called Sister to visit high schools and form youth groups in public high schools. She got involved at the regional level and was elected to represent the region at the national level. After about a year, the youth pastoral decided to start a national institute of formation and Sister moved to a little town outside the city of Cochabamba to head this institute.

“The goal of this youth vocation pastoral was to help young people to become leaders, living their Christian faith, in their communities and their country,” Laura explains. “It was formation in faith and in the living the Catholic social teaching. The idea was for adults and young people to work together in this effort.”

“I learned a lot in terms of working with people and listening in my time in Bolivia,” Laura says. “I also started an office against violence for women and worked to help women find their voice.”

In 2014 Sister returned to the United States and enrolled in a collaborative leadership program. After this she spent time in youth ministry and teaching religious education. She continues to volunteer her time in these areas in Newburgh, even as she was elected to the leadership team in 2021.

As she celebrates 50 years of vowed life, Sister values community life and the opportunity it provides to share and pray with each other, as well as to hold each other accountable. She would tell women who are considering religious life to truly listen and be open. “You can’t idolize religious life because we are human beings trying to live Gospel values. We all have weaknesses and sins, but together we try to rise above all of that. You have to ask God for grace and wisdom every day.”