Loretto Executive Committee 2024 – 2028: Serving Loretto and beyond
Posted on March 10, 2025, by Loretto Community
Mary E. (Buffy) Boesen SL was elected Loretto’s newest president this past summer, an honor and a role she has stepped into with enthusiasm.
Buffy was received into the Loretto Community in 1978 and has spent most of her adult life serving in schools. A special joy was teaching middle school children, especially those who learn differently.
In 2000 she took on leadership of Loretto Academy in El Paso, Texas, serving as president for 22 years before retiring. Since retirement, she has volunteered helping migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. (Loretto’s immigration justice work was featured in the winter 2024 issue of Loretto Magazine).
Buffy has been committed to working for justice and acting for peace, protesting at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and joining the Great Peace March in 1986 — walking from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., over eight months. (See the winter 2021 issue of Loretto Magazine for more on the peace march.)
People are often puzzled by her name. She says there were so many Mary Beths in her family that when a cousin called her Buffy, the name stuck.
As she has shared in the Spotlight Video, to her, Loretto is “a group of faith-filled men and women who are dedicated to serving God, others — particularly our near and farther neighbors. We are compassionate, we love each other. We respect each other. We respect all of creation, and mostly we have fun and we laugh and we enjoy each other.”
Buffy says, “As I reflect on my life in Loretto all I can say is, I am blessed. Please pray for me.”
Donna Mattingly SL met Loretto at age 18 when she worked on the organ in the Motherhouse church. She entered the Community in 2004. The following year, she traveled to Central America to honor the 25th anniversary of four martyred U.S. church women, Mary-knoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and lay missionary Jean Donovan. Pivotal experiences for Donna included visiting Oscar Romero’s home and the site of his assassination, as well as Ann Manganaro SL’s clinic in El Salvador. (See the spring/summer 2023 issue of Loretto Magazine to learn about Ann and her work.) Donna shares, “Their spirits were very much alive in the Salvadoran people. It was truly a humbling and heartfelt experience. It gave me a deeper sense of hope in solidarity with my farther neighbors still today.”
After working in Loretto’s Denver office for many years, in 2012 she moved to the Motherhouse in Nerinx, Ky., to be with her mother, who, at the time, lived in the Infirmary (now the Loretto Living Center). Donna began working in the finance office, where she serves today.
Donna has a background in art, with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and art. Care for Earth and all creation are vital concerns for Donna, who loves spending time outdoors. She is known in Loretto as an accomplished photographer; her photos often appear in Loretto Magazine.
Cathy Mueller SL formally entered the Loretto Community in 1965. She has taught high school, performed pastoral work in multicultural parishes, led retreats, facilitated workshops and meetings, directed volunteers in a hospice and co-founded and co directed EarthLinks, a nonprofit in Denver serving persons who are homeless or living in poverty. (See the summer 2021 issue for more on EarthLinks.) She has served Loretto on the staff, the Loretto Earth Network coordinating group, various committees and in elected leadership. She served as president of the Community from 2007 to 2012. Cathy traveled to Ghana three times in the 1980s as Loretto members began working in the country. (See the spring/summer 2024 issue of Loretto Magazine for more on Loretto’s work in Ghana).
In addition to her active work in the world, Cathy values the contemplative dimensions of spirituality and the reality of the Holy Spirit’s action in her life and the lives of others. She shares, “Through study, experience and quiet reflection, I have come to appreciate the connectedness of all creation that has shifted many of my perceptions, giving meaning to the ‘Great Work’ of my life. I have been loved and challenged. I am forever grateful.”
Mary Margaret Murphy SL entered Loretto in 1965. She is now in her second term of service as Loretto’s vice president, having been re-elected this past year.
Mary Margaret earned degrees in English, education and early childhood development. She has spent a lifetime in service to Hispanic communities.
She worked for 26 years in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, serving in advocacy for the elderly through Christian Community Services, acting as a case manager for Conejos County Public Health and for Valleywide Community Health Clinic; she was instrumental in introducing SHARE Colorado, a statewide Catholic Charities program.
Mary Margaret then moved from Colorado to El Paso, Texas, and spent 12 years serving as case manager at Villa Maria, a shelter for women who are homeless. In 2018 she transitioned from Villa Maria to serve as Loretto’s vice president. She also coordinated the Loretto Volunteer Program (now Loretto Justice Fellowship). Mary Margaret continues to serve as a consultant to Villa Maria. She has been an active volunteer assisting migrants.
Cathy Smith SL entered Loretto in 1987. Her Loretto roots run deep and wide. Many family members were educated by Loretto. A great-aunt, Anna Marie Plowman SL, and aunt, Mary Ann Cunningham SL, were Sisters of Loretto.
Cathy holds a bachelor’s degree in gerontology with a minor in pastoral care from the College of Mount St. Joseph. Early in her professional life, she worked with homebound clients and AIDS patients, before moving to the Loretto Motherhouse in 1992 and working in the Infirmary as an assistant and then as director of social services.
Starting in 2006 she worked for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in their home-health program, staying for 13 years. For more than 11 of those years, she worked simultaneously at Truman Medical Center as the weekend chaplain, covering the hospital and behavioral health units. She also has served through volunteer disaster work with the Red Cross.
Cathy has served on many Loretto committees and now acts as the Community Life Coordinator at Loretto Motherhouse. She says Loretto continues to enrich her life daily.
Kathy Wright SL entered Loretto in 1986. She has taught at the high school level, served as a parish administrator, a chief operating officer and as a member of the board of several nonprofits. She met Loretto sisters in her nonprofit work and was inspired to enter vowed life. She has served at Loretto Academy in El Paso and Nerinx Hall High School in St. Louis. Kathy was blessed to live in Haiti from 2003 to 2005. (See the spring/summer 2023 issue of Loretto Magazine for her article about nonprofits working in Haiti). She is a Certified Public Accountant and served as the congregation’s treasurer for six years beginning in 2013. She has previously served on the Executive Committee.
For several years, Kathy served on the board of the homeowners’ association where she lived in Florida. The nonprofit focuses on improving quality of life in the community. She also sat on the board of Hamptons Helping Hands, a nonprofit serving economically-disadvantaged children. For many years, she volunteered at Meals On Wheels in Polk County, Fla., delivering meals to homebound and elderly adults.
You can read more in-depth profiles of all the members of the Executive Committee here and the Community Forum here.
To read all the articles in the winter 2025 issue of Loretto Magazine, click here.
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