Holy Cross sister who has served locally moves on to national responsibilities

Friday, Aug. 16, 2024

SALT LAKE CITY — Holy Cross Sister Veronica Fajardo, who has served as a Holy Cross Ministries counselor for the last seven years, will be leaving Utah at the end of the month to assume a role with the Sisters of the Holy Cross general leadership.

Born and raised in Nicaragua, Sr. Veronica moved with her family to the United States when she was 8 years old.

“When we first came to the U.S., many, many things were very new to me and to my family – not speaking the language; it was a different culture. Just everything was so different, but something that was very familiar was our faith, and so we moved to Los Angeles and had the opportunity to get involved with our parish,” she recalled.

Participation with her parish led to many opportunities, including working closely with the religious sisters from Mexico who were running the catechism program, and singing in the choir. Later, as a senior at Loyola Marymount University, she did a study-abroad program in France and was shocked at how few young people were attending Mass there. 

“I was sitting there, and I thought, ‘our Church really needs ministers,’” she said. “When I saw that the priest that was celebrating the Mass there in France had a hard time getting up to the altar, and people were helping him, I began to consider becoming a religious, because there’s such a need.”

At the time Sr. Veronica was teaching bilingual special education, but she scheduled a visit with the Sisters of the Holy Cross. While there, she had a peaceful feeling that this was the religious group for her, she said, and became a precandidate for two years while she continued teaching and finished her degree in special education. In her novitiate service Sr. Veronica worked for three months in Holy Cross Ministries of Utah’s immigration services. She went on to teach in Catholic schools in North Carolina and Ghana before taking her final vows in 2011. She then returned to Holy Cross Ministries in Utah.

For the next three years she worked as a legal assistant. For a time, she considered returning to school and becoming an attorney but instead, with the encouragement of Sister Suzanne Brennan who was then the Holy Cross Ministries Executive Director

pursued a master’s degree in social work and public administration from the University of Southern California. In 2017 she returned to Utah and began working as a mental health counselor at Peace House, a Park City shelter for people experiencing domestic violence.  After receiving a clinical social work license, she went back to Holy Cross Ministries when it began to offer those services again.

“It has been such a wonderful experience,” Sr. Veronica said. “I feel that it’s a real blessing to be able to be here, to be able to serve here in this capacity as a counselor, because right now there is such a shortage of mental health counselors throughout our state, and bilingual more so.”

When the Sisters of the Holy Cross first came to Utah in 1875 they ministered to people who were underserved and under-insured, “so I feel in camaraderie with the pioneer sisters here,” she added. “I’ve worked [at Holy Cross Ministries] for three different times and I always feel a sense of coming home. I feel that the people there at Holy Cross Ministries really try to respond to the needs and be present to the community, and it’s because of the legacy too that the Sisters of the Holy Cross have had here.”

While Sr. Veronica has loved her work in Utah, her skills now are needed to benefit the greater Sisters of the Holy Cross congregation. For the next five years she will serve as a counselor to the general leadership. After that, her future is uncertain, but she does not rule out the possibility of returning to Utah at some point, she said.

“I am very grateful to have had this opportunity to be in Utah and to be able to have ministered and worked and collaborated with so many people,” she said. “I feel this is a great place, and I’m really thankful for all the support that we’ve gotten from the diocese and from the Catholic community, and for the Sisters of the Holy Cross too, and the people are really wonderful.” 

Sr. Veronica will be sorely missed at Holy Cross Ministries, CEO Emmie Gardner said. “Sr. Veronica has been such a gift to our Utah community, especially the Wasatch back regions. Her compassionate bilingual/bicultural therapy services have helped children, teens and adults on their journey to healing from their trauma. She also has been a wonderful ambassador for HCM on various coalitions and committees helping to give voice to the importance of cultural sensitivity.” 

As a parting message to Sr. Veronica, Gardner said, “You leave big shoes to fill and, at the same time, we are all cheering you on as your new ministry calls you to focus on the congregation at large. Know that all of here at Holy Cross Ministries are praying for you as you move back east; we will miss your infectious laugh; and are grateful for how you have touched all our lives.”