“I worked for a saint,” she said simply.

Sister Yvonne Mary first met the Religious Sisters of Mercy while attending St. Andrew Catholic High School. In her 12 years of Catholic education, she also attended St. Josaphat Catholic School in Carrollton. While she was drawn to a religious vocation, she was not yet sure that was what God was calling her to. After a vocation retreat during her senior year, however, she fell in love with the Sisters of Mercy and became a postulant after graduating in 1967.

During her years in temporary vows, following postulancy and novitiate, she joined an experimental group within the Sisters of Mercy, wearing a religious habit, having a life of prayer with other sisters, and dedicating herself to follow the footsteps of their foundress, Mother Catherine McAuley. This group was separated from the Sisters of Mercy in Detroit in 1973 and remained under the guidance of the Holy See. Bishop Francis Reh assigned the small new community to Alma and the community became the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan.

“Through the years, every assignment that I had was a privileged assignment in my eyes, but one outstanding one that touched my heart deeply was an assignment to spend 16 years in Rome working in the Secretariat of State,” Sister Yvonne Mary wrote in her vocation story on the RSM website.

As a Religious Sister of Mercy of Alma with a doctorate in speech pathology, Sister Yvonne Mary was privileged to work for Pope St. John Paul II for 13 years and for the first three years of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate.

Sister Yvonne Mary frequently helped translate documents and letters Pope John Paul II wrote to church leaders and heads of state.  She read and summarized letters that came from the United States, sending the summaries to the pope, who would respond.

In her own words, “It was an overwhelming privilege to work for Pope St. John Paul II.”

Sister Yvonne Mary’s office at the Vatican was near the Sistine Chapel, and sometimes she would visit to pray. She frequently saw the Holy Father coming and going.

Sister Yvonne Mary says that when she was first introduced to Pope St. John Paul II, she was surprised when he said, “Yes, you are Sister Yvonne Mary from the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Alma, Michigan.”

“He had done his homework,” Sister Yvonne Mary noted.

It is when Sister Yvonne Mary is just casually talking about Pope John Paul II’s kindness that you realize what unique insights she has into this great man.

“As a member of the Secretary of State staff, I represented the English language and worked for him in his twilight years, but he never lost his sense of who he was or what he represented,” she said.

“On certain occasions all of us who worked for the Secretary of State—about 200–would gather to meet with Pope John Paul II,” Sister said. “He had trouble speaking and his voice was soft, but he always gave us a Rosary and his final words were always ‘Be not afraid!’”

Like the saint she worked for, Sister Yvonne Mary has a great love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, as do the other Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma. “It was Pope St. John Paul II who had the image of Mary painted in St. Peter’s Square, as there was nothing there to honor her,” Sister said. “My office was just on the other side of that painting. So, every day when I went in to work at the Vatican, I would put my hand on the wall that was behind the picture and pray for all the pilgrims who came to St. Peter's that day and for all their special needs.”

Sister Yvonne Mary also knew Pope Benedict while he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

“Benedict was quiet, shy, but certainly not fearful,” she recalled. “He was always very respectful of people, and he loved people.”

When Sister Yvonne Mary returned to live with the Religious Sisters of Mercy in eastside Saginaw, close to where she grew up, she went door to door throughout the neighborhood inviting those she met to come to church. Before long, the Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption had a large group of children attending Mass and religious education. Of course, Sister Yvonne Mary also successfully recruited parishioners to teach the classes.

Sister Yvonne Mary continues to live and pray in the sisters’ Saginaw convent, but the impact of her time in the Vatican remains. Her life is dedicated to prayer for others.

“I saw and touched their [Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI] holiness and realized that I too, had a responsibility to bring others to faith and love,” she wrote in her vocation story. “When I came back to the United States, I brought that fervor with me and it has never gone away.”