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50 Years: Myrta Iturriaga, SP (in English)
(Sister Juana Rosa de Jesus)
Myrta Cristina Iturriaga Bustos was born May 18, 1942, in Temuco, Chile, to Deacon Juan Antonio Iturriaga Bouder and Natalia Rosa Bustos Irribarra. Her large family included 10 sisters and three brothers.
 Myrta, the firstborn, met the Sisters of Providence through her cousins, who attended Sacred Heart School in Temuco. Her family was very active in the local parish, especially in the catechism, and her mother wanted to be sure the children all had a good Catholic formation. The girls all went to the Sisters of Providence School, from kindergarten through high school, and the boys went to the Franciscan School.
A year after graduation, in 1960, Myrta entered the Sisters of Providence in Santiago, receiving Sister Juana Rosa de Jesus as her name in religion. “As soon as I could get back to my baptismal name, I did it,” she said. She professed first vows in 1963 and final vows in 1968.
Sister Myrta has a degree in elementary education with specialization in religion as well as mathematics from the Catholic University of Chile. She also has a certificate in catechetic from the Catholic Diocese of Santiago, Chile. She took a one-year course in the French language at the Canadian Language Institute of Chile and is a graduate of the Catholic University of Antofagasta, Chile, in Title School administration.
She was assigned to teach as her first ministry, starting in basic school, then high school. She taught mathematics, arts and religion, graded assignments and met regularly with parents. She later became the principal of the Professional School in Ovalle, Chile, where she was able to help with the Christian formation of the students and families.
Enjoyed working with Chilean poor
Her favorite ministry was serving in the administration of the Professional School in Ovalle, which educated very poor students. “I could improve the lives of the families in so many ways and in all areas, helping the teachers, staff, parents and students, and creating relationships with the civil organizations,” Sister Myrta explained. “I helped them to create a very strong sense of community and set high goals in their lives, without limits, based on the faith that God was with us in the journey.”
Sister Myrta came to the former St. Ignatius Province, headquartered in Spokane, Wash., in August 1988, when she was called to be a missionary to the Hispanic community in Connell, Wash. She was surprised to be sent to the United States as a missionary from Chile, but she felt needed in the rural community in Washington, where she served poor Spanish-speaking field workers. She immersed herself in providing catechism, baptism, first communion, formation and pastoral care for families. “I fell in love with Hispanic people here and did not want to go back,” she told The Fig Tree weekly newspaper in an interview.
Her transfer to St. Ignatius Province was formally approved on August 1, 1992.
Undertood a prison ministry in Spokane
She received multicultural training at the Pastoral Center in San Antonio, Texas, and attended the English as a Second Language program at Gonzaga University in Spokane.
Invited by Bishop William Skylstad to work part time with the diocesan Renewal Program and part time with Hispanics, she gladly accepted. She also began volunteering to visit Hispanic prisoners at Pine Lodge in Medical Lake and at the Geiger and Airway Heights correctional facilities. Eventually, as needs in the diocese changed, she transitioned from parish work into pastoral care for the prisoners and their families.
For more than 20 years, Sister Myrta worked in Prison and Detention Ministry for the Diocese of Spokane. She also provided translation services for the diocese and other institutions. In addition to visiting prisoners herself, Sister Myrta called people from various parishes to visit the prisoners and their families. She found it especially meaningful to have opportunities to give retreats, conferences and catechetical formation to members of the Hispanic community and conferences to other institutions to better understand the Hispanic culture.
One of the highlights of this year, when she ended her prison ministry, was receiving the Volunteer of the Year award from the Airway Heights Correctional Center. Another highlight and privilege was being granted U.S. citizenship on August 20, 2002, in Spokane.
Sister Myrta is celebrating this jubilee year with sabbatical time, allowing her a special space to pray, rest and renew her spirit.
Faith has sustained her through illness of self, others
“I am so grateful to God, my family, the sisters, students and many friends that made it possible for me to get here,” she said of her 50th Jubilee milestone. “It is a blessing to offer your gifts to others and to receive more than one hundred percent back from them.
“The presence of God with me all the time has been very clear, from my earliest days, in every step of my life,” she said. “At the age of 64, I experienced the loss of my 90-year-old mother. Two years later, I lost my 94-year-old father and the next year, my 67-year-old sister Zullma. Now, my sister Natalia is in chemotherapy and radiotherapy with bone cancer.
“If I didn’t have faith in God’s Providence, all these events and my own two episodes of cancer would make it difficult for me to believe that the loving presence of God is with me.”
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