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50 Years: Carla Montante, SP
(Sister Carla Marie)
Sister Carla Montante was born in St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Wash., with Providence Sister Reine Latulipe attending her mother; thus, Providence is rooted in her since birth.
 Carla grew up under the loving parenting of Shirley and Charles Montante, who instilled the value of helping others. Sister Dominic Bancroft often called on teenaged Carla to visit poor families. “I am convinced that these activities and similar ones nurtured my vocation,” she said.
Carla had many wonderful, loving sisters as teachers at St. Michael Grade School. “To this day, Sister Rebecca Berghoff reminds me of my second-grade behavior in church.” She attended Olympia High School and was a member of the Sodality, where she was kept busy by Sister Jeanette Benson.
Carla entered the Sisters of Providence in 1959, but left in the early months of novitiate due to ill health. She returned on June 1, 1961, along with Sister Elsie Kelly, who had left for similar reasons. “The call to Providence had grown even stronger,” Sister Carla recalled. “I realized that this was the director for my life.”
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Seattle University and a master’s degree from the University of Portland (OR), both in education. Her first ministry was teaching the middle grades for six years at St. Joseph School in Vancouver, Wash.
“One of our early ministries in the community was teaching deaf persons, and Vancouver had one of the best state residential schools for the deaf,” she said. “I enjoyed learning some basic sign language and taught weekly religious education at the school.”
Next Sister Carla returned to St. Michael School in Olympia, teaching the children of her grade school and high school friends. Her last parish school teaching assignment was St. Catherine School in Seattle, but education continues as a life focus.
Participated in innovative Channel program
“In 1974, the provincial and council listened to my desire to more actively support the role of the laity in a new structure called the Channel program,” she recalled. Recent college and university graduates wanted to live in community and put their faith into action as teachers or ministers in the Seattle Archdiocese. Sister Carla had the privilege of screening them, assisting them with placement in a Catholic school, and helping them develop their teaching skills.
“Today, I can see how involvement in the early stages of the Channel program prepared me for vocation and formation ministry,” she explained.
From 1976 to 1981, Sister Carla served in formation/vocation ministry. Formation was a tri-province program then and Holy Angels Province wished to establish a formation/vocation house. “Sister Germaine Chalifoux and I went to Calgary, Alberta, to respond to this need.”
Sister Toyleen Fook and five other women lived with them. “Through the experience, I began to understand and appreciate our international community,” Sister Carla said. “Visiting the sisters who ministered in the northern regions was a source of great joy and gave me insight into our pioneer years of much hardship.”
When her formation term ended, Sister Carla spent two more years in Calgary as a retreat and spiritual director in the multi-faith Religious Life Center of the Faithful Companions of Jesus.
Sabbatical in Israel deepened her understanding
When Sister Carla returned to the United States in 1983, she became director of religious education at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Parish in Spanaway, Wash. The parish, bordering McChord Air Force Base and Fort Lewis, serves a changing population of diverse cultures and different views of justice and peace issues.
In September 1985, she joined Sister Alexis Melancon for a sabbatical year in Israel. They were students at the Sisters of Sion’s Center for Biblical Formation in Jerusalem. “One experience that has stayed with me is being drawn over and over to the Mount of Beatitudes,” Sister Carla said. The two sisters also walked in the footsteps of St. Paul in Greece, and visited with Sisters of Providence in Alexandria, Egypt.
“All of this had deepened and expanded my understanding of who we are as family of God,” Sister Carla explained.
A leap of faith in Canada
Returning in 1986 to the United States, she worked at Loyola Retreat House in Portland, providing individual and group spiritual direction and retreats. She drew on experiences of assisting in the formation of the Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life in Canada and in Seattle.
Sister Carla has held leadership positions with the congregation, including on the Provincial Council of Sacred Heart Province and as a director of the Sisters of Providence Health Care Corporation.
In 1997 she returned to the Providence Renewal Centre in Edmonton. “It was a joy to return to living with my Canadian friends and to make new ones.” It was a definite leap of faith when she crossed the campus to become provincial superior for the Sisters of Providence of Western Canada for six years. “I lived in awe of the God of Providence who has privileged me with the opportunity to live and minister in Canada,” she said.
Sister Carla has been further enriched by her ministry with the dedicated laywomen and men who are Providence Associates.
“I have been gifted and so blessed by Providence, how can I not look forward with hope and trust to whatever the future holds? May we live cultivating compassion in new ways, carrying forward the vision of our foundresses.”
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