Clippings and publications
Oldest first. Each summary is our own description, not the publication’s words. Tap a scan to see it at full size.
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2 pages · tap to enlarge
East Boston Community News · February 8, 1983
…And the Nuns Who Live the Changes
By Jean Riesman
Summary. A profile of four sisters working in East Boston, Carole among them. It describes her work with the Holy Redeemer parish, the East Boston Ecumenical Community Council and Harbor Me, where she was part-time coordinator, and the Sunday family liturgies at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, where she led one in Spanish. A photograph shows her resting in Central Park after the June 12, 1982 disarmament march in New York.
Pages 6 and 7. Page 6 carries a related article by Judith Carey on local reactions to the new code of canon law, and a photograph of Sister Noel Doyle at an EBECC retreat in October 1982. Photographs by Jean Riesman.
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East Boston Sun-Transcript · June, probably 1988
Ecumenical Council strives for harmony
By Marielise Kelly
Summary. Tells how the council was founded in 1978 by nuns, priests and ministers responding to racially motivated violence, and describes its workshops, English classes, housing advocacy and Festival of Unity under her direction. She traces her activism to her years as a teacher.
Page 10-A. The date line is cut off after “Wednesday, June 2”; the article refers to the council’s first ten years.
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Community News · December 20, 1988
An Award for EBECC
Summary. A photograph of Boston City Councilor Rosaria Salerno honoring Sister Carole for her work with the East Boston Ecumenical Community Council.
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Charlestown Patriot · February 16, 1989
With Support and Determination, A Dream Becomes a Reality
By Tony Ferullo
Summary. A profile of Quyen Tran, a Vietnamese immigrant who worked with the council, quoting Sister Carole as its director on helping immigrant families adapt to life in the United States. It also reports that the council joined the United Way of Massachusetts Bay that year.
Page 14.
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Unidentified newspaper · August 1989
Sister Carole Rossi to note silver jubilee
Summary. Announces a prayer service at St. John’s Parish Hall in Collingswood, New Jersey, marking twenty-five years since her vows. Names her parents, Amelia and the late Albert Rossi, and notes that she graduated from Camden Catholic High School in 1955, taught at St. Mary’s School in Williamstown from 1960 to 1962, entered the Dominican Sisters of St. Catharine in 1962, and made her profession of vows in 1964.
The clipping gives only “Sunday, Aug. 27”; the year is worked out from the jubilee.
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2 pages · tap to enlarge
Unidentified newspaper · February 1991
Sister Carole Rossi to receive social justice award Saturday
By Peter Nagle
Summary. Reports that the Paulist Center chose her unanimously for the 1991 Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice, and follows her path from voter registration in Mississippi and the Memphis marches to East Boston, where she said she “learned how to dance again.”
The paper printed her initials as “S.P.” instead of “O.P.”
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Unidentified newspaper · February 1991
Award winner
Summary. A photograph of Sister Carole with her coworkers at the council and members of its sister organization, the Neighborhood of Affordable Housing, before the Isaac Hecker Award ceremony.
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The Boston Globe · March 1991
Nun brings care, compassion to East Boston’s new arrivals
By Richard Higgins
Summary. A profile of her work with Cambodian, Vietnamese and Central American newcomers, her Italian-American childhood in Collingswood, New Jersey, and the council she founded in 1978.
The month is worked out from the honors the article describes.
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Unidentified newsletter · 1991
Recognition for Sister Carole, in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Khmer
Summary. Reports that she received the Isaac Hecker Award from the Paulist Center on February 3 and was one of 23 women community leaders honored by Women in Philanthropy on March 6.
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Going Forward with the St. Catharine Dominican Sisters · Spring 1991
Mission of Dominicans Recognized
Summary. The congregation’s newsletter marks the Isaac Hecker Award alongside honors given to other sisters that year.
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Bates College News · September 10, 1998
Sister Carole Rossi opens Spiritual Journeys series at Bates
Summary. Announces that Sister Carole, of the Crystal Spring Center for Earth Education in Plainville, would open the college’s Spiritual Journeys series on September 24, 1998, with a talk titled “Context for Wholeness and Holiness.”
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JUST Words · Summer 2004
Water: Global Concern, Dominican Effort
By Dana Hinton
Summary. Describes her water-stewardship work at Crystal Spring, including a new filtering pond fed by the springs and the protection of vernal pools.
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4 pages · tap to enlarge
The New Bostonians: How Immigrants Have Transformed the Metro Region since the 1960s (book) · 2015
Chapter five, pages 134–138
By Marilynn S. Johnson
Summary. A history of immigration in Greater Boston by the historian who recorded the 2010 oral history. It describes Sister Carole Rossi leading a group of clergy and lay people to protect Black schoolchildren during the busing crisis, tells how Esmeralda Sanchez’s appeal in 1978 led to the founding of the council, and follows the council’s refugee work, its Project Welcome, and its growth into one of East Boston’s largest community organizations.
University of Massachusetts Press. The cover and pages 134, 137 and 138, with marks in the margins.
The oral history
- Title
- Oral history interview with Carole Rossi and Don Nanstad
- Recorded
- June 9, 2010, at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church, East Boston
- Interviewer
- Marilynn Johnson, Boston College
- Length
- About one hour, with a typed transcript
- Held by
- East Boston Oral History Project, Northeastern University Library
Listen at Northeastern University Library
Carole and the Rev. Don Nanstad are interviewed together, and both speak throughout; the transcript names the speaker of every passage. Selected passages in Carole’s words appear under In her own words.
Sources
Her own words
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Oral history interview with Carole Rossi and Don Nanstad
Her account of coming to East Boston, the founding of the council, its move to Our Saviour’s, and her departure in 1993. Interviewer Marilynn Johnson, Boston College.
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Renewing Hope conference, speaker biographies
Administrator of the Crystal Spring center; her degrees from DePaul University and Andover Newton; her interests, in her own biography.
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“Water: Global Concern, Dominican Effort,” by Dana Hinton
The filtering pond and vernal pools at Crystal Spring, with her description of the pools.
Books
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Her leadership of the group that protected Black schoolchildren during busing; the 1978 date of the Esmeralda Sanchez story; Project Welcome and the council’s work with the Community Disorders Unit (chapter five, pages 134–138).
Institutions and organizations
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Past recipients of the Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice
The 1991 award and its citation, “cross cultural neighborhood empowerment.”
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Two Centuries of Faith: Diversity
Names her as founder of the East Boston Ecumenical Community Council in 1978.
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East Boston Ecumenical Community Council
Names her and Sister Noel Doyle as the council’s founders and describes its early work in Maverick Square. See the notes below about its description of the founders.
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The council’s founding in 1978 to promote racial harmony, and its work today.
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Sisters at Sansbury Care Center celebrate jubilee
Her sixtieth jubilee, celebrated April 12, 2024, with four other sisters living at the Sansbury Care Center in St. Catharine, Kentucky.
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12 Dominican Sisters of Peace celebrate jubilees
Her sixtieth jubilee, marking 60 years of religious profession; “Sister Carole Rossi served in education and pastoral ministry in Boston.”
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The congregation’s home for its retired sisters in St. Catharine, Kentucky.
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Celebrate the contributions of our jubilarian sisters
Her sixtieth jubilee.
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Sister Carole Rossi opens Spiritual Journeys series at Bates
Her 1998 talk, “Context for Wholeness and Holiness.”
Crystal Spring
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The 2008 conservation restriction, the preserve’s opening in May 2023, and the tribute naming “Sister Carole.”
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A New Partnership in Plainville
The ecology center’s beginning in 1991 and the size of the land.
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“Symbols and Synergy,” by Christine Loughlin, OP
James Toner’s gift of the land to the St. Catharine Dominicans in 1949.
Family records
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Jubilee tribute
Her elementary teaching and work as a principal, her pastoral ministry to Spanish speakers in East Boston, the 1992 Crystal Spring community, and her ten years of prayer ministry by 2024.
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Family records: Albert A. Rossi (February 13, 1910 – August 13, 1981) and Amelia T. Rossi (March 31, 1910 – January 21, 1993)
Her parents’ full names and dates.
Notes on the record
Her name. The family spells it Carole. Some newspapers printed Carol, and one 1991 article gives her initials as “S.P.” instead of “O.P.”
Entering and profession. The 1989 jubilee announcement says she entered the Dominican Sisters of St. Catharine in 1962 and made her “final profession of vows in 1964.” Two 1991 articles say she had joined the order 28 years earlier. Her silver jubilee (1989) and sixtieth jubilee (2024) were both counted from 1964. The Record (2024) describes her sixtieth jubilee as sixty years of religious profession, which points to 1964 as the year she professed her vows. This site says she professed her vows in 1964 until the congregation’s records confirm whether that was her first or final profession.
The founding of the council. Boston College names Carole as the council’s founder in 1978. Harvard’s Pluralism Project names her and Sister Noel Doyle. The Pluralism Project also calls the founders “Lutheran nuns”; Carole was a Catholic Dominican, and the mix-up probably comes from the council’s home at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church. The co-founder’s name appears as Noel and Noelle. Some sources, including The New Bostonians, spell the church Our Savior; the church’s own name is Our Saviour’s.
The night the council began. In the 2010 oral history Carole remembered Esmeralda Sanchez, a Latina woman from the Orient Heights housing project, whose baby’s window was broken by a rock. A 1980s East Boston Sun-Transcript article tells the story of “a young, black woman” whose window was broken by a bottle. Both accounts end with a protest at the police station. Marilynn S. Johnson’s history The New Bostonians (2015), drawing on the oral history, follows Carole’s account and dates it to 1978; this site does the same.
Dates worked out from the clippings. The silver jubilee announcement gives only “Sunday, Aug. 27.” Twenty-five years from 1964 is 1989, and August 27, 1989 fell on a Sunday. The Sun-Transcript article is dated “Wednesday, June 2–,” with the rest of the date cut off; it refers to the council’s first ten years, so it is probably from 1988. The Boston Globe profile mentions honors “last week” and “last month” that fall in March and February 1991.
The Hecker Award date. A 1991 newsletter gives February 3, 1991, a Sunday. The Nagle article says the ceremony was on a Saturday night.
Quotations. Quotations from the oral history follow Northeastern’s transcript. Quotations from newspapers are given as printed.