“If the world takes something from us on the one hand, God will give us something on the other.”
St. Louise de Marillac
Sister of Charity Patricia Wittberg Celebrates Diamond Jubilee
When Sister of Charity of Cincinnati Patricia Wittberg met with the dean of the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati (now Mount St. Joseph University) during her first year of studies, she left the office with more than she had planned. “She asked me if I was still thinking of entering the Community,” Sister remembers. “When I beat around the bush, she said, ‘The trouble with you is you are afraid to make a decision. Sit down!’” The dean then proceeded to call the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse to schedule an interview that would change Sister Pat’s life forever.
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sister Pat attended St. Margaret of Cortona School and Marian High School. Sister says that she now believes that it was “providential” that she waited a year before entering the Community, allowing her to be part of the Western Novitiate in Pueblo, Colorado, in 1966. The experience, she says, “helped me mature in a way that I am not sure I would have otherwise.”
After earning a degree in history from the College of Mount St. Joseph, Sister Pat began her ministry as a social studies teacher at St. Joseph Commercial High School in Dayton, Ohio, where she served from 1970 to 1982. “Teaching has been my greatest joy and greatest challenge,” she says. Although she initially struggled to relate to her inner-city students, she eventually came to prefer teaching economically disadvantaged students. “I believe it is what Mother Seton would want us to do,” she says.
After earning a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago, Illinois, Sister Pat discovered a passion for research and writing Over the course of 35 years teaching sociology at various universities, she conducted research at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis on the changes taking place in religious life. While previous research had examined the sociological dimensions of ministries, no one had looked at the sociological aspects of religious communities doing the ministries, which is what she focused on.
Her research and writing reached beyond academic and sociological circles, influencing the Sisters around her as they gained new insights into religious life. That impact is something she remains especially proud of. “It certainly doesn’t matter whether they remember that I wrote about these things; what is important is whether knowing about them helps even one community survive and grow and offer the treasure of religious life to a new generation, which is so in need of it.”
Since 2015, Sister has served as a research associate for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a ministry she continues today. She has also become more involved with the St. Vincent de Paul Society and has shared her knowledge and experience with the Cincinnati community through board service.
In 2026, Sister retired from full-time ministry as director of administration for the Seton Enablement Fund, a ministry of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati which gives low-interest loans to nonprofits and small businesses with the hope of enabling the economically disadvantaged to develop themselves and their communities.
As she celebrates her Diamond Jubilee, Sister Pat’s greatest hope for the future is that religious life will continue to find new avenues of expression. “My hope is that the Sisters of Charity – and other communities as well – can cooperate with God’s grace to offer a wide variety of forms of religious life to the world,” she says. “When I think of what a gift that religious life has been for me, I so wish more people could experience it. My life would not have been as rich, and I would not have been as whole a person, in any other vocation.”
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