Cangemi

Sister Marie Lucita Cangemi, M.S.B.T.

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Sister Marie Lucita Cangemi, M.S.B.T., a social worker who served many years on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, died June 30 in Philadelphia, CNY has learned. She was 93.

She ministered to the poor of the Lower East Side with Catholic Charities for 50 years, helping people in trouble with the law, young prostitutes and people with drug problems.

She wrote a partially autobiographical account of her order’s work in New York, “Manhattan Mission,” which was published by Doubleday in 1967.

In 2001 she received the National Catholic Development Conference’s Good Samaritan Award for her lifetime of service in the spirit of the parable of the Good Samaritan. During her long years of ministry as a member of the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity, she also served in Brooklyn, Auburn and Rochester, and in Connecticut, California, Florida and Puerto Rico.

Born in Summit, N.J., she entered the Missionary Servants in 1938 and professed final vows 1943. She held a bachelor’s degree from the Catholic University of Puerto Rico and a master’s degree in social work from Fordham University.

A Funeral Mass was offered July 3 at the motherhouse in Philadelphia. Burial was in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, also in Philadelphia.

Sister Marie Lucita Cangemi, M.S.B.T.