Sister Gloria Ruiz
Maryknoll
"The people to whom I minister remind me in surprising ways that I am a messenger of a loving God."
Sister Gloria has had a varied mission presence in a number of different countries and cultures, her most recent in El Salvador.
Sister Gloria Ruiz is from New York City and calls herself "a Latin from Manhattan," yet only recently has her mission work taken her to Latin America. After graduating from St. Clare's Academy in Sinsinawa, WI, and having obtained her BS in General Science from Fordham University, she entered the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation in 1952.
Most of Sister Gloria's Maryknoll life has been in medical and pastoral ministry to people living with AIDS and their families. She studied Medical Technology in St. Joseph's Hospital in Kansas City and Public Health in the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Sister Gloria was assigned to Hong Kong in 1958. As a medical technologist she supervised a hospital laboratory for ten years and coordinated a community health center for two years. After decades of working closely with patients, her interest turned to their religious and spiritual care. She studied to become a hospital chaplain and returned to Hong Kong where she served for six years as chaplain in the women's oncology unit of a large government hospital.
Sister Gloria also spent several years doing mission education and promotion work for the Maryknoll Sisters in the U.S. In 1975 she was assigned to Bandung, Indonesia where she again assumed responsibility for a hospital laboratory and a community health program.
For nine years Sister Gloria was in ministry with people living with AIDS in El Salvador. She has returned to the U.S. and is presently living in Monrovia, CA.
Sister Gloria Ryan »
« Sister Marie Rosso
Sister Rosemary Kane
Sister Mary Sophia Aihara