PROSPECT HEIGHTS — For nearly two months, Mary Ruane has started every day by checking her phone. The 82-year-old needed to see what church she would be driving to that day, as she was an unwavering pilgrim traversing the diocese for the Lenten Pilgrimage.
In total, Ruane visited 32 of the stops on the Diocesan Lenten Pilgrimage, missing only a few as it began due to a health complication. In nearly every church she visited, Ruane saw people who knew her, evidence of the number of lives she has affected across Brooklyn and Queens.
Ruane, the youngest of nine children, is named after the Blessed Mother. She was born on the feast of the Immaculate Conception at the former Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica. It was Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and her mother was in the hospital when her three sons came to kiss her goodbye before enlisting to fight in World War II.
“Can you imagine being in the hospital with a new baby, and your teenage sons have gone to war?” she said.
Ruane’s older brothers ultimately returned from the war, and she grew up in Richmond Hill in a Catholic household. She attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy and St. Michael’s High School before finding work at the New York Telephone Company. Half a decade later, at age 70, she graduated from Adelphi University after raising five children.
“I always wanted to go. My husband was very controlling, and he didn’t want me to go to school,” Ruane said. She graduated with a degree in business management.
Ruane attends pro-life rallies across New York City, organizes rosaries for different causes, and raises money for those in need. When a community member’s baby daughter was diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), commonly known as brittle bone disease, she helped collect money on the family’s behalf, and St. Helen Catholic Church, Howard Beach, started a prayer circle for her and her baby. The GoFundMe for Gemma Darby is still active.
“She’s pretty industrious,” said Father Michael Panicali, the parochial vicar at St. Helen. “She’s passionate, she’ll put 100% of her effort into raising money for important causes.”
As a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine teacher, Ruane has taught hundreds of students, instilling in them the importance of faith in their lives and guiding them through their Catholic upbringing. Currently, she is a parishioner at St. Helen, but she has helped young adults at churches across the diocese through camps and special events.
“It’s an inspiring story of a person who has come through a lot of adversity and a lot of difficulties, and just remains faithful to the Gospel and remains engaged heavily. … She hasn’t allowed those difficulties to erode who she is, what she believes in, and what she knows is important,” Father Panicali said.
After nearly 30 years of marriage, Ruane and her husband separated, and at 58 years old, for the first time since she was a young adult, she needed to find a job. With only six months of work experience before marriage, she went to Verizon, and found a job that would sustain her for over 14 years.
“I knew nothing about computers. I loved Verizon. They saved my life. … I was so scared. I knew nothing. Twelve weeks of training, and I was programming large businesses with Fios,” she said.
The Lenten Pilgrimage has been central in Ruane’s life since it began on Ash Wednesday at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James. She often carpooled with others to the station church of that day, hoping to involve as many people as possible in the pilgrimage.
“The pilgrimage does so much for you as a person,” she said. “I think people go into it thinking we are doing something for Jesus, and we are because he wants us to be here. But it makes us grow, and it gives you a lot of strength.”
Getting to travel alongside the Eucharist is a privilege, she said, and she could not imagine not going to the station churches as often as possible. She compares going to the Lenten Pilgrimage to going into the valley with Jesus, so He will not be alone.
“To see him go back go back into the Tabernacle makes me say, ‘I’m sorry you’re going back in there,’ because He waits for us,”
Ruane applauded Bishop Robert Brennan’s efforts in the Lenten Pilgrimage. Even as she was in the hospital and recovering, unable to visit some pilgrimage stops, she felt cared for by the diocese, confident that the bishop prayed for her well-being. Most notably, she said, is his work to involve the youth in the Church, a responsibility she sees him fulfill gracefully.
“He is a wonderful man with the children. I think he can make good strides for us as a people to bring the faith back to the children because it’s not where it should be,” she said.