Sister Martha Rojo

Sister Martha was born of Mexican parents in Van Nuys, California, where she attended St Elisabeth School. She is bi-lingual and bi-cultural. Sister Martha, formerly Sister Maria Cruz, entered the Congregation on Sept. 12, 1965, and professed final vows on Dec. 12, 1976.

Presently, Sister Martha is a Spanish bereavement team volunteer at her home parish and conducts Communion services for the residents of Atria Assisted Living and Memory Care in Newhall, California. For 11 years, she taught elementary grades in the Los Angeles area and for another 11 years served as Religious Education coordinator in San Antonio, Texas and Hollister, California. For 25 years she ministered as a hospital chaplain, 22 years among the poor, mostly Hispanic and black population in the South Los Angeles area and then three years as a substitute/per diem chaplain at Providence Holy Cross in Mission Hills, California.

Sister Martha graduated from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and received a master’s degree in religious studies from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. In 1998, she completed her CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) studies at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, California and has been a board-certified chaplain with the National Association of Catholic Chaplains from 1998 to the present.