Los Gatos Sisters of The Holy Names Transform San Jose Neighborhood

More than 45 orders of religious men and women labor in Silicon Valley providing service to the community.

It all began with Paco Gomes. The Marianist brother, an unordained Roman Catholic religious worker, lived in the Cupertino Marianist Center back in 1993. A staff member of St. Maria Goretti Church, he began reaching out to people in the drug-filled, crime-ridden eastside San Jose neighborhood near the intersection of Story Road and McLaughlin Avenue. The 1.39-square-mile-area has 23,401 people living in it, and more than 50 percent of them are immigrants. Most are Hispanic, but an increasing number are Vietnamese and Filipino and about 18 percent are below the poverty line, said Roberta Ward, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of San Jose. The average age is 25 years. Then, in 1995, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in …

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Outdoor Connections

Furry Friends

Volunteers and their pets visit people of all ages at local health-care facilities.

"We're licking loneliness" is the motto held by the all-volunteer Furry Friends Pet Assisted Therapy Services, a registered non-profit organization serving Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties.  Once a month, several of its numerous volunteers bring their pet dogs to visit the elderly nuns at the Convent of the Holy Names in the hills above the Los Gatos Library. The religious women's faces light up when they see the animals. As eager hands pet the well-behaved pooches on their heads and backs, the volunteers and some of the nuns engage in lively conversations, further brightening the residents' day. A variety of pet therapy organizations exist around the world because scientific research has shown that interactions with friendly…

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