Ministries

Featured Ministry
Commitment Statements
Sponsored Institutions
Foreign Missions
Justice Focus
Maps: Where the Sisters of the Presentation serve in the US and the World

Who We Serve and Where

Presentation Sisters of San Francisco today serve throughout California and in Central America.  Our sponsored ministries include: Presentation High School, San Jose; Presentation Retreat and Conference Center, Los Gatos; Learning and Loving Center for immigrant women, Morgan Hill; El Proyecto de las Rosas literacy center, Tipton; The Lantern literacy center, San Francisco; and SafeHouse, a residential program for women seeking to leave prostitution, San Francisco.

In keeping with the charism of our founder, Nano Nagle, the Presentation Sisters of San Francisco work for justice and structural change, especially in issues related to women and children, immigrants and ethnic communities, the environment and sustainable living, and human rights. 

The Presentation Sisters of San Francisco collaborate with Presentation Sisters in North America and around the world in ministry, justice projects, and educating others about global conditions and issues.

For more information about the Conference of Presentation Sisters of North America, go to the website of the SistersofthePresentation.com .

For more information about Presentation ministries around the world, go to the International Presentation Association website: www.ipa.ozehosting.com.

Sisters in Ministry:


Sister Bernice Gotelli, PBVM

Saying she is in her third career, Sister Bernice Gotelli finished her sixteenth year in December 2004 as the Chaplain for Children’s Hospital in Oakland. Located at 52nd and Martin Luther King in Oakland, the hospital is the pediatric medical center for Northern California.
As Chaplain, Sister Bernice’s clients are critically ill children who are patients and their families. The intensive care unit has twenty-three beds and the intensive care nursery has forty. There is also an oncology department and a rehabilitation department. “My role here is to reflect the compassion of Christ, so I do a lot of hugging,” says Sister Bernice. “I am present at ninety-five percent of the children’s deaths and over the years I have performed nearly eight hundred baptisms.” On the bulletin boards in her office, Sister Bernice keeps photographs of those children who have died and those who have thrived.
Sister Bernice’s first career was in elementary education for sixteen years, followed by ten years as a parish sister. After completing her Clinical Pastoral Education at Saint Mary’s Hospital, she began her chaplaincy career.
“ I have come to see that I can be present with people in pain. I spend more time with the parents than the children. It’s holy ground here. When families allow me to accompany them, it is a privilege. ”Besides her ministry as bedside chaplain, Sister Bernice is also a member of the Hospital’s Medical Ethics Committee and the End of Life Care Committee.
She supervises students from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley who are fulfilling their pastoral care experience for their M.A. in Theology.  Sister Bernice also works with volunteers who come in to hold ill babies or who make blankets for dying children. She gives the blankets to the families of the dead children so that they have one last physical reminder of their dead child.
“ I am here for all religions. There is a saying, there are no atheists in foxholes. I would add, nor in children’s hospitals.”
To reach Sister Bernice Gotelli, you can do so by calling her during the day at 510 428-3885, extension 2676. 

Sister Judy Cunningham, PBVM

Working as the school counselor at Saint Brigid School in San Francisco, Sister Judith Cunningham, says, “I love the kids. They want to change, they want to grow, they are open to so much. It’s a rare child you can’t find something to spark them.”
Beginning in the ministry of education in 1977 as a teacher at Saint Agnes School, Sister Judy worked as a counselor at Presentation High School in San Francisco and spent four years with other Presentation Sisters running a Shelter Home for children. Now, completing fourteen years at Saint Brigid’s, she also serves as Vice Principal. She works with four Immaculate Conception Sisters of Spain at the school. The kindergarten through eighth grade school has a student body of about three hundred and twenty children. “We are a commuter school. Parents work here in San Francisco and bring the children to school. We have students who live as far away as Hercules and Pinole.”
“ I love what I’m doing,” says Sister Judy. “That’s ninety percent of it – being in the right place and at the right time.”
To reach Sister Judy, you can call her at Saint Brigid School at 415 673-4523.