South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 5, Ed. 1, May 2017 Page: 7 of 32
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Like in mathematics, there is only one right
answer in religious life...
layperson
May 2017 | South Texas Catholic 7
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Scry, 'yes' to God
Mary Cottingham
South Texas Catholic
Her father, a gentle caring man, wanted Sister Claudia Ongpin, OP
all his children to be educated. He often
said, “I don’t have millions to leave you,
but that certificate will get you what you
must have been touched by the Lord,
because I decided to talk to a priest at the
retreat. I was feeling the desire to become a
sister, but I didn’t know if I could be one.”
For a reason she cannot herself pinpoint
to join the Religious
Missionaries of St. Dominic. Her friends
did not.
A mathematician at heart, Sister Clau-
n her teens Sister Claudia Ongpin,
OP vowed she would never become
a religious and, most definitely
never a Dominican sister. As her
life unfolded, however, she realized
God had other plans.
She was a liberation baby born just after
World War II, she was the eldest of four
and she was the only girl. Born in Manila,
Philippines on June 9, 1945 to Gilberto
and Claudia Ongpin, she attended Cath-
olic schools from first grade through high
school and her parents saw to it that she
attended Mass daily At the age of 15 she
attended Colegio de Jesus-Maria, now
called the Dominican College.
sure the Lord will be calling one of you.
I wonder which one of you will be called
by the Lord?’ In unison, all the students
said, ‘Claudia,’ but my teacher said, ‘oh
Claudia no, she can’t be’.”
It was enough to make her feel unwor-
thy and rebellious at the same time. “I
thought to myself, ‘who says I even want
to be’,” Sister Claudia said.
During her third year of teaching, the
superior of the Religious Missionaries of
St. Dominic often sent one of the teaching
sisters to ask her when she was going to
join them and she would say, “look sister,
I don’t want to be a religious and if ever I
mistake becoming one... I think I don’t
want to become a Dominican.”
One day, two of her friends announced
that they were joining the convent. “I was
were close and
I wouldn’t talk to them for a short while,”
she said. “They were good friends.”
Her heart softened at a faculty retreat
As she looks back now, the idea of organized by the sisters in the school. “I
her toward becoming a religious had first occurred
caching English, but her heart to her duringthe third 7ear of high school,
made up, and she received but changed when a teacher had touched
a nerve, dissuading her from wanting to
become a sister.
“The teacher was speaking about the dif- today, she decided
ferent stages of life, married life, religious
the age of 19 life and single blessedness,” Sister Claudia
recalls. “The teacher said, ‘I know most
the high school she had attended. She of 7OU wil1 be getting married, but I’m dia knew she had made the right decision,
taught math and religion and began taking very upset with them. They
need in life.” As a resultf Claudia and her classes to get her master’s degree. She, how-
brothers all graduated from college. ever, ended tip defending her thesis and
When she was attending college, Clau- completing her master’s in the convent.
dia discovered her first love—mathematics.
Her professors tried to steer
a career te;
and mind was
a bachelor’s degree in mathematics educa-
tion. “I love math, because there is only
one correct answer—and that’s it,” she
said.
She graduated college at
and was invited to teach as a
at
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Cardenas, Alfredo E. South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 5, Ed. 1, May 2017, newspaper, May 2017; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1337838/m1/7/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .