Sister Josita (Rose Mary) Pitz, 83, of Mother of God Monastery in Watertown, SD died Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at Maryhouse Nursing Home in Pierre, SD.

Funeral Services will be held Tuesday, December 4, 2007, at Mother of God Monastery in Watertown with Father Jerome Holtzman officiating.

Burial will be in the Monastery cemetery.

There will be a Memorial Service at 7:00 p.m. Sunday in the Maryhouse Chapel in Pierre.

A Liturgical Wake will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Mother of God Monastery in Watertown.

Sister Josita was the fourth of 13 children of Peter and Kathryn Fischer Pitz of rural Ipswich, SD. Of her early years, she said her best memories were of "growing up in the country, seeing new life all around us, and the good times we had in the evenings when mother would play the piano and we would all sing."

A graduate of Mt. Marty High School, Sister earned a B.A. in Elementary Education and a degree in Business Education Administration from Northern State College in Aberdeen, SD. Sister Josita taught elementary grades in South and North Dakota for 24 years. She supervised the Admitting/Business Office of St. Mary's Hospital in Pierre from 1955-1964. From 1967-1973, Sister Josita taught junior and senior high business courses at Immaculate Conception School in Stephan, was junior advisor, and substituted in the girls' dorm as needed. In later years, she worked in various parish ministries and among the Native Americans.

She said, "The event that jolted me out of my daily existence and brought me to my knees asking for help, was election to leadership in my religious community in 1973." During the eight years Sister Josita served as Prioress of Mother of God Monastery, she guided the religious community through the post-Vatican Council II renewal period.

One of the major thrusts during the years 1973-1981 was involvement

in the renewal process mandated by Vatican II, and carried out at various levels in the Catholic Church. Resulting from this renewal, many changes came about. Sisters began entering different fields of ministry and became increasingly involved with the laity. Sisters sought education and entered into varied ministries including parish work, counseling, pastoral care, social services and other fields.

During Sister Josita's leadership tenure, the monastery assumed ownership of St. Ann's Hospital in Watertown, Harmony Hill High School was closed, lay administrators were hired at our hospitals in Pierre and Watertown, and the adult education and hospitality programs were introduced at Harmony Hill in Watertown.

She was an advocate for the poor and liked to be where the action was. She journeyed to Guatemala several times to experience the life of our missionaries

living there, to see the deprivation, the oppression and also the eagerness for the Gospel among the native people. She journeyed with a group of women traveling under sponsorship of the Women's Coalition to Stop U.S. intervention in Central America. The group was stopped at the boarding gate and turned back by the Honduran Government. Sister Josita said the group was trying to present a peaceful and prayerful option to military intervention.

Sister Josita is survived by two brothers, Perry Pitz of Aberdeen, SD, and Larry Pitz of Tucson, AZ; two sisters, Margaret Fischer of Harrison, AR and Sara Jane Moore of Marshall, MN, many nieces and nephews and her Sisters of Mother of God Monastery.