Former Prompt Succor Shrine director, 89

Ursuline Sister Carla Dolce, a former principal of Ursuline Academy Elementary and High School who dedicated her later years to the renovation of the Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor on State Street, died peacefully March 21 at Our Lady of Wisdom Healthcare Center in New Orleans. She was 89. A Funeral Mass was celebrated for her March 29 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in New Orleans.

Born Sylvia Dolce in New Orleans on Nov. 4, 1932, Sister Carla was the daughter of John and Nina Puglia Dolce and a member of Ursuline’s class of 1950. She entered the Ursulines on Jan. 15, 1954, and professed her vows on July 16, 1956. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the College of New Rochelle and a master’s in history from St. Louis University.

Sister Carla ministered for 60 years throughout the Ursulines’ Central Province and beyond, including in Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. In Illinois, she taught at St. Thomas School in Decatur (1959-62); St. Aloysius School (1962-64 and 1965-66) and St. Joseph School in Springfield (1964-65). She was principal of St. Peter School in Laredo, Texas, (1966-68) and taught at Ursuline Academy in Laredo from 1968-69. She also served as president of Ursuline Academy in Dallas (1983-85), returning to Dallas in the early 2000s to volunteer at the city’s Jewish Community Center. She was  president of Marquette High School in Alton, Illinois, (1990-92); and president of Ursuline Academy in St. Louis, Missouri (1992-93).

In New Orleans, Sister Carla was elementary principal at Ursuline Academy in New Orleans from 1971-74 then secondary  principal from 1974-75.

As director of the National Votive Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in New Orleans from 2013-15, she was instrumental in establishing it as a corporation with a lay board of trustees and raising funds for its complete renovation.

“I love to watch the Christ child, with his arm on his mother’s shoulder and his hand on her breast, comfortable and secure within the mother’s grasp,” said Sister Carla in a 2013 interview with the Clarion Herald, referring to a 19th-century statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor statue that had been donated to the shrine and was believed to have once graced the Sisters’ former campus on Dauphine Street in the Ninth Ward.

“We have people coming (to the State Street shrine) who are hopeless. They pray and they really find hope,” Sister Carla said in that interview. “We see people who are disconsolate and they find comfort; we see people who are in terrible shape – they have so many challenges and problems in life – and they either find some solution or miracle.”

Those who knew Sister Carla recalled the creativity she brought to projects and her passion for racial justice exemplified through her ministries to the poor and underserved. Sister Carla was co-director of the New Orleans Training Center, which trained community organizers and worked with Catholic Charities to welcome and assist Cuban refugees.

Sister Carla is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Carl and Nancy Dolce, her nephew John Dolce, her niece, Carla Stravridas and others.