By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Sister Margaret Timothy Sato of Honolulu has been named provincial superior of the Daughters of St. Paul in the United States and Toronto, Canada. The appointment, made by the order’s general government in Rome, came in the first week of July.

The congregation’s Hawaii superior for the past two years, Sister Margaret Timothy is the first Filipino-American to head the North American wing of the worldwide order of religious women. She left the islands on July 13 for Boston, where her congregation’s motherhouse is located.

The U.S./Toronto province has 135 sisters in 15 communities operating 17 Pauline Book and Media Centers, the string of retail stores that embody the order’s apostolate of using modern media to proclaim the Gospel.

Sister Margaret Timothy’s term is three years, with the possibility of being appointed to a second consecutive term. She succeeds Sister Margaret Christopher Meahger.

She called her appointment a “mixed blessing” because it means she will have to leave home.

“It has been a wonderful grace to be here, to come back to Hawaii,” she said of her time here as head of her local community.

“It has been a great gift to be closer to family, to be reconnected with family and friends,” she said.

Sister Margaret Timothy, 47, a petite and spirited woman, has already spent 16 of her 30 years with the community in central governing positions, 13 as the provincial treasurer and three as a member of the provincial governing council.

Before being named the Hawaii superior in April 2006, she had served in Cleveland, New York and Boston.

Sister Margaret said that one of her challenges as the new provincial superior will be keeping the Pauline Book and Media Centers successful in a weakened U.S. economy.

“Our apostolate has a retail character,” she said, which is unique among religious orders. Daughter of St. Paul outlets sell books, recorded music, videos, religious items and greeting cards among other things. The Hawaii store is at 1143 Bishop Street, across the street from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace.

She said the sisters “completely support ourselves” with their retail, publishing and recording operations.

Sister Margaret’s appointment comes on the heels of a canonical visit and evaluation of the U.S./Toronto province by the order’s general government in Rome.

She is also taking her post as the church begins its Pauline year, which celebrates the 2,000 anniversary of the birth of St. Paul.

Sister Margaret is one of three daughters of Rose and the late Juvencio Sato, immigrants from Cebu, Philippines. She entered the convent in 1978 at age 17 while still a student at McKinley High School in Honolulu.

After finishing her final high school year in Boston, she went on to Boston’s Emmanuel College majoring in business and music. Her music concentration was performance, primarily voice, but she also plays the oboe and keyboards.

Sister Margaret’s voice can be heard on nearly all the musical CDs of the Daughters of St. Paul singers.

She also has a master’s degree in management in the non-profit sector from the University of Notre Dame.

She was appointed treasurer of the U.S./Toronto province in 1989, and a provincial councilor in 2002.

There are about 2,500 Daughters of St. Paul worldwide. Ten are from Hawaii. The remaining members of the local community are Sister Karen Joseph Hamm and Sister Gioan Lihn Nguyen from the United States and Sister Beatrice Bigatao from Brazil.

Sister Margaret Timothy will be naming her own Hawaii replacement.

In Hawaii, she was also co-chairwoman of the diocese’s Vocation Directors Forum, and chairwoman of the parish pastoral council for the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace.