Delhi Township, Ohio – Members of the Sisters of Charity Community welcomed Karina Montes-Ayala into the Canonical Novitiate during a vespers service Sunday, June 9, 2024, in the Immaculate Conception Chapel at the Mount St. Joseph Motherhouse. The purpose of the one-year Canonical Novitiate is to enable Karina to learn more about religious life, and to deepen her connection to the congregation’s roots and history.

Karina is the oldest of four children to Juan Carlos Montes and Julia Ayala. Her family is from Zacatecas, Mexico. She was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Northern Kentucky. She is a member of Cristo Rey Parish in Florence, Kentucky, where she came to know and love Sister of Charity of Cincinnati Juana Mendez. Karina graduated from Northern Kentucky University in May 2020 with a degree in biology and worked in a diagnostic laboratory for three years in infectious disease and blood testing. She has been involved in an array of ministries through the years, including music ministry, teaching CCD, retreats, and jail ministry with detained migrants.

Karina began Affiliation with the Community in October 2022 and has lived with the Sisters of Charity at Visitation House. She also lived for a few months with the Sisters of Charity at Casa de Caridad in Anthony, New Mexico. Her border ministry experience included volunteering as a teacher aid at Proyecto Santo Niño in Anapra, Mexico, and welcoming refugees with the Assumption Sisters in Chaparral, New Mexico.

Karina will become a part of the Novitiate community at St. Joseph House. She has been accepted to the ICCN (InterCongregational Collaborative Novitiate) in Chicago, Illinois, which begins in August 2024 and runs through June 2025.

The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, an apostolic Catholic women’s religious community, exists to carry out the Gospel of Jesus Christ through prayer and service in the world. Sisters, using their professional talents in the fields of education, health care, social services and environmental justice, live and minister in 14 U.S. dioceses and in Mexico. They also sponsor institutions to address education, health care and social service needs, with particular concern for direct service to the poor. Visit the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati website at www.srcharitycinti.org.