About Us

John Paul II Manor was established by the Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in October, 2005.
We began this ministry in the early 1980's with Sacred Heart Manor in Altoona, renting the building from a local parish.  Later, in 1991, we relocated to Johnstown and opened Bishop Pelczar Manor, named after the founder of our congregation. 
After much prayer, hard work and sacrifice, the dream of owning and operating our own personal care home became a reality when the John Paul II Manor opened its doors on Cambria Street in Cresson, Pennsylvania.  With a present capacity of 30 residents, the John Paul II Manor is a place where those entrusted to us are cared for and loved in the name of Jesus Christ.

ADMINISTRATOR-SR. MARY JOSEPH CALORE, SSCJ
Sr. Mary Joseph Calore, SSCJ is a perpetually professed member of the Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

Sister Mary Joseph holds degrees in Theology and English from King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in Secondary Education from St. Francis University, Loretto, Pennsylvania, and Personal Care Home Administration from Temple University.   She has over twenty years of experience in administrative and business management in her  assignments in province and parish work. 

Sister Mary Joseph Calore, SSCJ  serves as a member of her Provincial Council, is vocation director for her province, local superior, and serves in part time prison ministry in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

​More information on her Congregation can be found at www.sacredheartsisters.org

Why did we choose the name John Paul II?      
           
One of the many apostlates of our Congregration involved the Late Holy Father, St. John Paul ll.  In our many years of service to others, the Sisters count it a singular privilege to have served the late Pope, St. John Paul II throughout the time when he was Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow in Poland and later, in Rome, during his entire pontificate. With fidelity and love, the Sisters lived and worked in the papal household, serving as aides, secretaries, housekeepers and nurses to the late Holy Father – now Saint— John Paul II.
“Our Sisters were among those at his deathbed when the Holy Father was dying,” explains Mother Amabilis Debicka, “and because he had no close living relatives for the funeral procession, in the place of his family were our Sisters, the Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.” Because of their many years of close relationship with the Holy Father, St. John Paul II, the Sisters can truly call him their second earthly father after their Founder, St. Joseph Sebastian Pelczar. It was this pope, St. John Paul II, who beatified and canonized our Founder. (The cause of their co-Foundress, the Blessed, Mother Klara Szczesna, progresses forward, and the Sisters pray for her speedy elevation to the glory of the altars as well.) Indeed, the Sisters pray through the intercession of our Founders and the Saint John Paul II, not only for their own intentions, but also for all those who ask their prayers.

With that same love and dedication with which the Sisters served this great Pope so well at the Vatican, the Sisters seek to bring to everyone everywhere the love of God’s Heart especially to the residents of John Paul II Manor and to families, schools, hospitals, missions, or wherever they may be called to serve God’s people, so that their motto may be fully actualized in their lives and throughout the whole world:
​
"Glory Be to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!" "Glory Forever!"