{"id":215579,"date":"2026-04-30T16:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/215579\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T16:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:24:12","slug":"new-york-city-street-receives-a-new-name-sister-susanne-lachapelle-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/215579\/","title":{"rendered":"New York City street receives a new name: Sister Susanne Lachapelle Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York City street acquired a new name this past weekend honoring a Catholic sister\u2019s decades of dedication to the East Harlem community.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, April 25, more than 100 people gathered to celebrate the newly named street \u2014 Sister Susanne Lachapelle Way \u2014 named for the life and legacy of Lachapelle and her contributions as a registered nurse, advocate, and Little Sister of the Assumption (LSA).<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a heart rooted in justice, she dedicated herself to serving the vulnerable through home visits, healthcare, and tireless advocacy, both locally and globally,\u201d Rosario Jimenez, director for LSA Family in Mission, told EWTN News.<\/p>\n

The event and street naming flowed from Lachapelle\u02bcs work with Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service, a community-based nonprofit based in East Harlem. Founded by the Little Sisters, the organization offers numerous programs to help vulnerable families and children meet their basic needs.<\/p>\n

\"Cloudinary<\/p>\n

Crowd celebrates the unveiling of the Sister Susanne Lachapelle Way street sign in East Harlem, New York, on April 25, 2026. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Alysa Jette and Grace Ayres-Doyle<\/p>\n

The group has been in the city for almost 70 years and Lachapelle \u201creally helped to set the trajectory for the organization,\u201d Ray Lopez, chief program officer of LSA Family Health Service, told EWTN News.<\/p>\n

She was \u201ca foundational visionary staff person and a leader who really, to this day, has a very profound impact on many of us who are on the staff and worked shoulder to shoulder with her, learning from her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince her passing, we\u02bcve all \u2026 redoubled our efforts to find a way to keep LSA\u02bcs original mission and vision going in this current environment,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cWe really wanted to find ways to keep her name out there and the legacy going.\u201d<\/p>\n

The street is on the southeast corner of East 115th Street and First Avenue. “It\u02bcs almost the exact midpoint of where Sister Susanne Lachapelle lived in the Little Sisters of the Assumption brownstone and where the LSA Family Health Service \u2026 center is located,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe walked there every day for at least two decades,\u201d he said. \u201cWe thought it was the appropriate place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sister Susanne and the Little Sisters: \u2018Unsung heroes\u2019<\/p>\n

Lachapelle entered the LSA order in 1962 and took the religious name Sister Susanne Mary of the Sacred Heart. She made her final vows in 1971.<\/p>\n

\"Cloudinary<\/p>\n

Sister Susanne Lachapelle. | Credit: Photo courtesy of LSA Family in Mission<\/p>\n

In her 60 years of religious life, she served in numerous areas and worked with many ministries. But for 45 years she made the community of East Harlem her home, helping to spearhead the LSA Family Health Service\u2019s programs.<\/p>\n

As a nurse, Lachapelle conducted home visits, which \u201cwas a foundational program of LSA Family Health Service,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cAll of the programs grew out of those interactions, those early interactions of nurses going into the homes to treat the sick and poor and really seeing conditions firsthand, sitting with families at their kitchen table, hearing their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSister Susanne and the rest of the leadership created other programs to really provide wraparound services for families,\u201d he said. “The Little Sisters set up a food pantry and a thrift store just to make sure that people had the very basics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom there, the services were about connecting people with public benefits, providing support around education, education enrichment, education navigation. A lot of \u2026 programs focused on maternal child health and early childhood development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with her support for health and families, Lachapelle also had a passion for protecting the environment through her commitment to Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’, a call to protect our common home.<\/p>\n

\"Cloudinary<\/p>\n

Sister Susanne Lachapelle. | Credit: Photo courtesy of LSA Family in Mission<\/p>\n

Lachapelle decided to initiate \u201can environmental health component to the work that the Little Sisters were doing,\u201d Lynn Tiede, a volunteer for LSA Health Service who worked with Lachapelle, told EWTN News.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe worked with the families and saw problems like asthma and other debilitating health things, she realized that \u2026 it\u02bcs mold, it\u02bcs the air quality, it\u02bcs these other things that are really at the root of these health problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody was just so inspired \u2026 to see her traipsing into rough, rough buildings and just without any hesitation,\u201d Tiede said. \u201cIf you went into a home and people were dealing with asthma, you \u2026 send in the environmental health team and then they try to work to get the building management to actually address those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the success of her work, she even collaborated with the human rights group and nongovernmental organization Vivat International, where she helped bring voices and environmental issues to the United Nations, but she always remained \u201cvery, very humble,\u201d Tiede said.<\/p>\n

Due to her humility \u201cthere were a few people who were against [the street-naming] when we proposed it, because they thought she would hate it \u2014 because she was so humble,\u201d Tiede said.<\/p>\n

\"Cloudinary<\/p>\n

Sister Susanne Lachapelle Way in East Harlem, New York. | Credit: Photo courtesy of LSA Family in Mission<\/p>\n

Ultimately they chose to honor Lachapelle and the Little Sisters because they are \u201cunsung heroes \u2014 these quiet heroes,\u201d Tiede said.<\/p>\n

The process to get the street renamed began in 2024 and it was found to be an easier process than expected, as the city council was eager to acknowledge Lachapelle and the Little Sisters.<\/p>\n

Sister Susanne\u2019s lasting impact<\/p>\n

At the street naming celebration organizers \u201cwere expecting around 80 participants, but I think it was maybe 150 or a little bit more,\u201d Jimenez said. \u201cThere were community members, families that she served, youth that she served, \u2026 volunteers, and of course, our board members and benefactors.\u201d<\/p>\n

It honored her \u201csimplicity and the way that she used to be a leader,\u201d which was \u201cwas grounded in integrity, purpose, love,\u201d Jimenez said. \u201cHaving a street named after her will honor all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the event, Lopez said: \u201c[It] feels like a dream because so many people came that worked with her in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite having to move the event inside to avoid the cold and rain, the crowd of people stayed to celebrate. It \u201cwas crowded with people, and our center lobby was filled completely,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cIt was just a very festive atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt was really moving to have so many people there from so long ago that still feel it in their hearts, [how] the work here in East Harlem impacted their careers, impacted their lives, and that it\u02bcs still a very significant thing for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New York City street acquired a new name this past weekend honoring a Catholic sister\u2019s decades of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3734,9,24,55,54,56,85064],"class_list":["post-215579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-catholic-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-religious-sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}