Mission Director
Family Rosary, Regional Office, Albany, N.Y.
Laetitia Rhatigan is the Mission Director of Family Rosary, Regional Office, Albany, NY, where she continues the ministerial legacy of Servant of God Father Patrick Peyton, CSC, among the many friends and supporters of Family Rosary in this founding city of his ministries.
Laetitia regularly has public-speaking engagements on Father Peyton’s life and ministry, on the role of Mary in the Church and the Prayer of the Rosary. She collaborates with the staff at the international headquarters of Holy Cross Family Ministries, Easton, MA, of which Family Rosary is a member.
She relies on her expertise in pastoral and social service ministries to assist the mission of Holy Cross Family Ministries, which is to support the spiritual well-being of the family through prayers, especially the prayer of the Rosary.
She joined Family Rosary in 1997 as national mission project director. In 2000, when the international headquarters of Father Peyton’s ministries moved from Albany to Easton, Laetitia remained in Albany to direct Family Rosary’s regional office.
She coordinates an annual Irish Gala, bringing together friends and benefactors of Family Rosary Albany and also the Catholic Diocese of Albany’s annual Rosary Celebration. She supports three Chapters of the Guild for the Beatification of Father Peyton and also coordinates the distribution of Rosaries to schools, parishes, hospitals, nursing homes and prisons within the Diocese of Albany.
Laetitia serves on several boards of directors within the Albany area, including Catholic Charities, Bethesda House for the Homeless, and the Dominican Retreat Center. She is a member of the Mission Committee for Holy Cross Family Ministries and of a Maryknoll Affiliate Group. Also, she serves on the administrative committee for the Mariological Society of America. In 2005, she received the Mary Reed Newland Award for excellence in catechetical and youth ministry leadership in the Diocese of Albany.
She is completing her doctoral work in Mariology at the University of Dayton, Ohio, working on her dissertation on the Marian spirituality of Father Peyton. In 1993, Laetitia received a doctor’s of ministry degree from Graduate Theological Foundation in Indiana. She holds master’s degrees in science and education from Russell Sage College, Troy, New York and a master’s degree in theology from St. Michael’s College in Winooski, VT. She is a Dale Carnegie Graduate and holds a certification from the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation in family life curriculum.
Laetitia, born in Brooklyn, N.Y., is a member of a large family of thirteen siblings, many grandchildren, nieces, nephews and grand nieces and nephews. She enjoys the many family get-togethers and celebrations. Traveling rates number one among her hobbies.