In May of 1903, Father Dowling, S.J., mailed questionnaires and later compiled them into a book, on Creighton University’s first twenty-five years. The Poor Clares are mentioned several times, as well as the many priests who ministered at the monastery during the time of Mother Maddalena. Father Dowling wrote:
The people of St. John’s, like those of the Holy Family Parish, are faithful, devout and generous. They respond to every effort made for their spiritual or temporal advancement. This is true of all the Catholics of Omaha, and perhaps nowhere in the United States, have they done more, proportionate to their numbers and means, or borne greater burdens more cheerfully than here. With a Catholic population of not more than 15,000 in the combined cities of Omaha and South Omaha, there are sixteen churches, ten of which have parish schools and thirteen of them, parochial residences. There are four Academies, two of them Boarding Schools, a Hospital, a Poor Clare Convent, a Good Shepherd House, an Orphan Asylum, besides Creighton University and Creighton Medical College. The clergy are worthy of such a flock and lead devoted, zealous and self-denying lives.- Creighton University Reminiscences, page 40