Perhaps it is my age. I will turn eighty in July 2025, and I am becoming increasingly aware of death. Death as a reality that comes for me too. Death as a possibility for engaging the ancestors – the persons I love and admire who have died.
Two of those persons are RNDM Sisters Patricia Orban (November 8, 2023), and Jo Anne Jelinski (June 21, 2024). Both these women were younger than me, and (according to me!) died “out of turn”.
Two public figures whose recent deaths impacted me were Theresa Kane, rsm, and liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez.
Kane died on August 27 2024, at the age of 87. As many commentators have noted, it is hard to overstate her significance in the Catholic world, especially her advocacy for women.1 It is particularly her courage when, as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), she greeted Pope John Paul II during his 1979 visit to the United States. In that televised moment, before an audience of 5,000 sisters, Kane said to the pope:
“The church, in its struggle to be faithful to its call for reverence and charity for all persons, must respond by providing the possibility of women as persons being included in all the ministries of our church.”2
In response, the Vatican sought to remove her from office. Still, Kane persisted. As noted at the time in The Sacramento Bee,
“It must have taken enormous courage for her to stand before the pope at an internationally televised prayer service and make her appeal. We have rarely heard such quiet, measured language of such force.”3
Gutiérrez died in Lima Peru on 22 October 2024, at the age of 96. An originator of “Liberation Theology”, grounded in a preferential option for the poor, a central question of Gutiérrez’ work was:
“How do we convey to the poor that God loves them?”
An experience with Gutiérrez, described by feminist liberation theologian Susan Thistlethwaite that illuminates “liberation theology”, occurred at a faculty luncheon in Boston:
A portly professor … holding a plate piled high from the buffet, marched over to us.
“So, Professor Gutierrez, what exactly is liberation theology?” he intoned as he loomed over us.
Gustavo looked up at the portly professor and then he looked at the plate he carried.
“It is largely a matter of the stomach,” Gustavo said firmly.
“The stomach?” the portly professor huffed.
“Yes,” said Gustavo. “You do theology differently when your stomach is full than when it is empty.”4
In these days following the “body blow” of the November 4 U.S. election, I find solace, and courage in the company of those who have gone before us. Their lives illuminate that context matters. Truth matters. Equality and respect and decency matter. The courageous love to which we are called matters. A love stronger than death.
1 For those unfamiliar with Theresa Kane’s life, a simple Google search will turn up a trove of articles, and a book about her by Christine Schenk entitled To Speak the Truth in Love: A Biography of Theresa Kane.
2 Theresa Kane. Document 25: Theresa Kane, RSM, “Welcome to Pope John Paul II,” 7 October 1979, Donna Quinn Collection 5/Pope’s US Visit – 1979, 1 of 3, Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University, Chicago, Ill. As cited in https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1000690795
3 Anne Marie Saunders. “LCWR Mourns the Passing of Sister Theresa Kane, RSM”. Accessed November 4 at: https://www.lcwr.org/news/lcwr-mourns-the-passing-of-sister-theresa-kane-rsm
4 Susan Thistlethwaite. “Gustavo Gutiérrez”. No Fear Religion and Politics. Susan’s Substack. https://substack.com/home/post/p-150623272
Veronica Dunne is a Sister of our Lady of the Missions (RNDM), who has primarily worked as an educator and counsellor in institutional and community based settings in Canada. She has also served with the RNDMs outside of Canada in Senegal, Peru, and Aotearoa New Zealand.
A 2002 Doctor of Ministry graduate from the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto, she subsequently served as director of the Doctor of Ministry program at St. Stephen’s College at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Her current research interests are in eco-theology and cosmology, and their intersections with indigenous cosmologies and spiritualties.
She presently serves on the RNDM leadership team in Canada.
Veronica, many thanks for your reflection above. I am 2 years older than you with my 82nd birthday today. Death will sure come to all of us and hopefully we are ready when God decides she wants us!! I was with my family a few days ago to celebrate and I found it life giving to be with grandnieces and nephews who are so interested in our family tree and the jewels of the past. So much interest in those who made an impact on my life. Thanks again. Liz