Holy Cross Sister celebrates 50 years as a religious

IC photo by Christine Young

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Sister Kathleen Moroney celebrates 50 years as a religious and serves as an attorney at Holy Cross Ministries.

SALT LAKE CITY - Holy Cross Sister Kathleen Moroney celebrated her Golden Jubilee Feb. 2. She is an immigration attorney with Holy Cross Ministries (HCM).

"Sr. Kathleen is a compassionate person," said Holy Cross Sister Suzanne Brennan, HCM director, who said she has known Sr. Kathleen for many years. They worked together in a Hispanic youth center in South Bend, Ind. "We would have folks contact us about a death in the family. They needed money to send the body back to Mexico," said Sr. Suzanne. "We didn't have any money so we would call Kathleen, who was the general treasurer for our congregation at that time, and she would always help out."

Sr. Suzanne sees the same quality in Sr. Kathleen at HCM. "We have many people come in who have suffered persecution and are seeking help from violent situations in their country and also in the United States," said Sr. Suzanne. "Kathleen can guide them within the laws in a very compassionate way. And when we aren't able to help them, their experience with her caring about them, gives them hope for the future."

As a child, Sr. Kathleen knew she wanted to become a religious, but also knew she didn't want to be a teacher or a nurse and thought those were her only choices. She was raised in Greenbelt, Md., and educated by the Sisters of Providence. By the time she was in high school the Sisters of the Holy Cross were teaching her brothers and sisters in grade school. "My first thoughts of becoming a sister came to me in grade school and then when I was a sophomore in high school," said Sr. Kathleen, who entered the motherhouse at Notre Dame as soon as she graduated from high school. She took her first vows Feb. 2, 1960.

In 1961, she became a missionary at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio, in the business office. In 1963, she professed her final vows and went to school for a bachelor's degree in business at Ohio State University. After working from 1967 to the mid-1970s as a treasurer at Cardinal Cushing College in Brooklyn, Mass., and at Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City for six months to learn computers and then at St. Joseph's Hospital in South Bend, Ind., she realized she needed to know more about the law. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 1979.

In 1987, she went to Brazil as a missionary, learned Portuguese and worked in a parish for two years, before being elected as the general treasurer of her congregation from 1989 to 1999. "After that I wanted an opportunity to use my legal degree and focus on the materially poor," said Sr. Kathleen. "I could see the increase in the immigrant population and the Catholic Church's involvement, so I came to Utah. I discussed immigration with Adan Batar, director of Catholic Community Services Refugee Resettlement program, and started HCM's program in 2000. Now we have two attorneys and three who are certified to work on the Board of Immigration Appeals.

"This ministry of immigration law has allowed me to work directly with individuals and help them get rid of the fear of being deported and of being abused, and given them the ability to work legally," she said. "It is so satisfying when someone gets their papers and families are reunited."

Sr. Kathleen said she wouldn't change her decision of becoming a religious "even though it hasn't always been easy, as is the case in any life choice," she said. "My community has afforded me a good education. Each year we have an opportunity to go on retreat, which is critical to keeping our religious life together. We have community gatherings and I have a good local community that I live with that is very supportive.