February 28, 2018

Elms College to host talk by Sister Jane Morrissey on ‘Unruly Nuns’ book

REGIONAL
Staff report

(IObserve photos/courtesy of Elms College)

CHICOPEE, Mass. – College of Our Lady of the Elms will host a reading and discussion with Sister of St. Joseph Jane Morrissey, Class of 1962, at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, March 15, in the Alumnae Library Theater.

Morrissey, the former president of the Sisters of St. Joseph (SSJs) of Springfield and a former member of the faculty at Elms, will read from and discuss her contributions to the book Unruly Catholic Nuns: Sisters’ Stories, edited by Jeana DelRosso, Leigh Eicke, and Ana Kothe (SUNY Press, 2017).

Unruly Catholic Nuns explores the voices of current and former Catholic nuns as they share their experiences with Catholicism, both in accordance and in conflict with the institutional church. In these women’s stories – told through fiction, poetry, and prose – we learn how they act out their missions of social justice, challenge cultural and governmental policies, and attempt to reconcile their unruliness with their religious orders and the strictures of the church hierarchy.

Sister Morrissey has been a crusader for peace, an author and scholar, and a teacher for more than 40 years. She is currently co-director of the Homework House of Hermano Pedro in Holyoke, which she co-founded in 2006, and has devoted many years to working with the poor in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Guatemala.

Sister Morrissey served as president of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield from 1999 to 2005, and has served as chair of their constitution committee. Prior to her leadership in the congregation, she was a pastoral minister at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Springfield, director of the SSJ Office for Peace and Justice, a founding member and board member at The Gray House, and a teacher at Elms College and the former Cathedral High School. She was a member of the Elms College Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2005.

She graduated from Elms College in 1962, and went on to receive master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Massachusetts, with specialties in Anglo-Saxon poetry, the development of Arthurian legends, and paleography. In addition, she has studied languages and oral traditions in Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia.

She co-authored a book called Gracias, Matiox, Thanks: A Trilingual Anthology of Guatemalan Oral Tradition; and book chapters in Peace and Justice Education and the Encyclopedia of Catholic Literature. She has also authored a number of articles on her research and experiences with the Latin American poor.

She applied for and received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the S&H Foundation to fund programs on interdisciplinary humanities curricula and women in leadership.

She has been a board member of the Mental Health Consortium of Greater Springfield, the Open Window, St. Francis Chapel, New England Coalition for Responsible Investments, Massachusetts Chapter of Pax Christi USA (of which she was chair from 1994 to 1997), and the Mont Marie Health Care Center, Child Care Center, and Center for Spiritual Direction, and was secretary of New England Catholic Peace Fellowship. 

Sister Morrissey also is a long-time volunteer in educational programs at the Hampden County House of Correction, and was coordinator of Community Chaplains-on-Call in conjunction with the Springfield Police Department and the Council of Churches Pastoral Division. She created and directed a humanities seminar for pre-release prisoners, and taught a course called “The Gospel Imperative for Social Transformation” in the criminal justice program at Anna Maria College.

She has received many awards for her community involvement and work on behalf of peace, including the New England Peace Award from the New England Catholic Peace Fellowship, the Massachusetts Pax Christi Peacemaker Award, an award from the Mental Health Consortium of Greater Springfield for volunteer service, the William Pynchon Award for community service, and the Pioneer Valley Notre Dame Club Exemplar Award for service to Church. In 2007, Elms College awarded Morrissey an honorary degree.

The March 15 event is sponsored by campus ministry and students in the Sophomore Leadership Program, who will raffle off 15 copies of the book at the reading.