LCWR Mourns the Death of Former LCWR President Theresa Kane, RSM
With sadness we note the death on August 22, 2024 of Theresa Kane, RSM who served in the presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious from 1978-1981. She was also the recipient of LCWR’s Outstanding Leadership Award in 2004, the second person to ever receive this honor.
The Sisters of Mercy recognized Theresa's natural leadership skills soon after her entrance to their order. She was appointed councilor and secretary for the New York Province of the Sisters of Mercy at age 29. Four years later she was elected the provincial administrator, a position she held for seven years until her election as president of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of the Union at age 40.
One year later, she was elected president of LCWR and, in that capacity, greeted Pope John Paul II during his visit to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC on October 7, 1979, speaking publicly from the sanctuary. Her courageous statement asking for greater involvement of women in the Catholic Church, spoken because of the yearning she had heard expressed by hundreds of women who were looking for equality in the world and church, drew international attention. 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.”
Her action made an undeniably important contribution – it focused worldwide attention on the crucial question of the rights of women. Over the years since that time, Theresa gave her life’s energies, time, and skills to fostering religious life, creating peace, and working for the rights of women and the rights of people who are impoverished. She was a founding member of the Intercommunity Center for Justice and Peace in New York, a chair of LCWR Region 2, a US representative to the International Union of Superiors General, board member and president of the Washington Office on Latin America, founding member and first vice president of the board of the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church, among other actions of service.
LCWR echoes the words once spoken by Theresa’s long-time mentor and friend, Sister of Mercy Betty Carroll, who noted, “A picture of Theresa must embrace a Theresa who smiles in adversity, and who responds to closed doors with a consistent but gentle plea for civilized discourse and dialogue.” We are grateful for her perseverance in consistently working for a more just world and persisting with such graciousness.
Funeral arrangements are pending. The Sisters of Mercy will post them here when they are finalized. We join in prayer with these sisters and all who were touched by Theresa during her 87 years of life.
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