Initially, Sr. Maureen thought teaching first and second grade was her calling. “I love, love, love children that age,” she said. She did that for 11 years before she earned her doctorate at Fordham University. She then applied for an opening at Saint Anselm College, but opted to remain at Fordham as freshman dean.
She quickly regretted her decision. “Administration was not my gift,” she admitted.
Sr. Maureen likens the mystery of God to an onion during a freshman humanities seminar. |
Four years later, another position opened at the college. “I was given a second interview,” she said. “The weather was exactly the same as four years before and I wore the same black suit.”
This time, when the offer came, she jumped at it and with some reluctance relocated five hours from New York. She returns once a month to visit her father and her church, which receives all her earnings. In New Hampshire, she shares an apartment with her beloved cat, Giovanna, named after Pope John. Mondays through Thursdays she teaches. On the weekends she fulfills speaking engagements.
As a Catholic educator, Sr. Maureen is troubled that many of her Catholic students are illiterate in their own religion, unable to say basic prayers and ignorant of what happens at the altar during Mass.
“She has a way of connecting with students and explaining the religion in a way that they understand,” said Theology Professor Dennis Sweetland. “She wants them make to an informed decision, so that they aren’t Catholics just because their parents are.”
As a theologian, she sees a broader mission. “I have the opportunity to make a mark on the 21st century church.”
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