Sister Mary Rita McSweeney, OP 1939-2017 Today, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, we see the perfect example of faithfulness: Mary, the mother of Jesus, standing by the Cross, her sorrow grounded in compassion, full of sorrow and yet full of joy because she sees how her Son is One with all. That s what Mary Rita told us with her life; we don t help the needy person only because he or she is needy, but because each one is in the image of God. In her homily at Sister Mary Rita McSweeney s funeral on September 15, 2017, Sister Attracta Kelly remembered Sister Mary Rita as a woman who true to what Jesus asks in the selected Gospel reading 1 had been deeply committed to helping the least in society. Sister Attracta related a story that Sister Mary Rita had shared with one of their crowd about a homeless man whom she saw every day on her way to work. Rather than passing him by, she would stop to talk with him, and eventually she found him housing and hired him in her ministry. As in Mary Rita s example, it starts by opening our eyes and hearts to the suffering of other human beings, Sister Attracta said. The key is to resist the temptation to look the other way or to take refuge in apathy rather than to journey with the open eye and the open heart. That was a lesson Mary Rita learned very early in life. When she was just two months old, her father, Joseph, died of kidney failure, leaving her mother, Marion (O Connor) McSweeney, with three small children. Besides Mary Rita, there was three-and-a-half year old Joseph and two-year-old Michael. Neighbors, friends, and even strangers reached out to help the very poor family. I believe Mary Rita truly understood that one is fully oneself only in relationship, Sister Attracta said. And she lived those relationships with great joy! Sister Mary Rita was born February 28, 1939, in Detroit. Marion and her children spent Mary Rita s early years as parishioners at Gesu Church on the city s northwest side. Gesu Church was the center of our life and prayer was the center of our home life, she wrote in her autobiography. Sister Kathleen Klingen, Chapter Prioress for the Dominican Midwest Chapter, quoted more from Sister Mary Rita s autobiography at the wake service: Mary Rita relates the story of Sunday mornings, when her mother would fix a grand breakfast and then she would read the Sunday comics to them. She always spoke of her as a real good storyteller. Then one Sunday, instead of the comics, the family needed to begin reading the want ads looking for a new home for the family, because their landlord had told them they would have to move. It was important to them, wrote Mary Rita, that they be within walking distance of a Catholic church and parish school. They checked out listed houses via the city bus lines and decided on a home that was actually not all that far away, in St. Theresa Parish, which had an excellent reputation for both church and school. 1 Matthew 25:31-40. The first reading was Isaiah 55:1-3, 9-12.
The house needed a lot of work and Mrs. McSweeney used this challenge to teach her children the meaning of hard work, and I think Mary Rita learned that quite well, Sister Kathleen said. Together, the family just transformed the house into their home. It was during her high school years that Mary Rita felt a yearning for something more, something deeper in my life, and in September 1957 she entered the Congregation. Her family had barely left the building, however, before she was overcome with homesickness. Sister Margaret Philip (Kathleen) O Connell, the postulant mistress, did whatever she could to ease the situation; once, when Mary Rita was in a play at Siena Heights College, Sister Margaret Philip invited Mary Rita s mother and brothers to surprise her by coming to see the play and have a special visit. Sister Mary Rita began her novitiate year on August 4, 1958, receiving the religious name Sister Michael Sean. In August 1959, having completed her novitiate, she was assigned to Queen of Apostles school in Ivanhoe (now known as Riverdale), Illinois, where she spent three years. Assignments to St. Patrick s in St. Charles, Illinois; Infant Jesus of Prague in Flossmoor, Illinois; and St. Albert the Great in Burbank, Illinois, followed. During these years, she completed her Bachelor of Philosophy degree at Siena Heights College (University), majoring in English and minoring in biology and history. She went on to earn a master s degree in administration from DePaul University. In 1974, she returned to Infant Jesus of Prague, where she spent the next seven years as principal, followed by two years as principal at St. Clare of Montefalco in Chicago until issues with the faculty and the pastor led to her resignation. Her last teaching position was at St. Cajetan, also in Chicago. She left St. Cajetan in 1990 for a ministerial study sabbatical at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. The Spirit was nudging me again: When are you going to follow the cry of the poor? she wrote in her autobiography. This was the voice I heard for many years. It is time to give back for all the support I received growing up in a single-parent household. My generous, supporting Adrian Dominican Community said, Let us show you the way. I received a generous gift of a one year sabbatical of classes, study, prayer and traveling throughout the United States. It was truly the best year of my life. The day her sabbatical ended, she went to work at Chicago s Marillac House, operated by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, as Director of Senior Services. In that capacity, she worked with homebound seniors and ran the take charge group, a group of active seniors that would meet regularly to socialize, have a meal, and take part in education programs and outings. Many Adrian Dominican Sisters got involved as well, by participating in the center s Adopt-a-Senior program. Life took on a new meaning for I could walk with the poor, work with them, support and grow to love them, she wrote in her autobiography. When she received one of Cook County s Community Spirit Awards in June 2004, presenter Richard Devine, the Cook County State s Attorney, said she embodies the mission of Marillac House: to advocate for the voiceless and to give service to those in need. Sister Mary Rita ministered at Marillac House until mid-2017, when a severe stroke led to her return to Adrian to live at the Dominican Life Center that August. A second stroke took her home to God on
September 7, 2017. She was seventy-eight years old and in the fifty-ninth year of her religious profession. Two of her nieces, Joe s daughter Rita and Mike s daughter Mary, were among the speakers at the wake service. Rita remembered her aunt s robust laugh and her love for life and for the Lord, and said Sister Mary Rita loved her brothers as the father she had never known. Mary called Sister Mary Rita more than an aunt a friend, a confidante, a cheerleader and a helper, and reminisced about the times the family spent at their cabin in Lupton, Michigan, on Marion McSweeney s family land, with Sister Mary Rita always joined by her longtime friend and housemate Sister Cyrilla Zarek. Mary also shared that Cyrilla had told her that Mary Rita was not afraid of death, but rather saw it as a chance to finally meet her father. As family and friends paid their respects at the end of the service, the strains of the hymn O Loving God, which is set to the tune of the Londonderry Air, wafted through St. Catherine Chapel on piano and harmonica in honor of Sister Mary Rita s Irish roots the same song which would be sung to conclude the next day s funeral Mass. At the Mass, which was celebrated by Father Tom Murphy of St. Mary of Good Counsel Church in Adrian, Jennifer Thomas, the chairwoman of the West Side Coalition for Seniors in Chicago, read a Resolution of Respect from the coalition: It is with deep sadness and a sense of great loss that we bid goodbye to our beloved Sister Mary Rita (Michael Sean) McSweeney. Her commitment to community, seniors, and children was above and beyond the call of duty. Said Sister Attracta to conclude her homily: Mary Rita, you have responded well. The words of Isaiah ring out for you today: Yes, in joy you shall depart, in joy you shall be brought back. Mountains and hills shall break out in song before you. And all the trees and countryside shall clap their hands. All the heavens rejoice at your arrival. Later on in this liturgy we will sing you home with a beautiful Irish air, and we will pray: O Loving God, we send our daughter home to you, home to a place of everlasting love. As our God reaches out with open loving arms, welcoming you: Come, my beloved, you have my Father s blessing, inherit the place I have prepared for you from the beginning of time!
Top: Members of a card-playing group are, from left: Sisters Mary Rita McSweeney, Anastasia McNichols, and Helen Therese Mayer; Mary Ann Drake, sister of Sister Joan Weithman; Sister Joan; and Sister Kathleen Buechele. Bottom left: Sister Mary Rita celebrates her Golden Jubilee with her sister-in-law Emily and brother Mike Left: Sister Mary Rita shares a moment with her niece Amanda McSweeney and baby Michael Sean. Top right: Sister Mary Rita with her brothers, Robert (Mike), left, and Joseph.
Left: Members of the 2008 September-February Golden Jubilee crowd are: back row, from left, Sisters Charlene Cote, Mary Rita McSweeney, Kathleen Clausen, and Marilyn Felice Barnett, and front row, from left, Sisters Attracta Kelly, Maria Odelia Romero, Annette Marie Sinagra, and Mary Katherine Dolan. Not pictured is Sister Iva Gregory. Top: Gathered at Marge Donne s home in Olympia Fields, Illinois are, from left: Sisters Norine Burns, Mary Rita McSweeney, Jane Zimmerman, and Cyrilla Zarek; Marge Donne; and Sister Joan Mary. Bottom: The Sojourner s Mission Group gathers at Regina Dominican High School in 2008. From left, they are Sisters Mary Rita McSweeney, Dorothy Dempsey, Norlee McDonnell, Cyrilla Zarek, Joan Mary, Mary Jones, and Heather Stiverson.