We invite readers to send short stories about the ways in which their lives have been personally blessed by the life and work of priests and religious in our diocese.

By Karina Fabian

Sister Kathleen O’Sullivan, BVM, is the daughter of an Irish immigrant who had the heart of a poet and was a revolutionary in the Easter Rebellion yet didn’t kill anyone. Perhaps that’s where she inherited her appreciation for beauty and her zeal to make a difference in the world.

Sister Kathleen joined the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary after graduating from high school in San Francisco in 1946. She taught in Chicago, then at St. Anne’s in Butte (1950-1954), then again in San Francisco. Next, she served as principal in Kauai, Hawaii, for eight years.

After Hawaii, she accompanied her father and sister to Ireland. “We had to go by boat from New York so ‘my first glimpse of Ireland would be to see her rising out of the sea in the early morning mist.’ That was the poet in my father,” she said.

After Ireland, she came to Missoula to teach at St. Anthony Grade School (1967-1968), then moved to Butte, where she served in the city-wide religious education center, and even sold World Book encyclopedias to stay in the area after the center closed. In 1984, she took a position as parish minister for Holy Spirit Parish. It was a significant time for her.

“While I was there I got involved in the Butte Community Union, which is an organization of low-income people in Butte funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. It was during that time that I became aware of the whole area of injustice and the plight of the poor. Somehow growing up I had been unaware, but while I was working at the Butte Community Union, I began to understand the real message of the Gospel,” she said.

She was also active in Habitat for Humanity and Montana Community Shares, and was coordinator of volunteers of Highlands Hospice.

When the first war against Iraq broke out, she and several others started a peaceful protest at the steps of the federal courthouse. That group formed TAPS–Taking Action for Peaceful Solutions. Among their actions were establishing a peace award, sponsoring speakers and hosting an annual peace dance.

When a boy was shot in front of an elementary school, they visited schools to show teachers how to make peace cranes. “The cranes were brought to the funeral. Some of the officials from Helena took them back to their offices with them,” she said.

She has also served on the national CCHD board.

In 1996, she moved to Missoula and took a part-time position at St. Joseph’s Elementary School. Now she volunteers at Holy Family Parish and volunteers with the Caring for Creation Network and www.globalwarmingsolution.org, which is trying to raise awareness of global warming.

This year, Sister Kathleen is celebrating her 60th anniversary as a BVM. Joining was one of the best decisions she’d ever made, she said. “It has been a happy, productive, centered life, and that has everything to do with God.”


Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 22, No. 10, October 20, 2006.