HENNESSEY, Sister Mary Harvard Divinity School Faculty Member and Longtime WEEI Radio Panelist Sister Mary Hennessey, a Cenacle Sister for 66 years, passed away on January 27, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois after a brief period of declining health. Mary was predeceased by her parents Joseph A. and Angela (McManus) Hennessey, her siblings William F. Hennessey (Alice), Ann Praught (Joseph), Joseph F. Hennessey (Christina, Ann), and Angela Heffernan (Paul), and is survived by her brother-in-law Paul Heffernan and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. Mary was born in 1929 at Cottage Hospital in Dorchester and grew up on Lyndhurst Street. She attended Girls' Latin School on Huntington Avenue and graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951. She later earned a Master's Degree in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University in Chicago, and Honorary Doctorates from Regis College and the College of the Holy Cross. After graduating from Radcliffe in 1951, while traveling by train from Paris to Rome where she was to attend a wedding, Mary struck up a conversation with a Jesuit Priest about the devastation and destruction of war they were observing, five years after the peace. He knew the Cenacle Sisters in Rome, a religious community which specializes in conducting retreats, pastoral counseling and religious education, and urged her to meet with the superior at the Boston Cenacle on Lake Street in Brighton. Mary followed his advice and entered Cenacle life in Ronkonkoma, NY in 1953. She took her final vows in Rome in 1961. Mary served as Chaplain at Bridgewater State College from 1971 to 1973, and from 1974 to 1977 she served as director of the Boston Theological Institute, an ecumenical consortium of eight theological faculties in Greater Boston, before being named Director of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester. In 1978, she became Northeast Regional Director of the National Institute for Campus Ministries, and in 1983 she was appointed Director of Ministerial Studies, Member of the Faculty of Divinity, and Lecturer on Ministry at the Harvard Divinity School. In 1989, Mary initiated an urban ministry at the Jesuit Urban Center at the Immaculate Conception Church, on Harrison Avenue in the South End, to provide pastoral and other care to Boston's LGBTQ community and to those living with HIV/AIDS. Mary is perhaps best remembered for her twenty years as a panelist on the popular WEEI Radio program "Topic Religion," where she appeared weekly with Rabbi Harold Kushner and Reverend Murray Kenny to discuss topical issues and to spar with them on air over politics and policy. In a 1981, Boston Globe article about the show, Mary noted that listeners who met her remarked that she was much "smaller" than they had imagined. "I must come on like a Mack truck on the air!", she said. "Well, I have to, to plow my way in with all these men talking." A Mass of the Resurrection has been celebrated for Mary at the Chicago Cenacle. An Interment will take place at Holyhood Cemetery in Chestnut Hill on Saturday, November 6, 2021.

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Published by Boston Globe from Oct. 29 to Oct. 31, 2021.

Memories and Condolences
for MARY HENNESSEY

5 Entries

Wendy Fitting

August 16, 2025

Mary Hennessy was my advisor at Harvard Div Sch my 1st year, 1985 until I graduated in '89. We corresponded maybe 3 times since then and I've kept 2 of her hand written, slightly tattered letters - kept them safe in all the intervening years of risks & lugging our stuff every couple years, lots of happy hoopla, & tossing stuff. You figure out what to carry - what to keep - like some very a cool nun. Sister.

ANN MURPHY FLETCHER

December 13, 2021

I first met Sister Hennessey when I was thirteen years old, I saw an advertisement in a local newspaper about a teenage girl's club that was meeting monthly at the Cenacle in 1964. My mother had died two years before and I was overweight, depressed, and lonely with low self-esteem. This was a friendship that changed my life, she gave me the confidence to pursue my dreams of becoming a psychotherapist and author and loved me unconditionally. Mary was very busy in those years when she was the Mother Superior at the Brighton Cenacle but she always made time for me. I talked with her on the phone and met with her almost weekly for several years and she was consistently helpful, kind, astute and encouraging. Wherever she lived we kept in touch. I went to see her at the Chicago Cenacle for a week in 2015 where we talked about many things both past and present. The trail blazing, important and progressive things that she has done with her life fills me with awe and gratitude. She was a brilliant, courageous, bold and compassionate woman with amazing energy who made a huge difference in many lives, she always ended our conversations by saying God Bless. Rest in peace my dear friend and thank you.

Kathi Gormley

November 8, 2021

I had the wonderful pleasure to work with Mary at the Archives of the North American Province of the Cenacle. I still miss her very much. She was an incredible person and I feel very fortunate to have known her.

Malachy McCarthy

November 1, 2021

My condolences on Mary's death. She was a pioneer in so many fields and spent the last years of her life establishing a new archive operation for the Cenacle Sisters in Chicago. Her wit, engagement, and joy will certainly be missed. Her greatest gift was to be able to create order out of chaos. I can remember on several occasions when a heated discussion occurred, Mary was always the peacemaker identifying the common ground where rational debate could occur. Her witness to the Gospel never failed and I am sure she will be fondly remembered by all who came in contact with her.

Nancy Cashman

October 31, 2021

So sorry for Sr. Mary's Loss! My mother used to listen to Topic Religion, and remarked that Sister knew how to stand up for herself--give them as good as they sent!

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