October 2008

Potrero Hill Nun Works for Peace and Justice

By Sarah Marloff

Born and raised in San Francisco’s Richmond District, in 1943 Kathleen Healy joined the Presentation Sisters – a Catholic Order founded in Cork, Ireland in 1776. She was 17 years old. Now 82 years young, and a Potrero Hill resident for roughly half her life, Sister Kathleen worked for St. Teresa’s of Avila Church for 65 years. The Presentation Sisters rent a small house from Lester Zeidman and Kayren Hudiburgh, The Good Life Store owners. “They’re great people. It’s a wonderful store; something well done,” said Sister Kathleen.

Sister Kathleen joined the Presentation Sisters because she was passionate about helping people but couldn’t “stand the sight of blood,” making working as a nurse impossible. She’s spent much of her life as an educator, first at St. Agnes Catholic School as an elementary and high school teacher, and later as the principal of the Haight Street school during the “flower child time.” From 1968 to 1974 she served as St. Teresa’s school principal.

“Potrero Hill wasn’t as yuppified as it is now. It was a working class neighborhood. A mixture economically and racially; and that was always very important to me as principal.” But lack of revenues ultimately undid St. Teresa’s school, which closed in 1974 due to low enrollment. “Poor people can’t afford to pay tuition, and you need money to pay teachers. It was very sad...Potrero was always connected with Bayview, the ‘really bad place.’ Parents used to be afraid to send their kids over to us,” she said with a mixture of anger and sorrow.

With the school’s closure Sister Kathleen shifted to parish work. Under Father Peter Sammon – who became pastor in 1970 and held the position until his death in 2002 – Sister Kathleen and another nun, Sister Lucia Lodolo, became St. Teresa’s Pastoral Associates. The Sisters worked as liaisons between the congregation and the priest; sitting-in on committees, meetings, and running community-based programs. The three worked to “give the church back to the people.”

In the 1970s St. Teresa’s joined The Sanctuary Movement, a national religious and political effort to shelter Central American refugees who’d fled political violence and civil war in El Salvador and Guatemala. “There was a law in place that said people could come to this country. The President didn’t believe it, but we did. The first to come was a mother, her two children, and another woman forced to leave her kids behind. They had already been jailed and tortured in their countries. I don’t see how these women could be considered criminals.” She paused, giving ample time for reflection. “But the work we did was very gratifying. The people here were so beautiful. Eventually we helped get the City of Refuge” – a policy making San Francisco a Sanctuary City, which was adopted in the 1980s – “on the books. We fought for these immigrants to be able to go to the hospital, school, and the police.” In response to a San Francisco Chronicle story published earlier this year, that reported that the San Francisco Juvenile Proclamation Department had been housing illegal immigrant teenagers who’d been convicted of drug offenses or paying to fly the youth back to their home countries, Sister Kathleen said, “We had no intention of protecting criminals. What the Chronicle is saying is untrue, saying that we were housing criminals... [But] the people are really supportive.”

Two years ago, she and Sister Lucia retired from St. Teresa’s to “get closer to the poor and really see what was going on.” They opened a school on Folsom and Caesar Chavez streets, where they teach English as a second language and immigration rights two nights a week. With donations from the St. Anthony Foundation they bring donuts and coffee to people living in single room occupancy hotels in the Tenderloin every other Wednesday, with the hope of engendering a sense of community. On Fridays Sister Kathleen does social work in St. Anthony’s dining-room, where upwards of 2,600 people get a warm meal each day.

Although Presentation Sisters live and work around the world, the Order has declined to roughly 100 members from its peak mid-century last.  Most new members are from India and Africa. Sister Kathleen is currently working with her sisters to create a justice contract – an agreement to unite all the sisters to focus on one primary goal – aimed at ending global poverty, as, according to Sister Kathleen, we are using up “the earth’s resources faster than we should.”

When asked if she has any regrets Sister Kathleen responded “I did enter very young, but I have never regretted. It has been a wonderful time for me. I’ve met so many wonderful people. That’s what God is all about; developing relationships with people.”

 Subscribe to The Potrero View

All rights reserved. Copyright © 2006 The Potrero View.

Content on this site may not be archived, retransmitted, saved in a database, or used for any commercial purpose without the express written permission of The Potrero View or its Publishers.