On Saturday, May 20, Sister Mary delivered the Georgetown College commencement address and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters at Georgetown University. In her speech (which will be broadcast live here) Sister Mary urged the graduates to pursue a "revolution of tenderness" by joining with those who are struggling and together forge a new path to economic inclusivity.
When Sister Mary Scullion enters a room, it changes. Eyes soften and shift in her direction. Smiles spread. Eager hands reach to greet her. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput might have the last word when it comes to Catholicism in Philly, but there’s a good chance Sister Mary Scullion has impacted far more people than he or any other Catholic in the city.
Like many graduation commencement speakers, Sister Mary Scullion urged the University of Scranton class of 2016 to go out and change their part of the world.
But the Philadelphia nun, named one of the world’s most influential people by TIME Magazine in 2009, speaks with great experience on that topic.
February 26, 2016 | Posted by Sister Mary Scullion
On February 23, our Executive Director Sister Mary Scullion of Philadelphia travelled to Tufts University in Boston to give the keynote address for the annual Merrin Moral Voices Lecture Series, sponsored by Tufts Hillel. Accompanying her on the trip were two members of the Project HOME community, Tanya Clanton and David Brown.
There were months of build-up, then two intense days, and now the papal visit of 2015 to Philadelphia is history. But most Philadelphians, I believe, are still feeling a deep sense of inspiration and uplift from the experience of this truly amazing visitor, Pope Francis.
We witnessed his personal acts of mercy—his time with persons in a homeless shelter in Washington, DC; his gathering with prisoners here in Philadelphia; his outreach to and advocacy for immigrants; his embrace of persons with disabilities, his warm welcome of children.
On Tuesday, September 8, 2015, Sister Mary Scullion engaged in her first Twitter chat to discuss the Philadelphia visit of Pope Francis and the Mercy and Justice initiative enacted in his honor.
With a little less than a month left before the visit of Pope Francis, it seems that our civic anticipation is devolving into anxiety over the potential nightmare of security and traffic logistics. Or into burgeoning commercialism and cheap profiteering from sometimes tawdry papal memorabilia.
