Sister Mary Nerney, left, with Veronica Talbert. Sister Mary was the founder and director of Steps to End Family Violence.
Photo credit: Clarence Sheppard/New York Daily News
Sr. Mary Nerney was a member of the Congregation of Notre Dame and a regular participant of Interfaith Center programs for many years. Among her many accomplishments, she established Steps to End Family Violence and Greenhope Services for Women. As noted in a recent New York Times tribute, her work “to establish a halfway house for women released from prison inspired a television movie, “Sister Margaret and the Saturday Night Ladies.”
One of Sr. Mary’s wishes was for people everywhere to read and live according to the Charter for Compassion- in her honor, we would like to share it with all of ICNY’s community.
Sr. Mary was also a regular participant in ICNY’s interfaith dialogue group for Catholic, Jewish and Muslim women, started under the Catholic-Muslim social service partnership. Dr. Sarah Sayeed, Director of Community Partnerships, attended her recent memorial service and below is her tribute to Sr. Mary.
The Quran teaches us that when we lose someone beloved to us, we say “Truly to God everything and everyone belongs, and to God is our return.” “Many of the world’s great religions teach us that life on earth is a temporary place that we pass through, and that our real home is with God, an eternal home. We are asked to live on this earth in service, to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and the community in which God placed us. We are asked to be nurtures and stewards of our community and the planet. Sr. Mary was one such devoted servant – she gave herself to so many people, and by doing all the things she did, she made our community bigger, wider, more inclusive of diversity. As she showed through her participation in many Interfaith Center programs including our women’s dialogue group, she was a bridge builder, holding many people in her heart. I miss her presence. I am grateful that I met her and experienced her warmth and energy, and I am grateful that she is now with God, in her true home.
