News Archive

July 26, 2008

   Sr. Kathleen Mary Nealon, C.S.R.

Sr. Kathleen Mary Nealon, CSR professed her perpetual vows as a Sister of the Holy Redeemer on July 26, 2008 in the Provincialate chapel of the Sisters of the Holy Redeemer in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. 

Sister Kathleen entered the Sisters of the Holy Redeemer in1999. Her primary ministry has been at Drueding Center Project Rainbow, a transitional housing facility for homeless women with children in North Philadelphia, where she has served in various positions.  Currently, she is working there as a therapist.  Kathleen also spent seven months volunteering with an agency called Unity Welcome Home in Post Katrina New Orleans, an outreach worker to those experiencing homeless.

As a child Kathleen was a member of St. Mary's Star of the Sea Parish in Narragansett Rhode Island.  In 1996 she graduated from Rhode Island College with a degree in Elementary and Special Education.  In 2006 she earned her Master's degree in Social Work from Temple University in Philadelphia.

Kathleen's parents, John and Kathy Nealon, currently reside in North Kingstown Rhode Island.  Both of her sisters currently reside in Warwick Rhode Island. 

Kathleen first met the sisters during a one-week alternative spring break program sponsored by the Catholic Campus Ministry office at Rhode Island College.  Upon graduating, she joined, Redeemer Ministry Corps, a yearlong full time lay volunteer program sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Redeemer.  While living in community with sisters and other volunteers and working with those experiencing homelessness, Kathleen felt God inviting her to consider religious life.  She realized that her desire to be a healing presence to those whose needs are the greatest, and to live a life of prayer and service could best be lived out in community as a Sister of the Holy Redeemer. 

The Sisters of the Holy Redeemer are an international congregation. Their generalate is  located in Wuzburg, Germany.  There is a region of Sisters of the Holy Redeemer in Tanzania, East Africa where the sisters serve primarily in heath care and educational ministries.  Kathleen and two other sisters recently had the opportunity to visit Tanzania, and participate in an educational seminar with other newer members of the congregation.  The experience broadened Kathleen's perspective on the realities of poverty in our world, and increased her sense of what it means to be a member of an international congregation of religious women. 

Kathleen is grateful that God has led her to religious life and to the Sisters of the Holy Redeemer.  

↑ Back to top.

“No effort, suffering or sacrifice should be considered too big if it concerns the love of neighbor.”
– Mother Alphonse Maria Eppinger