Sister Jane Kelly, an iconic Catholic nun who served the Ukiah Valley for four decades, spent her final years in “pain and prayer,” recalls a fellow member of the Sisters of the Presentation religious order in San Francisco.
True to her nature, however, Sister Jane managed to let “the tiny openings of light and love shine through,” Sister Marilyn Madeu, a longtime friend in the order, said recently.
Sister Jane, who was a member of the Presentation Order for 78 years, died June 7 at age 95 in a San Francisco care home, and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma.
Sister Jane will be honored Aug. 6 at a noon Memorial Mass at St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church in Ukiah. The Rev. Gary Lombardi, a retired priest who was pastor at St. Mary during Sister Jane’s long tenure in the Ukiah Valley, will officiate.
The Mass and a reception to follow is being organized by friends and former associates of a nun who reached out to the larger Ukiah community to implement social justice programs, including the founding of the Plowshares Dining Hall.
Sister Marilyn recently eulogized her longtime friend, remembering the stress Sister Jane experienced after becoming a whistle blower about priest misconduct, and her struggles with serious health issues late in life.
Sister Jane in 2018 returned to the order’s Motherhouse Care Center in San Francisco suffering from a “long festering back and neck injury,’ according to Sister Marilyn. The pain was intense and debilitating but Sister Jane relied on prayer and the support of caregivers for sustenance, said Sister Marilyn.
Ukiah’s Memorial Mass is intended as a community tribute to an individual who arrived in Mendocino County in the 1970s to accept a position as Director of Religious Education for St. Mary.
Sister Jane during her first 10 years collaborated closely with local Native American communities while fulfilling her parish duties. She drove into SF monthly to attend her order’s Covenant Community meetings.
Sister Jane, Martin Bradley, and Susan Crane co-founded the Plowshares Center and Dining Room. Sister Jane reached out to community leaders for support and worked with her order and private individuals to expand services over the years.
A legacy of Sister Jane is her engaging lessons for parish children and their parents in religion and preparation for the Sacraments of Holy Communion and Reconciliation.
Mary Leittem-Thomas, former principal at St. Mary School, said “Everyone attended without complaint. They loved her classes.”
Sister Jane’s life took an unexpected turn when she found herself at the center of Ukiah’s role in an exploding nationwide church scandal about priestly sexual misconduct.
“My life took a new direction when I went public about the sexual and fiscal misconduct of a diocesan pastor and the cover up by the Bishop,” Sister Jane recalled later.
For friends, parishioners and community leaders, the Aug. 6 Memorial is a time to honor her work on behalf of the parish, and the larger community.
“Ukiah is celebrating an amazing woman,” Leittem-Thomas, a longtime parish member, former school principal, and co-worker with Sister Jane.
Leittem-Thomas said Sister Jane is deserving of a community-wide memorial because during her long tenure in Ukiah “she made Catholic teachings concerning faith, dogma, and social justice come alive for parishioners, school parents and students.”
“Her reach went beyond St. Mary’s into the greater Ukiah community, said Leittem-Thomas. Sister Jane served on the Board of the Senior Indian Nutrition Center and the Ukiah City Planning Commission.
Leittem-Thomas said Sister Jane “encouraged those in positions of power to advocate for justice and positive change.”
“Parishioners were proud to hold up Sister Jane as a remarkable example of Catholic faith in action,” she said.
Martin Bradley, co-founder of Plowshares, said when he arrived in Ukiah looking for a place to live and find a faith community, he recalled people telling him, “You should meet Sister Jane.”
Sister Jane had already established credibility and influence across Mendocino County.
“Sister Jane taught me how the sacred and secular gospel of peace and justice could be brought together to do good things in Ukiah,” said Bradley.
Sister Jane Kelly was one of twin daughters born in 1930 in Fresno to an Irish couple with ancestors in show business and the law. “Jane knew from whence her humor, logical thinking, determination, and Catholicism came,” remembered Sister Marilyn.
Sister Jane faced new challenges when she decided to go public about the sexual and fiscal misconduct during the 1990s of diocesan pastor Jorge Hume Salas and a cover up by the late Bishop Patrick Ziemann.
Lay people cheered Sister Jane’s personal courage and integrity but the church leadership shunned her, blaming her in part for notoriety surrounding diocesan practices from Petaluma to the Oregon border.
Sister Jane Kelly lived out her last days quietly, tended by faithful friends and care givers.
Be First to Comment