Kathleen Desautels
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Sister Kathleen Desautels, SP | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Employer | 8th Day Center for Justice |
Sister Kathleen Desautels, S.P., is a community organizer and social justice activist. A Roman Catholic nun, she is a member of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.
Biography[edit]
Desautels has worked for 8th Day Center for Justice in Chicago, Illinois for over 25 years, focusing on issues of human rights, women in the church, institutional power, and peace.[1] Previously she ministered as an elementary school teacher, a prison chaplain and a pastoral associate.[2]
Desautels attended Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College[3] and went on to receive a Masters in religious studies from La Salle University.[1] She joined the Sisters of Providence in 1960 and became a fully professed sister in 1968.[2]
For her work as a prominent activist, Desautels has been profiled by Rolling Stone[4] and the Chicago Tribune,[5] among others. She was also featured in the 2012 documentary Band of Sisters, directed and produced by Mary Fishman.[6]
Desautels has been arrested numerous times for acts of non-violent civil disobedience. In the early 1990s she was involved with labor movement protests during the A. E. Staley Lockout and was arrested twice.[7][8] In November 2001 Desautels, dressed in a funeral shroud and carrying a symbolic foam coffin,[9] trespassed onto federal property at Fort Benning outside Columbus, Georgia as part of a protest against the US Army School of the Americas. As a result, Desautels served a six-month prison sentence as a "prisoner of conscience".[10]
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Staff and Volunteers". 8th Day Center for Justice. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- ^ a b Cox, Dave (27 May 2012). "Sister Kathleen Desautels featured in Chicago Tribune". Sisters of Providence. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- ^ "Father-Daughter Event Under Way At St. Mary's". The Terre Haute Tribune. Terre Haute, Indiana. 16 Apr 1959. p. 18. Retrieved 3 March 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Binelli, Mark (22 November 2012). "The Sisters Crusade". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- ^ Trice, Dawn Turner (21 May 2012). "At NATO protest, it's clear Catholic nun is a powerhouse in the peace movement". Chicago Tribune. Chicago. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- ^ "Kathleen Desautels". Band of Sisters. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- ^ Ashby, Steven K. and C. J. Hawking (2009). Staley: The Fight for a New American Labor Movement. University of Illinois. ISBN 9780252034374.
- ^ "Nuns jailed for failing to pay fines". Alton Telegraph. AP. 20 Jan 2001. pp. A5. Retrieved 25 June 2015 – via Find My Past.
- ^ "Nun sentenced for protest". Daily Herald Suburban Chicago. 18 July 2002. p. 12. Retrieved 25 June 2015 – via Find My Past.
- ^ "Prisoners and Probationers of Conscience". Sisters of Providence. 9 May 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
