Kathleen Desautels

Sister Kathleen Desautels, SP
Nationality  United States
Employer 8th Day Center for Justice
Religion Christian (Catholic)

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. She 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

  1. 1 2 "Staff and Volunteers". 8th Day Center for Justice. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 Cox, Dave (27 May 2012). "Sister Kathleen Desautels featured in Chicago Tribune". Sisters of Providence. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  3. ↑ "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.
  4. ↑ Binelli, Mark (22 November 2012). "The Sisters Crusade". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ "Kathleen Desautels". Band of Sisters. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  7. ↑ Ashby, Steven K. and C. J. Hawking (2009). Staley: The Fight for a New American Labor Movement. University of Illinois. ISBN 9780252034374.
  8. ↑ "Nuns jailed for failing to pay fines". Alton Telegraph. AP. 20 Jan 2001. pp. A5. Retrieved 25 June 2015 – via Find My Past. (subscription required (help)).
  9. ↑ "Nun sentenced for protest". Daily Herald Suburban Chicago. 18 July 2002. p. 12. Retrieved 25 June 2015 – via Find My Past. (subscription required (help)).
  10. ↑ "Prisoners and Probationers of Conscience". Sisters of Providence. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
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