Nun remembered for work in welcoming refugees
‘Our Canadian Mom,’ Ruth Hennessey, was also a longtime teacher
A Catholic nun and longtime special education teacher who devoted herself for years to helping resettle refugee families has died.
Sister Ruth Hennessey of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph died of cancer on Thursday at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. She was 84.
Aspa Bouzinelos, a longtime friend and fellow teacher who volunteered with Sr. Hennessey in resettlement efforts, said refugees called her “our Canadian Mom” or even “angel and saviour.”
“She was very strong and compassionate,” Bouzinelos said. “She saw everyone’s gifts and skills.”
Ruth Mary Hennessey was born Jan. 5, 1936, one of five children of Evelyn and James Hennessey of Lindsay. Her parents, one brother and four sisters all predeceased her.
She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1956.
She was also a primary school teacher in special education and over the years she taught in Peterborough, Kirkfield and Cobourg.
In the 1970s, while still teaching, she helped a group in sponsoring a Vietnamese refugee family.
“Then she was hooked,” said Sister Joyce Murray, also a nun in the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, who knew Sr. Hennessey for 60 years.
Sr. Hennessey starting working full-time with refugee families after retirement, and Sr. Murray recalled her taking people to live in a wing of the large Sisters of St. Joseph convent.
Sr. Murray recalled that the sisters later purchased a residence on Downey Street and converted two of their own properties into refugee houses on Donegal and Rogers streets. That was how Casa Maria Homes for refugees got started, Sr. Murray said, and over many years those houses were the first residences in Peterborough for more than 200 families — including that of Women and Gender Equality Minister Maryam Monsef, who arrived in Peterborough from Afghanistan as a teen refugee with her mother and two sisters.
Monsef held a gala at Showplace in late 2018 to honour dozens of women who’ve made a difference in the community, and Sr. Hennessey received a special lifetime achievement award that evening.
Sr. Murray said the late Sr. Hennessey would help refugees “in incalculable ways,” getting them medical attention, for instance, or assisting as they enrolled their children in school.
Bouzinelos recalled on Tuesday that they worked hard to keep up with a surge of refugees from Syria over the last five years.
“I treasure every moment I spent with her.”
Sr. Hennessey was also a special-education teacher for 35 years, noted Michael Nasello, the director of education for the Peterborough, Victoria, Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board.
He met her several times over the last three years and said he was always impressed by the late Sr. Hennessey’s calm, quiet perseverance and deep commitment to newcomers.
Sr. Hennessey couldn’t receive visitors in hospital in her last days due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and there can be no funeral any time soon.
Cremation has taken place and there will be a private interment at Highland Park Cemetery with a memorial mass to be celebrated later.
Bishop Daniel Miehm wrote on Tuesday that Sr. Hennessey “lived her vocation well.”
“Sr. Ruth’s death is a significant loss to the Sisters of the Congregation of St. Joseph, our diocese and the community,” he wrote.