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Woman of grace

Woman of grace

Mary McCarty January 03, 2025

At one time, University of Dayton alumna Sister Mary Catherine Hilkert ’71 thought, “Where are all the women?” Since then, she’s educated legions who are changing the face of theology. 

Sister Mary Catherine Hilkert ’71 had a plan for her future after graduating from the University of Dayton: She would take her final vows and teach high school English. Born in Akron, Ohio, to a family of 10 children, she had a natural way with young people, after all.

Sister Mary Catherine Hilkert sits
Sister Mary Catherine Hilkert ’71. PHOTOGRAPH BY MATT CASHORE

But then her Old Testament professor Kent Richards posed questions that would change her life: “Why aren’t you majoring in theology? You really seem to thrive in it. And aren’t you already in ministry in the Church?”

Her thought: “The Catholic Church doesn’t have any women in ministry.”

It was a belief all too common at the time — a mindset in the field of theology that Hilkert would play a profound role in changing during nearly 50 years as a preeminent theologian, professor and mentor. She received a jubilant standing ovation when the Catholic Theological Society of America honored Hilkert in June with its highest honor, the John Courtney Murray Award. They praised her as a visionary teaching-scholar and a leader in the fields of theological anthropology and feminist theology and spirituality. Dozens of women — theologians she had mentored and inspired — took the stage with the woman they call “Cathy.” Many shed tears of joy.

“Cathy is inspirational and has influenced my teaching by her example,” said Elizabeth Groppe, a professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton whose dissertation Hilkert directed. “She is a role model of how to be a teaching-scholar, and I aspire to mentor my own students with the same care and commitment and genuine concern for their well-being as she has gifted me.

Lifetime achievement

The Dominican Sister of Peace has taught at the University of Notre Dame for nearly 30 years, written three books and been awarded four honorary doctorates. 

“What you don’t see on that résumé,” said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a professor of religious studies at Manhattan University, “are all the students she has touched — women and scholars of color and international students. What you don’t see is the impact she has had on the whole theological community globally. The German word for ‘Ph.D. adviser’ translates into ‘doctor father’ or ‘doctor mother,’ and Cathy has created an international family of scholars by serving that role.”

Such distinction from the world’s largest society of Catholic theologians is equal to a lifetime achievement award, and the society’s president, Kristin Heyer, praised Hilkert’s dedication to underrepresented groups in theology and her academic rigor, pastoral expertise and generous mentorship. 

Hilkert’s former students have dubbed themselves “The Hilkert Society,” with dozens meeting with their mentor for breakfast every year at the annual theological convention. This year Imperatori-Lee decided they needed swag — Hilkert Society tote bags emblazoned with her image.

It’s a fun way of combating a harsh truth about women in theology. “Women religious are the most inspiring feminists the Church has ever had, and the Church’s most overlooked resource,” Imperatori-Lee said. “They are models of servant-leadership in a Church that needs them.”

Sacramental imagination

Hilkert emulated her older sister, theologian Barbara Hilkert Andolsen ’68, in her choice of college and career. During high school, she sat enthralled as her sister and her sister’s future husband, Alan Andolsen ’68 — both civil rights activists — held spirited discussions about wide-ranging theological questions. Her sister loaned Hilkert her first articles and books about feminist theology, predicting, “You aren’t studying this yet, but you will be.”

Hilkert had taken her first vows before entering UD in 1968, and she lived among the Sisters of the Precious Blood north of Dayton. She felt welcomed by her fellow students, even while initially wearing her white habit and black veil and going by her name in the order, Sister Jessica. Friendships developed during her honors classes in theology and English, as she explored profound questions of faith and philosophy with her classmates. “I fell in love with theology,” she recalled.

Encouragement from professor Richards and other mentors, particularly New Testament professor Werner Kelber, proved pivotal to her eventual pursuit of a doctorate. Upon graduation, the English major was one course shy of a second major in theology. 

“I learned to see deep connections between theology and literature,” she said. “To this day I often use poetry in my theology classes and in my writing. It’s at the heart of what we would call the sacramental imagination.”

Teacher-scholar

She landed her first job teaching English and religious studies at her alma mater, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron. As much as she loved her work, Hilkert felt called to graduate studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. — a choice that has proven providential for legions of future students.

Imperatori-Lee chose Hilkert to direct her dissertation because of her reputation as a careful thinker and meticulous scholar. “The greatest legacy you can leave behind in the academic world are the people in whose formation you had a hand,” Imperatori-Lee said. 

Concurred Groppe, “Some people are great scholars, some people are phenomenal teachers and some are saintly human beings. Cathy combines all of those things in one.”

For her part, Hilkert revels in her role as a teacher-scholar, gaining at least as much from her students as she gives.

“The term means that teaching involves lifelong learning and a desire to engage in the search for what really matters in life in dialogue with others,” she said. “The questions and challenges raised by students, in the classroom and beyond, get to the heart of the matter and often send me back to rethink my responses and the way that the Christian tradition has been expressed in the past. Their experiences and their insights also prompt me to think more deeply about the current and urgent challenges facing us today.” 

The study of theology is as contemporary as it is timeless, she added: “Theology is the ongoing search of faith seeking understanding, but it is also the quest of understanding seeking faith — the human quest for meaning and purpose. It involves reason and critical thinking, but also imagination, wonder and concern for future generations and for the well-being of other creatures and our common home.”

Hilkert wrote what has become a classic book about the theology of preaching, Naming Grace, and Groppe considers the title a very apt one for her former professor. 

“She embodies the grace of God in who she is and how she lives,” Groppe said. “She is a woman of grace.”


A version of this article appears in print in the Winter 2024-45 University of Dayton Magazine, Page 46. EXPLORE THE ISSUEMORE ONLINE

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