Age 92
The youngest of seven children, Kathleen’s parent were born in County Mayo, Ireland. Her Catholic faith was nurtured at home and in the Catholic elementary schools she attended. In June 1951, Kathleen graduated from West Catholic High School for Girls and responded to a calling to religious life, entering the Sisters of Mercy in Merion, Pennsylvania, at the age of 19.
For the next 73 years, Kathleen devoted her heart to Jesus as a vowed religious, sharing her love with everyone God sent her way. Her passion for teaching elementary and high school students motivated her to spend more than thirty years in education. This ministry also included roles as assistant principal, religion coordinator, and librarian at schools and parishes across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and North Carolina.
Her students remember that she made learning fun and memorable, often hosting spelling bees, religion bees, and various other “bees”! One of her most cherished assignments was her service at Mercy Vocational High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, affectionately called “The Tech,” where Sister Kathleen Duffy is deeply loved and remembered with gratitude.
In her later ministries, Kathleen dedicated herself to serving families by reaching out to single, separated, and divorced parents and their children through her work with the Family Life Bureau of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and parish ministry at St. Dorothy’s in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. Her caring nature also extended to pastoral care at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, Pennsylvania.
In her final years, Kathleen’s compassionate heart found a home at McAuley Convent in Merion, Pennsylvania, where she served as a companion to our sisters and engaged in the ministry of prayer.