Carole Sargent

Carole Sargent, an RSCJ Associate and literary scholar at Georgetown University, lived at Anne Montgomery House from 2018 to 2019. She devoted a full chapter to Anne Montgomery RSCJ's antinuclear and peace activism in her book Transform Now Plowshares: Megan Rice, Gregory Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli (Liturgical Press 2022).

Carole runs groups for faculty authors publishing books and articles for tenure and promotion. Because she works free with anyone in full-time religious life, she met Sr. Martha Curry, RSCJ, sent to her by a Jesuit, and Sr. Peggy McDonnell, RSCJ, sent by Sr. Martha. When Carole was troubled after the 2016 election, she told Sr. Peggy she wanted to explore intentional communities, where she had lived years earlier. Sr. Peggy referred her to Sr. Diane Roche, RSCJ, who with Sr. Julie Yachtis, RSCJ runs a community near Catholic University for young women interested in spirituality and justice. After they all discerned together, Carole rented a house across from them and welcomed two of their extra young people into that home, and thus the "Kearny Street Community" expanded, later coming together as Anne Montgomery House. Carole is now an Associate of the Sacred Heart, and she will live at Anne Montgomery House until May 2019, after which she is discerning about a new community in Georgetown. She welcomes anyone reading this to contact her.

Through the legacy of Sr. Montgomery Carole became interested in antinuclear publishing, learning about the Plowshares movement and the Catholic Worker through Sr. Megan Rice, SHCJ, and Srs. Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert, OP. Carole attended a conference at the Vatican in 2017 with Fr. Drew Christiansen, SJ, who advises the Holy See's disarmament statements, and she contributed a chapter on Plowshares to one of his edited books. She has also interviewed many RSCJ about Sr. Montgomery for her book-in-progress about Catholic sisters and nuclear disarmament. Beyond publishing, she volunteers at Georgetown University Hospital, bringing communion to patients and companioning the dying in the "No One Dies Alone" program. Under the guidance of its chaplains, she anticipates expanding this work to include unaccompanied dying children.