In 1974 after service as Provincial, Sister Mavie Coakley studied Liberation Theology at Berkeley. “The role of the U.S. government in suppressing democratic change in Latin America sparked a new kind of church activism to which Mavie committed herself in the years that followed. When she returned east in 1976, she joined the 49th Street Community in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. The cause of justice in Central America was still her passion; she worked closely with the Reverend Sergio Torres at Theology in the Americas” and with Sister Marjorie Tuite, O.P for the Women's Coalition to Stop Intervention in Central America, “accompanying her on many trips to Nicaragua.”
“In 1985 Mavie was asked to go to Washington, D.C., to work with Kit Collins in founding the Center for Educational Design and Communication (CEDC). She was key in helping shape its mission ‘to serve the Society of the Sacred Heart as well as other faith-based groups that are in the forefront of social justice.’” Mavie participated actively in social justice movements in DC and lived at Sursum Corda, an inner-city housing project.
“In 1994 Mavie returned to New York City, where she became the director of the Shop & Escort Program at Encore Community Services, "Broadway's Longest Running Act of Loving Care." With her at the helm, the program became much more than its official description. If her homebound elderly were hospitalized or moved to a nursing home, she tracked them down to see that they were not alone, or - most unthinkable - forgotten.”
Quotations from obituary.
To learn more about Mavi Coakley, click on the links underneath her picture.
