In All Things Charity

“Be diligent in serving the poor. Love the poor, honor them, my children, as you would honor Christ Himself.”

St. Louise de Marillac

By S. Joan Elizabeth Cook

S. Mary Ann Flannery celebrates 70 years of religious life in 2024.

Many of our readers know S. Mary Ann Flannery through her “In All Things Charity” blog posts, presentations, retreats, spiritual direction, and other ways of encouraging people to become their best selves in relation to God.

S. Mary Ann was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; her mother, Elizabeth, loved being a homemaker for her family. She was a skilled cook and baker, and she sewed all the children’s clothes. Mary Ann’s father, Paul, a talented musician, played the saxophone. With his show name of Red Martin (he had red hair), he led the Red Martin Dance Band during the Big Band era. In World War II he was not able to serve in the military because of an eye injury, but his band members served, and several did not return from the war. Their loss diminished his interest in band leading; he secured a steady income as a window washer in a high-rise complex. The huge size of the buildings assured that he would always have work – when he finished the last building the first was ready to be washed again. He played his sax on weekends, mixing it with standup comedy.

Mary Ann, the oldest of seven children, has two sisters and four brothers. When she was 6 years old, the family moved from Pittsburgh to Bedford, Ohio, where she attended St. Mary Elementary School. There she first met the Vincentian Sisters of Charity (VSC). She was attracted to their happy spirit and their loving interaction with their students. After she graduated from eighth grade she entered the Aspirancy program at the VSC Motherhouse in Bedford. She was given the religious name S. Mary Regis. After Novitiate and First Vows she taught primary grades at St. Pius X School in Bedford while finishing high school at Hoban Dominican High School in Cleveland and college at Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan. Then she joined the faculty at Lumen Cordium High School in Bedford. S. Mary Ann loved working with students, teaching English, Latin, Fine Arts and Drama, and directing school plays. She also taught English part-time at Cuyahoga Community College in Parma.

Her Sisters elected her in 1971 to serve as First Councilor of the VSC congregation for six years, then as General Superior for another six years until 1983. This was the post-Vatican II time of renewal and re-imagining of religious life for all religious congregations. For the VSCs a particular challenge was to adapt the post-Communist Eastern European customs that had sustained their families in mostly ethnic parishes, in order to meet the challenges of the quickly changing realities of the 1970s and early ‘80s. S. Mary Ann and the other members of the VSC Leadership Team encouraged the Sisters’ renewal, organizing institutes on topics that enriched the Sisters’ understanding of the teachings of Vatican II.

Liturgically, the planning of the new motherhouse chapel was an opportunity to incorporate the liturgical updates of the early 1960s. The Chapel of the Visitation illustrates the biblical story of the Visitation: the simple openness between Elizabeth and Mary, and their shared awe at the marvels of God’s gifts, invited the Sisters to reflect on the marvels God had worked in each Sister’s life. The design of the chapel incorporated circular design, open space, soft lighting and uplifting colors.

Ecclesiastically, when the pope asked religious congregations to serve as missionaries, particularly in Central and South America, the VSCs participated in the newly formed Cleveland Diocesan Mission Team. Several VSCs served in El Salvador. As the political realities and injustices became more and more obvious, S. Mary Ann wrote frequent letters to United States leaders, urging a stop to military aid to El Salvador. In the aftermath of the 1980 killing of the four Cleveland missionaries, S. Mary Ann participated in the diocesan discernment about whether to continue to serve there.

During her years in congregational leadership, in addition to serving the VSC congregation, S. Mary Ann served as president of the Major Superiors Association of Cleveland, the Interreligious Task Force on Central America, and the Sisters Coalition for Justice.

S. Mary Ann Flannery (right) served as the first non-Jesuit director of the Jesuit Retreat House in Cleveland, Ohio.

The years following S. Mary Ann continued to share her gifts for writing and teaching. She taught Writing at Notre Dame College in South Euclid, then enrolled in the doctoral program in Journalism and Communications at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. She earned a doctorate in Rhetoric and Communications, then joined the faculty at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio. There she taught Communications and Peace and Justice courses and moderated the student newspaper.

She wrote in her application for tenure, “The motivation for my work whether teaching, advising or participating in student activities is largely based on an effort to bring students to an awareness that we stand in reverence before the Word of God.” That Word comes to us, she explained, through the Church as it communicates faith seeking understanding of the world as it is. In the spirit of her Jesuit colleagues, she stressed the importance of seeking, exploring, “testing all things in the Spirit.”

At the time of her retirement from John Carroll the Jesuits were searching for a new director for the Jesuit Retreat House in Cleveland. Her JCU colleagues encouraged S. Mary Ann to apply, and she was appointed the first non-Jesuit director. In her position Mary Ann continued her commitment to supporting people’s spiritual lives. She scheduled retreats, hired directors, offered spiritual direction, and began planning and fundraising for a much-needed expansion of the facility.

Now officially retired and celebrating her 70th year in religious life, S. Mary Ann continues to write, speak and serve at the Jesuit Retreat House as needed, and to walk the house dog, Lily. She constantly thanks God for her very full life of opportunities to use her gifts in service of others.

MA at MSJ

Mount St. Joseph University honored S. Mary Ann Flannery (right) on Oct. 26, 2022, with the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Medal, established to recognize distinguished women in theology.

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