Irene O’Neill, CSJ ’72 Connects Nuns to Solve World-Wide Problems

Reprinted from Traditions, Winter 2019-20
April 3, 2020

It takes a remarkable person to see a problem and commit themselves to understanding the root cause and eradicating it. However, that wasn’t enough for Irene O’Neill, CSJ ’72. Instead, she has decided to commit herself to eradicating root causes around the world through Sisters Rising Worldwide.

As a Sister, O’Neill has seen remarkable projects making a real difference.

“I joined [the Sisters] because I saw a crowd of women who were not afraid of hard questions. When they saw a problem in society, they would ask, ‘What caused this? How can we solve this?’ And then they would do it,” she said. “I was a novice when Hope House was starting, and Incarnation House, and the Free Store, and Ascension Place. You could see the impact that it was having on the Twin Cities, and it was all for the good of people, helping them flourish.”

O’Neill spent twenty years as the Executive Director of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Ministries Foundation, work that took her around the world to meet with Sisters doing the hard work on the ground. Everywhere she went, she found that Sisters understood exactly what was harming their communities, and had a clear idea of to solve it. However, they rarely had access to the resources. Most people had no idea of the work these women were doing.

So, O’Neill saw an opportunity. Connect the nuns — not just the Sisters of St. Joseph, but nuns from every order — to each other, and make their work visible. She has spent the past four years pitching her vision, finding web developers and funders, and building a global board to help her create a platform that would be accessible worldwide. The vision? A comprehensive website where sisters can enter information about their communities and their projects, and request expertise, funding, or other assistance. The Sisters’ platform, The Peace Room, will be private. The public website, sistersrisingworldwide.org, is where laypeople can see Sisters’ work and donate.

“There are 700,000 nuns around the world. We’re throwing in our whole lives to this work,” she said. “Would another 700,000 people be willing to throw in $5 per month, a latte per month? At that level, we believe we could fund a hundred percent of the requests coming in, and eradicate the root problems which is much cheaper than treating the symptoms.”