Sister Kathleen Deignan, CND Spirituality Institute Endowment Fund
Purpose
To support the operational needs of the Sister Kathleen Deignan, CND Spirituality Institute. (66030)
History
Kathleen Noone Deignan, CND, PhD is a sister of the Congregation of Notre Dame and Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at Iona University where she taught from 1980 – 2021. She is the founding director of the Deignan Institute for Earth and Spirit, a multi-faceted project in support of the cultivation of global citizens for the emergence of an ecological civilization.
A GreenFaith Fellow since 2008, Dr. Deignan is an alumna of Fordham University where she studied with her mentor Thomas Berry earning a Master’s Degree in the History of Christian Spirituality and a Doctorate in Historical Theology. Her publications include ChristSpirit: The Pneumatological Eschatology of Shaker Christianity, When the Trees Say Nothing: Thomas Merton’s Writings on Nature, Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours, Teilhard de Chardin: A Book of Hours, and numerous published articles on integral ecological spirituality. Her new book will be available from Orbis in 2025: Thomas Berry: A Book of Hours.
President Emerita of the International Thomas Merton Society, Sister Kathleen founded The Merton Contemplative Initiative at Iona College, and is co-convener of The Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue to honor and promote the legacy of her mentor, Thomas Berry. She sits on the board of The Berry Foundation.
A board member of the American Teilhard Association, her recent publication “For Those Who Love the World” is Teilhard de Chardin: A Book of Hours based on the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, created in collaboration with Sister Libby Osgood, CND. Deignan is currently creating her next work: Thomas Berry: A Book of Hours to be published by Orbis Books in 2025.
A faith-based entrepreneur, Sister Kathleen is also co-founder of Schola Ministries – a project in service to the contemplative and liturgical arts that has produced a dozen compact discs of her original sacred songs which are available freely on YouTube. She is currently working to publish the prayers of John Battista Giuliani, the recently deceased founder of the Benedictine Grange where she was a liturgical composer in residence for over 40 years.
Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at Iona, Dr. Deignan is now engaged in the ministry of transformational ecological education and animation inspired by Pope Francis’ integral ecological encyclical, Laudato si.
Regarding Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Sister Kathleen began her studies of his legacy in the 1960s at Saint Jean Baptiste High School and more intensively in the novitiate of the Congregation of Notre Dame during her formation period from 1966 to 1969 under the mentorship of visiting Jesuits from Fairfield University, CT.
She continued reading until her graduate studies at Fordham under Teilhardian scholars Dr. Ewert Cousins and Father Thomas Berry, co-founders of the American Teilhard Association on whose board she now sits. She undertook her Masters program under the mentorship of Dr. Berry, continuing her studies with him for decades after. At his death in 2009 she and three other students of his founded the Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue at Iona which she still co-convenes monthly. Dr. Deignan is active in the American Teilhard Association. She also served as the “Teilhard Cultivator” for the Guild for Spiritual Guidance: January 2012 – 2016.