True Heroines Are Usually Unknown

Sister Pat Mahoney was an amazing person few of us ever really got to know. She never sought the spotlight; only justice and peace. While the news is full of the fake heroes of sports or the violent heroes of war, the true heroes/heroines are seldom known except to those who were so greatly touched by their lives. Thank God for Sister Pat and those like Ardith,Carol and Jackie. Thank God for the Berrigans and Kathy Kelly. These are the heroes and heroines our children and grandchildren should know and hear about.

obituary
Faith was Flats protester's arsenal
By Virginia Culver
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 08/10/2008 01:25:35 AM MDT


Sister Pat Mahoney, who went to prison for battling Rocky Flats and spent her life fighting for the homeless and against war and nuclear arms, died July 30 at San Francisco General Hospital.

She had collapsed on the street about 10 blocks from her home on July 29, said her brother, Jerry Mahoney, of Petaluma, Calif. She died about 24 hours later, he said, adding that he believes Mahoney, who was 72, had a stroke.

A memorial is planned at 7 p.m. Friday at Capitol Heights Presbyterian Church/10:30 Community, 1100 Fillmore St.

Mahoney served two terms in federal prisons for her protests at Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production plant in 1983.

And she was still protesting nuclear arms as recently as last Good Friday, when she was arrested at Livermore, Calif. The charges were later dismissed.

In 1983, Mahoney and Sister Marie Nord were given sentences for trespassing, after they forged employee identification cards to get inside one of the fences at Rocky Flats.

While inside they attempted to post signs on another fence that read "Auschwitz" and "Dachau," referring to two infamous Nazi death camps.

At the time, Mahoney told the press "we absolutely had to go into the plant to point out its overwhelming danger."

They were sent to prison because both women refused to pay the $100 fine.

In an interview with The Denver Post while in prison in Pleasanton, Calif., Mahoney said "this place is like a compost heap. We just become so much garbage. We're all treated like rapists and mass murderers here. The staff acts as if there is no possible virtue in any of us." She served six months of a five-year sentence.

But she went back to prison in Fort Worth, Texas, for six months in 1984 for not reporting to her probation officer, saying to report "would signify some act of contrition. I am not sorry for what I did. I don't need to be rehabilitated." She had refused to pay the $1,000 fine.

"She was one of the bravest women I've ever known, and backed it up by going to prison," her brother said.

When not protesting, Mahoney devoted her life as a member of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary to working at soup kitchens.

She was at the Denver Catholic Worker soup kitchen for more than 10 years and had been with Martin dePorres soup kitchen in San Francisco since 1989.

Though acknowledging the work was emotionally draining, she said she continued to work in soup kitchens because "everyone still doesn't have what they need. There is still such a terrible misdistribution of food and funds."

Despite her tough stands, Mahoney "had a wonderful sense of humor," her brother said.

She enjoyed her life and lived it simply, said a longtime friend, William Francis Watts, who volunteered at the San Francisco soup kitchen and sometimes protested with her.

Patricia Mahoney was born in Girardville, Pa., on Nov. 3, 1935, and moved with her family to San Francisco. She graduated from St. Paul High School in San Francisco. She entered the religious order in 1954 in Dubuque, Iowa.

She earned her bachelor's degree at Mundelein College in Chicago and taught junior high school in Chicago and Hawaii. She worked with drug addicts in Chicago before going to the University of California at Berkeley to earn her applied theology degree.

She decided while at Berkeley she wanted to work for the homeless and against nuclear arms, said longtime friend Sister Maureen O'Brien of San Francisco.

"She wanted to live out the radical gospel values," O'Brien said, "and always said, 'I have a gift for working with marginated people. I'm comfortable with them.' "

In addition to her brother, Mahoney is survived by her sister, Anna Mae Mahoney of Walnut Creek, Calif.

Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com