{"id":168699,"date":"2025-11-07T22:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/168699\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T22:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:35:10","slug":"sr-stan-remembered-as-powerhouse-of-good-who-offered-hope-for-the-hopeless-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/168699\/","title":{"rendered":"Sr Stan remembered as powerhouse of good who offered \u2018hope for the hopeless\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sister Stanislaus Kennedy<\/a> was a \u201cpowerhouse of good\u201d and \u201ca woman who was hope for the hopeless\u201d, her funeral Mass heard on Friday. <\/p>\n

Sr Stan, as she was known, died on Monday aged 86 after a short illness<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A member of the Religious Sisters of Charity and a long-time campaigner on homelessness and immigrants\u2019 rights, she founded Focus Point (now Focus Ireland<\/a>), the Immigrant Council of Ireland<\/a>, Young Social Innovators and an ecumenical centre for meditation, The Sanctuary, in inner city Dublin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe coffin of Sr Stanislaus Kennedy is carried into the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook, Dublin, for her funeral Mass. <\/p>\n

Br Richard Hendrick, Capuchin Order provincial in Ireland, told mourners in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook, Dublin, that Sr Stan\u2019s founding of so many pioneering charities would \u201cremain as testimony to the legacy of this powerhouse of good\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Obituary: Sr Stanislaus Kennedy had an impulse to help those in distressOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She \u201cswept into so many lives and sometimes without them even realising what was happening, pulled them along in her wake, transformed them to the good\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n

For many, he added, she \u201craised them up and allowed them to see themselves, to know themselves as beloved, worthy of respect, as full of potential for good, that perhaps they had until then never even suspected was within them\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"MournersMourners at the funeral Mass listen intently. <\/p>\n

Br Hendrick characterised her as a \u201ccampaigner for social justice and equality and a woman who did not take no for an answer from anyone, any institution where there was a question of love or dignity to be defended or simply a person to be helped\u201d. He said many had in recent days honoured Sr Stan\u2019s work. <\/p>\n

But \u201ceven more important\u201d, he added, was \u201cthe being\u201d of Stan. <\/p>\n

\u201cHer being was simply and fundamentally her commitment to Christ,\u201d he said. \u201cThis underlaid everything she did and everything she was. She breathed his presence in prayer and meditation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sr Stan taught people how to meditate and to \u201cbe still\u201d, and to be with her in those moments was \u201clike suddenly descending into a pool of divine presence. She had reached that level of prayer and contemplation that most of us only ever hope to attain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the time I really got to know her, some 25 years ago now, it was clear her prayer fuelled her work and her work had become her prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MembersMembers of the religious community arrive at the funeral of campaigner and advocate Sr Stan. <\/p>\n

Nowhere was this seen \u201cmore beautifully\u201d, said Br Hendrick, than in The Sanctuary centre she cofounded. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe stillness of meditation bloomed in the midst of a noisy city and an oasis of peace was born.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gifts brought to the altar to symbolise Sr Stan\u2019s life\u2019s work were a cup with Focus Ireland\u2019s values inscribed on it, a small model of a house and a house key, her newest book of meditations, and a copy of the United Nations<\/a> Declaration of Human Rights. <\/p>\n

Traditional Irish music was played on harp, fiddle and uilleann pipes throughout the service, including the Irish air, T\u00e1imse mo Chodladh (I am asleep). She had asked that this be played, mourners were told, because it brought her back to her \u201csouthwest shores\u201d of her native Co Kerry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Closing his eulogy, Br Hendrick urged mourners to remember the deceased by hoping as Stan hoped. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope by becoming hope for others as she became hope for the hopeless … Perhaps all of us here today could resolve to live a little more like Sr Stan, to live from faith, to be hope for the hopeless, to be on fire … with love as charity.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor in the end … there are only three things that last: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Michael D Higgins arrives for Sr Stan’s funeral Mass. <\/p>\n

Among those who attended the funeral were President Michael D Higgins<\/a>, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> and Comdt Joe Glennon, aide de camp to Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Also present were former president Mary McAleese<\/a>, Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a>, Labour leader Ivana Bacik<\/a>, Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s housing spokesman Eoin \u00d3 Broin<\/a> and Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Senator Aubrey McCarthy<\/a>, founder of the Lighthouse homelessness charity, Trust homelessness charity founder Alice Leahy, John Mark McCafferty chief executive of Threshold, former t\u00e1naiste Joan Burton and singer Andrea Corr<\/a> were also in attendance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sister Stanislaus Kennedy was a \u201cpowerhouse of good\u201d and \u201ca woman who was hope for the hopeless\u201d, her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[96719,12416,9,10,52,18,30062,13,14,96717,6,19,96718,17,957,11,12,15,16,16594,72599,1874,5765,5,69712,44,96716,7,8,2863],"class_list":{"0":"post-168699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-andrea-corr","9":"tag-aubrey-mccarthy","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-breakingnews","12":"tag-dublin","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-eoin-o-broin","15":"tag-featured-news","16":"tag-featurednews","17":"tag-focus-ireland","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-immigrant-council-of-ireland","21":"tag-ireland","22":"tag-kerry","23":"tag-latest-news","24":"tag-latestnews","25":"tag-main-news","26":"tag-mainnews","27":"tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","28":"tag-mary-mcaleese","29":"tag-michael-d-higgins","30":"tag-micheal-martin","31":"tag-news","32":"tag-rory-hearne","33":"tag-simon-harris","34":"tag-stanislaus-kennedy","35":"tag-top-stories","36":"tag-topstories","37":"tag-united-nations-un"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115510806255118312","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}