Sister Mary Luke Tobin (May 16, 1908 – August 24, 2006) was an American Roman Catholic

religious sister A religious sister (abbreviated ''Sr.'' or Sist.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to pra ...

, and one of only 15 women

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s invited to the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

, and the only American woman of the three women religious permitted to participate on the Council's planning commissions. She was inducted into the

Colorado Women's Hall of Fame The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit, volunteer organization that recognizes women who have contributed to the history of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of 2020, 170 women have been inducted. History There was a short-lived recogniti ...

in 1997.

Early life

Christened as Ruth Marie Tobin, she attended public schools in Denver and traveled to Nevada and California with her parents and older brother. She managed a dance school while attending Loretto Heights College in Denver.

Religious background

Sister Tobin was a former Superior General of the

Sisters of Loretto The Sisters of Loretto or the Loretto Community is a Catholic religious institute that strives "to bring the healing Spirit of God into our world." Founded in the United States in 1812 and based in the rural community of Nerinx, Kentucky, the ...

. She had been president of the congregation from 1958 to 1970. When she was invited to Rome, she was President of the

Leadership Conference of Women Religious The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is one of two associations of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States (the other being the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious). LCWR includes ov ...

. She did much of her work in her native

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

but traveled the world on missions for peace, including visits to Saigon,

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, El Salvador and Northern Ireland.

Thomas Merton

While living at the Loretto Motherhouse in Marion County, Kentucky, Nerinx, Kentucky, she became friends with Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Merton shared with her some of the works he was not allowed to publish. After Merton's death in 1968 she co-founded the International Thomas Merton Society and also established the Thomas Merton Center for Creative Exchange in Denver in 1979 where Merton's spirituality and writings came to be known by many. She gave Merton retreats and co-founded a Buddhist-Christian dialogue/meditation group in Denver. Tobin invited such theological luminaries as Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx, Dominican Order, O.P., and Fr. Bernard Häring, Redemptorists, C.Ss.R., to lecture at Loretto. She was an actress in the TV special: ''Merton: A Film Biography of Thomas Merton''.

Political activism

The diminutive Sister supported women's ordination to the priesthood, opposed nuclear proliferation, supported the United Farm Workers and took on the Blue Diamond Coal Company by using Loretto's shares to challenge the firm's practices and took part in nonviolent actions at Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, the U.S. Air Force Academy and Martin-Marietta in Colorado. In the 1970s, Sister Tobin was an outspoken supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). She was quoted as saying, "...it would help provide equal pay for ever larger numbers of women who are heads of families."

Death

She died, aged 98, in 2006 from natural causes.

References

External links

Inner Explorations activitiesBoston Globe obituaryNational Catholic Reporter Online archivesColorado Women's Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tobin, Sister Mary Luke 1908 births 2006 deaths American activists People from Denver People from Kentucky Participants in the Second Vatican Council Roman Catholic activists Sisters of Loretto 20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns Women's ordination activists Catholics from Colorado 21st-century American Roman Catholic nuns Equal Rights Amendment activists