Sister Kathleen Toner, IHM
Sister Kathleen Toner, IHM, (formerly known as Sister M. St. Hugh) of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary died on November 19, 2003 at the Marian Convent in Scranton, PA.
Daughter of the late Hugh A. Toner and Jean Brown Toner, she was born on March 6, 1944 in New York, NY. She entered the IHM Congregation on September 8, 1962 and made her temporary profession of vows on June 27, 1965 and her final profession of vows on August 22, 1970.
Sister Kathleen served as a teacher at the Marywood Seminary in Scranton, from 1966 to 1968; and St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, MD. She served as a faculty member of Marywood College in Scranton, from 1974 to 1975 and 1977 to 1978; and Catholic University in Washington, DC.
Sister Kathleen was the founder and director of Samaritan House in Brooklyn, NY, a temporary residence for homeless women and children, and served there from 1986 to 1999.
From 1999 until the time of her death, she as a prayer minister at the Marian Convent.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, a Master of Arts degree in religious education, both from Marywood College, and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) from Catholic University in Washington, DC.
She is survived by two brothers, Hugh Patrick of Gaithersburg, MD; and Michael of Centereach, NY; a sister, Maureen Barry of Rochester, NY; nephews and nieces.
The funeral will be Monday, November 24 at 10:30 a.m. with Mass of Christian Burial at the Marian Convent followed by interment at St. Catherine Cemetery, Moscow. Friends may call at the Marian Convent on Sunday, November 23, between 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Memorial contributions may be made to support the retired IHM Sisters c/o the IHM Sisters Retirement Fund, IHM Center, 2300 Adams Avenue, Scranton, PA 18509.
A Memorial Tribute
A memorial tribute was made to Sr. Kathleen Toner in an article in the December issue of The Lymphoma Foundation News.
“What would she want us to say? What would she want us to do about remembering her life? She would want us to be silent. She would insist on self-effacement and quiet. But our voices cry out and our hearts weep over the death and the loss of this gentle but powerful woman.”
“If you can imagine how a physician can find a deep inner warmth for his patients... those who survive and those who are lost... to cancers that the physician was determined to cure... then you can imagine the intense feelings I had for Kathleen. And I was not alone in my special love for Kathleen. I shared that love with all who knew her and who received her help in both practical and spiritual ways either as the founder and developer of Samaritan House for abused women and children or as a first-class research assistant when we worked together analyzing the data regarding the uniquely successful RT-TVP radiation chemotherapy combination or the recording of the marvelous miracle of post-chemotherapy successful pregnancies enjoyed by so many young women or as she applied her compassionate understanding of human nature to give needed counsel to so many men, women and children in their time of woe and social desperation.”
“In the end as in the beginning when Kathleen first appeared twenty-five years ago for treatment of her stage IV Hodgkin’s disease that had invaded her lungs and so many other parts of her body... she fought to survive... and until that final illness she repeatedly rose up from almost certain death to accomplish great societal works. It is with gratitude that we incorporate Kathleen’s example of the best in human behavior and adopt her willful presence into our own sense of being... that allows us to carry her spirit forward in ourselves and to pass this on to our children and their children, to be sure to eventually achieve the ideal world of Kathleen’s hopes and dreams.”
by Dr. Mortimer J. Lacher, M.D.
