Sister Kate Moriarty, dead at 81, taught math at Mother McAuley High

Sister Kate Moriarty was a breezy, funny nun who embraced the changes the 1960s brought to the Roman Catholic Church.

A member of the Sisters of Mercy for 63 years, she was delighted when they traded in floor-length habits and boxy wimples for civilian clothes.

“She probably would have said, ‘It’s a damn sight better,’ ” said her sister Barbara Moriarty.

In the 1960s, when the Blackstone Rangers started recruiting “Baby Stones” for the gang near St. Joachim’s church on Chicago’s South Side, Sister Kate, then the school principal, tried to protect the kids by closing the campus at lunch and offering hot meals.

At Mother McAuley High School — where she taught math — she pushed girls to go to college and contribute to the world.

And every now and then, she enjoyed a trip to a casino or a sip of brandy.

“She had a great laugh, a real deep, loud laugh, and she laughed easily and liked jokes,” said Sister Cathleen Cahill, her principal at McAuley.

“Kate was for real,” said her sister. “She loved to have fun, kick up her heels.”

Sister Kate, 81, died of pneumonia Sunday at Mercy Circle retirement community in Chicago.

She grew up the oldest girl of 10 kids of Irish immigrants from County Kerry. Timothy, her bricklayer-dad, was from Murreagh. Her mom Katherine was from Ballyroe. They met at an Irish dance on the South Side and raised their kids near St. Joachim’s at 91st and Langley.

Young Kate might have inherited her sense of humor from her mother, who tried to learn driving at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.

“She’d go rolling over the tombstones because she couldn’t control the car,” Barbara Moriarty said. “She said it was a good thing they were already dead.”

The Moriarty kids spent hot days swimming at Rainbow Beach.

“My dad was big on having everybody swim,” her sister said. “He and his folks had been fishermen in the Old Country, and he’d seen a lot of people drown.”

Growing up, Kate admired the Sisters of Mercy, who taught her at St. Joachim’s and Mercy High School. She entered the convent at 18.

Sister Kate taught at St. Joan of Arc in Evanston, St. Columba in Ottawa, St. Joseph in Libertyville, Immaculate Conception in Milwaukee and, in Chicago, at Resurrection grade school and Unity High School. From 1968 to 1975, she was principal of St. Joachim’s.

She taught math at McAuley from 1978 to 1983, said Sister Sharon Kerrigan. “She would be very clear in presenting the concepts and looking right into a kids eyes — ‘do you get it now? If you don’t, let me know,’ ” said Sister Cathleen Cahill.

“She had a way of getting in their little heads,” said a friend, Sister Patricia Illing.

Because of arthritis, she underwent knuckle-replacement surgery “so she could hold the chalk and teach,” said Barbara Moriarty. When it continued to plague her, she earned a counseling degree.

“She had beautiful blue eyes, and she followed your conversation,” Sister Cathleen Cahill said. “She looked right into the faces of those girls and let them say what they needed to say. She was never shocked.”

After helping thousands of McAuley students grasp algebra and prepare for college, she retired in 2006, according to Sister Sharon Kerrigan, but continued to guide kids and parents through college and financial aid applications.

“Kate was an early feminist,” her sister said. “She was all about pushing the women to go as far as they could.”

In 2008, she signed a high-profile petition supporting ordination of women priests. At parish grade schools, “She didn’t like having priests tell her what to do,” Barbara Moriarty said.

Once, one of her brothers told her: “I don’t think I’d ever feel comfortable going to confession to a woman.”

“Welcome to my world,” she replied.

Sister Kate enjoyed trips to Ecuador to visit her brother John, a priest.

An avid cook and baker, she made fluffy mashed potatoes and delicious soda bread and lamb pies.

Sister Kate is also survived by her sisters Mary Therese Pallasch and Irene Moriarty and her brother Thomas. Services have been held.

Sr. Kate Moriarty’s family recipe for Irish soda bread

Dry ingredients

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

2 cups raisins (optional)

Wet ingredients

1 small container sour cream (8 oz., or 1 cup)

3 eggs

2 sticks butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl, mix wet ingredients. Then, mix the two bowls together gently. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes; use toothpick or cake tester to check if it’s done. Makes two medium loaves.