Mary Jo Leddy

Background

Mary Jo Leddy was born on February 1, 1946, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is the daughter of John Edward and Rita Therese (Wilkinson) Leddy.

Education

Leddy studied at the University of Saskatchewan. She became a Bachelor of Arts in 1968, and a Bachelor of Education in 1970. Then she graduated from the University of Toronto, as a Master of Arts in 1972. She received her Doctor of Philosophy in 1980.

Career

Leddy began working as a High school teacher from 1968 to 1970. In 1973, she was the founding editor of the Catholic New Times. Then she was a campus minister for Newman Center, Toronto in 1976-1977. She was also a lecturer at University College, Toronto, Maryknoll Seminary, Hingham, Massachusetts and Regis College, Toronto. From 1979 to 1986 Leddy was a columnist for Toronto Star.

Leddy was also a contributor of numerous articles to periodicals, including Catholic New Times, Toronto Star, Catalyst, Grail, Compass, National Catholic Reporter, Mandate. The Reporter, and Prairie Messenger.

Leddy is author of the books "Say to the Darkness We Beg to Differ" (Lester and Orpen Denys, finalist City of Toronto Book Award), Reweaving Religious Life: Beyond the Liberal Model (Twenty Third Publications, 1990), At the Border Called Hope: Where Refugees are Neighbours (HarperCollins, 1997 and finalist for the Trillium Award, Radical Gratitude (Orbis Books, 2002), "Our Friendly Local Terrorist" (Between the Lines 2010) and "The Other Face of God: When the Stranger Calls Us Home" (Orbis 2011).

Leddy’s book Memories of War: Promises of Peace is a biography of her parents’ experiences during World War II. Jack Leddy was a surgeon who served the Canadian army in Europe, primarily in Normandy. Rita Leddy, a nurse, worked for the British Civil Nursing Reserve in England, unable to serve in combat because of her married status. The couple was separated for most of the war years, reunited on Victory over Europe day, then settled in Saskatoon, Canada, in 1947.

At the Border Called Hope: Where Refugees Are Neighbours is Leddy’s account of the stories of families who found shelter at Romero House after escaping from war-torn countries, including Sri Lanka and Iran.

Leddy is widely recognized for her work with refugees at Toronto's Romero House. She began working for the center as a night manager in 1991 and has been its director since then. Romero House started almost 25 years ago when a small group, who believed that refugees could be treated differently, took over a refugee shelter threatened with closure. They welcomed refugees to stay in apartments without internal locks, as neighbors rather than simply clients and set out to help them to establish themselves in Canada and create community together.

Achievements

• As a director of Romero's House, Leddy welcomes refugee claimants: people who claim refugee status after arriving in Canada. They welcome refugees regardless of religion, ethnicity, political beliefs, sexual orientation or gender identity. In this way, that strive to create a community that celebrates difference.
  
  Leddy has received several honorary doctorates: Doctor of Law - York University, Doctor of Letters- Mount Saint Vincent, Doctor of Law - Windsor, Doctor of Letters- Waterloo, Doctor of Divinity - St. Andrew's.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Our Friendly Local Terrorist

    (Our Friendly Local Terrorist tells the story of the fourt...)

    2010
  • The Other Face of God

    (Leddy shows us that the refugees who live among us are in...)

    2011
  • Radical Gratitude

    (Mary Jo Leddy's book is a meditation on the miracle of ev...)

    2002
  • At the border called hope

    (Refugees are a controversial topic of discussion in Canad...)

    1997

Religion

Mary Jo Leddy is a former Catholic nun who for thirty years belonged to the Sisters of Sion. In 1994 Leddy’s comments on leaving the order were reported by Dawn Gibeau in National Catholic Reporter. Leddy told Gibeau that she has “no doubt about the validity of religious life.”

Views

Leddy is an activist for refugee rights.

Quotations: “We’re obsessed with keeping out these bad people. We have no idea that we’re keeping out goodness and hope, everything we really need as a country.”

Membership

After thirty years as a member of the Roman Catholic Sisters of Our Lady of Sion, she left the congregation in 1994.

• Roman Catholic Sisters of Our Lady of Sion

Connections

Father:

John Edward Leddy

Mother:

Rita Therese Leddy

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 164