PHILADELPHIA — Sister Eileen McLoughlin, professed with the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity, passed away peacefully on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023. She was 94.
A Rosary will be recited at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, followed by a wake at 6:30 p.m. Her funeral Mass will be celebrated at 9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 17. All liturgies will be held at the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity Motherhouse in Philadelphia.
A memorial Mass will be offered at 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy. in Charlotte (main church).
She was born Eileen Catherine McLoughlin to John and Elizabeth Fanning McLoughlin on July 30, 1929, in Jersey City, N.J.
She entered the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity on Aug. 5, 1950, and initially took the name “Sister Ignatius Eileen.” She professed her final vows on March 25, 1955.
During her 70 years as a consecrated religious, Sister Eileen served in Bethany, Okla.; Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Greensburg, Pa.; Mobile, Ala.; Lorain, Ohio; Stirling, N.J.; and Charlotte.
Her first mission was to St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Oklahoma, where she and 10 other sisters took care of more than 140 children.
Later she served in Alabama, where she opened a free seasonal daycare for migrant children after she learned of an infant’s death from heat exposure while the mother worked in the potato fields. The program, staffed by volunteers, lasted for more than 20 years.
In 1987 she began her ministry in the Diocese of Charlotte, working as a drug/alcohol counselor for Catholic Social Services (now Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte) and then at St. Matthew Parish in Charlotte.
For more than 30 years, she counseled people in need – alcoholics, addicts, people grieving the loss of a loved one, and many others desperately searching for help – sharing the healing power of hope and the message that God loves them.
After 20 years of diocesan service, and serving three years in Philadelphia, she founded the counseling services office in 2006 at St. Matthew Parish. There she established 12-step programs including Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous as well as Alateen, Co-dependents Anonymous and Food Addicts in Recovery, among other efforts.
In 2018, she retired and moved back to the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity Motherhouse in Philadelphia, where she continued to serve as a volunteer counselor to the Sisters at Wesley Enhanced Living.
— Catholic News Herald
Read more about Sister Eileen: Sister Eileen McLoughlin retires after 31 years of ministry in the diocese