Sister Pat Murray IBVM, a Loreto Sister from the Irish Province, has been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award 2020. This reward is reserved for those who have made a remarkable contribution to Ireland and our international reputation.
Sister Murray is currently based in Rome where she is the Executive Secretary of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG). In this role she engages with the work of female religious sisters worldwide, supporting, in particular, the work of those in leadership, and enhancing the education and skills of sisters into the future. Representing congregations of women religious throughout the world, UISG’s mission is to seek to witness to and proclaim the identity of apostolic religious life in all of its diversity. Through weaving global solidarity and opening new frontiers, UISG animates, supports and stimulates leadership of religious to be a prophetic voice and witness in the Church and the world.
Sister Murray is also a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for Culture, having been appointed to this position by Pope Francis at the end of 2019. The Pontifical Council for Culture traces its origins back to the Second Vatican Council and is a response to the need for the Church to continually engage with the cultures of the world.
She has spent most of her life working to build peace in Ireland. She was the founding executive director of Solidarity with South Sudan, fostering the collaboration of more than a hundred religious orders working to rebuild the educational, medical, agricultural and pastoral infrastructure of the newly independent South Sudan.
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