She was a regular participant in our weekly vigil until she went to Iraq for eighteen months with the Christian Peacemaker Team, an ecumenical organization which places teams of trained peacemakers to work with local partners in situations of violent conflict around the world. If you can, first join our vigil from 5 to 6pm on the corner of Main and Jefferson in downtown South Bend

The second of five children raised in a Catholic home, Sheila grew up outside of Boston.  She worked for a year as a Jesuit Volunteer in an AIDS hospice in Minneapolis before spending a few years back in the Boston area working in residences for homeless men and women with HIV/AIDS.  She then lived and worked for a year in Oklahoma as a temporary lay member of a Benedictine contemplative monastic ashram.

In 2001 Sheila earned an M.Div from the University of Notre Dame.  During her time as a graduate student, she developed and later presented workshops to educate youth ministers about the struggles that GLBTQ teens face in the church.  She has begun work on a book on the same topic.  Sheila spent 2001-02 working on a Lily Foundation-funded project coordinating retreats and workshops for teenagers and young adults interested in discovering and following their life’s calling.  In the years before joining CPT, Sheila participated in a 28-day water-only Fast for Peace and Nonviolence, traveled to prewar Iraq with a Catholic delegation, and spoke out at fora to urge the US to seek nonviolent solutions to the Iraq problem. 

Since summer 2003 Sheila has been a full-time member of CPT and has lived and worked in Iraq since December 2003.  Highlights of her CPT work include monitoring the detainee system, accompanying families of detainees through the bureaucratic maze, and participating in CPT's Adopt-a-Detainee Campaign.  She helped develop and train the brand-new Muslim Peacemaker Team and has accompanied them in actions aimed at bringing Shi’a and Sunni Muslims together.  Sheila lives in an ordinary neighborhood in Baghdad a ministry of simple presence among neighbors.

Cosponsors: Michiana Peace and Justice Coalition and the Center for Peace and Nonviolence