R.I.P., Sr. Stephanie Mertens ASC, educator, social-justice advocate
“How does the Church stand as a sign for justice in a suffering world?”
That question stirred deeply in Sister Stephanie Mertens’s heart and was never far from her mind.
“She was truly committed to people on the margins, and she went about it in a very quiet and unassuming way,” stated Barbara Ross, a friend and colleague from the Jefferson City diocese.
Sr. Stephanie, 87, of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ (ASC), a former educator and director of social concerns for this diocese, died on Jan. 7 at the ASC Ruma Center in Ruma, Illinois.
A St. Louis native, she had been a vowed member of the ASC congregation for 69 years.
She served as a Catholic-school educator and parish catechist in several parishes in Missouri, Illinois and Iowa, including Visitation Inter-parish School in Vienna.
She served as Religious Education Coordinator for the St. Louis archdiocese before spending a decade as head of the Jefferson City diocese’s Social Concerns Office.
In that role, she advocated and demonstrated for farmers suffering in the national farm crisis and served as the convener of the Farm Alliance of Rural Missouri.
She held a bachelor’s degree in theology from Saint Louis University in St. Louis and a master’s degree in religious education from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Ross, who worked with Sr. Stephanie on several projects and eventually succeeded her as diocesan social concerns director, remembers her as a woman of compassionate wisdom.
“She was a great teacher and mentor,” said Ms. Ross. “She was so mild-mannered and organized, and she worked very hard.”
“She was very intelligent,” Ms. Ross stated. “Her sense of social justice was broad and deep, and she had a sharp understanding of what was wrong in the world.”
Sr. Stephanie served here in the throes of the great farm crisis of the late 1970s and early ’80s.
“At that time, our diocese, as it still is to this day in many ways, was a very rural place,” said Ms. Ross. “We had many, many family farmers, and a lot of them were failing.”
Sr. Stephanie understood the inseparable relationship between charity and justice and applied that to her advocacy work, including rural life, poverty issues, prison ministry and criminal justice reform.
She worked not just to help people in their current condition but also to address the broader issues that contributed to getting them there in the first place.
She was committed to promoting social justice through the lens of faith and the teaching of the Church.
“That was where her heart was,” said Ms. Ross.
Sr. Stephanie was well read and very wise to the ways of the world.
“She was not puritanical or Pollyanna-ish,” said Ms. Ross. “She was always ready to face the world as it really is. When you were alone with her, she spoke her mind clearly to you, and you know she understood the evils of this world.”
Yet, she never became jaded.
“She always had a lightness to her,” said Ms. Ross. “She could smile very easily. You knew she understood and was committed to this work, no matter how difficult it was, but she was not weighed down by it.
“She knew there was something above and beyond it — and for her, I know that was her faith,” said Ms. Ross.
Sr. Stephanie was kind and patient with people who were not as well informed or who saw things differently from her.
“But she knew how to stick to her principles,” said Ms. Ross.
Sr. Stephanie went on to serve for 18 years in a similar role for the Adorers, promoting social justice on their behalf.
In 1993, she testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on African Affairs, about the 1992 murders of five missionaries from her congregation in Liberia.
She was living in community at the former ASC motherhouse in Ruma, Illinois, when she died.
A private vigil service was held there on Jan. 12, followed by burial in the convent cemetery.
A Memorial Mass will be celebrated later with family, friends and fellow sisters.
Condolences may be sent to the Adorers of the Blood of Christ at 4233 Sulphur Ave., St. Louis, MO 63109 or online at adorers.org.
