Sister Kathleen Lehner met the Mission Helpers in Erie, Pennsylvania, where the Sisters trained young women to become religion teachers in the 1950s.  She joined the Community in 1956.

In Sr. Kathleen’s early years as a Mission Helper she gave religious instruction to children and adults, visiting people in their homes and teaching the faith to those who couldn’t come to classes.

In the 1970s, working in rural North Carolina where clergy and Sisters were scarce, the Diocese sent the Mission Helper Sisters to every corner of the state.  “We had to do it all ourselves,” she recalls.  One of the things that had to be done was leading singing in the mission churches. 

Because she had a. musical background, music in the church became a primary focus of her ministry.  She served as liturgical or music minister in parishes in Arizona, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia. But, she says, “I always did this ministry with a pastoral approach—always finding ministries within the families of the parishes.”

By the end of the 1990s, when lay people had become able to carry out music ministries, Sister Kathleen became the minister of hospitality at the St. Jude Shrine in Baltimore.  She has also served as the Mission Helpers’ liturgical music minister.

Sister Kathleen has an Associate Degree in Music from St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana.  She also holds degrees in Sociology and Religious Studies.

She lives in DePaul House, a Catholic Charities community in Baltimore, where she does community ministry among the residents.