By Agnes Aineah
ACI Africa, Oct 8, 2025 /
13:00 pm
St. Patrick’s Pontifical University in Maynooth, Ireland, has conferred an honorary doctorate to Sister Orla Treacy, whose work spanning 19 years in South Sudan has transformed the lives of hundreds of girls in the war-torn east African nation.
In attendance at the Sept. 27 ceremony was Archbishop Eamon Martin of the Archdiocese of Armagh; Archbishop Séamus Patrick Horgan, the pioneer resident apostolic nuncio to South Sudan; and representatives of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM), popularly known as Loreto Sisters, where Treacy is a member.
Conferring the doctorate was director of education programs at St. Patrick’s Pontifical University, Father John-Paul Sheridan, who lauded Treacy’s dedication at the Loreto boarding school in South Sudan’s Diocese of Rumbek, where girls are provided with a nurturing environment to learn, away from the dangers of the country’s decades of war and famine.
“It is a profound joy to stand before you today as we recognize and honor a person whose life, vocation, and work embodies the highest ideals of Catholic education and the tireless pursuit of human rights and the advancement of the students under her charge,” Sheridan told guests at the event, which included Treacy’s family members and friends.
He added: “In conferring upon Sister Orla Treacy the degree of doctor of theology, honoris causa, this university affirms not only the remarkable achievements of an individual but also the enduring values of faith, justice, and human dignity to which our university and the wider Church aspire.”
Sheridan observed that Catholic education, at its heart, “is not merely about the transmission of knowledge” but is about the formation of persons who can think critically, act compassionately, and “live with a conscience attuned to the voice of God.”
‘She has never buried her talents’
He observed that Treacy has embodied the vision of the founder of her institute, Mary Ward, who once said: “Do not bury your talents lent to you by God to be expended in service.”
“Sister Orla has lived in South Sudan for 17 years embodying this sacred vision of education and has never buried her talents,” he said, adding that Treacy’s work has been a beacon of hope to countless students, teachers, and communities, “illuminating a path of justice, mercy, and intellectual rigor.”
“It is a well-known and often-quoted fact that the Catholic Church is the largest provider of education for women in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Sister Orla has been a tireless campaigner for girls in the pursuit of education,” the priest said.
Sheridan noted that Treacy’s vision for the school and her pupils does not stop at the boundaries of education. For Treacy, he said, the classroom is always connected to the wider world, “a world too often scarred by poverty, exclusion, and oppression.”
“With courage and conviction, Sister Orla extends her advocacy to the arena of human rights,” he said, adding that through her work the Loreto sister upholds the great Catholic witnesses to justice like Dorothy Day, who proclaimed that “our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.”
Sheridan described Treacy, who serves as director of the Loreto mission, as an inspiration, especially to the Irish university’s community. “Sister Orla … you are the best of us. You are an inspiration to our students, an encouragement to our graduates, and an affirmation to the university of its mission in the Church and the world,” he said.
It is the first honorary doctorate for Treacy, who was also one of 10 recipients of the 2019 U.S. Department of State’s International Women of Courage Award — an annual honor recognizing women who have “demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerment.”
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In announcing the awards, then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Treacy’s work had become “a beacon of hope for girls who might otherwise be denied education and forced to enter early marriages.”
Treacy first traveled to South Sudan at the invitation of the late Bishop Caesar Mazzolari, who asked her to begin a girls’ boarding school. She has made the war-torn country her home ever since.
In his address at the Sept. 27 event, Archbishop Martin lauded Treacy’s commitment to bring faith, hope, and love into a world that “too often appears faithless, hopeless, and love-less.”
He noted that in the midst of “so much violence, destruction, suspicion, and recrimination,” Treacy and those who work with her seek to highlight the dignity and the vocation of every person, especially that of girls and women, “in the midst of a culture that often thinks differently.”
Describing the Loreto Sisters’ school in the Rumbek Diocese as “a beacon of hope,” the archbishop told Treacy: “You go where others have been reluctant to go before, and you are leaving a path behind for others to follow. To that end, Sister Orla, your work is prophetic. You plant seeds of hope that one day will flourish.”
He also lauded Treacy’s resilience, saying: “Despite being surrounded by suffering, you inspire your students to believe in themselves, to dream, to heal divisions, and to give back to their communities knowing that ‘Cruci dum spiro fido’— ‘In the cross, while I breathe, I trust.’”
Martin acknowledged the contribution of the Loreto Sisters to the lives and hopes of many girls and women in Ireland and beyond, especially in the work of education, social justice, and inspiring faith, hope, and love.
Following ‘a great visionary, missionary, and courageous leader’
In her remarks, Treacy joked about the honor conferred upon her, saying: “I was never a great student in school, so thanks for this doctorate.” She said that her award ceremony was an opportunity to celebrate the “legacy of Loreto education.”
Treacy spoke at length about the legacy of her institute, describing its founders, Mary Ward and Teresa Ball, as “women of exceptional faith” who “trusted all to God.”
She recalled that Ball opened 37 communities in seven countries. She was, Treacy said, “a great visionary, missionary, and courageous leader” who, though never having traveled beyond Ireland and England, followed the dream of Mary Ward that “women in time to come would do much.”
Treacy recalled her arrival in 2006 into a region that had just come out of 20 years of civil war. “People were hungry, sick, traumatized from the war, and there were few services for the people.”
“And here we were coming to open a girls’ boarding secondary school in a region where boys and girls weren’t even going to primary school. And where girls are forced to marry as young as 15, for their cow value,” she said.
She said her first years in South Sudan were challenging. “Over the years our mission has experienced insecurity, aggression, financial problems, health issues, but still we continue to trust, to endure, and to accompany our young women in South Sudan.”
Treacy said South Sudan is currently “on the verge of another civil war,” adding: “This doesn’t stop our young women dreaming of a better world, a more just society where women can be educated.”
The Loreto Sisters’ initiative in South Sudan had grown “from strength to strength,” she said, explaining that “our secondary school gave way to a primary school for boys and girls, a health clinic followed to support the local community, and then looking to the future and sustainability we added an education center, internship program, and university scholarship program.”
The Loreto Sisters’ dedication to education in Rumbek has molded young people who are determined to restore peace in their country, Treacy said.
“Our youth are religious and spiritual, they love the Church, and over the past few years we have facilitated youth retreats and nine-day walking pilgrimages throughout our diocese, reaching hard-to-reach places, bringing a message of unity and hope,” she said.
There are now over 600 young women “working, studying, marrying, becoming mothers,” Treacy said.
“All over the country, they are influencing change in their culture,” she said of the graduates, who have invited Loreto Sisters to establish a new mission in the town of Awei, located in the north of the country.
Awei has a population of 1 million people — over 90% of whom are Catholic, with no religious or missionary presence. “These graduates have called us to come and offer quality, Catholic education to the next generation,” she said.
In her address, Treacy also highlighted the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, saying that young people all over the world are “beacons of hope, those who challenge us to step forward.”
“This is our Jubilee Year of Hope,” she said. “In the midst of the negativity that we hear it can be hard to hold on to hope. We do face diminishment in our Churches in Europe, but the message of Jesus continues to touch our young people, who call us to keep the vision, mission, and courage of our early foundress and to trust,” she said.
Treacy implored: “We pray for our fragile world that we can continue to discern new paths, keep the passion alive, and share the light of Christ in darkened places.”
This story was first published in ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.
Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a master of arts degree in digital journalism from the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications and a bachelor’s degree in linguistics, media, and communications from Kenya’s Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.
