A Loreto nun from Bray, who has spent almost the last 20 years in South Sudan, has been conferred with an honorary degree in recognition of her significant contribution to education, social justice and women’s rights across the world.
The special conferring ceremony took place in the historic College Chapel of Saint Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth, on Saturday, September 27, where Archbishop Eamon Martin conferred an honorary Doctorate in Theology on Sister Orla Treacy, who has dedicated her life to protecting human rights “in the midst of so much violence, destruction, suspicion and recrimination”.
Sr Orla was born in Carlow and spent time in Dundalk, Ennis and Cork, before moving to Bray, where her family remain.
In 2006, with just two other Loreto nuns from Ireland, she travelled to Rumbek, in South Sudan, where they were greeted by what she described as “ground zero”, after the country had suffered two decades of civil war.
Sr Orla (52) now serves as the director of the Loreto Rumbek Mission, overseeing a secondary school for 385 girls, a primary school for over 1,200 boys and a primary healthcare facility.
More than 500 girls have graduated from the boarding school since 2008 and it continues to be a women’s refuge of sorts, as child marriage in the area remains pervasive.
Last September, she returned to her Bray home where she visited St Patrick’s Loreto, together with colleagues from Loreto Rumbek, to highlight her work and to help raise awareness for a campaign to build a new school. She also made a visit in June this year to renew her appeal.
During the ceremony on Saturday, Dr Martin said: “Sister Orla, we thank God for all that you, and your community are doing in South Sudan to bring faith, hope and love into our our world – a world that too often appears faithless, hopeless and ‘love-less.’
"God is working through you. And you have generously answered God’s call to bring your many gifts to making a real difference – your gifts of leadership, courage, and perseverance; your positivity and joy. You carry the light and compassion of Christ to the peripheries. Thank you for all that you are – and all that you do – by the grace of God. You’re an inspiration!” he continued.
Dr Martin also acknowledged “the many collaborators” who assist in the work in South Sudan, “in the midst of so much violence, destruction, suspicion and recrimination”, adding the team helps to build what Pope Saint John Paul II called, ‘a civilisation of love.’
Referring to her school in Rumbek as “a beacon of hope”, he said “you go where others have been reluctant to go before, and you are leaving a path behind for others to follow”.
The congregation also heard that Sr Orla “is following in the footsteps of the long line of Loreto sisters who have made an immense contribution to the lives and hopes so many girls and women here in Ireland, and beyond”, while tributes were also paid to what the “countless Irish Loreto sisters have achieved, and continue to do achieve around the world, especially in the work of education, social justice, and inspiring faith, hope and love”.
In 2017, Sr Orla was awarded The Hugh O’Flaherty International Humanitarian Award by the Mayor of Killarney and, in 2021, she received the Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad by President Michael D Higgins.
In addition, Sister Orla is a recipient of the 2019 US State Department International Women of Courage Awards, which recognises women around the globe who have demonstrated "exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerments, often at a great personal risk and sacrifice”.