ARLINGTON, Va. (OSV News) — Dolores R. Leckey, who was founding director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for the Laity in 1977 and on the time one among the best rating women within the U.S. Catholic Church, died peacefully of natural causes Jan. 17 in her home in Arlington. She was 89.
Her funeral Mass will probably be celebrated Jan. 26 at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Arlington.
Leckey worked in the realm of lay spirituality as a retreat leader, lecturer and author for over 40 years. She was the recipient of 13 honorary degrees and amongst her many other honors, she received the St. Elizabeth Seton Medal from Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati in 2012, given in recognition of distinguished women in theology.
During her 20 years on the helm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ secretariat, now called the Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, Leckey was an official adviser to the U.S. bishops at each the 1980 world Synod of Bishops on marriage and the family and the world Synod of Bishops on the laity in 1987.
When she retired from the post in 1997, she went to Woodstock Theological Center at Jesuit-run Georgetown University within the spring of 1998 and was the primary woman to be a senior fellow at the middle.
Leckey was the writer of diverse published articles, talks and reflections. She also wrote greater than a dozen books including “The Peculiar Way: A Family Spirituality,” 1982; “Laity Stirring the Church: Prophetic Questions,” 1987; “Women and Creativity,” 1991; “Winter Music: A Lifetime of Jessica Powers: Poet, Nun, Woman of the twentieth Century,” 1992; “The Laity and Christian Education,” 2006; and “Interior Journey: A Spirituality for Contemporary Seekers,” 2015.
Leckey was an official adviser to the U.S. bishops at each the 1980 world Synod of Bishops on marriage and the family and the world Synod of Bishops on the laity in 1987.
In her 2008 book, “Grieving With Grace: A Woman’s Perspective,” she shared her reflections on the 2003 death of her first husband, Tom, after their 46 years of marriage. In 2008, she married Joseph Schatzel, who died in 2011.
Leckey’s last book, published in 2022, was a memoir titled “Reviewed: Scenes From a Long Life.” It concludes: “I cannot help consider the lines in T.S. Eliot’s poem ‘East Coker,’ where he writes, ‘’n the top is my starting.’”
In an interview with Catholic News Service when she retired from the laity secretary, Leckey pointed to several successes during her tenure.
These included each the 1980 and 1995 versions of the U.S. bishops’ pastoral message “Called and Gifted” on the laity; the bishops’ 1992 pastoral response to domestic violence against women, “Once I Call for Help” (updated in 2002); and their 1994 document “Strengthening the Bonds of Peace: A Pastoral Reflection on Women within the Church and in Society.”
“‘Called and Gifted,’” she told CNS, “gave a lift to laity and it gave encouragement to bishops to advertise the role of the laity.”
“Strengthening the Bonds of Peace” was issued the identical yr as St. John Paul II’s apostolic letter “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” (”Priestly Ordination”), which “reaffirmed that the Catholic Church has no authority to confer priestly ordination on women.”
“OK, so the ordination query is closed. But what doors are open? And that I feel is the proper approach to go,” she told CNS.
Leckey and her husband helped found the Arlington Partnership for Inexpensive Housing, which bought and rehabilitated apartments for individuals who otherwise couldn’t afford Arlington rents.
4 years later, the bishops issued a 26-page booklet, titled “From Words to Deeds,” addressing three areas: appreciating and incorporating the gifts of ladies within the church; appointing women to church leadership positions; and promoting collaboration between men and ladies within the church.
Dolores Regina Conklin Leckey was born April 12, 1933, within the Recent York City borough of Queens to Joseph and Florence (Kelly) Conklin. She was the youngest of 5 children.
She studied literature at St. John’s University and Recent York University. She earned a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s in 1954. She later earned a master of arts degree from George Washington University in 1971.
She married Thomas Philip Leckey, a financial manager, in 1957. Within the early years of their marriage, Dolores taught English and drama; within the early Seventies, she produced shows for public television.
She and Tom were long involved in community projects, including the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network, which helps homeless people, and in addition they helped found the Arlington Partnership for Inexpensive Housing, which bought and rehabilitated apartments for individuals who otherwise couldn’t afford Arlington rents.
Dolores Leckey: “I learned an unlimited amount in regards to the perplexity and the goodness of all these various instrumentalities and agencies of the church. We’re so huge and so complex, and a lot good gets done.”
In her interview with CNS upon her retirement at as head of the bishops’ laity secretariat, Leckey said it was “an exquisite, wonderful opportunity, 20 years that I never sought, never expected, which have just been stuffed with a view of the church that may not have been given to me otherwise.”
“In a way,” she said, “I’ve been ministered to reasonably than ministering to others.”
“I learned an unlimited amount in regards to the perplexity and the goodness of all these various instrumentalities and agencies of the church,” she continued. “We’re so huge and so complex, and a lot good gets done.”
When asked about her hopes for the church of her grandchildren, Leckey ticked off attributes that formed her core message over time.
It could be “a welcoming place … that can provide them meaning,” one committed to interreligious dialogue and tolerance, one which imbues “a way of responsibility and mission to the world,” she said. It could “keep alive the magical tradition, and teach the sanctity of marriage and family life and take care of those in trouble,” she added.
She added, “I hope that they’ll find the church a fun place to be, and never a dreary, gloomy place.”
Leckey is survived by her 4 children, Mary Kate Marcellus, Celia Leckey, Thomas Joseph Leckey and Colum Leckey; her 4 children by marriage; seven grandchildren; one grandchild by marriage; and one great-grandchild.
