Hi, its Gloria. First and foremost, thanks for all the wonderful thoughts, prayers and wishes for Ada Maria and the family in the comments. They are wonderful to read and do help to give solace at a very difficult time.
Below you will find Ada Maria's obituary which will run in a few newspapers later this week. We thought that this community would also want to see it. Towards the end of the obituary are all the particulars of her wake, mass and burial in Miami, FL. As I mentioned before, if some of you can and want to join us, you'll be welcomed by Ada's family.
Later in the year, perhaps late summer, early fall, we will be contacting some of you to help us with a memorial in New York City. We know that Ada was deeply rooted in this community and want to respect that for her and for you.
Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz
Dr.
Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz died on May 13, 2012 at age 69 after having received the
Holy Sacraments. Ada Maria was born in La Habana, Cuba, on March 22, 1943, the
daughter of Josefina Diaz de Isasi and Domingo G. Isasi-Battle (RIP 2005). She
lived her youth in Cuba, studying in La Habana where she graduated from Merici
Academy in 1960.
She
moved to the United States in 1960 with her family, and soon after entered the
Ursuline novitiate in Santa Rosa, California.
After finishing studies at New Rochelle College, NY, Ada was sent to
Lima, Peru by the order to work among the poor in the “barriada de Miramar”. There she became passionate in caring for the
dispossessed and building the “kin-dom” of God.
After
leaving the convent in 1969, she lived with her family in the United States. Realizing that she had a continued calling to
be an educator and a voice for the underprivileged, Ada Maria moved in 1975 to
Rochester, New York where she served in two inner city parishes and became
involved in the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC).
Ada
Maria earned a Masters of Divinity and a Doctorate in Theology from Union
Theological Seminary, in New York City in 1990.
At Union, she started her lifelong engagement and leadership in the
community of Liberation Theologians. Continuing her commitment to women’s
issues, she coined the term Mujerista theology to make explicit the Latina
voice in Feminist Liberation Theology.
In
1991, Ada Maria became a professor of Ethics and Theology at Drew University,
Madison, NJ from where she retired in 2009. Students were very fond of her and
described her as someone who was a demanding teacher, fair, honest and
passionate. While at Drew University, she co-founded the Hispanic Theological
Institute for training of Hispanic Theologians.
She
was a prolific writer, completing eight books, and many scholarly articles. Her
seminal work was Mujerista Theology: a
Theology for the 21st Century.
She
is survived and remembered by her mother, sisters, and brother, brothers-in-law
and sisters-in-law, her nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews,
friends and the community of women she mentored and inspired.
Visiting
hours will be held at Caballero-Rivero-Woodlawn, 8200 SW 40th
Street, Miami, FL from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. on May 18, 2012. A Mass of the Resurrection will be held at
St.Thomas the Apostle Church, 7377 SW 64th Street, Miami, FL at 2:00
p.m. on May19, 2012; followed by the internment at Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery, 11411 NW 25th St, Miami,
FL.
In
lieu of flowers, please send contributions to either:
Mary’s
Pence Mercy
Corps
275
East 4th Street, #707 P.O.
Box 2669
St.
Paul, MN 55101 Portland,
OR 97208
