Local
New Director of the Labor Guild named

By
Posted: 1/25/2008

BRIGHTON, MA — Sister Mary Priniski, OP has been named director of the Labor Guild of the Archdiocese of Boston. Her appointment was announced Jan. 15 during a meeting which included the installation of officers and new board members for the Labor Guild. Sister Mary succeeds the late Father Edward F. Boyle, S.J. who passed away this past November and who served the Labor Guild for thirty-seven years. The Labor Guild is an ecumenical organization of labor-relations professionals that support bipartisan labor relations.

“I am very excited about being part of the Archdiocese of Boston,” Sister Mary said.

“The Guild is an important ministry of the Church. I pray that I may carry on the good work that has been done in the past and further an agenda that will support the movement of our world toward the Kingdom of God,” she said

Sister Mary is a member of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. She began her public ministry in 1972 with the Ford City Catholic Center in Chicago, Illinois and for the next seven years worked extensively with youth ministry in parishes in California and Michigan. In 1979 Sister Mary joined the Southerners for Economic Justice in Rick Hill, South Carolina as a field staff member working on civil rights and worker rights issues, particularly the rights of textiles workers. From 1984-1992 she served as coordinator of Connective Ministries in Rock Hill, developing workshops and facilitating forums for religious congregations, their superiors and seminarians.

In 1993 she was named Director of Glenmary Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia and later served as Director of the Glenmary Commission on Justice in Atlanta. Here she was the founding chair of the MetroAtlanta Religion/Labor Roundtable.

From 2001-2003 Sister Mary served as the Health Care Workers Advocate for the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice building support for local interfaith groups across the United States. Since 2003 she has served with the Service Employees International Union working in areas of religious outreach in support of organizing family childcare providers.

“On behalf of the Archdiocese, I welcome Sister Mary to her new role and extend the best wishes and prayers of Cardinal Seán as she begins her ministry with us,” Father Richard M. Erikson, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia for the Archdiocese said.

“We thank Sister Mary for her commitment to serve the local Church at this time and to advocate for the needs of working families, which represent a significant segment of our Catholic community.”

Father J. Bryan Hehir, Secretary for Social Services, called Sister Mary, “an experienced and distinguished leader on all of the major issues faced by working families, which the Church is deeply committed to supporting.”

“She brings a unique perspective to this important position in the area of social justice particularly at a time when there are so many important and intersecting issues on the table including health care, childcare and wages,” Father Hehir said.