Sr. Mary Catherine Hilkert, a member of the Dominican Sisters of Peace and Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, is the latest recipient of the John Courtney Murray Award for Distinguished Achievement in Theology from the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), its highest mark of achievement. The award was announced at the CTSA’s annual meeting in Baltimore, MD, on June 15.

CTSA President Kristin Heyer described the award as the Society’s “token of enduring gratitude for an unfolding legacy." In her citation she remarked that "for the past forty years, our honoree has leavened and led the theological community in major academic institutions, international venues, and our guild itself…Through an integration of theological rigor, pastoral expertise, and generous mentorship, she has modeled excellence and invited us into an expansive understanding of our shared vocation."

Sr. Hilkert's scholarly career has yielded three books-- Naming Grace: Preaching and the Sacramental Imagination; Speaking with Authority: Catherine of Siena and the Voices of Women Today; and most recently A Time to Keep Silence and a Time to Speak. She also has edited and contributed to two additional books and published nearly 70 articles and book chapters. Sr. Catherine holds four honorary doctorates and has been the recipient of Washington Theological Union’s Sophia Award for Theological Excellence in Service of Ministry, Barry University's Yves Congar Award for Theological Excellence, the Great Preacher Award from Aquinas Institute of Theology, and the CTSA’s Ann O’Hara Graff Award for her contributions to the integration of academic and pastoral theology with particular attention to the voices of women.

In addition to her many scholarly accomplishments, Sr. Catherine has served on two international theological commissions of the Dominican Order of Preachers and has lectured and preached in Catholic and ecumenical contexts in the United States, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, and South Africa.
In her response upon receiving the award, Sr. Catherine expressed her gratitude to her mentors, especially her dissertation advisor Fr. William J. Hill, O.P.; her colleagues in the CTSA, at the University of Notre Dame and at the Aquinas Institute of Theology; and especially to the many students she has taught over the years and from whom she said she has learned so much. She offered special thanks to the Dominican Sisters of Peace and the larger Dominican Family and noted that her theological vocation has always been deeply intertwined with her vocation as a Dominican called “to contemplate and to share with others the fruits of our contemplation.”

Sr. Catherine along with more than 300 Dominican Sisters of Peace around the world strive to live out the Congregation’s direction statements of preaching, fostering cultures of inclusion and prayer, treasuring the Earth, and striving towards a hope-filled future for Dominican life as well as the Order’s mission to be peace, build peace and preach peace.

“In our 2022 Chapter Commitments, we made a commitment to prophetic preaching of the Gospel message. This has been Sr. Cathy’s life work,” says Sr. Pat Twohill, Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of Peace. “She is truly a living example of infusing action with wisdom, as the CTSA has said. We are thrilled that she has been honored with this tribute and are grateful for the gift she is to our Church.”

Sister Mary Catherine was born in Akron, Ohio, the second of ten children of Mary Louise and Bill Hilkert. She attended St. Sebastian Grade School and St. Vincent High School, before joining the Sisters of St. Dominic of Akron (now the Dominican Sisters of Peace). After earning her undergraduate degree from the University of Dayton in 1971, she returned to Akron where she taught English and Religious Studies at St. Vincent (later St. Vincent-St. Mary) High School. In 1977 she began graduate studies at the Catholic University of America where she earned the M.A. in Theology in 1979, and the Ph.D. in Theology in 1984. She taught theology at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis from 1984-1995, before joining the faculty of Theology at the University of Notre Dame in 1995.