Kate Kuenstler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
January 21, 1949
- Canon lawyer
Sister Kate Kuenstler PHJC, JCD | |
|---|---|
 Sr. Kate Kuenstler (left) receives the Trivison award from Sr. Christine Schenk, 2012 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Mary Kathleen Kuenstler January 21, 1949 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | October 28, 2019 (aged 70) Donaldson, Indiana, U.S. |
| Occupation |
|
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Catholic |
Kate Kuenstler (1949-2019) was an American Roman Catholic sister and a canon lawyer. She mounted a legal defense on behalf of the canonical rights of lay people as laid out during Vatican II, and the result changed Vatican policy. Before she began bringing cases, Rome automatically affirmed U.S. bishops' rights to close and sell churches, even if they had vibrant congregations.[1] After she intervened and argued on behalf of parishioners who had organized to save their churches, the Vatican agreed to order that many churches reopen.[2] She is the subject of the 2024 book Bending Toward Justice: Sr. Kate Kuenstler and the Struggle for Parish Rights by Christine Schenk CSJ.[3]
Mary Kathleen Kuenstler was born Jan. 21, 1949, in St. Louis City, Missouri, and was adopted by Lawrence John Kuenstler (1911–1983) and Lorraine Helen Buerster Kuenstler (1915–2003).[4] Inspired by the Catholic sisters who taught her in elementary and high school, Kuenstler joined the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, located in Donaldson, Indiana, in 1967. She professed vows in 1970.[5]
She received a bachelor's degree in education from St. Joseph's College in East Chicago, Indiana, and began her first ministry in education as an elementary teacher for almost 10 years at schools in Indiana and Minnesota. She earned a master's degree in religious education and ministered as a director of education and a diocesan consultant in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois and in the Diocese of Belleville.
Becoming a canon lawyer
Asked by her community to pursue studies in canon law, Kuenstler earned a licentiate and doctorate in canon law from Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome in 1992. She served several terms as a marriage tribunal judge before opening her own practice as an independent canon lawyer with a special focus on the rights of the laity. Kuenstler's practice covered many states and countries, including Canada and Australia.[6]