Gwen Hennessey

Gwen Hennessey, O.S.F., (born 1932) is a Roman Catholic Franciscan Sister and peace activist, most widely known for her protests against the School of the Americas.

Biography Hennessey was born on September 29, 1932, on a farm in Buchanan County, Iowa. Her parents were Anna Killias Hennessey and Maurice Hennessey. She was the thirteenth of fifteen children born to her parents. Their parents modeled generosity to the poor, sheltering tramps who needed food during the depression. She also helped Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers, organize migrant workers in California.

Hennessey taught in Chicago, Illinois, and studied at the Jesuit School of Theology in Chicago (JSTC). While living in Chicago, she began to participate in the nuclear disarmament movement as a member of the grassroots activist organization, Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC).

Hennessey returned to Iowa in the 1980s where she helped establish the Catholic Peace Ministry, in Des Moines, and continued to be active in a variety of peace related activities. She then moved to New York City where she earned a master's degree from the Maryknoll School of Theology in New York, and worked as co-director of the Maura Clarke/Ita Ford Center. She later worked at the Appalachian Office of Justice and Peace, before returning to Dubuque, Iowa.

School of the Americas Protest In the 1990s, Hennessey became involved the School of the Americas Watch, through her brother Ron, who served as a missionary in Latin America from 1964 until his death in 1999. It re-opened under the new name of Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC).

In 2002, Gwen and Dorothy Hennessey were awarded the Pacem in Terris Award by the Davenport Catholic Interracial Council. The award was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. Pacem in terris is Latin for 'Peace on Earth'.