Graduation season is upon us! Whether graduating from high school, college, grad school, trade school, or any other specialty, it has taken hard work to get to this moment. This moment where you will be presented with your diploma, marking the completion of your studies and 
the culmination of all your efforts. It is without a doubt a very big reason to celebrate!
Commencement ceremonies honor students for their accomplishments and allow them to celebrate with friends, family, teachers, and mentors who proudly watch as their graduate receives their degree or license. Often these ceremonies also include conferring honorary degrees which are awarded to mark the accomplishments of individuals who have significantly contributed to the world, their communities, and/or fields of study in a way that reflects the college’s or university’s mission and values.
With the impending graduation season on my mind, I remembered that, while working on Mother Mary Joseph Rogers’, the foundress of the Maryknoll Sisters, photograph collection, there were images of her receiving honorary degrees. I became curious about her honorary degrees and whether any other Maryknoll Sisters had also received this honor from other universities. Take a look below to see what I found!
Sr. Janice McLaughlin
Sr. Janice McLaughlin was born on February 13, 1942. She joined the Maryknoll Sisters on September 2, 1961 and in 1969 received her first overseas assignment to Africa. Throughout her overseas mission career, she served in Kenya, Tanzania, Rhodesia, and Mozambique. Communications played a large role in her mission work, whether in mission serving as Coordinator of the Communications Department of the Episcopal Conference or fulfilling her Congregational Service as a member of the Communications Office at the Maryknoll Center. Sr. Janice’s efforts to keep the public informed even led to her arrest, imprisonment, and deportation from Rhodesia in 1977. She was elected President of the Maryknoll Sisters for a six year term from 2009 to 2014. To learn more about her story please see her full biography here.
Sr. Janice received two honorary degrees during her lifetime. The first was from her alma mater, Marquette University, in 2010. The second was from Albertus Magnus College in 2014.
Marquette University
Honorary Degree – Doctor of Religious Studies, 2010
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Albertus Magnus College
Honorary Degree – Doctor of Humane Letters, 2014
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Sr. Joan Delaney
Sr. Joan Delaney was born on March 31, 1930. She joined the Maryknoll Sisters on September 2, 1952 and in 1955 received her first overseas assignment in Hong Kong, where she served in education and research for 20 years. She later relocated to Rome as Director of SEDOS, a mission study and 
documentation center, served as a Vatican Delegate at a mission conference and General Assembly, was appointed by the Vatican as the first Roman Catholic consultant on mission to the World Council of Churches, and worked in Geneva as a staff member of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. Sr. Joan was continuously striving to learn, to make resources available for research, and to facilitate the education of others. To learn more about her story please see her full biography here.
Sr. Joan Delaney received an honorary degree from her alma mater, Albertus Magnus College, in 1989.
Albertus Magnus College
Honorary Degree – Doctor of Humane Letters, 1989
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Mother Mary Joseph Rogers
Mary Josephine “Mollie” Rogers was born on October 27, 1882. From her time at Smith College where she organized a 
mission club, making the foreign missions a reality for American Catholics was on her heart. In whatever way she could help, she wanted to. While seeking advice as she set up this
mission club, Mollie reached out to Fr. James A. Walsh, who was the Director of the Society of the Propogation of the Faith in Boston. This was an initial contact that would undoubtedly change the course of her life and bring about the formation of the Maryknoll Sisters. To learn more about Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, the foundress of the Maryknoll Sisters, please see her full biogaphy here.
Mother Mary Joseph Rogers received three honorary degrees during her lifetime. The first was from Regis College in 1945. The second was from Trinity College in 1949. The third honorary degree that Mother Mary Joseph Rogers received was from her alma mater, Smith College, 1950.
Regis College
Honorary Degree – Doctor of Laws, 1945
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Trinity College
Honorary Degree – Doctor of Laws, 1949
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Smith College
Honorary Degree – Doctor of Humane Letters, 1950
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Sr. Madeline Dorsey
Sr. Madeline Dorsey was born June 26, 1918. She joined Maryknoll on December 8, 1936 and in 1945 began mission work in Riberalta, Bolivia. Sr. Madeline received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the Catholic University of America in 1945 before heading to her mission, and later received a certificate of proficency in hospital administration. She utilized these skills and throughout her mission career worked in multiple hospitals all over the world. Sr. Madeline was part of a pioneer group of Maryknoll Sisters to open the first integrated hospital (Queen of the World Hospital) in Kansas City, Missouri. To learn more about her story please see her full biography here.
Sr. Madeline Dorsey received an honorary degree from Le Moyne College in 2002. She was also asked to give the benediction (final blessing) for the commencement, which you will find below.
Le Moyne College
Honorary Degree – Doctor of Humane Letters, 2002
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“FINAL BLESSING
O God, Our Loving Father, You have been with these Graduates in a very special way today. Your compassionate Son has been center focus for the lives of these men and women through the teachings and guidance of Le Moyne’s Jesuit and Lay Faculty. Their learnings embrace intellectual, spiritual and practical outreach in service to others, including the poor. May their awareness of Truth be ever a guiding light on their paths through a Global Village which has been darkened by violence, war, inhumanity and often by an absence of justice, peace and reconciliation. Teach all of us to realize that what we think and do affects everyone and everything in the world, to hear the Psalmist, ‘You show me the path of life and in your presence is the fullness of joy.’ (Psalm 16) And let us listen to St. Paul who urges us to ‘Shine on the world like bright stars because you bring it the Word of Life.’ (Phil. 2)
I invite all of us present to stand and extend our right hands toward the Graduates in a symbol of blessing. (Pause)
Together we, the Faculty, Family and friends, pray that the Holy Spirit will be a source of hope and strength for Le Moyne College’s Graduating Class of 2002, to continue their good lives in this troubled world, which can and must be transformed by love, deeply based on the example of Jesus.
We ask this in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Let us celebrate this year’s graduates and the graduates of the past. Their contributions have been and will be what shapes our world and moves us forward. To the class of 2023, congratulations on all you have accomplished! May what lies before you not be intimidating, but rather an open space of unknown that you can mold and make your own as you navigate into this next chapter.
CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2023!
