ACADEMIC NEWS
W E AV
AND
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: DR. PATRICIA COONEY HATHAWAY
L
ong before she started
her academic tenure
with the seminary, there was
a connection for Dr. Patricia Cooney Hathaway. Her
family’s strong Catholic faith
was nurtured in Detroit and
was a catalyst for her love of
Christ and the Church.
“My vocation as a theologian was nurtured by a long line of family members who
had a deep faith devotion to the Church of
Detroit,” Dr. Cooney Hathaway says. “My
grandfather, Henry Brennan, president of
W.E. Wood Company, built Sacred Heart
Seminary, Blessed Sacrament Cathedral,
St. John Seminary, the IHM Motherhouse
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in Monroe, and other church buildings in
Detroit. I thank him often, especially when
I enter our beautiful chapel.”
Beyond her grandfather, there were other
family contributions to the Archdiocese
of Detroit. “My uncle, Msgr. Harold Markey, was a legendary diocesan priest who
founded the Catholic Youth Organization
(CYO). He believed that the body as well as
the soul of youth had to be nurtured,” Dr.
Cooney Hathaway says. “My uncle, Fr. Vincent Brennan, SJ, taught Scripture at the
University of Detroit. My aunt, Sr. Margaret
Brennan, IHM, was one of the first sisters
to receive a doctorate in theology, and she
also was mother superior of the IHM sisters
at the time of the Second Vatican Council.
“And of course, I could not forget my mother, Mary Catherine, and my father, William,
who modeled for me and my eight brothers
and sisters an active living of their faith in everyday life and also instilled in us a sense of
responsibility for the well-being of others.”
Sacred Heart Major Seminary | Mosaic | Fall 2016
This witness of family faith wasn’t
wasted on Dr. Cooney Hathaway. She received a bachelor’s degree in English from
Marygrove College, and then began her
theological studies at Catholic University
of Amer ica in Washington, D.C., where
she earned her master’s degree in religious
studies and her doctorate in systematic theology, psychology, and spirituality.
Detroit beckoned Dr. Cooney Hathaway
home when she returned to marry Thomas
Hathaway in the 1980s. She soon was offered a pivotal opportunity by Sacred Heart
to share her love of Catholicism and theology. She is now a professor of spirituality
and systematic theology at the seminary,
a distinguished spiritual director, and a
sought-after speaker.
“I am the only one left of the original
faculty who began the Graduate School of
Theology,” says Dr. Cooney Hathaway. “I
was invited by [rector] Msgr. John Nienstedt to serve on the curriculum committee,
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