Marie Louise Uhr, former convener of Ordination of Catholic Women Australia died after a long illness on the 28th of June 2001. Marie Louise was a tireless worker for women's ordination and had spent time here in Dublin with BASIC members. Here we reprint her Eulogy.
The woman we mourn and honour today was no ordinary person. She was an inspiring hero, a prophet, a pioneer, a person of rare courage, great intellect, honesty, integrity and compassion. And she would be appalled to hear me say these things - because modesty, and awareness of her limitations, were also very much a part of her being. Self-effacing and unassuming, Marie Louise could not see the brightness with which she shone, the pure gold of her presence.
She was born in Brisbane in 1935, the second child and second daughter of Marie and Clive Uhr.
After taking her first degree in Brisbane, Marie Louise moved south to Melbourne to work in the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories. From there she went to study for a Masters degree in science in the States and later returned to the ANU where she completed her PhD in biochemistry. In 1968, after postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin, she returned to Canberra and made her home here.
She worked first at ANU and then at the Canberra College of Advanced Education (now the University of Canberra), retiring from her position as Senior Lecturer several years ago.
Marie Louise's professional life as an academic was busy and challenging. Her students have spoken of her love for biochemistry and her passion for teaching it, of her fairness, and her sense of order. Unassuming, gracious and enormously learned, she inspired great affection in her students, of a kind that is rare at university level. She was a woman of outstanding intellect and analytical ability, and she approached her illness over the last few years with a scientific precision and professional interest that bewildered her doctors and broke through the usual doctor/ patient relationship.
Her professional life was, however, only part of the richness of her activity. Having fought against sexism and prejudice as a woman academic in the sciences during the 60s and 70s, during the 80s she became deeply aware of the systemic injustice within the church. An experience in Brighton, England, in 1984, proved to be a watershed. She writes: "The critical moment came one day at Mass when two little altar boys came down and closed the gates on the altar rails at a certain point in the mass. Everything fell about. Excluded. Impure. Female. Laity. No doubt all moments of feeling excluded or rejected were crystallised for me in that one moment, but I would never be the same."
From that time she became active in working for change within both the Anglican and the Roman Catholic Churches. As National Vice President of the Movement for the Ordination of Women in the Anglican Church from 1989 to 1991, Marie Louise gave generously of her time, her passion, her wisdom, and her intellect to support the campaign. In a typically self-effacing way, she told me last year that she had gained much more from MOW than she felt she had been able to give and she really didn't know what she had contributed as a national vice president. What we knew, but she seemed unable to understand, was that she brought wisdom, energy, judgment, intellect, modesty and humour, and we were all the richer for her presence.
Within her own Catholic tradition she felt the exclusion all the more strongly. In 1993 she wrote "Sometimes I feel that we are crazy to stay, putting up year after year with exclusive language, lectionary readings that demean women, god-talk in male-only terms: a whole system designed to convince women that they are second class.Yet stay I do - at least so far. Like a few of my friends, I continue to believe that redemption for the church is possible, that a discipleship of equals can one day exist, that we can make it possible, that if we do not act, it will never come about, that the church will die."
Shortly after she had written that, she, together with Zoe Hancock, founded Ordination of Catholic Women (OCW). Marie Louise needed some persuasion that she had the ability to lead OCW but her inspired and inspiring work as National Convenor from 1993 to 2000 more than justified those who encouraged her to take it on. With great generosity of spirit, a deep understanding of the theological issues and enormous courage, Marie Louise endured vilification, death threats, and criticism by her intellectual and spiritual inferiors, and she did it sustained by her faith and for the sake of the gospel. In all that she did, she was driven by a passion for the teachings of Jesus, for his gospel of radical equality for all humanity.
Through all of this she remained faithful to the church and for 15 years has been a member of this parish, serving on the parish pastoral council and leading the Adult Education Committee. In many ways it would have been easier for her to leave, as so many women have, but, despite the systemic injustice, she found a goodness and a holiness in the life of the community which spoke of God. She believed deeply that being a Christian means being part of a faith community, uncomfortable though that might sometimes be. Her choice of gospel reading for this morning expresses clearly her feelings on this.
Marie Louise's desire to be buried from here, with a service taken jointly by Father Chris and me, brings together her commitment to the community of faith, her critique of present structures, and her hope for the future.
There was much more to Marie Louise, however, than just the academic and the activist. She was a loving sister and aunt, desperately fond of her family in all their variety, describing them to me just the other day as being like a community for her. As John, Janet and Joan have sat with her over the last few weeks, the bonds of affection built up over many years have been very evident.
Marie Louise was also a woman of refinement and good taste. She often said that she didn't have a mystical bone in her body. That may have been true, but her aesthetic appreciation of the world around her bordered on the mystical and ran through all the fibres of her being. She loved art, good food, good wine, music, Jane Austen's novels, the Australian landscape, kangaroo paws, banksias and croweas. Her home reflected her good taste, her scholarship, her love of order and her hospitality.
Deeply committed to her friends, as well as her family, Marie Louise was always grateful for the network of people that surrounded her and wrote the following before she retired from the University: "My supports have been my family first of all, my friends who love and challenge me, my work and the students who work with me, my garden with all its problems. Canberra and the hills in the distance, and the occasional visit to the north with warm air and warm seas. And my God within, around, sustaining all."
A rare friend, a deeply loved sister, an inspiring teacher, a gift of God to the Church - such people are not forgotten. Her legacy of love in each of our lives is very real, may we too pursue justice and truth, with integrity, courage and passion.
Amen.
Reprinted with permission from 'OCW News' Vol 8, No 2/3, August/December 2001