Hoope, Mary Anne, BVM.

Mary Anne Hoope, BVM, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Francis J. Hoope, was born on October 11, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. She attended St. Patrick Academy and graduated from Siena High School in 1960. She entered the order of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary taking the name Sr. Bernarde Marie. Sr. Mary Anne earned her B.A. at Mundelein College in 1964 with a double major in French and Theology, and her M.A. at Marquette University in 1970. She earned a second M.A. and a Ph. D. in Biblical Languages and Literature at St. Louis University by 1981. Her dissertation, Vineyard: An Ecclesiological Model, was published in 1981. In 1968, she accepted a position at Mundelein College teaching in the Theology Department and went on to become the chairperson of Religious Studies. Feeling a strong calling to minister to the materially poor, Sr. Mary Anne moved to the Centre for Spiritual Renewal in Kumasi, Ghana, West Africa from 1986 to 1993. From 1995 to 2001, she served at the Wanye Renewal Centre in Wa, Ghana. While in Africa, she conducted many workshops and retreats that promoted spiritual and human development.