Pilot file photo/Gregory L. Tracy
BOSTON -- When Mary Sullivan found out that she had won the Cheverus Award, she was embarrassed.
"I was uncomfortable and embarrassed about it," she told The Pilot on Feb. 27. "That's really the truth."
Sullivan, a long-time volunteer at the Paulist Center in downtown Boston, was one of 151 people to receive the annual archdiocesan award in 2023. Named after Boston's first bishop, it honors those who have given a lifetime of service to the church. Sullivan can't stand being the center of attention.
"I don't mind a group, but I don't like to be a singular person for an award," she said.
She attended the November 2023 award ceremony at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, but did not step up to have Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley place the medal around her neck. She was more comfortable staying in the pews.
"I get my rewards by the dear friends who I've made here," she said. "That's my reward."
Sullivan joined the Paulist Center in 1992 because she thought it would improve her social life. It did -- she has met lifelong friends who comforted her through hardships like the death of her parents.
"The Paulists were friendly, the people were friendly," she said. "It was a very thoughtful, deliberate liturgy. The music was wonderful, the preaching was exceptional. And I really felt that. I decided I wanted to get to know people in this community, and the best way, the easiest way for me to do that, was to volunteer for things."
She currently works with the center's director of music and liturgy, replacing the music in the choir notebooks every week.
She is also on a lector team, organizes social events, coordinates meetings, and helps the Paulist Fathers with whatever they need, including giving them rides to doctor's appointments.
"I find Mary to be one of the most congenial and quiet workers behind the scenes who make so much happen here at the center," Paulist Father Rick Walsh, the center's director, said on Feb. 20.
Sullivan, 73, was born and raised in St. Gregory Parish in Dorchester.
"That's how Dorchester people identify themselves," she joked.
She was the eldest of three children and lived with her mother, who sang in the choir, and her uncle, who was an usher. All of her K-12 education was in Catholic school. She was a high schooler when the Second Vatican Council was implemented. She thought it was "wonderful."
She believes that Vatican II increased the "openness" of the church. Having Mass in English instead of Latin made the liturgy more "meaningful" to her. She also prefers the "joyful" music it brought to the church. That sense of joy and openness, along with a commitment to social justice, is what drew Sullivan to the Paulist Center.
"When I was growing up, priests were pretty distant and severe, and I found the Paulists pretty welcoming," she said. "Their philosophy is, 'We don't care who you are, where you've been. Why don't you come and pray with us?'"
After graduating from high school, she attended Boston State College to study teaching before realizing she wasn't cut out for that career. She went to secretarial school and got a job at the then-new EPA, which inspired a lifelong dedication to caring for creation. She put solar panels on her house and drives a hybrid car. After stints at the EPA and the Department of Energy, she spent 44 years at Goulston and Storrs law firm in Boston, recently retiring as a paralegal. She brought the values she learned at St. Gregory to the job.
"We were always taught to do the best job that you can, to be kind to everyone," she said.
In recent years, she has volunteered on the Paulist Center's Immigration Advocacy Council.
"I'm very supportive of immigrants," she said. "My grandparents and great aunts and uncles came from Ireland with nothing, and they made a life, a simple life. It's a way that I can honor their memory."
She filled out paperwork for immigrant families applying for citizenship, but not even her past work experience could prepare her for the complexity of the U.S. immigration system.
"Government forms are complicated, and I had no idea how complicated until I started doing them," she said.
She said it was much easier to come to the U.S. when her ancestors did.
"Now it takes a lot of money and lots of time, and I think that is very unfortunate," she said.
In her spare time, she enjoys travel, swimming, reading, and bowling. She would like to focus more on her hobbies in her retirement but is also considering doing more volunteering for immigration and civil rights. She regularly drives to the Paulist Center from her home in North Weymouth. Parking in the city gets more expensive every year, but to her, it's worth it.
"This is a special community to me," she said.