December 9, 2009

Sister Hallinan taught in Denver Archdiocese

ST. LOUIS, Mo.—“Turn your life over to God and trust in the Lord.”

These were the last words of Sister Inez Denise Hallinan, S.C.L., when she was interviewed by The Mirror, the diocesan newspaper in Springfield, Mo., at the time of her retirement there.  Those words were ones that she embodied her whole life, friends said.

Sister Hallinan died Nov. 9 in St. Louis. She was 83.

She was born on Dec. 4, 1925, in Denver to Dennis and Agnes Finnie Hallinan.  A month after her birth, she was taken to St. Catherine of Siena Church and was baptized Therese Marguerite Hallinan.

She attended St. Catherine of Siena School where she met the Sisters of St. Joseph and from a very early age she knew she wanted to become a religious sister.  She went to Holy Family High School where she was taught by the Sisters of Loretto. 

On Feb. 12, 1944, she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Louis and the following August she received the habit and name, Sister Inez Denise. 

Friends said Sister Hallinan had a delightful sense of humor and was a joy to work with.  She began teaching elementary school at St. Philip Neri School in St. Louis; the following year she went to teach intermediate and junior high at Valle School in Ste. Genevieve, Mo.  From 1952-1956 she was in Hawaii.

She returned to the mainland in 1956 to be closer to her mother.  Her family was delighted that she was back home in Colorado.  She taught at St. Louis School in Englewood and St. Mary School in Littleton.

In 1962 the community asked her to become the administrator at Nativity School in St. Louis. Two years later she took the same position at Sts. John and James School in Ferguson, Mo.  In 1970 she went back to Denver teaching junior high at her beloved St. Catherine of Siena School.  In 1972 she volunteered to serve in the chancery in the Diocese of Ica, Peru. She ministered in Peru for four years. 

Her health began to fail her and in 1976 she returned to the United States. For a time she ministered at Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis then back in Denver for five years, this time as the administrator of St. Francis de Sales High School.  Following that she took a year of renewal in Canada.

The happiest time of her life, she told others, was the 22 years she spent working in the marriage tribunal for the diocese of Springfield, Mo., beginning in 1983.

Her final move was in 2005 to Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis where she participated in the Prayer and Witness ministry.