Sr. Pat Murray ibvm receives the Presidential Distinguished Service Award from President Higgins
News
13 December 2021
On 2nd December 2021 Sr. Pat Murray was presented with the Presidential Distinguished Service Award by President Michael D. Higgins at a ceremony in Áras an Úachtaráin. The Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad is presented by the President every year. It recognises the service given to this country or to Irish communities abroad by those who live outside Ireland. Sr. Pat was nominated for the 2020 award by the Irish Embassy to the Holy See. We were so proud to see her receive the award, at a ceremony which was deferred from last year due to Covid-19 restrictions. We were delighted also that one of Sr. Pat's fellow Loreto Sisters, Orla Treacy, was a winner of the 2021 award.
Sr. Pat is based in Rome where she is the Executive Secretary of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG). In this role she engages with the work of female religious sisters worldwide, supporting, in particular, the work of those in leadership, and enhancing the education and skills of sisters into the future.
Sr. Pat is also a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for Culture, having been appointed to this position by Pope Francis at the end of 2019.
She was the founding executive director of Solidarity with South Sudan, fostering the collaboration of more than a hundred religious orders working to rebuild the educational, medical, agricultural and pastoral infrastructure of the newly independent South Sudan.