Benedictine Sister Mariella (Carol) Hathorn, 81, died unexpectedly Feb. 7 at St. Joseph Court-St. Scholastica Monastery.

Sister Mariella was born in Pennsylvania and entered the Benedictine community at St. Joseph Monastery, St. Marys, Pennsylvania, in 1957. She made her first profession in 1959 and her final vows in 1962. Sister Mariella had a 28-year career in education in Pennsylvania, serving mostly middle grades as well as in administration as principal. In 1987, she was elected prioress of St. Joseph Monastery and served two terms there.

She then spent a sabbatical time at St. Scholastica Monastery in Chicago. During the years at St. Scholastica, Sister Mariella discerned a call to transfer her stability to St. Scholastica Monastery in Chicago and requested permission to do so in 1998.

Her first assignment in Chicago was as director of the St. Joseph Court infirmary.

She is survived by her sisters, Jean Klaiber and Sally Lanzel.

Divine Word Father Paul Gootee, 93, died Feb. 10 in Techny. He was a missionary known for faith and community development in Indonesia.

Born in Indiana, he followed his older brother into the Divine Word formation program in 1941, attending Divine Word Seminary in East Troy, Wisconsin. He professed vows in 1948 and was ordained a priest in 1955.

For more than half of century, Father Gootee worked among the Dawan-speaking people of Timor, a southeastern island of Indonesia. While caring for the people, he faced many challenges, such as famine, poor crops, scarce rain, political unrest and migration of the youth to more populated areas, yet the hardships did not deter him. In response, he built churches, schools and medical clinics, dug wells, constructed irrigation systems, installed electricity and shared the Catholic faith.

During Father Gootee’s 55 years on the island, he provided pastoral care throughout the Diocese of Atambua and worked with farmers’ unions and a consumer cooperative to foster economic justice in the region.

Father Gootee returned to the United States and was assigned to Techny in retirement in 2011.

He is survived by two sisters, Agnes James and Medical Mission Sister Patricia Gootee.

Adrian Dominican Sister Patricia (Charles Thomas) O’Reilly, 93, died Feb. 10 in Adrian, Michigan.

Born in Ohio, she was in the 75th year of her religious life.

Sister Patricia was an educator, hospital chaplain and pastoral minister in Michigan, Illinois and Nevada.

In the Archdiocese of Chicago, she taught at St. Nicholas of Tolentine (1946-1948); was office and plant supervisor at Immaculate Heart of Mary, Westchester (1977-1978); and was a pastoral minister at Resurrection Hospital (1987-1989).

She is survived by a sister, Kathleen O’Reilly.

Divine Word Father Xavier (Patrick Joseph) Cooney, 79, died Feb. 11 from complications of COVID-19 at Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview. He was a missionary who served in Papua New Guinea and Appalachia.

Born in Pittsburgh, he entered the Society of the Divine Word in 1959 and professed religious vows in 1962. When he professed perpetual vows as a brother in 1968, he took the name Xavier.

For his first assignment, Brother Xavier was sent to Papua New Guinea to work in the Alexishafen carpentry shop. Three years later, he traveled up the coast to begin training as a pilot. Over the decades, Divine Word Missionaries had developed Wirui Air Service to transport supplies and people to missions that were difficult to reach by land.

By the end of the 1970s, Brother Xavier began to hear the call to the missionary priesthood. He was assigned to the Papua New Guinea Highlands for pastoral experience before beginning studies at St. Paul’s Seminary in Kensington, Australia.

He was ordained in 1983 and was assigned to Kundiawa town parish in Papua New Guinea’s central, mountainous region, where he provided pastoral care until he was transferred to the Chicago Province in 1989.

In the United States, Father Cooney provided pastoral care in West Virginia.

Because of health issues, Father Cooney moved to Techny in 2020.

He is survived by two brothers, Martin and John Cooney.

Adrian Dominican Sister Leontia “Lee” (Michael Therese) Cooney, 85, died Feb. 12 in Adrian, Michigan.

Born in Detroit, she was in the 65th year of religious life.

She ministered in Illinois, the Bahamas and Michigan.

In the Archdiocese of Chicago, she taught at St. Mary Star of the Sea.

Father Phillip C. Kiley, 75, died Feb. 2. He was the former associate pastor of St. George Parish (Ewing Avenue).

Born in Berwyn, he attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Niles College and the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary before being ordained in 1978.

After ordination, Father Kiley served as associate pastor of All Saints (South State Street), Holy Angels, St. Charles Lwanga, Resurrection (Nelson Street), St. Francis de Sales (Ewing Avenue) and St. George (Ewing Avenue) parishes. He retired in 2015.

Father John Clemens, retired pastor of Our Lady of Hope Parish, Rosemont, had known Father Kiley since their years at Quigley Preparatory Seminary.

“Phil was a very dedicated priest, a person who thought of others before himself,” Clemens said. “He was very dedicated to working with the poor, had a good sense of humor and was loved by a lot of good friends, lay and clergy.”

Deacon Juan Ponce de Leon, 69, died Jan. 31. He was ordained in 2011 and served at St. William Parish.

Deacon Ponce de Leon and his family had been parishioners at St. William for 30 years, and were instrumental in starting the Guadalupana Society and other ministries to Latino families there. He also was involved in Boy Scouts with his two sons. After ordination, Deacon Ponce de Leon did Spanish-language baptismal preparation and preparation for other sacraments. Parish staff members said he was a “gentle and kind spirit.”

He is survived by his wife, Helen; sons John and Joe; one grandson; his brother, Edmund Ponce de Leon, and his sister, Rosita Hale.

Dominican Sister Mary Willard (Elizabeth) Reagan, 95, died Dec. 1, 2020, in Adrian, Michigan.

Born in Detroit, she was in the 76th year of her religious life.

Sister Mary Willard ministered in education in Illinois and Michigan.

In the Archdiocese of Chicago, she taught at St. Edmund, Oak Park (1944-1950).

She is survived by a sister, Eugenie Reagan Beall.

Resurrection Sister Maria Schultz, 90, died Dec. 23 at Resurrection Life Center. She was a member of the Sisters of the Resurrection for 70 years.

Sister Maria was born in Minnesota, the youngest of eleven children. After completing high school, she traveled to Chicago where she joined her sister, Sister Mary Paul Schultz, as a Sister of the Resurrection. Sister Maria made her first vows in 1952 and her final vows in 1957.

Sister Maria taught just about every grade in various schools that included St. Casimir; Queen of the Rosary, Elk Grove Village; and St. Thecla, where she spent 17 years.

Sister Maria served as provincial treasurer and in administrative roles at the provincial home for many years.

In 2018, Sister Maria moved to Resurrection Life Center.

Dominican Sister Mary Elizabeth (Therese Johanna) Scheibel, 95, died Jan. 9 in Adrian, Michigan.

Born in Chicago, she went to Aquinas High School. She was in the 77th year of her religious life.

Sister Mary Elizabeth ministered in elementary education and secretarial services in Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico and Illinois. She became a resident of the Dominican Life Center in Adrian in 2003.

In the Archdiocese of Chicago, she taught at Infant Jesus of Prague, Flossmoor (1964-1967); Our Lady of Loretto, Hometown (1967-1968); and St. Nicholas of Tolentine (1968-1972).