By Rita McInerney

“Without discrimination, women should be participants in the life of the Church and also in the consultation and the process of coming to decisions.”

1987 World Synod of Bishops

The first woman to be named an associate general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the United States Catholic Conference is a graduate of Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Pius X High School in Atlanta.

Sister Sharon Euart, RSM, daughter of John and Evelyn Euart, of OLA parish, comes to her new post well prepared. She has been director of planning for NCCB-USCC for the past 15 months. Prior to that she was director of research and planning for the archdiocese of Baltimore from 1979 until 1984.

The last few months have been exciting and happy for Sister Sharon. Announcement of her appointment was made in April. In May she received her doctorate in canon law from Catholic University.

Sister Valentina Sheridan, RSM, pastoral associate at Sacred Heart Church in downtown Atlanta, attended the celebration in Washington, D.C., to mark the dual achievements. She called the honored guest a “very capable and personable woman who has contributed a great deal to our community. She is very much appreciated.”

In a telephone interview, the pleasant-voiced Sister Sharon said she was in a period of transition before taking over the position held by Father Donald Heintschel on July 3. He is leaving the conference staff after seven years to return to the diocese of Toledo.

It was an earlier first in Sister Sharon’s life that put her on the director path to her new post. The now-retired Archbishop William D. Borders of Baltimore had written a 1977 pastoral on women filling church management roles. As a follow-up, he inaugurated a year-long internship providing experience in all aspects of diocesan administration. She was the first intern accepted in the program.

Sister Sharon spent 10 weeks in each department: personnel, planning and management, Catholic Charities, education, and office of the archbishop. “Toward the end of that year I became associate planner for the archdiocese,” she said. Soon after, she became director of research and planning. She held that position until beginning full-time studies in canon law at Catholic University in 1984. She completed her doctoral studies in 1988.

She gives a “great deal of gratitude to Archbishop Borders. He continues to support and encourage me,” she said.

She worked with him for seven years on a live talk show program, “Realities,” shown on a network channel in Baltimore. It was aired once a month as a public service. She was the moderator and Archbishop Borders the host. Their topics covered women in the church, legislation, medical and ethical issues, and the priesthood.

One responsibility in her job will be working with the bishops’ committee writing the pastoral on Women in Society and The Church. She will also supervise the secretariats for liturgy, ecumenical and inter-religious affairs, pastoral research and practices, laity and marriage and family life. She will be liaison with such groups as U.S. Catholic Bishops’ National Advisory Council and will continue to direct the annual planning activities of the conferences.

“Sister Sharon’s months at the conference have demonstrated a competence and professionalism which will help us enormously in the years ahead,” the general secretary, Father Robert N. Lynch, said in a press release announcing her appointment.

Her connection with the Sisters of Mercy didn’t begin when the Euarts moved to Atlanta from Long Island about 33 years ago. She first encountered the sisters in Pawtuchet, R.I., her hometown. She enrolled at OLA as a seventh grader and was active in the CYO during her two years there and during high school years.

Father Richard Morrow, who was pastor at OLA while Sister Sharon was a school girl, recalls her as “always looking at the positive side, very well-adjusted. She comes from a happy family.”

Father Morrow, now pastor at Prince of Peace in Buford, said he still meets Mr. and Mrs. Euart at events around the archdiocese. “They are very quiet and very devout and never have a thing to complain about. That’s why Sister Sharon is so pleasant.”

She entered St. Pius X High School in 1958 and was in the first class, 1962, to attend a full four years at the new diocesan high school. She recalled a rather uncomfortable beginning to her high school years. Because of a shortage of chairs and desks it was the freshmen’s lot to have to sit on hard brown metal folding chairs during the first few days of school.

Everything at Pius, she remembered, was gold and white, the school colors. The girls wore gold pleated shirts and white blazers. But the skirts eventually had to be replaced with another style after it was found that the inside of the pleats were prone to fade.

In Baltimore where she lived from college days until 1988, she resided at the same convent as Sister Mary Beane, RSM, who taught her math at Pius. She also had contact with Sister Kateri, RSM, principal of OLA while she was attending there.

From both schools, she said, she still holds fond memories.

It wasn’t until after her graduation from Mount St. Agnes, a college operated by the Sisters of Mercy of the Baltimore Province, with a bachelor’s in Spanish secondary education, that she decided to join the Sisters of Mercy. That was in 1966. During her novitiate at Mount St. Agnes she taught Spanish and Latin at Mercy Highs School in Baltimore. She became vice principal of the school in 1974.

She is one of four children of Mr. and Mrs. Euart. Two brothers, John and Woody, live in Atlanta. Her sister Linda Kelleher lives in Nuremberg, West Germany.

Sister Sharon received a master’s degree in liberal arts and a master’s in science in administrative from Johns Hopkins University. She earned her licentiate in canon law at Catholic University in 1986.

Within her congregation she has served as a member of the province finance committee, chairperson of a provincial chapter steering committee, and a delegate to three provincial chapters.

She has served as a consultant to religious congregations on canonical issues, is a member of the Canon Law Society of America and served on the Paulist board of evangelization from 1985 to 1988.