Former Philadelphia FIGHT chief financial officer and longtime Dignity Philadelphia member Mary Louise Cervone died Feb. 5 of cancer. She was 54.
Cervone, an accomplished musician, previously served as president of the national and local Dignity groups, which work for LGBT inclusion in the Catholic Church.
Cervone, a native of Philadelphia who most recently lived in Ardmore, graduated from Immaculata University in 1980 with a degree in music. She went on to become a certified public accountant and was most recently working on a master’s degree from Immaculata in organizational leadership.
She served in a financial-leadership role at Gaudenzia before becoming the chief financial officer at HIV/AIDS organization Philadelphia FIGHT, a position she held from 2000-08. In 2010, she became CFO at the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center, which she held until her passing.
Cervone had been involved with Dignity Philadelphia for nearly 25 years. She first joined in 1989 and served as president from 1992-94.
She would often play her 12-string guitars at the group’s weekly Masses.
“She’d always been involved in music ministry — at Immaculata, at Catholic churches before she came to Dignity,” said Dignity Philadelphia music coordinator and past president Michael Rox. “Once she came here, she fell in love with the music ministry at Dignity as well.”
Rox added that Cervone led the local agency through the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“She was president at a time when we were losing many of our members to AIDS,” he said. “A lot of the work she did at the local level was in support of caring for people with AIDS. And we did a lot of memorial services for Catholic men who died of AIDS because their parishes didn’t want to be bothered. Dignity did an awful lot of work at that time, and she was involved in all of it.”
Dignity Philadelphia president David Kalinowski said Cervone was an inspiration to her fellow Dignity members.
“She was a very strong leader who was very dedicated to her beliefs,” he said.
Her leadership abilities quickly took her to the national DignityUSA. She served as treasurer from 1995-97, vice president the next two years and president the next three. She was only the second woman to be elected to lead the national organization.
DignityUSA executive director Marianne Duddy-Burke said she made a trip in 2001 to Vatican City with Cervone, who organized a sit-in prayer vigil calling for LGBT acceptance beneath the window where the Pope gives his blessings. She also rallied at a national bishops’ conference in Texas demanding accountability for clergy sex-abuse and later organized a nearby service for survivors and their families.
“She led Dignity through the time when the sex-abuse crisis was starting to hit the Catholic Church and the hierarchy was trying to make it about gay priests,” Duddy-Burke said. “She was really clear that we needed to be standing with the victims and pointing out the difference between homosexuality and pedophilia. She took that fight right to the bishops meeting in Dallas, and when they wouldn’t meet with the victims, she said we needed to make a place for them. She was really strong, and very caring. And she taught us how to be public and get visibility for the things we believed in and how to never be afraid to make our point.”
Cervone is survived by her wife, Mary Bradley; son, Danny; siblings, Frank, Colette, Paul and Diana; in-laws; longtime friend Kathleen Burke; and many nieces and nephews.
Duddy-Burke added that, while Cervone will be largely remembered for her work at Dignity, she was primarily a family woman.
“A lot of the most important things for Mary Louise happened in her private life. Her role as a mom and a partner and having this extended family for Danny, that’s what was important to her,” Duddy-Burke said. “When she stopped being president, our conversations were about T-ball and little league and camping trips. Her heart was with her family, and that’s just as important as what she did as a Dignity leader.”
Dignity Philadelphia will celebrate Cervone’s life at its weekly liturgy, 7 p.m. April 21 at The Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany, 330 S. 13th St.
Church pastor Father Rodger Broadley will celebrate the Mass, and Father Tom Orians of Dignity USA will give the homily.
Memorial donations can be made to the Support Center for Child Advocates, 1900 Cherry St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19103 or at www.advokid.org.