“A very good itinerant Franciscan,” as she calls herself, Sr. Diane Tomkinson has served from Vermont to South Carolina. To all of these ministries, she has brought her innate gifts and her impressive education and experience. Each of her ministries has led naturally to the next. Now as the congregation’s charism engagement minister, she brings wonderful insight and knowledge, benefiting all who seek to live the Franciscan charism.

Sr. Diane grew up in Connecticut and attended public schools there. It was as an undergraduate at Swarthmore College that she first came to know the Sisters of St. Francis. She explains, “I was initially attracted to St. Francis through the film Brother Sun, Sister Moon, which I saw as a teenager; I was entranced by St. Francis. I had known him as the person my mother would tell me to pray to when one of the pets was sick. But the film was a new introduction to St. Francis. I was a big reader as a teenager, so I started reading everything I could find on St. Francis and was attracted to the idea of living the Gospel in this literal, radical way.”

At Swarthmore, Sr. Diane majored in English literature and minored in religion and Latin. “A creative approach to celebrating and living theology was my initial love,” she recalls. “What I was doing was self-creating a focus on religion and literature. I studied the Bible and theology for the first time at Swarthmore and found I loved this study.” Sr. Diane continues the story: “While I was at Swarthmore, I had the chance to study in Grenoble, France. At the end of that semester, I traveled to Assisi, and the idea of becoming a Franciscan sister went from the back burner to the front burner. When I returned to Swarthmore as a junior, I shared my thoughts with the new campus minister, who was a wonderful supporter of my discernment and my religious vocation. He handed me a copy of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia directory with Sr. Kathleen Moffatt’s name circled. At the time, she was the vocation minister. My first meeting with her was in Wanamaker’s. We met at the eagle. She took me back to her local community, and I got to meet the sisters there. Eventually I went to a Come and See at the motherhouse. Once I started spending time with the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, it was clear that this was where the Spirit was calling me. I was attracted by their love for one another; their hospitality; their informal, joyful spirit; and the focus they were very much articulating on ministries with those most neglected.”

Srs. Kathleen Dauses and Diane Tomkinson
participate in the 2000 Congregational
General Chapter Mass with Fr. Cyprian Rosen.

Sr. Diane’s first ministry was in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania: “When Sr. Patrice Feeney and Sr. Margaret Jones were opening St. Mary’s Franciscan Shelter, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, I was living with them and working in the parish as the pastoral minister.” From there, Sr. Diane became a pastoral minister at St. Catherine of Siena in Wilmington, Delaware, where she had made her novitiate. She returned to St. Catherine as their director of liturgy.

Sr. Diane completed her master’s,degree at the Washington Theological Union. She shares that before beginning this graduate work, “I was still thinking in the direction of pastoral ministry, and I wanted to do the Master of Theological Studies (MTS), which focuses on parish work. In one of the few times somebody called me in obedience, Sr. Madonna Marie Cunningham said, ‘Sr. Diane, I do not want you to do an MTS; I want you to do an MA and keep your options open for a later PhD. You can take all your electives in pastoral courses, but I want you to do the MA.’ And so I did.”

After receiving her master’s degree, Sr. Diane continued to serve in parish ministry for three more years: “I was a pastoral administrator in South Carolina—in St. Philip’s Parish in Lake City—with one of our efforts for team ministry.” In part from this experience, Sr. Diane felt that the Lord was calling her to be part of educating the next generation of people to serve: “And at that point, there was a movement to identify the next generation of Franciscan scholars. A number of sisters called me to say, we see you as someone able to do that.” Sr. Diane also continued her avid reading: “As a novice, one of the questions I kept asking was, how come everything we read is written by friars; don’t sisters study the past? Why aren’t we learning more about the Franciscan women? And our sisters kept saying, well, you could be one of the ones to do that. And so eventually I felt called to go back to graduate studies and to explore the early Franciscan women.”

Twirling a red scarf, Sr. Diane Tomkinson leads the 2019 jubilee procession into chapel with dance.

Responding to her calling and interests, Sr. Diane attended Fordham University and completed a doctorate in historical theology with a minor in systematic theology. She studied with Franciscan Bonaventurian scholar Ewert Cousins and with Elizabeth Johnson, “learning the skills of feminist theology and then applying those to looking at early Franciscan women. My dissertation combined the approaches. It was on Angela of Foligno, one of our early Franciscan mystics. I examined her Trinitarian theology.”

Srs. Peaches Dela Paz, Debbie Krist, and Diane Tomkinson enjoy some quality time together.

After earning her doctorate, Sr. Diane taught at Middlebury College, in Vermont: “I was there for a two-year position as the college’s professor of Christian history. Team teaching a history of Western religion course with a female Jewish rabbi and a Muslim scholar built my interest in interfaith relationships.” Sr. Diane next taught for five years at Salve Regina University, in Newport, Rhode Island. “There I could connect with our sisters in the Boston area more regularly. And I was closer to my parents, who at that point were starting to have some serious health issues and had retired to Cape Cod.”

For her last two years at Salve Regina University, Sr. Diane was asked to serve part time as the congregation’s director of formation. She reduced her teaching schedule and traveled to Our Lady of Angels about once a month to meet with the formation team: “I was ministering directly with sisters who were in temporary profession. During my last couple of years as formation director, I was part time in formation ministry and part-time live-in caregiver for my parents.” Sr. Diane was then missioned an additional year as her parents’ fulltime caregiver, through her mother’s death.

Food collected during our 2022 Catholic Sister’s
Week food drive was donated to Anna’s Place in Chester.

Beginning in 2013, Sr. Diane served on the Neumann University faculty: “I taught the theology department’s undergraduate foundational theology class and a world religions course. I got to create a course on contemporary Christian spirituality, which included a section on Franciscan ecological theology—something I had taught at Middlebury. I was able to take pieces of what I had done at other places and weave that into what I taught at the undergraduate level at Neumann.” Sr. Diane also relished the opportunity to teach graduate students: “In the Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program, I taught Theology for Pastoral Identity, and taught a course in Franciscan values as part of Neumann’s newly established PhD program in pastoral counseling.

I loved introducing Franciscan theology to the doctoral students.” I also had the privilege of coordinating the university’s Spiritual Formation and Direction certificate program for its final two years. During her 2019-20 academic year sabbatical, Sr. Diane discerned it was time for her to leave the classroom. When the charism coordinator position was posted, Sr. Diane applied. The position soon evolved. Leadership was discerning reorganization of the charism office to meet the congregation’s needs and interests and to use the skills of the sisters who would serve in the office. “Coming out of chapter was a desire to expand our collaboration,” notes Sr. Diane. Her ministry now combines aspects of the earlier vocation and young adult ministries. “I’ve had the chance to live into the ministry this year,” she says, “to see how it fits my gifts, what I’m able to do.”

Sr. Diane and Sr. Julie McCole were part of the large group of sisters who joined Sr. Kathleen Moffatt in developing the God’s Extravagant Love Program.

Describing the rewards of her ministry, Sr. Diane cites its diversity and creativity and its focus on relationships and collaboration: “I’ve been concentrating primarily on he vocational discernment piece this first year—working to build relationships and then beginning to network for the young adult ministry piece, including possible resumption of a volunteer program.” Another key aspect is partnership among the charism collaborative circles, including Colleen Collins, director of companions; Sr. Anne Amati, ongoing formation minister; and Sr. Joanne Clavel, justice minister. Sr. Joanne coordinates the Care for Creation Committee  and the congregation’s Laudato Si’ Action Platform plan. “I see collaborating in that area as part of my charism ministry,” notes Sr. Diane, “because Franciscan ecological spirituality is one of the things that attracts people to us, especially younger people. In addition, we have a great New Membership Committee, and it’s a joy to collaborate with that group.”

Volunteer Katherine Stevick lived with Srs. Elise Betz, Diane Tomkinson, and Mary Killoran at their convent in Wilmington while in our volunteer program.

When she has free time, Sr. Diane enjoys activities with the sisters with whom she lives: “We have our movie nights and other things we do together. I work remotely one day a week. That’s the night that I cook, and it’s also the evening when we have our faith sharing. One of my hobbies is gardening. So much of my ministry is on a computer. Gardening lets me get away from the screen and get outside. I take care of the backyard since Sr. Elise Betz takes care of the front yard. I love water, so on the weekends I try to walk by the riverfront or along the Brandywine.” Sailing and other boating have continued to be a part of Sr. Diane’s life since her New England childhood: “I occasionally go down to Lums Pond and rent a kayak and paddle around on the pond.” Another of Sr. Diane’s interests is dance, “a huge hobby of mine in my younger years.” She looks forward to doing more liturgical dance for the congregation. Speaking of her less active interests, she acknowledges, “I’m a science fiction fantasy geek. I love the way it imagines a better world, and it feeds my imagination.”

Shining through all aspects of her life is Sr. Diane’s outlook: “You can’t do this ministry,” she observes, “if you don’t have a sense of hope, and history gives me hope. The vocation and formation ministries have been evolving. I have the sense of being part of this historical moment in the big picture of history—the 2,000-year picture of history, the Franciscan movement’s 800years, and this period of historical change in religious life. This is part of what I said yes to. I think that this is a moment of great opportunity for the Spirit, that God is doing something new—in continuity with the past but as part of creating something new—and I love being part of that. And among the women I am in conversation with, I meet a lot of people with a lot of hope, and that gives me hope.” Thank you, Sr. Diane, for sharing your hope, wisdom, and multitude of gifts as you spread the Franciscan charism, for those you serve directly in your ministry and for us all.

Winnie Hayek