A Maryknoll sister provides spiritual care to prisoners and patients in Chicago
Maryknoll Sister Julia Shideler walks calmly through the busy halls of the medium-security section of Cook County Jail in Chicago. She serves there as a chaplain through Kolbe House, the Archdiocese of Chicago’s prison ministry.
As Sister Shideler and another facilitator set out a circle of chairs, about 12 inmates in beige uniforms enter the room. The men in the circle take turns saying their names and how they are feeling.
“I have an icebreaker question to get some conversation going, so slowly we get to know each other,” Sister Shideler explains. “We might hear about their childhood or what they hope for.” Then she passes out a reading to discuss.
“Inmates start opening up,” Sister Shideler says. “It can be about God or about psychological aspects of their lives, including their thoughts, memories and feelings. We talk about how to deal with trauma, and it can get kind of heavy, but it’s a good discussion.”
People in custody sometimes talk about the difference between the masks we wear and the true self that hides behind them, Sister Shideler says. She shares one inmate’s testimony: “I am a tough guy, and the mask I wear to get around helps me feel safe. People don’t mess with me,” the prisoner said. “But when I go into my cell in silence, I’m aware, I’m afraid. I don’t know what it’s going to be like when I go out, or if my family’s going to welcome me.”
Listening to one another inspires openness, she says, and the inmates build on each other’s comments. “Sometimes inmates cry,” she says. “We are there to accompany, listen and respond without judgment.”
Sister Shideler, 48, says she has witnessed how grace and human goodness foster trust among some of Chicago’s most vulnerable and distressed individuals. Incarcerated men gather for discussions and silent prayer, demonstrating grace toward one another. “I have seen growth and transformation,” says the missioner, who leads centering prayer at the county jail. “Our Friday mornings together inspire me to live with greater hope.”
In his apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, Pope Leo XIV recalled the words of his predecessor, Pope Francis: “Prison is a place of great humanity … humanity that is tried, sometimes worn down by difficulties, guilt, judgments, misunderstandings, suffering, but at the same time full of strength, desire for forgiveness, and a desire for redemption.” The more Sister Shideler encounters people in these situations, she says, the more her call to accompany them deepens.
As a chaplain volunteer, Sister Shideler also conducts one-on-one visits with incarcerated men in the Cook County Jail’s Diagnostic and Residential Treatment Unit. Many inmates there are older prisoners who suffer from physical and mental illnesses, and many are Spanish speaking. “They want prayers and accompaniment,” she says.
Besides her ministry to prisoners, Sister Shideler works as a part-time chaplain at UI Health, University of Illinois Hospital, and as a per diem chaplain at Rush University Medical Center. Her earnings support the education of other Maryknoll sisters.
Her role at the hospital is to provide emotional and spiritual support to patients and their families, she says, “whether people are inpatients or coming into the emergency room and feeling bewildered, scared or shocked.”
She listens to the feelings and concerns of patients and family members. “We encourage them to share their stories and express what they might need,” she says. “If a patient has faith but is experiencing doubts or doesn’t understand God’s presence in their situation, we pray together for grace or healing.”
At times, explains the missioner, she accompanies families through death, offering bereavement support. “We focus on the main emotions: grief, anxiety, sadness and confusion, then transition to providing spiritual care,” she says.
Sister Shideler recalls a time when a woman lost her baby. “We held a naming ceremony and blessed the baby,” the missioner says. “We wanted her to remember that, yes, this child died, but we did our best to honor the child and make the child a part of God’s family.”
Clare Takash, a music therapist at the Rush Center, says that Sister Shideler demonstrates exceptional empathy and attentive listening. “During memorial services, she sits with grieving families, offers a comforting touch and provides prayers,” she says. “Julia made a positive impact on many people during some of their most difficult experiences. We are grateful for her ministry and caring heart.”
The missioner’s compassionate heart is nourished at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. “I serve there weekly,” she says, “as an acolyte, lector or extraordinary minister of Communion.”
Sister Shideler, who was born in Oakland, California, was raised in a bilingual French American family. She graduated from Western Washington University with a major in Spanish and joined the Maryknoll Sisters in 2005.
“I felt called to become a sister because when I was in college, I realized I wanted my work to align with my lifestyle,” she says. “I didn’t want to just have a job, but to give myself wholeheartedly to God and to people.”
After considering different congregations, she says, she was struck by how the Maryknoll Sisters had missions around the world in developing countries, where she saw herself serving.
After a two-year novitiate in Chicago, her first overseas mission assignment was in 2008 to Timor-Leste (East Timor). There, in the municipality of Aileu, she taught at public and Catholic high schools, developing curricula focused on peace, holistic health and ecological awareness. She supported students’ pursuit of higher education with scholarships and encouraged them through extracurricular activities.
Learning Tetum and Portuguese — the two official languages of the tiny country in the Southeast Asian Pacific — Sister Shideler also engaged in pastoral work in local villages and in vocational ministry. Serving in Aileu until 2022, she helped youth find their voices, identify their life paths and build inner strength through faith. These years in service sparked a desire for further education. “The seeds of the call that led me to study were sown in Timor-Leste,” the missioner says.
Sister Shideler returned to Chicago to pursue a master’s degree and training in healthcare chaplaincy at Loyola University Chicago. She earned board certification from the National Association of Catholic Chaplains this year. She also earned certificates in spiritual direction and pastoral counseling.
After she completes her Master of Divinity next year, the missioner will discern with the congregation how and where to apply her skills. No matter where she goes, she will help others grow in faith. “The gift of spiritual direction is useful wherever people are open to deepening their faith and strengthening their relationship with God,” she says.
“Focusing my studies on the art of spiritual accompaniment — while serving in hospital, hospice, jail and parish settings — feels like the best response I can offer to God, who calls me to mission.”
Featured image: Maryknoll Sister Julia Shideler smiles as she receives communion from the late Maryknoll Father John (Jack) Sullivan during her Profession of Perpetual Vows Mass on September 28, 2014, at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, New York. (Gregory A. Shemitz/CNS/U.S.)
