Julie (Marie Benedict) Slowik, IHM

Sister Julie Slowik, IHM, died Thursday, March 30. She was 76.

Stanley and Helen (Rachubka) Slowik welcomed the birth of their first child, Julia Ann, on July 30, 1940, in Pontiac, Mich. A brother and two sisters would complete the family within a few years. Julie, as she was known, attended St. Hugo of the Hills (Bloomfield Hills) and graduated from St. Frederick High School in Pontiac. Julie entered the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Monroe in 1958 and received the religious name Sister Marie Benedict.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Marygrove College, Detroit, Sister Julie spent several years teaching at St. Gregory, Detroit and Ss. Peter and Paul, Ionia, Mich. She later earned a Master of Arts degree from Catholic University of America. This was a formative achievement to begin her ministry in formal religious education.

Her desire to be of service and community for others led her to a variety of ministries, such as  community organizer and religious education director at St. John Parish in Roswell, N.M.; parish pastoral ministry with the poor in the Diocese of Juarez, Mexico; and many years at St. Anne Parish, Detroit, as a pastoral assistant. Much of Sister Julie’s ministries focused on poverty, justice issues, integrating the Gospel into daily life and growing faith-filled relationships in many urban and Hispanic communities.

In 2015, illness curtailed her work in Mexico and led to her return to the Motherhouse. Sister Julie enjoyed, again, living and sharing in community with the IHM Sisters. She volunteered within the Motherhouse and was able to volunteer at Annunciation House, a center serving the migrant, homeless and economically vulnerable people of the borders in El Paso, Texas.

Sister Julie is survived by her brother, Joseph, and sisters, Cathy Steele and Mary Siciliano; nieces and nephews and her sisters in community.

Read her Remembering.