ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sister Marysia is a Religious Sister of Mercy of Alma, MI who is a physician, board certified in psychiatry with a fellowship in consultation-liaison psychiatry, who trained at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She also holds a Master’s degree in Theology from Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. She practiced psychiatry at her religious institute’s multidisciplinary medical clinic, Sacred Heart Mercy Health Care Center in Alma, MI from 1988-2014. She became the Director of the Office of Consecrated Life for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis in 2014. She is a facilitator for Rachel’s Vineyard, is chair of the board of directors of MyCatholicDoctor, an executive board member of the Saint Louis Guild Catholic Medical Association and the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology. She also serves as Adjunct Clinical Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Sister Marysia offers workshops on a variety of topics including human attachment, boundaries and character development, depression and anxiety, dialogue and conflict resolution, as well as on social media and its effects on the brain for clergy, seminarians, women’s and men’s religious communities, parents, teachers and students. She is a formator within her own religious community. She presents on Internet pornography addiction—a Catholic approach to treatment to bishops, clergy, seminarians, religious communities, and laity throughout the United States and Europe She presented to the U.S. Bishops in Dallas TX in 1992 on “Pedophilia and Other Addictions”. She was a member of the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse in 1994-1995. Sister Marysia has presented to the Curia, Vatican City State on “Sexual Abuse of Minors by Clergy in North America” in 2002. She has served as a psychological expert consultant for the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, USCCB.
Sister Marysia’s publications include “Medical Aspects of Addiction”; “The Roman Catholic Church and the Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests and Religious in the United States and Canada: What Have We Learned? Where Are We Going?”; “Pornography, Electronic Media and Priestly Formation”; Her publications in Seminary Journal include: “Significant Markers of Human Maturation Applied to the Selection and Formation of Seminarians”; “The Discernment of a Priestly Vocation and the Expertise of Psychiatry and Psychology”; and “Internet Pornography and Priestly Formation: Medium and Content Collide With the Human Brain”. She has published two books: The Art of Accompaniment: Practical Steps for the Seminary Formator (https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/artofaccompaniment/) and Screen Addiction: Why You Can’t Put that Phone Down (https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/screenaddiction/). Her chapter “Guideposts for the Seminary Formator in Understanding and Assessing Levels of Preoccupation with Use of Internet Pornography and a Formative Process for Moving from Vice to Virtue” in Spiritual Husband-Spiritual Fathers: Priestly Formation for the 21st Century is pending publication.
