November 12, 2025

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated for Sister Joan McCarthy, a beloved member of the Ursuline Community formerly known as Mother Mary John, on November 5 at the Ursuline Province Center in New Rochelle. Burial followed in Gate of Heaven Cemetery.

Sister Joan died peacefully at Andrus on Hudson on October 29, 2025.

She entered the Ursulines in 1947, having graduated from the College of New Rochelle. Sister Joan taught at Blessed Sacrament School, New Rochelle, St. Jerome’s School and St. Philip Neri School in the Bronx, and at The Ursuline School, New Rochelle. Her later active years included parish ministry at St. John’s in Beacon, New York, Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Pelham Manor, St. Joseph’s in Malone, and 17 years of service to the city of New Rochelle at the Hugh A. Doyle Senior Center. She had been in administration for the Ursulines as superior, provincial councilor and novice director.

Sister Joan was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1925, the third child of Mary McKenna McCarthy and Joseph Francis McCarthy. She is predeceased by her brothers, Edmund, John, and Joseph; and her sister, Mary Rogers.

She is survived by her sister, Margaret Mary Ehler, and several nieces and nephews.

Donations in memory of Sister Joan may be made to the Ursuline Provincialate Development Office, 1338 North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY 10804.