The John Paul II Institute remembers with gratitude the life of Dr. Mary Shivanandan, who was both a graduate of the Washington Session (S.T.L. ’91, S.T.D. ’94) and a beloved member of the faculty until her retirement in 2012.
Dr. Shivanandan was an early scholar of John Paul II’s Catechesis on Human Love, and her later work focused on the theology of the Holy Family as a model for all families.
Below is the obituary provided by the Shivanandan family.
Mary Shivanandan passed away on Monday, March 24, 2025. The third child of Lady Jean and Sir John Sheehy, Mary was born on January 6, 1932 in Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar) where her father was a member of the Indian Civil Service and Deputy Secretary to the Burmese Government. Mary, along with her brother and sister, spent her early childhood in England. She was evacuated to Australia during World War II where she attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart school in Rose Bay (Sydney), Australia. After the war she finished her secondary education at St. Paul’s Girls’ School in London, England.
She matriculated to Newnham College at Cambridge University where she received a bachelor’s degree with honors in the Classics (Greek and Latin) in 1954. Her degree was elevated to a master’s in 1967.
After university, Mary worked for the BBC in London from 1954-1956. She emigrated to Toronto in 1956 where she worked as a production assistant for the CBC. It was here that she met and married Kandiah Shivanandan. They started their married life in Cambridge, Massachusetts and then moved to the Washington, DC area in 1962. Mary and Kandy enjoyed almost 50 years of marriage until his death in 2010. Mary resided in Bethesda, MD and was a lifelong member of the Church of the Little Flower Parish.
Mary earned her Licentiate in Sacred Theology (magna cum laude) in 1991 and Doctorate in Sacred Theology (magna cum laude) in 1994, both from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute at The Catholic University of America. She went on to become a professor of theology at the John Paul II Institute from 1989-2012. Before entering academic life, Mary spent many years from the early 1970s as a researcher, writer and consultant on marriage, family, sexuality and natural family planning while raising a family. She is the author of numerous articles and books, most notably Crossing the Threshold of Love: A New Vision of Marriage.
She is survived by her son John and daughter-in-law Monique; her daughter Marianne Rhatigan and son-in-law Kevin; her grandson John Patrick and granddaughter-in-law Tori; her granddaughter Kathleen; and her great granddaughter.