Sister Julia Shideler
Current Mission Location: Chicago, IL
Julia Shideler was born August 28, 1978 to Olivia Brigitte Caulliez and John Clement Shideler in Oakland, CA. She has 1 sister: Stephanie Bloom and 1 brother: Gregory Shideler. Julia graduated from Lewis & Clark High School, Spokane, WA in 1996.
Julia spent her early years at St. Augustine’s Parish in Spokane, WA, where she was raised in a bilingual French-American family. When she was seven years old, her parents left the Catholic Church and joined the Unitarian Universalist Congregation. She received a fine Unitarian religious education throughout high school and integrated its values and quest for spirituality and justice. Moving to Orcas Island, WA, in 1997, she began searching for a more personal relationship with God.
During college, she went to Guadalajara, Mexico for a three-month program. She taught English and French lessons in a private school and lived with a Catholic host family. In 2000, at Western Washington University (WWU) in Bellingham, WA, she explored her Catholic roots and returned to the Catholic Church. In 2001, she was confirmed at Assumption Parish in Bellingham. To explore the reality of post-colonial populations, Julia spent a semester in the Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa. She also served on the Catholic peer-ministry team of WWU and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish in 2002.
Feeling called to mission and religious life, Julia went to South Korea and further discerned her call to Maryknoll, teaching English for a year in Suwon. In 2004, she was accepted as a Pre-Candidate and did a four-month “live-in” with Maryknoll Sisters in the Marshall Islands.
Julia Shideler formally entered the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation August 14, 2005 at their Center in NY. Sister Julia had two years of orientation in Chicago, living in a multi-cultural community and taking courses at Catholic Theological Union. Julia prepared for religious life through prayer, ministry, and inter-cultural relationships. She learned much from urban Native Americans at the Anawim Inter-faith Spirituality Center, where she had a ministry of presence and prayer amid storytelling, sharing of food, and outreach. She also ministered to cancer patients at UC Hospital while serving on the pastoral care team of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Hyde Park. Later, in 2022, she returned to Chicago to pursue a Masters.
Sister Julia professed First Vows on August 12, 2007 in service to the universal mission of the Church. In a mission-sending ceremony at the Maryknoll Sisters in December 2007, Sister Julia received her mission cross and committed herself to sharing life and mission with the people of God. Her first overseas mission assignment was in 2008 to Aileu, Timor-Leste, where she ministered to youth, taught in public and Catholic High Schools, and developed curriculums that fostered peace, holistic health, and ecological sensitivity. She also engaged in pastoral work in the villages and vocation ministry for men and women.
She was part of this small community, working in a rural Catholic parish, until 2022. Sister Julia accompanied students as they moved toward higher education. She empowered her students through extra-curricular activities, offered a private course in Public Health, ran a youth group and scholarship program. Through these, Sister Julia helped youth to find their own voices, discern their path in life, and develop inner resources of faith and confidence.
Sister Julia was a committed educator in the municipality of Aileu. Using official languages, Tetum and Portuguese, she organized classes and groups to help students develop self-esteem and skills for public speaking. From 2011-2022, Sister Julia helped over a hundred students to complete high school and go on to college through her scholarship program.
In April of 2022, Sister Julia turned over her Public Health course and lab equipment to graduates of her scholarship program. After a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she returned to Chicago to train in healthcare chaplaincy at Loyola University. She did her CPE Residency at Rush University Medical Center in 2024 and became a Board Certified Chaplain in 2026 with NACC, the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. While studying, she earned a Certificate in Spiritual Direction and a Pastoral Counseling Certificate in 2026.
Sister Julia is currently finishing her Masters in Divinity in Chicago and working part-time as a chaplain at UI Health and at Rush. She serves as an Extraordinary Minister of Communion and Lector at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Hyde Park. She also volunteers as a chaplain at Cook County Jail through Kolbe House, facilitating Centering Prayer in a men’s division. Sister Julia is passionate about accompanying people of all ages through difficult challenges and across boundaries of culture, race, faith, and socio-economic classes.