McKenna grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey and upon graduating from high school entered the Medical Mission Sisters, a Catholic Church organization of women dedicated to improving world access to health care.
[2] She earned a bachelor's degree in English from Chestnut Hill College,[3] then a small Catholic women's college, and a master's degree in liturgy from Notre Dame University before moving on to the University of Pennsylvania and earning a doctorate in Christian origins and religious thought.
[3] me and Sister Margaret on the Pentagon lawn with our wrists in a plastic tie McKenna has been arrested for several acts of civil disobedience since becoming an activist in the 1970s.
[6] In 1988 on Easter Sunday, McKenna and three other Plowshares activists accessed the third deck of the USS Iowa and symbolically hammered on empty Tomahawk missile housings before pouring their own blood on them.
[1] In 2007, McKenna, as well as musician Aaron Weiss, was arrested for participating in a "die-in" to protest the civilian casualties of the Iraq War on the grounds of The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia.
[1] In addition to New Jerusalem, McKenna helped set up the Peacemakers Reflection Center and the Alternate to Violence Project in her community.
[1] For the first 60 days of their stay, recovering addicts are prohibited from contacting the outside world, must surrender their cigarettes, and must be escorted if they leave the building.