Sister Marie Wiedner
1926-2009
In her autobiography, Sister Marie wrote of the many “journeys” undertaken since her entrance into the Adrian Dominican Congregation. “Most of these were happy and exciting, some difficult. But always there was a sense of being accompanied by a loving God in a special way.”
Marie was the daughter of Frank and Caroline (Kornfeind) Wiedner. She was the fourth child in the family of six, born on August 12, 1926, in Chicago. Her parents were originally from Hannersdorf, Austria, and were married there. Their first child, Maria, was born there, and died several weeks after her birth. When the Wiedners left Austria in 1921, they settled in Chicago’s St. Philomena Parish near relatives who were from the same area in Austria. Their living children—Frank, William, Marie, and Joseph—were born in the next few years. The youngest child, Richard, born when Marie was fourteen years old, died at the age of eighteen months.
She wrote of a happy and religious family life. Her parents attended daily Mass whenever possible, and the whole family was at Holy Hour on Thursday evenings, after which the father would treat the children to ice cream cones. They all attended Benediction on Sunday afternoons. But on some summer afternoons the parents took the children to Lincoln Park for a picnic, to the zoo, or to the museum.
I recall a strong sense of belonging in the neighborhood. On summer evenings most people would gather on their front porches to visit and we neighborhood kids would play outdoor games until dark. You would not even think of getting into trouble because someone in the neighborhood always knew it and, very soon after, so did your parents.
Her education was obtained at St. Philomena Grade and High School with the Franciscan Sisters. St. Philomena High School was a two-year commercial school, and she later finished the last two years of high school at Dodd-Harris High School. Throughout grade school, she intended to become a sister after eighth grade, but when that time came her parents would not give permission. Within a short time, she had lost interest in the convent and had discovered boys. World War II began, most of the young men went into the Service, Marie found a secretarial position, and began to attend classes at De Paul University.
Through those years, thoughts of the religious life arose occasionally as did thoughts of marriage; but, although she was dating, there was no one in whom she was seriously interested. After a retreat at the Cenacle and a visit with a priest who had counseled many young women thinking of religious life, she decided to enter a religious congregation but not which one. She visited the sisters at St. Laurence Convent, was impressed with “their spirit of joy,” and decided to become an Adrian Dominican. At the wake, her brother Frank said:
She had a quiet social life, mostly girlfriends from school, but occasionally some young man would come up but never lasted too long before she found him boring. When she announced that she was going to the convent, she had been going out with a young man for some time. He probably wanted to marry her, but she had no intention of marrying him. In the month before she left to go to the convent, this young man would drive by our house every morning, honk his horn, and wake up the neighborhood.
On September 8, 1950, a month after her twenty-fourth birthday, she arrived in Adrian and entered the postulate. Almost immediately she was sent to St. Alphonsus School in Deerfield, Michigan, where she taught until Christmas. Brought back to Adrian, she finished her postulate. She received the habit and her religious name (Sister Therese Michael) on August 8, 1951, and professed her first vows on August 14, 1952. During this time, she worked in the “vault,” a storage place for the sisters’ records, and which also held a desk with a typewriter.
Her first mission as a professed sister was at Visitation in Detroit, where she taught sixth grade for a year. She then spent a year with sixth graders at St. Kilian in Chicago, and a year in Adrian, where she studied at Siena Heights College (now University) and served as assistant registrar. In June 1955 Siena Heights College awarded her a bachelor’s degree with a major in English and minors in history and secretarial science.
Her ministry as a high school teacher followed. She was assigned to Assumption High School in Swanton, Ohio, where she spent the first semester of the 1955-56 school year, then was again in Adrian as assistant registrar at Siena Heights College. Beginning with 1958, she taught religion, English, and commercial subjects for eight years at St. Joseph Academy in Adrian. During the summers she studied at De Paul University in Chicago, and in 1962 was awarded a master’s degree in English.
The year 1966 began four years in California: three years at Bishop O’Dowd in Oakland as teacher, assistant principal, and superior in the convent; and a year in Santa Cruz as a provincial councilor. To her delight, she was elected a delegate to the General Chapter of 1968.
In 1970 she was assigned as secretary general of the Congregation, and fulfilled this obligation for four years. In 1972 Sister Georgina Luznicky was finishing her term as Administrator of the Chicago Province. At the wake she said:
Since the Chapter of Renewal called for many tasks which fell to the Office of Information, it was decided to bring in some help. I was the help. During that short period of time—one year [1973-74]—I learned that Sister Marie was an excellent administrator, was well organized, was a people person, was deeply spiritual, and enjoyed a good time. We revamped the archives, reviewed the files, and organized Central Services, to name just a few activities.
At the end of that time, in 1974, Sister Marie spent a year at the Jesuit School of Applied Theology in Berkeley, California, and earned a second master’s degree; then continued her ministry in California.
It was in 1976 that the decision was made to bring all the sisters to Adrian for an event called “Re-Membering.” Since Sisters Marie and Georgina had worked so well together previously, they were asked to co-chair the event, which was to take place in August 1977. Sister Georgina described their work:
When we finished our first meeting in Adrian, we had all the chairpersons for the various committees in place, arranged for a monthly newsletter, and had a schedule of meetings, and, with the General Council, had the speakers arranged. Since we had no building large enough for all our sisters, we decided to rent a tent. Neither of us knew anything about tents, but we went to Detroit to arrange for a tent to hold 2,000.
Sister Marie’s God-given talent and her response to her giftedness made the event of Re-Membering a huge success, with the help of God.
From 1975-79 Sister Marie ministered in California as director of adult programs at All Saints Parish in Hayward. Before she began her ministry, she did a five-month parish survey, and set up her program to fulfill the needs revealed by the survey. Among other things, the survey revealed that many adults felt that they were bypassed by the Church’s renewal process, and were having to learn about it through their children.
Two years as coordinator of adult education for the Oakland Diocese, and five years as pastoral associate at St. Charles Parish in Livermore followed. When the pastor at St. Charles took a three-month leave to study, he asked her to administer the parish, with visiting priests helping out on the weekends. She was the first woman in the diocese to serve in that position; so, she wrote, it seemed as though they “were taking a step into the future church.” Her responsibilities were described in The Catholic Voice of October 15, 1984.
She coordinates baptismal and marriage preparation, arranges for funerals, visits the sick, oversees parish finances, represents the parish at deanery meetings, and takes care of whatever other pastoral and administrative needs arise. . . . The nun, described by parish committee president Sam Miller as “highly respected and very competent,” said the most difficult aspects of her new responsibilities are having to make some pastoral decisions alone when she prefers a team approach. . . . There has been little opposition among parishioners to Sister Marie’s new role.
She also conducted a Eucharistic service (Liturgy of the Word and communion) three mornings a week with assistance from five lay presiders. On the remaining days, Marist priests celebrated Mass and took care of other sacramental duties.
Later a questionnaire was sent to a sample section of parishioners by the diocesan chancellor, and a majority said that the needs of the parish were adequately met, and that they would accept a non-ordained person as “pastor” on a longer basis.
In 1986 Sister Marie received permission to take CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) classes. She studied for a quarter at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke Hospital in Chicago, followed by another quarter at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. She then accepted a position as hospital chaplain at Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in Dyer, Indiana, and fulfilled this responsibility for six years. During this time she lived in Calumet City, and on weekends helped with the needs of her aging parents, who lived in Glen Ellyn. Her father died in 1989, and her mother, in 1992. In November 1990 she was profiled in The Times as Religious Leader of the Week. Her brother Frank said, “She loved California. But when our parents were ill she came back here. When they died, she went back to California.
She returned to California in 1993 and served as pastoral associate at St. Joseph Parish in Capitola for eight years, and there she was also featured in newspaper articles. When she left that position, her picture appeared in the Observer for July of 2001. She retired in 2001, lived in Santa Cruz, and volunteered her services. She was pictured in the Santa Cruz Sentinel for December 19, 2001, dishing up food at St. Francis Soup Kitchen’s eighteenth annual Christmas meal, served to about 300 homeless people.
In April 2009 she returned to Adrian, where she lived in Regina Residence for a short time. Then a severe stroke took her to the Dominican Life Center/Maria where she died on September 5, 2009. Her brother Frank said:
Just before she had this illness, she was planning to visit us. . . . It was quite a shock to miss that last visit with her, but we were able to visit her here. I want to thank all of you for your kindness to her and to us.
A wake-remembrance service was held for Sister Marie in St. Catherine Chapel on September 7. Sister Mary Ellen Youngblood, Prioress of Adrian Crossroads Mission Chapter, opened the service, welcomed all those who had come to bid Sister Marie farewell, and extended sympathy. Present were her brothers Frank and Joe, many nieces and nephews, and her many Dominican friends.
Her nephew Paul Wiedner said:
I was on the rebellious side when it came to organized religion. She would never preach. She would listen to me and tell me what she thought. She was a terrific resource person in our lives.
Paul’s sister Pattie also spoke. She said in part:
When I was young, she encouraged me to write her a letter. And I got a letter back very soon. It was my letter back, corrected. For a while I didn’t write to her again. But she was always encouraging to us kids. Every three years she would visit, and she’d bring us candy. She was just such a good person. We felt very fortunate to have her in our lives. She was so good and kind. That’s why we’re all here.
She took a trip to Austria with us. We were in three cities, and we had a wonderful time. We thought we were going on a shopping trip, but we took a tour of churches. We went on our shopping trip later. We were down here a while ago for her Jubilee. It was such a special day for my sister and me, to see how dedicated you sisters are to your Order. We felt so fortunate to see her and her friends.
Father Robert Kelly, OP, was the presider and homilist at Sister Marie’s funeral liturgy on September 8, celebrated as the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. Father spoke of the quality or virtue of calmness:
From the stories that I have heard about Sister Marie, I have come to believe that she, too, possessed the quality or virtue of calmness, and that she freely offered the benefits of this virtue to others in ways that they could accept. . . . She brought new life to individuals and to groups of individuals. . . . to individuals she did not know by affirming who they are, not what they do. Her firm hand grasp, even near the end of her life, was her way of recognizing what she shared in common with them.
Sister Marie’s journey on earth has ended. She is now at peace with her God.