Plymouth Twp. — One hundred twenty-four vowed religious of the Archdiocese of Detroit, who are marking milestone anniversaries of their ministry, were honored May 18.
Archbishop Allen Vigneron celebrated Mass for the 2011 Consecrated Life Profession and Ordination Jubilee Celebration in the center’s chapel.
CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY OF THE RELIGIOUS JUBILEE CELEBRATION
The religious sisters, brothers and priests gathered for Mass in the chapel of St. John’s Center.
In his homily, Archbishop Vigneron marveled at all that the vowed religious had done in Christ’s name and how they had shown their love for Him throughout their religious lives.
“You have not seen Him, but you have loved Him, lo this many years,” he said, recalling the words of Christ in John 20:29.
The archbishop thanked them for their service and example to the Church, and said he considered himself “profoundly blessed” to be able to celebrate with them, adding they had much to celebrate.
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“Maybe not every day of the last 25 or 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 years have been days that make you want to stand and sing — but these are years of great grace,” he said. “And as Christians, we know that in trials, there is great blessing.”
After Mass, he joined the jubilarian sisters, brothers and religious order priests, as well as their guests — mostly other members of their religious congregations — for dinner.
The oldest jubilarian present was Capuchin Bro. Leo Wollenweber, 93, vice-postulator for the sainthood cause of Ven. Solanus Casey, who is one of 10 religious celebrating 70 years of religious profession.
Bro. Wollenweber, who is celebrating 70 years of religious profession, recalled how, having completed his novitiate, he took his vows on Sunday, May 11, 1941, and the next day began his new assignment — working in the office of St. Bonaventure Monastery with Fr. Solanus — “kind of like his secretary.”
For the next five years, Bro. Wollenweber helped Fr. Solanus — already famous for the amazing healings people seemed to receive as a result of his prayers — with his correspondence and helped manage the many visitors who came to see him.
“It was wonderful because it gave me the opportunity to see how simply he lived, how concerned he was for the problems people brought to him, and how he blessed everybody after their talk with him,” Bro. Wollenweber recalled.
“His example, for me, was a wonderful inspiration — how kind and gentle and interested in people he was,” Bro. Wollenweber continued.
Of this year’s 70-year jubilarians, the only other one to make the Mass and dinner was Felician Sr. Florence Marie Owczarzak.
Sr. Owczarzak, 88, was born in Bay City in 1922 and came to Detroit in 1938 to attend the Felician Academy for high school. She became a Felician postulant in 1941.
Formerly known as Sr. Mary Maximine before returning to her baptismal name, her ministry as teacher and principal took her to schools in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, including locally, St. Stephen, Detroit; Our Lady Queen of Apostles and St. Florian, Hamtramck; St. Valentine, Redford Township; and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Wyandotte.
About her 70 years in religious life, Sr. Owczarzak said, “You walk in the footsteps of Jesus, and you find something new with every group of people.”
The longest-serving members of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to make it to the celebration were marking 60 years of religious profession. Among them was Sr. James Marian Sarchet, IHM.
Sr. Sarchet, 79, was born in 1932 and grew up in All Saints Parish in southwest Detroit.
In her 37 years of teaching in schools in Florida and Michigan, she taught chemistry, biology, mathematics, algebra and geometry, including locally at St. Joseph, Erie; St. Martin, Detroit; St. Cyprian, Riverview; St. Timothy, Trenton; Aquinas High School, Southgate; and St. Mary Academy, Monroe.
Sr. Sarchet said she loved teaching science at the junior high and high school levels: “We hatched chickens, and we would break some of the eggs open in stages to show the development. And students would say things like, ‘Sister, now I can see why abortion is so wrong,’ because they could see there was a life there.”
Since retiring from teaching, she has taken up woodworking, a skill she learned from her father as a young girl. “I like to work with wood and make things. I’ve made end tables and magazine racks, and five doll houses to be raffled off,” Sr. Sarchet said.
She said the most spiritually significant aspect of her 60 years in religious life has been the Charismatic Renewal.
“I attended a Charismatic event in Detroit in 1981, and was zapped by the Spirit,” Sr. Sarchet said.
Now, she plays the guitar every week for the Light of Revelation Charismatic Prayer Group at St. Mary Parish, Monroe. “We praise God through song,” she added.
This year’s list of jubilarians includes three women religious celebrating 80 years, but all three were absent from the celebration, two due to their health and one — Bernardine Franciscan Sr. Lidwina Konicki — because of a death in her family.
Neither could any of the 70-year jubilarians make it, though one of the 10 — Mercy Sr. Marilyn Furtaw — had planned to, but just wasn’t feeling well that day.
Some of the religious order priests at the event were celebrating anniversaries of their ordination, rather than of their religious profession.
— Michigan Catholic Managing Editor Joe Kohn contributed to this story.
