Florida Catholic | Religious Celebrate 60, 50 Years Of Service

Religious celebrate 60, 50 years of service

Sisters and priests from religious communities gather to celebrate their years of devotion to the church.

ADELA GONZALES WHITE | SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA CATHOLIC

Published: 02.29.08

Sister Ann DeNicolo, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Sister Virginia Conant, Sisters for Christian Community; Sister Francis Sochor, Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities; and Sister George Francis Riseling, Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, sing during a Feb. 17 Mass honoring religious in the diocese who are celebrating 50 or more years in religious life.
Courtesy of the Diocese of Venice

VENICE | Joyful music that filled St. Joseph Chapel at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Retreat and Spirituality Center the afternoon of Feb. 17 came from religious men and women who sang and prayed as one community in a jubilee celebration for two priests and four sisters who marked 60 and 50 years of service to the Catholic Church.

Bishop Frank J. Dewane celebrated Mass with more than 60 priests and religious brothers and sisters who serve the Diocese of Venice in various ministries such as education, nursing, Catholic Charities, religious education and work with the homeless. Even the second reading from the Second Letter of St. Paul to Timothy seemed to speak to them directly:

“Beloved: Bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with strength that comes from God. He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design.”

Mass was followed by a reception, during which the religious continued to enjoy the sense of community that brought them together for prayer and celebration.

Sister George Francis Riseling, Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, looked back at 60 years of religious life with joyful gratitude.

“I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to be with my friends,” she said. “I am grateful to my parents for the faith they instilled in me, and I am delighted to still be working with children because that’s what keeps me young.”

Sister Riseling has spent many years in education as both teacher and administrator. She serves as academic dean at St. Ann School in Naples.

Carmelite Father Marcel Dube also reflected on 60 years as a teacher and parish priest. He recently visited with a former student who was in his classroom 45 years ago.

“It’s rewarding to see them as adults with their families, knowing that I contributed,” he said.

Father Dube, associate pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Grove City, also finds parish work rewarding. “It’s very reaffirming to be a part of the lives of so many families — baptizing their children, performing their weddings, and being there with them during their most difficult moments, such as a death in the family,” he said.

Sister Ann DeNicolo, who celebrated 50 years of service with the Blessed Virgin Mary Sisters, agrees that working with children has kept her young.

“You can’t grow old when you work with kids,” she laughed.

Sister DeNicolo has been involved with a number of youth and women’s ministries over the past five decades, and since 2001 has worked with Catholic Charities in the rural community of Arcadia in DeSoto County. She marvels when she considers 50 years of religious life. “I guess that’s what happens when you love what you do and the people with whom you work,” Sister DeNicolo said. “And there’s never been a ministry that I didn’t love.”

Also celebrating 50 years was Carmelite Father Morris Wells.

Sister Francis Sochor, Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, and Sister Virginia Conant, Sisters for Christian Community, were the others celebrating 60-year jubilees.

Many of the 179 religious priests, sisters and brothers who work in the Diocese of Venice are far from their motherhouses and congregations in other states, so opportunities to gather as a religious community are joyful occasions. They represent 35 different communities.

“It’s a good way of getting together for support,” said Sister Monica Paul Fraser, Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt, N.Y., who serves as director for religious in the Diocese of Venice. “We have a common goal and a mission. We are all working for the betterment of the kingdom on earth.”

During the reception, attendees viewed a presentation developed by three Incarnation School students who spent more than 10 hours organizing photos and memories of the jubilarians.

Sister Fraser, who is the principal of Incarnation School, said the children were honored to be asked to contribute in this special way.

“They are in awe of the fact that these people have given so many years to the church,” she said.

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Religious celebrate 60, 50 years of service

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