Franciscan spirituality inspires new affiliate relationships

Eight new affiliates in community, ministry and prayer recently celebrated their commitments to FSPA. Six of them share their inspiration to Franciscan spirituality here.

Carole Butz
“I’ve simply felt a pull,” says Carole Butz, describing the long-term calling to lay ministry that brought her to FSPA and ultimately to covenant affiliation. In 2007, enrolled in the Spiritual Direction Preparedness Program at the Franciscan Spirituality Center in La Crosse, Wis., she visited St. Rose Convent and was led to the Adoration Chapel by Sister Mary Kathryn Fogarty. “Without saying a word she knew exactly why I’d come early, and what I needed and wanted. I knew I’d arrived home.”

Carole’s journey to the Adoration Chapel, spiritual direction certification and now, affiliation, was motivated by St. Francis’ call to live in community and in the world. “It’s the accountability I needed to go forward. I’ve admired greatly those FSPA who model service in the world with love and kindness and who yet very obviously,” says Carole, “live lives of prayer.”

As an affiliate, her Franciscan responsibility is reinforced by her many achievements such as becoming certified in spiritual formation at the Grace Institute at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and completing the Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life Program at Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center in Hiawatha, Iowa. FSPA’s mission of education has also been part of her life—after earning an associate degree in business she worked for 20 years as the director of production, layout and graphic design at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Retired since 2008, Carole serves as chair of the Mutual Ministry Team at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids and also facilitates a semi-monthly Alzheimer’s support group. She and her husband Mick live in Marion, Iowa, and have two sons and three grandchildren. Affiliate Mary Ellen Dunford is her contact.

Emily Dawson
A strengthening of right relationships with God and in turn with herself, her husband Joseph and others, says Emily Dawson, comes with her covenant affiliation with FSPA. “It gives my faith a stronger foundation to endure rocky times.”

Living in Wisconsin all her life—growing up in Milwaukee and now residing in Stoddard—Emily began building her commitment to Franciscanism when she attended La Crosse’s Viterbo University (from which she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English in 2002). She went on to earn a master’s degree in education, student affairs and administration from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2011.

Emily has followed through with her Viterbo pledge to exude service and leadership by working for the Girl Scouts-USA Riverland Council Inc. in La Crosse for three years, in Viterbo’s admissions department for four years and on the staff of the Diocese of La Crosse as the administrative assistant to the moderator of the curia for two years. Earlier this year Emily joined the FSPA Membership Office.

After she left her work on the Viterbo campus Emily began “missing that connection with the sisters. Learning their history as an admissions counselor really helped me relay their charisms to new students and also to myself.” Deciding to become an affiliate, she says, was a means to replenishment in the spiritual graces of FSPA.

Emily maintains her involvement with the local Girl Scouts organization as a volunteer. She is also a confirmation mentor for Blessed Sacrament Parish and the host of an infertility support group in La Crosse. Knitting, reading, gardening and watching movies are some of Emily’s favorite activities. Affiliate Linda Kerrigan is her contact.

Don Fidler
After a pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy, Deacon Don Fidler, of Brooklyn Park, Minn., knew he was called to “something Franciscan” but didn’t know to what, or where, it was. After visiting his wife’s aunt, Sister Mary Catherine O’Donnell, at Villa St. Joseph in La Crosse, Don realized the answer. “We drove into town and I just knew it. I was being called to FSPA.”

Don has discerned several calls to religious life in Minnesota. He graduated in 1989 with pastoral ministry certification from St. Catherine University, then served in pastoral ministry at St. Dominic’s Church in Northfield, Church of the Holy Name in Minneapolis and St. Michael Catholic Church in St. Michael. He was ordained through the archdiocesan deacon formation program in 1997.

His gift for sewing gave him the ability to serve the theater arts circuit in the Minneapolis area—as a costume shop supervisor for various colleges and theaters, a designer for several shows and a stitcher for productions at the Guthrie Theater, Minnesota Opera, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres and Theatres at the Round.

Now, as chaplain and director of spiritual care for Cenerity Senior Care–Marian of St. Paul, “I’m home and love my position. I look back and see how the Creator has led me to this point.” In his place of ministry to the elders of his community, Don works with them to reach out to children “who have nothing.” His wife Pat also serves children, those with life-threatening problems. Unable to have children of their own, they care for them all with passion. “Children come in many forms. Ours don’t live with us, but that doesn’t mean they are loved any less.”

Don’s contact is Chet Corey. From his new Franciscan vantage point, Don looks forward to becoming involved in social justice ministry, and the evolution of the “why I became an affiliate.”

Addie Halfmann
Addie Halfmann is a resident of Arbor Vitae, Wis., wife to Charles John, mother of three grown children and grandmother to six, and a new covenant affiliate. She is a gourmet cook who has written food columns for the Fond du Lac Reporter and The Lakeland Times. Having completed studies in marketing and business at University of Wisconsin-Fond du Lac and earned an associate degree in business from Moraine Part Technical College, West Bend, Wis., Addie was also a marketing and communications manager for Regal Ware Inc., a cookware manufacturer in Kewaskum, Wis. Befitting of her culinary connections, Addie likes to spend free time in her kitchen.

Volunteerism is also a significant part of Addie’s life. She serves on the board of directors for the Lakeland Sharing Founding that assists families and children in need and is an auxiliary board member for the Howard Young Medical Center in Woodruff, Wis.

With food and volunteerism, Addie has a passion for Franciscan spirituality. She is active in her parish as a lector, commentator, eucharistic minister and Parish Life Committee member, helping with parish marketing when needed. Addie was also a parish council member and is a past president of the Ladies of Columbus. For Marywood Franciscan Spirituality Center in Arbor Vitae, she’s served about 10 years on the Vision and Planning Advisory Committee and is now a part-time marketing manager.

Addie found affiliation in the form of three FSPA—Sisters Jolynn Brehm, Marla Lang and Anita Beskar. “Sister Jolynn mentored me in altar ministries. I also worked part time at Marywood and she invited me to serve on the Vision and Planning Advisory Committee. About three years ago, Sister Marla explained the affiliation program to me, inviting me to explore. When Sister Anita (Addie’s contact today) came to Marywood, she adopted me as a companion. Now, as an affiliate, I’m learning more about all creation, Franciscan values and appreciating the power of prayer and meditation. I believe I’ve already made small steps toward living a more Christ-like life and know that FSPA will help me to grow on my spiritual journey.”

Jill Martin
“The process of becoming an affiliate has already changed my life,” says Jill Martin, a resident of Marshfield, Wis., retired middle school teacher of science and religion of 31 years in Marshfield’s Columbus Catholic school system and new FSPA covenant affiliate. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary and middle school education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her progression into lay ministry perhaps began “decades ago when I taught in Marshfield with Sister Virdean Meyer.” It picked up speed when, as a student in Viterbo University’s masters program, Jill took a tour of Mary of the Angels Chapel. “I felt palpable spiritual power there. It was the most sacred space I’d ever been in.”

In 2007, the desire to evoke that spiritual power came after falling while teaching a class. “I had to give up teaching . . . it was like tearing my vocation from me.” Her struggle with chronic pain left her with “no sense of spiritual focus.” The experience, however, especially the spiritual guidance of her contact, Sister Virdean, has given Jill a new sense of vocation—affiliation. “Put bluntly, it’s made me more Franciscan in
my daily living. It means the world to me.”

Jill herself means a lot to those in her family—husband Andy, daughters Leslie and Liana and grandson Tristan; her parish (she’s a eucharistic minister, lector and cantor who serves homebound parishioners) and her community, to which her philanthropy is “considerable and anonymous.”

Diana Schmidt
From the age of 12, Diana Schmidt carried a desire to become a woman religious, yet “since God chose family life for me I feel that covenant affiliation is one way I can join the FSPA on their journey.”

Married to Richard Schmidt, with whom she has four children, two granddaughters and one grandson due to be born Dec. 12, Diana has still followed the FSPA many times, in many commitments, throughout her life. Born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa, she graduated from the Allen College Nursing Program there in 1975. Taking the same pledge to health care as have many FSPAs, she became an R.N. and is currently the director of nursing at Quality Living Home Health Care in Winona, Minn. She also advocates for AMOS, AARP and a local Alzheimer’s organization.

Diana has shared their devotions to prayer ministry as well, having earned advanced catechism certification and completed the School of Biblical Studies, Lay Formation and Leader of Prayer diocesan programs. She’s served as a eucharistic minister, commentator, lector, third-grade catechist and Parish Council of Catholic Women past president. Through her involvement, she made face-to-face connections with FSPA. “At St. Pius X Catholic Church in La Crosse, Wis.,” says Diane, “I cantored while Sister Luanne Durst played the organ.” They piqued her interest to affiliation.

Now guided by her contact, affiliate Diane Withers, Diana feels her new role in lay ministry strengthens the Franciscan values she’s always revered. “Affiliation will let me help the sisters live out the Vision Quest, the fight for justice. It’s added a special dimension to my faith life.”