By Jan Schultz
for the Register
After 60 years in service as a Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity, Sister Michael Ann O’Donnell of Imperial has no regrets. She’s been at the center of celebrations this year recognizing her six decades of service, one of which was held Oct. 1 at St. Patrick Church in Imperial.
June 14 marked the 60th anniversary of her first vows after Sister Michael Ann completed the novitiate (second) year with the Franciscan Sisters at Holy Family Convent in Manitowoc, Wisc. Since that important date in 1963, she has not looked back.
After taking her final vows several years later, Sister Michael Ann has served in educational roles in Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Hawaii and now Nebraska. Much of her work has been in the classroom in education, the degree she sought as she started college as an 18-year-old at Holy Family College in Manitowoc, Wisc. It was later that year when she was approached by other young women already in formation to become Sisters that she considered religious life as her vocation.
Sister Michael Ann said it was in February of that first year of college when two of three religious sisters were killed in a vehicle accident about 50 miles from Manitowoc. They were all school teachers.
“All of the sisters I was in class with then were so stunned because they all knew them. They asked ‘Who will take their place?’ in teaching the children,” she said.
Then one asked her if she’d considered religious life. That was all the push she needed to begin seeking answers on the questions she had about religious life. After a summer working back home in Ohio, she entered her first (postulate) year with the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity in Manitowoc.
Like other women in the 1960s, most Catholic sisters, after taking final vows, took roles in education, nursing or in homemaker duties. Sister Michael Ann’s role was in education, teaching in schools, doing retreat work or helping in the formation of young women discerning their vocations. Her service has taken her to many Native American reservations in several states. At times, she has also been assigned tasks at the motherhouse in Wisconsin, which included gardening and landscape work.
Sister Michael Ann moved to Imperial in the spring of 2019 in a temporary assignment, replacing Sister Monica Mary DeQuardo who had been in Imperial since the fall of 2018 but became ill and returned to the Franciscan Sisters’ motherhouse for care.
Each fall since, when the sisters’ assignments are made, Sister Michael Ann and Sister Rochelle Kerkhof have been reassigned to St. Patrick parish in Imperial and southwest Nebraska.
Imperial is one of the few parishes in the western part of the state to benefit from the presence of not only one, but two religious sisters living in its community.
It happened for southwest Nebraska through Sister Monica Mary, who had previously worked in the diocesan headquarters in Lincoln, when she met Father Matthew Eickhoff. After serving in Mississippi several years, Sister Monica Mary had a desire to return to the Lincoln Diocese but, at the time, there were no positions available. Word was put out throughout the diocese for possible service opportunities.
Father Eickhoff, now pastor at St. Joseph Parish in Benkelman, immediately expressed interest in her service in southwest Nebraska, and Sisters Monica Mary and Rochelle were assigned through their motherhouse to service there after approval from the bishop.
Both Sisters Michael Ann and Rochelle stay busy in their service, not only to Imperial but to eight other parishes and communities in southwest Nebraska.
Sister Michael Ann serves as assistant to the pastor at St. Patrick, which includes a vast array of duties, some of which include teaching religious education classes at the parish and preparing young people for the sacraments. She spends time with younger children of the parish at Sunday Masses, taking them out for specialized religious education before the homily.
Her crocheted items are on sale at St. Isidore Gift & Thrift, run by Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska, and she has helped make blankets for needy families. Those passing by the sisters’ home across the street from the church often see Sister Michael Ann working in the yard.
“Where ever the need is, I respond,” she said.
Sister Rochelle, who’s been a Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity for 53 years, serves as director of youth ministry in the Grant Deanery, for St. Patrick and eight other parishes in southwest Nebraska. Those include Mother of Sorrows Parish in Grant, Resurrection in Elsie, St. Mary in Wallace, St. Joseph in Benkelman, St. James in Trenton, St. John in Wauneta, Holy Family in Palisade and St. Joseph in Stratton.
That means weekly travels from parish to parish for catechetical classes including CCD, junior and senior high, and Confirmation preparation. She also coordinates youth mission experience such as the Nebraska Walk for Life, Teens Encounter Christ, Steubenville of the Rockies and more.
Sister Rochelle also offers multiple one-day adult retreats at each deanery parish and participates as a director for retreats at St. Teresa of Calcutta Newman Center in Kearney.
Both sisters are well known in the Imperial community beyond St. Patrick Parish. Sister Michael Ann said she enjoys the many ecumenical events in Imperial and occasionally has lunch at the Community Center. She said Imperial has never wavered in its welcoming nature.
“For Imperial, of all the places I’ve been, what sticks out to me is that people are so welcoming, and accepting of people coming to this area,” she said.
“It felt like home right away. People here are generally concerned for others,” she said.
After 60 years, Sister Michael Ann said she’s never questioned her decision to enter religious life. In addition to the service she’s been able to provide, she said it has also taken her to places and provided opportunities she would not have experienced otherwise.
And, she has no plans to retire.
“We don’t really retire. We will continue to receive assignments according to our abilities,” she said. “Your vocation does not end.”
The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity were established in Manitowoc, Wisc. more than 150 years ago.
