I stepped back into my childhood a few weeks ago and I didn't do it alone. Just as I rounded my grade school stairs, I spotted three of my old friends standing at the top -- Carol, Jeannie and Ann. We'd all come to St. Therese for a final walk-through of the building, which is [...]
"I didn't ask them, I told them." Sister Anne Arthur Klinker said firmly.Even her parents could not shake her steadfast resolve to join a convent during her junior year of high school. As a school sister of Notre Dame, Sister Anne Arthur's religious calling would take her across the United States and Nigeria. When my [...]
For a humble man, Father Elias Nieves inspires a raucous party. More than 2,000 miles from his home town and 87 years after his death, the martyred priest headlined an all-day extravaganza at St. Therese Parish, including food, flan, and fire dancing. The church hosts a Father Nieves tribute celebration every year, marking the day, [...]
It began with a small swatch of color -- a bright cotton dress peeking out from a thick wool coat. Slowly the colors spread into the music, the food and the faces of the people attending mass at our small Catholic church in Appleton, Wisconsin. A ubiquitous luster, especially vivid during these frozen February days, [...]
Despite an awkward beginning, our family built a special relationship with our parish priest, Father Dan Gilsdorf , who married my husband and me in 1987. That occasion, which took place on a frozen Saturday afternoon in January, may have given mellow Father Dan a clue about the organizationally challenged family he had gamely befriended. [...]