Friday, September 10, 2010

ARCHDIOCESE — The Missionaries of the Precious Blood have announced that several area priests are celebrating silver jubilees this year:

 
Father Benja­min Berinti, CPPS, is a native of Pittsburgh, and was named director of formation for the province in 1989. Last May he elected vice provincial director of the Cincinnati Province of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood.
 
Father Mark Hoying, CPPS, is a native of Coldwater. Father Hoying has been active in parish and vocation ministry in his life as a priest, serving as pastor of Precious Blood Church in Dayton in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. In 1989 he was named director of vocation and special formation for the province and was appointed pastor of Precious Blood Church in 1993.
 
Father Mark Peres, CPPS, is a native of Highland, Ind. He has served at St. Joseph Church, Dayton in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He is currently director of the house of advanced formation for the Missionaries.
 
“We honor these men who have served the people of God so long and so well. It is wonderful to see the many ways that they have found to help build the kingdom of God here on earth,” said Father Angelo Anthony, provincial director of the Cincinnati Province.

Carmelite Sister Marie-Charlette Ott, a Dayton native, celebrated the 50th anniversary of her religious profession this summer at the Chapel of the Carmelites, Coopersburg, Pa. Sister Marie-Charlette grew up in Resurrection Parish and attended the former St. Joseph Commercial School. She entered the order in 1959, and professed her first vows in 1960. She served as prioress of the Carmelite Monastery of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi in Coopersburg for 12 years and was in that position when the body of founder Mother Therese Lindenberg’s was discovered intact in 2001. Currently serving as archivist at the monastery, Sister Marie Charlette is working on the materials needed for Mother Therese’s cause for sainthood.

Marking 75 years in religious life this year is Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Mary Alice Weber (formerly Sister Alice Therese), who was a teacher for 65 years, more than 45 of which were spent in Dayton at St. Helen Parish and School and at Holy Family and Ascension Schools. She also taught in Cincinnati at the Summit Country Day School and at St. Michael and Sts. Peter and Paul. She is now retired and serves as a member of the ministry of prayer in Cincinnati.
 

Celebrating 50 years of religious life are, front row, left to right: Sisters Marietta Fritz, Marie Smith, Jo Ann Recker and Colette Quinn. Back row: Sisters Teresita Weind, Maureen Turlish, Rita Sturwold, Nancy Wellmeier, Rosemary Donohue and Colette Didier. (Courtesy photo)

Celebrating her golden jubilee is Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Colette Didier (formerly Sister Mary Cecilia) was a teacher or administrator for nearly 20 years at schools in Ohio, including Our Lady of the Rosary in Dayton. After leaving the classroom, she served in a variety of advancement, development and project management ministries for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Ohio Province. She is currently a member of the province leadership team in Cincinnati.

Also celebrating 50 years is Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Marietta Fritz, a teacher for many years at Julienne and Chaminade-Julienne High School in Dayton.
 
Golden jubilarian Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Jo Ann Recker (formerly Sister Mary Judith) has taught French at the high school and college level in Ohio for more than 40 years, including at the Summit Country Day in Cincinnati. For the past 20 years, she has been a member of the faculty at Xavier University in Cincinnati. She served as department chair and is currently a professor in the Modern Language Department.
 
Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Marie Smith (formerly Sister Carl Ann) has been an educator in Ohio for 45 of her 50 years in religious life. Her first ministries were at Immaculate Conception School in Dayton and St. Frances de Sales School in Lebanon. For more than 26 years she has taught and served as an administrator at Corryville Catholic Elementary School in Cincinnati. She has been Corryville’s principal since 1984.

Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Rita Sturwold (formerly Sister Rita Angela) has served in educational ministries for more than 40 of her 50 years as a religious. In Cincinnati she taught at Summit Country Day and Mount Notre Dame High School. She was assistant principal and director of development at Mount Notre Dame and was assistant superintendent for development and director of the Catholic Inner City Schools Education fund for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. For the past seven years she has served as the president of Mount Notre Dame.

Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Teresita Weind marks her golden jubilee this year and has served in pastoral ministry roles for more than 40 years. She was director of spirituality for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Ohio Province before she was elected to serve in province leadership. She is currently the international congregational leader for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and is headquartered in Rome.

Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Nancy Wellmeier (formerly Sister Gabriel) served as a classroom teacher during her first six years of her 50 in  religious life — at St. Helen School and Carroll High School in Dayton. More recently she was a member of the international congregational leadership team for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, headquartered in Rome.

On Aug. 22, the Ghana Catholic Community of Dayton celebrated the 25th anniversary of the religious vows of Holy Spirit Father Francis Tandoh, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Camden, St. Augustine in Germantown, and St. Mary Parish, Holy Family and St. Benedict the Moor parishes in Dayton.

Father Tandoh, a native of Ghana, studied with the Holy Spirit Congregation there before he began his studies at the School of Philosophy in Insukka, Nigeria.

Dayton became Father Tandoh’s home in 2000 when he became the religious education director at Resurrection School. He also taught at Mary Queen of Peace School.
 
Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille Anne Bergin (formerly Sister Rose Mary), a native of Baton Rouge, La., also celebrates her golden jubilee this year. Sister Anne spent her first seven years of ministry as a teacher, several of those years at Guardian Angel School in Cincinnati. She spent 28 years in physical therapy and teaches quilting to senior citizens in New Orleans.