December 2002

The Franciscan Sisters of Oregon
A New Community of Traditional Teaching Nuns in the U.S.A.

Beginnings

	Main entrance of the former Benedictine convent in Kansas City, Missouri which the Sisters hope to make their Mother-house.

The Franciscan Sisters of Oregon had their beginnings in the intrepid fidelity of Sister Mary Herlinda McCarty, who left the virtual prison of the convent she loved at the age of 86 because her community had turned away from the Catholic Faith toward Modernism, Humanism, the New Age Movement, and even the practices of Wicca. At the age of 16 Sister joined the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a Franciscan Community made well known by the famous poem of Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., The Wreck of the Deutschland. Now known in the United States as the Franciscan Sisters of Wheaton, Illinois, the Superiors forbade Sr Herlinda to speak about the traditional Catholic Faith with the other Sisters.

When finally her Community forbade her attendance at the traditional Mass, she contacted Fr Peter R. Scott, District Superior of the Society of St Pius X. She sought sanctuary, a place to spend her remaining days in peace, a place to attend the traditional Latin Mass without secrecy, a place in which she could freely live and speak about her Catholic Faith. The Society of St. Pius X offered such a place of refuge, and Sr Herlinda left Wheaton for the Queen of Angels Convent in Dickinson, Texas, expecting to live the rest of her life and die there.

Three years later, Rev. Fr Eugene N. Heidt, a diocesan priest of Oregon, U.S.A. who works with the SSPX, began his search for a traditional Sister to help found a community of teaching nuns. After much prayer and research, he had decided that the heritage of St Francis ought to be preserved, and so he was hoping to find a Franciscan to serve as co-foundress. He announced to his three Oregon congregations that it would be fine if the Sister came rolling down his driveway in a wheelchair, as long as she knew how to pray! And with that statement, he launched a prayer campaign on the part of the traditional Catholics in Oregon to find such a Franciscan Sister.

Fr Heidt presents candles to four new novices on 2 February, 2002		Reception of four postulants and first professions on 12 August, 2002

Father’s Prayer is Answered - Literally!

A Sister who knew how to pray? Pray she did, for Sr Herlinda spent long hours in prayer at Queen of Angels Convent. Fr Carl Pulvermacher, a Franciscan priest who works with the SSPX, asked her if she would be willing to help Fr Heidt to start the new community, but she declined, saying that she was simply too old.

Eventually, Fr Heidt talked with Sister himself and pointed out that God writes straight with crooked lines. Sr Herlinda agreed to come to Oregon, arriving with a lay companion on 1 February, 2000. She had been in final vows since 1933, and she renewed them the next day, the Feast of the Presentation. The Franciscan Sisters of Oregon had begun!

Sr Herlinda likes to point out that Father’s prayer was fulfilled-she did arrive in a wheelchair, although she is not confined to one.

After Sister’s arrival, she was soon joined by a postulant, with two more postulants arriving a few months later.

Activity and Contemplation

The Franciscan tradition as lived before Vatican II by the various communities of the Third Order Regular embodied the active-contemplative way of life. The prayer life of the Sisters provides the foundation and the strength for the active apostolate. The desperate need for traditional Catholic teaching Sisters inspired the foundation of the Franciscan Sisters of Oregon, and an anticipated secondary apostolate will possibly consist of some form of care for the elderly. Another possible work to be undertaken with the co-operation of traditional priests will be the sponsorship of retreats, but the Sisters are not yet in a position to engage in works of the apostolate; their own formation must come first.

Sister Mary Herlinda McCarty (Final vows as a Franciscan Daughter of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, 19 May 1933)		Reverend Mother Herlinda today with a visitor

Restoring the Franciscan Heritage

Guided by Fr Heidt and Sr Herlinda, the Sisters spent considerable time and effort establishing the community’s way of life based on the Franciscan Rule as amended by Pope Pius XI in 1927, and in conformity with the 1917 Code of Canon Law. Fr Heidt obtained copies of a certain Franciscan community’s Constitutions and Book of Customs issued before the devastating changes of Vatican II. These documents are invaluable-each Franciscan community of sisters has its own, suited to the apostolates and devotions of each one in particular. Such documents are not generally available, and pre-Vatican II versions are particularly hard to come by. The newly established community was able to use these rare documents as models to ensure that its Constitutions and Book of Customs addressed all necessary subjects and established its government in a traditional and canonical manner.

Fr Heidt and the Sisters had to satisfy secular laws as well as canon law in order to be tax-exempt. The Community incorporated under the title of the Franciscan Sisters of Oregon, with tax-exempt status approved by the Internal Revenue Service.

Another issue the Sisters worked out was the type of habit that should be worn. It had to be traditional, of course - fortunately, Sr Herlinda remembered well her sewing room days spent as a novice. She remembered the tunic with box pleats which represent the Holy Trinity, the knots in the Franciscan cord representing the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and each turn of each knot representing the Holy Trinity, and she knew the prayers to be recited as each item of clothing is donned. The Sisters delightedly explored the spiritual treasure trove of Sr Herlinda’s memory.

Shaping the collar and the configuration of the veil presented more of a challenge, but good results were obtained after some trial and error. The great purpose of serving God in the religious life is symbolised in the details of the habit itself.

The spiritual life of the Sisters is firmly traditional in principle and practice, their prayer life centered around the traditional Latin Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Way of the Cross, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and other Community prayers. The Sisters spend over four hours each day in prayer.

Many Franciscan Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary who had been exiled from Germany in the persecution of Chancellor Bismarck lost their lives when their ship was wrecked off the coast of England. The wreck of the Deutschland inspired a monumental poem by that name, but the postconciliar spiritual shipwreck in the congregation moved Mother Herlinda to seek refuge in the lifeboat of Tradition.

The Community Grows

The first postulant received the habit and was received into the community as a novice on 12 August, 2000 and given the name Sr Mary Joseph. On 2 February, 2001, two more were received as novices and given the names Sr Gemma Marie and Sr Mary Marcel respectively.

The community doubled in size on 12 August, 2001 with the acceptance of four postulants. Sr Mary Joseph made her first temporary profession, taking the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience for the period of one year. In this community, temporary vows are taken every year for three years in a row, with final profession following the three years of temporary vows. Four postulants were clothed as novices on 2 February, 2002, receiving the names Sr Mary Bonaventure, Sr Mary Michael, Sr Mary Francis, and Sr Mary Agnes. Four new postulants were accepted on that same day. Several young ladies also have visited the community.

Growth has been rapid, and the community is quickly outgrowing its accommodation. Fr Heidt kindly provided the first house, which quickly extended to a second house a mile away from the first. In August, a small nearby mobile home was added as the third facility. Making do is a good Franciscan tradition, but the present arrangements are not conducive to community life as it is meant to be lived. The Community is able to accommodate only two more postulants. More growth is expected, and delaying vocations is not a good way to foster them!

A New Home

	Interior of the chapel of the Kansas City convent, looking towards the choir loft

After much consideration, Fr Heidt and Reverend Mother decided to purchase a large, empty convent in Kansas City, Missouri. This vacant facility was built in the 1940’s as a Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration. he nuns housed therein had a teaching apostolate as well. It was vacated in the late 1970’s due to the fall of vocations at that time. It fell into secular hands, and since that time it has been used as a home for unwed mothers and as a charter school.

The property is quite a famous one in the locality. It lies on a hill with 6.5 acres surrounded by a wrought iron fence, in the metropolitan area of the city. The six-story bell tower is visible from a great distance. The attached Romanesque chapel, though completely barren of all religious articles, stands majestically over four stories tall. The rounded sanctuary, which once had a marble altar and stone baldachin, still has its marble pillars. A marvellous pipe organ, in working order, sits in the choir stalls. The pipes are housed in a room overlooking the transept. The convent itself is three stories high with a full basement. It is suitable only for convent use, which is the primary reason it was offered for sale. It is in excellent condition. The surface area of the entire building is over 85,000 sq. ft.

The price of this building is U.S.$1.2 million, a bargain by all estimates. A reliable source estimated the cost of building a similar structure today at around $9 million, not including architectural details, exterior works, and surrounding property!

There are many advantages to the location of this convent. It is a couple miles away from the District Headquarters of the Society of St Pius X. It is centrally located in the United States, with excellent airport and freeway access - a necessity for future vocations. It is within driving distance of St Mary’s College, in St Marys, Kansas, our likely future resource for advanced education for teaching Sisters.

At the time of writing, a major fundraising campaign is underway for purchase of the building. Benefactors have replied from all over the U.S., but we are not yet at the end of the road. There will also be the expected moving expenses, utility bills, and the cost of repairs. Nevertheless, we are moving forward in confidence, relying on the Hand of God to provide through the charity of our fellow Catholics.

We, the little Franciscan Sisters of Oregon, will close with the blessing of Our Father Francis: “May (you) be filled in Heaven with the blessing of the Most High Heavenly Father, and may (you) be filled on earth with the blessing of His beloved Son, together with the Most Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, and all the Virtues of the Heavens and all the Saints.” †

June 2003

News from the Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King
Kansas City, U.S.A.

In our December 2002 issue we featured the Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King, a new community of traditional teaching religious in the U.S.A. Readers will be happy to learn that the community has subsequently been able to occupy their new convent in Kansas City, Missouri. The April issue of the Regina Coeli Report provides an update on their progress.

Mother Herlinda places a crown of roses on one of the sisters. The ceremony is a common one in female religious orders and congregations, symbolising as it does the Crown of Thorns, the victory of the spirit over the flesh and the crown of glory.

The Franciscan Sisters of Christ of King arrived in their new home in Kansas City from Portland, Oregon in the winter of last year. They have been able to purchase and occupy the former Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration, an immense Romanesque style complex that has over 80 cells and a beautiful, spacious chapel.

The Franciscan Sisters are primarily a teaching congregation of sisters who follow the Third Order Rule of Saint Francis and are affiliated with the Society of Saint Pius X. Their foundress, Mother Mary Herlinda, was formerly a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, which she was forced to leave due to their Modernist orientation.
[...] Mother Herlinda survived the tempests of the Conciliar Church and is now steadily guiding a younger generation in the ways of Saint Francis of Assisi. On Candlemas Day (February 2nd), a new postulant, Miss Alice Boreta, was received into the congregation, while three new novices, Sisters Mary Bernadette, Mary Clare and Mary Jane were given the habit, and two other sisters, Gemma Marie and Mary Marcel, renewed their temporary vows for one year (according to their constitutions, the sisters take 3 years of temporary vows before they take permanent vows). Performed by Fr Eugene Heidt (spiritual father for the Franciscan sisters and a long-time friend of the Society), the traditional ceremonies of habit-taking and renewal of vows were very impressive, and were the first seen in the Kansas City area for many a year. In fact, the chapel was at a standing-room-only capacity, as guests came from as far away as Portland, Oregon and St Mary’s, Kansas, as well as from the local parish of St Vincent de Paul (which is only minutes away). The ceremonies were followed by a High Mass and concluded with a buffet dinner in the large hall in the basement of the convent.

Built in 1948, the Convent of Christ the King has returned to its former glory.
Once a thriving centre of perpetual adoration for the metropolitan area,
the Benedictine sisters sold the property in the early 1980’s to a Protestant group,
and after several changes of owner, the complex was sold to the Franciscan Sisters.

The sisters invite those women who are contemplating a religious vocation to contact the convent at:

Convent of Christ the King
1409 E. Meyer Boulevard
Kansas City, Missouri 64131, U.S.A.
Tel: [+1] (816) 333-1463

May 2005

After the Mass, some Franciscan and visiting Dominican sisters. From L to R: Sr Mary Agnes, Sr Jeanne d’Aza, Sr Francis Marie, Sr Mary Clare, Sr Teresa Joseph (mother prioress), and Sr Mary Bonaventure. [Text/photo RCR 03/05]

We read in the life of St Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers, that sometime in 1215 he met St Francis of Assisi, founder of the Friars Minor in Rome. Both were founders of new mendicant orders and had traveled to the Holy City for the Fourth Lateran Council announced by Pope Innocent III in 1213. Of course, it was Providence that united these two great saints who played such a critical role in the reformation of the Church during the early Middle Ages.

Ever since then, both orders, Franciscans and Dominicans, have considered each other as brother orders, celebrating in their respective altar missals (the Franciscans use the Missale Romano-Seraphicum, while the Dominicans have their own rite of Mass) and breviaries the feast days of both founders, and observing certain fraternal customs. On Christmas Day, for example, a Franciscan friar traditionally spends the day as a guest at a nearby Dominican monastery.

Such a beautiful reunion recently occurred on Wednesday, 2 February, the Feast of the Purification of Our Lady (Candlemas), when the Dominican teaching sisters from Post Falls, Idaho came to the Convent of Christ the King, home to the Franciscan teaching sisters in Kansas City, Missouri to attend their ceremonies, which included the habit-taking of a postulant (Sr Francis Marie), the first profession of a novice (Sr Mary Clare) and the renewal of vows (by Sr Mary Bonaventure, Sr Gemma Marie and Sr Mary Agnes)

In addition to the beautiful ceremony, the Franciscan sisters were blessed with a Solemn High Mass celebrated by Rev. Fr Trevor Burfitt of the SSPX (who also gave the week-long retreat that preceded this momentous day), assisted by Rev. Fathers Steven McDonald (deacon) and Greig Gonzales (subdeacon), while Fr Scott Gardner played the convent’s magnificent pipe organ and Fr Kenneth Novak assisted with the Gregorian Chant.

Hopefully, such a reunion between Franciscan and Dominican sisters will become more commonplace, thereby assisting each other in perfecting their lives for Christ as religious, as well as in their apostolates, so vital to the restoration of the Catholic Church. †

The sisters invite those women who are contemplating a religious vocation to contact them at:

Convent of Christ the King
1409 E. Meyer Boulevard
Kansas City, Missouri 64131, U.S.A.
Tel: [+1] (816) 333-1463

Veteran Passes Into Eternity

Kansas City, Missouri— Rev. Mother Mary Herlinda McCarty passed peacefully into Eternity on 17 September, 2006, the Feast of the Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi.

She was born in Chickasaw, Oklahoma on 22 January, 1911, with the given name of Linda. Her parents were Claude Sylvester McCarty and Agnes Lorena McCarty, neé Lee. She was especially proud of the family connection with the famous Civil War hero Robert E. Lee, second cousin to her maternal grandfather. Her father’s side of the family claimed a connection with the infamous Billy the Kid, whose surname was McCarty.

Although her family was not Catholic, at the age of 10 she was placed in a Catholic boarding school in Denver, Colorado, and soon asked to be received into the Church. She was baptized on 19 May, 1923 with the name of Theresa Amata. She made her first Holy Communion on 20 May, 1923 and was confirmed on 21 May of the same year, receiving the confirmation name of Fidelis. She did not know that her confirmation name meant “Faithful”, but the name proved to be prophetic.

By the time she reached the sixth grade, she knew that she wished to enter the convent, but her pastor told her she must wait. She prayed that if she did not have a vocation, that God would give her one, and eventually she entered the community which had educated her, The Franciscan Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, now known as the Wheaton Franciscans. She completed her high school education after her entrance into the community and in the course of time attained her bachelor’s degree as well as studying for a master’s degree in theology. Her perpetual vows were taken on 19 May, 1933, exactly ten years after her baptism.

During her time with the Wheaton Franciscans, Sr Herlinda was sent on many assignments, more than once as Superior, serving in such places as Wauconda, Wisconsin; Raymond, Iowa; Denver, Colorado; Fayetteville, Arkansas; and Pueblo, Colorado. She spent several years on assignment in Rome, Italy. Upon her return to the United States, troubled by the modernization of her religious community, she spent three years in exclaustration. Returning to Wheaton, she spent several years of soul-searching, and increasingly troubled by the changes in religious life, in 1997 she went to Queen of Angels Convent in Dickinson, Texas under the auspices of the SSPX.

Toward the end of 1999, on the advice of Fr Carl Pulvermacher O.F.M. Cap. (R.I.P. 2006) Fr Eugene Heidt contacted Sr Herlinda with the idea of forming a new community of Franciscan teaching Sisters for tradition. Her initial reaction was that she was too old, but Fr Heidt convinced her that she still had much to offer, and in February of 2000, she moved to Silverton, Oregon. The fledgling community soon had younger members joining, and Sr Mary Herlinda became Mother Mary Herlinda, governing the Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King until February 2003, under the direct guidance of Fr Heidt. The Community moved to its present location in Kansas City, Missouri under their direction in November of 2002.

Mother Herlinda retired from her post as Superior to be cared for by the Sisters she had helped to form, and reached the age of 95.

May she rest in peace.

Fr Eugene Heidt
(1933 - 2006)

Fr Eugene Nicholas Heidt of Lebanon, Oregon, died peacefully on 20 October 2006. Fr Heidt was born on 31 August, 1933 in Dickenson, North Dakota. He studied in St Edwards Seminary, Washington, and was ordained on 23 May, 1959.

Fr Heidt returned to the Traditional Mass in the late 1980’s, and supported the SSPX and the traditionalist faithful in Oregon, despite the opposition of his Bishop. Father was responsible, with Rev. Mother Mary Herlinda McCarty for the founding of the Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King, originally in Oregon but now located in Kansas.

His solemn requiem took place on 26 October at St Thomas Becket Church in Veneta, Oregon, United States of America.
May he rest in peace.

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