The sixth of William and Mary Virtue Jane (Hebert) Cournoyer’s seven children, she was born in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Her twin brother, George was the fifth child. She moved to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, as a sixth grader and attended St. Patrick’s Grade and High School. She entered Saint Benedict’s Monastery Sept. 10, 1944, and was received into the novitiate June 21, 1945, as Sister Mary Jane. She made her first monastic profession July 11, 1946, and her perpetual monastic profession July 11, 1949. In 1948, Sister Mary Jane volunteered with other sisters to establish Saint Bede Monastery in Eau Claire, transferring back to Saint Benedict’s Monastery in 2010. She celebrated her golden jubilee in 1996, 60th anniversary in 2006 and 75th anniversary in 2021.

Sister Mary Jane earned her bachelor’s degree in education at St. Scholastica College, Duluth, Minnesota., a master’s degree in elementary education from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, and a master’s degree in religious studies from St. Mary’s College in Winona, Minnesota. She also attended Bemidji State College, Bemidji, Minnesota and the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana.

For 45 years, Sister Mary Jane served as an educator in Watkins, St. Thomas More in La Crosse, Wisconsin, St. Patrick’s in Eau Claire, St. Benedict’s Academy in Altoona, Wisconsin, and St. Patrick’s in Onalaska, Wisconsin, as well as principal and superior in Richland Center, Wisconsin. She then changed careers and worked in pastoral ministry at Luther Hospital in Eau Claire, followed by 16 years as chaplain in Oakwood Villa in Altoona. She moved to Saint Scholastica Convent in 2010 and continued to serve in community services and as a companion to the sisters.

Sister Mary Jane is survived by her Benedictine community and nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, two sisters, Mildred Gindt and Ruth Fischer, and four brothers, John, Paul, Francis and George.

Please direct memorials to the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict Outreach Ministries.

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By Gina Christian | OSV News

As Pope Francis seeks to include more women in key church leadership positions, a Catholic social worker has been named to a pioneering post for women in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia — and a number of women have inspired that historic journey, she told OSV News.

Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia announced Dec. 1 the appointment of Heather Huot as that archdiocese’s secretary for Catholic Human Services, overseeing three agencies — Catholic Social Services, Catholic Housing and Community Services and Nutritional Development Services — that combine to form the largest faith-based human services provider in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Huot, who takes over Jan. 1, 2024 for retiring longtime secretary James Amato, is the first woman in the archdiocese’s history to hold the position. She will supervise some 1,800 staff operating a broad range of programs across a five-county area that address poverty, homelessness, hunger, family and pregnancy support, and the needs of refugees, immigrants, seniors and those with intellectual disabilities.

The CHS team represents “an incredible number of people who are every day fulfilling the Gospel and putting those works of mercy out there in real life every day,” said Huot, who has worked for the secretariat for the past 18 years, most recently as director of its Housing and Community Services division, known for its nationally acclaimed model for converting unused church buildings into affordable senior housing.

Along with her experience and education — she holds both a licensure and a master’s degree in social work — the 45-year-old Huot brings to her new role a profound faith, one that has been nurtured in particular by the women in her life, her mother foremost among them.

“My father was not Catholic when my parents were married, and it was really my mother’s commitment to her faith that got us to where we are now,” said Huot, who grew up in St. Matthew Parish in Philadelphia. “(She) was adamant that we were going to church every Sunday as a family, and my dad was part of that, whether he was Catholic or not. Every Sunday, all five of us were sitting in the front pew at the 10 am Mass.”

Her mother’s dedication proved to be transformative: Huot’s father converted to Catholicism, and in 2001 he was ordained a permanent deacon.

“As a first grader, I saw my dad get baptized and become part of the church, which was … a very amazing moment,” said Huot. “It’s really my mother’s faith that I really see as the foundation of my whole family’s trajectory in our faith lives. … I don’t think any of us would be where we are today without that at the start.”

Inspired by her oldest sister, who has intellectual disabilities, Huot completed undergraduate studies in elementary and special education as well as theology, and planned to enter the teaching profession — until a gap year spent as a Franciscan volunteer “turned my plan on its head,” she said.

Working at St. Francis Inn — a ministry in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, which has long been plagued by addiction and homelessness — Huot experienced a profound sense of mission, one reinforced by the women who aided the Franciscan friars: “a core group of sisters” and two laywomen — one a lawyer, the other a business professional — “who had given up their whole careers to live and work at the inn,” said Huot.

“That is the year where the faith became my faith, not just the faith that was given to me by someone else,” she said. “And with that, I felt like I needed to be out there doing more with the homeless; I needed to figure out what was the next step for me.”

That step led her to becoming a case worker and later administrator at Women of Hope, an archdiocesan residence in downtown Philadelphia providing long-term housing and care for previously homeless women experiencing chronic mental illness.

“I was the only laywoman. All the rest of the staff at that time were Sisters of Mercy,” said Huot. “They were incredible women. I really feel like I learned their charism of hospitality. I learned how to really just be with and listen to people.”

Huot said she was struck by the tender, diligent ministry of the sisters, who would “plan these beautiful prayers for Christmas and Good Friday. And it was just part of our everyday work, their charism of mercy and love. I’ve tried to carry that through as I’ve progressed to other roles in social services. …They really taught me so much, both professionally and spiritually. And I really feel so indebted to them.”

Huot also was deeply impacted by a resident named Lydia, even giving her daughter that name.

“She was probably one of the most disliked residents at Women of Hope when I got there,” recalled Huot. “She was tiny; probably not more than 90 pounds. She had immigrated from northern Italy to the United States many years prior and spoke in broken English. … We don’t know exactly what had happened to her, but at some point she had a kind of mental break and ended up on the streets sleeping on people’s steps. When I arrived, she’d already been there a number of years, and she was a cranky lady.”

Despite Lydia’s roughness — “one time, she got mad at another resident and pulled the seat out from under her” — Huot said she was “able to find her softness.”

“I figured out she loved Dunkin’ Donuts, so we would go for rides and get doughnuts once a week,” said Huot. “She loved grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, so we would go to the little cafe down the street.”

Warmed by that kindness, Lydia “would come into my office and sing and dance and laugh,” said Huot. “Once you got past that exterior, she was really quite delightful.”

When her daughter was born after Lydia’s death, Huot sought to pay tribute to her unlikely mentor in ministry.

“We were her family,” said Huot. “I feel like I’ve honored her legacy and the legacy of all the women there by naming my daughter after her.”

Asked how the elder Lydia would react to the new appointment as CHS secretary, Huot said, “I think she would have laughed. She had this way of laughing and covering her mouth and doing a little jig. And then she would have asked me for 75 cents to buy a Pepsi at the soda machine.”
– – –
Gina Christian is a national reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @GinaJesseReina.

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By OSV News

At Blessed Sacrament Parish in Tallahassee, Father Peter Zalewski is a busy and beloved pastor, tending to the activities of his church community and the local Catholic school, the largest primary school in the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese.

But the pastor also serves in the Air Force Chaplain Corps, and with his Dec. 14 promotion to a one-star, or brigadier, general, he now holds the highest rank in the military of any Catholic priest.

On his one day off a week, he’ll be tending to meetings at the Pentagon or elsewhere in Washington, because he now serves as the primary adviser to the chief of the National Guard Bureau on religious, ethical and morale issues.

As a general, Father Zalewski will provide guidance and programs directing National Guard chaplain personnel and supporting Army and Air Guardsmen.

The Dec. 14 promotion ceremony at the Florida National Guard Headquarters in St. Augustine was the culmination of Father Zalewski’s nearly 40-year life in the military, which began in 1984 as a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

In the early 1990s, he deployed in major military operations, including serving as an intelligence officer in Operation Desert Storm in the first Gulf War. He was following in the footsteps of his father, who served two tours in Vietnam, but he also pursued a military career with encouragement of his mother, who helped him appreciate the meaning of serving the Armed Forces.

The Florida native eventually heard the call to pursue the priesthood instead of Air Force pilot training, so in 1992 he became a seminarian for the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. He also became an Air Force chaplain candidate.

At his promotion ceremony, Father Zalewski thanked his parishioners at Blessed Sacrament, as well as St. Dominic in Panama City, Florida, where he was previously pastor, for always supporting his dual responsibilities.

“Thank you for your support,” he said. “We have to protect those who protect us. So, thank you for allowing me to do that. That means a lot to me.”

Father Zalewski’s remarks were reported by Catholic Extension in an article on its website, www.catholicextension.org.

The priest’s connection to the Chicago-based organization is twofold. He serves on its mission committee, which helps Catholic Extension increase its impact and awareness around the country. He also has involved his parish in raising financial support for various Extension initiatives over the years.

But the priest also was a beneficiary of Extension’s funding of seminary education when he was in formation to be ordained for the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese.

Each year, Catholic Extension supports 400 seminarians on their path to the priesthood by providing scholarships that help struggling dioceses pay for seminarian tuition as well as room and board.

After his ordination in 1997, Father Zalewski began serving as a parish priest in his diocese and as a military reserve chaplain at bases in the Florida Panhandle. He would eventually be deployed again in 2008 as a “wing chaplain” to Al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, serving military personnel supporting U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“He knows that the many sacrifices of our service members have created a toll — physical, mental and spiritual,” Catholic Extension said. “Father Zalewski recalls his visits to military bases over these past years where he would encounter young soldiers wearing prosthetics, reminding him of what they gave on the battlefield.

“More troublesome, still, are the wounds that are not visible. Father Zalewski laments that despite many efforts within the services, suicides among military personnel are not decreasing and more needs to be done to stem this tide.”

Father Zalewski said, “It’s been an honor to serve my country in the military, and an honor to serve the Catholic Church in America through Catholic Extension’s mission committee. I see that many of our service members come from rural communities — so Extension is a direct contributor to their spiritual well-being and strength.”

Roughly a quarter of all active-duty military personnel are Catholic, Extension noted, but “as a general, he will serve people regardless of their religious affiliation. … His job will be to ensure that these young, self-sacrificing men and women, who have given so much to our country, have the spiritual care they need.”

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Story by Mary L. Parks

Just before Jean-Claude Duncan’s ordination to the priesthood on Dec. 9 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in St. Cloud, he attended a retreat at the Saint John’s Abbey Guesthouse in Collegeville.

“This is a good time for me to reconnect with the people here, to invest in those relationships which are so important,” he said. 

For Father Duncan, such relationships have been central to his journey to the priesthood. 

“My father was a career soldier, and we moved around a lot,” he said. “That included six months in Pennsylvania where I, at 8 years of age, was baptized. Regrettably, my father’s orders to Germany put an end to my family’s participation in church.” 

As a teen, singing sacred choral music and his choir director’s kerygmatic presentation watered the dormant seeds of his baptism. He began exploring faith through the German/American faith community in Berlin, Germany.

When he met Anne, who is now his wife, he said that neither Anne nor he “had moorings in the faith, and God was more of a convincing idea than an intimate reality.” Together, they eventually found a home at a large Protestant church in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities. They were drawn in by the music and the generous hospitality.

“That church was like instant family,” Father Duncan recalled. “It was vivifying. We both were in the early stage of marriage, growing closer in our relationship, learning who we were, our place in creation and how we ought to live with other people. Oh, we were both also still in college.”

Through the scriptural teachings of this community, Father Duncan said God was “no longer an idea, but the answer to the longing of our hearts.”

While discerning his post-college steps, he accepted a volunteer role as the discipleship director of Alpha, a course that introduces basics of Christan faith. As his understanding of salvation history continued to grow, so did his questions. He found himself wanting a more systematic understanding of theology, including a nuanced understanding of sin and he wanted to understand areas of moral theology. Yet, he wasn’t finding the answers he was looking for. He was frustrated that he didn’t even know the questions to ask.

A mentor suggested studying theology.

“It was something I hadn’t considered,” Father Duncan explained. “I went to college for finance and I was working in that field. I initially resisted this suggestion. Volunteering as the Alpha program director and interacting with pastoral leadership, I knew ministry wasn’t an easy calling.” 

Through providence, he said, and after having given the matter proper discernment, he soon found himself in seminary in Missouri, accompanied by his wife and the two children they had at the time.

“It was a time of advancement and beauty. I was immersed in Scripture,” he said. 

After seminary, he was ordained and accepted a position as a fill-in pastor at a Protestant church. There he discovered a love of liturgy, especially as expressed through tradition and he became the community’s pastor.

“Liturgy is Holy Spirit guided, worshipful expression. It is the work of the people acting in common,” he said.

A lifelong learner and particularly intrigued by the communal aspect of liturgy, Father Duncan began making connections between liturgy and the faith. He realized “the prayer Jesus taught us begins with ‘Our Father’, not ‘My Father.’” Discovering the axiom “Lex orandi, lex credenda,” which suggests that the law of prayer shapes belief, Father Duncan was convinced “that liturgy subsumed individuality and offered the fullest understanding of the Church as unifying agent of humanity.”

This was a turning point for him. Seeking more understanding, he reached out to Father David Petron, a now retired Catholic priest of the St. Cloud Diocese, and formed a ministerial association. The association allowed the two men to have frequent conversations.

“Father Petron exemplified the accompaniment Pope Francis has since called us to,” Father Duncan said. “Father Dave was very hospitable, a true companion on my family’s journey, and he was gracious enough to allow me the space to ask questions and to dwell with the answers as long as I needed. He never once acted with triumphalism or anything but humility. He also liked a good laugh.”

In the winter of 2007, Father Petron gave RCIA and OCIC instruction to the Duncan family. 

Father Duncan describes the years that followed RCIA instruction as “difficult.” He was torn between the need to provide for his family in the vocation he felt was his calling and the increasing call to unite with the Catholic Church. Anne, too, struggled with reconciling her growing devotion to Our Lady with Father Duncan’s Protestant pastorate.

During this time of discernment, he was connected with Marcus Grodi’s Journey Home apostolate. This apostolate works with Protestant clergy discerning entering the Catholic Church. Having worked with hundreds of converting clergy, the apostolate assisted Father Duncan with resources explaining how other converts managed to bridge the total loss of their means of living due to their conversion to the Catholic Church. He then reached out to the St. Cloud Diocese and began to understand the extent of what conversion would entail.

In the end, it was the Eucharist that tipped the scale. 

“I couldn’t run from the reality that Christ lovingly offered himself in the Eucharist. Standing at the altar preparing to say the words of Eucharistic institution, I wept. I no longer could hide from the decision. I needed to practice the faith that I preached,” Father Duncan said. 

Father Duncan and Anne made the decision to leave his Protestant pastorate and pursue the Catholic faith. Upon making this decision, “divine providence allowed things to fall in place.” He was offered a job as an insurance agent with the Knights of Columbus and the Protestant community he served granted Father Duncan’s family permission to remain in the parsonage as renters. 

“While I feared losing everything, God did not,” Father Duncan remembered. 

He and his family, which now includes nine children, became Catholic through confirmation in 2016. 

Knowing of the possibility that a limited number of former Protestant clergy could be considered for priesthood, Father Duncan approached then-Bishop Donald Kettler.

“I always saw entering the Church as my family’s main goal,” Father Duncan said.

Bishop Kettler asked Father Duncan to continue discerning. Eventually, Bishop Kettler asked him to undergo additional discernment and formation at Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville. 

“I am profoundly grateful to Saint John’s School of Theology and St. John’s Abbey as they provided an opportunity for critical self-assessment and horizon-widening conversations and insights. But I also walked away more firmly rooted in those beliefs that initially drew me to the Church,” Father Duncan said.

“At Saint John’s, I interacted with exemplary religious brothers and sisters from other countries and worked alongside gifted and faithful lay ecclesial leaders from across the United States. I formed deep bonds with friends from Hong Kong, South America, Mexico, Tanzania and Kenya. Some of these friends returned to Minnesota for my ordinations.

“Being at Saint John’s and seeing the world Church gathered in a classroom or in conversation after prayers offered me insight into the multiplicity of experiences awaiting us in the divine life with Christ and those whom Christ called to himself.”

Because Father Duncan is married, Pope Francis made a special exception to allow his ordination. He was ordained as a transitional deacon on Aug. 20 at his home parish, St. Ann in Wadena.

Beginning in January, Father Duncan will serve as parochial vicar of the St. Cloud parishes of St. Augustine, St. John Cantius and St. Mary’s Cathedral.

“I will continue to grow as a sacramental minister. I desire to influence others with the very Gospel that transformed me and to share the joy of our faith. I hope to highlight hope, God’s providence and how God’s grace is evident. Even in trials,” Father Duncan said. 

“My story might be atypical, but it is nothing in comparison to the work of God in the lives of each of us every day. Conversion is the process of trust we all must live daily. Intoning each day with ‘Lord, open my lips,’ is the first daily act of a disciple being open to daily conversion. Like those I am called to serve sacramentally, I, too, must remain a humble convert each day.”

—

Photos by Dianne Towalski / The Central Minnesota Catholic

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St. Augustine said in one of his letters, “The way to Christ is first through humility, second through humility, third through humility” (Letters 118:22). Humility is a word that comes to mind when I look at all the people and figures that we are honoring in the Diocese of St. Cloud in this new year of 2024.

In December, we celebrated the ordination to the priesthood of Father Jean-Claude Duncan who, just a few years ago, asked Bishop Emeritus Donald Kettler to receive him and his entire family into the Catholic Church. A father of nine children, he was granted a dispensation by the Vatican to be ordained a Catholic priest. An extraordinarily gifted man, he is humble and loving to the core.

We begin this new year by honoring Mary, the Mother of God. It is amazing how God chose a simple, humble handmaid of 15 years of age to bear the greatest gift he could give us: his only beloved Son.

The Feast of the Epiphany celebrates the Three Kings who humble themselves on bended knee before Christ the King: our God incarnate in a tiny child lying in a manger.

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord underlines the mystery of the Son of God humbling himself to become one with us. As a human person, Jesus identified with us not only in our strengths, but in our frailty.

This month, we pray for the legal protection of unborn children, who are the tiniest and most vulnerable of human beings, created in the image and likeness of God.

We honor Martin Luther King, Jr., who once said about his mother, “She taught me that I should feel a sense of ‘somebodiness’ but that, on the other hand, I had to go out and face a system that stared me in the face every day saying you are ‘less than,’ you are ‘not equal to.’” He managed to remain humble and loving in the face of countless humiliations.

In this month when we also celebrate Catholic Schools Week, we honor our Catholic school teachers for their humble and loving service of our young people. In the words of Pope Francis, “Let us thank all those who teach in Catholic schools. Educating is an act of love; it is like giving life.”

Being a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, I truly admire our first Holy Cross saint, St. André Bessette, whose feast day is Jan. 6. He could not read or write and humbly served students at College Notre Dame in Montreal, Canada, as a porter, which meant that heswept, mopped andmaintained thecleanliness of the school. He prayed long hours and was known for his gift of healing through the intercession of St. Joseph. He once wrote that, “It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.”

Let us never forget that while we may be the smallest of brushes, God, the artist, paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures with each one of us. The way to Christ is through humility.

Yours in Christ,

Bishop Patrick M. Neary, C.S.C

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