(L to r) Sister Marita Maschmann, OSF,
Mother Rosemae Pender, FSE
and Sister Marla Lang, FSPA
(Photo courtesy of Lisa Zmuda, FSPA)

Mother Shaun Vergauwen, FSE, (l), and Mother Rosemae Pender, FSE (r)
with Sister Marlene Weisenbeck, President of FSPA
(Photo courtesy of Lisa Zmuda, FSPA)

DETROIT, MI (Aug. 21, 2003). At the annual meeting of the Franciscan Federation held in Detroit this week, Mother Rosemae Pender, FSE Mother General, along with Sister Marla Lang, FSPA and Sister Marita Maschmann, OSF jointly received the 2003 Reconciler Award. Nominated for the award by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, the three Franciscan leaders were recognized for their mutual efforts of reconciliation of their three congregations.

Sister Marla Lang, former President of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Sister Marita Maschmann, former President of the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis, Wisconsin, began, with Mother Rosemae Pender, a process of communication and collaboration among the three congregations within the past few years. This effort has resulted in the communities' common venture of working together to support the mission of the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis in Cameroon and open communication and respect among the three orders for each community's unique charism.

The three leaders were honored for their successful efforts of re-establishing relationships among the communities following a series of transitions and changes. Having grown from a common heritage, each community claims its original roots back to a group of Franciscan Tertiaries who left Bavaria and started a mission near Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the mid-1800's. From the beginning effort of founding a religious order in Milwaukee, two religious orders emerged -- the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi. More recently, in 1973, the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, Meriden, Connecticut, was founded out of a group from the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

Sister Marlene Weisenbeck, President of Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration explained to the three Sisters her congregation's nomination: "The reason for our nomination is motivated by having witnessed the collaborative and reconciling efforts that each of you so generously modeled during the 1999 celebrations of the 150th Anniversary of the founding of our communities. Each of you called our communities to deeper understandings and experiences of reconciliation. Each of you responded to a call that would leave a legacy of this sign of reconciliation in the Cameroon Common Venture."