Diocese's chancellor is a woman of Central Missouri, the world

It’s a back-and-forth thing. We come together as the People of God to worship, and then we’re sent forth ‘to love and serve the Lord’ by our lives. It’s that whole cycle of being sent out and returning to be nourished and be sent again.”

Sr. Kathleen Wegman SSND

A piercing squeak broke the silence in the cathedral during Evening Prayer the night before Bishop W. Shawn McKnight’s episcopal ordination and installation.

The worn lever of the diocesan seal shrieked as Sister Kathleen Wegman SSND notarized the bishop-elect’s Profession of Faith and Oath of Fidelity to the Magisterium.

“People mentioned to me how loud the seal squeaks,” said Sr. Kathleen, a School Sister of Notre Dame and chancellor of the Jefferson City diocese. “But I didn’t even notice. I must be used to it.”

Every diocese is required to have a chancellor, whose primary function under Church law is to notarize documents and ensure that records of the bishop’s and his advisors’ official actions “are gathered, arranged and safeguarded in the archive of the curia,” (Code of Canon Law, #482).

Working closely with Bishop McKnight; the vicar general, Monsignor Robert A. Kurwicki VG; and other members of the bishop’s cabinet, Sr. Kathleen also facilitates various aspects of the Church’s ministry at the diocesan and parish levels.

Since Bishop Emeritus John R. Gaydos appointed her chancellor in 2007, she has also functioned as the diocese’s delegate to sisters and brothers who are members of religious communities, and provided guidance to pastors, parish pastoral councils and finance councils on their roles and responsibilities.

As part of Bishop Mc-Knight’s cabinet, she will now also serve as his liaison to Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri and its affiliated agencies, and as liaison to Catholic healthcare, primarily the SSM St. Mary’s Hospitals in Jefferson City and Mexico.

She said she’s looking forward to working with Catholic Charities, “which serves as the diocese’s ministerial arm to the poor, providing direct services,” to help bring about Bishop McKnight’s vision of every parish becoming a “center of charity.”

“I have seen Catholic Charities get up and running in the dioceses, and now I’m happy to be part of the impact and growth that Catholic Charities has and will continue to have,” she said.

“Back and forth”

While growing up in Jefferson City, Sr. Kathleen never knew that the Church in central and northeastern Missouri is classified as a mission diocese.

“But the beauty of a mission diocese is, while you may lack resources, you don’t lack ingenuity, commitment or dependence upon one another,” she said. “In that sense, a lack of resources can be fertile ground for growth.”

Furthermore, while there are now fewer priests and religious here than there were when she was growing up, “there is a far greater number of lay ecclesial ministers — and that’s good for the Church,” she said.

She believes a significant number of Catholics here have a clear understanding about who they are called to be and are genuinely enthused about bringing Christ to the world.

“You sense that in the quality of parish life in many places, where parish life is much more than Sunday celebrations,” she said. “The sacraments nourish a strong community of faith that goes out and puts God’s Word into practice.”

She sees an impressive number of Catholics here who are noticeably “other-centered,” consistently reaching out to people who are in need.

“It’s a back-and-forth thing,” she said. “We come together as the People of God to worship, and then we’re sent forth ‘to love and serve the Lord’ by our lives. It’s that whole cycle of being sent out and returning to be nourished and be sent again.”

At home and abroad

Sr. Kathleen attended St. Peter Interparish School, St. Joseph Cathedral School and Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City.

Since entering religious life in 1967, she has served as a teacher, principal and diocesan elementary-school director in Missouri and Illinois and as provincial councilor and provincial leader of the former St. Louis province of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

She was director of elementary schools for the St. Louis archdiocese from 1981-83; provincial councilor from 1983-91; and provincial leader from 1991-99.

She taught in Nepal for a semester in 2000, and taught English in Japan’s largest Catholic school from 2002-04.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in social studies, with a minor in theology, and a master’s degree in elementary school administration. She has also taken various courses in Canon Law.

She has lived and spent time in various cultures in the United States and many other countries, including Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Japan, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Italy.

She co-facilitated the regional chapter of the Good Samaritan Sisters in Kobe, Japan, and participated in three general chapters of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Rome.

All of this has helped her develop a broad experience of Church all over the world, as well as a keen awareness that “there’s no one way of doing things.”

In getting to know the priests from other countries who are serving in this diocese, it helps her to have visited so many of the countries they’re from.

“It gives me an appreciation for the tremendous transition they make when they come here,” she said. “I’m in awe of their energy and enthusiasm to serve us here in Mid-Missouri.”

She believes that with them and the members of the various congregations and orders of religious men and women serving in the diocese, “we’re blessed with a wealth of varied experiences that bring us a much larger perspective of Church.

“And when you’re a mission diocese, it seems to me, God counts on all of us who have had those kinds of experiences to share them in any way possible,” she said. “We become part of the resources available for the Church.”

Unity in mission

Sr. Kathleen described her style of leadership and deliberation as relational: of listening and animating fidelity to mission.

In working with parishes at a pastor’s invitation, she helps build up and strengthen leadership structures, specifically parish pastoral councils and parish finance councils.

She helps the members understand the complementary roles of the clergy and the laypeople in carrying out these responsibilities.

She reviews with them the fourfold mission of the Church, which is to spread the Gospel, form community, celebrate through the sacramental life of the Church, and serve the poor.

She emphasizes the importance of faith-sharing, prayer and discernment among the laypeople who deliberate and advise the pastors.

She helps them see how individual Catholics, although diverse in experiences and perspectives, “are most united at the level of faith and mission” — which happens to be the realm in which parish councils are supposed to operate.

After helping Bishop Gaydos update his pastoral plan for the diocese in 2015, Sr. Kathleen helped lead a diocese-wide consultation to gauge and assess the viability and vitality of parishes.

Addressing the decreasing number of priests in the diocese and the changing demographics in some areas will inevitably involve regrouping parishes in order to help achieve new life and purpose.

“It’s not that any of these communities aren’t good,” Sr. Kathleen emphasized. “It’s just that there are fewer people.

So how do we regroup so there is a vital and vibrant community of faith that is sustained through the sacraments and then sent to serve?”

“To make Christ visible”

True to her congregation’s primary focus, Sr. Kathleen sees herself as an educator.

“As School Sisters of Notre Dame, we define education as enabling people to reach the fullness of their potential,” she said. “When each person is aware of their own giftedness that they bring to the group, we can all be coordinated to strengthen our ability to fulfill the mission — which is to make Christ visible in the world.”

She asks for prayers for God to help her use her gifts wisely, faithfully and generously and always be faithful to the call He has given her.

People can help God answer that prayer by simply “being the best they can be, by using the gifts they have been given for the good of the whole,” she said.