From Saturday, August 12 to Monday, August 14, His Excellency, Bishop Thomas John Pap-rocki, and his vicar general Msgr. Hoefler from Springfield, Illinois, U.S.A. visited Thuine. Our provincial house in Alton belongs to the Diocese of Springfield-in-Illinois, so Bishop Paprocki and Msgr. Hoefler are very close to our Sisters there.
From Munster they arrived at the Motherhouse gate at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday and were warmly greeted and welcomed by Mother Maria Cordis in Christ the King Church. For his part, the bishop briefly introduced himself, expressed his closeness to us and his joy at being able to visit the site of the congre-gation’s founding, and concluded by giving the Sisters the episcopal blessing.
Since our gen-eral vicaress, Sister M. Maximilia, previously worked in the offices of the Diocese of Spring-field-in-Illinois and knows the guests well, she arranged a small program for them, including a visit to the grave of our foundress, Mother M. Anselma, to the mission procurator's office, and to the two residences for our elderly and infirm Sisters, St. Theresa and St. Joseph. High-lights were the celebration of holy mass with the bishop on Sunday, August 13 in Latin and on Monday, August 14, the memorial of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe in English.
Of course, a visit to our mission procurator's office was not to be missed.
