Heil sisters celebrate religious jubilees of 25 and 50 years

Two Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and biological sisters with ties to the area are celebrating their religious jubilees and vows to religious life: Sister Carolyn Heil and her Golden Jubilee of 50 years and Sister Roselyn Heil, a Silver Jubilarian of 25 years.

Professing vows in 1970 with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Carolyn Heil began ministering as a teacher in middle schools in Superior (Cathedral), Durand and Stanley. From 1979 to 1985, she served as pastoral assistant/director of religious education in Lac du Flambeau. She earned her master’s degree in Culture and Creation-Centered Spirituality from Holy Names University in Oakland, Calif.

Heil then served as secretary at St. Elizabeth Seton School in Palo Alto, California, for one year and distribution manager for Creation Magazine, a publication of Holy Names’ Culture and Creation-Centered Spirituality program, for three years. In 1991 she moved to Canada to minister at the Ecology Retreat Center in Orangeville, Ontario, and then to Forest, Ontario, to serve for one year as the sole elementary school teacher at Stoney Point Reserve School.

Her love for serving those with neurobiological disabilities and her integration of complementary medicine brought her to Kilworthy, Ontario, to help found Camp Winston. At the summer camp for children with complex neurobiological disabilities, Heil developed a nature program designed to build interrelationships between people and all creation and nurture interactive social skills necessary for navigating a better, healthier life.

Beginning her ministry as an educator in Ashland, Roselyn Heil also entered FSPA in 1970. She began her ministry as a teacher in Ashland, transitioned to supportive therapy work in Sheboygan and followed as activities director at Victory Memorial Nursing Home in Stanley. In 1976 she temporarily withdrew from FSPA. She continued to minister as a liturgist in Milwaukee, earned her master’s degree in Culture and Creation Spirituality and worked as a national park interpretive ranger out west for 12 years before moving into hospice chaplaincy in Montana.

In 2001 Roselyn Heil received further training as a chaplain at Aspirus Wausau Hospital. In 2003 she reentered FSPA and served at Marywood Franciscan Spirituality Center in Arbor Vitae and at the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation. In 2014 Roselyn Heil continued spiritual direction, healing energy therapy and training and served as spiritual assistant to Secular Franciscans at St. Anthony Retreat Center in Marathon. In 2016 she became the pastoral care director at Bell Tower Residence Assisted Living in Merrill. In 2021 she responded to a call to serve as pastoral associate for St. Mary’s Parish on the Bad River Ojibwe Reservation in Odanah.

A jubilee celebration was held for both sisters at St. Rose Convent, La Crosse, on June 17.

Based in La Crosse, Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration are women religiously engaged in furthering the work of the Catholic Church and the gospel. Their partners in ministry, including affiliates and prayer partners, join them in service of God’s mission. The sisters work in varied ministries, collaborating to minister in areas of greatest need, living the gospel through contemplation and action.