Daughters of Charity at Mater Dei

By Mallory Hertel ‘07

Mater Dei has been blessed with seeing the smiling faces of Sr. Ann Marie Butler and Sr. Sheila Carney nearly every day for years. These special Daughters of Charity have given more to MD than just their happy demeanor and wisdom. Both have taken on very important roles since joining our school staff. Sr. Sheila is originally from Utica, NY. Since her Formation as a Daughter of Charity in 1958, Sr. Sheila has gone on to dedicate her life to students. She has served in various roles in schools all across the country from Washington, D.C., Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi, Illinois, and Texas. She taught middle school for 28 years and served as a principal for 6. Throughout her time, she also was a volleyball and basketball coach. She then went on to serve as the Secretary at the Mater Dei Provincial House of Evansville. In 2015, Sr. Sheila came to Mater Dei High School and went straight to volunteering her services in the Business Office where she aids in payroll, details, and deposits and keeps her office mates in line. When asked what she likes the most about her time at Mater Dei, Sister says, “It keeps me connected with youth and the high school kids. Not that I have a lot to do with them directly, but it keeps me around them.” In her spare time, you can find Sister Sheila reading, doing jigsaw puzzles, and keeping up with sports. She is especially a fan of college basketball. She now has all of her fellow Daughters of Charity filling out brackets every year during March Madness. Sister Ann Marie Butler began her volunteer ministry at Mater Dei in 2011 and has provided spiritual guidance to groups of 3-4 students at a time during part of their junior theology class. It takes approximately two weeks to see all the students in the class and then they continue on a rotation the rest of the year. She concentrates on 3 main areas with the junior class: 1) their relationship with God and various prayer experiences 2) recognition of the gifts God has given them and the use of those gifts to serve others and 3) a discernment process that will help them in making good decisions for the rest of their lives.

Sr. Ann Marie Butler and Sr. Sheila Carney

Originally from Natchez, Mississippi, Sister Ann Marie began her ministry in Catholic education 56 years ago. She has served as a teacher, principal, spiritual director, and a member of the Diocesan team in Mississippi to visit all Catholic schools and assist them in areas of Catholic identity as well as the special needs of the school. She even developed a program in small group spiritual guidance which was published by the National Catholic Education Association. The title of the book is: “Many and Beautiful Things: Small Group Spiritual Guidance,” the title taken from a teacher’s prayer: “One day I would like to teach a few people many and beautiful things that will help them when they will one day teach a few people.” Sister Ann Marie says, “I love being at Mater Dei and feel that I am doubly blessed to have a great community of Sisters with whom I live and another special one with the faculty and students here.” Sister Ann Marie and Sister Sheila certainly give to the school in more ways than one and we are so incredibly grateful for their talents and presence day in and day out.

Sr. Sheila Carney enjoyed lunch with co-workers, Jill Seiler, Kendal (Elpers) Schmidt ‘08, and Tara (Elpers) Wayne ‘05!