Sisters in Beijing: Mission to China

This brief history of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Joseph, Minnesota in Beijing is from the Archives of the Sisters at their monastery in St. Joseph.

1929

August 24, Rev. Francis Clougherty, O.S.B., chancellor of the Catholic University

of Peking came to St. Benedict’s to ask for the personnel to staff a women’s college which would be an affiliate of the University. This school for higher Chinese studies was a young institution sponsored by the Benedictine abbeys of the American Cassinese Congregation. Our Benedictine Convent was Diocesan, and Mother Louisa Walz told Father Clougherty he would have to obtain the consent of Joseph F. Busch, Bishop of St. Cloud.

Eventually the Community could no longer hesitate to accept this mission since the Bishop approved and the Holy Father had asked the Benedictine Sisters to undertake it. Monday morning August 26, Father Clougherty and the Bishop addressed the assembled Sisters. When Bishop Busch spoke, he gave his consent for the undertaking, but only on the condition the necessary funds be raised by the diocesan Propagation of the Faith, and that the motherhouse be in no way held responsible. This was done as a matter of precaution; for he knew that St. Benedict’s had lately incurred a two-million dollar debt in erecting a hospital in St. Cloud and hard times were already threating this country.

1930

In the fall of 1929 a novena to the Holy Spirit was made by all the Sisters, and at its close 109 Sisters offered themselves for work in China. In April 1930, Mother Louisa chose Sister Francetta Vetter, Sister Donalda Terhaar, Sister Regia Zens,

Sister Rachel Loulan, Sister Ronayne Gergen, and Sister Wibora Muehlenbein from that list of names. These six sisters left St. Benedict's Convent on August 30, 1930.

They arrived at Peking in late September, and were domiciled in a house belonging to the University but located some distance from it. The house and its location were suitable enough while the sisters were studying the Chinese language and people and becoming acclimated. However, it wa too small to accommodate the students that the University soon sent there in increasing numbers. When the sisters complained of lack of room they were told to purchase a larger building. It was now apparent that neither the apostolic delegate at Peking nor the University officials ever planned to build a women’s college, but had intended that the sisters accept complete responsibility for this project.

McDonald, Sister Grace, O.S.B. WITH LAMPS BURNING. Priory Press, 1957. pp. 268-269.
McDonald, Sister Grace, O.S.B. WITH LAMPS BURNING. Pp. 269-271.
Bishop Joseph N. Tacconi's letter to Mother Louisa September 26, 1933.

1932

The Benedictine Sisters opened the women's section of the senior high school in September of 1932. The Women's College was still without financial backing as the Benedictines of St. Joseph, Minnesota were unable to take this responsibility, and Bishop Busch was protesting that he had never committed St Benedict's to found or build such a college. It was fortunate that the Sisters were not permitted to buy the property, for control of the Catholic University of Peking was soon to pass from the hands of the Benedictine priests to the Fathers of the Divine Word.

Lack of funds, together with lack of teaching personnel, had forced the American Benedictine abbeys to ask Rome to transfer control of the University to another religious body. This transfer came in 1933. In December of 1933 the Fathers of the Divine Word told the Benedictine Sisters that they could continue their work in the Women's College, but that the College would not be supported by the Catholic University. On receipt of this news, St. Benedict's informed the Sisters that they must plan to return to Minnesota at the end of the next year, August, 1935. That year would mark the end of the five-year that St. Benedict's had made with the Catholic University.

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