July 30, 2018

Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Assisi elect new leadership team

REGIONAL
Staff report

Pictured are (left to right) Sisters Theresa Mwelwa, secretary; Sofia Lee, vicar; Dorcas Cordilia Munthali, treasurer; Cristina Sascau, councilor; and Regina Melunga, vice provincial superior. (IObserve photo/courtesy of Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Assisi)

SPRINGFIELD – The Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Assisi of the Vice Province of the Immaculate Conception elected a new leadership team during the community’s chapter meeting last week.

The chapter meeting was preceded by a July 8-14 retreat held at Mount Alvernia Retreat Center in Wappinger Falls, N.Y., and conducted by Father Warren Savage of the Diocese of Springfield. The theme for the chapter – “Owning our Identity and Living Our Mission in the USA” – was developed during the retreat. The chapter followed on July 16-21 at St. Francis Convent in Holyoke. 

The sisters elected into leadership on July 19 by the 14-member chapter are: Franciscan Sisters of Assisi Regina Mulenga, vice provincial superior, Sofia Lee, vice provincial vicar; Theresa Mwelwa, councilor and secretary; Cristina Sascau, councilor; and Dorcas Cordilia Munthali, counselor and treasurer.

Father Donald Lapointe of the Diocese of Springfield offered Mass and a spiritual conference along with Conventual Franciscan Fathers Noel Danielewics and Albert Scherer.

The Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Assisi were founded in Assisi in 1702 and their motherhouse and general curia are still headquartered there. The order currently has about 600 sisters in 20 countries worldwide.  

The community’s presence in the United States started in 1961 in Ellicott City, Md., at the invitation of the Conventual Franciscans. There are currently 14 sisters in this vice province with houses in three dioceses: Springfield, Mass., Brooklyn and Queens, N.Y., and Gallup, N.M.