GENOA—As School Sister of St. Francis Marianne Nilges was laid to rest on July 25, people from St. Catherine  of Genoa Parish, friends and relatives remembered her devotion to her brother — diocesan priest Father Harold Nilges — and to the people of God.

Although Sister Marianne had planned simply for a gravesite service in Genoa, Father Donald Ahles, pastor, decided to hold a memorial Mass at the church beforehand, particularly for those who could not attend the funeral Mass at the Franciscan Motherhouse in Milwaukee on July 23.

Sister Marianne and Father Nilges “loved this parish enough to decide to be buried here,” Father Ahles said in his homily. “We take that as a great compliment.”

The brother-sister team served at St. Mary Parish in DeKalb in the 1970s and early 1980s — he as pastor and she as director of religious education.

They came together to fulfill those roles in Genoa in 1983. Among their contributions to the St. Catherine of Genoa Parish is the rectory.

The “very beautiful house,” Father Ahles said, was paid for by their family. The house was given to the parish a while after Father Nilges died (2006), when Sister Marianne retired to the School Sisters’ facility in Campbellsport, Wisconsin.

The rectory, Father Ahles added, “will be used generation after generation” by the parish, and he heartily thanked family members who were present.

Saying she was a woman who had “such purpose and joy,” the priest noted that Sister Marianne “began early” to follow Jesus.

Born in Aurora, she headed to the convent at age 13.

“And as far as I know,” Father Ahles said, “she never looked back.”

She “always had a smile on her face,” he added. “It’s a rare quality (to always) emit this very positive, optimistic energy.”

Among her many talents, he said, including teaching, was her ability for “encouragement and of sharing God’s work with joy as often as she could,” including the years when she cared for her priest-brother in his illness.

Before going to DeKalb and then Genoa, Sister Marianne had served in the Diocese of Rockford at St. John the Baptist School in Johnsburg and at St. Joseph School in Aurora, as well as in other Illinois towns.

One of her Johnsburg students, Mark Schmitt, now of Burlington, Wisconsin, attended the Genoa celebration.

“Jesus wasn’t (just) a historical figure for her, and it showed,” Schmitt said, adding that he got back in touch with his fifth grade teacher some years back and visited her every so often.

“She was awesome, and a lot of fun,” he said, showing off a photo of his fifth grade class and a recent Christmas card photo of his family, both part of a photographic display about Sister Marianne at the reception.

St. Catherine parishioner Teri Wille credits Father Nilges and Sister Marianne with helping her discover and embrace the Catholic faith. She met them when her then-not-practicing-Catholic husband wanted their first two children baptized in the church. Teri was completely won over by the priest and sister, and said that “anytime I’d ask them a question, they’d stand patiently and answer” even if the timing was inconvenient.

Father Nilges asked her if she’d be interested in learning about Catholicism, then met with the couple every Saturday for two months. What Catholics actually believe was not what she thought they believed, Wille said. When the priest asked, “So are you interested in joining?” her answer was “Yes!”
Wille has been a parishioner at St. Catherine’s since 1986. She said that Sister Marianne “was there whenever we had a baby” as the family grew to include 10 children.

“She is a treasure here and in heaven,” Wille concluded.

Jody Watermann is the youngest first cousin of Sister Marianne and Father Nilges, only 11 months old when Father Nilges was ordained. She saw her cousins at many family reunions.

“After thinking about it I do believe her infectious laughter comes to mind most immediately,” Watermann said of Sister Marianne. “She laughed often! She was one of the happiest people I’ve ever known.

“It’s a great family to belong to,” she said, and her husband, Deacon Bruce Watermann, quickly grinned and added, “and to marry into, too.”

Father Ahles concluded his homily reflections by looking at family connections.

It is hard to be “saying goodbye to someone we shared life with, someone we loved,” he said, noting that it is possible at the same time to be happy for that loved one.

“Sister Marianne has reached her destiny,” he said, “and she is reunited with her family and with her (religious) sisters.”

Surely that’s one joyful family reunion!