For The Catholic Messenger
DAVENPORT — The Congregation of the Humility of Mary (CHM) has elected its leadership team for the next four years. The election was held during a session of the congregation’s representative assembly on March 17.
Newly elected CHM officers and cabinet members are Sister Mary Ann Vogel, president; Sister Johanna Rickl, vice-president; and cabinet members Sisters Marcia Eckerman, Lynn Mousel and Irene Muñoz. Their terms begin in July.
Reflecting on the leadership’s focus over the next four years, Sr. Vogel said, “The current leadership team, along with all the sisters, worked on a plan for the future of our community, meaning much of the work of our new team is set in place. The plan will allow us to focus on the CHM mission and the pastoral aspects of leadership responsibilities. As we move forward into the mystery of the future, we call to mind these words of Isaiah 43:19: ‘Behold, I am doing something new! Do you not perceive it?’ These certainly are interesting times with interesting challenges.”
Sr. Vogel is the current treasurer, as well as a CHM cabinet member. She helped in the founding of Humility of Mary Housing, Inc. (HMHI), a CHM-sponsored ministry that supports single parents who experience homelessness. She entered the congregation in 1958; taught math and science in Ottumwa and served as finance director for the CHM community and HMHI.
Sr. Rickl entered the Sisters of Humility in 1960. She taught in Iowa, Montana and Arizona and was involved in pastoral ministry in Mexico and Montana. She was a Spanish interpreter at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines while participating in an intentional community of CHMs and lay persons. Sr. Rickl served a term as CHM vice president and is currently president of the CHM community.
Sr. Eckerman entered the Sisters of Humility in 1978 and has had a variety of ministries including administration at Marycrest College in Davenport, and public relations at St. Joseph Health Rehab Center and Ottumwa Regional Health Center in Ottumwa. She served as development director for AIDs Project Quad Cities and the Congregation of the Humility of Mary. She currently serves as assistant for a CHM-sponsored ministry, Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, near Wheatland.
Sr. Mousel has relocated to Davenport from Great Falls, Mont., where she worked as a staff psychiatrist for AWARE, providing outpatient and group-home services. Prior to that, she was a staff psychiatrist at Orchard Place in Des Moines, Iowa. She entered the community in 2004.
Sr. Muñoz is a multicultural pastoral minister at St. Mary of the Visitation Parish in Ottumwa. She entered the congregation in 1957 and ministered in nursing in Iowa in the cities of Ottumwa, Des Moines and Muscatine. She was also involved in Hispanic ministry in the Archdiocese of Denver, Colo.
The public is invited to join the Congregation of the Humility of Mary at a special leadership installation Mass at 11 a.m., on June 24 in Christ the King Chapel on the campus of St. Ambrose University, Davenport.
