To learn how your Franciscan TOR congregation might benefit from membership, contact:

Sr. Carol Besch, OSF, Chair,
TOR FCN Governing Board
3390 Windsor
Dubuque, IA 52001-1311
h. 563-583-9786
beschc@osfdbq.org

Sr. Edna Michel, OSF, Chair,
New Membership Committee
200 St. Francis Ave.
Tiffin, OH  44883
Ph. 419-447-0435
emichel@tiffinfranciscans.org

Sr. Rose Wisniewski, OSF
TOR FCN Novice Minister
rosew4@att.net

Learn more about the TOR FCN in our new brochure.

Position Open: NOVICE CO-MINISTER
Click for additional Information

On July 7, 2009 the Third Order Regular Franciscan Common Novitiate was given official approval by the Vatican.  Since the early 1990s, religious congregations of Franciscan TOR women have provided a high quality canonical novitiate experience for their new members by pooling their personnel and financial resources.  The new entity is a merger of two regional common Franciscan novitiates, one in the Eastern part of the country, and the other in the Midwest. 

The TOR FCN immerses novices in a rhythm of prayer, study, leisure, community service, common living, inter-congregational learning and personal growth.    An on-site novice minister is in frequent communication with the home congregational novice minister, and great efforts are made to strengthen ties to the home congregation, while simultaneously providing the novices with a peer group. 

Currently, thirty-one TOR congregations of Franciscan women participate in the Franciscan Common Novitiate.  

TOR FCN Hires On-Site Novice Minister

The Governing Board of the Third Order Regular Franciscan Common Novitiate is pleased to announce the appointment of its on-site novice minister:  Sister Rosalie Wisniewski, OSF.  Sister Rosalie is a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Help, St. Louis, MO.  Her ministerial background as an educator, spiritual director and religious formator in poor and multi-cultural settings eminently qualifies her to accompany novices as they begin their journey into consecrated religious life. 

Sister Rosalie will assume her duties January 1, 2010.  She will begin setting up the novitiate house in St. Louis, MO, securing presenters for the various classes, choosing the formative community of professed Sisters who will live with the novices, and preparing to receive the first group of novices in August, 2010.