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Sis. Marguerite Bartz was drawn to the church at a young age. |
Nun who served in Boston is killed
Sister is found dead in convent in N.M. town
Drawn to the church from a young age, Sister Marguerite Bartz served her first mission in Boston, where the Texas native ministered to a largely Spanish-speaking parish in Dorchester. Her four years here, far from her home and family, confirmed her calling and began a lifetime dedicated to others.
That life was cut tragically short last weekend, when the Roman Catholic nun was found dead in her convent in a small New Mexico town on the Navajo Indian reservation.
FBI investigators have not said how she died, but believe she was killed either Halloween night or Sunday, when a colleague checking on her after she didn’t show up at Mass discovered her body in her residence.
Authorities had been searching for her car, a beige
They have not identified any suspects or made any arrests.
Bartz, 64, entered the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1966 and worked in Boston from 1969-1973 at St. Paul’s Church, which has since closed.
She spent most of her career at mission churches in New Mexico, stirred by a deep commitment to social justice and the message of the Gospels.
“Her whole life was devoted to helping people obtain a better place in our society,’’ said Sister Patricia Suchalski, who joined the religious order with Bartz and is now its president. “Whatever needed to be done, she would do.’’
Bartz had worked for the past decade in the Diocese of Gallup, which serves more than 50 parishes in Arizona and New Mexico.
Her order is dedicated to helping African-American and native American communities across the country.
There are currently 16 sisters in the religious order ministering in the Gallup diocese.
Suchalski and a diocesan spokesman said that Bartz was a beloved figure at the mission church in Navajo, N.M., a town of 2,000 on the Arizona border and that parishioners are distraught over her death.
“They are devastated,’’ she said. “She had a profound impact on everyone there, from the young to teenagers to the elderly.’’
One other nun lived with Bartz at St. Bernard Convent in Navajo.
She was away at a meeting at the time of the killing.
In a statement, the diocese described Bartz as a woman who was “always passionate for justice and peace’’ and would probably have shown mercy toward her assailant.
“The life she lived would tell us that she would respond to this incident with a spirit of forgiveness toward whoever is responsible,’’ the statement read.
Bartz was born in Plymouth, Wis., in 1945, and entered the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1966 from Beaumont, Texas. She professed final vows in 1974.
She earned her undergraduate degree from Xavier University and a master’s in religious education from Loyola University.
After her time in Dorchester, she worked in Lawtell, La.; Guadalupe Indian Mission in Peña Blanca, N.M.; St. Joseph in Laguna, N.M.; and St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe, N.M.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.