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Fr. John Fu
Ministered to Chinese
A funeral Mass for Divine Word Father John Fu was offered Feb.
15 at Divine Word International in Techny. Father Fu, the first
native Chinese member of the Society of the Divine Word, died
Feb. 11 on his 98th birthday.
Father Fu was known in Chicago’s Chinese-American community as
the founder of the Chinese Friendship House located near DePaul
University. He ministered to expatriate students there from 1961
to 1998.
Father Fu was born in 1904 in the Icowfu Province of China. After
studying at the Divine Word Seminary at Yenchoufu, he was ordained
in 1930 and then went to Rome to study for a doctorate in canon
law at the Gregorian University. When he returned to China in
1934, he was sent to Peking to serve as dean of students and then
rector at Divine Word Fu Jen University.
In 1939, he was accused of helping students flee the area for
South China, which was not yet occupied by the Japanese. He was
arrested, imprisoned and tortured, suffering blows that permanently
injured his spine.
In 1948, when the communists took over China, Father Fu’s superiors
ordered him to come to the United States. He began serving at
Our Lady of Grace Parish in 1951 and founded the Chinese Friendship
House 10 years later. He retired to Techny in 1998.
Surviving is a brother, John E.
Fr. Adolph Istok
Taught at Weber, Gordon
A funeral Mass for Resurrectionist Father Adolph Istok was offered
Feb. 6 at St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Church. Father Isotek,
84, died Feb. 3 at Holy Family Medical Center in Des Plaines.
Father Istok taught in the Chicago area for many years. He served
at Weber High School for three assignments: 1946-51, 1956-78 and
1981-93. He was awarded the school’s medal of honor in 1975. He
also taught here at Gordon Tech High School, 1979-81, and was
provincial treasurer, 1976-79.
From 1951 to 1956, he was principal of Newman High School in Fontana,
Calif.
Born in Chicago, he attended St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr
School and joined the Resurrectionist congregation in 1937. He
was ordained in 1944.
Sister M. Sheila Fitzgerald
Teacher, Tutor
Sister of Mercy Mary Sheila Fitzgerald, 91, died Dec. 31 at Mercy
Manor in Aurora. A funeral Mass was offered Jan. 4 at Mercy Convent
in Chicago.
Her long teaching and tutoring career included assignments in
Chicago at St. Gabriel, Little Flower, St. Ethelreda and Christ
the King and in Skokie at St. Joan of Arc.
Born in Chicago, she attended St. Justin Martyr School and St.
Xavier Academy before joining the community in 1936.
Sr. Ricardo Croke
Taught in Oak Park
Dominican Sister Ricardo (Mary Helen) Croke, 87, died Feb. 4 in
Sinsinawa, Wis. A retired teacher and pastoral minister, she taught
at St. Giles School in Oak Park from 1941 to 1951.
Fr. Patrick G. Cahill
Former St. Viator president
A funeral Mass for Viatorian Father Patrick G. Cahill was offered
Feb. 11 at St. Viator High School, Arlington Heights. Father Cahill,
70, who was long associated with the school, died Feb. 5 at St.
John’s Hospital, Springfield, Ill. He was 70.
Father Cahill came to St. Viator as religion teacher and athletic
director in 1962. In 1973, he became the first director of the
school’s alumni association and in 1974, he became the second
president of the school, a post he held for two years.
In 1995, St. Viator’s gymanasium was named after him and in 1999
he was inducted into the St. Viator Athletic Hall of Fame.
He also served as athletic director of the University of San Diego,
1979-88.
In the Viatorian community he served as a councilor and assistant
provincial, 1969-73.
After leaving San Diego, he served at Guardian Angel Cathedral
in Las Vegas for eight years and then was named pastor of St.
Jude Parish, Rochester, Ill. Illness forced him to retire from
the pastorate in January.
Born in Oak Park, he was a graduate of Fenwick High School and
St. Ambrose College in Dubuque. He studied theology at the Catholic
University of America in Washington D.C. and at the Graduate Theological
Union in Berkeley, Calif.
He was ordained in Chicago on June 9, 1962.
Surviving are a brother, Dr. William f., and a sister, Maureen
Kinnavy.
Sr. Bernadette Hajduch
Taught in archdiocese
School Sister of St. Francis Bernadette (Clemencita) Hajduch,
86, died Feb. 5 at Sacred Heart Convent, Milwaukee. Sister Bernadette
was retired after teaching for 60 years in Illinois, Wisconsin
and Indiana.
In the Archdiocese of Chicago, she taught at St. Maurice, 1934-35;
St. William, 1935-48; St. Joseph, Wilmette, 1948-54; St. Matthias,
1954-56 and 1980-94; and St. Ann, Chicago Heights, 1975-80.
Sr. Rosita Gentille
Taught in Chicago
Sister of Providence Rosita (Joan) Gentille, 69, died Feb. 5 in
Terre Haute, Ind. A teacher and pastoral minister, she taught
in Chicago at St. Mark, 1953-54, and St. Angela, 1954-63.
Sr. M. Salomina Rzonca
Food service manager
Franciscan Sister M. Salomina Rzonca, 89, died Feb. 5 at the motherhouse
of the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago, Lemont. For her entire 68
years of religious life, Sister Salomina served in the kitchen
and performed other domestic services for the sisters in her community,
as well as the elderly and the children in their care. In Chicago,
she served at St. Florian and Five Holy Martyrs convents and Guardian
Angel Day Care Center. She was a certified food service manager.
Mary L. Connors
Retired English teacher
A funeral Mass for Mary L. Connors, a retired teacher, was offered
Feb. 8 at St. Benedict Church, Blue Island. Miss Connors, 96,
died Feb. 5 at Washington Jane Smith Home.
A former Chicagoan, Miss Connors grew up in Visitation Parish.
After attending Loyola University, she taught for 31 years at
Gage Park High School, where she was chair of the English department
and also served as counselor. She retired in 1966.
A longtime resident of Oak Lawn, she was also active in St. Benedict
Parish in Blue Island, when her brother, the late Father Edward
Connors, served as pastor there.
Sr. Bernadetta Ryan
Taught in Chicago, Evanston
Sister of Providence Bernadetta Ryan, 93, died Feb. 7 at St. Mary-of-the-Woods,
Ind. A retired teacher and principal, she taught at St. Leo in
Chicago, 1928-30, and St. Athanasius in Evanston, 1960-62.
Fr. Edmund J. Montville
Professor, missionary
Jesuit Father Edmund J. Montville, a retired college professor
and missionary, died Feb. 11 at Colombiere Center in Clarkston,
Mich.
A native of Cicero, he attended St. Anthony School and St. Ignatius
College Prep in Chicago, before entering the Jesuits at Milford,
Ohio. He was granted a licentiate in philosophy from West Baden
College in 1939, and a licentiate in sacred theology from that
same institution in 1945. He was ordained a priest on June 13,
1945, at West Baden, Ind.
Soon after his ordination, Father Montville was assigned to University
of Detroit where he was assistant professor of English and philosophy
until 1958. He next served as an assistant professor of English
and ethics at Loyola University Chicago until 1965. He also was
headmaster of campus dormitories and an assistant pastor at St.
Ignatius Parish.
In 1965, Father Montville began serving at Jesuit institutions
in the Far East. He first taught journalism and English at Sophia
University in Japan, then went to New Delhi, India, in 1968, where
he was dean of the school of journalism at St. Xavier High, a
Jesuit school, and also taught English and moral science.
In 1971, Fr. Montville volunteered to work at De Nobili College
in India, where he taught part time and served as associate pastor
at Damien Social Welfare Centre, a leper colony. He returned to
the United States in 1978 and became an associate pastor at St.
Xavier Church in Cincinnati until 1983.
From 1984 to 1996, he was guestmaster at the Woodlawn Jesuit community
in Chicago and worked in a number of pastoral ministry opportunities
around the city. He retired to Colombiere Center in Clarkston
in 1996.
Father Montville is survived by his brothers Joseph and Alfred.
Sr. M. Emilita Holwell
Taught in Chicago, Des Plaines
Sister of Mercy M. Emilita Holwell, 89, died Jan. 12 at McAuley
Convent in Aurora. A native Chicagoan, she had been a Sister of
Mercy for 73 years.
Her teaching assignments included St. Rose of Lima, Christ the
King, St. Joachim, St. Clotilde, St. Mary of the Lake and St.
Monica in Chicago and St. Stephen in Des Plaines. Sr. Margaret
Ellen Traxler
Social justice activist
School Sister of Notre Dame Margaret Ellen Traxler, 77, died Feb.
12 at her order’s provincial house in Mankato, Minn.
After teaching English high school and college English for 20
years, she dedicated her efforts to human rights causes. In 1964,
she became director of education for the National Catholic Conference
on Interracial Justice in Chicago and later served as executive
director of the conference.
Among the organizations she founded are the National Coalition
of American Nuns, the Institute of Women Today, which serves women
in prison; and the Inter-Religious Conference on Soviet Jewry
which earned her Israel’s medal of honor from Golda Meir. In the
early 1980s, she founded Maria Shelter and Casa Notre Dame in
Chicago to provide shelter, education and job skills training
for women recently released from prison.
Sr. Angela Marie Janus
Taught in archdiocese
Sister of St. Casimir Angela Marie (Maria Assumpta), 87, died
Feb. 15 at the Sisters of St. Casimir motherhouse, Chicago. A
former teacher, principal and office manager, she taught at All
Saints School in Chicago and St. Norbert School in Northbrook.
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