Catholic Women's League of Saskatchewan

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Spiritual Advisor - Rev Fr Francis Hengen

  

    

I was born and raised on the family farm in the Windthorst district in southeastern Saskatchewan, the youngest of ten children born to Mathias and Alma Hengen. I attended Mount Murray country school for grades one to eight, Windthorst High School for grades nine and ten and St. Peter's College in Muenster for grades eleven and twelve. I graduated from The Grey Nuns School of Nursing in 1967. While working at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Humboldt and St Peter's College in Muenster I learned of an organization called the Canadian Lay Missioners and decided to take part in the program they offered. In January, 1969, I left for a three-year commitment to work at the Marist Brothers school at Kutama in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in Africa.  After my first stay there, I returned two more times for a total of seven years in the missions.

  

In September, 1978, I entered St. Joseph's Seminary in St. Albert, Alberta, where I studied theology and received a Bachelor of Theology, in preparation for ordination to the priesthood. I was ordained by Archbishop Charles Halpin on June 18, 1982, in St. Pius Parish, Windthorst. My first parish was St. john the Baptist in Estevan along with its four mission parishes. Since then, I have also served in Oxbow, Regina, Weyburn, Redvers, Yorkton and Indian Head with all the attached parishes that were part of these postings.

  

The Catholic Women's League has always been a rich and rewarding part of my ministry having at least one council, and as many as four, in the pastoral areas that I served. While in Regina, I served as the Regional Spiritual Advisor. In 1999, I accepted the position of Regina Archdiocesan Spiritual Advisor which I held for ten years. This was followed immediately by a five-year term as Saskatchewan Provincial Spiritual Advisor. In June, 2023, I again accepted the position of Provincial Spiritual Advisor

  

May the Catholic Women's League grow and flourish under the patronage of Our Lady of Good Counsel.