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She has always accepted and still accepts the challenges of the time
On Sunday, 4 June 2023, Sr Dagmar celebrated her 80th birthday
Sr Dagmar (right) togehter with (from left) Sr Hilke, Father Udo Küpper OSB and Sr Christiane
On Sunday, 4 June 2023, Sr Dagmar Fasel OP celebrated her 80th birthday. In her religious life she has always been ready to accept the challenges of the time.
Sr Dagmar has been a member of our Congregation for almost 60 years. During her life in the convent she has taken on different and responsible leadership roles. As Provincial Prioress and as Congregational Prioress of our religious community she faced the challenges presented her courageously and with farsightedness.
Sr. Dagmar was born in Cologne in 1943 and entered our Congregation in 1964 in Neustadt am Main. In 1966 she made her First Profession together with four other Sisters.
From 1975 onwards, she played a decisive role in the development and creation of the idea of the Rehabilitation Centre “Haus St. Michael” in Neustadt, where she worked as a social pedagogue and therapist from 1977 to 1995 and which she lead from 1995 to 1997.
Within our Congregation she was Provincial Prioress for Germany from 1992 to 2004. During this time, she took care of the ongoing continuation of our institutions, among other things. She transferred the “Marienkrankenhaus” in Flörsheim and the “Mädchenrealschule” in Diessen am Ammersee to new sponsors.
In 2004 she took over the office of Congregational Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena based in Bedfordview (South Africa) until 2011.
Afterwards, Sr. Dagmar took a sabbatical and in March 2012 took on another responsible and challenging task with the then newly created department working for the prevention of sexualised violence in the diocese of Würzburg.
"The work is aimed at preventing sexual violence against children, adolescents and adults in the church which should contribute significantly to preventing cases of sexual abuse in the future," Sr Dagmar outlined her new task at the time.
She worked in this area until 2017 and in her office contributed to raising the necessary awareness of the problem, regaining lost trust and helping all those directly and indirectly affected as much as possible. "I feel committed to the path of healing and renewal in this," she explained the focus of her work.
Sr Dagmar was then transferred to Diessen am Ammersee in 2017. There she was actively involved in the process of selling our convent of St Joseph. In 2019, she assisted the Sisters to move to the convent in Neustadt or to the “Caritas Senior Citizens Centre St. Martin” in Lohr. For a while she was the only one to remain in St. Joseph’s until the convent could be handed over to the new owners in December 2019.
Sr Dagmar was and is always on the move and ready to take on the challenges of the times. During an interview on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the convent of St. Joseph in Neustadt in 2009, she said: "That is also the characteristic of the Dominican Order. Not to be fixed in one place, but to be on the way to new tasks and to enable others to take them on and then move on to new places. To be close always to the needs of the people in the religious and social field. That means changing and reassigning oneself to new tasks and having new ideas."
In 2016 she celebrated her golden jubilee of profession together with Sr Marcella and Sr Marie-Christopher, who joined our community with her in 1964. Sr Dagmar, who has been living in a community flat in Lohr since 2020, has not yet taken her well-deserved retirement.
Continuing on her way, she is involved in the parish council of the parish of St. Michael in Lohr, is a lector and a communion helper. Occasionally, and on special occasions she preaches a sermon. She assists in the liturgy and, as part of the parish team, prepares prayer meetings and devotions. In addition, she regularly visits our Sisters who are cared for in the “Caritas Senior Citizens' Centre St. Martin” in Lohr, takes Communion to the sick and is also a member of the home committee of the Centre.
"Our path is to accept the challenges of the times. This requires us to accept change and sometimes to give up something dear to us," she says. "Our endeavour is to be itinerant, available, ready to be sent for tasks that lie ahead. We are open to respond to the needs of the time and do what we can as members of a religious community."
Sr Dagmar celebrated her 80th birthday with her family, with her brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews and their families, and with her fellow sisters at the Senior Citizens' Residence in Kist.
Text Martina Schneider
Photos Sr. Marie-Luise Faupel OP
Translation Sr. Marie-Luise Faupel OP