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Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Sr. Schutz remembered for urban ministry

by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 4, 2008

Sr. Mary Margaret Schutz, HVM

Detroit — Through years as a lay minister and decades as a vowed religious, Sr. Mary Margaret Schutz, HVM, opened up many lives to the knowledge of Christ's love and was known for her focus on the black community.

"She shared a vision of oneness of all people," said her longtime friend Sr. Rosemarie Abate, HVM. "She had a deep sense of the indwelling of God within each person, no matter what race, and our oneness in Christ."

Hundreds gathered at Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament on Dec. 22 at the funeral Mass of Sr. Schutz, to say goodbye to the founder of the Detroit-based Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary religious order. Sr. Schutz died Dec. 17 at the age of 93.

Her religious order — now consisting of 26 sisters living in Detroit and Nigeria — lives on, as does her legacy of bringing God's Word to the people of Detroit.

The Home Visitors of Mary, founded in 1949, stemmed from Sr. Schutz's lay ministry. In the late 1930s and 1940s, she taught catechism at St. Peter Claver Parish, and made door-to-door visits in the neighborhoods around St. Benedict the Moor, Our Lady of Victory and Holy Ghost parishes in Detroit.

Cardinal Edward Mooney in 1949 agreed to sponsor the religious order based on Sr. Schutz's personalized ministry.

"At the time it was unique," said Sr. Abate. "We didn't wear the habit. We didn't wear the veil. It was focused on outreach to the city neighborhoods. She made the foundation in terms of door-to-door visits, religious education and involvement with the laity."

Msgr. James Robinson, SSE, former rector of Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, said during the homily that Sr. Schutz had the "radical idea of taking Christ into the world." Indeed, after she stepped down as mother superior of the Home Visitors of Mary in 1973, she was a pastoral minister at the cathedral parish.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Msgr. James Robinson, SSE, assisted by a number of concelebrants, presides over the Liturgy of the Eucharist during Sr. Mary Schutz's Dec. 22 funeral Mass.

"Sr. Mary catechized her whole life," said Msgr. Robinson. "She was tenacious in spreading the Word of God."

Many in attendance at the funeral Mass could attest to Sr. Schutz's ministry. Alta Sears, a 71-year-old parishioner at St. Cecilia Parish in Detroit, credits Sr. Schutz for inviting her into the Catholic Church. Sears was 10 years old at the time.

Before founding the religious order, Sr. Schutz came knocking on Sears' door, which was in project housing in Ferndale. As a laywoman, Sr. Schutz enjoyed teaching girls about Christ.

"I'm one of those girls, and I'm proud to say it," said Sears. "I've been with her for years. She spent her whole life ministering, evangelizing and inviting."

Sr. Karen Shirilla, SJ, came to know Sr. Schutz when the Home Visitors of Mary mentored her own religious order, the Servants of Jesus, in Detroit.

"I'll remember her just being there all the time," Sr. Shirilla said. "Wherever the community was, she was there. Never outstanding, never shining — always walking with others."

In Sr. Schutz's own congregation, her sisters said she had a passion for the Gospel, and wanted her community to share in the knowledge of God's Word.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Alta Sears, a 71-year-old parishioner at St. Cecilia Parish in Detroit, pays her respects. Sears credits Sr. Schutz with bringing her into the Catholic Church at the age of 10.

"She especially loved teaching Scripture," said Sr. Mary Frances Roberts, HVM.

Sr. Roberts added that Sr. Schutz — herself a graduate of Marygrove College — took an interest in the intellectual formation of the community.

Sr. Schutz's community members also say their foundress was ahead of her time in getting laypeople more involved in faith formation.

"Of great significance is all her ministry as a laywoman," said Sr. Mary Finn, HVM. "She was very involved in the lay movement, and that's been one of our calls in our community, to foster lay people."

Sr. Finn says Sr. Schutz was instrumental in fostering her religious vocation, as well. She was in high school when she was introduced to Sr. Schutz, and decided she wanted to follow in Sr. Schutz's footsteps.

"She's our modern, urban saint," said Sr. Finn. "She comes out of that same kind of cloth that Dorothy Day came out of — that early Catholic social action."

Sr. Schutz retired in 2003, two years after the Home Visitors of Mary started a mission in Nigeria. She lived at the HVM convent in Detroit, near the cathedral. Following the funeral Mass, she was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield.