Sr. Fran Wilhelm, OSU, sings and walks during the Jubilee Year of Mercy Hispanic pilgrimage on August 27, 2016. FILE PHOTO

BY WKC STAFF

A new musical setting of the “Our Father,” written by a pioneer of Hispanic/Latino ministry in the Diocese of Owensboro, is now available to listen and pray with.

Sr. Fran Wilhelm, OSU, an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph, died Nov. 5, 2020, in her 73rd year of religious life. She was 91 years old.

Sr. Fran entered the Mount Saint Joseph community at the age of 17. In approximately 1980, with Bishop John J. McRaith’s blessing, Sr. Fran founded Centro Latino to serve the developing Hispanic/Latino community.

Sr. Fran, known as “Hermana Panchita” (Sister Peanut) in the Hispanic community, ministered in the field of liturgical music at Spanish language Masses around the diocese.  When she retired to Mount Saint Joseph, she continued to use her music skills, and composed an “Our Father” in the Villa Infirmary. With assistance from the Office of Music, Matt Gray, director of music at Immaculate Parish in Owensboro, and Jacob Hein, director of music at St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Sorgho, recorded Sr. Fran’s Spanish language setting of the Our Father just a few weeks after her death.

In commemoration of her death one year ago, please visit owensborodiocese.org/sr-fran-wilhelm to listen to the sound file of her “Padrenuestro.”

Originally printed in the November 2021 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.