CHICAGO, IL (April 21, 2008) – Rev. Richard P. Hynes, Director of the Department of Evangelization, Catechesis and Worship for the Archdiocese of Chicago, appointed Sister Madge Karecki, SSJ-TOSF, as Director of the Catholic Missions Office. In this role, Sr. Karecki will oversee the office’s fund raising and education efforts through the Propagation of the Faith and the Missionary Cooperative Appeal.

A Chicago native and member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis, Sr. Karecki spent 21 years in South Africa where she taught at St. John Vianney Seminary, the University of South Africa and in the Franciscan Institute of Southern Africa, which she helped found. She also served as the first director of the Office of Worship for the Catholic Diocese of Johannesburg.

Sr. Karecki attended St. Mary of Perpetual Help School in Bridgeport and Lourdes High School on Chicago’s southwest side. She earned her bachelor’s degree in theology from Loyola University Chicago and holds a master’s degree in Franciscan Studies from the Franciscan Institute of St. Bonaventure University in St. Bonaventure, NY. While in South Africa, she became the country’s first woman to earn a doctorate in Missiology, the theology of mission, the study of the history, present condition and methods of missionary activity, from a South African University.

Under Sr. Karecki’s direction the Missions Office will prepare and offer workshops and programs on mission as an essential element of Catholic life and how we all are called to participate in the mission of Christ.