Building community and relationships, instilling Franciscan values are all part of Sister Norma Rocklage’s legacy at Marian University

Lesley Bartone, administrative coordinator for the Office of Mission and Ministry at Marian University in Indianapolis, gives a kiss to Franciscan Sister Norma Rocklage on July 15 in Marian’s Allison Mansion during a farewell reception for Sister Norma, who retired after nearly 30 years of ministry at the school. She was also at Marian from 1965-74, teaching Latin and Greek and serving as academic dean. (Submitted photo)

By Sean Gallagher

OLDENBURG—For the past three decades, Franciscan Sister Norma Rocklage found great life in the youthful community of Marian University in Indianapolis.

Since the summer, though, she’s lived among retired sisters of her community in their Oldenburg motherhouse. She’s found vitality there, too, but one with a different focus than the college students who were her friends for so long.

“I miss the energy and the excitement of young people,” Sister Norma, 86, said in an interview with The Criterion. “But I’m gradually moving into understanding the richness of being with people who are preparing, not for a greater career in the world, so to speak, but for something else.”

Although Sister Norma no longer lives at Marian, the university community still lives in her heart.

And she’s confident that the Franciscan values that have been at the heart of her life since entering the Oldenburg Franciscan community in 1951 will continue to live on at Marian as the presence of the sisters there diminishes.

She worked tirelessly at this while serving from 1989-2004 as Marian’s vice president for mission effectiveness, and from 2005 until her retirement last summer as its executive director of education, formation and outreach.

During that time, she spearheaded the effort to place what are known at Marian as “sponsorship values”—the dignity of the individual, responsible stewardship, peace, justice and reconciliation—at the heart of the university’s mission.

Those values aren’t just inscribed on the fountain that stands in the center of Marian’s campus. They are now consciously applied in the shaping of all aspects of the Marian community.

“It’s a great comfort to know that the power of the Spirit is working,” said Sister Norma. “It’s not just Norma. And it wasn’t just the sisters. It can live without us. We did our part.”

‘She knew how to listen’

Sister Norma worked hard for years to renew the sponsorship values at Marian by serving on committees and meeting regularly with faculty members.

It took many years for Marian to get where it is now with the sponsorship values so integrated into its life. She recalled how, when she came to the campus in 1989, the school’s administrators and faculty did not have a good understanding of how the charism of the Oldenburg Franciscans should guide its mission.

But Sister Norma worked at it and wouldn’t let up.

“But before long, it began to pick up and people began living it,” she said. “I shared the Franciscan charism. That’s who I was. The DNA of Marian University had always been the DNA of our Franciscan community.”

For many at Marian, Sister Norma helped imbue the life of the university with the sponsorship values—and in the process becoming a pillar of its community—simply through her constant positive presence at campus events.

“She felt it was really important to be present at many things to show support,” said Marian assistant theology professor Donna Proctor. “She had such a deep devotion to Marian. She’d show up to all kinds of things, even if just for a few minutes. That impressed the students, faculty and staff a lot.”

Her presence alone didn’t make the difference, though, Proctor said. “She knew how to listen, and that’s part of that presence. She took you seriously. You always felt like she dropped everything for you.”

Sister Norma’s presence to the university community, combined with her efforts to help those in need and to advocate for justice, helped others at Marian see the sponsorship values in action.

She did this in recent years by helping so-called “dreamers” become students at Marian. They are young people originally brought to the United States as minors by parents without documentation. Since 2012, they have been able to avoid deportation through the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is known as DACA.

“She was known in the community for being somebody who is deeply concerned about people who are poor or struggling, or being abused by the justice system,” Proctor said.

That impressed Marian senior Maggie Stephens, who also saw her work for justice as inseparable from her relationship with God.

“She did so much work, especially with Latino students, helping them to come to Marian and get an education,” said Stephens, who worked closely with Sister Norma for three years as her assistant. “She was very, very trusting in the Lord. She turned to prayer all the time, whether she was anxious about something or upset, or needed guidance or help with something.

“Her closeness with God was notable to the people around her. That trusting relationship was very evident.”

‘Like being in the presence of a saint’

Relationships. With God. With students, faculty and staff. With people in need and those yearning for justice. And building community among them all was the way that Sister Norma said she lived out her Franciscan values at Marian and shared them with others.

“To be a Franciscan is to be interested in community and deep relationships,” she said. “I felt that when you’re around people, it’s not so much what you say, it’s that you’re with them and being open to receive from them.”

“Her Franciscan simplicity is probably her greatest legacy,” Proctor said. “The students, faculty and staff saw it. It was always a reminder that we have to not be so acquisitive. We have to remember that we’re part of a community.”

While Sister Norma sought to share her Franciscan values with the Marian community, she found that they helped her be a better Franciscan.

“As people began to realize what the Franciscan charism was, they, in their own unique ways, began to live it,” Sister Norma said. “It enriched me and helped me to know ways that I could live it better. I learned so such from them.”

Jim Larner learned an ordinary yet profound holiness from Sister Norma. A professor of music and humanities at Marian for more than 30 years, Larner sees his friend as a living saint.

“You think about being in the presence of somebody who’s very holy. I would feel out of place,” said Larner. “But with Sister Norma, you just felt very much part of it. You didn’t realize that you were in the presence of somebody really extraordinary. I think that was her gift.

“It was like being in the presence of a saint.”

The love for Sister Norma shared by Larner, Proctor and Stephens extends to generations of students and others in the Marian community who have known her during the past three decades.

That love was expressed in a flood of congratulations and happy memories in comments posted last summer on Marian’s Facebook page when her retirement was announced.

“It surprised me and brought me to tears. I cried,” Sister Norma said of reading the comments. “I didn’t know that I had touched people that much. It overwhelmed me. I loved being there with them.

“I was grateful that they caught the spirit that I really loved them and valued them. I may have been a gift to them, but they were a gift to me.” †