Mass of Christian Burial for Sr. M. Frances Betz, OSB, 89, of Norfolk,will be 10:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 25 at Immaculata Monastery Chapel in Norfolk. Burial will be in Prospect Hill Cemetery in Norfolk. Visitation will be Thursday, Oct. 24 from 2 to 5 p.m. at Immaculata Monastery, with a 7 p.m. Wake Service.
The service will be livestreamed on the funeral home website.
Brockhaus-Howser-Fillmer Funeral Home in Norfolk is in charge of arrangements.
Sr. M. Frances Betz, OSB died Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024 at Immaculata Monastery in Norfolk.
Elizabeth Betz was born the oldest of four girls on Nov. 12, 1934, at home on the farm near Lauingen, Germany, to Josef and Rosina Metzger Betz. While yet a teenager, her vocation became clear to her while on a retreat in St. Ottilien. She later attended the Mission School in Tutzing and entered the Missionary Benedictine Sisters on Sept. 15, 1953.
While still a postulant, she was transferred to the Norfolk, Nebraska community where she continued her religious formation and her studies in education. Sr. Frances made first profession on Jan. 13, 1956, and final profession in 1959.
Sr. Frances found great satisfaction and joy in her teaching career, be that at St. Leonard’s in Madison, Nebraska, Assumption Academy and Norfolk Catholic High School, and St. Augustine Mission School in Winnebago. She embraced her teaching ministry with full energy and commitment, desiring to help the children to become their best before God.
In May 1983 she was called to serve in parish ministry in Jackson, Kentucky. This, however, was a prelude to her next teaching assignment. In 1989 she traveled to South Africa where she taught Zulu girls in a secondary school. This was especially challenging and dangerous during the time of Apartheid.
In 2000 Sr. Frances returned to the Norfolk Priory and was again assigned to St. Augustine School in Winnebago, where she loved the children and the children loved her. In 2017 she retired and returned to the priory house in Norfolk. During her senior years she visited the elderly, tended her garden and helped in the community.
Sr. Frances found great fulfillment in her life dedicated to Christ in her community and ministry. It was in prayer that Sr. Frances integrated every challenge and every joy. One sister said, “No matter what the day brought her, Sr. Frances lived it as fully as possible in generous and loving service to Christ.”
