Madeleine Award presented to Paula Wellnitz

Friday, Dec. 09, 2016

HUNTINGTON — A disciple of Jesus who welcomes everyone and who works behind the scenes and prefers to avoid public recognition – this is the description of Paula Wellnitz given by those who know her well, and who nominated her for The Madeleine Medal of Appreciation for Faithful Service.

The Madeleine Medal, which is available from the Diocese of Salt Lake City Office of the Vicar General, honors those who have “exemplified faithful service to the parish or community over many years,” according to the nomination form.

Wellnitz, 87, has lived in the Huntington area since 1992, when she began to work for Four Corners Behavior Health, Inc. in Castle Dale. She is a member of the Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters, more commonly known as the Victory Noll sisters, but prefers not to be addressed as “Sister.” She has been active in both Mission San Rafael and Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish.

“Around the mission there, ever since the day I came down to Price in 2002, Paula has been a presence,” said Father Donald Hope, who retired last year as pastor but continues to celebrate Mass at the various churches in the area. “She’s one of the first to get there, every time we have Mass, [and] one of the last to leave.” 

At the mission, Wellnitz often prepares the altar for the celebration, welcomes those attending, makes coffee and provides treats for the hospitality ministry after the Mass, and helps clean up, Fr. Hope said. 

Although the two of them had disagreements over the years, Fr. Hope said he appreciates that Wellnitz was willing to speak out about her beliefs, and to say “‘as a Christian community here’s what we ought to do.’”

Even though sometimes her message was not one that people wanted to hear, “she got you moving in the right direction,” Fr. Hope said, "and that takes love. It really takes love, and a trust in what you believe. And Paula has a deep faith.”

As a greeter before Mass and a person who welcomed those who stayed for the hospitality afterward, Wellnitz “has really made feel people feel very welcome, whether they are members of the church or not,” said Kathi Kearney Reaves, a Victory Knoll lay associate and member of the mission’s finance board. “She’s always been a person who has done the behind-the-scenes outreach to members of the mission as well as those who have fallen away. … She’s all about community and pulling people into our community.” 

In addition, Wellnitz regularly visits people in their homes in both the English and Spanish-speaking communities, including those who don’t attend Mass regularly, Kearney Reaves said. “She’s very good at keeping track of those folks and asking for prayers for them or connecting them to services if they need them.” 

As part of her community outreach, Wellnitz often attended church services of other faith traditions, a practice she began when she lived in Tennessee, she said. By doing so, “you get to know the people,” she said. “It’s a way of showing love to one another and with God. … It’s a way of sharing and encouraging one other.”

As a Victory Noll sister, Wellnitz served in Tennessee, California, Colorado, South Dakota and Washington before coming to Utah. “It was always asking God, ‘What should I do? Is this the thing to do?’” she said. 

When it came time to retire, she was living in Emery County, and “it seemed like it was good staying here, so I stayed,” she said.

After retirement, she continued to serve the church, doing home visits, teaching altar servers, sharing articles about various social justice issues, attending public lands meetings, contacting her legislative representatives and otherwise “trying to make things better in the world,” she said.

Writing or speaking to public officials is important, she said, because “it could be that what you say is the one thing they’ll hear.”

At times, Wellnitz was the “voice in the wilderness” for the local church, suggesting innovations such as serving fair trade coffee and incorporating solar power, said Fr. Hope. When the response was there wasn’t the time or money to undertake some things, “Paula has been the one saying, ‘At least we ought to think about it,’” he said. “She has spoken to all of us and said … ‘This is what is right and you need to hear it.’”

A fitting description for Wellnitz is a person who learned at the Lord’s feet and is trying in her own way to respond to his call, Fr. Hope said. “She doesn’t do things for recognition, she does it just in response to her vocation, her call to be a disciple.”