On December 2, 1937, Chicagoans Francis Anthony Schuele and Anne Constance (Pawlish) Schuele welcomed baby Charlotte to the family. Charlotte attended grade school at St. Philomena, where she also took piano lessons from our Sister Stanislaus Jonietz and voice lessons from Sister Bernadelle Mehmert. She attended Alvernia High School for two years before entering the School Sisters of St. Francis as an aspirant. At reception, she was given the name Sister Charles Borromeo.
After graduating from Alverno College, Sister Charlotte went on to take graduate studies at Loyola University in Chicago and the University of Nebraska in Omaha. While ministering at St. James Parish in Arlington Heights, she assisted Sister Amabilia Gebhart with the choir boys and liturgical music. She later chose to move to Nebraska, ministering at principal at St. Rose of Lima School in Crofton. Along with her administrative duties and classroom teaching, she taught music to students in grades one through eight, and was the parish’s organist and choir director!
During her last year in Nebraska, Sister Charlotte studied clinic pastoral education. Responding to the call of community, she began duties as Director of Pastoral Care at St. Joseph Convent in Campbellsport in July 2008. When that convent closed in 2015, she was asked to serve in a similar role at Sacred Heart in Milwaukee, which she did July 2018. She then served as a liturgy and music volunteer and made pastoral visits to the sisters living in Sacred Heart’s Clara Court and Alexia Tower, as well to hospitals and rehabilitation centers. She continues to conduct “sharing and singing sessions” with the sisters from Clara Court two to three times a week.
“Throughout the years, times of retreat have been highlights,” Sister Carlotte said. “I am grateful for the good retreat directors I have had, especially those in Schuyler, Nebraska, and for the many sisters who have supported my ministries. They were a source of inspiration to me, and have given me more than I ever gave them.”
After Sister Mary Louise Miller died in 2023, Sister Charlotte and Sister Mariane Kuhn stepped in to provide liturgical music at Sacred Heart until Gail Martin was hired. They now work together to sustain our community’s liturgical music heritage at Sacred Heart.
“I am grateful for each person who has been an inspiration for me,” Sister Carlotte reflected. “Community and ministry have brought me many blessings. There have also been challenges: I have been retired, rewired, and rehired a couple of times! Music and song have been very special gifts in my professional, personal, and prayer life. So at this time of Jubilee, and every day, ‘How can I keep from singing’?”