Sister Bernice Weilbacher, SNDdeN
August 31, 1925 – July 23, 2025
“I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13)
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Bernice Agnes Weilbacher was the eighth of nine children of Bert and Mary Specht Weilbacher. Her oldest sister and her father died when Bernice was a child. The older brothers stepped in as father figures and helped their mother keep the family’s clothing business going to support the family. The family was close, and in later years Bernice expressed gratitude for growing up in a large family. She recognized her family as her first community, who lovingly shaped the person she became.
Sister Bernice first met the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur at St. Joseph Academy in Columbus where she took music lessons from the sisters. She then attended the Academy for high school. Later she said that she always admired the sisters and appreciated the personal interest they took in her. Bernice felt she had a religious vocation and wanted to enter the convent. However, her family needed her to help support them. After graduation she worked and enrolled at The Ohio State University.
Bernice loved music and was an accomplished violinist when she graduated from high school. At the university, she continued to develop her skills and even considered a professional career in music rather than follow a call to religious life. In 1951, Bernice received a bachelor’s degree in education, with a concentration in music, from The Ohio State University.
By the summer of 1951, Bernice felt free to enter the community. Even though feeling called, she found it difficult to leave her family, especially her mother and her brother, Norbert. However, she embraced life as a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur. As a novice, she received the name of Sister Paul by which she was known until she returned to her baptismal name after Vatican II. For 22 years, she added to the tradition of excellent music teachers in the academies and high schools of the Ohio Province. She gave individual music lessons and taught choral classes. Working with student choral groups became an increasing part of Bernice’s teaching. Summer studies in Baroque music, Gregorian chant and liturgical music helped her build excellent choral programs and glee clubs in the schools where she served. For Bernice, teaching music was a way to help the students experience God in the beauty of sound.
Music was not the only kind of beauty that spoke of God to Bernice. Many things about the pre-Vatican II Church were close to her heart. Consequently, she found the liturgical and other changes after Vatican II challenging. Her sisters in community supported her in accepting the changes at her own pace. Studying theology and scripture after the Second Vatican Council also renewed her appreciation of God’s presence in the world around her.
In 1976, Bernice asked and received a year to study earth science and biology. This time of intense study held elements of a year-long retreat, focusing her more deeply on the intricacy of God’s creation. After her studies, Bernice taught middle school science and religion. To enhance her teaching, she received a National Science Foundation grant for a summer Earth-Space Science program.
In 1981, Bernice earned a Certificate in Theology at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, CA, after which she returned to Ohio to teach high school religion, earth science and biology. When she “retired” from teaching, she and another Sister of Notre Dame de Namur served as Co-Directors of Religious Education at a parish in the small mining town of San Manuel, AZ. Bernice and her companion traveled regularly to the Phoenix area to participate in the regional Notre Dame meetings and activities. After eight years in San Manuel, the two Sisters moved to the Notre Dame Community in Mesa, AZ where, for six years, they helped with the ministry of hospitality, after which they moved to Mount Notre Dame.
In addition to her ministry, Bernice loved outdoor activities such as bicycling and hiking. Snow days meant ice skating and cross-country skiing. A faculty white-water rafting trip? Count her in! She readily accepted opportunities to go camping. Arizona provided Bernice with the opportunity to experience God’s creative presence in a very different habitat, and she enjoyed studying the geology of Arizona. After moving to Mount Notre Dame, Bernice enjoyed walking almost daily around the property in all kinds of weather. She did not have a favorite season because she appreciated the unique beauty of each season.
In community Bernice was known for her gentle, quiet nature. During many summers she quietly helped with community needs at Mount Notre Dame and at the Notre Dame High School convent in Chicago. She had many interests such as a good card game, classical music, videos and DVDs that explored nature and the wonders of creation, researching the Old and New Testaments, astronomy and earth science. For several years, she organized the “buddy lists” for feast day celebrations and monthly birthday parties at the Mount Notre Dame Health Center. Sisters appreciated when Bernice played the violin at community liturgies, and some, without her knowing, just enjoyed listening to her practice. Bernice was extremely grateful for the opportunities that Notre Dame provided for ongoing spiritual growth and integration.
Bernice was devoted to her family. She appreciated visiting with them, spending time with family members who were ill, joining in family and holiday celebrations and getting to know each new addition to the expanding family, marveling at the beauty of God’s creation in each one. Bernice’s family loved her. In August 2024, they delighted in celebrating her 99th birthday at Mount Notre Dame. Several family members spent days and nights with her as she journeyed home to God.
Now, as her Sisters, family and friends gather to celebrate the gift of God’s goodness to us through Bernice, it is appropriate that we do so with music and song.
Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth; break into song; sing praise. Sing praise to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and melodious song. With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout with joy to the King, the Lord. Let the sea and what fills it resound, the world and those who dwell there. Let the rivers clap their hands, the mountains shout with them for joy, before the Lord who comes, who comes to govern the earth, to govern the world with justice and the peoples with fairness. (Psalm 98:4-9)
Nancy Wellmeier, SNDdeN and Kim Dalgarn, SNDdeN – July 25, 2025