Former chaplain receives prestigious Franciscan Alliance award

Father John Mannion receives the Blessed Maria Theresia Award from St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration Sister Jane Marie Klein, president of the Franciscan Alliance board, on Oct. 28. (Submitted photo)

Compiled by Natalie Hoefer

Father John Mannion received the Blessed Maria Theresia Award from Franciscan Alliance health system during a ceremony on Oct. 28.

The award is named in honor of Blessed Maria Theresia Bonzel, foundress of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, the order which created Franciscan Alliance. The award is presented to “a person who exemplifies the personal qualities of our foundress,” explained St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration Sister Jane Marie Klein, president of the Franciscan Alliance board, before presenting the award.

She described Father Mannion as one who “has shared his dedication and service without counting the cost, his only concern to respond to the call of Christ to meet the needs of those in such need of [God’s] love, to be a servant to God’s people.”

Father Mannion was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Lafayette, Ind., in 1968. During his years as a pastor in the Diocese of Lafayette, Sister Jane Marie noted that Father Mannion “was always associated with ministering to the needs of patients in hospitals and nursing homes, as well as celebrating Mass at various hospitals in the absence of a hospital chaplain. He always had a special love for the sick and the elderly.”

After two decades in parish ministry, Father Mannion was granted permission to move to health care ministry. He began working as a certified chaplain at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove in 1988, and was promoted to director of spiritual care services in 1999.

He has served twice as the Indiana representative to the National Association of Catholic Chaplains (NACC) and received that organization’s Outstanding Service Award for Region VII.

With St. Francis Hospital (now part of Franciscan Alliance), Father Mannion served on and chaired the St. Francis Institutional Ethics Committee and provided internal training, among other tasks.

An example Sister Jane Marie cited of Father Mannion’s model care for others was his eight-year friendship with an elderly man, Charlie Ressler, who asked the priest to care for him upon the death of the man’s wife.

“Father John spent part of nearly every day taking care of Charlie [for eight years],” Sister Jane Marie shared. “After Charlie moved to St. Paul Hermitage [in Beech Grove], they became twice-a-day visits.”

Since his retirement—“at last count, his third,” Sister Jane Marie quipped—in 2014, Father Mannion has spent time caring for his older brother in Florida, who is in declining health, visiting him twice a day.

“It’s a pretty prestigious award,” Father Mannion commented of the Blessed Maria Theresia Award. “I was sure humbled when they called me in Florida.” †