23.01.2025
Bregenz - Rom
Press Release, 22nd January 2025
New International Superior for the Sisters Community of The Spiritual Family The Work
On the 21st of January 2025, the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life in Rome confirmed the election of Sister Marion Schiele FSO as the new international superior of the Sisters Community of The Spiritual Family The Work.
Sr. Marion Schiele (left), Sr. Margarete Binder (right)
Handing over of international responsibility
Sister Marion Schiele FSO succeeds Sister Margarete Binder FSO. Having led the Sisters Community as the international superior since 2008, Sister Margarete took this step in view of her length of office and her determination to place the responsibility into younger hands.
Sister Margarete Binder distinguished herself through her tireless commitment to the Community. In addition to her care for her sisters and the apostolic tasks in the various houses of The Spiritual Family The Work, she made significant contributions towards the achievement of the definitive approval of the Constitutions of our Spiritual Family, which was granted by the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life in 2023. The members of The Spiritual Family The Work are very grateful to her and wish her God's blessings for her future tasks.
The new international superior
From the 18th to the 22nd of January 2025, Sisters from various countries participated as delegates in the extraordinary community assembly, at which Sister Marion Schiele FSO was elected as the new international superior of the Sisters Community. She will serve in this role until the next ordinary Family Assembly in 2027.
Sister Marion Schiele is 59 years old and comes from the Rhineland in Germany. She trained in childcare and then studied at the Institute for Religious Education and Pastoral Theology in Koblenz. After her studies, she entered the Community and spent her time of formation in Bregenz, Rome and Jerusalem. She was definitively incorporated into the Community through the Perpetual Holy Covenant with the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1994.
Sister Marion Schiele worked in various fields of responsibility for many years, initially in the Netherlands, then in Vienna and Bregenz. For 15 years, she worked as a parish assistant in Slovenia until she was called to Limburg an der Lahn (Germany) where the Sisters of The Work are guides in the cathedral. Until her recent appointment as international superior, she was the regional superior for Germany and Austria and – since 2023 – the deputy to the international superior.
Together with Fr Thomas Felder FSO, the international superior of the Community of Consecrated Men of The Work, Sister Marion Schiele has been entrusted with the leadership of the entire Spiritual Family The Work. The Community is active in nine European countries, in the USA and in Africa.
The extraordinary community assembly concluded with a thanksgiving mass in the monastery church of Thalbach in Bregenz, at which Sister Marion expressed her willingness to take on her new responsibility.
We look forward to journeying together under Sister Marion's leadership and are convinced that our Lord Jesus “holds the path and the future of The Work in his hands” (cf. Mother Julia).
About the Community
The Spiritual Family The Work was founded in 1938 in Belgium by Mother Julia Verhaeghe. It consists of a Sisters Community and a Community of Consecrated Men. The members promise the three evangelical counsels of virginity, poverty and obedience in a Holy Covenant with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The consecrated members, together with married couples and single lay people, as well as diocesan priests, form a spiritual family serving the Church in the spirit of John 6:29: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom He has sent”. In 2001, the Community received papal recognition as an “ecclesial family of consecrated life”.