By Paula Day

A dream and a chance encounter on a long bus trip figured in the journey of Sister Marie Breitenbeck into the religious life. A member of the Adrian Dominican community that has its motherhouse in Michigan, Sister Marie celebrates 25 years as a professed member of the congregation this year. She is a judge in the Court of Appeals for the province of Atlanta, reviewing marriage annulment cases from the five dioceses in Georgia, North and South Carolina that make up the province.

As a teenager, Sister Marie had planned to become a nurse. She was active in her high school’s Future Nurses’ program, worked as a nurse’s aide and was accepted by a school of nursing after high school graduation.

A bust trip that began at 2 a.m. changed all that.

Before returning home after visiting her grandparents in their northern Michigan home, Marie Breitenbeck dreamed she boarded a bus and took the last available seat next to a woman dressed in black and white. She recalls at the time reflecting on the strangeness of the dream.

When she did board the 2 a.m. bus to return to Detroit, she took the only available seat. She sat down and then realized the woman next to her was dressed in a black and white habit. Sister Marie remembers thinking, “This is interesting.”

From this encounter on a 15-hour bus trip, she developed a friendship with her Adrian Dominican traveling companion. Two and a half years and many questions later, she decided to enter the Dominican congregation. Even then, however, she exercised judicious caution.

“I decided I would enter that summer, and if I belonged, I would stay. If not, there would still be time in the fall for me to enter the school of nursing where I’d been accepted.”

But she did stay and made her profession of vows in the congregation of the Adrian Dominicans.

Sister Marie has spent 17 of her 25 years in religious life in the West – Nevada and Arizona. There she taught, was a school administrator, a pastoral associate, worked in adult education and counseled. During this time she did graduate and post-graduate work in psychology.

“Due to the nature of the West, the vastness of its geographical area, everyone had to work together,” Sister Marie said. “The structure of the Church in the West led to involvement of Religious women in almost every level of parish and diocesan life. We were expected to be part of the adult education program, to go on SEARCH weekends, to go camping with people – all this was taken for granted in the best sense of that phase.”

While working as a pastoral associate in Phoenix, Sister Marie was invited to help with teacher training at the diocesan level because of her knowledge of developmental psychology. Personnel from Phoenix Tribunal sought her assistance with marriage cases they were handling when grounds for annulment began to include psychological elements. In time, she was asked to prepare psychological evaluations. From 1975 to 1982 she was an instructor of cases, advocate, and psychological consultant for the Phoenix Tribunal.

In 1982 Sister Marie left Phoenix to attend Catholic University in Washington, D.C. There she received her doctorate in canon law in 1987.

Sister Marie began her work as judge for the Atlanta province in February 1986. With two other judges, she reviews cases appealed from the dioceses of Savannah, Charleston, Charlotte, Raleigh and Atlanta. She also remains psychological consultant for the tribunals of the dioceses of Great Falls-Billings, Montana, and Baker, Oregon.

She believes her work is worthwhile. She credits her training in psychology and her experience of “having counseled in marriage – been with people in the pain of divorce at a time when there was such a stigma in the Church connected with divorce” – for deepening in her a compassionate attitude. The rigidity of law and the flexibility of psychology can mesh, she has discovered.

Mrs. Jeanette Breitenbeck, her mother, is living in the Detroit area. Sister Marie has two younger brothers and five younger sisters. Her congregation will hold a special celebration July 9 to 13 for its jubilarians at the motherhouse in Adrian.