Feature Story

A Labor of Love

In the thousand-mile journey that is the making of a quilt, the first cut is the hardest.

Charlene Wirtner of Fort Wayne, Ind., had a stack of fabrics in front of her, and she was contemplating how best they would go together. It wasn’t that she was a novice seamstress; she had been sewing since her now-grown children were born. But this was a special project, not like any she’d taken on before.

It was mid-January, the holidays were behind her, and she was about to start sewing vestments for her son, Vincent Wirtner III, a Missionary of the Precious Blood and a transitional deacon who will be ordained a priest in June. The family had dreamed up a way to be sure all of Vince’s family and friends would have a significant role at the ordination. Last fall, they sent out dozens of messages asking people close to Vince to contribute a piece of fabric to be included on a crazy-quilt chasuble and stole that Vince’s mother would create.

It could be anything from a t-shirt to a tablecloth, the message said, as long as it had some significance. Contributors were also asked to send along an explanation of the meaning of the fabric, and any other message that they had for Vince. Then the family sat back and waited for the fabric to arrive.

Arrive it did, in colors and patterns and with stories that went beyond their highest hopes. “We started out putting them in a shoe box, but soon had to move everything to a much bigger box,” Charlene said.

The family was amazed at the variety: flamingo fabric from friends in Florida; a satin swatch from Vietnam nearly as beautiful on the wrong side as the right side; the ribbon from a military medal won by Vince’s uncle; a piece of a beach umbrella, sent by long-time family friends to remind the Wirtners of the summer vacations they had shared; fabric emblazoned with the Cardinals’ emblem, sent by a friend in St. Louis.

The Wirtners have collected fabric swatches from a great-great-grandmother’s dress, a piece of a great-grandfather’s shirt, and a length of tatting that has been in the family for five generations. It is a treasure, Charlene said.

Equally treasured are the notes that people have sent along with the fabric. It has been heartwarming to see how much her son means to so many people, said Charlene, who often had tears in her eyes as she read them.

“When your kids are grown and gone, you don’t have as much of a feel for their friends or their daily life as you had when they were living under your roof,” she said. “When we were flooded with over 70 notes, written by people about how much my son means to them, it was overwhelming. You always think that everyone should love your kids the way you love them, but this made it so real and alive.”

She and Vince’s sister, Shannon, are lovingly collecting the notes into an album for Vince, “something that he’ll have for the rest of his life,” Charlene said.

The album full of notes is a fairly straightforward project, compared to the sewing and quilting of the vestments. The fabrics the family has received will be used to decorate Vince’s stole, a thin strip of fabric that priests wear around their neck, and the chasuble, the outer garment of rich fabric and ornate decorations that a priest wears while presiding at Mass.

The Wirtners: Vincent II and Charlene with their son, Vincent Wirtner III after he was ordained a deacon in June 2009.

Charlene obtained the ivory fabric for the main body of the chasuble from the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood of O’Fallon, Mo., who are renowned for the vestments they sew. Once the chasuble is complete, Charlene can affix the panel of quilting to the front and back. While she has a pattern for the chasuble, she must come up with her own design for the quilted panels. She has received advice from the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, and Marie Trout, the co-director of Companions (lay associates) for the Kansas City Province of the Missionaries, who is also an accomplished quilter. “Marie told me, ‘You’ll be amazed, once you get the first piece on there, how the other pieces fall together like a puzzle,’” Charlene said.

Beth Krudop, the wife of Vince’s best friend, Jeff Krudop, is also helping with the project. Plus, Charlene said she .has another advisor on her side. “Whenever I get in a bind, I know that the Holy Spirit is going to help me out,” she said.

In fact, the Holy Spirit has been part of the process from the very beginning. The Wirtners’ pastor at St Joseph Church in Fort Wayne had talked with Vince about a possible vocation to the priesthood when Vince was still in middle school. Vince was active in the parish, especially in music ministry, and went through all the “typical high school stuff,” Charlene said.

After high school, he became a licensed practical nurse, following in the medical footsteps of his parents. Charlene worked as a nurse (including as a parish nurse) for 50 years; and Vince’s father, Vincent Wirtner II, is a retired radiologic technologist. Vince, who is open, upbeat and compassionate, was a good nurse, but his parents had an inkling that his true calling might lie elsewhere. “At our parish we had a basket where people could put the names of kids they thought might have a religious vocation,” Charlene said. “The basket was always full of slips of paper that said ‘Vincent Wirtner III.’”

In 1997, Vince accepted the position of youth minister at Bishop Luers High School in Fort Wayne, another job he thoroughly enjoyed. In his time there, he went on a trip to the Holy Land. “When he came home from the Holy Land, he said, ‘Mom, it’s time,’” she said.

The Wirtners are deeply connected to their heritage; Charlene and their three children and grandchildren are members of the Miami tribe of Native Americans. Charlene’s cousin, an award-winning Native American beader, did the beading on his deacon stole. But they are also looking toward the future. When Vince’s plan to enter formation with the Missionaries became common knowledge, someone mentioned to Charlene, probably unnecessarily, that there would be no Vincent Wirtner IV. Vince’s parents realized the implications of his decision, but also saw the endless possibilities of a life of ordained ministry.

“There is no more perfect seamstress than my mom to accomplish this project,” Deacon Vince said. “She is a perfectionist and an artist. Because she and Dad have had the most investment in raising this priest, I felt she would put the love and care into the project that only a parent can. They have supported my vocation since the first time I thought about being a priest when I was 11 years old. Along with my brother and sister, they have been the strongest voices in my discernment journey. I could not do this without them.”

His parents’ contributions to his chasuble are a piece of lace from Charlene’s wedding gown, and a piece of the tie that Vincent II wore when they were married. It is a symbol to them of their family sending Vince forth to fulfill his vocation.

With those pieces, and over 60 others, Charlene was ready to tell the story of Vince’s life so far. “I’m anxious to get started,” she said. “I’m anxious to cut into the material. Through my hands he works.”

(Editor’s note: By the end of January Charlene had completed the body of the chasuble, except for the quilted panel. She had cut and sorted all the donated fabric pieces and had made two experimental stoles. She plans to use her son as a model to see which design works best before she proceeds.)