We share news of the death of Sister M. Francine (Klein), CSC, who died at 8:15 p.m. on August 26, 2025, in Saint Mary’s Convent, Notre Dame, Indiana. Sister Francine entered the Congregation from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on February 1, 1946. Her initial profession of vows took place on August 15, 1948.

Please join us in prayer for Sister as we renew our faith in the resurrected Jesus and strengthen our hope that all the departed will be raised to eternal life.

Funeral Arrangements

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Mass of the Resurrection:
10:30 a.m.

Church of Our Lady of Loretto Notre Dame, Indiana

Sister M. Francine (Klein), a professed Sister of the Holy Cross for 77 years, always left her 101 years of life in the hands of God. This wonderful, compassionate, gracious woman embraced God fully the evening of August 26, 2025, surrounded by her religious community at Saint Mary’s Convent, Notre Dame, Indiana.

Caroline Marie Klein was born to parents John and Mary Gegg Klein on February 2, 1924, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She was the last of seven children. The first child died soon after birth. In order of age, the others were named Karl, Marguerite, John, Mary and Elizabeth. Her father was a hotel employee. She attended St. Anthony of Padua School and Lancaster Catholic High School, where she was taught by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. After graduating from high school in 1942, she was employed as a secretary by a science press company in Lancaster.

Her application to enter the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross was made three years later, when her childhood desire to be a religious became firm. She entered the Congregation on February 1, 1946, with the intention, as she said, “to serve God better.” One of her sisters, Marguerite, who was 12 years older than Caroline, was already a member, having entered in 1934. Marguerite, whose religious name was Sister M. Viola, died in 1982. Caroline received the religious name Sister Mary Francine.

After her initial profession in 1948, Sister Francine continued her studies at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, with a major in elementary education. In the fall of 1949, she began her teaching career while completing her BA degree during the summers at Dunbarton College of the Holy Cross in Washington, D.C., in 1957. She taught in parish grade schools in New York, Texas and Washington, D.C.  She returned to the motherhouse in 1959 to teach at Saint Mary’s Campus School. When asked in the summer of 1961 if she still wished to serve in the missions abroad, she gave an affirmative joyful response. Sister Francine had made known this desire at the time of her profession, leaving the outcome to God. She continued teaching at the campus school for another semester. Before her departure for Brazil on February 7, 1962, she began studying Portuguese but learned it while serving in Brazil. Her first period in Brazil lasted from 1962 to 1975. After a year as a primary teacher at Colégio Santa Maria in São Paulo, she was a principal in two parish schools. In these parishes she also organized the catechetical program, taught catechism, and visited the people. The first parish was St. Joseph Parish in Jaguaré, São Paulo; the second was Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Telêmaco Borba, Paraná.

Due to health issues, she returned to the United States in 1975. After recovery she ministered in Blessed Sacrament Church, Alexandria, Virginia, for a year in the parish social services program. This was followed by three years serving in pastoral care at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland. While at the hospital, she completed a training program for hospital ministry and earned certification as a pastoral associate in general health care from the United States Catholic Conference. 

As her life continued, she alternated years of service in the United States with years of service in Brazil.  In the United States, she was in parish ministry at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for three years. She served again in pastoral ministry at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, for another three years. In addition, she gave four years of service to the retired community of Sisters of the Holy Cross at St. Angela Hall in Kensington, Maryland. In total, she served in the United States 26 years.

Sister Francine ministered for 35 years in Brazil. Until her retirement, her ministry in Brazil after 1980 centered on pastoral services in large diocesan parishes. From 1984 to 1992, her duties in St. Gertrude Parish, São Paulo, included coordinating the pastoral team who visited the sick and elderly. She worked daily during these years at St. Martha’s Social Service Center, assisting with the varied services offered to the people, including religious education and self-help programs. Two years of working with parishes in the Diocese of Araçuaí, in the state of Minas Gerais followed. Here she helped administer a diocesan program providing health care assistance and basic education to the families in this extremely poor section of the country. In 1997, she returned to Our Lady of Fatima Parish for a year of parish ministry.  Her next formal ministry, from 1998 to 2001, consisted of retreat work and spiritual ministry to the elderly in São Paulo. Her ministry in Brazil ended with service once again in Our Lady of Fatima Parish, from 2010 to 2014. Retirement to Saint Mary’s, Notre Dame, at the age of 90 followed at the end of 2014.

Throughout her life, Sister Francine remained very close to her family, welcoming opportunities to visit them. She sent them frequent letters from Brazil with detailed accounts of her life and ministry. As a result of a trip to the Shrine of St. André Bessette, CSC, with her sister Mary and Mary’s husband, she developed a strong devotion to Brother André. She shared this devotion with elders and sick individuals when praying with them by invoking his intercession and anointing them with oil from his shrine. One of her gifts was her ability to companion people, especially people in poverty and those who were sick.  Being with families in Brazil brought her great joy. She had great admiration for their faith in God and the gratitude the people felt for the little they had. Along with other sisters, she joined picket lines to advocate for improved living conditions for them. Her loving concern for all was evident to the sisters with whom she shared community life. Sister Francine had a deep appreciation of the beauty of nature together with a talent for making decorative natural arrangements.    

During her retirement, she continued to keep in close contact with her family and the sisters in Brazil, as well as visiting and praying with sisters at Saint Mary’s. Now in God’s presence, her compassion for others continues as she advocates for the spiritual and temporal needs of those on Earth.

We invite you to donate to the Congregation in Sister’s name.