Catholic Women's League of Saskatchewan

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Rev. Fr. Francis Hengen

Spiritual Advisor


Rev. Fr. Francis Hengen

Father Francis was born on a farm near the town of Windthorst, Sask. on July 19, 1945, the youngest of ten children. His first eight years of education were at Mount Murray country school; grade nine and ten in Windthorst and he completed his grade eleven and twelve at St. Peter’s College in Muenster.


Father Francis graduated from the Grey Nun’s School of Nursing, Regina, in 1967. After working for a year in the Humboldt area, he joined the Canadian Lay Missioners and spent the next seven years in the missions in Rhodesia (today’s Zimbabwe) working at Catholic high schools for African youth. In 1978, after talking with Archbishop Halpin, he entered St. Joseph’s Seminary in Edmonton, and spent the following four years studying theology. He obtained a Bachelor of Theology Degree, with Distinction, and was ordained a priest in his home parish of St. Pius V in Windthorst, on June 18, 1982.


Father Francis has served in a number of city and rural parishes over the past twenty-seven years. He was chair of the Diocesan Vocations Committee for ten years; Diocesan Spiritual Advisor for the Catholic Women’s League for ten years and is presently the Provincial Spiritual Advisor for the Catholic Women’s League.


One very special moment of his life came in 1999 when he returned to Zimbabwe and celebrated the ordination of his close friend and former student, Robert Ndlovu, as the first African bishop for the Diocese of Hwange.


Father Francis has known the work of the League for a long time. His mother was a charter member of the Windthorst Council of the Catholic Women’s League. He has always enjoyed working with the Catholic Women’s League councils in the parishes he served as pastor and has grown a lot through his work with the Diocesan and Provincial Councils.