The FSPA: Viterbo's 'bold and forward-thinking' founders
Viterbo University owes much to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA). Sister Laura Nettles, a member of the FSPA and a professor in Viterbo’s religious studies department, shared some thoughts on her religious community.
“They’re sort of bold and forward-thinking,” she said of the sisters, who founded the St. Rose Normal School in 1890. Less than fifty years after its founding, the school would be accredited as a college, officially achieving university status in 2000. The sisters remained invested in Viterbo throughout the whole process. “They had a passion for education and saw education as a way to better the world, and then they were really bold about their vision for what education should be, even when society might not have agreed with that vision.”
Viterbo’s emphasis on social justice has its origins in the FSPA’s focus on serving the underserved according to Nettles. “The sisters always have their eye to those who are poor and marginalized,” and Viterbo has inherited this focus, as evidenced by programs such as the Identities Project and Service Saturdays. “As Viterbo grads, we hope that you go out, and you pay attention to whose voice isn’t being heard, and who needs to be heard,” the sister said. “That’s what we hope Viterbo does as an institution.”
This commitment to justice has been manifested in many ways throughout the FSPA’s history with Viterbo, and it hasn’t been limited to serving just the physically poor. Sister Marie Leon La Croix, for whom the La Croix Black Box Theatre is named, founded Viterbo’s theatre department in 1955 because she believed the performing arts nurtured the soul. Sister Thea Bowman, who served as the chair of Viterbo’s English department in the 1970s, has received international attention for her commitment to civil rights, and the Catholic Church opened the cause for her canonization in 2018.
Even though the FSPA no longer have official oversight of the university, they remain proud of the legacy they established at Viterbo. “The sisters just have a real passion for education, and they don’t have a lot of fear about stepping out and trying things,” Nettles explained. “The whole founding of Viterbo was a risk, but it’s a risk that was well worth it.”