A funeral Mass for Sister Dolores Ann Rapp, ASC, will be celebrated at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, at the Benedictine Living Chapel at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Illinois. Visitation will be at 12:30 p.m. Sister Dolores Ann of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ died Oct. 10 at the Benedictine Living Community. She was 99 years old and had been professed for 83 years.
Sister Dolores Ann was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, on March 24, 1927, one of six children in the family of Julius and Margaret (Ampleman) Rapp. Her family attended St. Elizabeth Parish in East St. Louis.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in literature from Webster University in St. Louis in 1949 and her master’s in music literature from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, in 1964. She also studied at Saint Louis University, St. Joseph College in Rensselaer, Indiana, and St. Joseph University in Collegeville, Minnesota. She held certificates in education from both Illinois and Missouri.
Sister Dolores Ann possessed a wide variety of talents. She taught, visited, prayed, kept house for a bishop, drove sisters to medical appointments, served as a chaplain in a health center and ministered in several parishes, both in liturgy and in other needed positions, among them visiting women in the local prison.
Her gift for music included directing chorus and choir and teaching young sisters at Ruma in a program where students in her classes received college credit from Saint Louis University. In addition to teaching at two area high schools, St. Teresa Academy in East St. Louis and Gibault High School in Waterloo, Illinois, she also directed local parish choirs.
She served in pastoral ministry and liturgy at St. Libory Parish in St. Libory and St. Clare in O’Fallon, both in Illinois. In Missouri, she was involved in parish ministry at St. Francis de Sales in Lebanon and Resurrection of Our Lord in St. Louis, as well as South Grand Senior Ministry in St. Louis. For 10 years, she was a chaplain at St. John Health Center in Springfield, Missouri.
Sister Dolores Ann was an avid reader and kept up on modern theological developments, reading authors like Sister Joan Chittister, Father Ron Rolheiser, Father Richard Rohr, Michael Morewood and Sister Elizabeth Johnson. She delighted in having conversations with people who shared her appreciation for books that continued to promote renewal of the Church according to Vatican Council II. She was familiar with the recent encyclicals, particularly Pope Francis’ document, “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home.” She would often sit quietly in the green spaces at Ruma and Benedictine, listening to the songs of the birds and feeling “at one” with nature.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters Loretta (Willis) Thien and Margaret Rapp, her brothers Joseph (Jo Ann) Rapp and Robert (Donna) Rapp, her brother-in-law Howard Bjounson, nieces and nephews.
She is survived by her sister Virginia Bjounson, nieces, nephews and the ASC Community.
Burial will be in the ASC Cemetery in Ruma.
