Sister Veronica Schweyen
Current ministry location – EUS Region
Veronica Schweyen was born January 20, 1937 in Northgate, ND to Carrie E. Schweyen and Harold A. Schweyen. She had 3 brothers: James, William and Robert and 1 sister: Kathy. Veronica graduated from St. Agnes Academy High School, Kenmare, ND in 1954. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from St. Scholastica College in Duluth, MN in 1958. Prior to entering the Maryknoll Sisters, Veronica taught in public schools in Tower and Rochester, MN.
Veronica (Roni) Schweyen entered the Maryknoll Sisters October 18, 1963 at the novitiate in Valley Park, MO. She professed First Vows June 24, 1966 at the Center in NY and Final Vows June 21, 1975 in Tanzania. Sister Roni spent one summer at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WS and Mary Rogers College at Maryknoll, NY. She earned a Master of Science in English from Yeshiva University in New York City in 1970. Sister Roni’s first assignment was teaching at St. Anthony of Padua School in the Bronx, NY, from 1966-69. Her first overseas mission assignment was to Hawaii where she taught for one year at Maryknoll School in Wailua, HI.
In 1970, Sister Veronica was assigned to Tanzania where after Language study of Swahili in Musoma, she taught English at Mzumbe Boy’s secondary school from 1971-’73, then she headed a religious education program in Dar Es Salaam from 1975-‘78. She also did pastoral work in Tanzania from 1980-’81 and parish work in the same Diocese of Tanzania from 1981-’85.
Sister Roni returned to the United States in in 1986 to work in the Promotion Office at the Sisters Center, NY where she participated in giving talks in Catholic churches and mission awareness raising programs in high schools and colleges on the East Coast.
In 1989, Veronica earned a Certificate in Clinical Pastoral Education from Nyack Hospital, Nyack, NY. And in 1991 received a Certificate in Pastoral Counselling from Fordham University in New York City.
In 1991, Sister was again assigned to Tanzania and worked in the Nyakato Parish near Mwanza, until 2003. There she launched an AIDS Outreach program, which was turned over to local lay administration in 2004. She also worked with Capacitar, an international organization focused on helping people achieve emotional, physical and spiritual health and wholeness, in women’s development, and with an orphans’ program in Mwanza from 2005-2010.
She returned to the U.S. in 2010 and joined the staff of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concern (MOGC) until 2019. In March of 2019, Sister Veronica retired and became a member of the Maryknoll Sisters EUS Region residing in Croton-On-Hudson, NY.