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December 2, 2020Sister Rita Robl, A.S.C., who spent her life teaching and helping others on their spiritual quest, died Nov. 15 at the Wichita Center, in Wichita. She was age 90. She had been a professed member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ for 72 years.
Sister Rita was vibrant and full of wisdom and viewed life’s challenges as opportunities to explore God’s work in progress.
She was born during the Great Depression, on Aug. 19, 1930, on a small wheat farm in Ellinwood, Kan.
She attended the Adorers’ Sacred Heart Academy boarding school in Wichita and entered the convent in 1946. She made final vows in July 1953. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Kansas Newman College in 1957, and a master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Sister Rita taught upper grades in several Kansas Catholic schools and was principal at Saint Eugene Catholic School in Oklahoma City from 1964-1972. While in Oklahoma City, a small faith crisis led her to explore charismatic renewal and eventually she became a leader in the movement.
In 1983, she opened Centro Sangre de Cristo spirituality center in Carlsbad, N.M. The center was forced to close and she returned to Wichita, where she eventually opened Acuto Center for Renewal at Kansas Newman College and later at the Wichita Center. Her last venture was the Great Plains Earth Institute, which she founded in 1997 and ran until her retirement in 2008.
Funeral celebration was Nov. 24. Tom Welk, CPPS, chaplain for the Wichita Center, presided.
Memorial gifts can be sent to the Adorers at the U.S. Region Mission Center, 4233 Sulphur Ave., St. Louis, MO 63109 or online at adorers.org.
