Who Were the Northside Ladies?

“You know what is the greatest success of our program? 

People come into one of our groups and can’t tell

who is a participant and who is a teacher.

I just love that part. I just love it.”  --Julie, 1998

Beryl Wolney, Jenny Flynn, Julie Koegl, Rita Johnson, Shirley Dorff, and Terry Mueller not only made a path by walking it but created a legacy of service, education, and radical inclusion that we benefit from today. We carry with us their bravery to break away from a lifelong comfort zone to engage with the Gospel in an immediate and hands-on way. We celebrate The Special Needs Program, which they established in 1968 when they joined St Stephen’s Catholic Church in Minneapolis.

The 1960’s were a chaotic mix in the world, the Church, and the Twin Cities.

St. Stephen’s, founded in 1885 as the ninth Roman Catholic church in Minneapolis, located at what was then the very edge of the city, had long existed at the intersection of tradition and progress. When the construction of 35W in the 1950s deeply divided the neighborhood and the parish boundaries for the church on economic and racial lines, the community evolved with the surrounding blocks. The large mansions in the neighborhood emptied and over time these abandoned buildings became nursing homes, group homes or board-and-care facilities. By 1970 nearly 4,200 people with developmental disabilities lived in the geographical parish, many in the immediate neighborhood.

Monumental changes came from Rome. From 1962 - 1965, across the pontificates of Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI, the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Vatican II) took place. The resulting practices of the use of vernacular over Latin, standing to receive Communion and the removal of altar rails, and the increased participation of the laity were not met with universal acceptance. At St Stephen’s a gap between views of worship and liturgy widened. The practice fundamental to our community’s identity, of viewing the laity as active participants rather than passive recipients, of claiming the priesthood of our baptism, continued to move to the center of the 9am Mass over many years.

In the nearby suburb of Brooklyn Center, Julie Koegl had run up against the limits of the priest at Our Lady of Victory parish. That pastor’s focus on a new building and major fundraising efforts were interrupted by a new associate priest, Fr Frank Kenney. The Northside Ladies’ understanding of faith and their relationship to God was flung wide open by Fr Kenney’s teaching, based on the new Vatican II documents.

Julie recalled how they sat in their cars for hours after Fr Kenney’s classes talking through the stunning things he had said. “He was teaching us to take hold of ourselves. He said, ‘You are the church and it’s up to you. Any changes won’t be made from the top. They’ll start from the bottom.’

( ….) I never dared believe Jesus was within me,” said Koegl. “I never saw people around me as people with Christ in them. It was too frightening because love of God was paramount in our lives and love of God included you and God. Frank said you can’t love God unless you love yourself, which was frightening enough, and your neighbor too. That’s how you show love. Those were scary things. That message of just pure love was beautiful but it was just too radical.” (Julie Koegl, quoted in The Soul of a People, an Urban Church on the Edge by Patrick Keane Marx, 1985)

Frank Kenney left Our Lady of Victory parish for inner-city St. Stephen’s to be part of an experimental three priest ministry team. The Team was commissioned to address the grace and challenges of rapid social change in the St. Stephen’s parish boundaries. They were given permission to experiment in order to find bold answers, including the question, “Can parishioners be given more responsibility in the parish community?” (Excerpted from a newsletter written by Fr Vinck, quoted in The Soul of a People, an Urban Church on the Edge by Patrick Keane Marx, 1985).

The women were attentive students who had taken Frank’s message to heart and were drawn to a new model of shared leadership in the Team approach at St. Stephen’s. They increased their commute from 2-minutes to 20-minutes and began to pray at St. Stephen’s.

Almost immediately, the women experienced the need and desire for Special Needs Religious Education. The Northside Ladies followed the Spirit’s call to meetings with the Archdiocese where they advocated for teacher training, organizational support, and participation in Mass and the sacrament of Confirmation for their participants. Their efforts led to the creation of a position in leadership for special religious education at the Archdiocesan level. Eventually, Confirmation classes across the metro would serve the program to complete some of their volunteer hours, spreading the Good News of inclusion to their own parishes.

Within a year, the program was born. They held Saturday morning Bible classes with the same lesson every week: Jesus loves you. Supplemented by the gifts of many volunteers: music, craft projects, and cookies, the love of Jesus was abundantly clear. Soon Wednesday night dances and live music became a part of the schedule. While advocacy from parents in other parishes led to individual inclusion in some aspects of church life, no other church was offering this ministry and attendance was robust.

In 1973 the Northsiders realized that a group of women living across the street, at a privately-owned Board and Care Home, were attending church as usual, but with increased disarray in their clothing and hygiene. They walked across the street to investigate and found 30 women, all with developmental disabilities, residing there on their own, having been abandoned by the owner. Beryl and Julie moved in to provide care for the women for a few months until they successfully appealed to Catholic Charities to assume management of the home. As St. Ann's Residence, under the management of Catholic Charities and the Archdiocese, the former convent of St Stephen’s School teachers, operated as a home for women with disabilities until 1993.

An event dear to everyone who attended it, the annual Christmas Pageant began in 1973. This mid-December offering included every Saturday morning participant who wished to take part (they all did!) and a new, living Baby Jesus every year. Families of musicians provided the music, donations of gifts were handed out by a participant Santa, and joy in the world was believable. No barriers, no exceptions and the Incarnation of God-with-us was never more real.

In 1974, 50 participants of the Special Needs Program were confirmed at St Paul Cathedral.

Through the Spirit the Northside Ladies were able to always see the person and their gifts before any limitation. They became prophets, insisting that Jesus loves us and that the love of Jesus is the foundation from which we must do all things. In this, the Special Needs Program was born. Several alumni of this program are still praying with us in 2026 and we count them among our treasures.

Ed Flavahan, pastor from 1978-1988, called the participants “our resident theologians.” We might have missed this face of God without the ministries of Beryl Wolney, Jenny Flynn, Julie Koegl, Rita Johnson, Shirley Dorff, and Terry Mueller.

We cannot thank them enough. 

If you have any stories or remembrances of this group please email them to archive@spiritcatholiccommunity.org.