Sandy Compas had a passion for teaching religion to children and adults for 20 years. As the associate director for religious education and Christian initiation for the Diocese of Little Rock for the past three years, she was able to spread the faith across the state.
The diocesan offices were eerily silent Monday morning, Dec. 4 when the news broke that Compas was killed in a car accident the afternoon before on Highway 67 near Bald Knob. She was returning to the state from a friend’s diaconate ordination in southeast Missouri. She was 44.
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Msgr. J. Gaston Hebert, diocesan administrator, and Dennis Lee, chancellor for administrative affairs, gathered employees in Morris Hall Chapel at St. John Center in Little Rock to share the news and lead them in a rosary for the repose of Compas’ soul. At noon Msgr. Hebert celebrated a Mass for the Dead in the chapel.
“As humans, we grieve the loss of this lovely young woman so filled with Christ and his message, so eager to share it with others,” Msgr. Hebert wrote in a column for this week’s issue. “As all of us share in the life of Christ, she was part of your family too. I ask that you lift up your prayers for your sister in Christ.”
The native of Springfield, Mo., she earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Brescia University in Owensboro, Ky., in 1986. In her first job she was an elementary school teacher at St. Teresa School in Glennonville, Mo., where she also assisted with sacramental preparation for reconciliation and Eucharist. She remained close to parish families there.
In 1996 she earned a master’s degree in religious education from Loyola University in New Orleans. She taught in Catholic schools as well as serving as a director of parish religious education, youth minister and pastoral associate in southeast Missouri and Kentucky.
In 2000 she helped create a program called “Loaves and Fishes,” an intergenerational religious education program for the Diocese of Owensboro, Ky.
In 2001 until she arrived in Little Rock in 2003 she was a catechetical consultant for the Archdiocese of Louisville. During her years in Kentucky she developed a love for ministry to rural and mission parishes.
“There was such a hunger for religious education on the part of the people, especially the catechists and adults,” she told Arkansas Catholic in 2003.
“My heart has always been in the rural parishes,” she said. “I feel that’s where my strengths are.”
For the past three years, her diocesan work has focused on teaching catechist formation sessions around the state and the creed to first-year students attending the Little Rock Theology Institute, developing sacramental guidelines for the diocese and leading parish retreats and in-service training.
“She loved this diocese because it had this rural quality,” said Sister Mary Glynn, SJC, director of the Office of Religious Education and Christian Initiation. “She loved the catechetical leaders. She was so outgoing.
“She was very passionate about catechesis and very passionate about formation for catechetical leaders.”
Sister Mary said Compas’ dedication to the directors of parish religious education was evident at a retreat for the leaders last January.
“She had all of the pastors write a letter of appreciation to the DREs,” she said. “She wanted every catechetical leader to know they were appreciated.”
Sister Mary said she loved Compas’ eye for details.
“She never wanted to leave anything (before an parish event) for a last-minute glitch. She was very prepared,” she said.
As a member of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Parish in Little Rock, she put her skills and experience to good use, assisting with sacramental preparation, particularly with First Communion and first reconciliation.
She was among four people who wrote an original stage production that traced the history of the Mass called, “2000 Years of Eucharistic Celebration” as part of the universal Church’s Year of the Eucharist celebration in 2005.
Anne Thomisee, the parish’s director of religious education, said the first thing she thought of was how much one person can affect so many people’s lives.
“Now there’s just a big hole. Everybody’s trying to figure out, ’What do we do now?’” she said. “This is a big thing and it’s very tragic. … This is a real loss to all of us; to everybody in the state because she traveled to every corner of the state all the time.”
Surennah Werley, director of religious education at Immaculate Conception Church in Fort Smith, said Compas was not only a wonderful support and resource to her, but she was also her friend.
“She was the most gracious resource that I think I could ever find,” Werley said. “She never hesitated to give me direction.”
Compas enjoyed outdoor activities, cooking, writing and reading. Staff members at the diocese particularly remember her fondness for chocolate.
She is survived by her mother, Mildred Compas of New Mexico; and one sister, Lynn Compas of California.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Teresa Church in Glennonville, Mo., with burial in the parish cemetery. Memorials can be made to the St. Teresa Church Building Fund, 40694 State Highway JJ, Campbell, MO 63933.
Tara Little contributed to this article.
Several directors of religious education around the state were asked to share their memories of Sandy Compas and her impact on their parish ministries.
Anne Thomisee, DRE at Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock, said Compas was a wonderful resource that parishioners felt comfortable going to with religious education questions.
As a member of Holy Souls, Compas also worked closely with Thomisee over the past two years in writing the Question of the Week as part of the parish’s implementation of Whole Community Catechesis.
The questions are generated from each week’s Gospel reading and are handed out to parishioners at Mass to reflect on throughout the week.
Thomisee said Compas helped her write the questions for December.
The Gospel for the first Sunday of Advent, the day Compas died, served as a reminder to always be prepared because no one knows when the end will come, a message that, Thomisee said “hit very close to home” through Compas’ sudden death.
“The question that we developed for this week is: ’What sign in my life tells me to be vigilant?’” Thomisee said. “This is a question that we thought of together and worked on … the fact (is) we do not know the time or the day of when we are going to meet the Lord.”
Thomisee also marveled at how quickly Compas became an important part of the parish, even though she came to Little Rock in 2003.
“She was certainly a visible person in the parish and she was well known and highly respected,” she said.
She said Compas’ passion was to train and empower catechetical leaders in parishes. She also made a point to always appreciate them as well.
“She felt that the catechetical leaders needed to always be up to date and renewed and that they needed to have their certification,” she said. “She was willing and able to travel anywhere to work with the catechetical leaders in certifying in getting catechists where they should be.”
Thomisee said, Compas “had a real sense of ministry, of serving others. I think she understood the value of it. She had a great respect for people. She made friends and was very caring towards her friends. They were part of her life.”
Even though there were things that bothered her about working for the Church at times, Thomisee said, “She never gave up.”
“She wasn’t cynical. She was very hopeful. I think that’s a wonderful gift to give to a parish,” she said. “She was a good example for others and certainly solid in what she believed and faithful to it.”
Surennah Werley, director of religious education at Immaculate Conception Church in Fort Smith, said Compas was not only a wonderful support and resource to her, but she was also her friend.
“When I didn’t think I could handle something she was the first one to say, ’Oh yes you can,’” she said. “When I started as DRE I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do it or how I was going to do it. I just knew God was calling me to this position. I didn’t know why. She was just there every step of the way.”
“She will be missed terribly,” Werley said. “She was my friend. We could laugh and cry and be mad or whatever and she was a joy to be around.
“She made a big difference in the education for the catechists in this diocese. She was committed to that. She believed that it was a worthwhile thing to do,” Werley said.
Compas “had the most interesting way of making faith real and helping other people see God in everyday moments of life,” Werley said. “She was just a blessing. She really was. We’re really going to miss her. We’re really going to miss her. I’m going to miss her. It’s going to be very hard.”
While Shannon Stowe reiterated what others had said about Compas’ dedication to her work and unceasing support for parish catechetical leaders, she also spoke about the personal loss she felt.
When asked about Compas’ death, Stowe, director of religious education at St. Joseph Church in Tontitown, said tearfully, “I loved her.”
“She had a way of inspiring people,” she said. “I came away from her workshops energized. I just wanted to do everything.”
Stowe, who works as an intern architect, volunteers in her position at St. Joseph Church. Part of her ministry also includes teaching the high school parish religious education class. In April she attended the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership on a scholarship she won after she was nominated by Sister Mary J. Glynn, SJC, diocesan director of religious education, and Compas, who wrote the letter of recommendation.
Each diocese was invited to nominate a volunteer parish DRE younger than 40 to attend the conference, Stowe said. About 10 people from the Diocese of Little Rock attended, including Sister Mary, Compas, Stowe and Werley.
Stowe said she and Compas took Werley, who had never been to Chicago before, on a tour of the city where the conference was held.
“We had a wonderful time. … We were laughing and telling stories,” Stowe said, adding it is a memory she will always cherish.
Stowe also shared how Compas’ faith matched her knowledge and skills as a religious educator.
“Every time I had issues with anything, Sandy would always tell me that the Holy Spirit has a way of working it out and that I should just let it go,” Stowe said. “God knows she believes it so much.”
“The Rest and Growth: Lessons Learned from Winter” catechetical leaders’ appreciation banquet and retreat is scheduled Jan. 26-27, 2007, and Stowe said she hopes the event, which Compas played a large role in planning, still takes place because it will be an opportunity for catechists from across the state to get together and remember Compas.
Rose Mary Latanich, director of religious education for Blessed Sacrament Church in Jonesboro, called Compas a “master catechist” who was also a “motivator,” “encourager” and was “always ready to listen and to help” with any need.
Though she only knew Compas for the three years she was in Arkansas, Latanich said she would frequently call to Compas to ask questions about sacramental preparation and the two became fast friends.
“She walked what she talked and I will dearly miss her,” she said tearfully. “I’m going to miss my girlfriend.”
Latanich said Compas led an “Overview of Scripture” workshop at Blessed Sacrament Church on Nov. 4 for catechists in that parish as well as surrounding parishes in northeast Arkansas.
“She’s touched a lot of people and she’s really going to be missed,” she said.
Reported by Tara Little
