Extension magazine - Winter 2022

catholicextension.org 

STORIES OF FAITH FROM CATHOLIC EXTENSION 

WINTER 2022 

CHRISTMAS THROUGH THE EYES OF CHILDREN IN UVALDE AND UKRAINE

Extension | Winter 2022 3 

Catholic Extension has published Extension 

magazine since 1906 to share with our donors 

and friends the stories illustrating our mission: 

to work in solidarity with people in America’s 

poorest regions to build up vibrant and 

transformative Catholic faith communities. 

S T O R I E S O F F A I T H F R O M C A T H O L I C E X T E N S I O N 

Contact Us 

Catholic Extension 

150 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 2000 

Chicago, IL 60606 

800.842.7804 

magazine@catholicextension.org 


Board of Governors 

CHANCELLOR 

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich 

Archbishop of Chicago 

VICE CHANCELLOR 

Most Reverend Gerald F. Kicanas 

Bishop Emeritus of Tucson 

PRESIDENT 

Reverend John J. Wall 

VICE CHAIR OF COMMITTEES and SECRETARY 

Elizabeth Hartigan Connelly 

BOARD MEMBERS 

Most Reverend Gerald R. Barnes 

Bishop Emeritus of San Bernardino 

Most Reverend Steven Biegler 

Bishop of Cheyenne 

John W. Croghan 

Most Reverend Daniel E. Flores, STD 

Bishop of Brownsville 

Most Reverend Curtis J. Guillory, SVD 

Bishop Emeritus of Beaumont 

The Honorable James C. Kenny 

Most Reverend Robert N. Lynch 

Bishop Emeritus of St. Petersburg 

Peter J. McCanna 

Andrew J. McKenna 

Michael G. O’Grady 

Christopher Perry 

Andrew Reyes 

Karen Sauder 

Pamela Scholl 

Most Reverend Anthony B. Taylor 

Bishop of Little Rock 

Most Reverend George L. Thomas, Ph.D. 

Bishop of Las Vegas 

Most Reverend William A. Wack, CSC 

Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee 

Edward Wehmer 

Your investment in Catholic Extension is tax 

deductible to the extent allowed by law. Catholic 

Extension is a nonprofit 501(c)( 3 ) organization. 

ISSN Number: 0884-7533 

©2022 The Catholic Church Extension Society 

All rights reserved. 

Extension is a publication provided to you and 

your family by Catholic Extension. If you do not 

wish to continue receiving Extension, email 

magazine@catholicextension.org and we will 

remove you from this mailing list. 

Let there 

be peace 

on earth 10 

Our cover presents the artwork 

drawn by two groups of children 

who suffered horrendous 

tragedies in their communities 

this year: Ukraine and Uvalde, 

Texas. As we end a year marked 

by terror, violence and war, 

we invited them to lead us in 

reflection this Christmas season 

through their drawings and 

letters. Their art reveals how their 

faith offers them hope for a better 

future and shapes the way they 

see our God and our world. 

BUILD 

NEWS BRIEFS | Centuries-old paintings were discovered in San 

Historical frescos found in Puerto Rico 8 

Juan Bautista Cathedral, one of 1,000 Catholic structures that 

Catholic Extension is helping to restore on the island 

INSPIRE 

Eyes to see the invisible people 24 

LUMEN CHRISTI | Jean Fedigan from the Diocese of Tucson 

receives Catholic Extension’s Lumen Christi Award 

A strategy that works 34 

FEATURE | A rural diocese in Montana passes on the faith to 

youth and develops new leaders 

Forming Catholic school leadership 

nationwide 40 

FEATURE | Catholic Extension’s 10-year partnership with 

Loyola Marymount University’s School of Education 

Help us make a difference this 

IGNITE 

Christmas 46 

CHRISTMAS WISHLIST | Help grant the wishes of struggling faith 

communities in poor regions across the country 

Generosity from afar 48 

CONNECT | Michigan parish shows inspiring support for the 

Ukrainian Catholic Church 

Letter from Father Wall 4 

Southern Arizona’s proud Catholic legacy 22 

Lumen Christi past recipients 30 

Judges of Lumen Christi admire Jean Fedigan’s ministry 50

4 

Letter from Father Wall 


‘S 

Listen to 

the angels 

speak 

TAY AWAKE!” Jesus tells us in 

the first Sunday of Advent’s 

Gospel. 

We are in the season when 

the angels begin speaking to 

us, but they speak in a way 

that requires us to be tuned 

in to hear them. 

This is the time of year 

when things speed up, 

pressure mounts and 

schedules are crowded. But if 

we can slow down our hearts 

and spirits just a little, we 

too will be able to hear the 

angels. They are among us 

to announce good news and 

glad tidings even in a world 

battered by suffering, so 

much of it self-inflicted. 

Our world is preparing 

to receive once again the 

greatest gift of all time. 

This gift comes in a small, 

easy-to-miss package: a little 

baby named Jesus. His arrival 

marks the coming together 

of our humanity and God’s 

divinity, a moment which 

forever changes everything. 

But like the characters 

that made their way into the 

Nativity story (the shepherds, 

the Wise Men, Joseph), we 

too must become adept at 

listening to the angels, so 

that we do not miss this great 

event. Indeed, the angels are 

all around us, pointing us to 

the unlikely places where 

God is being revealed. 

God, they tell us, is in a 

baby in a manger who came 

so that we might have life. 

God is in the heart of Mary, 

whose motherly love knows 

no limits for her son and for 

all of us. 

God is in the ear of Joseph, 

telling him and us to protect 

our little ones. 

And, as you will find out 

in this edition of Extension 

magazine, God is being born 

into our present-day realities 

and struggles, and the angels 

are speaking once again. 

God’s presence is being 

born among the homeless 

and trafficked women served 

by Jean Fedigan, our 2022- 

2023 Lumen Christi Award 

recipient. 

God is found in the joy 

of a veteran who now has a 

roof over his head, thanks to 

a rural Texas priest named 

Father Ron Foshage, who 

used his Lumen Christi Award 

money in 2020 to build 

miniature homes. 

And God is most definitely 

found this holy season among 

our children. 

God’s embrace is among 

the abused, tortured and 

neglected children of Puerto 

Rico, who have found a loving 

home at the Extension-built 

Santa Teresita. Santa Teresita 

will receive $1 million in 

Federal Emergency Management 

Agency (FEMA) funds 

to build a hurricane-safe 

structure, thanks to Catholic 

Extension’s disaster recovery 

program in Puerto Rico 

following Hurricane Maria. 

God is in the innocent 

children of Uvalde, Texas, 

whose healing process is 

being assisted by Catholic 

Extension following the mass 

shooting in their community. 

As you will see, these 

children recently delivered 

letters to Pope Francis with 

our help. Through these 

letters, they in no uncertain 

terms affirmed to the Holy 

Father their faith in Jesus, 

who came among us as the 

Prince of Peace. 

Likewise, God is found in 

the children displaced by 

war in Ukraine who have 

been served so beautifully 

by our Ukrainian Catholic 

leaders here in the United 

States and abroad. With 

your generosity, they have 

sheltered these refugees of 

war, just as the child Jesus 

was once a refugee. 

We are being asked to 

wake up so we can follow the 

voices of the angels showing 

us that even in a violent and 

turbulent world—much like 

the world in which Jesus 

was born—God still chooses 

to come among us. Jesus’ 

light still shines through the 

darkness. 

We are in this season 

when our ability to tune in to 

what is happening around us 

is paramount. 

Perhaps that is what 

makes the song “Silent 

Night” such a sacred melody 

to so many of us. There is a 

reason why it is translated 

into more than 300 languages. 

This song about the arrival 

of Jesus conveys peace and 

calm. And the irony about 

the song’s origins is that it 

“We are being asked to wake up 

so we can follow the voices of the 

angels showing us that even in 

a violent and turbulent world— 

much like the world in which Jesus 

was born—God still chooses to 

come among us. 

was written in Europe in the 

early 1800s, a time of intense 

warfare, famine and social 

upheaval. 

Yet the song’s central idea 

is simple. In the silence we 

find that all is calm and all is 

bright. There, we get in touch 

with a “heavenly peace” 

emanating from this sleeping 

baby. 

I hope that the stories in 

this edition open you up to 

the heavenly peace that your 

generosity is helping to bring 

about. 

I pray that in this special 

season you may be touched 

by the God of love and 

tenderness, who shares our 

humanity, who is born into 

abject poverty, but who 

nonetheless promises us 

deliverance from all evil. 

Stay awake, enter the 

silence and listen to the 

angels pointing to God’s 

presence all around us. 

May God bless you and all 

whom you love. 

Rev. John J. Wall 

PRESIDENT, CATHOLIC EXTENSION 

Father Jack 

Wall, president 

of Catholic 

Extension, visits 

Jean Fedigan, 

Catholic 

Extension’s 

2022-2023 

Lumen Christi 

Award recipient, 

at her shelter for 

homeless women 

in the Diocese of 

Tucson, Arizona.


Poor faith communities need your help 

BUILD 

NEWS BRIEFS 8 | CHILDREN’S DRAWINGS FROM UVALDE AND UKRAINE 10 

News from 

around the country 

Catholic Extension’s support for ongoing ministries 

in this Native American parish represents a true miracle for 

a community in a desperately poor area. 

Donate today 

Text “Extension” to 50155 to make a gift 

catholicextension.org/give 

An angel prays 

over the newborn 

Jesus, drawn 

by 11-year-old 

Vlada-Maria 

Hohlochova, a 

Ukrainian child 

who escaped 

Russian rockets 

and found refuge 

at a convent. 

See more letters 

and illustrations 

from children like 

her on page 10.

8 

BUILD Extension | Winter 2022 9 

News Briefs 

HIGHLIGHTS 

Become a parish 

partner 

Does your parish want 

to support the mission 

of Catholic Extension? 

Visit catholicextension.org/parish-partnerships 

or contact 

Natalie Donatello at 

ndonatello@catholicextension.org 

to 

learn more. 

Parents of Uvalde children share thanks 

After the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in May, 

Catholic Extension provided scholarships for more than 30 students 

to transfer to Sacred Heart Catholic School. Most families 

in this community are unable to afford tuition. The parents have 

sent notes of gratitude to our donors. 

The parents of Trevor, who was traumatized by the experience, 

wrote, “Thank you for giving our son the opportunity to feel safe 

again in school. Thank you for easing our anxieties about how we 

were going to afford this, when we hadn’t prepared for it.” 

The parents of Noah, who was shot and survived, wrote, 

“Words cannot begin to describe the gratitude we have for your 

kindness and generosity. Your gift has allowed our son Noah to 

not only come back to school but also provided a safe and loving 

environment as well. Thank you!!” 

See letters and drawings from the children in Uvalde on page 10. 

HURRICANE FIONA 

PUERTO RICO 

Five years after Puerto 

Rico was devastated by 

Hurricane Maria, the island 

was ravaged by Hurricane 

Fiona. Catholic Extension 

sent funding to support 

parish leaders who 

delivered food to people 

stuck in the mountains 

due to flooding and 

mudslides and who 

attended to the elderly and 

poor, left in ruined homes 

without electricity. See 

how we continue to help 

Puerto Rico rebuild on 

page 32. 

SUPPORT FOR 

RETIRED PRIESTS 

NATIONWIDE 

Priests who have served 

or retired from Extension 

dioceses are being 

given an opportunity to 

augment their income. 

Made possible through 

a grant from Lilly Endowment 

Inc., they can access 

a matching grant when 

they establish a charitable 

gift annuity of $5,000 or 

more with Catholic Extension. 

This is welcomed assistance 

to financially insecure, 

retired priests who 

have spent their lives serving 

the Church. 

NEW CHURCH AFTER 

HURRICANE KATRINA 

MISSISSIPPI 

Catholic Extension helped 

fund a new church building 

for Most Holy Trinity 

Parish in southern Mississippi 

in the Diocese of 

Biloxi. The faith community 

comprises three parishes 

whose churches were 

severely damaged by Hurricane 

Katrina in 2005. The 

parishes joined in 2011 

and have since been meeting 

and celebrating Mass 

in a community center. 

This rapidly growing community 

finally has a permanent 

and beautiful church 

in which to worship. 

UPDATE FROM THE 

BERING SEA COAST 

ALASKA 

Father Stan Jaszek, 

last year’s Lumen Christi 

Award recipient, used the 

money from the award to 

benefit the Yup’ik people 

he serves in the Diocese 

of Fairbanks. He helped 

to restore their church 

facilities and purchased a 

used ATV, which will allow 

him to more safely and 

efficiently travel between 

the four villages he serves 

on the coast of the Bering 

Sea, where there are no 

roads. 

HISTORICAL FRESCOS DISCOVERED IN SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 

San Juan Bautista Cathedral in San Juan is among 

the nearly 1,000 churches across Puerto Rico being 

restored through Catholic Extension’s disaster 

recovery program after being damaged by Hurricane 

Maria in 2017. During a recent site inspection, frescos believed 

to be from the early 1800s were discovered underneath a 

crumbling plaster ceiling—a major artistic and historical 

discovery. This has drawn intense interest from the State 

Historic Preservation Office, as the 501-year-old cathedral is 

one of the oldest churches under the American flag. 

NEWS BRIEFS

10 BUILD 

Cover Story 


Children of Ukraine and Uvalde express their hopes through art and letters 

LET 

THERE BE 

peace 

ONearth 

C 

HILDREN can help us understand 

the true meaning of 

Christmas when we look at 

the world through their eyes. 

More than having just “visions 

of sugar plums dance in their 

heads,” many children seem to 

grasp the power of a God who 

comes among us as a poor baby. 

For this edition of Extension,

12 

BUILD 

Cover Story 


we turned to some 

extraordinary children 

to help us see our God 

and our world through 

their lens. 

These words and 

images come from 

two groups of children 

whom you are supporting 

through your generosity. 

They come from different 

cultures and parts of the 

world, but what they share 

in common is faith—faith in 

the midst of terror, violence 

and war. 

The first group is from 

Sacred Heart Catholic School 

CATHOLIC 

EXTENSION’S 

SUPPORT IN UKRAINE 

Catholic Extension has supported 

the Ukrainian Catholic 

Church in the United States 

since 1979. This relationship 

provided us an immediate and 

effective pathway to help the 

Catholic Church in Ukraine 

as it cares for vulnerable people 

in the war-torn nation. Our 

support helped Church leaders 

evacuate, shelter, feed and 

comfort families, orphans and 

the elderly. These refugees 

continue to rely on the outstretched 

arms of the Church 

as the war rages on. 

11-year-old Vlada- 

Maria Hohlochova, 

a refugee of Ukraine, 

shows her letter and 

Christmas angel. 

LEFT The fifth grade 

artist of this picture, 

who lost a cousin 

in the violence, 

asked the pope to 

“come and bless 

Uvalde.” 

ABOVE An Uvalde parent prays for the safety of her daughter at Mass on the first day 

of school at Sacred Heart. 

ABOVE RIGHT As seen through the eyes of an Uvalde student, this picture shows the 

baby Jesus cradled in His mother’s arms, much like the parents of Uvalde have held 

their children closely following the violence of May 2022. 

in Uvalde, Texas, whom you 

have supported with scholarships 

and healing ministries. 

Many of these children were 

directly impacted by the mass 

shooting which took place in 

May 2022 at Robb Elementary 

School. Catholic Extension 

invited them to: 

• Write letters to Pope 

Francis expressing their 

hopes and feelings, and 

• Draw a picture of the 

Nativity answering the 

question, “If Jesus came 

today, where would He be 

born?” 

Additionally, we reached 

out to the children of Ukraine, 

displaced by war and housed 

in a convent with religious 

sisters—a ministry you have 

also been supporting this 

PHOTO JUAN GUAJARDO 

year. They gave us letters and 

Christmas art to contemplate. 

In the midst of the brutality 

that they have witnessed, 

these children of Uvalde and 

Ukraine give witness to their 

faith in a tender God, born 

in a manger, who is capable 

of bringing them heavenly 

peace. 

These writings and drawings, 

along with our reflections 

on them, are presented 

to you as a reminder of the 

hope we share across the 

country and world, in a person 

named Jesus who said, 

“Let the children come to me” 

(Mt 19:14). 

May the simplicity and 

beauty of these children’s 

heartfelt art and words bring 

us all closer to the true spirit 

of Christmas. 

CATHOLIC 

EXTENSION’S 

SUPPORT IN UVALDE, 

TEXAS 

Catholic Extension has been 

connected to the community 

of Uvalde since helping 

to build its Catholic church 

and school in the early 1900s. 

Following the tragic mass 

shooting at Robb Elementary 

School in May of this 

year, in which 19 students and 

two teachers were killed, we 

began supporting ongoing 

ministries led by Catholic sisters 

to help heal families. Catholic 

Extension provided scholarships 

to help more than 30 

children transfer to Sacred 

Heart Catholic School. We are 

continuing to fundraise to provide 

multi-year scholarships 

and help more families who 

wish to transfer their children.

14 

BUILD 

Cover Story 


‘Your 

Holiness, 

I feel safe 

and loved’ 

An second grader 

from Uvalde asks 

Pope Francis to pray 

for her slain friend, 

whom she depicts 

with angel wings in 

heaven. 

TO READ MORE 

LETTERS 

What does Pope Francis 

see when he 

prays for the children 

of Uvalde? It is not a hard 

question to answer. 

When Pope Francis was the 

cardinal of Buenos Aires, Ar- 

gentina, he regularly 

visited hospitals and prisons. 

He called them the “places 

of pain.” He believed that was 

where Jesus’ love was needed 

most. 

In 2013 Pope Francis chose 

a powerful location for his first 

Holy Thursday celebration. Instead 

of choosing a basilica 

in Rome, as had been the tradition, 

he chose the Casal del 

Marmo, a prison. Another place 

of pain. He wanted to be witness 

to the strength of the Resurrection 

in the wounds of this 

world. 

In 2019 the pope sent a mes- 

These letters to Pope Francis 

from the children of Sacred 

Heart Catholic School in 

Uvalde, Texas, were delivered 

to the Holy Father, with some 

help from Catholic Extension’s 

chancellor, Cardinal 

Blase J. Cupich. 

More letters from Uvalde can 

be accessed at catholicextension.org/letters 

TOP Noah is a new student 

at Sacred Heart Catholic 

School. He was wounded 

and survived the shooting at 

Robb Elementary. He is one 

of many who transferred to 

Sacred Heart this fall with a 

scholarship from Catholic 

Extension. He tells the pope 

“he feels safe.” 

RIGHT Levi unpacks his 

bag on the first day of school 

at Sacred Heart in Uvalde. 

He is one of more than 

30 scholarship recipients 

who transferred from Robb 

Elementary. 

PHOTO JUAN GUAJARDO 

sage to all the young people of 

the world. It was an exhortation 

named “Christ Is Alive.” The 

pope opened his heart, sharing 

his hopes and dreams for young 

Christians and calling them the 

“NOW of God.” He called their 

hearts “holy ground.” 

In “Christ Is Alive” Pope 

Francis had a special message 

for young people in places of 

pain, places where Jesus’ love 

would be, wounded places in 

the world where the strength of 

the Resurrection was needed 

most. Places like Uvalde. 

This is what the pope wrote: 

“[Jesus] is in you, he is with 

you and he never abandons 

you. ... He is always there, the 

Risen One. He calls you, and 

he waits for you. ... When you 

feel you are growing old out 

of sorrow, resentment or fear, 

doubt or failure, he will always 

be there to restore your 

strength and your hope.” 

So, what does Pope Francis 

see when he prays for the 

children of Uvalde? He sees 

holy ground. He sees the NOW 

of God. He sees the wounds 

of the world where Jesus’ love 

and the strength of the Resurrection 

are needed most. He 

sees this for every child who 

suffers and calls us to that 

same powerful vision. 

And to that prayer, we say 

AMEN. 

A first grader from Uvalde envisions Pope 

Francis holding her hand, assuring her of 

God’s presence even in the midst of the pain 

she has lived through this past year.

16 

BUILD 

Cover Story 


The Christmas story 

never stays still. Life 

experience shifts our 

perspective. We discover new 

meaning. New details emerge. 

We cannot tell the Christmas 

story without, in some way, 

telling our own story. 

We asked the children of 

Sacred Heart Catholic School 

in Uvalde, Texas, about Christmas. 

They have special lenses 

through which to see the world, 

formed by everything they 

have and are going through. 

We asked them, “If Jesus 

were born today, where would 

He be?” 

Jesus would be safe, they 

said. Above all, He would be 

safe. Safe from the terror of 

tyrants like King Herod that 

stalk the innocent. Safe from 

This child draws a beautiful 

“Morenita” (dark-complexioned) 

Madonna, a powerful reminder that 

Jesus has come for all people, all 

cultures and races, for all time. 

This Uvalde child reaffirms God’s 

intention that Jesus be born in a simple 

manger. “Though he was in the form of 

God, [he] did not regard equality with God. 

… Rather, he emptied himself, taking the 

form of a slave.” (Phil 2:6-7). 

the perils on the open road 

that plague refugees like 

Jesus. Safe from the encroaching 

darkness that wants to 

swallow them whole. Safe 

from being in the middle of 

nowhere in the middle of the 

night all alone. 

The children of Uvalde said 

that today Jesus would be born 

at home, wrapped in a warm 

blanket in His mother’s arms. 

They want to hold the baby 

Jesus because He would be 

so tiny and cute. They would 

be right next to Him in bed. 

They would sing to Him. There 

would be light. There would be 

angels, lots of angels. 

The children of Uvalde have 

many opinions about the Wise 

Men. Some have them staying 

in a hotel and arriving in fast 

cars. Others have them video 

calling the baby Jesus. Most 

agree that they would bring 

Jesus terrific toys. 

The children of Uvalde 

reimagined the manger. They 

swapped it out for a hospital 

bed in which the baby Jesus 

lies. Many of them drew 

detailed pictures: IV bags on a 

stand. An oxygen mask. Heart 

monitors. A tray of medicine. 

Hand sanitizers. A hospital 

curtain closing off the waiting 

room. 

The children of Uvalde have 

The children of Uvalde respond. 

‘If Jesus were born today, 

where would He be?’ 

clearly spent too much time in 

hospital rooms. It is a new lens 

through which they look. In 

almost all the renderings, the 

doctor tells Mary, “Your baby 

is healthy.” The best news. The 

only news that matters. 

The children of Uvalde said 

that the first order of business 

would be to take the baby Jesus 

to see Pope Francis. They are 

big fans of the pope and feel 

LEFT This Uvalde student imagines Jesus coming not 

to a faraway land but being “born next to me,” always 

remaining close to these little ones who have experienced 

so much trauma. 

ABOVE This Uvalde child 

envisions baby Jesus’ manger 

is our hearts, a suitable place 

where His love can grow. 

that Jesus and Pope Francis 

would get along just fine. 

One child would ask the 

baby Jesus to come and bless 

Uvalde. Another feels that 

Jesus is born in all the places 

of the world—why pick just 

one? To another still, Jesus is 

born in her heart for which she 

is so grateful. 

The Christmas story never 

stays still. Just ask the children 

of Uvalde. They believe in 

the non-abandoning presence 

of God. They believe that the 

birth of Jesus means that love 

rules and that the poor, suffering 

and lonely have a special 

place in God’s heart. And to 

that, we join the heavenly chorus 

as the angels sing, 

“Glory to God in the highest 

heaven, 

and on earth, Peace to people 

of good will.”

18 

BUILD 

Cover Story 


A child’s 

Christmas 

in Ukraine 

The artist of the angel 

hovering over the manger 

is 11 years old. She 

has blond hair, just like the angel 

she drew. She is sheltering 

in a Basilian convent in Lviv to 

protect her from “the terrors 

of the night [and] the arrow 

that flies by day.” (Ps 91:5). She 

has been displaced by the war 

This photo shows the devastation in 

Ukraine that many families (including our 

child artists) have witnessed this year. 

that erupted earlier this year 

in her beloved Ukraine and 

the fierce attacks that occurred 

in her hometown in a now 

Russian-occupied region. The 

innocence of youth is no protection 

from the ravages of war. 

Vlada-Maria’s Christmas 

scene is striking in its starkness. 

Where are the shepherds, 

the farm animals, the Wise 

Men, the heavenly chorus, the 

drummer boy? Even Mary and 

Joseph are missing. It is just the 

baby Jesus, in an “X”-marksthe-spot-manger. 

Is this what 

war makes a child feel? Alone? 

Vulnerable? A target? 

But the guardian angel 

saves things. Her wings are a 

roof for an open manger. Her 

robes are a blanket for swaddling 

clothes. Her Mona Lisa 

smile promises an abundance 

to come. Her folded hands and 

shining heart are light for this 

dark and silent night. 

“Silent Night,” the world’s 

favorite Christmas song, was 

written in Europe in the early 

1800s, a time of intense warfare, 

widespread famine and 

social chaos. Just like today’s 

Ukraine. 

Vlada-Maria, left, her 8-year-old sister 

Khrystyna and their family escaped from 

Russian rocket fire and found shelter in the 

convent of the Basilian sisters in Lviv. 

The song’s beating heart is 

a plea for “heavenly peace.” 

It expresses our yearning for 

“love’s pure light” and the 

“dawn of redeeming grace.” 

This is Vlada-Maria’s prayer. 

The prayer of the Ukrainian 

people. It is all there in her picture. 

It is all there in our hearts. 

The following letter is written by Vlada-Maria and Khrystyna. In 

the midst of their distress, they are thankful to you, the donors of 

Catholic Extension, for helping give them a safe place to shelter. 

Glory to Jesus Christ! 

We are from the city of Kramatorsk. Presently we stay at the 

Basilian monastery in Lviv. 

Thank you for your generous and open heart, that you allow 

God to act through your actions. Thank you for helping us in 

this difficult time for Ukraine, and difficult time for us. 

May the Lord generously bless you and grant you His mercy. 

You will always be in our hearts. 

Sincere thanks, 

Vlada-Maria and Khrystyna 

P.S. Ukraine will prevail! 

TOP Catholic Extension is supporting 

various groups of religious sisters who 

are sheltering displaced families and 

children. In the convent, the children 

have felt protection, acceptance and 

love, much like the child Jesus in 

this picture who is protected by His 

parents, angels and a sturdy roof over 

His head. 

LEFT While sheltering in the convent, 

some of these Ukrainian children 

have received the sacraments of 

baptism, holy Communion and 

reconciliation. They are being fed both 

spiritually and physically during this 

terrible war. As Jesus requested, “Feed 

my lambs.” (Jn 21:15). 

b See more drawings from the children in Uvalde and Ukraine at catholicextension.org/drawings.


“And he began to send them out two by two...” – Mark 6:7 

INSPIRE Features of faith 

COVER STORY 22 | VOCATIONS STRATEGY IN HELENA 34 

Donors in the Two by Two Giving Society—leaders giving at least $1,000 

annually—walk in companionship and solidarity with poor Catholic faith 

communities. 

This esteemed group helps Catholic Extension recognize and support the 

hidden heroes lifting up the Church on the margins of society. 

Contact Kate Grogan, Development Coordinator, at 214-394-2547 or 

kgrogan@catholicextension.org for more information. 

catholicextension.org/twobytwo 

© DIOCESE OF TUCSON | PAINTED BY JOHN ALAN WARFORD 

Artwork by John 

Alan Warford 

depicting the 

birth of Jesus is 

displayed in the 

100-year-old Our 

Lady’s Chapel 

in Tucson, 

Arizona. See 

how Catholic 

Extension is 

part of southern 

Arizona’s proud 

Catholic legacy 

on page 22.

22 INSPIRE 

Feature Story 

PROFILE OF A 

MISSIONARY DIOCESE 

Our 2022-2023 

Lumen Christi 

Award recipient, 

Jean Fedigan, 

comes from the 

Diocese of Tucson, 

Arizona, which has always had a 

strong missionary identity during 

its long and storied history. As a 

geographically large and culturally 

diverse local church, encompassing 

urban centers as well as 

vast rural counties, the Catholic 

people of Tucson understand that 

our Catholic faith always takes us 

to the socioeconomic peripheries 

and frontiers where people are 

hurting or longing to know God’s 

love. 

This Southwest diocese was 

established in 1897, just before the 

founding of Catholic Extension in 

1905. 

Father Francis Clement Kelley, 

Catholic Extension’s founder, 

understood that many nascent 

Catholic dioceses across the country 

would need support to grow 

and flourish. Therefore, the young 

Diocese of Tucson was the third 

Catholic community ever supported 

by Catholic Extension. 

On May 17, 1906, Catholic Extension’s 

board dedicated what would 

become the first of 750 grants to 

support the Church’s ministry in 

the Diocese of Tucson, including 

helping build and repair 185 

churches. Much of this support 

during the past 116 years has been 

and continues to be directed to 

native peoples who are the original 

Catholics of this area. 

CALIFORNIA 

NEVADA 

Las Vegas 

The Diocese 

of Tucson 

is committed 

to serving the 

native peoples 

who live in the 

many distinct 

and vast 

tribal lands 

in southern 

Arizona. 

QUECHAN 

COCOPAH 

MEXICO 

NATIVES EMBRACE CATHOLICISM 

Two centuries before the diocese 

was even established, the 

Catholic faith had taken root in 

the Sonoran Desert of southern 

Arizona thanks to Father Eusebio 

Francisco Kino, a Jesuit missionary 

from Italy who in 1690 shared 

the Gospel with the region’s native 

peoples. 

According to Bishop Edward 

Weisenburger, the Diocese of Tucson’s 

present-day bishop: 

“With the native peoples, the 

missionaries established small 

Christian communities—places 

in which and from which people 

could demonstrate their care and 

love for one another in the example 

of Christ, giving food to those 

whose crops had failed and providing 

a safe haven when violence 

threatened. 

Christianity in our region was a 

Grand Canyon 

National Park 

ARIZONA 

Phoenix 

TOHONO 

O’ODAM 

UTAH 

Flagstaff 

Tucson 

PASCUA 

YAQUI 

WHITE MOUNTAIN 

APACHE 

SAN CARLOS 

APACHE 

SOUTHERN ARIZONA’S 

PROUD CATHOLIC LEGACY 

catalyst for change. With the motivation 

of faith, native peoples who 

spoke different languages and who 

had distinct cultures could invite 

each other from isolation and war 

to community and peace.” 

When Arizona came under U.S. 

control, Weisenburger notes, “The 

Church was an important element 

in the growth of Arizona in the territorial 

years, including the establishment 

of the first schools and 

first hospitals.” 

The Pascua Yaqui (“Easter people”) 

of Arizona embraced the 

faith in a particularly powerful 

way. They have maintained a close 

link between their native traditions 

and their Catholic spirituality, 

which has helped them pass on 

the faith from generation to generation. 

Today, Catholic Extension is 

honored to support the Pascua 

NEW MEXICO 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

The Lord’s Prayer in Apache 

Yaqui Catholics at St. Kateri Tekakwitha 

Mission Parish in South Tucson. 

Likewise, we have a long history 

of supporting the Tohono 

O’odham people. Their reservation 

is a vast stretch of land west of 

Tucson about the size of the state 

of Connecticut. It straddles the 

U.S.-Mexico border. 

Tohono O’odham means “desert 

people.” Approximately 13,000 

of them live in the desert, mostly 

in very small, very poor villages. 

Approximately 85 percent of the 

population is Catholic and served 

by Franciscan friars supported by 

Catholic Extension. Today, about 

40 villages within the reservation 

have a church or chapel. The 

majority celebrates Mass only 

once a month as the friars travel 

from village to village each week. 

Catholic Extension has also 

supported San Carlos Mission for 

many years on the Apache reservation, 

which has a Catholic 

school where native children in 

this very rural part of the diocese 

have access to quality education 

while maintaining their native 

language and culture. 

CARE WITHOUT EXCLUSION 

As a diocese with 373 miles of 

the U.S.-Mexico border, the daily 

realities of the border are inescapable. 

There are legions of Customs 

and Border Protection agents, 

many of whom are Catholic and 

attend local churches. There are 


LEFT A photo of an early mission church 

published in Extension magazine in 1911. 

The chapel was built with support from 

Catholic Extension in Winkelman, Arizona. 

FAR LEFT Saint Jude Chapel is one of 

roughly 40 churches on expansive Tohono 

O’odham Nation, where Catholic Extension 

supports the ministry of Franciscan friars. 

also newly arrived families paroled 

into Arizona each day, seeking 

asylum in this country. Over 

the years, Catholic Extension has 

worked closely with the diocese 

as it responds to the humanitarian 

and pastoral needs of migrants, 

especially those who have been 

displaced from their home countries 

fleeing violence and poverty. 

Organizations such as the Kino 

Border Initiative in Nogales have 

recently received funding from 

Catholic Extension’s Holy Family 

Fund, which seeks to support the 

Church’s outreach to vulnerable 

immigrant families. 

The Diocese of Tucson has 

never lost its missionary identity 

or its orientation toward its missionary 

frontiers. 

This year’s Lumen Christi Award 

recipient, Jean Fedigan, continues 

the beautiful missionary legacy of 

the Catholic people of Tucson. It 

is no accident that her ministry to 

homeless and trafficked women 

was inspired by a local faith leader, 

Sister José Hobday, a Native American, 

and that it was ultimately 

born out of Fedigan’s parish, Our 

Mother of Sorrows in Tucson. 

Fedigan’s story is the latest evidence 

that the missionary impulse 

to bring and live the joy of the Gospel 

beyond the four walls of the 

Church is alive and well in southern 

Arizona.

24 INSPIRE 

Lumen Christi Recipient 


JEAN FEDIGAN 

DIOCESE OF TUCSON, 

ARIZONA 

LEFT Father Jack 

Wall, president 

of Catholic 

Extension (left) and 

Bishop Edward 

Weisenburger of the 

Diocese of Tucson 

(right) celebrate 

Jean Fedigan as she 

received Catholic 

Extension’s Lumen 

Christi Award. 

Matthew 25:42-44. It is 

Read a spiritual eye exam. It is 

meant to determine how well we see the 

world and its obvious suffering. 

2022 u 2023 

The hungry. The thirsty. 

You don’t have to look hard. 

The stranger. The naked. 

You don’t even have to go out of your 

way. 

The ill. The imprisoned. 

They are hidden in plain sight, within the 

span of our reach, just a heartbeat away. 

It is hard not to see them, really. It takes 

habitual indifference and a host of willful 

distractions to pass on by. Because our 

eyes are connected to our hearts, when we 

pass on by our hearts skip a beat. And God, 

whose intention always seeks to marry the 

heart that is ready—well, God’s heart skips a 

beat too. And our capacity to be daughters 

and sons of God is diminished. An outbreak 

of love is stymied. 

We need examples. We need someone 

who has aced Matthew 25, someone who 

has opened their eyes, engaged their heart, 

Lumen 

Christi 

AWARD 

RECIPIENT 

Jean Fedigan, Catholic Extension’s 

2022-2023 Lumen Christi Award 

recipient, embraces a woman 

under the care of her ministry, 

Sister José Women’s Center. 

EYES TO SEE 

THE INVISIBLE PEOPLE

26 INSPIRE 



partnered with God’s divine intention 

and done the next right 

thing—the wonderful thing that 

love intends. 

Such a person would be 

luminous. They would cast light 

on what it means to be fully 

human. They would be part of the 

ongoing revelation of Christ in the 

world. They would do what Jesus 

would do in the face of suffering 

today and would show us what we 

can do. 

Jean Fedigan is such a person. 

She is a Lumen Christi. 

Catholic Extension is honored 

to name Jean Fedigan as our 2022- 

2023 Lumen Christi Award recipient. 

This award is Catholic Extension’s 

highest honor, and it is 

given to people who radiate and 

reveal the light of Christ present 

in the communities where they 

serve. 

LEARNING TO SEE 

Fedigan said that her faith is an 

ongoing conversion and that the 

“Gospel rolls forward.” She didn’t 

come to see her path all at once, 

nor did she come to see it all on 

her own. We are all apprenticed 

by others over time. 

For Fedigan, her way forward 

began with a parish friendship. 

Sister José Hobday, a Franciscan 

nun at Our Mother of Sorrows 

Catholic Church in Tucson, 

Arizona, was her co-teacher in the 

parish’s “Just Faith” series. Sister 

José was a Native American who 

worked with César Chávez and 

Dorothy Day. She taught Fedigan 

about the marginalized and how 

to reach out to the poor. She also 

taught her how to drum the “Holy, 

Holy, Holy.” They read Scripture 

RIGHT Jean Fedigan offers love and 

dignity to the hidden women who 

suffer on the streets. 

together on Friday nights and became 

fast friends during Sister 

José’s battle with breast cancer. 

When Sister José passed away 

in 2009, Fedigan was devastated. 

She had no idea how to roll 

the Gospel forward. She went 

to Lourdes, France, and she was 

profoundly moved by the spirit 

of love and service displayed 

by the volunteers and how the 

most needy pilgrims were always 

placed first in line and heart. 

Fedigan returned from Lourdes 

and did the next right thing. She 

started with the hungry. They were 

in plain sight. As members of the 

Soup Brigade, she and Franciscan 

Brother David Brewer distributed 

soup to Tucson’s homeless and 

most marginalized people. 

During the winter months, 

Brother Brewer operated a men’s 

shelter. When Fedigan asked 

him where the women went, 

he said that they could not take 

them in, so the women were sent 

away. This was not OK with Fedigan. 

Sometimes God marries our 

hearts in an outbreak of outrage. 

THE GOSPEL ROLLS FORWARD 

Fedigan found a small Assembly 

of God church willing to offer 

space from Thanksgiving to Easter, 

during the winter months. She 

went to her pastor, Msgr. Tom Cahalane, 

and asked if she could 

speak at all of the Masses to ask 

for volunteers. Twenty-two people 

signed up. It was a mini-Lourdes. 

Each night, Fedigan and her 

volunteers would push the seats 

to the walls and open the doors. 

When they first started, they had 

no idea if anyone would show 

up. But there they were, homeless 

women hiding in plain sight. 

They would come from the streets 

and kind of just appear out of the 

darkness. 

Fedigan and her volunteers did 

this for three winters. But they had 

to find a more permanent space 

that could extend both the hours 

and scope of services of their 

ministry: the Sister José Women’s 

Center. 

A donor helped them rent a 

house. It was small—only 750 

square feet. The house slept 11 

women on the inside and two on 

the porch. It had a tiny kitchen, 

two bathrooms and one shower. 

This tiny house was the center’s 

home for the next five years. 

Fedigan would come from her 

day job as the chief nursing officer 

at the University of Arizona Physicians 

Healthcare Hospital, then 

spend the night sleeping on the 

floor with the women. Pope Francis 

expressed his deep desire that 

ABOVE 

Franciscan 

nun Sister José 

Hobday, left, 

inspired Jean 

Fedigan, right, 

to reach out to 

the poor and 

forgotten. 

pastoral workers “get the smell of 

the sheep” whom they serve by 

living among them. This is Fedigan. 

Lumen Christi. 

There are some things you can’t 

make up, horrible things you only 

learn by firsthand experience 

from those who suffer. 

Fedigan learned that all of the 

women who came to the center 

were utterly exhausted from 

moving constantly during the day. 

This made them less of a target 

for predators. They carried all of 

their possessions in trash bags and 

were robbed repeatedly of their 

shoes, clothes, identification, photographs 

and other tenuous, priceless 

connections to whom they 

were before. 

Fedigan learned that almost all 

of the women had been trafficked, 

from those in their late teens to 

those in their 70s. Many had been 

raped. Almost all of them suffered 

from mental illness and crippling 

medical challenges. The streets 

stole their sanity, their self-respect, 

their human dignity. When 

they woke up in the morning, 

their first thought was, “What do I 

do to survive today?” 

They hid in drainage tunnels, 

underpasses, alleys and even the 

Arizona desert. They had no forwarding 

address or contact information 

that a potential employer, 

family member or caregiver could 

use to connect with them. They 

were hungry, thirsty, ill, imprisoned 

and made strange to all who 

passed on by. 

‘I THINK I’M LOSING MY MIND’ 

Fedigan told a story about a 

woman named Lisa who left the 

center at 2 a.m. and came back 

at 6:30 a.m. completely naked. “I 

think I’m losing my mind,” Lisa 

told her. It was January. 

Fedigan walked Lisa into the 

house and said, “Ladies, may I 

please get some clothes for Lisa?” 

As she described it, “They all 

jumped up and grabbed something 

out of our little closet. Every 

one of them said, ‘You’re safe here. 

I’ve been in your spot. Let me help 

you put your socks on. Let me put 

a shirt on you. You’re fine here. 

Jean will take care of you. This is 

the one place you’re safe.’” 

Fedigan and her volunteers 

fell in love with the women. How 

could they not? They really saw 

them, not just their maladies. So 

often the poor are stripped of 

their identity and turned into an 

anonymous noun. They are not 

people with a history and name 

anymore. This is the worst affliction. 

Being seen as people is what 

they need the most. 

There was Lisa who was naked. 

There was Grannie Tieneshia who 

was forced to the streets by rising 

rent she could no longer afford. 

There was Tammy who loved to 

read the Bible until someone stole 

her copy. There was Joanne who 

Sister José Women’s Center in the 

Diocese of Tucson, Arizona, has served 

thousands of homeless women.

28 INSPIRE 



was dragged from a tunnel and 

had the skin torn from her back. 

They were people, not problems. 

And when you see people— 

really see them—you fall in love. 

We act as Jesus would. He is there 

in our midst. The divine intention 

marries our hearts. An outbreak of 

love happens and God is present. 

Fedigan and her volunteers pass 

the Matthew 25 eye exam day in 

and day out. Lumen Christi. 

A light cannot be hidden under 

a bushel. Word spread, and soon 

60 women a day were approaching 

the door. Volunteers from 

other churches and faiths joined 

in. Fedigan raised more funds and 

purchased a 25,000-square-foot 

facility, which is the current home 

of the Sister José Women’s Center. 

Every morning at 7:30, Fedigan 

opens the center’s gates. She 

says, “Good morning, ladies! We 

love you and are so glad you are 

here with us. Now, before we go in 

for breakfast, please give me any 

weapons you have.” The women 

have to protect themselves after 

all. One woman recently handed 

over a hatchet, which Fedigan returned 

to her after breakfast. 

Sister José Women’s Center is a 

low-barrier facility, that is, nothing 

prevents women from entering. 

No ID is required. No judgment is 

rendered. No one is unwelcome. If 

you need help, you are in. 

The women line up for a breakfast 

of oatmeal, hard-boiled eggs, 

bagels and fruit. Sometimes there 

are doughnuts. Each morning 

more than 80 women are in line. 

The most infirmed and stricken 

are always served first. Just like in 

Lourdes. 

At the center they can take 

a shower, do laundry, rest and 

see a case manager. They are offered 

help with any of their needs, 

from clothing to counseling to job 

search assistance. They use the 

center’s address, email and phone 

number as their contact information. 

It is a lifeline back to normal. 

Even their dogs are welcome. 

Many of the women have dogs— 

their best friend, their comfort, 

their alarm, their constant protection. 

The dogs sleep next to the 

women at the center. During the 

day women knit booties for the 

dogs’ paws, protection against the 

burning Tucson streets. The dogs 

are fed, watered and cared for just 

like their owners. Fedigan’s veterinarian 

thinks she has 15 dogs. 

BEING CALLED BY NAME 

Fedigan calls the women by 

name, embraces them and hugs 

them. “Are you doing OK? Are you 

all right?” she asks. Some women 

don’t come into the center. They 

Sister José Women’s Center also cares for 

the animals who accompany and protect 

vulnerable women on the street. 

stay just outside, fearful, skittish 

and unsure. Fedigan doesn’t rush 

things. The women decide what 

they need and when they need it. 

One woman took two years before 

she entered the center. 

During the day, the women 

ABOVE Jean 

Fedigan knows 

each woman 

she serves by 

name. She gives 

them a lifeline to 

safety, healing and 

opportunities to 

get back on their 

feet. 

come inside to escape the searing 

Tucson temperatures, which regularly 

climb to triple digits. A cooling 

mist sprays from the solar panels 

in the courtyard. The women 

flop onto mats. There is counseling, 

COVID-19 testing, check-ins. 

There is ointment for a back flayed 

of skin. Help with a resume. Help 

for those struggling through a high 

noon nightmare. Help with anything 

and everything. 

But mostly there is rest. Safety. 

Respect. For Fedigan, God is love. 

Having a center filled with love 

is doing God’s work. And God 

is present among all of these 

women. The latest revelation of 

Jesus in the world is at the center. 

You can feel it the moment you 

enter. God’s love falls like a cooling 

mist—ineffable, gentle, all-encompassing, 

never missing a beat. 

Women can stay the night. The 

center can sleep up to 40, more 

in a pinch. The gates are locked at 

5:30 p.m. to keep predators out. 

The only ones who can get the 

gate open are the Tucson police. 

They know Fedigan by name and 

frequently bring a terrified woman 

to the center’s door in the middle 

of the night. Fedigan always finds 

a place for whomever they bring 

in, whatever state they’re in. 

Come the dawn, Fedigan and 

her volunteers get up and do it 

again. And again. For more than 14 

years, for thousands. Last year the 

center provided 7,121 overnight 

stays. (Many women are repeat 

guests.) More than 26,000 meals 

were served. The Gospel rolls 

forward. 

Jean Fedigan 

and volunteers 

at Sister José 

Women’s Center 

fulfill the Gospel 

mandate to “feed 

the hungry,” 

serving tens of 

thousands of 

meals to homeless 

women. 

Catholic Extension donors are 

part of this beautiful ministry. 

Through the Lumen Christi Award, 

Fedigan will receive $50,000 to 

support her loving work at Sister 

José Women’s Center. 

Fedigan said it best: “I’ve always 

believed that part of my faith 

is that I’m called to do the mission 

of Jesus. You feed the hungry. You 

clothe the naked. You help heal 

the sick. You do whatever it is that 

shows the women they are loved. I 

think that is what Jesus really calls 

us to do here—to love one another, 

to love our neighbors.” 

Fedigan passes the Matthew 

25 eye exam with flying colors. 

She sees the suffering hidden in 

plain sight. She sees Lisa, Grannie 

Tieneshia, Tammy and Joanne—the 

women, not their maladies. 

She sees Jesus and lives the 

way He would, her heart married 

by the divine intention. She sees 

the wonderful things that love intends. 

And she helps us see what we 

can do. She illuminates our capacity 

as daughters and sons of God. 

She is a Lumen Christi and helps 

us see that we can be one too.

30 INSPIRE 

Lumen Christi Past Recipient 


After receiving the 

Lumen Christi 

Award in November 

2020, Father Ron 

Foshage, M.S., 

shows no signs of 

slowing down. 

The pastor in Jasper, Texas, 

known for his work of facilitating 

reconciliation following one of the 

worst hate crimes in American 

history (the brutal 1998 dragging 

death of James Byrd Jr.), has only 

added more to his already full 

plate of ministry. 

Now, at the age of 75, he 

continues to pastor five churches 

dispersed in the rural peripheries 

of the Diocese of Beaumont, 

Texas. He logs more than 800 

miles a week to cover his six 

weekend Masses. 

As if that were not enough 

responsibility, he is a chaplain for 

two large prisons, offering weekly 

counseling, Mass and confessions. 

He also serves on four boards 

for various local nonprofit organizations 

that address housing, 

education, hunger and interracial 

and ecumenical dialogue in 

Jasper County. What’s more, he 

serves on the provincial council 

for his religious congregation, the 

Missionaries of La Salette. 

To decompress, he plays the 

violin, rescues animals and 

volunteers to cut 15 lawns a week 

for local residents. 

His days often begin at 7 a.m. 

and end at 9 p.m. But this energetic 

and beloved pastor, who has 

selflessly served this community 

since 1985, has every intention of 

continuing his hectic pace. 

“I haven’t done anything 

extraordinary,” he said with total 

This home was 

built by Rural 

Homeless 

Network in 

Kirbyville, 

Texas, where 

Father Ron 

Foshage, M.S., 

serves as a 

board member. 

FATHER RON FOSHAGE, M.S. 

DIOCESE OF BEAUMONT, TEXAS 

A HEART FOR 

HOMELESS 

VETERANS 

AN UPDATE FROM OUR 

2020-2021 LUMEN CHRISTI AWARD RECIPIENT 

sincerity. “Lots of priests do hard 

work.” 

“When I was nominated [for 

the Lumen Christi Award], I 

thought it was a joke. Those other 

nominees were so worthy,” he 

added. He feels he is simply doing 

what he is called to do. 

CARE FOR THE POOR 

AND HOMELESS 

Everything Father Foshage has 

done in his distinguished life has 

been motivated by his “preferential 

option for the poor,” a core 

tenant of Catholic social teaching 

and a grounding principle of his 

religious community. 

He is very proud that Catholics, 

who are a small minority in East 

Texas, have a strong reputation 

of helping the poor. Oftentimes, 

his rectory doorbell will ring at 

10 p.m. Standing there will be 

people who have been sent to him 

from other churches with explicit 

instructions: “Go to the Catholic 

Church. They help the poor.” 

This orientation toward the 

poor and marginalized is what led 

Father Foshage to join the board 

of the Rural Homeless Network, 

a relatively new nonprofit in 

Kirbyville, Texas, which seeks to 

PHOTOS JUAN GUAJARDO 

respond to homelessness 

among military veterans. 

After conducting an 

initial survey of need to 

build their case for the 

nascent organization, 

Father Foshage and his 

co-founders were shocked 

by how many homeless 

were in their midst—often 

tucked away, living in tents 

in the woods. 

Using his money from Catholic 

Extension’s Lumen Christi Award, 

Father Foshage provided the seed 

funding to help create a village 

of tiny homes for unsheltered 

veterans. 

To date, five homes have been 

built. This past May, the first 

beneficiary, Mike Raffa, moved 

into the village. Raffa was a 

member of the Air Force military 

police. After a series of unfortunate 

circumstances in his life, he 

became homeless. 

Rural Homeless Network’s 

executive director, Wes Bell, 

encountered Raffa living under a 

2020 u 2021 

Lumen 

Christi 

AWARD 

RECIPIENT 

bridge with a sign that said 

“Homeless Veteran.” In 

the words of Raffa, he was 

“rescued” that day. 

Today, with a 

336-square-foot roof over 

his head, Raffa works as 

a maintenance man and 

feels abundantly blessed 

to be the first of hopefully 

many other rural homeless 

veterans to be “rescued.” 

“There are a lot of people who 

need help, not just a handout but 

a hand up,” Raffa said. After being 

homeless for one full year, he 

reflected that the hardest part was 

that “people look at you as if you 

don’t even exist.” 

He appreciates not only the 

house but the human dignity and 

opportunity to work that is being 

given to him. 

HEROES HELPING HEROES 

For Bell, the quest to help veterans 

is deeply personal. He lost 

his father, a Thunderbird pilot in 

the Air Force, during the Vietnam 

Mike Raffa, left, an Air Force veteran 

who was homeless, now lives in a house 

built through help from 2020-2021 

Lumen Christi Award recipient Father 

Ron Foshage, M.S., right. 

War when he was only 10. His 

son is currently an F-16 pilot in 

the Air Force. The fact that there 

are 15,000 unsheltered veterans 

throughout the country is a reality 

that Bell and Father Foshage 

hope to change in East Texas as 

well as nationally by mentoring 

other organizations working with 

homeless veterans. 

Bell is deeply grateful for the 

partnership of Father Foshage, 

whose seed money was one of 

their largest private donations 

and a critically timed catalyst for 

the nonprofit as it was struggling 

to get off the ground. Father 

Foshage, Bell said, “always shows 

up, is always positive and always 

inspires. He has a heart for the 

poor and it doesn’t matter what 

faith they are.” 

Together, Bell and Father 

Foshage are calling attention to 

rural homelessness, a population 

that can easily fall between the 

cracks compared to those in urban 

areas. Bell said that “it is going to 

take a higher power to provide” for 

them to be successful, especially 

because smaller nonprofits like 

theirs don’t typically qualify for 

housing development grants. 

But God has indeed already 

provided by sending these 

homeless veterans an ally named 

Father Foshage, who, despite being 

stretched thin and overworked, 

always manages to find time for 

those most in need.

32 INSPIRE 

Lumen Christi Past Recipient 


Santa Teresita of the Child Jesus Children’s Home, far left, incurred 

damages from Hurricane Maria in 2017. Catholic Extension built the facility 

and is helping to fortify it against future storms. 

MELVA ARBELO 

DIOCESE OF ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO 

A STRONGER HOME FOR PUERTO RICO’S MOST VULNERABLE 

AN UPDATE FROM OUR 

2016-2017 LUMEN CHRISTI 

AWARD RECIPIENT 

Santa Teresita of the 

Child Jesus Children’s 

Home provides a protective 

shelter for children 

ages 3 to 7 who are 

survivors of abuse and 

neglect. 

Five years ago, as Hurricane Maria 

tore through Puerto Rico and 

shredded buildings across the island, 

Santa Teresita’s director, 

Melva Arbelo, huddled with the 

children inside the center’s walls. 

She relived this scenario once 

again when Hurricane Fiona hit 

the island earlier this fall. The children 

had already experienced 

great trauma in their lives, and Arbelo 

and her staff kept them safe 

as both of these storms battered 

their home and everything around 

them. 

The center, built with support 

from Catholic Extension years ago, 

remains standing, though it suffered 

damage still seen today. 

Just a year before Hurricane Maria 

in 2017, Arbelo received Catholic 

Extension’s Lumen Christi 

Award for her work protecting and 

extending God’s love to these most 

vulnerable children. She was the 

first person in Puerto Rico to receive 

the award. She continues to 

dedicate her life to keeping the 

center afloat, weathering the yearslong 

economic disaster that followed 

the hurricane and continues 

today. 

Now, through the efforts of a recovery 

team established by Catholic 

Extension, the children’s home 

has just been awarded a $1 million 

grant from the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency (FEMA) to 

repair and fortify the facility to 

withstand future natural disasters. 

HOPE AMID THE RUBBLE 

Arbelo started as a volunteer 

when Santa Teresita opened its 

doors in 1999 and has since lived 

out its motto, which states, “It is our 

joy to love you.” 

Under her leadership, the shelter 

includes integrated social services, 

health care and psychology, nutrition, 

education and prayer. Its work 

is grounded in faith and provides 

an environment where children 

can grow closer to God, who they 

are taught loves them infinitely. 

“For me, this is more than work. 

It’s a mission,” said Arbelo. 

Despite government budget cuts, 

Arbelo and her team are resourceful 

in supporting the needs of more 

children, with the ongoing generosity 

of Extension donors. The home 

can house up to 24 children at a 

time, before they are placed in foster 

care or adopted. 

STEPPING UP AFTER THE STORM 

Santa Teresita is among the 

hundreds of Catholic ministries 

and churches in Puerto Rico that 

have saved lives and given hope to 

impoverished communities after 

Hurricane Maria. In the days and 

months after the disaster, the federal 

government and relief 

agencies were slow 

or unable to reach communities. 

But the Catholic 

Church never had this 

problem. Its response was 

similar after an earthquake 

in early 2020 that 

also devastated the island. 

Catholic parishes, even 

those that were destroyed, 

immediately stepped into 

action. 

Soon after Hurricane Maria, a 

policy change led to a new opportunity 

for houses of worship to receive 

rebuilding money from the 

federal government. However, 

Puerto Rico’s six dioceses, which 

still did not even have power restored, 

were ill-equipped to navigate 

the complicated process. 

Catholic Extension provided 

2016 u 2017 

Lumen 

Christi 

AWARD 

RECIPIENT 

seed money and organized an island-wide 

initiative to help the 

Puerto Rican Church meet the 

first application deadline. Through 

ABOVE 2016-2017 Lumen Christi Award 

recipient Melva Arbelo shares God’s love 

with vulnerable children in Puerto Rico. 

the help of the Extension 

recovery team, the Puerto 

Rican Church is now in a 

position to receive hundreds 

of millions of dollars 

in federal aid to rebuild 

and fortify 1,000 damaged 

churches and schools—including 

Santa Teresita. 

These rebuilt church 

buildings will serve as 

shelters in future natural 

disasters and support the needs 

of even more people. The recent 

devastation caused by Hurricane 

Fiona proves the need for building 

a more resilient Puerto Rican 

Church that can shelter, serve and 

comfort the poor and vulnerable. 

As Puerto Rico’s economic crisis 

cripples government services, millions 

of people have been left destitute. 

The poverty rate is 45 percent. 

The Catholic Church and its 

ministries are more important 

than ever as an increasing amount 

of people seek its spiritual and 

charitable care. 

STRONGER THROUGH FAITH 

Fortifying Santa Teresita will 

mean more than just strengthening 

its physical walls. Arbelo and 

her ministry are poised to welcome 

more of the most vulnerable 

with loving arms and guide 

them on the right path. 

“Catholic Extension is the reason 

our doors are still open today. 

Its help meant that we could continue 

to give these vital services to 

the children, that we could continue 

to bring about transformations 

in their lives because they 

truly need that,” Arbelo said.

34 INSPIRE 

Vocations 


Campers at Legendary 

Lodge hold meaningful 

conversations about 

their faith. 

A STRATEGY 

THAT WORKS 

BELOW Transitional 

Deacon Kyle Tannehill 

(back center), a former 

counselor at Legendary 

Lodge, returns to the camp 

to engage with youth. 

How a rural diocese 

in Montana passes on 

the faith to youth and 

develops new leaders 

Beneath Montana’s big skies 

and rugged mountains, one 

can’t help but feel close to 

God’s majesty. This is no truer than 

at Legendary Lodge, a Catholic 

camp located in the center of the 

Diocese of Helena in western Montana. 

The beautiful camp, nestled 

at the base of a mountain along a 

slender, river-fed lake, brings youth 

together to discover and deepen 

their faith and form healthy friendships 

that last a lifetime. Against 

the backdrop of canoes, “capture 

the flag” and crackling campfires 

are eye-opening discussions on 

God’s love and mercy and how to 

be a voice for positive, Christ-centered 

values in the world. 

For more than 60 years, the 

camp has been a sacred, transformative 

place for young Catholics 

to affirm their faith. In addition to 

summer camps, the Lodge hosts 

college retreats in the fall and seminarian 

retreats in the winter. It’s 

the birthplace of countless vocations 

of service. Catholic Extension 

has supported Legendary Lodge for 

more than four decades, including 

a current renovation project of 

the Lodge’s dining hall. Our parish 

partner, St. Paul of the Cross 

in Park Ridge, Illinois, is supporting 

this expansion project, which 

will allow more Montana youth to 

attend. Currently, there is a waiting 

list as more and more families 

wish to send their children to the 

camp. 

The camp is only one facet of 

the Diocese of Helena’s dedication 

to celebrating and fostering faith 

among youth. Since his arrival in 

2019, Bishop Austin Anthony Vetter 

has prioritized faith formation 

among children, teens and young 

adults. He shares a belief with his 

predecessor, Bishop George Leo 

Thomas, that the youth are not the 

future of the Church but the now 

of the Church. He makes a point 

to visit young people in person. 

He tells them, “I don’t want to read 

a book about your generation. I 

want to hear it directly from you.” 

Catholic Extension is working 

in solidarity with the diocese to 

help its youth know and embrace 

the value they bring to the Church 

and their God-given potential to 

love and serve in the world. 

ENCOUNTERING THE LORD 

Another blessing within the Diocese 

of Helena is Carroll College. 

At the Catholic college, which consistently 

ranks as a top regional 

college in the nation, a student’s 

calling in life is developed directly 

alongside their education. Like at 

Legendary Lodge, innumerable vocations 

have been discerned for 

generations on these sacred campus 

grounds. 

Father Marc Lenneman, the diocese’s 

vocations director and the 

campus chaplain at Carroll College, 

has served students for 15 years. 

His mentorship and philosophy regarding 

vocations among the youth 

is bringing a renewed strength and 

energy to the Church as he mentors 

and pastors young people. 

“The whole effort all across our 

diocese, but particularly to me 

at Carroll, has just been to introduce 

people to Christ and form disciples,” 

he said. “I don’t talk that 

much with these young people 

about vocation until they’re ready. 

It’s all discipleship. Meet Jesus. 

Learn the sound of His voice. Know

36 INSPIRE 

Vocations 


LEFT Father Marc Lenneman lays a foundation of faith among youth and guides them as they discern their vocations. MIDDLE Brett Rotz, a seminarian 

with the Diocese of Helena, Montana, takes on chores at Legendary Lodge alongside his pastoral training. RIGHT Former Legendary Lodge camper Shai 

LaFleur earned a master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame through Catholic Extension’s Young Adult Leadership Initiative. 

how to encounter Him in sacraments, 

in sharing your faith with 

your friends and in serving, especially 

the poor.” 

Rather than rushing young people 

through a discernment process 

to fill a quota, Father Lenneman 

lays a foundation of faith for them, 

hoping that the Holy Spirit will 

do the rest of the work in helping 

them discover what they are meant 

to do with their lives. 

The strategy works amazingly 

well. 

His ministry is increasing the 

number of young people seeking 

to serve God and the people of 

western Montana as priests. 

The Diocese of Helena, which 

consists of about 45,000 Catholics, 

has an astounding 14 seminarians 

this year, even after ordaining 

two to the priesthood in June 2022. 

Ten of these seminarians came 

from Carroll College and Father 

Lenneman’s programs. 

But the last thing this vocations 

director would do is pressure 

someone to become a priest. 

Rather, he simply invites all young 

people to encounter and listen to 

the Lord themselves. 

“You meet the Lord, and then 

you begin to fall in love with Him 

and you actually start to follow 

Him,” Father Lenneman said. “And 

then there’s a conversation that 

happens. What does it look like 

in your life to follow Him? Does it 

look like priesthood? Does it look 

like religious life? Does it look like 

holy Christian marriage?” 

EASING ANXIETY THROUGH THE 

GOSPEL 

Father Lenneman says the burden 

of the need for priests in a diocese 

should not fall on a young 

man’s shoulders. 

“It puts inordinate pressure on a 

guy, or unmet expectations, or we 

skip a stage where they don’t actually 

know Jesus,” he said. “They 

haven’t met Him personally. The 

young man might not know that 

Jesus loves him, and that He accepts 

him as he is but also calls 

him forward.” 

Many young people today are 

plagued by anxiety. They feel as 

though they need to determine the 

course of the rest of their lives at 

their young age. Father Lenneman 

helps young women and men put 

their trust in God. “It means having 

the patience to trust that the Lord 

is the one who’s actually forming 

and calling,” he said. 

Father Lenneman’s approach 

derives from Scripture. He often 

refers to Luke 5, in which Jesus 

boards a boat with Peter and 

tells him to bring up the fishing 

net. When Peter does, he’s overwhelmed 

with the number of fish 

and tells Jesus to leave, calling himself 

a sinful man. Father Lenneman 

shares Jesus’ reply to Peter with 

the young men discerning today: 

“Do not be afraid. I will make you a 

fisher of men.” 

These words of the Gospel ease 

stress. “So, if you’re supposed to be 

a priest, you’ll be a priest. And if 

you’re not supposed to be a priest, 

you won’t be a priest,” said Father 

Lenneman. “You should only do it 

if Jesus wants you to.” 

Father Lenneman explained, 

“First, Jesus calls us to be with Him. 

Then He gives us a vocation. And 

then He sends us out on a mission.” 

FUTURE PRIESTS STAY GROUNDED 

Discerning one’s vocation is only 

the first step. Father Lenneman 

ensures that young men on the 

path to the priesthood walk a 

humble road, not a golden highway. 

This means being out with the people 

and living normal lives. They 

are not sequestered. 

He encourages prospective candidates 

considering the priesthood 

to go on dates, join clubs and 

get jobs. Experiencing life alongside 

those whom they will one day 

serve prepares them for the priesthood 

just as well as classes in theology 

and philosophy. Job experience 

is an invaluable education in 

the real-life challenges of overseeing 

a parish. 

ABOVE Cody and 

Anna Tredik, 

camp managers at 

Legendary Lodge, 

bring their son, 

Noah, along as they 

help young people 

embrace their 

Catholic faith. 

LEFT The expansion 

to the dining hall at 

Legendary Lodge, 

built with help from 

Catholic Extension, 

will allow more young 

people in the diocese 

to attend the camp. 

Father Lenneman guides the 

seminarians with five simple 

rules: Be humble, be grateful, be 

generous, work hard and suffer 

well. 

Many seminarians go to Legendary 

Lodge in the summer to 

help out. For most, it’s a trip to 

familiar and sacred grounds. Their 

service ranges from assisting in 

group discussions to taking out 

the trash. This task was assigned 

to Brett Rotz, a third-year seminarian 

studying at St. John Vianney 

Theological Seminary in Denver, 

Colorado. He came from Idaho to 

attend the camp in his younger 

years and returned as a counselor. 

He recalls late-night conversations 

about faith with friends under the 

vast Montana sky. “Through peer 

ministry at Carroll, through guys I 

met at the Lodge, there’s been this 

development of fraternity among 

young people in the diocese 

where I feel like I’m able to have 

these conversations,” he said. Several 

of his fellow counselors are 

now seminarians as well. This 

includes Kyle Tannehill, who was 

ordained a transitional deacon in 

June 2022. Next year, he will be 

ordained a priest. 

LAY VOCATIONS AT THE LODGE 

Cody and Anna Tredik know 

well the transformative power 

of the camp. After attending the 

camp themselves—Cody as a 

yearly camper, Anna through a 

Carroll College retreat—they have 

served as camp managers since 

2019. The married couple lives out 

their vocations strengthening faith 

among each year’s surge of campers. 

They also work with communications 

in the diocese in the 

off-season. 

The summer camp is open for 

six weeks. Each week welcomes 

a different age group of about 100 

children. In addition to adventures 

such as water sports, archery, 

axe throwing and other summer 

camp staples, faith is ever-present. 

Mass is celebrated every day. Once 

a week, campers climb to the top 

of the mountain for Mass and confession. 

“It’s a place where young 

people from fifth grade to high 

school can just get away from the 

distractions of the world. They’re 

able to learn more about prayer. 

They get to know each other and

38 INSPIRE 

Vocations 

Father Marc Lenneman 

meets with youth at 

Legendary Lodge. 

make solid friendships that are 

rooted in Christ. They get out into 

the beauty of Montana. All of those 

elements create space for the Holy 

Spirit to change hearts and move 

people,” Cody said. “When young 

people come up here, it’s just a 

time in their life where they catch 

fire for the Lord and bring that back 

to their home communities.” 

The Trediks see the campers 

change from the beginning of the 

week to the end. Although many 

are nervous at the beginning, it 

doesn’t take long for barriers to 

break down. 

The campers hold conversations—for 

many, the most meaningful 

ones of their lives—with 

counselors and priests. Their 

revelations are profound. One girl 

brought her friends to camp and, 

after returning home, they all began 

attending Mass every day. They said 

the camp made them realize that 

they mattered to the Church. 

“One of my favorite parts of the 

summer is not only seeing how a 

group of campers changes, but also 

how the staff changes throughout 

the summer, how they grow closer 

together and closer to the Lord,” 

said Anna. “The joy by the end of 

the week is really beautiful.” 

Counselors often discern their 

vocations at the camp. The Trediks 

know so many young men and 

women who have gone on to marry, 

enter religious life or become lay 

leaders. “The graces are seeped into 

the ground. A lot of people have 

come through and blessed this 

land,” Cody said. 

HOPE FOR THE WORLD 

Shai LaFleur grew up going to 

the camp and worked as a counselor. 

She graduated from the University 

of Notre Dame with a master’s 

degree in theology through 

Catholic Extension’s Young Adult 

Leadership Initiative. Now she 

serves as a youth minister in Butte, 

Montana, and will soon be teaching 

at a Catholic school. She said 

her education helped her “go into 

ministry more confidently, with 

a better understanding of what 

I could and should be doing as a 

catechist.” 

She also returns to the Lodge to 

connect with the diocese’s youth. 

“Young people have so much 

to offer the Catholic Church, but I 

know that one thing they offer for 

me a lot is hope of goodness in the 

world,” she said. “Continued goodness, 

continued relationship with 

God and a continuation of the 

goodness of the Church.” 

“Thank you so much to Catholic 

Extension and all of its donors for 

supporting my education, so that 

I can be a good minister for the 

youth whom I serve,” she added. 

COMMITTED TO YOUTH MINISTRY 

Father Lenneman said Catholic 

Extension “saved” Legendary 

Lodge through its years of steadfast 

support and is an invaluable 

partner in enabling the growing 

energy of the diocese’s youth ministry 

programs. 

This includes Catholic campus 

ministry programs at state universities 

such as Montana State University, 

Montana Tech, the University 

of Montana, and the University 

of Montana Western. It 

also includes scholarships for students 

in the diocese to earn master’s 

degrees in theology through 

our Young Adult Leadership Initiative. 

Catholic Extension’s support 

of parish-level religious education 

and youth ministry programs 

helps children and young adults 

keep faith central in their lives. 

Just in the past two decades Catholic 

Extension has invested in seminarian 

and priest education and 

supports priests, religious and lay 

ministers serving young people in 

the rural missions and parishes of 

western Montana. 

“To the people who have given 

of their means and probably even 

sacrificed to make those gifts, I 

give our profound thanks for your 

generosity,” Father Lenneman 

said. “We know the Lord is never 

outdone in generosity. I’m sure 

there is grace upon grace to people 

who have been so generous.” 

Your Retirement Gift Today 

Impacts Their Church of Tomorrow. 

Impact Today 

A Qualified Charitable Distribution 

allows IRA owners age 72 or older to make 

a nontaxable transfer of funds from 

their IRA directly to Catholic Extension. 

Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, Montana 

Impact Tomorrow 

Naming Catholic Extension as a 

beneficiary of your retirement plan 

is an easy way to make a gift that 

costs you nothing now. 

For more information, contact Frances Caan, Manager of Planned Giving, 

at 800-842-7804 or plannedgiving@catholicextension.org. 

legacy.catholicextension.org/IRA

40 INSPIRE 

Feature Story 


CATHOLIC EXTENSION’S 10-YEAR PARTNERSHIP 

WITH LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY’S 

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 

FORMING 

CATHOLIC SCHOOL 

LEADERSHIP 

NATIONWIDE 

where in between 

since the program’s 

inception 

10 years ago. In a 

survey conducted 

this year among 

program alumni 

who were at least 

two years out 

of the program, 

nearly 80 percent 

had already been 

promoted to a 

higher administrative 

role, such 

as principal or 

vice principal, at their Catholic 

school. 

James Evans was a middle 

school math and science teacher 

at Madonna del Sasso Catholic 

School in Salinas, California, before 

being asked by his former principal, 

who was set to retire, if he 

was interested in assuming the 

school’s principal position. His 

superintendent recommended 

him for the Certificate in Catholic 

School Administration program at 

LMU, which Evans said was crucial 

in preparing him to take over the 

principal role. 

“The LMU program was amazing 

in helping shape my leadership 

skills and building other tools that 

I would need to run a campus,” 

Evans said. “The thoughtfulness 

and dedication of the professors allowed 

me to become more comfortable 

in assuming a leadership role.” 

Dr. Lauren Casella, academic program director for Loyola Marymount University’s Catholic School Leadership Academy, 

leads a class for the 2022-2023 Certificate in Catholic School Administration cohort at their retreat weekend. 

RIGHT The Certificate in Catholic School 

Administration program at Loyola Marymount 

University has had 121 graduates from 38 

different Extension dioceses. Several alumni 

gathered on campus this past summer. 

Evans essentially assumed the 

role of principal at his school on 

March 13, 2020, right at the start of 

the COVID-19 pandemic. Simultaneously, 

he was finishing up his 

coursework for the LMU program. 

Evans said having the opportunity 

to go into meetings with very seasoned 

principals and participate in 

the program were both extremely 

helpful during his transition in such 

an unprecedented time. 

“This program has been an 

amazing opportunity,” Evans said. 

“To be honest, it would be tough 

to be a principal without doing a 

program like this, and LMU does it 

so well.” 

TAPPED TO LEAD 

Evans was one of many program 

participants who were tapped by 

What do Catholic 

leaders from 

American Samoa 

and Arecibo, Puerto 

Rico—two dioceses located 7,500 

miles apart—have in common? It 

turns out they have a lot in common, 

as one particular initiative 

created by Catholic Extension 

vividly demonstrates. 

Development of Catholic educators 

and administrators is often 

identified as a strategic concern 

for Extension dioceses across the 

country. Although these leaders 

represent incredibly diverse 

regions and cultures, they are all 

trying to carry on the tradition of 

Catholic education, especially in 

the poorest regions and communities 

of the country. 

In response, Catholic Extension 

partnered with Loyola Marymount 

University (LMU) in 2012 and 

established an initiative offering 

a graduate-level online certificate 

in Catholic school administration 

to new and prospective Catholic 

school administrators nationwide. 

Offered through LMU’s Catholic 

School Leadership Academy 

with substantial funding from the 

university, the unique educational 

program provides participants professional 

development opportunities 

in a multitude of areas combining 

faith and administration. 

Topics include Catholic identity 

and spiritual leadership along with 

budget development, human resource 

administration and mission 

integration. 

To date, the program has had 

121 graduates from 38 different Extension 

dioceses. Participants have 

come from Anchorage, Alaska, 

to Savannah, Georgia, and everysomeone 

as having the potential 

to be a leader in their Catholic 

school. Dr. Michelle Young, dean 

of LMU’s School of Education, believes 

the component of just being 

called by someone to be a leader 

plays a significant role in motivating 

educators to apply for the LMU 

program in the first place. 

“How is it that a person transforms 

from a person who’s kind of 

in charge of a small group or not in 

charge of anything into a leader?” 

Young asked. “Part of it is tapping 

somebody and saying, ‘I think you 

would really benefit from this program 

if you ever thought of being 

a leader.’” 

“Many of them will say over and 

over again, ‘I never really thought 

of myself as a principal,’ or ‘I never 

really thought I would take on a 

leadership position,’” Young continued. 

“But they each will say that 

they saw so many things that they 

wanted to help with. So, I think 

it’s a couple of things: It’s being 

tapped by someone as a potential 

leader, and it’s being provided with 

resources to know how to actually 

be that great leader that you have 

the potential to be.” 

Maddie Bodden is a newcomer 

to the program in the 2022-2023 

cohort from the Diocese of Shreveport, 

Louisiana, an Extension 

diocese that has produced multiple 

graduates since the Certificate 

in Catholic School Administration 

program’s inception. A first-grade 

teacher at St. John Berchmans 

Catholic School, Bodden too was 

tapped to lead. She was recommended 

by her principal, Trey 

Woodham, a 2017 graduate of the 

program. 

“My current principal is a 

product of this program, and he 

said, ‘I think this would be a great 

program for you,’” Bodden explained. 

“It’s pushing me out of my 

comfort zone and into something 

I didn’t know was in the cards for 

me. I’m really hoping to pick the

42 INSPIRE 

Feature Story 


Antonio Trujillo, a 2014-2015 alumnus of Loyola Marymount University’s 

Certificate in Catholic School Administration program, continues to serve 

as principal at St. Joseph Mission School, which serves a largely Native 

American student body in San Fidel, New Mexico. 

Christy Miron, coming from the corporate world, completed the Loyola 

Marymount University program in 2014-15 as she began a new career as 

principal for Sacred Heart Catholic School in the Diocese of Marquette, 

Michigan. 

2019-2020 program alumna Teri Schneider is the principal at St. Mary’s 

Catholic School in Kodiak, Alaska. Catholic school administrators from 

all corners of the country participate in the Loyola Marymount University 

program, creating a diverse network of leaders. 

Maddie Bodden, right, a participant in the 2022-2023 Loyola Marymount 

University Catholic School Administration cohort from the Diocese of 

Shreveport, Louisiana, learned about the program from her school’s 

principal, Trey Woodham, a 2017 program alumnus. 

brains of everyone involved in 

administration.” 

Stepping out of the comfort 

zone is something that Christy 

Miron had to do when she was 

called to lead Sacred Heart Catholic 

School in the Diocese of Marquette, 

Michigan. She had been 

serving the school as director of 

religious education but had never 

been trained as a school teacher. 

Her day job was in the corporate 

world. When the school’s principal 

left abruptly, the church’s pastor 

came to Miron and told her he 

wanted her to be the principal. 

While going through the interview 

process with her superintendent, 

he recommended her for 

the LMU program supported by 

Catholic Extension. Miron has now 

served as Sacred Heart’s principal 

for nearly eight years. She completed 

the LMU certificate program 

during her first year as principal. 

“[The LMU program] was incredibly 

challenging, but it was 

amazing,” Miron said. “I know 

that I am a better leader. … How I 

lead, the way I lead, and the way I 

approach things really came out 

of what I learned. I don’t think I 

would still be in this career, ministry 

and mission if I hadn’t learned 

what I learned through this Catholic 

leadership program.” 

The leaders that apply to and 

emerge from the LMU program 

each have a staunch commitment 

to not only serving but improving 

both the educational and 

spiritual components offered at 

their schools. Dr. Lauren Casella, 

academic program director for the 

Catholic School Leadership Academy 

at LMU, sees each leader from 

an Extension diocese that enters 

the program as having a particular 

combination of qualities. 

“I think first and foremost they 

have faith-filled joy,” Casella said. 

“I put those together in tandem 

because the leaders that come 

from Extension dioceses have a 

commitment and a mission. They 

truly see their role as a vocation. 

And they do it joyfully. They are 

happy and joyful to be serving 

their communities.” 

A DIVERSE NETWORK 

This past summer, LMU and 

Catholic Extension hosted roughly 

50 principals and school leaders 

from dioceses across the country 

for the program’s 10th anniversary 

“Together in Mission” retreat. The 

weekend retreat brought together 

alumni from the Certificate in 

Catholic School Administration 

program and students enrolled in 

its 2022-2023 cohort. 

“This weekend brought to life 

all that makes LMU’s program a 

transformational experience—faith 

Dr. Michelle Young, 

dean of the College of 

Education at Loyola 

Marymount University, 

believes the Catholic 

School Leadership 

Academy and “Together 

in Mission” retreat 

weekend provide 

Catholic administrators 

with the skills, knowledge 

and network to address 

problems and practices at 

their respective schools. 

formation and professional growth 

all shaped within a joyful community 

of learners,” Casella said. 

“I believe in networking our 

Catholic schools together so that 

the principals are learning from 

each other,” said Sister Rosemarie 

Nassif, SSND, who leads LMU’s 

Center for Catholic Education. 

“Many of these alums are here because 

they now have these lifelong 

relationships with their cohort. 

They came to be together and learn 

where everybody is together.” 

The ability to network with colleagues 

both throughout completing 

their coursework and now at 

their retreat weekends is highly 

beneficial for its alumni. Teri 

Schneider, principal at St. Mary’s 

Catholic School in the Archdiocese 

of Anchorage-Juneau, Alaska, 

and a 2019-2020 program participant, 

is grateful for her network of 

cohort colleagues. She is especially 

thankful she had them to talk with 

through the start of the COVID-19 

pandemic. 

“At the beginning of COVID, I 

was in desperate need of communication 

with others,” Schneider 

said. “I networked with the folks I 

met at LMU and had many conversations 

with them and the professors 

through that whole transition. 

Just talking to them about the idea 

of, ‘Do we have what it takes to 

start up again, and what do I need 

to do?’” 

“Thank goodness I had this 

program and the folks to network 

with. I was reenergized in my own 

personal faith and as a teacher and 

leader. I just wasn’t ready to give 

up,” Schneider added. 

With administrators and educators 

from all corners of the country 

and its territories participating in 

the program, they bond over the 

similar challenges they face such 

as enrollment, budgets and the 

new hurdles brought on by the 

COVID-19 pandemic. The diverse 

regions that each Catholic school 

leader comes from and their ability 

to come together to form new 

ideas for how to improve Catholic 

education and grow in their roles 

are part of what makes the program 

and partnership between 

LMU and Catholic Extension so 

worthwhile. 

“My heart and spirit are in deep 

gratitude to Catholic Extension 

because their partnership allows 

us to be all that God really wants 

us to be for everyone, which is to 

come together with the richness of 

differences,” Sister Rosemarie said. 

“Our partnership with Catholic 

Extension gives this program an 

asset that we could never achieve 

alone. This is a rich, diamond asset 

because of the diversity.”


IGNITE Making a difference 

CHRISTMAS WISHLIST 46 | PARISH PARTNERSHIPS 48 

Share your legacy. 

Our Lady Help of Christians Center, Gwinn, Michigan 

People like you have named Catholic 

Extension as a beneficiary of their 

estate to leave a lasting impact on 

Catholic faith communities in the 

poorest regions of our country. 

Have you considered making such a gift to 

Catholic Extension? 

By doing so, you become a treasured member of the 

LEGACY CLUB. Your commitment will be able to positively 

change the lives of millions of Catholics in America for 

generations to come. 

Not sure how your estate plan can create your 

legacy to the Church? 

Contact Frances Caan, Manager of Planned Giving, at 

800-842-7804 or plannedgiving@catholicextension.org. 

Make a lasting impact by joining 

the LEGACY CLUB today! 

legacy.catholicextension.org 

Legacy 

Catholic Extension 

is tried and true, 

uses its financial 

resources wisely 

and will be there 

in the future. It is a 

lasting investment. 

—JEANNE BEREZA, 

Legacy Club member 

since 2017 

Club 

Our Lady of 

Guadalupe 

shines through 

stained glass in 

a parish in the 

Diocese of Yakima, 

Washington. 

See how to 

support Catholic 

faith communities 

this Christmas on 

page 46.

46 IGNITE Mission Needs 


FAIRBANKS ALASKA 

Christmas Wish List 2022 

Guam 

ACROSS THE U.S. 

Your gift will allow 

a Franciscan 

sister to continue 

her rural ministry 

programs—and 

keep the Catholic 

Church present 

in Chalan 24 parishes 

Kanoa 

across Alaska. 

With your 

donation, we 

can continue 

to support 

the Ukrainian- 

Marshall American 

Islands 

Catholic Church 

in providing 

much needed compassion and 

assistance to refugees of the war. 

Samoa-Pago Pago 

Caroline Islands 

HELENA MONTANA 

You can 

contribute 

toward the 

education of 

seminarians 

in western 

Montana, 

where many 

young men 

are being called to the priesthood 

(see story on page 34). 

EXTENSION DIOCESES 

CHEYENNE WYOMING 

UVALDE TEXAS 

You can help pay 

a priest’s travel 

expenses, so he 

can serve three 

Catholic parishes 

in rural northeast 

Wyoming. 

With your help, 

we can support 

the work of four 

Teresian sisters 

ministering to 

the grieving 

community of 

Uvalde, Texas. 

Hawaii 

Christmas is truly a special time of year full of 

hope, peace, love and joy. During this past year, 

in struggling faith communities from Uvalde 

to Ukraine, from Alaska to Appalachia, our 

poorest Catholic brothers and sisters have been 

hit especially hard. We’re asking for your help 

RAPID CITY SOUTH DAKOTA 

Your gift can help 

restore the 100-yearold 

St. Charles 

Borromeo Church 

on the Rosebud 

Reservation in South 

Dakota for future 

generations of 

Lakota people. 

ALEXANDRIA LOUISIANA 

U.S. BORDER 

Your donation will 

help a Catholic 

parish on the 

U.S.-Mexico 

border to house 

and feed a family 

for one day. 

Thirty-five families in 

rural Louisiana need 

your help to restore 

their historical and 

beloved mission 

church, which is in 

desperate need of 

repairs. 

in granting their Christmas wishes. The faithfilled 

Catholics we serve aren’t requesting gifts 

tied with ribbons and bows. They’re making 

humble requests tied with prayers of thanks 

and generosity. Please deliver your gift at 

catholicextension.org/wish or call 800-842-7804. 

LEXINGTON KENTUCKY 

Your donation 

can help lay 

leaders in 

Kentucky 

continue their 

outreach 

ministry 

and support 

struggling 

communities in the Appalachian 

Mountains. 

PUERTO RICO 

You can support 

Dominican 

sisters in Puerto 

Rico ministering 

to children, 

families, the poor 

and the sick. 

Your donation will be applied to a similar need 

should your specified project be fully funded 

before we receive your support. Thank you! 

Puerto Rico 

St. Thomas- 

Virgin Islands

48 

IGNITE 

Parish Partnerships 


The closing days of February 

2022 saw the 

beginning of devastating 

attacks on Ukraine. 

Upon Russian invasion, 

our Ukrainian brothers 

and sisters witnessed their homes 

destroyed, their family members 

and friends killed and their lives 

completely and inconceivably 

uprooted. Hearts were broken in 

Ukraine and around the world. 

Across the globe, parishioners at 

Church of the Holy Family in Novi, 

Michigan, felt especially called to 

support the besieged in Ukraine. 

The faith community in the Archdiocese 

of Detroit had tremendous 

ethnic diversity from Eastern 

European nations. Some families 

had recently immigrated. Several 

parishioners had family members 

still living in Ukraine at the time of 

the invasion. 

Six days after the invasion began, 

the Catholic Church observed 

Ash Wednesday, the start of the 

Lenten season and a time of prayer, 

reflection, fasting and almsgiving. 

Church of the Holy Family’s pastor, 

Father Bob LaCroix, used Ash 

Wednesday services to urge his 

parishioners to help Ukraine. “It’s 

not if, but when,” Father LaCroix 

recalled telling the congregation. 

“Let’s make the focus for our 

almsgiving this whole Lent to be to 

Ukraine.” 

And in their efforts to support 

Ukraine, Father LaCroix and 

the parish found a new partner in 

Catholic Extension. 

The parish learned about Catholic 

Extension’s support of the 

Ukrainian Catholic Church and its 

humanitarian efforts to help those 

in need through an email blast 

Beyond parish borders 

Michigan church shows inspiring support 

for the Ukrainian Catholic Church 

from eCatholic, a Catholic Extension 

supporter since 2016. eCatholic 

is a software company that 

develops websites and applications 

to facilitate online donations 

and payments to Catholic organizations. 

Although Father LaCroix 

had never heard of Catholic Extension 

before receiving eCatholic’s 

message, he knew very quickly 

that he and his parish found a 

partner they could trust. 

“We’ve got some generous 

people here, but they don’t want 

to just launch the money out into 

the deep. They want to know that 

it’s on the ground,” Father LaCroix 

explained. “Catholic Extension 

documented well that it’s helping 

the people in Ukraine, so we 

thought we had people we could 

trust.” 

Jim Fisher, the parish’s director of 

communications, added, “To learn 

about all the work Catholic Extension 

was already doing in Ukraine 

made it so natural for our money 

to go to Catholic Extension to help 

people get out of harm’s way.” 

Catholic Extension has support- 

Catholic Extension’s Parish Partnership program 

With a compelling list of urgent projects to support our Church, Catholic 

Extension has created a turnkey fundraising program that is easily 

adapted for any parish and provides materials and guidance. Please 

contact Natalie Donatello at ndonatello@catholicextension.org. 

Father Bob LaCroix, 

pastor of Church 

of the Holy Family 

in Novi, Michigan, 

encouraged his 

parishioners to 

focus their Lenten 

almsgiving on 

humanitarian relief 

for the suffering in 

Ukraine. The parish 

raised more than 

$125,000 toward 

Catholic Extension’s 

fund supporting the 

Ukrainian Catholic 

Church. 

ed the Ukrainian Catholic Church 

in the United States since 1979, 

working with its four “eparchies” 

(that is, dioceses), which operate 

approximately 200 Ukrainian 

Catholic parishes across the country. 

The Ukrainian eparchies Catholic 

Extension supports in the United 

States are deeply connected to 

the Catholic Church in Ukraine, 

regularly sponsoring projects, 

which currently includes the ongoing 

humanitarian efforts for the 

besieged nation. 

A PRIMARY MISSION BEYOND 

PARISH BORDERS 

Church of the Holy Family, a 

community of roughly 1,200 people, 

amassed a mighty effort to support 

the Catholic Church’s work in 

Ukraine. 

After a surge of initial donations, 

parishioners at Church of the 

Holy Family felt so called to support 

those in need in Ukraine that 

they asked eCatholic, who had 

said it would match donations up 

to $10,000 toward Catholic 

Extension’s emergency 

funding, if it would be willing 

to raise its matching 

contribution to $50,000. 

When they got word that 

eCatholic would increase 

it, Father LaCroix continued 

to challenge his 

parishioners to support 

their brothers and sisters 

suffering in Ukraine. 

“Three or four weeks 

into Lent, I get up on the 

altar and say, ‘I really think 

we can raise $100,000,’” 

Father LaCroix recalled. 

“And somebody turned to 

the person next to them, 

and they said, ‘I think he’s 

crazy.’” 

The “crazy” idea turned into 

reality and an outpouring of God’s 

love from the people of Novi. 

In just over six weeks, Church 

of the Holy Family collected 

$78,000. This combined with the 

$50,000 matching contribution 

from eCatholic meant that the 

faith community had delivered 

$128,000 to support the Ukrainian 

Catholic Church and bring humanitarian 

aid to those in dire need. 

“The ability for people to 

respond generously is because 

they’ve encountered Jesus and 

their lives are being transformed,” 

Father LaCroix said. “They know 

the joy of being generous and have 

experienced God’s blessing.” 

The generosity of those in 

Novi has touched the lives of our 

brothers and sisters in Ukraine. 

Their donations helped the Sisters 

of Saint Basil the Great evacuate 

hundreds of families, orphans 

and disabled children to 

A banner celebrates the accomplishments of 

Church of the Holy Family in Novi, Michigan. 

the Ukrainian border, and shelter 

countless other displaced families 

inside Ukraine (such as the sisters 

featured on page 18 ). By being 

a parish partner with Catholic 

Extension and contributing to 

funding for the Ukrainian Catholic 

Church, Church of the Holy Family 

showed just how much impact 

a single parish can have on an entire 

population of people in need. 

Finally, it showed how a parish is 

not a club that exists for its members. 

It serves a larger mission that 

goes beyond the walls of its physical 

space. 

“Catholics who do not think 

their primary mission is beyond 

their own parish borders aren’t 

going to go anywhere,” Father 

LaCroix said. “We have a mission 

that is greater than what we do in 

church. We need to go out. There’s a 

special place in the heart of God for 

helping those truly in need.”

50 IGNITE Connect 


JUDGES OF LUMEN 

CHRISTI ADMIRE 

RECIPIENT’S MINISTRY 

Jean Fedigan, our 2022-2023 Lumen Christi Award recipient, 

founded Sister José Women’s Center to extend God’s love and care to 

homeless women in the Diocese of Tucson, Arizona. 

Each year Catholic Extension invites our Two by Two donors to serve as Lumen Christi Award judges. 

This year 250 people volunteered to participate in this process and provide feedback on who they think 

best exemplifies the spirit of the Lumen Christi Award. Here is a selection of their comments regarding 

our 2022-2023 Lumen Christi Award recipient, Jean Fedigan, from the Diocese of Tucson, Arizona. 

“For us, the process of discernment started with looking for the story 

that truly embodied a ‘what would Jesus do?’ moment. Jean Fedigan’s story 

reminds us of Mother Teresa. She saw a need in an underserved group in her 

community and set about to find a solution. She individually went over and 

above to help this group of God’s people.” 

—Bob and Mary Duelks 

“Jean Fedigan connects to the mission of Catholic Extension by taking 

the lead in putting her faith in action through the gifts of talent and time that 

God has given her. She has obviously built an incredible faith community 

of volunteers to serve the women 24/7 well beyond basic needs of food and 

shelter. She does not allow limits to interfere with the ability to reach out in 

all possible ways to protect the sanctity of these women’s lives. She brings 

to bear all resources, available at the current time, to address the questions: 

‘How do I survive today? How do I survive tonight?’” 

—Jacqueline Francis 

“Jean Fedigan, while serving as chief nursing officer, recognized the dire 

needs of vulnerable women who were and are experiencing difficult times in 

her diocese. She, almost single-handedly, set out to minister to these women 

and establish the only shelter in Tucson, progressing from a winter night ministry 

to a full-time outreach. Her vocation in the nursing profession morphed 

into a second calling of true discipleship of welcoming, listening and caring 

2022-2023 Lumen Christi Award 

for God’s vulnerable.” 

—Deacon Edward Hanzlik 

“To quote an instructor during my student nursing time: 

‘That is Christ in the bed and don’t you forget it.’ Jean Fedigan 

is following that example with each woman who arrives 

at and is cared for by the shelter.” 

—Mary Jane Henderson 

“I was most inspired by the fact that Jean Fedigan, singularly, 

made the effort to create the Sister José Women’s 

Center, not ‘shelter’ but ‘center.’ She started her mission by 

speaking at Masses. That had to take lots of courage and 

commitment! She also chose to assist women who are 

at the margins of society—the homeless, the abused, the 

sexually exploited, the mentally ill, those whose faith in God 

and themselves is at its lowest point. She shows them love, 

dignity and respect to make them ‘feel human’ again.” 

—Lorraine Kulpa 

“As I grow older, I became increasingly intrigued by people 

who leverage their skills and talents from their life vocations 

to continue to serve God by serving His presence in those 

around them. Jean Fedigan manifests those traits on a daily 

basis, especially for the homeless women of Tucson, Arizona, 

through the Sister José Women’s Center. Jean could have 

easily retired and led a comfortable life in her “golden years,” 

but she couldn’t stand idly by while so many other humans— 

especially the homeless women in Tucson—were existing 

below the level of human dignity.” 

—Michael Solomon 

“Jean Fedigan’s story of service combines tenacity, 

fortitude and compassion for women who are typically 

overlooked or discarded by society. Her capacity to love 

them, provide resources and be in relationship with them 

truly reflects God’s love for the least, the lost and the lonely. 

I was inspired by her willingness to respond to God’s call to 

do something to fill a void in services and advocate for resources. 

She is clearly not a quitter or afraid of a challenge.” 

—Lois Greco 

“Jean Fedigan looks at the whole person and not only 

takes care of the physical needs but the psychological and 

the spiritual needs as well. After all these years, she listened 

to the needs of the women and saw that her ministry needed 

to change. As a result, she opened the shelter year-round. 

… I was delighted to see that she was open to letting the 

women bring in their pets. She followed the spirit of the law 

and not the letter of the law. She knew that these pets served 

a purpose in the women’s lives.” 

—Sister Joetta Huelsmann, PHJC 

“Jean Fedigan has a living faith put into action, and she is 

showing the face of Christ to the women to whom she ministers. 

Her compassion for the women at the shelter recognizes 

their neediness and extends to allowing pets to stay.” 

—Virginia Kirwin 

“Jean Fedigan absolutely connects with the mission of 

Catholic Extension by providing a unique service and care 

to a part of a minority community that has been somewhat 

ignored in the past.” 

—Henry and Virginia Thiele 

WHAT WE ARE HEARING 

ONNECT 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE 


FOLLOW US ON TWITTER 

twitter.com/CathExtension 

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK 

facebook.com/CatholicExtension 

POST ON INSTAGRAM 

instagram.com/CatholicExtension 

GET IN TOUCH 

Please contact us at magazine@ 

catholicextension.org or 

150 S. Wacker Drive, Suite 2000, 

Chicago, IL 60606

150 South Wacker Drive, Suite 2000 

Chicago, IL 60606 

The Gift That Pays You Back 

A Catholic Extension charitable gift annuity 

gives you an attractive income for as long 

as you live and makes a lasting impact 

on poor communities of faith across the 

country. You receive fixed payouts for life. 

• Receive fixed, stable payments for life 

• Get immediate and future tax benefits 

For a personalized proposal, contact 

Betty Assell, Manager of Annuities, 

at 800-842-7804 or 

bassell@catholicextension.org 

ATTRACTIVE PAYOUT RATES 

6.0% 

4.5% 

4.8% 

5.3% 

7.0% 

8.1% 

9.1% 

AGE 60 65 70 75 80 85 90+ 

Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska 

catholicextension.org/annuities

Extension magazine - Winter 2022

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?