This year’s Catholic Man of the Year said his life was transformed by an encounter with Jesus in 1994 and has been further shaped by several other encounters in the 28 years since then.
Dr. Allen Lewis of Sunbury St. John Neumann Church spoke about some of those occurrences after receiving the Catholic Men’s Luncheon Club’s 2022 Catholic Man of the Year award on Friday, Feb. 4 at Columbus St. Patrick Church.
Lewis has lived in Columbus since 2010, when he came to the city and founded the Sancta Familia Center for Integrative Medicine in Columbus, a practice that he said integrates traditional medicine with nontraditional practices such as the use of herbal, homeopathic and other types of medication.
He said this method emphasizes looking at what precedes an illness, how to heal it and lifestyle changes to keep it from recurring.
The clinic also has a strong Catholic emphasis, with the Divine Mercy image prominently placed and a Eucharistic Adoration chapel on-site.
Lewis said his life changed in spring 1994 when he was a young pediatrician in Salt Lake City trying to return to actively practicing the Catholic faith. “I went to Mass at the Newman Center there,” he said, “and during the Nicene Creed, the Father embraced his prodigal son.
“I felt an overwhelming sense of love, mercy and welcome – the shalom of heaven. I had returned to my father’s house. Jesus knew I needed to have that encounter so I would have no doubt in my mind that He was real. The Lord had much to teach me, because I was trying to be too self-sufficient in everything.”
Lewis said he felt the strong presence of Jesus on several subsequent occasions. “The first was 22 years ago when my son was diagnosed with autism,” he said. “It shattered dreams, yet resulted in my current career. As I learned methods to help him, it helped me in the healing of others.
“Another encounter after I had been divorced was going to Mass alone and prayed to God for a woman to attend Mass with me. He answered me with (his wife) Kristin,” he said.
“Being part of the Cursillo movement led me to a new relationship with Jesus,” Lewis continued. “It led to a sense of forgiveness and freedom and to my coming to Mary and Joseph and recognizing the Holy Family as my family.”
He said Cursillo helped teach him “that prayer, asceticism and fasting are essential to grow in humility, experience freedom and hope in salvation.
“Most important, I received the strength to face the challenges and fears resulting from Kristin’s diagnosis with cancer five years ago,” Lewis said. “People ask me if I believe that miracles occur. I say, ‘Yes,’ because Kristin has been diagnosed as cancer-free” after failing cancer treatment in 2020.
Lewis said he had feared his wife, mother and father would die in 2021. He is grieving the loss of his mother in that year and his father this year, “but thankfully, I have Kristin here to help me through the difficult journey of dealing with the deaths of both of my parents,” he said.
He said his belief in miracles also comes from an event that occurred during his first three months as a pediatrician, when he was called to save a newborn girl whose placenta had torn from her mother’s uterus.
“The girl was black from lack of oxygen or a heartbeat,” he said. We started doing what we were trained to do, but it wasn’t working. In my desperation, I cried out to God, ‘Don’t let this baby die,’” he said. “Seconds later, her heart restarted, she became pink and was life-flighted to a nearby hospital. Today, as far as I know, she has no vestiges of the birth (difficulties) she had.
“God answered a prayer of fear, desperation and total trust. My wish is to pray with that same faith all the time, that I would see healing in my family, my friends, my patients and their families and the Church,” Lewis said.
In a question-answer session following his acceptance speech, Lewis was asked how he maintains his faith through the challenges he faces as a physician. “By recognizing the Lord works through me if I get out of the way,” he said. “I treat things now that I never was trained to treat. The Lord tells me that if I continue to pray, I can continue to expect successful results.
Before he spoke, testimonials on Lewis’ behalf were given by his wife; Gerald Rudolph, a patient and friend; and Dr. Steve Kebe a fellow pediatrician.
Lewis was chosen from among 17 nominees for the award by a nomination committee of representatives from the luncheon club, Young Catholic Professionals, the Catholic Men’s Ministry, the Knights of Columbus and the Serra Club.
The other nominees were: Doug Bean, Phil Kraker and Thomas Lisk, Columbus St. Patrick; John Bradford, Lancaster St. Mary; Sonny Del Matto, Heath St. Leonard; Rick Gummer, Marc Hawk and Matthew Munhall, Newark St. Francis de Sales; Robert Montagnese, Granville St. Edward the Confessor; Terry O’Connell and John Reiner, Dublin St. Brigid of Kildare; Kevin Quinn, Hilliard St. Brendan the Navigator; Robert Schilling, Reynoldsburg St. Pius X; Matt Schlater, Sunbury St. John Neumann; Kevin Anderson True, Columbus (German Village) St. Mary, Mother of God; and Robert Taylor, Columbus Immaculate Conception.
The men’s luncheon club established the honor in 1957, awarding it to John Igoe of Columbus St. Agatha Church, and presented it every year since then. The 2021 recipient was Stephan Johnson of Ada Our Lady of Lourdes Church, who was presented the award virtually last May because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
