Thirty women from 21 parishes in the diocese received St. Mother Teresa Recognition Awards on Sunday, Nov. 5 during a presentation at Grove City Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church.

The awards were sponsored by the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women (DCCW) in conjunction with the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference and the Daughters of Isabella.

The recipients were recognized for living in the spirit of Mother Teresa as women strong in their Catholic faith, engaged and involved in parish communities and having set an example of devotion and dedication in the tradition and spirit of the holy and humble saint.

“These women would lovingly serve without the desire to be recognized,” said Michele Faehnle, a co-chair for the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference, “but we believe that it’s important to recognize them, especially to inspire other women to live out their faith.”

Bishop Earl Fernandes presented certificates to the women, who were recommended for recognition by one or more individuals during a nomination period in September.

There were three honorees each from Dublin St. Brigid of Kildare and Our Lady of Perpetual Help and two each from Westerville St. Paul the Apostle, Columbus St. Patrick, Columbus St. Cecilia, Gahanna St. Matthew and Newark St. Francis de Sales, and one each from 14 other parishes.

The St. Mother Teresa awards succeeded the former Catholic Woman of the Year and Catholic Young Woman of the Year Awards, which were last presented in 2016.

The recognition lunch and ceremony were held this year for the first time since 2019 with 150 recipients and guests in attendance. Members of the clergy present were Father Joseph Yocum, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help; Father Michael Watson, who assists at Our Lady of Perpetual Help; and Father Thomas Herge, pastor of the Jackson-Vinton Consortium. 

The honorees were Allison Arend of Marysville Our Lady of Lourdes, Janice Bean of St. Patrick, Mary Bishel of Columbus Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Sandra Borden of the Jackson-Vinton Consortium, Diane Boyden of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Maria Bremerkamp of Mount Vernon St. Vincent de Paul, Lori Crock of Hilliard St. Brendan, Barbara Flaherty of St. Paul the Apostle, Lisa French of Canal Winchester St. John XXIII, Mary Ann Grove of Columbus St. James the Less, Lisa Grywalski of Plain City St. Joseph, Kathleen Hare of St. Brigid of Kildare, Kathi Jackson of Granville St. Edward the Confessor, Judy Jasper of St. Cecilia, Laura Kreber of St. Cecilia, Margaret Kuhns of Columbus St. Margaret of Cortona, Mary Lager of St. Matthew the Apostle, Deb Levy of St. Paul the Apostle, Maria Lucia Lopez of St. Francis de Sales, Kathy Moore of Portsmouth St. Mary of the Annunciation, Carolyn Obert of St. Brigid of Kildare, Sue Ruffley of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Anita Schroeder of Columbus St. Agatha, Rachel Shreve of Columbus St. Peter, Julie Stafford of Lancaster St. Bernadette, Katrina Kay Streitenberger of St. Matthew the Apostle, Diane Walker of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Chrisanne Webster of St. Francis de Sales, Ginger West of St. Patrick and Jody White of St. Brigid of Kildare. Boyden, who passed away in December, was honored posthumously. 

Their list of accomplishments spans a wide range of volunteer and professional activities in parishes, schools, hospitals, helping the homeless and disabled, homeschooling, and as wives and mothers raising families in the domestic churches of their homes. 

Bishop Fernandes emphasized the critical role that women play in transmitting the faith in their families and communities.

“What you do, actually, is proclaim the Gospel in your families and your neighborhoods, your parishes,” Bishop Fernandes told the women and guests. “And that’s what we really need to continue to do. Each and every person here, in one way or the other, is an evangelist with a particular vocation, a particular state in life, but no one is exempt from the mission of evangelization.”

The bishop emphasized the importance of evangelization in today’s culture as the diocese and the worldwide Church focus on spreading the faith, most especially among those who do not know how to pray or know God or respect human life.

He stressed that the Church needs to hear the voice of women in this time in its history.

“Pope Leo XIII realized that, most of the time, that faith is transmitted in the family through mothers, and so beginning with his pontificate there was a real push toward the formation of women because they would be the ones forming their children,” Bishop Fernandes said.

“We can speak about a shared responsibility in the Church with the role of women. Think about our Catholic schools and how many women are principals, teachers, school administrators, and how much influence and authority they have over the children entrusted to our care.”

It’s a misconception to believe that evangelization rests solely in the hands of bishops, priests, religious sisters and other clergy, Bishop Fernandes said.

“When people think about the Church and the Church’s mission of evangelization, sometimes they think about … the bureaucratic, institutional Church,” the bishop said. “But they forget about the maternal face of the Church, the Church who gives birth to new children at baptism, the Church that feeds her children with the bread of life.

“And so, where I think Catholic women can be a great help to the mission of evangelization is not only within the family but in showing the maternal face of the Church to help us as a whole to recapture the image of the Church, our mother.”

He asked women to raise their voices in defense of the Church and of her teachings and to speak about the good things the Church does while continuing to be loving mothers and wives. When a woman does this, the bishop said, she lends credibility to what the Church is saying in the world.

“Be good workers and holy people right where God has placed us, as St. Francis de Sales used to say, to assist us in the mission of evangelization to help us bridge the gap between the institutional Church and the charismatic Church so that people are actually open to what we have to say,” he said.

“If they hear it from you, it has an additional credibility because, day in and day out, you have to live the life.”

Transmission of the faith is the greatest gift a mother can give a child, Bishop Fernandes said as he shared stories of how his own mother, Thelma, lived out her Catholic faith every day in raising her five sons.

“There is nothing like a mother teaching her child their prayers,” Bishop Fernandes said.

He went on to say that young people “need to see authentic, credible witnesses to the faith so that they might actually say, ‘I, too, will believe, and if I can believe then I can have a better understanding of the world around me and engage that world with the truth that comes from the Gospel.’ 

“There’s nothing like children seeing their parents’ faith.”

He closed by expressing gratitude for the honored women’s engagement in the Church.

“I’m very grateful for all that you do to help us to proclaim the good news of salvation, he said.

DCCW, an affiliate of the National Council of Catholic Women, was founded in Columbus in 1947 by Bishop Michael Ready. Its members participate in activities during the year, and the group’s board meets quarterly. More information on the organization can be found at www.columbuscatholic.org/diocesan-council-of-catholic-women.

“I want to thank the award recipients who inspire us by radically living out the Gospel,” DCCW president Annette Roth said. “Some have let me know that they didn’t want to be recognized, but sharing your stories helps others.”

The Daughters of Isabella is a Catholic women’s ministry founded in 1897 by Father Michael McGivney, who also started the Knights of Columbus. The local group, which meets at St. Agatha Church, is open to all women and has a strong pro-life focus and prayerfully supports vocations in the diocese