After 36 years of service in the U.S. Navy, where his duties took him to ports of call around the world, Jim Malloy has been on a different journey this past year. The retired vice admiral took the helm as the new president and CEO of Catholic Charities of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington one year ago, in July 2023.
In an interview, Malloy reflected on his first year leading Catholic Charities, the largest independent social services agency in the metropolitan Washington area, which this past year served more than 204,000 people in the nation’s capital and the five surrounding Maryland counties in the Archdiocese of Washington.
“It is a deep emotional journey of learning that I’ve been on for the past year,” Malloy said, adding, “Every day I discover something new and wonderful about the organization.”
Malloy, who has visited Catholic Charities’ 47 programs in 29 locations in the Archdiocese of Washington, said he has witnessed the dedication and skill of its staff, the commitment of its army of volunteers, the generosity of its donors and corporate sponsors and the vital support for its outreach from government and community partners and philanthropic foundations.
And along the way, he has experienced something that Pope Francis has emphasized, the importance of encountering people on the margins of society and sharing Christ’s love with them. While leading Catholic Charities, Malloy has joined staff and volunteers working the food line at St. Maria’s Meals, stocking grocery packages at the SHARE Food Network and spending time visiting residents at its homeless shelters, experiencing firsthand how the agency brings help and hope to neighbors in need.
“It has been a schoolhouse,” Malloy said. “I’ve learned over time, from the people who have been here and done this, the 25-second encounter with our clients is almost more important than the transferring of the food, because you have the opportunity during that 20 seconds to remind them of what they may have forgotten, remind them of what society often tells them is not true, and that is, that you matter, you are created in the image of God, and you count here. This is a place where we can remind them that they belong.”
Serving at Catholic Charities has provided a homecoming for Malloy – who grew up as a member of St. John the Baptist Parish in Silver Spring, graduated from St. John’s College High School in Washington, and remained active in his Catholic faith throughout his years in the Navy.
“Catholic Charities that I’ve been blessed to join, is a vehicle by which you can actually live what you believe,” he said, later adding, “I’m teamed up with a group of people that does this on a daily basis, and I’m very proud to be with them to do this.”
Just before his Catholic Charities appointment was announced, Malloy heard a familiar gospel story at a Sunday Mass. The account of Jesus healing the blind man, and Jesus’s response to the disciples who asked him why the man was born blind, hit home as he thought about his new work. Jesus responded, “It is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day.” (John 9:3-4)
Praising Catholic Charities’ staff, Malloy said they are “incredibly talented, skilled, committed, with servants’ hearts, all of them, and they are the backbone and strength of the organization. (They are) innovative, forward thinking, always thinking about what more can I do…”
Pointing to examples of the impact that the agency’s staff has on clients, he noted the Community Options program in Montgomery County, and how staff there uplift the spirits of people with cognitive and physical disabilities, and Mulumba House in Washington, where staff offer shelter to people in the Welcome Home Reentry Program and help them rebuild their lives after being incarcerated. He also noted Catholic Charities programs where staff members help immigrants find housing and employment so they can support themselves and their families.
During a recent heat wave, Catholic Charities’ staff decided it wouldn’t be safe for clients and volunteers to participate in the regular Wednesday food line for the St. Maria’s Meals program, so they handed clients gift cards for meals instead. Malloy noted that some of those clients are homeless, and some are working poor who have jobs but who struggle to afford necessities.
Catholic Charities’ leader recalled a conversation that he had with a man in line, after apologizing and explaining that they wouldn’t be able to have the typical interaction when the food line was in operation. “He said, ‘That’s okay. Anyone else, any other organization out here would have just abandoned us, and you all do not.’ And I said, ‘We will not.’”
This past year, Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Washington served more than 3.7 million meals; gave employment support and job training to 1,557 adults; and provided assistance to 227 children and adults with developmental disabilities.
Malloy’s first year has also enabled him to witness the impact of Catholic Charities’ network of volunteers. This past year, the agency’s 3,640 volunteers contributed more than 75,000 hours of service. Those volunteers, he said, “bolster everything that we do, enable everything that we do.” He pointed out how those volunteers include people with specific skill sets, like the medical and dental professionals in the Catholic Charities Health Care Network who provided medical and dental assistance to 7,712 people, and the attorneys and law firms in Catholic Charities Legal Network who provided pro bono legal services to 1,789 low-income individuals and families, with those pro bono services to clients worth $2.12 million.
Catholic Charities’ volunteers also include teenagers from local Catholic high schools, who hop on the Metro or drive with their parents to pitch in at programs like St. Maria’s Meals. Malloy described how two girls asked their family to delay a planned ski trip to Vermont for a couple of days, so they could help at the food line, and how members of the St. John’s baseball team, along with their dads, visited with homeless clients at the New York Avenue Men’s Shelter.
Malloy noted that he hasn’t signed a school service hour approval or validation for many months, because that’s not why the students volunteer with Catholic Charities. “They keep coming back… because it reminds them what and who is important in their week,” he said.
The agency’s adult volunteers include people who help the SHARE Food Network distribute thousands of turkeys at Thanksgiving time. Four graduates from Chaminade High School in Long Island, New York, who now work in this metropolitan area recently rehabbed the playground at Kennedy Institute’s Child Development Center in Washington, which serves children with and without developmental disabilities. And some of Malloy’s former colleagues who work at the Pentagon have helped serve food at St. Maria’s Meals.
Malloy also expressed appreciation for Catholic Charities’ donors and corporate sponsors, and pointed to examples like Pepco hosting and cosponsoring the agency’s annual Thanksgiving meal for the homeless and providing winter coats for them. “Our private donations and our corporate donations are the fuel that make this engine run,” Catholic Charities’ president said.
At Catholic Charities’ Gala in April, the nearly 1,000 guests, along with sponsors, helped raise $3.15 million, and this past year, 7,500 individuals and organizations made gifts in support of Catholic Charities. At the gala, Malloy noted how the gathering’s theme, “Together Forward,” was fitting. “We truly work together to make a lasting difference in the lives of our clients,” he said.
At the gala and in the interview, Malloy praised the vision, guidance and the leadership of the man he succeeded as Catholic Charities’ president and CEO, Msgr. John Enzler, who continues to serve as its mission advocate while serving as a chaplain at his alma mater, St. John’s College High School.
“He will forever be the chaplain of this organization, the shepherd of this organization,” said Malloy, who called the priest “a great star to steer by.”
Malloy also underscored the importance of government partnerships, and noted that he has met with local, regional and state leaders. This past year, Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller visited Catholic Charities’ Angel Watch Shelter in Waldorf that serves women and families who have experienced domestic violence or homelessness. Malloy also emphasized the generous support that philanthropic foundations provide to the agency.
Catholic Charities’ milestones this past year included sponsoring its first-ever summit for local Catholic high school service coordinators and student service leaders, held at Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, to invite teens to volunteer with Catholic Charities. The agency also joined community members in celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Southern Maryland Food Bank in Waldorf, which provides critical supplies to that region’s food pantries.
“Going down and interacting with them made me proud to be a Catholic, because the Southern Maryland Food Bank is looked at as a beacon of hope in Southern Maryland, an organization that leans in and supports the pantries that support clients, and is that steady, solid, reliable partner that Southern Maryland needs,” Malloy said.
As he has made his “journey of learning” in his first year as Catholic Charities’ president and CEO, Malloy spoke about a key future goal, to continue to enhance its programs as clients make their own journey “between immediate assistance and independent sustained self-sufficiency.”
He added, “ You look at the homelessness journey, for instance, they range from unsheltered homeless on the street to low-barrier shelters where they are living, to some supported housing along the way to affordable housing on the way, to employment and independent living. That journey along the way is empowered by our special experts here, our case managers and our social workers.”
As the theme at the Catholic Charities Gala highlighted, that is a journey that the agency’s staff, volunteers and supporters, along with its president and CEO, are taking “Together Forward.”
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