Addressing the John Carroll Society at its April 13 Annual Awards Dinner, Patrick E. Kelly – the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus – underscored something that Pope Francis once told him, that the laity have a co-responsibility along with the clergy for the mission of the Catholic Church in today’s world.
“As lay people, we’ve been given an essential role, not in Church governance, but in advancing her mission. The Gospel makes that crystal clear. And the Second Vatican Council’s decree on the laity provides a framework for living out our calling,” Kelly said at the society’s 38th annual dinner, held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington.
The Knights of Columbus leader – who was the guest speaker and was one of five recipients of the John Carroll Society Medal at the dinner – emphasized three main duties that lay people have in carrying out the Church’s mission.
“First, we are called to evangelize, inspiring people to love and follow Jesus,” he said. “Second, we are called to conform the temporal world to reflect God’s law and his desire for human flourishing. And third and finally, we are called to mercy and charity, showing the love of Jesus Christ to those around us, especially the suffering.”
The John Carroll Society, founded in 1951, includes nearly 850 Catholics in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington who work in professions and businesses in the metropolitan area and assist the archbishop of Washington in charitable and community projects, and they also participate in spiritual, intellectual and social activities together.
In his talk, Kelly said the need for lay Catholics to take part in the Church’s evangelization is “especially urgent in our time.”
“We’ve all heard the numbers,” he said, noting that one-tenth of Americans are now ex-Catholics, and a majority of U.S. Hispanics are no longer Catholic. “And for many of us, these aren’t just statistics – they’re personal experiences. I imagine that almost everyone in this room has family members who have left the faith – siblings, children and grandchildren. Clearly, evangelization is urgently needed.”
The Supreme Knight noted that “we aren’t living in normal times. All of us are called to be missionaries in a society that often views religion, at best, as a matter of private opinion – or at worst, as an enemy of the public good. This requires that we live out our mission constantly – not only on Sundays, and not just at dinners like this, but at all times, in all places, and with all the people that we meet.”
Pope Benedict XVI, he said, encouraged the importance of lay people forming themselves in the faith and forming relationships to bring faith to life.
In addition to daily prayer, forming oneself in the faith involves studying the faith, not just to deepen one’s intellectual understanding of God, Kelly said. “It’s about encountering Christ in the Word of God and the wisdom of the Church. Self-formation is really transformation, because our goal is not just knowledge – our goal is to become more like Christ.”
Reflecting on Pope Benedict’s goal of forming relationships centered on faith, Kelly noted, “In the workplace and in our communities – and even in our families – we often fall into transactional relationships. But Christ doesn’t want us to get something from others. Much more profoundly, he wants us to give something to them, while asking nothing in return. In short, He wants us to love as He loves… It’s a simple thing, yet it’s very rare, especially here in Washington. In a town and time where people generally look out for themselves, the best way to evangelize is to look out for others.”
Concluding his talk, Kelly said, “In this era of fading faith and rising secularism, and in this town of politics and power, let us commit ourselves to the personal work of evangelization. And let’s use the gifts that Christ has given to each of us to build up His Kingdom, fulfilling the call that we equally share, yet is even more uniquely our own.”
In addition to Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, the other recipients of the John Carroll Society Medal at the dinner included Kevin Baine, one of the nation’s leading First Amendment attorneys; Andrew N. Cook, a lawyer and past president of the John Carroll Society; Colleen Mudlaff, the executive director of the Gregorian University Foundation who earlier served as the executive director of the John Carroll Society; and Marcus Washington, the president of the Washington Jesuit Academy.
Patrick Kelly became the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus in 2021, leading the world’s largest Catholic fraternal organization which has more than 2 million members around the world. Last year, the Knights donated $185 million to charities and offered 49 million hours of volunteer service.
Kelly earlier served as Deputy Supreme Knight, and he was the first executive director of the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington and oversaw the renewal of that facility after its purchase by the Knights in 2011.
Before his service with the Knights of Columbus, Kelly was the senior advisor to the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom at the State Department and held legal advisory roles for the House Intelligence Committee and in the Department of Justice. Kelly served in the United States Navy for 24 years, and he holds a master’s degree in theology from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family and a law degree from Marquette University.
In his work as an attorney, Kevin Baine has represented major media organizations and universities and others in cases involving freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and he has also represented Catholic entities in cases involving freedom of religion. He has advised the Archdiocese of Washington in the implementation of its Child Protection Policy and assisted the U.S. bishops in drafting the 2002 “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.” A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Baine clerked for Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall on the United States Supreme Court before joining Williams & Connolly, where he continues to practice law.
Andrew N. Cook, a partner in the K&L Gates law firm in Washington, served as the 35th president of the John Carroll Society in 2021-2023, leading the society out of the pandemic lockdowns and helping to restore its activities including the Red Mass for the legal professions, the Rose Mass for health care professions and in-person retreats. He served as president of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia and as president of the Rotary Club of Washington, D.C. After his legal education at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law and at George Washington University, he has worked in government contract, construction and real estate litigation with his law firm.
Before becoming the executive director of the Gregorian University Foundation, Colleen Mudlaff served as the executive director of the John Carroll Society from 2010 to 2023, organizing society events, preparing budgets, managing membership and upgrading the society’s website. After earning a journalism degree from the University of Kansas, she worked for the American Cancer Society in Illinois. The mother of three children founded the Women’s Diplomatic Series in Washington and has volunteered with Little Flower School in Bethesda, with the Gonzaga College High School Mother’s Club and Booster’s Club in Washington, with the Holy Child High School Parents’ Association in Potomac, and with the SOME (So Others Might Eat) and the McKenna Center outreach programs to those in need in Washington.
Since 2022, Marcus Washington has served as the president of the Washington Jesuit Academy, which provides a high quality and comprehensive education to 4th to 8th grade boys from underserved D.C. metro communities. He earlier served at the Washington Jesuit Academy as the head of school, as the principal, and as a teacher there for 12 years. Before that, he taught at his alma mater, Gonzaga College High School, and at the Potomac School. After graduating from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, he earned master’s degrees from Marymount University in Arlington and from George Washington University. The society’s annual dinner program noted that Washington’s “experience both as a student and then as a teacher at Gonzaga College High School instilled in him a commitment to providing a first-rate academic experience for middle school boys in this city who both need and deserve the opportunity, a vision he is able to realize at the Washington Jesuit Academy.”
At the dinner, Msgr. Peter Vaghi – the longtime chaplain of the John Carroll Society and the pastor of the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda – gave the opening prayer, and Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, gave the closing prayer.
The more than 200 guests at the dinner included John G. Roberts Jr., the Chief Justice of the United States. Also attending the dinner were Isaiah Lewis, a sophomore at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., who is a recipient of one of the society’s Agnes E. Vaghi and Joseph P. Vaghi Scholarships; and Morgan Riley, a freshman at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland, who earned first place in the society’s Margaret Mary Missar High School Essay Competition, writing on the topic, “Peace on Earth.”
