Trinity Missions of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity – a religious congregation of priests and brothers serving the poor in 43 missions in seven countries – at an April 16 reception honored a woman religious who leads a national group supporting elderly religious, and a Washington parish priest who is a nationally known speaker and evangelist.
The event at the Vatican’s Apostolic Nunciature in Washington celebrated the legacy of Father Thomas Augustine Judge, the founder of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, and supported Trinity Missions’ outreach in education, women’s empowerment, mission medical clinics, housing and fostering the faith across communities in need.
The Spirit of Father Judge Award was presented to Sister Kathleen Lunsmann, an Immaculate Heart of Mary sister who serves as president of SOAR! (Support Our Aging Religious). The James J. Norris Award, named for a key early supporter of the Missionary Servants who became a prominent lay leader in the Catholic Church, was presented to Msgr. Raymond East, the pastor of St. Teresa of Avila Parish in Washington.
In welcoming the guests, Very Rev. Jesús Ramírez S.T., the General Custodian of Trinity Missions, said the honorees reflected “the good work we as Missionary Servants are blessed to do every day.”
The event’s program noted the Spirit of Father Judge Award “honors individuals who embody the charism and steadfast dedication exhibited by Father Judge during his lifetime… Father Judge was committed to revitalizing the faith of Catholics, especially immigrants, and to supporting the poor and abandoned, minority groups, and those experiencing discrimination.”
Sister Kathleen Lunsmann, who has led SOAR! since 2010 – was commended for her “relentless dedication (that) has enabled SOAR! to provide essential support to aging and infirm religious members across the United States.”
Before receiving the award, Sister Kathleen praised the outreach of Trinity Missions, saying, “the Missionary Servants go to where the need is, to help the most abandoned.”
After being presented with the Spirit of Father Judge Award, Sister Kathleen noted she has a nearly lifelong association with the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, whom she first got to know at the order’s Shrine of St. Joseph in Stirling in her native New Jersey. She celebrated her 25th jubilee as a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at that shrine, which was founded by Father Judge 100 years ago in 1924. “It’s truly a special and beautiful place,” she said.
Speaking of her work, she said, “The ministry of SOAR! is only possible because of the generosity and support of so many faithful benefactors… Their lives were touched by a Catholic sister, priest or brother, and they are forever grateful.”
Sister Kathleen described visiting an infirmary for women religious just before the pandemic, where she met an elderly sister holding a composition book. “When I asked her if she was journaling or writing a note, she said, ‘No, I’m praying,’ and she showed me her book which contained the class lists of every student she ever taught. The aging religious do not forget us,” she said.
SOAR! raises funds and awards grants to Catholic religious congregations, enabling them to improve living conditions for their aging religious, at a time when congregations have increasing numbers of elderly religious who worked for modest stipends over the years and now face rising healthcare costs.
“As religious men and women age, we went them to know they are not forgotten,” said Sister Kathleen, who said that is a common message from SOAR! donors, who “want every sister, priest or brother, all members of religious communities, to have what they need to live and age with dignity and grace.”
Concluding her remarks, Sister Kathleen thanked Trinity Missions for honoring her and honoring the work of SOAR!
Also that evening, Msgr. East became the first recipient of the James J. Norris Award from Trinity Missions. The event’s program noted that award “recognizes those who use their individual gifts and talents to impact the Church and the lay community around them.”
James J. Norris was a key figure during the early years of the Missionary Servants, and he helped manage the order’s finances so their outreach could continue during the Great Depression. Later as a lay Catholic leader, Norris was an administrator for Catholic Relief Services after World War II and championed the cause of migrants and refugees and the poor around the world, including when he served as a lay auditor during the Second Vatican Council. After Norris died in 1976, Mother Teresa remembered him as “the friend of the poor.”
The program for Trinity Missions’ awards reception praised Msgr. East “as a dynamic preacher, liturgist and pastor (who) has dedicated his life to uplifting the poor and abandoned, while empowering laypeople in their service to the Church.” The priest was also commended as “a fervent advocate for social justice and racial harmony” and a “national icon for liturgy and equal rights, inspiring change and unity.”
After accepting the James J. Norris Award, Msgr. East noted that “all of us are missionary servants,” called as Catholics to spread Jesus’s Gospel to the world and to love and serve others.
The pastor of St. Teresa of Avila Parish in Washington since 1988, Msgr. East in his more than four decades as a priest also served as the Vicar for Evangelization and director of the Office of Black Catholics for The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.
Msgr. East said that as a recently ordained priest more than four decades ago, he first became familiar with the work of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity by the example of a priest from that congregation serving in Washington, Father John Ford, who inspired him and others to serve in prison ministry at the D.C. Jail and at the Women’s Detention Center in the nation’s capital. Father Ford was also a spiritual mentor for Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration and a dynamic evangelist and noted educator who is one of six U.S. Black Catholics now being considered for sainthood.
Serving the abandoned and forgotten, like the Missionary Servants do, is the work of the Holy Spirit, Msgr. East said, noting how Father Judge’s early work in serving the poor in the rural communities in the South has now expanded to missions helping those in need around the world. “God wants us to pivot” in serving Him, the priest said.
Earlier as he welcomed guests to the Spirit of Father Judge Award Reception at the Apostolic Nunciature, Cardinal Christophe Pierre – the apostolic nuncio to the United States since 2016 – noted, “This is the house of the Holy Father and also my house. It’s also your house.”
Addressing the Missionary Servants and the people gathered at the reception, Cardinal Pierre said, “We cannot be Christians and disciples of Jesus without being missionaries.”
He read a letter from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, that on behalf of Pope Francis congratulated that evening’s honorees and offered the pope’s blessing for the work of Trinity Missions.
Father Michael Barth, a Missionary Servant of the Most Holy Trinity who serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Trinity Missions, announced they had a gift for Cardinal Pierre, who was elevated to the College of Cardinals this past year. The cardinal was presented with artwork by Brother Richard McCann, a Missionary Servant who has led the congregation’s Art for Haiti initiative to raise funds for its missions in that country. The framed artwork included a drawing of a Haitian mother and child, and a drawing of a Haitian boy praying.
Cardinal Pierre, who served as the apostolic nuncio to Haiti from 1995-99, encouraged people to pray for and support Haiti.
The master of ceremonies for the evening was Michael Steele, a commentator for MSNBC and the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, who said the outreach of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity has been marked by more than 100 years of good work, of caring and concern for others by priests, brothers and lay leaders.
Among those speaking at the reception were the event’s chairs, Dr. Hugh Dempsey and Margaret Melady. Dempsey noted that Father Judge encouraged people to be apostles for Christ in today’s world.
In an interview before the awards were presented, Very Rev. Jesús Ramírez S.T., the General Custodian of Trinity Missions, said the outreach of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity is marked by “working with the poor, especially in those places that nobody wants to go.”
The native of Mexico who has been a member of that religious community for 40 years said that when he went to his first mission in a rural part of his country, he knew, “This is my place. The best blessing is to see our people feeling the presence of God in their lives.” Reflecting on his mission work over the years, he said, “Thank God I am here with them, serving the poor. They came to celebrate and keep their faith.”
In another interview beforehand, Father Raymond Calixte, a member of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity from Haiti, spoke about the religious order’s medical clinics at its missions in Haiti, Honduras, Mexico and Colombia.
“These people never see a doctor. For the first time, they can see a doctor, and receive health care for free,” he said.
Father Calixte, who is now the rector of his order’s Father Judge Missionary Cenacle in Adelphi, Maryland, said in his mission work, he brought the sacraments to the poor and was also “with them in their everyday struggles.”
Over the years, he served migrant communities in Florida, New Jersey and Georgia, and also worked in Puerto Rico.
“Every day, I see Jesus in their eyes, in the cross they carry, the cross of the poor. I can be of support to them, to pray with them and help them move forward in life,” he said.
That outreach to the poor, Father Calixte said, reflects what Mother Teresa once said, to “do small things with great love.”
(For more information on Trinity Missions and the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, go to www.TrinityMissions.org.)
