Praising the outreach of SOAR! (Support Our Aging Religious), Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy said its mission “is one of justice, not charity. It is justice, because we are repaying in some small way, (what) the sisters, brothers and priests in consecrated life have given to all of us who are the beneficiaries of their life and their work and their sacrifices.”
Washington’s archbishop spoke at the 39th annual Washington, D.C. Awards Gala for SOAR!, held Nov. 7, 2025 at the Embassy of Italy, where he was the recipient of the organization’s Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Award, named for the first native-born U.S. citizen to be declared a saint.
Also at the gala, SOAR! presented its Saint Katharine Drexel Award to the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, Inc., an Irish American Catholic organization, and its Father Bob Brown, OSFS Good Samaritan Award was presented to Dennis J. Dee, the executive director of the Father McKenna Center in Washington which serves men struggling with homelessness and families facing food insecurity.
SOAR! was founded in 1986 by lay people to help meet the needs of aging Catholic sisters, brothers and priests following reporting by the Wall Street Journal on the then-$2 billion gap between the available funding to support aging religious women and what it would take to adequately meet their needs. SOAR! was created to raise funds for Catholic religious congregations to meet immediate needs of their retired and infirm members, as well as to educate the public about those needs and develop a network of supporters.
Another effort to support aging religious is the national Retirement Fund for Religious Collection coordinated by the National Religious Retirement Office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that will be taken up at parishes across the country on the weekend of Dec. 13-14.
In his remarks, Cardinal McElroy said he was thinking of “the immigrants in our midst,” and how throughout the years, religious women and men in the United States have given their lives in service to immigrants building a new life in this land.
The cardinal noted how the final Synod of Bishops document of 2024 underscored “the harmonization of all the different talents and personalities in religious life,” and that document also emphasized how “the religious give us a witness, and have all through the ages, to what synodality is in its vision, bringing everyone in harmony together to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ… (and) the religious witness points us always to the justice of God” and challenges society to bring justice to those in need.
SOAR! has exemplified those virtues, inspiring men and women of different talents and backgrounds and networks to support aging religious, Cardinal McElroy said.
“When the need of religious women and men became evident years ago, many of those who foresaw the needs and how they would grow, they discerned in the spirit of God, asking, what is the call we, who have benefited so much from religious women and men, have to be there for them? In discerning that call, they came to a sense of mission, the mission around which SOAR! is organized, to assist men and women religious in their needs… to be there with them, accompanying them in the most tangible and powerful and deep ways, so that they might know, that the seeds they have planted in the field of Jesus Christ, have taken root in all our hearts and souls, and we want to be there for those who sowed those seeds of our hearts,” the cardinal said.
Closing his remarks, Cardinal McElroy thanked the supporters of SOAR!, saying “you are echoing and discerning and repaying in some small way the beautiful witness of religious life.”
The cardinal, who received a long standing ovation when his award was announced, was introduced by Frank J. Butler, a co-founder of SOAR!, who noted that the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Award is given to a person “who exemplifies courage and selfless service of people” like that saint did. He called Cardinal McElroy – who was installed as the new archbishop of Washington in March – “a courageous and prophetic presence in our city.”
In September, the cardinal in his homily at the Mass for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees at St. Matthew’s Cathedral strongly criticized the federal government’s policy of mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, saying it was unleashing “fear and terror among millions of men and women.” Butler noted that the cardinal “has challenged each one of us to step forward in solidarity with those who are suffering.”
Other Catholic leaders attending the SOAR! gala included Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States; and Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy Campbell Jr.
SOAR!’s impact
Sister Kathleen Lunsmann, a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who serves as the president of SOAR!, thanked supporters for helping aging religious “when they need us the most.”
Sister Kathleen noted this year’s gala raised nearly $300,000 for SOAR!, and thanks to people’s generosity, SOAR! awarded about $3.2 million in grants to 104 religious congregations across the United States in 2025. Those grants provided funding for automatic doors, upgrades for accessibility, elevators and stairlifts, accessible vehicles, hospital beds and medical equipment, acoustical upgrades to chapels, and meeting emergency needs like installing upgraded fire alarm systems and replacing broken generators.
During the gala, a video was shown highlighting the impact of SOAR! grants on three religious communities. The grants have provided the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, Ohio, with a lift to the chapel choir loft so elderly members can sing there; scooters to help sisters get from their residential facility to the chapel; a step machine in the physical therapy department there; and recliner chairs that are automatic.
SOAR! grants have provided the Benedictine monks at St. Andrew Abbey in Cleveland with a new boiler for their cloister wing, a new dishwasher, the renovation of an elevator to the chapel there, and enhanced security for their property. And the video showed how SOAR! grants have provided the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George in Alton, Illinois with a handicapped accessible van; a heating and air-conditioning unit for the Eucharistic Adoration chapel there; and automatic doors making life easier for sisters who use a cane, walker or a wheelchair.
“The mission for which SOAR! was founded is as vital as ever. Catholic sisters, priests and brothers continue to need our support,” Sister Kathleen said.
John McCauley and Lucas Swanepoel, the SOAR! Gala co-chairs, also emphasized the importance of supporting aging religious.
Swanepoel noted how those who experienced religious sisters, brothers and priests at their Catholic schools, parishes, hospitals or universities “have been impacted by the incredible legacy of these people. I know they impacted my life and everything I do.”
Pointing to SOAR!’s ongoing mission, McCauley said, “We’re all here for the same reason that SOAR! was founded 39 years ago, and that is despite spending much of their lives in prayer and in service often for us, the aging sisters and brothers and priests find themselves often residing in a space outside of retirement funds and Social Security and diocesan support.”
Shining a light
Mary Ann Lubinsky, the national president of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, accepted SOAR!’s Saint Katharine Drexel Award on behalf of her Catholic organization, which promotes Irish heritage, culture and identity and is dedicated to works of Christian charity and social justice, including as a longtime supporter of SOAR!’s outreach to aging religious. The award is named for Saint Katharine Drexel, a Philadelphia heiress who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament dedicated to ministries for African-Americans and Native-Americans, and it honors individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to the Catholic Church and to America’s men and women religious.
“Saint Katharine Drexel was a woman of courageous vision and selfless action, a woman who heard the cry of the poor and the call of God, and responded with her whole life. She used her blessings to bless others, especially those who were most forgotten. She is a model, not just of charity, but of justice,” Lubinsky said.
The Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians organization was the driving force behind the Nuns of the Battlefield Monument across the street from St. Matthew’s Cathedral that honors the estimated 1,000 Catholic women religious who served as nurses during the Civil War, caring for wounded and dying soldiers on both sides of the conflict. The monument includes a large bronze bas relief panel depicting 12 nuns with different headdresses and habits representing those Civil War nurses. Last year to mark the monument’s centennial, the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians led an effort to have a National Park Service marker erected alongside the monument explaining the heroic service of those women religious during that war.
In her remarks, Lubinsky noted the bond that the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians has with the nation’s religious orders.
“Rooted in our Catholic faith and proud Irish heritage, we have stood beside the Church and those who have given their lives in service to it, our beloved religious sisters and brothers,” Lubinsky said, adding, “We know we are standing on holy ground when we are in the presence of those who have devoted their lives to prayer, education, health care and spiritual guidance. Our work to support aging religious is more than a gesture. It is a heartfelt expression of gratitude to those who have quietly shaped our lives and our world with devotion and love.”
As she concluded her remarks, Lubinsky praised the faith, service and generosity of the members of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, and she thanked SOAR! for its outreach, saying, “To the SOAR! community thank you for all you do to preserve the dignity and care of our aging religious. You shine a light on those who have spent their lives lighting the way for others.”
Being Good Samaritans
Barbara Patocka, the board chair for the Father McKenna Center, introduced Dennis Dee as the recipient of the Father Bob Brown, OSFS Good Samaritan Award, which honors an individual who models the values by which that late Oblate of St. Francis de Sales priest lived his life and who serves by the motto, “the measure of love is to love without measure.”
The center is named for the late Jesuit Father Horace McKenna, a man known as Washington’s “priest to the poor” who helped found several programs for those in need, including the So Others Might Eat (SOME) soup kitchen that has grown into a network of services for the poor and homeless in the nation’s capital.
Patocka noted that Dennis Dee and those who serve at the McKenna Center “welcome those who are suffering from addiction, mental illness, hunger, sickness and homelessness. And most importantly, Dennis and his colleagues welcome the guests of the Father McKenna Center with the dignity they deserve as our brothers and sisters.”
As he accepted the award on behalf of the center’s team, Dee said, “The Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke’s Gospel remains relevant today every bit as it was 2,000 years ago. There are too many in our society today that are overlooked and forgotten. We need to maintain a broad definition of neighbor as Jesus teaches in the parable. Our neighbors include the homeless and the poor that are served at the McKenna Center, as we continue the good works of Father Horace McKenna. And our neighbors also include the aging religious that are facing financial and medical difficulties. The religious have been constants in many of our lives, faithfully supporting us in the most difficult of circumstances.”
Concluding his remarks, Dee said, “By supporting SOAR!, we are able to play the part of the Good Samaritan to aging religious.”
The emcee for SOAR!’s 2025 Washington Gala was John Treseler, the executive vice president of the John C. Grimberg Co., Inc. that provides general and mechanical contractor services to federal, state, and private offices in the Mid-Atlantic region. As the president of the Catholic Business Network of Montgomery County, he established that network’s Need Based Scholarship Program for the county’s Catholic schools.
Reflecting on the nuns of the battlefield and the legacy of the nation’s women and men religious, Treseler said, “Was it just the battlefield during the Civil War, or did they battle for us in Catholic education? Did they battle for us in hospitals and nursing homes? Did they battle for us when we were in need? Did they battle for us to make sure we stayed strong in our faith or to make sure we rediscovered our faith? Did they battle for us by praying on our behalf? They battled for us. It’s now time for us to battle for them.”
As the gala program was concluding, Msgr. John Enzler, the former president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, encouraged the guests to provide additional support to SOAR! for emergency needs for the nation’s retired religious, and more than $60,000 was raised in that effort.
(For information on SOAR! and supporting its outreach to the nation’s aging and infirm religious, go to www.soar-usa.org.)
