Meet Our Sunday Visitor’s 2022 Catholics of the Year
Mark Wahlberg
For glorifying the Lord Jesus in the world of entertainment
By Sister Nancy Usselmann
CNS
When a Hollywood entertainer uses his social media platform for prayer, Christians take notice. A professed Church-going Catholic, Mark Wahlberg consistently expresses the importance of faith and family in his life, “My faith means everything to me.” He says, “It provides the comfort and motivation to become a better person, a better father, a better husband, and to be an example.” This actor, producer and businessman is unabashed in sharing his faith through entertainment media.
Best known for his roles in Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” and David O. Russell’s “The Fighter,” Wahlberg took his acting and producing into his own hands through the release of his film “Father Stu.” He believes it is his mission to tell the incredible story of Father Stuart Long, a former boxer-turned-priest, whose short life impacted thousands. Speaking about the transformative power of suffering, Wahlberg said it is “just a reminder that things happen for a reason and if we trust in God and his plan everything is going to be alright.” Father Stu did better than expected during its box office opening weekend and reached the No. 1 spot its first week on Netflix. Wahlberg said this story is the culmination of his work as an actor: “This is one of the first opportunities for me to utilize all the blessings bestowed upon me to do God’s greater good.”
In his many business ventures, Wahlberg seeks to serve underprivileged youth through the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation and encourages people to live healthy lifestyles. His Instagram account is a platform for his business interests but also his faith. He often gives a shout out to priests for their pastoral service and prays the Rosary on the popular prayer app Hallow, promoting it with his tag line, “Stay prayed up!” With over 20 million followers, Wahlberg shares his spirituality with those who perhaps would never pray. In one recent post, he knelt before a cross and prayed a spontaneous prayer: “Lord Jesus, please help me to do your will, live up to your expectations, make you proud, humble myself and glorify you in everything I do. All praise, glory and honor due to Jesus. Stay prayed up! Hallow.”
Mark Wahlberg, a worthy recipient of Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholics of the Year honor, uses his fame and money to influence popular culture for good. He keeps his focus on what is most important — his love for God and family. He prays that his work inspires others to, “get out there and start doing some good!”
Archbishop Borys Gudziak
For being a shepherd who lifts up the light of Christ amid the world’s deepest shadows
By Gina Christian
CNS
Hours after 150,000 Russian troops launched their full-fledged invasion of Ukraine Feb. 24, Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia spoke with me by phone from Paris where he was in round-the-clock meetings responding to the crisis. He had spent some two decades in his family’s homeland as vice rector of the Lviv Theological Academy, and later as rector and president of the Ukrainian Catholic University.
“Ukraine is being crucified,” he said.
With those words, the archbishop revealed two things: the all-too-real horror of the genocidal attacks on Ukraine — a horror numerous researchers and officials would confirm within months — and the spiritual context in which such evil ultimately should be placed. For him, the two are inseparable.
Over the coming months, and in numerous nations, Archbishop Gudziak has raised a prophetic and pastoral voice against what he reminds us is the sin of Cain: the disordered and deadly grasp for empire, the betrayal of Gospel values for earthly gain, the moral consequences of silence in the face of suffering, the need for historical examinations of conscience and honest reckonings with both individual and collective failings.
Divine providence equipped the archbishop well for this moment. The son of Ukrainian immigrants, he completed his undergraduate education in record time at Syracuse University, eager to pursue his priestly vocation in Rome under Cardinal Josyf Slipyj, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, who had endured 18 years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of Soviet authorities. Archbishop Gudziak has carried on his mentor’s legacy, speaking out against Russian efforts to thwart Ukraine’s democratic progress and appearing on international media to provide expert commentary on the 2014 Maidan Revolution, also known as the Revolution of Dignity.
An accomplished scholar who has received multiple honors, Archbishop Gudziak can seamlessly quote Scripture and business statistics in a single sentence. Yet for all that knowledge, he remains extraordinarily humble. While touring a Catholic high school in Philadelphia, the archbishop was asked by one wide-eyed student how he’d managed to master six languages besides English. Archbishop Gudziak quickly admitted the skill came at the price of “a lot of post-it notes” pinned to household objects to build his vocabulary. A few minutes later, still wearing his cassock, he took to the school’s basketball court to shoot a few hoops (a moment I was fortunate enough to capture on video).
For being a shepherd who lifts up the light of Christ amid the world’s deepest shadows, Archbishop Borys Gudziak is rightly honored as one of Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholics of the Year.
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