Meet Our Sunday Visitor’s 2022 Catholics of the Year
Sister Alicia Torres
For helping advance the mission of the National Eucharistic Revival
By Bishop Andrew Cozzens
CNS
Sister Alicia Torres is a joyful witness of what it means to live a completely given life for Jesus. Her love for Jesus is manifest in all that she does, whether that’s caring for the poor in her apostolate or spreading the good news about Jesus in the Eucharist throughout our country in the National Eucharistic Revival.
Sister Alicia has a contagious love for the Lord that people find very attractive, and she has placed all of her energies at the services of Our Lord. She has single-handedly directed a great deal of the communication for the National Eucharistic Revival, and she is one of the reasons that it has begun to catch fire across the country.
People who encounter her and her love for Jesus in the Eucharist feel the fire beginning to develop in themselves. I can’t say enough how grateful I am for the way that she loves and serves Jesus as a Franciscan sister, and the fact that she has been so generous in helping out the National Eucharistic Revival. Her good cheer is constant, her dedication is unwavering, and her love is a witness to all who encounter her. She is well deserving of this award by Our Sunday Visitor.
Samantha Povlock
For encouraging dioceses to support women and families through better maternity leave benefits
By Claire Swinarski
There are plenty of people who write and speak on how important women are to the Church. But fewer faithful Catholics are interested in having a conversation about practical ways to support those women, no matter their vocation or season of life. One woman in particular is calling attention to real issues facing women in the Church: Samantha Povlock of FemCatholic.
In her role as FemCatholic founder and CEO, Povlock has carved out a space for women who desperately want to improve the lives of their sisters while living out an orthodox Catholic faith. After graduating from Notre Dame and attending the Given Conference, Povlock began FemCatholic as a small blog-style website that has morphed into two conferences, intelligent reporting and active social campaigns.
One of FemCatholic’s greatest achievements was their 2022 campaign encouraging more dioceses to embrace paid maternity leave as part of their employee benefits packages. Numerous studies show the multitude of advantages paid maternity leave lends to families. As a Church that proclaims family to be the cornerstone of culture, Povlock and her team at FemCatholic correctly identified that only 31 of 176 dioceses in the United States offer fully paid family leave policies. Thanks to FemCatholic’s petition and awareness efforts, a national conversation was started on how to best support working mothers in a church setting, and multiple dioceses (such as the Archdiocese of Denver) implemented policies that better support the mothers that work for them.
Povlock’s continued focus on research, action, conversation and love over online vitriol have helped FemCatholic blossom from a one-woman organization to a thriving organization focused on educating, encouraging and empowering Catholic women. In a world full of mixed messages for women — that they need abortion to thrive, that they should never dream of working outside the home, that they should have corner offices no matter what, that they should pump in the bathroom because it grosses male coworkers out — Povlock’s clear vision for FemCatholic has blessed the women of the Church with the consistent reminder of their dignity as daughters of Christ.
Povlock’s inclusion as one of Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholics of the Year is a well-deserved honor. But more importantly, Povlock is a woman of God, a humble leader and a shining example of Pope St. John Paul II’s call for a new feminism.
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