An ‘Extraordinary Herald of the Gospel of Life’

Oct. 1, 2023

Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, founding superior general of the Sisters of Life, receives the Gaudium et Spes Award at this year’s States Dinner

By Columbia staff

Oct. 1, 2023

Mother Agnes Mary stands at the podium looking at the Convention attendees — Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, former mother superior of the Sisters of Life, addresses attendees of the annual States Dinner after receiving the Gaudium et Spes Award on Aug. 1, the first day of the 141st Supreme Convention held in Orlando, Fla. (Photo by Paul Haring)

Three decades after the Knights of Columbus presented the first Gaudium et Spes Award to Mother Teresa, the medal — the Order’s highest honor — was bestowed on another mother superior who embodies the “joy and hope” of its name.

Mother Agnes Mary Donovan of the Sisters of Life received the Gaudium et Spes Award at the States Dinner on Aug. 1, capping a festive evening of food, song and prayer. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, gave an invocation to open the program, followed by welcoming remarks from Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly and greetings from the host ordinary, Bishop John Noonan of Orlando. Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori read the Gaudium et Spes Award citation before the supreme knight bestowed the medal on Mother Agnes, its 13th recipient.

Mother Agnes recently retired after leading the order, founded in 1991 by John Cardinal O’Connor, then archbishop of New York, for 30 years. She was a clinical psychologist working at Columbia University when she heard Cardinal O’Connor’s call for women willing to dedicate themselves entirely to protecting human life through prayer and pro-life work. One of the first eight women to join the new community, she became its first superior general in 1993.

Cardinal O’Connor himself received the Gaudium et Spes Award in November 1994, two years after the award was introduced. In accepting the award, he said the $100,000 honorarium would go directly to the Sisters of Life and the work of the fledgling order, “to try to help turn back this onslaught on human life.”

Under Mother Agnes’ leadership, the Sisters of Life have grown to comprise nearly 130 religious sisters serving apostolates in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Arizona and the District of Columbia. In addition to fielding a crisis pregnancy hotline, the sisters welcome pregnant women into their homes and care for them and their babies after birth. They also host post-abortion healing retreats, some of them at the Villa Maria Guadalupe, a retreat center they operate in Stamford, Connecticut, established by the Knights of Columbus in 2004.

“Through all the community’s manifold works, and hours, days, weeks, months and years of prayer and contemplation before the Blessed Sacrament, Mother has led by example and guided them with wisdom,” the award citation read in part. “She offers everything to God for the good of others, and she has been one of the most significant leaders in the Catholic Church and the broader society for more than 30 years. She has been a highly esteemed collaborator of three supreme knights, and the entire Order of the Knights of Columbus has been blessed by her wise counsel and sustained by her prayers.”

The citation concluded, “it is with great ‘joy and hope’ for the future of the Sisters of Life and the pro-life movement that the Knights of Columbus recognizes this extraordinary herald of the Gospel of Life.”

After receiving the medal from Supreme Knight Kelly, Mother Agnes thanked the Order for its pro-life leadership and urged Knights of Columbus to strive to show God’s love to vulnerable women and children.

“Often, such love requires courage to look beyond the ‘distressing disguises’ of the sinful, weak, vulnerable and very imperfect person before me, and to love them with consistency, perseverance, fortitude and delight,” she said. “To love in this way is to grow in virtue. In the end, we can truly say, ‘It is I who have received the greater part in having loved and served you.’ What a privilege it is to encounter in another person the unique goodness and gifts given by God.”

See below for more of Mother Agnes’ remarks upon receiving the Gaudium et Spes Award.

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Mother Agnes Mary Donovan of the Sisters of Life stands with Supreme Knight Kelly and Archbishop Lori after receiving the Gaudium et Spes Award at the States Dinner. (Photo by Paul Haring)

‘True Love Is Possible’

Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S.V., States Dinner, Aug. 1

Jesus’ parting words to his followers were “to love one another, as I have loved you.” The question is, how do we love as God loves? What does such love look like? Within the Sisters of Life, we call it the “secret of loving.”

The secret of loving has three parts:

1. Receptivity: Love demands an openness of mind and heart to receive the other. In other words, an attitude which expresses to the other that I have nothing more important to do than to be with you.

2. Discovery: As I sit before the person, the first “act” of love is interior. It is allowing oneself to be moved by the beauty, strength, the vulnerability, the sheer goodness of the other.

Love, in a certain sense, calls out to my heart. For it is the other who is attracting me, as it were, from within my heart. Even in the one who is difficult to love, our challenge is to allow ourselves to discover that something within the person that can move our hearts. I promise you it is possible to find if we allow our hearts to search for the good, for that which is delightful in the other. Because we know that over each person God has said: “You are very good, and I love you.” Each bears the imprint of this love in their being.

3. Delight in the other: Why put in the effort to discover that which moves us in the other? Because when we find it, we become a mirror reflecting back to the person that which we have found that delights us. Then not only are we changed by her goodness, but so is she. …

Ideally, charitable acts done for another should be preceded by first being moved in love. Otherwise, the other person is likely to get the impression that we love them only because we are good — or because we must since we are his or her parent, spouse or a Knight of Columbus — and not because of any goodness within them that is moving us.

We know that over each person God has said: “You are very good, and I love you.” Each bears the imprint of this love in their being.

Far from sentimentality, this love is the image of the love of God. It is the way of God’s love. Often such love requires courage to look beyond the “distressing disguises” of the sinful, weak, vulnerable and very imperfect person before me and to love them with consistency, perseverance, fortitude and delight. To love in this way is to grow in virtue. In the end, we can truly say, “It is I who have received the greater part in having loved and served you.” What a privilege it is to encounter in another person the unique goodness and gifts given by God. And with it, lives are awakened, relationships are changed. …

True love is possible — in our families, in our charitable works, in our parishes, in our councils. The world is searching for it, and it is Jesus whom they seek. Let us receive the gift of God’s love that we may be emissaries of Jesus who made such love possible!

Pope Leo XIV speaks with Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly and Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori.

An ‘Extraordinary Herald of the Gospel of Life’

‘True Love Is Possible’

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