JoAnn Lopez
Q: While at CSTM, what was a formative experience you had here, whether in the classroom or with the larger CSTM community?
A: My time at the CSTM was so profoundly formational. I dove fully into life in and out of the classroom and was very involved in community life. I loved being an international student and sharing the gifts and cultures of our diverse community. Our liturgical life nourished me…and speaking of nourishment, I always enjoyed Tasty Tuesdays and the Thursday Liturgy & Lunch! There was something magical about the joy of our community life.
One experience that stands out is the STM Dialogues, which developed as a student-led initiative during my time at the CSTM. The Dialogues were an opportunity for members of the community to submit their stories, and then others would bring these stories to life through performance. I learned so much about the power of stories through this experience – sharing our experiences, listening to the lives of others, and surrendering our stories to be interpreted and embodied by another. The process made room for a different kind of authenticity, honesty, and vulnerability, and we found that the marginal was centered as the microphone moved to the peripheries. The Dialogues became a creative space to “journey together” and allow the personal and the theological to touch. While the Dialogues continued for a couple of years after I graduated, there are now other creative spaces for story, embodied expression, and encounter at the CSTM, like Night of the Arts and other student-led initiatives. As an alumna who accompanies current students, I enjoy hearing about how the Holy Spirit continually leads students to find the way to express themselves creatively in their particular context.
As a minister, I know my time at the CSTM shaped so much of how I make space for story, encounter, community, creativity, and interculturality in my work today!
Q: While earning your M.Div., did you know you wanted to do work like you are currently doing with your parish? Can you tell us a little bit about your discernment process and career journey?
A: In my final year at the CSTM, it became clear to me that I had a great passion for liturgy and college ministry. I had been very involved in liturgical life at the CSTM, including serving as the graduate assistant for liturgy. Even during my practicum as a hospital chaplain, I noticed I was particularly interested in the power of ritual and liturgy as I accompanied people in their suffering. I had worked as a study abroad scholarship advisor for undergraduates at Boston College throughout my graduate studies and volunteered with Campus Ministry, so I knew that working with college students was a calling. Right after graduation, I was grateful to find a position that combined those passions at Seattle University, where I served as Campus Minister for Liturgy and Resident Minister. I loved my time at Seattle U, which is a Jesuit University with a very spiritually diverse student body. I was able to use my gifts while growing as a minister in a multi-spiritual context. I learned so much about intentionally integrating justice and equity into my ministerial practice. Living in Seattle, I got very involved in various initiatives and organizations in the Archdiocese, which broadened my ministry and helped me grow more confident in serving folks across the age span. When I needed to move to Canada a few years ago, I trusted that I could take on a role outside of college ministry, even if there were elements I had not yet had a chance to explore.
Three years into parish ministry, I can say I love being a Lay Pastoral Associate. My role is essentially walking with people as they grow in faith and live out their faith in their life. I get to work with every age group – from children aged 3-6 in our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program, to our seniors who are sick and homebound. I still work with college students, and I support our parish’s liturgical life, but my ministry has expanded beyond what I imagined at graduation. I also animate all our faith formation and support our community life at the church. I am grateful for how my M.Div. degree prepared me for a breadth of ministry, and how my professional and volunteer experience allowed me to grow in confidence and competence as a minister. While my ministry is different than I imagined when I first graduated, I can see how all my experiences, my personality, and my passion come together in my current work. I am in constant awe at the ways God is at work in the lives of the parishioners I serve, and in the parish as a whole, and grateful for the part that I get to play in partnering with God’s work!
Q: As you are being honored with the Young Alumni Leadership in Ministry Award, what is a piece of advice you have for current CSTM students, particularly those who will be graduating soon?
A: You know that Shakira song from Zootopia – “Try Everything?” The refrain says “I wanna try everything, I wanna try even though I could fail.” It might sound silly, but I’d say be willing to get engaged and involved, even – or especially – when it’s outside your comfort zone. Whether that is at the CSTM in and out of the classroom, or in the wider world as you discern what opportunities you accept or organizations you support. Be willing to participate and see what growth and transformation will come if we are open to trying and saying “yes”! One of the best things I did when living in Seattle was say “yes” to an invitation to collaborate with the Black Catholic Advisory Circle (BCAC) to celebrate Black Catholic History Month. I knew little about the organization or the commemoration but had been desiring to make a deeper commitment to integrating racial justice into my ministry. That “yes” began a very powerful and transformative relationship which enriched my life as a woman of color and minister in the Church.
My other piece of advice for CSTM students is to build relationships with your peers that will carry you through different seasons of your life after graduation. Partnership in ministry and collaboration is so important. I am not being hyperbolic when I say that I speak to a fellow CSTM grad at least weekly, if not daily! My lay and ordained friends from my time at the CSTM are my community, my confidants, my cheerleaders, and my coaches. Beyond just the social, the network we built has supported me professionally. My peers put my name forward for projects and opportunities, and we turn to each other to troubleshoot challenges and to celebrate each other. The community life is what drew me to the CSTM, it is what nourished and formed me while I was there, and it is what sustains me today as a minister. I hope all CSTM students take seriously the gift of community life and commit to contributing to it.
Q: What has been the most life-giving part of your ministry experience?
A: I absolutely love supporting people becoming Catholic through the RCIA program (OCIA in the US). I have been involved in supporting the RCIA since I was an undergraduate and now have the joy of running the program at my parish. This is a true ministry of accompaniment, where we walk with individuals and support them as they come to know, love, and follow Jesus as part of a wider community of disciples. Our parish has 45 participants in our program this year (double our cohort from last year)! The whole parish supports their journey in varied ways, and I see the fruit of this support in the life of each of the members of the cohort, as they experience God’s love in tangible ways in the Christian community. I also see the joy, hope, and new life this ministry brings to my parish. I am eagerly awaiting Easter Vigil, when the catechumens and candidates will receive the sacraments, and then the parish celebrates with a big potluck party. RCIA is a ministry that I see as truly “synodal”, where we have the opportunity to walk together as companions in faith, listening and sharing about our experiences of God, and discerning and responding to God’s call.
Q: What has been the most life-giving part of your ministry experience?
A: There were so many amazing faculty and staff at the CSTM. Some are now part of the communion of saints – like Dan Harrington, Francine Cardman, and Tom Stegman. I often think of them and rely on what they taught me in my ministry. The thing about the CSTM is the faculty and staff treated us as colleagues, and now these mentors are my dear friends.
My theology was shaped profoundly by my coursework with Sr. Meg Guider, OSF. I think I took 6 courses with her through my time at the CSTM! I particularly appreciated how attuned she was to the global church and the context of her students. So much of my ministry now is concerned with mission, ecclesiology, and discipleship, which I learned in her classes. Sr. Meg has also been an amazing bridge-builder who connected me others to support my growth. Even when I moved to Canada four years ago, she helped me find a local connection!
Outside of class, my mentor was Associate Dean of Student Affairs, Jackie Regan. I worked closely with her since I was a leader in the international student community, active in liturgical life, and then served as her graduate assistant. Jackie was a role model and conversation partner for running programs and leading and planning liturgy. Her mentorship was invaluable to my formation as a woman in ministry, especially in the area of liturgy. Since my graduation, she is often someone I call on as a friend and colleague as I minister.
Outside of the faculty and staff at the CSTM, I was blessed with mentors among my peers. During my studies I lived with some amazing women who had more ministerial experience than I did. I learned so much from them and with them as we navigated life, studied together, and got involved in the CSTM community. We are still connected and make a point to support each other through different phases of our life and ministry. Over the last decade, some of us have also worked together to support and mentor current students at the CSTM, particularly women in the MDiv program. The network of mentorship at the CSTM has been a true gift and calling for me!
Q: As you continue your great work as Director of Faith Formation, what is a hope you have for your continued ministry work, and for the Church?
A: I hope and work for a Church where everyone feels welcomed, loved, and empowered to partner with God's dream for our world. I long for the day when our Church more fully embodies the mercy, justice, and expansive love of God – in our world and within the Church itself. There are so many ways we need to grow as a living sign of unity in Christ, and I am so hopeful about what will come from walking the path of synodality as a Church.
I am particularly passionate about the role and call of women in the Church. I have been involved in the synodal work of Discerning Deacons to serve the Church’s discernment about the renewal of the diaconate to include women. This work gave me the opportunity to meet Pope Francis (a life highlight!), but more importantly has brought me into relationship with women in ministry around the world and strengthened my sense of our interconnectedness in the global church. I am often struck by the fact that my current call and ministry is beyond the wildest dreams of my ancestors, which inspires me to work each day to plant seeds for a Church and world beyond my limited imagination, that reflects God’s reign more fully.
As for my work – whether I’m serving in my parish or working on big questions in the church, my hope is that I always listen to the Spirit, serve with joy, and that my ministry authentically proclaims the good news that nothing can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:31-39).