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Catholic teen works toward Gold Award by serving single mothers 

June 22, 2021 Catholic News Agency 0
Donation drive for Mary’s Homes of Hope / Ciara Leal

Denver Newsroom, Jun 22, 2021 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

A Catholic teen in Colorado is hoping to earn the Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn, by serving at a Catholic home for single mothers. 

Since 2019, Ciara Marie Leal has organized countless donation drives for Mary’s Homes of Hope, a Catholic ministry to women who have experienced homelessness, based in a Denver suburb. She also helped design a website for the organization. 

Statistics show that in Colorado, nearly 6% of households with children under the age of 18 are led by a single mother. 

However, Leal’s inspiration for her project was more personal. Her own sister is raising two children as a single mother. 

“I was close with her when I was younger, but once I got older we kind of drifted apart,” Leal said of her sister. “In 2019, she started coming back into my life, and I noticed the struggles that she’s had as a single mother, who doesn’t have any support or resources.”

Years earlier, Leal had done similar work with Catholic Charities of Denver’s Marisol Homes and Gabriel House – ministries for single mothers and young families – to earn her Bronze Award with the Girl Scouts of America. 

She learned about Mary’s Homes of Hope through Lynn Reid, OFS, who previously worked at Marisol Homes and Gabriel House.

Leal held several interviews with Reid, and began organizing donation drives in late 2019 and early 2020. Leal had to suspend her donation drives when the coronavirus pandemic started, but she wanted to find a way to continue spreading the word about Mary’s Homes of Hope’s mission.

“That’s when I started thinking of the idea of a website, because I needed the message of Mary’s Homes of Hope to basically get out there, to the media and to the world,” Leal said. 

Leal said the project has revitalized her Catholic faith. She held her donation drives at her parish, and spoke with countless parishioners about Mary’s Homes of Hope. 

“Once I reached high school, I kind of drifted away from my faith and I really needed a stepping stone to bring me back into my faith,” Leal said. “That’s where my Gold Award plays in, in that it brought me back into my faith, to serve God and help his children in need.”

She has also grown closer to her sister through the project. 

“Once she realized that I was doing this as my Gold Award, she was so happy because she doesn’t want other single mothers and women to face what she has faced in the past,” Leal said of her sister. 

Leal will deliver her final presentation for the Gold Award in mid-July. She is now a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts, and will no longer be eligible for further awards or badges. She said she is grateful for the 13 years she spent in Girl Scouts. 

“It definitely has shaped how I see the world,” she said. “It’s taught me goal setting, math and money management, business, ethics, people skills and other  basic life needs that I need to work on throughout my development and growth.” 

“It has given me so many opportunities that I’m very grateful for.” 

To donate to Leal’s drive for Mary’s Homes of Hope, visit https://www.maryshomesofhope.com/ and click the donation tab. 


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News Briefs

Massachusetts mayor challenges local pro-abortion Catholic politicians

June 22, 2021 Catholic News Agency 3
Mayor Thomas Koch of Quincy, Massachusetts, speaks at the city’s “Night 4 Life” rally on Thursday, June 17. / Lisa Aimola

Washington D.C., Jun 22, 2021 / 05:00 am (CNA).

A Massachusetts mayor called out pro-abortion Catholic politicians last Thursday at a pro-life rally in Quincy. 

In his speech at a June 17 “Night 4 Life” rally in Quincy, Massachusetts, the city’s mayor Thomas Koch asked, “Where are the consciences today of our elected politicians – particularly the Catholic and Christian ones?” the New Boston Post reported.

The pro-life rally, which took place at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Quincy, was attended by hundreds of participants. 

In an email following the event, Mayor Koch told CNA that “the Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus’ message and I am so proud that our city hosted the Night for Life affirming respect for every human being from conception to natural death.” 

Koch, a practicing Catholic, left the Democrat party in 2018 in response to comments by Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez that all Democrats should support abortion rights. Koch is now a registered independent.

Koch’s speech, delivered off-the-cuff, entailed a story of his own failure to rally the local Democratic politicians on a critical pro-life cause. At the end of 2020, the state legislature voted to override Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto of the ROE Act, a bill that expanded legal abortion throughout a woman’s pregnancy. 

The ROE Act allows minors to get an abortion without parental consent, allows abortion after 24 weeks in the case of a fatal diagnosis of the unborn child, and strikes down a state law that requires doctors to try to save the life of a baby born alive after a failed abortion attempt. 

The local Quincy state legislators voted to override Baker’s veto. With a population of almost 95,000, the city south of Boston is home to three Democratic state representatives and one Democratic state senator. According to the New Boston Post, local representatives Bruce Ayers and Ron Mariano, as well as state senator John Keenan, all identify as Catholic.

In response to Koch’s speech, Keenan told CNA that he has already expressed his opinion through his vote and declined to comment further. Keenan also declined to comment on whether he was a Catholic.

In his speech, Koch said that he learned how to be “principled” from a young age after watching his father, Richard J. Koch, distance himself from Senator Ted Kennedy. As a campaign aide for Kennedy, Koch’s father spent extensive time with the senator but “departed” the position after Kennedy supported legal abortion.

In his speech, Koch encouraged the crowd to bring the pro-life discussion into the different spheres of public and social life. 

“We are the apostles of our time,” Koch said. “We need to be that light of hope.”

Other speakers at the June 17 rally included the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean O’Malley. Mother Olga Yaqob, founder of the religious order Daughters of Mary of Nazareth, also spoke, as well as former NFL tight end Benjamin Watson and former Planned Parenthood employee Abby Johnson.


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