Fostering fellowship for women, young and old, is Marie Kennedy’s passion. “Every woman has a gift, and all of them are different,” she said.
Over the last 20 years, Kennedy, a parishioner of Christ the Redeemer Church in Sterling, has created and supported many women and girls’ leadership groups and ministries throughout the diocese.
“I wanted to do this because I feel strongly that we need to understand the gifts God has given us as women and celebrate our femininity,” she said. “Catholic community keeps us together, keeps us in our faith, challenges us.”
Kennedy grew up the daughter of a steel mill worker in Pittsburgh and attended the University of Pittsburgh. She met her husband, Don, in the campus athletic training room. “We were both injured,” she laughed. “He was a baseball player, and I ran track.”
The couple married in 1979 and moved across the world while Don served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. During this time, they welcomed their two daughters, Stephanie and Kristen, and worked as a teacher and coach for track and field, which she still does today.
The family moved to Northern Virginia in 1998. “When we moved here, when I’d complain about the traffic, (my girls) were like, ‘Mom, but this is the best place ever to be a Catholic teenager,’ ” Kennedy said.
So, Kennedy immersed herself in diocesan life. She became a leader in youth ministry at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Falls Church, even serving as a chaperone for World Youth Day in Rome in 2000. She founded the Catholic Homeschooled Young Adults in 1999 with Father Thomas P. Vander Woude, now pastor of St. Mary of Sorrows in Fairfax.
Kennedy’s fondness for mentoring young women extended beyond her own daughters. She began the St. Catherine Young Women’s Leadership Club in 2004. In 2010, she began a chapter of Education on the Nature and Dignity of Women at Our Lady of Hope Church in Potomac Falls. She later went on to begin the Little Way Ministry at Christ the Redeemer.
With another parishioner from Our Lady of Hope, Kennedy started an independent chapter of a girls leadership program, LeadersNow International. Kennedy invited Catholic girls to her home for lessons, socials and even weekend retreats, at which diocesan priests celebrated the sacraments. “We had Mass in the living room, confession in the office,” she remembered with a laugh.
Over the years, Kennedy’s travels took her across the globe. But her most recent pilgrimage took her into troubled corners of the globe. In October 2023, Kennedy joined a diocesan pilgrimage to Israel, led by Father Bjorn C. Lundberg, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Winchester. While Kennedy described the trip as spiritually nourishing — including visits to the Sea of Galilee, Cana, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — she also remembered the panic that ensued following the surprise Oct. 7 attacks and missile strikes U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas waged on Israel.
“We saw them,” she said of the missiles’ smoke plumes and contrails, “but we didn’t know what was going on.”
The pilgrims’ location in the Old City in Jerusalem contributed to their safety, Kennedy said. “The stores, shops and everything were closed, so we could go into the Holy Sepulchre,” she said. While the rare quiet of Jerusalem would have ordinarily been a blessing, Kennedy remembered the stressful panic of trying to leave the country.
After returning home, Kennedy was relieved to return to her familiar roles as volunteer and teacher. But there is one other title that she particularly treasures. She has four grandchildren and enjoys her “grandma days” with the kids amid the flurry of parish events.
“If we want our faith in the Catholic community to grow … build it up,” she said. “Build it up for the kids. Build it up for the women.”
Harvey can be reached at [email protected] or X @annaharveyACH.
