Four women from across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are being honored by the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women for parish-level involvement with their respective councils, parishes and communities. Recipients of the 2022 Laywoman Volunteer Award will be formally recognized April 29 at the ACCW’s 89th annual convention at St. Albert in Albertville. The following information was provided by the ACCW. To learn more, visit accwarchspm.org.
Mary Androli * St. Andrew, Elysian
Mary Androli, 80, has served as president of her parish’s Council of Catholic Women for many years, and in all other CCW offices, as well as ACCW secretary, commission chairs and vice chairs, and chaired ACCW’s International Concerns Commission. She helped organize the first parish pastoral council and served as its president, and served on the planning board when the parish was building its new church in 2006-2007. Androli was active in and an officer of her local American Legion Auxiliary, Lake Area Women, and her children’s high school booster club, wrestling club and band mothers’ group. At her parish, Androli has served as a faith formation teacher. She serves as a lector, extraordinary minister of holy Communion and speaker at parish and ACCW events. She led her parish quilt makers who made hundreds of quilts for the homeless, Santa Anonymous recipients and others in need. She has received awards including from then-Gov. Rudy Perpich for service to her children’s school, the school’s sports booster club and recognition from FFA, 4-H boosters and the Catholic United Financial Volunteer award. For 30 years, Androli coordinated area visits by the Red Cross Bloodmobile. She and her husband, Francis, hosted a Rural Life Mass in 2003 for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Her home has often been the collection point for items sent to Haiti, Abria Pregnancy Resources, Sharing and Caring Hands, Santa Anonymous, local school families, Appalachian families and more.
Lois Huber * Our Lady of the Prairie, Belle Plaine
Lois Huber, 66, served for many years as chair for her parish’s “dining room” during its fall festival and, more recently, serves as sacristan for daily Mass, laundress for sacred linens, lector twice a week for daily Mass and a substitute for weekend liturgies, and as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion. She serves as environmental coordinator for her parish, maintaining plants and flowers for Christmas and Easter seasons, and she leads church decorating during the harvest season. Huber is one of the women serving the parish chapter of the Seven Sisters apostolate who pray weekly for the parish pastor. She leads the rosary before daily Mass, is small group leader for the parish book club and helped plan the special liturgy for the feast day of St. Joseph. Huber also coordinated a procession during that Mass for parish school students who carried fresh lilies to the St. Joseph altar. Huber, is co-chair of one of the parish’s “funeral circles,” and helps prepare the room and lunch and cleans up when the parish hosts deanery meetings for priests. As stated by her nominator, she is willing to help multiple times a year when cooking for priests during communal penance services. Huber served as a catechist for her children’s classes from seventh grade through their junior years in high school, and volunteered as the school librarian when her children attended Our Lady of the Prairie Catholic School.
Kathy Morales * Immaculate Conception, Columbia Heights
Kathy Morales, 80, has been an active member of CCW for 34 years, serving as her council’s secretary, vice president and president. She organizes parish participation in 40 Days for Life,
providing transportation when needed. Morales participates each year in the local March for Life and Catholics at the Capitol, and helps organize CCW fundraisers for parish and school needs, community concerns, and national and global charities. At her parish, she leads volunteers cleaning the church each week, helps with the annual women’s Lenten retreat, prays or leads the rosary before funeral Masses for deceased members of Immaculate Conception’s Council of Catholic Women, chairs a booth at the summer festival, coordinates the annual CCW baby shower for Birthright and Abria Pregnancy Resources, and chairs annual fundraisers at Easter and Christmas. Morales also contributes baked goods and handmade crafts to the annual CCW Christmas boutique. She is a member of the Seven Sisters apostolate for the parish and, since 2010, has chaired the Family Concerns Commission for CCW, keeping membership informed of legislation impacting Catholic families. Morales is a substitute for parish adorers who cannot serve their hour, has delivered Meals on Wheels, fed the homeless at Mary’s Place and at the Catholic Charities Opportunity Center in Minneapolis, and provides literature at membership meetings to keep members informed on NCCW, ACCW and deanery issues.
Barb York * St. Pius X, White Bear Lake
Barb York, 68, served as spirituality chair on the CCW board from 2008-2010, co-chaired her parish’s involvement in Rediscover Catholicism in 2012, and participated in and helped promote the parish pilgrimage to see Pope Francis in 2015 during his U.S. visit. She has co-chaired or been involved in annual parish festivals, participated in the parish strategic planning committee from 2014-2016 and was parishioner delegate to the “Amazing Parish” leadership team from 2015-2021. York served as hospitality chair for the parish’s five-year capital campaign in 2016, new parishioner welcome ministry coordinator since 2018, co-organizer of the parish retired mortgage celebration in 2021, Archdiocesan Synod small group leader in 2021, parish office volunteer and weekly parish money counter. She started Catholic Bible studies at the parish in 1994, served as a faith formation teacher, Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults teacher and sponsor, and has led a weekly lectio divina group, starting with CCW members, since 2013. She started an email prayer warriors ministry in 2017, now 90 strong. In 2011, she became the “anchoress” for the first Seven Sisters apostolate and, in 2018, she and the apostolate’s founder held an informational meeting for CCW members. York has served as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion to the homebound for 20 years. She volunteers at a Cerenity Care Center where she led a weekly rosary for residents from 2000 until the pandemic. In 2014, she led a mission trip to Kolkata, India, for 15 students from DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis and, in 2018, a mission trip to Kolkata for seminarians and University of Minnesota School of Public Health graduate students. Before each trip, she enlisted the CCW to collect supplies for a preschool in Kolkata. York participates in the annual local March for Life, prays outside Planned Parenthood during 40-hour vigils and supports an area LifeCare Center. She supports all CCW and parish collections, and volunteers for CCW activities including the Lenten Soup Supper, parish fish fries, and cleaning and decorating the church.
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