CHICAGO — Catholic Extension has announced seven finalists for its 2024-2025 Lumen Christi Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Chicago-based nonprofit, which since 1905 has supported Catholic faith communities in the nation’s poorest regions. The finalists receive $10,000 for their ministries. The Lumen Christi Award recipient will ultimately be selected in the fall from among these finalists and will be given a $25,000 grant, along with an additional $25,000 grant for the nominating diocese. The group of finalists includes a 40-member parish in Birmingham, Alabama, that feeds more than 800 people a month with its food pantry; and a religious sister with a medical degree whose mobile clinic provides health care for the sick and uninsured in the Tennessee mountains. This year 37 dioceses submitted nominations for the award. The finalists are: Deacon Stephen Sellers, Diocese of Beaumont, Texas; Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama; Benedictine Sister Lisa Maurer, Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota; Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, a Religious Sister of Mercy, Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee; Eddie Michael, Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky; Sarah Alley, Diocese of Memphis, Tennessee; and Father Earl Henley, Diocese of San Bernardino, California. (OSV News)
