February 23, 2026 // Local

At Servus Omnium Lecture, Catholic Charities USA Leader Urges Audience to Serve Others

Scott Warden

Editor-In-Chief

Kerry Alys Robinson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, joked with the crowd inside the North Auditorium at the University of Saint Francis that she “jumped at the opportunity” to speak at the 2026 Servus Omnium Lecture. “You see, as a rule, I never turn down an invitation to visit northern Indiana in the middle of February.”

While there was certainly a briskness to the late winter weather in Fort Wayne on the morning of February 17, those who had risen before the sun to attend the annual Fat Tuesday breakfast and lecture were warmed by Robinson’s inspiring speech, as she wove together personal anecdotes and moving accounts of models of service who share her passion toward reaching a hand out to those in need.

Founded in 2013 by Dr. Lance Richey, president of the University of Saint Francis, and Matt Smith, now CEO of the St. Joseph Community Health Foundation, the Servus Omnium Lecture Series aims to bring Catholic leaders and businesspeople together for a morning of food, fellowship, and mission. Robinson acknowledged the important purpose of the event, saying she was eager to accept the invitation to speak “because of the spirit of service behind this annual lecture series.”

And few can better to speak to the charitable mission of the Church than Robinson, who previously served as a global ambassador of Leadership Roundtable, an organization formed in 2005 in the wake of the Church’s sex abuse crisis. She was also the executive director of the foundation responsible for giving out the Opus Prize, an annual million-dollar international humanitarian award that honors people of any faith whose lives are dedicated to the alleviation of human suffering. Before that, she was the director of development at St. Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University, where she helped to raise $75 million to advance the mission of the Catholic ministry on campus.

Through her fundraising work at Yale, Robinson told the audience, she learned an important lesson that she has carried with her throughout her career: “Generosity is humankind’s birthright,” she said. “We are all called to be generous and to be catalysts to inspire generosity in others. A common misconception is that generosity is only for the very wealthy. Believing that lets the rest of us off the hook – and denies ourselves a full, rewarding life. Central to Christianity is the conviction that one finds life by first giving it away.”

To illustrate that point, she shared a story about St. Teresa of Calcutta caring for the poorest of the poor in India. Mother Teresa was helping at a food distribution center, where once a week, local families were allowed to come to have a single bucket filled with grains of rice. A novice of Mother Teresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity, was shadowing the saint when an elderly woman stepped to the front of the line with two buckets – one for her family and other belonging to her neighbor, who was unable to come because of illness. When Mother Teresa filled just one of the woman’s buckets, the woman left the line and poured half of her rice into her neighbor’s bucket. Surprised, the novice questioned Mother Teresa as to why she didn’t fill both buckets, as there were two families in need.

“Mother Teresa stopped what she was doing and admonished the novice, [saying]: ‘These are among the poorest and most destitute people you will ever meet. Never take away the right of another person to be generous.’”

In 2023, Robinson became the just the second layperson – and second woman – to lead Catholic Charities USA in the organization’s 115-year history. Catholic Charities USA is a national body that helps support the more than 160 independent local Catholic Charities agencies across the country, including Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

Because Catholic Charities USA acts as an umbrella organization to the local boots-on-the-ground agencies across the country, Robinson admitted that “some people are unsure about what, exactly, Catholic Charities does.” That’s because the “the life-changing ministries of Catholic Charities are varied and vast,” she said. “Every day, in every corner of the United States, Catholic Charities agencies provide comfort, hope, and relief to people in need, regardless of their faith or background. A common misperception is that Catholic Charities exists to serve Catholics in need. In fact, we serve all people of all backgrounds. People of all faiths or no faith. As the famous saying goes, ‘We don’t serve people in need because they are Catholic. We serve people in need because we are Catholic.’”

Richey, president of the University of Saint Francis, told Today’s Catholic that the Servus Omnium Lecture Series “is designed to offer a message that can strengthen and inspire listeners to think of their professional lives the same way, and by doing so make manifest the love and goodness of God in our world.”

He added that Robinson’s “deep love for the Church and unwavering commitment to extend its ministry of healing and hope to the world, especially through her work as president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, embodies what we want in a Servus Omnium speaker. … Dr. Robinson demonstrates that not only should we not leave our Catholic faith at the workplace door, but in fact we should lead with it in all that we do. That is what true discipleship looks like!”

To close her speech, Robinson gave a call to action to those in attendance: “Identify the causes you care the most about and try to make a difference. Find your own moral heroes and heroines and strive to emulate them. Be a person of hope. Be a beneficial presence in the world. When you cultivate the discipline of being other-centered, you begin to take genuine delight in the good fortune of others. And when you take genuine delight in the good fortunes of others, you will never be without a reason to celebrate.”

Scott Warden is editor-in-chief of Today’s Catholic. Email him at [email protected].