GranteeArchive
The religious sisters, brothers, and priests who have received Vocation Fund grants through their religious institutes inspire us with the many beautiful ways they are living out the charisms of their chosen religious communities. We are grateful for their continued service and witness.
Father Greg Dunn, O.P.
At the time Dunn was contemplating a religious vocation, he had just accepted a job offer for a CPA position, a dream he had worked for in college in an intensive program. “I sent an email to the partner at the accounting firm explaining I was thinking about joining this religious order.” On top of that stress, Dunn had thousands of dollars in education debt, a fact that garnered its own amount of trepidation.
“I was grateful for those experiences, and it was money well spent,” Dunn says. But the reality was, he wasn’t sure how he was going to fulfill his financial obligation while also giving his discernment a viable shot. “I really felt I had to give it a try, I had to see. You can only learn so much by reading and researching. To actually discern this life, you have to do it in the flesh and blood,” he says. With the help from a grant from the National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations, Father Dunn was able to do just that. “I was able to make the minimum payments on my student loans during my novitiate and that allowed me the freedom to be able to discern,” he says. As he kept going in his formation, the feeling of freedom to be able to discern shifted to one of thankfulness: “I just feel this immense sense of gratitude. This is what I am called to do.”
(Photo courtesy of Father Greg Dunn, O.P.)
Sister Eilis McCulloh, H.M.
Sister Eilis McCulloh, H.M. is a Sister of the Humility of Mary and currently serves as the grassroots education and organizing specialist at NETWORK Lobby. She is a student at the University of Akron School of Law in Ohio and serves on the board of Akron Interfaith Immigration Advocates and co-chair of the Family Support Community. In addition she is active in Giving Voice, an organize for younger Catholic sisters.
With her liberal arts education, McCulloh is drawn to writing. She regularly contributes to the Global Sisters Report, a project of the National Catholic Reporter. Her story "Sisters help Uvalde move from trauma to trust" was recently featured in the 2024 VISION Vocation Guide.
(Photo: Catholic Extension.)
Sister Amy Westphal, R.S.M.
The grant from the National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations felt like an answer to a big question for Westphal. While at MACC, she read an article in VISION Vocation Guide that asked those discerning a religious vocation to make a list of anything that might prohibit a discerner from entering religious life. “At the top of my list were my student loans. The article also mentioned that God will make a way through these obstacles if the grace is there for the vocation,” she says. So when the call came in that Westphal received the grant from the National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations, she said she trusted that this was “God’s way”: “I know that ‘nothing is impossible with God.”
For the past two years, Westphal has lived with a small community of sisters in San Francisco and ministered to numerous groups of individuals including unhoused people, members of the LGBTQ community, laywomen preachers, and deacons in the local diocese. She is in her second year of temporary vows and, she says, she has “experienced many complexities in ministry and community that have helped illumine the different vows and the shape of my call. Encountering the needs of our time requires a great deal of contemplation and prayer to take each step with integrity.”​
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(Photo courtesy of the Sisters of Mercy)
