PROVIDENCE — In ancient Rome, a legatus could either be a high-ranking military officer or an ambassador to a foreign nation.
Drawing on that heritage, the modern-day members of Legatus, a Catholic organization for business leaders and executives, see their mission as “ambassadors for Christ in the workplace.”
“We get together to share our examples, our struggles and our triumphs of how we’re bringing Christ into the workplace in our own ways,” said Martin Bednar, the president of the Legatus chapter in Providence.
Thomas S. Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizza and former owner of the Detroit Tigers, founded Legatus shortly after meeting St. Pope John Paul II in 1987. Monahan envisioned Legatus as a Catholic alternative to the Young President’s Organization, a global network of young chief executives.
In Legatus, people who own and help to run businesses, and are advanced in their professional careers, meet once a month to pray the rosary, attend Mass and gather for a dinner featuring a guest speaker who can be from among the ranks of Catholic evangelists, bishops, business CEOs, entrepreneurs and theologians.
“Each has a story to tell us, and they’re all fascinating,” said Bednar, a doctor with a background in neurosurgery and clinical drug development. For years, Bednar was a leading Alzheimer’s disease researcher for Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company.
Bednar, who has also written children’s books, attended two Vatican conferences on the use of adult stem cells in regenerative medicine. He described running into several speakers in Rome whom he had previously met in Legatus settings.
“Legatus has introduced me to so many people,” Bednar said. “What we find is these networks become wider and wider. It’s just amazing.”
The Providence chapter — one of more than 70 across the country — was founded in 2006. Father Marcel Taillon, the group’s former chaplain, celebrated the chapter’s chartering Mass on Dec. 19, 2006, at St. Joseph Church in Providence.
Former Providence Bishop Robert Mulvee had asked Father Taillon to consider starting a Legatus chapter. Father Taillon met with local business leaders to discuss the concept, and an informational meeting was held in the summer of 2005.
Last year, Father Taillon stepped down as chaplain. Father Brian Morris, the assistant pastor at St. Luke Church in Barrington, took over as chaplain in January. He was already familiar with the chapter: Father Taillon invited him to attend meetings while Father Morris was still a seminarian.
“One thing that impressed me from the members was how much they enjoy Legatus as an opportunity to get together with fellow Catholics who are in similar working situations,” said Father Morris, who worked for four years in Washington, D.C., as a financial advisor and a certified financial planner for UBS Financial Services before he entered the seminary.
Father Morris said his background in finance and business helps him in his capacity as a Legatus chaplain.
“The goal of the group, its purpose, is to evangelize the workplace and show one another that there are other Catholics in Rhode Island who also care very deeply about their faith,” said Father Morris, who celebrated Mass for the Providence chapter’s monthly meeting on April 10.
About two dozen Legatus members and their spouses attended the Mass at St. Luke Church in Barrington. Afterward, they attended dinner at the Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington.
“What better date night can you have?” said Nancy Ahlgren, a Legatus member who attended the gathering with her husband, Chuck. A retired tax attorney, Ahlgren joined Legatus about 10 years ago. She said the organization offers like-minded Catholic business leaders such as herself an opportunity for networking and fellowship.
“We try to help each other as Catholic brothers and sisters,” she said.
“It’s a really lovely bunch of people. I’ve found them to be a very generous and welcoming group,” said Chuck Ahlgren, a retired U.S. State Department Foreign Service officer who taught at the Naval War College in Newport.
“It’s a personable group and you get to know everybody,” he said. “I also like it that the monthly meetings take us to churches all over Rhode Island, many of which are very beautiful. And they’ve had some excellent speakers.”
The chapter’s April meeting featured Margarita Pinedo-Ucero, a former financial business executive who founded the Women Dignity Alliance, a nonprofit that aims to enhance and preserve the dignity of women’s feminine identity in the workplace. Speaking from a Catholic perspective, Pinedo-Ucero talked about her faith journey and her work in promoting women in the workplace.
“The quality of the speakers is a key point,” said Rick Creed, a Providence Legatus member who ran a manufacturing company that produced aluminum and titanium structures for airplanes. Now retired, Creed still does consulting and spoke of the sense that Catholic business owners have in taking care of their employees.
“Legatus gives us a deeper understanding of why we have that feeling to look out for the employees,” Creed said.
The Providence group is the only Legatus chapter in Rhode Island. There are no chapters in Massachusetts, and some members travel from the Bay State to attend meetings. Bednar said the Providence chapter is in a “rebuilding” stage, and added that it is reaching out to prospective members.
“Most people here are in the workforce, and yet here we are, in the middle of the week, probably in the pinnacle of the chaos, and we call a timeout,” Bednar said. “We go to Mass, say the rosary. We leave the secular world behind for a few hours, and we put things right back into perspective.”
