Lumen Gentium Award Winner: Sally Gauch

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In every Catholic parish throughout Rhode Island, the lay faithful are busy distributing Holy Communion to the homebound, lectoring, serving at the altar and teaching catechism, to name just a few indispensable activities.
Sally Gauch of Middletown does it all.
“You don’t do it because you expect a pat on the back. You do it because it has to be done. Somebody has to do it,” said Gauch, 74, a longtime parishioner of St. Lucy Church in Middletown.
“I’m certainly humbled,” Gauch said on being honored with the 2020 Lumen Gentium Award for Parish Services.“There are so many of us around the Church who are volunteering, in my parish and other parishes.”
Since marrying her late husband, Frederick, in 1971, Gauch has been a fixture at St. Lucy Church. When her children were young, she volunteered with CYO sports and helped organize field trips. For years, she taught third-grade CCD and led a confirmation program for high school students.
Gauch still volunteers with the confirmation program. She has also served at the altar during the 8 a.m. Sunday Mass, lectors one day a week and helps out as a special minister of Holy Communion when needed.
“The faith has always stayed with me,” said Gauch, who grew up in a devout Catholic family. She said her parents “believed very strongly” that the Church was the most important thing in the family’s life.
“We went to church together. We had to get dressed for church. We sat as a family. It was a very important part of our lives growing up,” said Gauch, who remembers her father leading the family rosary around the coffee table every evening.
Gauch grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later Newport. She graduated from Salve Regina University with a degree in mathematics and education.
Frederick died in November 2015 after a long illness. Gauch said her faith sustained her in the years when her husband was sick.
“I was able to bring him Communion too, which was nice,” said Gauch, who had been encouraged about 15 years earlier by a friend to distribute Communion to the sick and homebound.
“I’d like to tell you I wandered away from the Faith for 20 years and came back, but I didn’t,” Gauch added. “I’ve had my ups and downs, but I never completely wandered away.”