Emily Filippi retiring after 50 years in diocesan, parish ministry
For Emily Filippi, becoming a catechist was love at first sight.
“I loved, loved, loved being a catechist. I flourished. I couldn’t learn enough; I was so excited about it,” she said of volunteering to teach religious education at St. Joseph, Petersburg, in 1972.
Fifty years later, Filippi, who will retire as director of the diocesan Office of Christian Formation on June 30, is still enthusiastic about providing faith formation to Catholic children, and she credits that to her first experience as a catechist.
“We had a wonderful DRE (director of religious education), a Daughter of Wisdom, Sister Marie Chiodo. She had formation things for us and took us to formation events. I went to every one,” she said. “When I first started teaching CCD, we had textbooks and I would write down every single thing I was going to say just to make sure I got it right. That was such a wonderful start.”
With a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from St. Joseph College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, Filippi worked as an analytical chemist in the lab at the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Hopewell — “the only female chemist in the building,” she said.
After she and her husband, Dave, to whom she has been married for 52 years, welcomed their first child, Lisa, Filippi left that job to be a stay-at-home mother. It was when Lisa was getting close to entering kindergarten that Filippi realized, “I don’t know how to teach a child religion,” which, she added, was the start of her calling as a catechist.
‘Couldn’t stop learning’
Filippi said part of her “evolution” as a catechist came during a retreat Sister Chiodo led for the catechists in which she wanted them to talk about their relationship with Jesus.
“I had nothing to say because then I had Catholic family life, a mother and father very active in Church, Mass,” she recalled of her own faith formation. “My growing up Catholic as a child and into my early young adulthood, being Catholic meant following the commandments, following the precepts of the Church — following the rules because you were earning heaven. I did that!”
The “relationship with Jesus” statement was the catalyst for Filippi to study the Bible — first at classes offered at another parish and then at the Presbyterian School of Formation in Richmond.
“I was very excited and really on fire,” she said. “I became more and more zealous as now I couldn’t stop learning.”
When Sister Chiodo’s community moved her to another assignment in 1977, the pastor talked Filippi into becoming the DRE. There was a reason she was reluctant to accept the position.
“I literally did not know what I was doing. I was really in way over my head,” she said, noting that because Sister Chiodo kept good files, she was able to follow what she had done.
Thanks to the associate pastor, whom Filippi described as her “guardian angel who took me under his wing,” she made it through that first year.
‘Baptism by fire’
Knowing she needed more theological education, Filippi spent two months in each of the next five summers pursuing a master’s degree in religious education from the School of Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
Aside from feeling “inadequate” because she was one of only two people among the 100 people in the program who was neither a priest nor a religious, the first day in a Christology class during her second summer almost derailed her education.
When the priest professor talked about “high descending and low descending,” she was overwhelmed and ready to drop the course. When she went to his office to tell him, she burst into tears.
“‘I have to drop your class. I don’t know what you said. I don’t understand it. I never heard of it. I don’t think I can take this class,’” she recalled saying. “And he said, ‘Yes, you can, and I’m going to help you.’ He made me stay. So that’s my baptism by fire experience. It was like I really shouldn’t be here, but I did stay. It did get better, and he did help me.”
Filippi noted that because the courses didn’t have textbooks, they had to do their studying and assignments in the library.
“I’d have the book we were supposed to read,” she said, while motioning, “and the English dictionary over here and the theological dictionary over here. In every class, I never heard of these words, but that got me through.”
She knew that what she learned at CUA needed a practical application to the parish, so Filippi incorporated the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) into research papers whenever possible. In 1982, after 10 courses and two days of comprehensive exams, she received her degree.
From ‘work’ to ‘vocation’
Something that was changing as Filippi was completing 10 years as a catechist and DRE was how the Church was viewing lay people’s roles in it.
“Lay people involved with the Church in a paid position was very, very new. Basically, then, you ‘worked for the Church.’ That’s what you would say,” she said, noting it wasn’t called “ministry,” but that people were “volunteers.” “Not until later, what evolved began to be influenced by the clergy. That probably had the most impact growing me up as a catechist.”
She said the clergy recognized she was zealous and interested but, along with other DREs, in need of spiritual support.
“Throughout the years, that was how I evolved, and the Church was evolving, so there were a few more lay people. It took quite a while to get to the stage of not saying, ‘I work for the Church’ but saying, ‘I am called to that vocation.’”
Filippi said that people “were really hungry” to learn more about their call to Church ministry, so she convinced the diocesan director of Christian formation to bring the Loyola Institute for Ministry Extension (LIMEX) to the diocese.
“It flourished,” she said. “Their program was graduate level theological studies. The second part was application to ministry in the parish. It was an important aspect of formation.”
‘High time’
Filippi ministered at St. Joseph, Petersburg, until 1992. By then, she and Dave had another child, Michael, and she served as part-time DRE at several parishes. In 1997, when the diocese wanted to develop a strategic catechist training program, she was asked to apply and work with Dr. Pat Clement in developing the first Pathways for Catechist Formation.
“I worked as associate director and formed our commission, and for the first time I started getting acquainted with the whole diocese as our commission moved around,” she said of her nine years in that role. “That was another evolution of recognizing the uniqueness and challenges of our diocese.”
The role of catechist “had really begun to bloom,” according to Filippi.
“There was more attention being given to becoming an effective catechetical leader in our diocese,” she said of the early 2000s. “It was spiritual, theological, human sciences, communication. It was flourishing and very popular. There were many, many amazing, gifted women and men in ministry doing really great, wonderful things. It was a high time.”
More developments
With the appointment of Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo as bishop of Richmond in 2004, Filippi became a full-time employee, eventually becoming director of the diocesan Office of Christian Formation in 2008.
She noted that he encouraged the development of the Lay Ecclesial Ministry Institute (LEMI) in 2011.
“Bishop DiLorenzo wanted that for the diocese because he wanted priests, deacons and lay people to have a solid basis of formation,” Filippi said.
Another accomplishment, which she attributes in large part to “the generosity and contribution of our clergy,” were the sacramental instruction booklets for baptism, penance and Communion that she and Melanie Coddington developed beginning in 2012.
“It was an enormous amount of work, but these were needed for a long time,” Filippi said. “Our clergy, in particular, felt confident in what we had done. Everything we put in this book was footnoted; it was important to us to present Church teaching on these things.”
Gratitude, joy
As she reflected upon five decades of catechetical ministry, Filippi expressed gratitude for those who have accepted the call to be catechists.
“What I’m experiencing now, with staff and parish leadership, is a maturity that is amazing. It’s grounded in their love of God, devotion to spiritual integration of their life and their ministry and a generosity of spirit,” she said. “Through the whole COVID time, you might have thought that catechists would leave by droves, but our leaders were strong and creative. That’s been very rewarding to see the efforts we have for helping form them.”
Her gratitude extends to those who support catechetical ministry financially.
“What we’re able to do is due to the generosity of the people who sit in our pews and contribute to the Annual Diocesan Appeal, as well as the pastors who designate the money for our use,” she said. “Every time we have an event, I publicly thank the people sitting there because their contributions enable us to support people coming to a retreat that costs $250 but for which you only pay $50.”
Filippi spoke about the joys she has experienced, especially in teaching children.
“Children will always be my favorite part of ministry because they’re so open, and they have such incredible natural sense of wonder and awe. They can see God in snowflakes. It’s not a problem,” she said, noting that a “treasured part of being a catechist” was writing an RCIA program for children that was published.
She added, “I want to live with joy and gratitude, so the Church, the rituals and the sacraments, the people and, of course, children, are sources of joy for me and sources of God.”