The couple was honored with the 2025 award for a lifetime of service to the most marginalized, including newly arrived migrants in Chicago.
By Jennifer Tomshack, Maryknoll Lay Missioners
Returned Maryknoll lay missioners mobilized their suburban Chicago community to create a hub of hospitality for thousands of migrants—offering food, clothing, housing support, and accompaniment. Their lifelong commitment to mission and justice is now being honored with the 2025 Bishop John E. McCarthy Spirit of Mission Award.
When Celine and Don Woznica left Mexico in 1992 after more than a decade as Maryknoll lay missioners, their neighbors threw them a goodbye party. “They knew we were returning to Chicago to continue working with the Mexican-American population,” Don recalls. “They sent us off almost like a missioning ceremony, saying, ‘Please take care of our paisanos in Chicago.’”
More than 30 years later, the Woznicas are still keeping that promise.
Now living in Oak Park, Illinois, the couple leads one of the most remarkable responses to the ongoing crisis that migrants are experiencing in the United States. The “Migrant Ministry of the Catholic Parishes of Oak Park” has served more than 18,000 migrants since 2023.
For this extraordinary witness to Gospel-rooted service and solidarity, Celine and Don have been named the recipients of the 2025 Bishop John E. McCarthy Spirit of Mission Award, which is bestowed annually by Maryknoll Lay Missioners to recognize returned missioners who embody a lifelong spirit of mission in the United States.
The award was presented during Maryknoll Lay Missioners’ 50th anniversary celebration on Aug. 15 in Ossining, New York.
“El Espíritu Santo is truly at work through the Woznicas,” says Elvira Ramírez, executive director of Maryknoll Lay Missioners. “Their story reminds us that mission is not only overseas—it is wherever the needs are greatest. Don and Celine have spent their lives living out the call to welcome the stranger with radical love and compassion.”
This is church
The Woznicas’ latest chapter began in June 2023, after migrants began arriving by bus in Chicago in staggering numbers.
By the summer of 2023, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had been busing about 2,000 migrants a week to Chicago, according to regional news outlet WTTW. Those arriving included families mostly from Venezuela but also from Colombia and Ecuador, as well as elsewhere, who had walked to the U.S.-Mexico border, fleeing violence and extreme economic hardship. Many arrived with almost nothing.
With the city’s shelters overwhelmed, migrants were left sleeping on the floors of police stations—including District 15, just over the city limit from Oak Park.
Celine, who had long dreamed of volunteering at the border, suddenly found the border had come to her.
She joined a WhatsApp group of volunteers responding to the humanitarian emergency. Within days, she was helping to deliver air mattresses, clothing, and meals, and arranging for medical and dental care.
But one question kept bothering her: Where would the migrants take showers?
Celine took what she jokingly calls a “nag-vocate” approach — blending persistence and advocacy — to secure use of a shuttered rectory at St. Catherine-St. Lucy Parish. Migrants began coming twice a week for hot showers, breakfast, clothing, and social services. As the need grew, the ministry expanded into the church building itself.
Eventually, the Migrant Ministry found a more permanent home at the former St. Edmund School, now dubbed Centro San Edmundo. The ministry, sponsored by the Catholic Parishes of Oak Park, is fully volunteer-run—with an estimated 500 volunteers having supported the effort, 95% of them retirees.
Twice a week, the center opened its doors at 7 a.m. to hundreds of migrants. The offerings grew to include “free stores” of clothing and supplies, children’s playrooms, immigration legal aid, ESL (English as Second Language) classes, and hot meals. A Claretian priest offered spiritual support, marriage preparation, and baptisms.
The Migrant Ministry, though rooted in the Catholic Parishes of Oak Park, is deeply interfaith in spirit and operation. Volunteers and donors come not only from local Catholic parishes, but also from Protestant churches, Jewish synagogues, the Unitarian Universalist congregation, and Muslim and Baha’i communities.
“We’re not so siloed anymore,” Celine says. “This ministry has become a space where people of many faiths—as well as those who don’t claim a particular religion—come together for a shared purpose.” Contributions have come in the form of food drives, clothing collections, financial support, and weekly volunteer hours. As Don puts it, “It’s truly a community effort—faith in action from every direction.”
The Woznicas’ leadership has also garnered recognition beyond Maryknoll. In December 2023, the Archdiocese of Chicago honored the Catholic Parishes of Oak Park with the Pastoral Migratoria’s Road to Emmaus Award, presented by Cardinal Blase Cupich. The award recognizes individuals and communities who exemplify a commitment to welcoming the stranger and empowering immigrants to live with dignity.
Celine and Don Woznica in 2019 arriving at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela after walking the Camino for 500 miles. (Courtesy of Maryknoll Lay Missioners/Spain)
A lifetime of mission
The seeds of the Woznicas’ vocation were planted decades ago. Don, a Chicago native and physician, and Celine, a public health expert from Missouri, met at the University of Notre Dame. After marriage, they joined Maryknoll Lay Missioners in 1981 with their 3-month-old son, setting off for Nicaragua.
Assigned to Ciudad Sandino, a large barrio outside Managua, they were a novelty to their neighbors. At first, locals called Celine Madre and Don Padre, until they realized the Woznicas were a lay married couple—which was novel to them.
Celine recalls a powerful moment as they were leaving their Nicaraguan community: A neighbor held up their daughter, Maura, who had been born there, and said, “They did wonderful things. But they had their baby here. She is a Nicaraguan!” Celine says that act of solidarity meant more than anything else they could have done.
Their years in Nicaragua and later in Oaxaca, Mexico were marked by deep relationships and mutual transformation. “You go out thinking you’re going to evangelize,” Don says, “and you end up being evangelized in turn.”
After returning to the United States, the Woznicas raised their family in Oak Park while staying engaged in work with immigrants and marginalized communities. Don practiced medicine at Alivio Medical Center, which serves Mexican-American families. Celine worked in child rights and public health.
Their background in mission — grounded in community, simplicity, and accompaniment — deeply shaped how they approached the migrant ministry. “There’s no separation between your work and your life,” Celine says. “Everything is mission.”
Don describes how their experience in Latin America still shapes them. He remembers a Nicaraguan woman who gave away all the money she had so a neighbor could get dental care. “I gave out of my surplus,” he says. “She gave out of her substance.”
The couple knows how to “roll with the punches.” They recount losing electricity for days, living through floods and political unrest, even recovering from hepatitis and dengue with an infant in tow—supported by neighbors who became family.
“In mission, you will find yourself on the receiving end too, and that’s not always easy for North Americans, who want to do all the giving, but to receive is also a gift to the giver,” Don explains. “You have to expect the unexpected in mission and embrace it.”
Walking among giants
To date, the Woznicas and their team have served more than 18,000 migrants. But the numbers don’t tell the full story.
National Catholic Reporter recently featured the Woznicas’ work and related the story of a 13-year-old Confirmation candidate named Alec who was volunteering with the Woznicas and helped a Venezuelan mother. The woman had carried her adult son with cerebral palsy, first through the “impassable” Darién Gap between Columbia and Panama, and then on a 20-mile journey through Chicago. Alec found a collapsible wagon for her, padded it with a sleeping bag, and helped her son into it. “What’s his name?” Alec asked. The mother answered, “Jesús.”
The Woznicas tell of the women who woke at 4 a.m. and walked more than eight miles to get clothing for their children. And the migrants who insisted that the local unhoused be fed first.
And there are the volunteers who showed up twice a week with the kind of commitment most organizations only dream of. “It brings me joy,” they tell the Woznicas. “It gives me purpose.”
Of those who embody hope and walked through numerous countries, through drug cartels and traffickers, Celine told National Catholic Reporter, “I feel like I walk among giants.”
Going the distance
For a time, Centro San Edmundo would see nearly 1,000 migrants pass through its doors monthly. But in 2025, those numbers have fallen dramatically.
The center’s popular Immigration Support Services Team, once overwhelmed with requests for help with asylum applications, court date changes, and work permits, is now seeing only a handful of people. “Today we had only three come for immigration support,” Don said on a day in July. “We’re surmising that word is getting out that migrants are being arrested and deported when they show up for their court dates. So why bother applying? Best to go under the radar.”
Even more challenging, the parish that houses the center is facing financial strain and has had to lay off staff. Despite unwavering support from their pastor, the Woznicas have been told the building cannot be heated this winter, meaning the ministry will likely have to shut down by the end of September—or perhaps a few weeks later if the weather holds. Some services, such as immigration support, may relocate to a nearby social hall. But much of the ministry may soon conclude.
Still, the Woznicas aren’t giving up. Celine is exploring new ways to channel the energy of their loyal volunteers—possibly accompanying migrants to court or expanding advocacy efforts.
They made the decision 40 years ago to walk with the poor—and the Woznicas are still walking.
“Through the Bishop McCarthy Spirit of Mission Award, Maryknoll Lay Missioners recognizes that Don and Celine demonstrate that mission truly is a way of life,” says Ramirez.
Featured image: The Global Mission Office of the Archdiocese of Chicago hosts a monthly broadcast program on the spirit of mission around the globe. In 2025, it interviewed returned Maryknoll lay missioners Celine and Don Woznica. (Courtesy of Maryknoll Lay Missioners)
