Courtesy Jayne Ragasa-Mondoy
By Celia K. Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Jayne Ragasa-Mondoy, the former director of the diocesan Office of Faith Formation and a longtime leader in Hawaii Catholic education, has been appointed to a national board that advises U.S. bishops on issues facing the Catholic Church.
Ragasa-Mondoy will serve as the lay representative for Region XI of the National Advisory Council, which reviews issues that bishops in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops consider at their meetings and provides feedback to the bishops. The council can also suggest topics that aren’t on the USCCB’s agenda.
Ragasa-Mondoy said she was “pleasantly surprised” in early May when she was asked to consider Bishop Larry Silva’s invitation to be nominated to serve on the NAC. After accepting and preparing her nomination packet, it was a matter of weeks before she learned she was chosen as the representative for Region XI, which covers the dioceses and archdioceses in California and Hawaii.
The NAC comprises several dozen members, including bishops, men religious, women religious, diocesan priests, permanent deacons and lay members. The lay members come from 15 regions of dioceses and archdioceses determined by the USCCB — 14 based on geography, and one for Eastern Catholic churches — or are chosen at large.
Serving on advisory councils for two Hawaii bishops, as well as other leadership experience in the isles and nationally, has helped prepare Ragasa-Mondoy for her four-year term with the NAC.
“As a council member on the local level I have to come to appreciate the role and importance of the episcopacy for our diocese, nation and the world,” she said.
In addition to her role as director of the Office of Faith Formation under Bishop Silva, Ragasa-Mondoy was also on the Bishop’s Administrative Advisory Council for Bishop Silva and the Diocesan Pastoral Council for Bishop Francis DiLorenzo.
Ragasa-Mondoy is also deeply involved in evangelization and catechesis, which she said allows her to “bring to the table the stories of the faithful and those who have yet to know Christ.”
She is currently a consultant (and former vice president) for the National Community for Catechetical Leaders, and also works with the Marianist Center of Hawaii and Chaminade University of Honolulu’s Marianist Lecture series on Catholic thought and responsibility.
Much of Ragasa-Mondoy’s work in education stems from her time at Saint Louis School in Kaimuki, where she was dean of academics and vice principal of curriculum and instruction from 2000-2005. She also served on the school’s board of trustees and was its mission integration chair.
“I have come to know Jayne as a woman of great faith and keen insights,” Bishop Silva said. “I think she will offer a unique Asian-Pacific Islander perspective to the NAC.”
Bishop Silva also noted Ragasa-Mondoy’s work as director of the Office of Faith Formation, which included collaboration on the national level with Region XI colleagues, as providing her with insights into the needs and challenges of Region XI.
“I know she will contribute well to the reflections of the National Advisory Council of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,” he said.
