Faith in action propels 2024 Regina Matrum

When Loyce Pierce Wright heard that this year’s Regina Matrum – the archdiocese’s annual award recognizing an exemplar of Catholic motherhood – was someone from her parish of St. Raymond-St. Leo the Great, she assumed the recipient would be one of many faith-filled mothers seated in the pews around her, some of whom were gracefully persevering through hardships such as caring for children with physical challenges.

On top of that, Wright – the mother of one adult daughter – didn’t fit the typical profile of the award that often goes to mothers of numerous children.

So, when Wright heard her name called out on April 14 at the end of the 10 a.m. Mass at St. Leo the Great Church – the physical home of St. Raymond-St. Leo the Great Parish – the usually loquacious Wright was rendered speechless.

“I couldn’t move,” said Wright, who will be honored as 2024’s Regina Matrum at a special 6 p.m. Mass at St. Leo on June 3 celebrated by Archbishop Gregory Aymond. A reception for Wright’s family and friends will follow in the school auditorium.

“My  entire life has been about my faith walk,” said Wright, who has devoted her life to teaching, spiritual direction, community service and social justice endeavors. “I haven’t been perfect in that walk, but God has been so merciful and so kind and generous and loving to me!”

Raised in Treme, Gentilly

After receiving her first three sacraments in St. Peter Claver Parish, the pre-teen Wright moved from Treme to Gentilly, becoming a parishioner of St. Raymond Church on St. Bernard Avenue, a stone’s throw from the family’s new home on Virgil Boulevard.

“I grew up in a family of faith and love,“ said Wright, describing a prayer-centered home brimming with evening radio rosaries, hymn-singing, Tuesday novenas to Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the occasional in-home Mass celebrated by a parish priest.

Her mother’s witness to her Catholic faith included reading the Bible daily and connecting those scriptural lessons to the faith of her husband and three children. Wright recalls the time her mother got excited after seeing an image of the Eucharist in the parish bulletin. Pointing to the glowing monstrance,  she reminded her children of its significance, exclaiming, “This is it! (The apostles) would know him in the breaking of the bread!”

But Wright’s parents also insisted that their Catholic faith must not be confined to the physical boundaries of home and church.

“As kids we had to care for people,” Wright said. “There was a woman in the neighborhood who was vision-impaired and lived alone. So we, as little girls, would go and clean her home, buy her groceries, bring her food. Another lady (our family helped) was an amputee. That was our challenge; this was our love expression.”

Compassion also was modeled by Wright’s father, a construction foreman. “He was a great provider, not only for our family, but for other families,” Wright said. “He was in a position to hire other men so that they could provide for their (own) families.”

Foreign language teacher

A graduate of Joseph A. Craig Elementary School and Joseph S. Clark High School, Wright felt a calling to teach foreign languages, majoring in French and minoring in Spanish at Southern University of Baton Rouge and later earning her master’s degree in education administration from the University of New Orleans.

She married the love of her life, Louis Wright – a P.E. teacher and coach at John F. Kennedy and L.B. Landry high schools – on Valentine’s Day 1976. She spent the first 10 years of her career teaching French and Spanish at schools in Edgard and New Orleans, bringing in atlases and posters to complement her language instruction.

“It allowed (my students) to see the world beyond their little space – that there are people in the world whose history, art and music are similar to ours,” Wright said. “Our humanity doesn’t change because we live in one country or another; our interests and desires are the same, for the most part.”

Life of community service

Wright’s calling to motherhood – on an even wider scale – was made known in her career shift to social justice work. For nearly 17 years, Wright commuted daily to Baton Rouge to serve as executive director of the Louisiana Commission on Human Rights as the appointee of Governors Mike Foster, Kathleen Blanco and Bobby Jindal. She was responsible for enforcing the state’s anti-discrimination laws in employment, banking and lending practices, and public accommodations, and rendering determinations on complaints filed with commission on discriminatory practices based on race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, pregnancy and disability.

Wright saw her role as “an extension” of her wish to build bridges in the divided state in which she had grown up – one riddled by racial segregation.

“(Segregation was) painful, but what’s even more painful, for me, is where we are now,” she said. “Our progress has been so slow in achieving full acceptance of individuals and differences. We still are not there. You would think that (given) the love that God showed to all humankind, we would show to each other that same love and respect.”

Wright also served on the staff of Mayor Sidney Barthelemy, as his liaison to the Health Department. She became a pivotal member of the grant-writing team that brought nearly $100 million for health care services to the city, and made them more affordable and accessible.

As deputy director of the  New Orleans Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation, Wright produced an 18-hour telethon to raise money for treatment and education.

“We petitioned the Legislature to mandate insurance companies to provide coverage  for the treatment of sickle cell disease,” she said.

But Wright said the public service achievement of which she is most proud – among accolades that include the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Rosa Parks Award for Service to Human and Civil Rights; and the Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major for Justice award – is her 20 years of championing the rebuilding of the New Orleans YWCA at Norman C. Francis Parkway and Tulane Avenue.

In addition to leading the YWCA’s local and national boards, Wright was instrumental in raising $10 million for the Katrina-shuttered building’s reconstruction, earning her the United Way’s Charles Keller Jr. Annual Award for Distinguished Service. 

“The new building will house childcare services, services to support women who are in abusive relationships, youth programs, afterschool programs and summer school program,” she said.

Parishes unite

Although Wright was personally spared the brunt of Katrina – having moved to a slightly elevated area of the city six months before the storm – she said it was hard to witness the shuttering of her beloved St. Raymond Church. The combined parish of St. Raymond-St. Leo the Great was established in July of 2008.

“It’s my church; it’s my family,” said Wright, whose roles have included pastoral council president, lector, co-editor of the parish’s history and chairing the “old-fashioned tent revivals” hatched by her former pastor, Josephite Father Anthony Bozeman. The revivals, mounted from 2012-19, drew crowds of 300-plus for four consecutive evenings of prayer, speakers, music, dance and dinner. Her parish work earned her the archdiocesan St. Louis IX medallion in 2013.

Wright’s current pastor, Josephite Father Stanley Ihuoma, called Wright “a spiritual mother to me” who takes her maternal and religious values seriously.

“I have watched her deep faith assist in nurturing the growth of our then-newly consolidated parish as a mother would, (and) going beyond her own pain of the loss of her physical church that her biological family helped to build,” Father Ihuoma said. “She demonstrates, by her Catholic values, that she is a powerful woman of God.”

That resolve burned on all cylinders when Wright learned the Sisters of the Holy Family were living in a deteriorating convent at St. Raymond.

“Before Katrina, we were raising money to build a new (St. Raymond Church), and in the midst of that, I learned that the nuns’ home was leaking,” she recalled. “One of the sisters told me that they even had rats! So, I went over to see what was going on, and I said, ‘Oh, no, no, no! We are going to (renovate the convent) first!’ We put a shampoo bowl in, got them bigger beds and a brand new kitchen!”

Apple falls near the tree

Of course, Wright considers mothering her own child, Kiana Wright, to be her greatest gift from God.

Kiana, the assistant forensic director for the state of Georgia’s  Department of Behavioral Health, serves her church parish in Atlanta as a lector, social justice ministry co-chair and weekend server of food to the hungry.

Kiana said Mass and community service were the focal points – and not the “afterthoughts” – of her faith while growing up. For example, every Advent, three generations of extended family members come together for 12 days of fellowship that include a karaoke night, a Saints game and  packing Christmas baskets for needy families.

“My mother understands that God blesses us so that we may be a blessing to others, and she has taught me to put faith into action,” Kiana said. “While I was the only child she ‘birthed,’ she has many more adopted children she’s taken under her wing. She is affectionately known to many as ‘Mama Loyce!’”

Resilient widow

Wright’s faith was put to the test when Louis, her husband of 22 years, passed away in 1998 after a year-long illness. His workmates donated their sick and vacation time so that the family would never miss a paycheck.

“God takes care of the widow – I am a firm believer in that,” Wright said. “He has given me peace to withstand all of the darkness and the sadness, and to even find joy in that sadness.”

Widowhood also helped Wright to redefine her purpose – to reflect on ways she could thank God for his love “through how I lived my life.”

She decided to volunteer as a spiritual anchor and logistical organizer for those who are planning funerals.

“My motto is, ‘There are blessings in the midst of the storm,’” Wright said. “As I look at my journey in this world, I want to be that person when you have a challenge in your life and you need somebody to lift you up; I want to be that person when you don’t know which way to go; I want to be the one to lift you up when people say that you’re not worth anything; I want to be that person who shows you God’s love!”

[email protected]