Catholic Diocese of Arlington Celebrates Women's History Month with Video Highlighting the Role of Women in the Church 

Video Shows Women Serving in Leading Positions, Impacting Our Communities for the Better and Making History in These Unusual Times 

ARLINGTON, Va. - In honor of Women's History Month, the Catholic Diocese of Arlington released a video which highlights women serving in critical leadership roles across the Diocese and the positive impact they are having in their communities at this unique time in our nation's history. The video, “Women Who Serve: Celebrating Women's History Month in the Church,” features six extraordinary women and offers a timely, hopeful message of leadership and service to young women everywhere. View the video here.

“Working in the Church, I get to model my faith for my students, my faculty, my staff, the same way my parents modeled my faith to me,” said Virginia “Ginny” Colwell, Head of School, St. Paul VI Catholic High School.

“What I love about working for the Church is that my legal practice is a ministry and not just a mere job. When I assist a priest with his immigration filings from a foreign country, when he is assigned to serve in this diocese, I am heartened to know that when he does arrive in the U.S. he touches thousands of souls by administering the sacraments and baptizing thousands in the name of Christ,” said Bonny Bunson, Esq., Staff Attorney, Catholic Diocese of Arlington.

“My mom always raised me to give back as best you could, even if it's nothing but a smile or a handshake,” added Beverly Carroll, parishioner, Holy Family Catholic Church; Vice-Chair, Black Catholic Ministries of the Diocese of Arlington; and member, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge's Advisory Council on Racism.

The names and bios of each women featured in the video are below:  

Virginia “Ginny” Colwell, Head of School, St. Paul VI Catholic High School
Chantilly, Va.

Mrs. Colwell oversees a staff of 148, who worked together with the local community and opened a new school campus for their nearly 1,000 students at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. In the midst of the pandemic, the high school was able to open safely, with many new mitigation factors in place, offering a hybrid model of in-person and virtual learning, which is currently transitioning to full-time in-person instruction. Mrs. Colwell served as the school's principal from 2007 to 2016 and became the Head of School upon the creation of the position in 2016, serving in the role since then. Mrs. Colwell has been married 45 years and is the mother of three sons, all of whom are St. Paul VI Catholic High School graduates.

Alexandra Luevano, BSN, RN, Program Director, Catholic Charities Mother of Mercy Free Medical Clinics
Manassas and Woodbridge, Va.

Ms. Luevano runs two Mother of Mercy (MoM) clinics, operated by Catholic Charities. The Manassas clinic opened almost three years ago and provided care for 1,140 patients at 3,828 visits in FY 2020. The Woodbridge clinic opened last summer and began offering telemedicine during the novel coronavirus pandemic, as well as COVID-19 testing. The clinics earned the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics 2020 Standards Gold Rating, indicating that MoM operates in accord with high standards of health and safety policies and procedures and has demonstrated a commitment to providing quality care to patients, ensuring that the medically underserved have access to affordable health care. Ms. Luevano became a licensed RN in 2001 and is married with two children.

Beverly Carroll, Parishioner, Holy Family Catholic Church, Vice-Chair, Black Catholic Ministries of the Diocese of Arlington, and Member, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge's Advisory Council on Racism
Dale City, Va.

Mrs. Carroll is a parishioner of Holy Family Catholic Church in Dale City, Va., where she serves as Chair of the Black History Heritage Outreach Ministry and is an active member of the Social Justice Ministry and food pantry. She also serves as Vice-Chair of Black Catholic Ministries for the Catholic Diocese of Arlington and, in 2020, accepted Bishop Burbidge's request to serve as a member of his newly-created Advisory Council on Racism to address racism and its effects in the Diocese. Mrs. Carroll earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Maryland University College while working full time for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Public Affairs Office. She also served 20 years as the logistics and program manager for the team in charge of providing the Capitol Christmas Tree from various states for the lawn of the U.S. Capitol. She retired after 40 years of federal service and is now celebrating 42 years of marriage as the mother of three.

Bonny Bunson, Esq., Staff Attorney, Catholic Diocese of Arlington
Arlington, Va.

Mrs. Bunson serves as the staff attorney at the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, having earned her law degree at American University Washington College of Law and undergraduate degree in finance with a minor in philosophy at the College of William & Mary. As in-house counsel, Mrs. Bunson handles a wide variety of duties and responsibilities that touch every chancery office, parish, school, and diocesan entity. Her practice focuses on employment-based immigration, contracts, and tax exemptions, and she works closely with the diocesan general counsel on all other legal matters related to the Diocese. Mrs. Bunson has been with the Diocese since 2013 and has been married for four years.

Sr. Carly Paula Arcella, Daughters of St. Paul
Alexandria, Va.

Sr. Carly Paula is a millennial nun involved in a thriving media ministry which aims to spread the message of Christ through modern technology. She became interested in religious life when she was in high school and made her first profession of vows with the Daughters of St. Paul in 2015 after being drawn to the order by its media evangelization spirituality rooted in the Eucharist. She recently arrived in Virginia after almost five years of evangelization work in Canada. She loves hiking with or without snowshoes, painting nature scenes, and cooking for her sisters in community. Listen to the Diocese of Arlington's Searching for More podcast episode “Habits and Holiness: Women Religious in the Modern Era” here , which features Sr. Emily and Sr. Carly Paula, Daughters of St. Paul.

Bulay Miñano, Assistant Director of Evangelization and Media, St. Charles Borromeo Church
Arlington, Va.

Ms. Miñano handles communications and media at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Arlington, Va. As such, she utilizes social media, videos, photography, and print media to reach parishioners and the larger community with livestreamed Masses and virtual parish activities during this particularly critical time given the ongoing pandemic. Ms. Miñano started her career working as the art director at a startup in Times Square, NYC. Wanting to devote her time fully to the Lord, she moved on to serve as the Director of Evangelization at St. Cassian Church in Upper Montclair, N.J., for two years. She helped start a house of discernment and prayer for women and there discerned to go to the Philippines to serve as a missionary, which she did for five years prior to returning to the States.

More than 70% of the Diocese of Arlington's 4489 employees are women. For more information on the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, visit arlingtondiocese.org. Interested media, contact Amber Roseboom, Director of Media Relations, Catholic Diocese of Arlington, at 571-215-8731 or Amber.Roseboom@arlingtondiocese.org

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The Catholic Diocese of Arlington was established on August 13, 1974, and is home to 71 parishes and more than 460,000 Catholics. There are currently 276 priests serving in the Diocese and 45 seminarians discerning a priestly vocation. The Diocese has 37 parish (K-8) schools, four diocesan high schools, four independent Catholic schools and five free-standing (not connected with a parish school) pre-schools, serving more than 17,000 students. 

The Diocese includes the seven cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Manassas, Manassas Park, and Winchester and the 21 counties of Arlington, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, King George, Lancaster, Loudoun, Madison, Northumberland, Orange, Page, Prince William, Rappahannock, Richmond, Shenandoah, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Warren and Westmoreland.