A Legacy of Faith, Service: The Alice McCaffrey Scholarship Fund

In 2013, the parishioners of Saints John and Paul Catholic Parish wanted to honor their pastor, Father Joseph McCaffrey, on his 25th anniversary as a priest. The parishioners’ gift was not for him, but a tribute to the woman who inspired his journey: his mother, Alice McCaffrey, who died in 2011.

“The parishioners all knew her and she was beloved,” Father McCaffrey (or Father Mac, as he is affectionately called by friends) is the current Episcopal Vicar of the Northern Vicariate of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. “They sensed she was an inspiration to me becoming a priest and helping others to become priests.”

Aiding others was a guiding principle for Alice, but Father Mac wanted to go further.

 

 

 

 

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“I like to think outside the box,” he said. “I wanted to come up with something that wasn’t out there. Giving something to someone in the seminary was fine, but I wanted something uniquely beneficial. I thought: ‘We can do better than that.’”

His idea: provide scholarships for seminarians pursuing a pastoral experience outside of the required seminary training. He recalled how his time as a missionary in Alaska enhanced his experience and perspective to become a more effective pastor. The result: The Alice McCaffrey Scholarship Fund was established at The Pittsburgh Foundation in Oct. 2013 to give seminarians opportunities to deepen their understanding of the world by funding missionary work across the globe. It also creates a lasting tribute that nurtures future spiritual leaders, independent of the diocese and the church that will run in perpetuity.

It’s more than just financial aid, Father Mac said, focusing on what can be transcendent and provide a wider impact to those in need, no matter where they live.  

“The more experience a person has of the plight of others, the condition that other people live in, particularly people in our country that can be from various neighborhoods that can be insulated from other people’s struggles, it can be very educational and life-changing, seeing the world as it is,” he said. “Because there’s much more out there.”

Ten years since the Alice McCaffrey Scholarship Fund was established, it has awarded $107,088 to 18 seminarians. The fund’s open and flexible approach means that no reasonable request has been turned away, allowing it to meet a wide variety of needs as they arise.

The impact of this vision is clear in the experiences it has funded:

• Global Service: Seminarians have worked alongside Mother Teresa’s sisters in Ecuador and Brazil and the Missionaries of Charity in Ethiopia, serving the poorest of the poor.
• Cultural Immersion: Grantees have traveled to Mexico to learn Spanish, enabling them to better minister to Hispanic communities in their home dioceses.
• Local Engagement: One seminarian was funded to work in a poor, Hispanic-speaking parish in Rhode Island, providing vital support that the parish could not otherwise afford.
• Spiritual Journeys: The fund has also supported personal pilgrimages, such as walking the El Camino de Santiago, a transformative spiritual journey.

For Father Mac, who is also Chaplain to the FBI and is a member of the FBI’s Advanced Crisis Intervention Team, it’s a force for good that endures long after material possessions have faded.

“When asked why I give, I tell people that I give from my limited resources because it’s a way of extending yourself into the life of another person,” he said. “That’s something that goes beyond ourselves.  

“Charity is love and it’s an expression of love. When we give to a charity, we’re willing the good of another, and love is ever enduring. And it makes you feel good, because it is good.”