As DRE, Kathleen serves as programs administrator, heading a staff of approximately 40 volunteers, in the Sunday Religious Education program (K-HS), Sacramental Prep, Adult Faith Formation, New Evangelization, Vacation Bible School, and Youth Ministry, and she assists in the RCIA program. As a Liturgy team member, she writes the Sunday Mass Universal Petitions four times annually, serves as a lector, and sings in the choir. In response to the Church’s mission within the New Evangelization, Kathleen’s weekly radio program, Kindle My Fire ©, celebrates Catholic spirituality, and is inspired by Scripture, doctrine, the saints, and sacred music. It airs and can be livestreamed on Sunday mornings at 8:30 on local Classic 96.7, 3WZ fm and at 9:30 on WREL 1450 am and Classic Country 100.3 fm. Each Sunday’s program is linked to the parish website. Kathleen writes the Scripture lessons for the parish bulletin, is an approved Diocesan speaker, and serves on the Preschool Board.

Originally from the Philadelphia Archdiocese, Kathleen received her elementary faith formation at the Polish-American parochial school she attended in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and earned her Catholic college preparatory school diploma at Villa Maria Academy, Malvern, on the Philadelphia Main Line. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Religious Studies in Dogmatic Theology with a Christology concentration from St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, Yonkers, New York, the major seminary of the New York Archdiocese; a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies in Humanities with a focus on Catholic Theology Expressed through Literature and Film from Hollins University, Roanoke; and a Master of Arts in Screenwriting and Film Studies with a focus on Catholic Perspectives in Cinema, also at Hollins. Her undergraduate degrees are an Associate in Science in Equine Studies and a Hunt Seat Equitation Teacher’s Certificate from Southern Seminary Junior College, Buena Vista, and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing with a Poetry concentration from Hollins College.

Married to Ray-Eric Correia (W&L; NYU) from 1975 until his passing in 2018, Kathleen commuted for many years between her husband’s native New York City and their horse farm in Rockbridge County, working primarily in Catholic and secular print and broadcast journalism, equestrian sports journalism, and was active in many parish ministries in Manhattan and Lexington. She was a reporter for Catholic New York, at the recommendation of John Cardinal O’Connor, Archbishop of New York, and for the Catholic Virginian, among other publications, and a copy editor locally at The News-Gazette. A highlight of her career was working with her Manhattan pastor, Msgr. Michael J. Wrenn, Cardinal O’Connor’s Special Consultant for Religious Education, and EWTN’s Father Gerald E. Murray, JCD, on theological corrections to the initial English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, at the Vatican Editor’s request, prior to its release for publication in the United States.

She holds certificates in development and fundraising, business communications, hunt-seat equitation instruction, and worked locally with the Virginia Horse Center Foundation in its early stages. In addition to theology, literature, creative writing, and film studies, she has a background in ballet, music composition and performance, drama, mounted foxhunting, and liturgy. A quote from her patron, St. Catherine of Siena, serves as her guide, “Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world ablaze.”

DRE@StPatricksLexington.com