2025 Catechesis Supplement

Vote of confidence leads a woman to share her love for God—and to a special award

Pam Fleming’s dedication to leading people of all ages to a deeper relationship with Christ has led to her recently being named the recipient of this year’s Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein Excellence in Catechesis Award—the highest honor the archdiocese bestows upon a faith formation leader—in honor of the late Indianapolis archbishop. (Photo by John Shaughnessy)

By John Shaughnessy

To tell the story of Pam Fleming, let’s start with this truth about life:

Never underestimate the power of someone giving a vote of confidence to another person.

When Fleming was a college student living at home, she was intrigued when she saw there was an opening for a fifth-grade teacher in Sunday morning religious education at her parish, St. Michael in Greenfield.

“Something just touched me,” she recalls. “I was only 19. I called, and they said sure. That made a difference. It planted the seed of really wanting to share my faith with others. I got involved with the confirmation program there, too. I worked two or three years as a volunteer, helping the people who were leading it.”

What happened next still fills the now-60-year-old Fleming with joy.

“Father Steve Banet was the pastor at the time, and he asked me if I ever thought about being a youth minister. It was an instance where a priest saw something in me that I hadn’t seen before. I did it part-time. That confidence and that encouragement from Father Steve was phenomenal at that time. I was still in college. I know that made a huge difference in my life, to have that kind of encouragement.”

Forty years after that surprising vote of confidence, Fleming is still sharing her love and her joy for the Catholic faith with people of all ages, now as the director of faith formation and coordinator of youth ministry at St. Matthew the Apostle Parish in Indianapolis.

That vote of confidence has also led to her recently being named the recipient of this year’s Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein Excellence in Catechesis Award—the highest honor the archdiocese bestows upon a faith formation leader—in honor of the late Indianapolis archbishop.

“Pam very much deserves the award because she not only loves teaching and is outstanding at it, but most of all because she shares the Gospel through her work and as a person of faith,” says Ute Eble, director of catechesis for the archdiocese.

The honor touches Fleming.

“I’m overwhelmed that someone notices your faith is shining through from you,” she says. “It warms my heart to know that maybe I am living the way Jesus wants us to live. And hopefully I can continue to do that.”

Going the extra mile for God

To continue the story of Fleming, let’s add this truth about life:

Never underestimate the power of a person’s excitement about their faith to draw other people to a relationship with God.

“When I talk about Jesus and the saints, I have an excitement in my voice,” Fleming says. “I want them to hear my excitement.

“Obviously, I want to draw people to the Catholic faith, and I want people to be excited about their faith, but more importantly I want them to be excited about Jesus. I want them to have a relationship with Jesus. That part is always important. Sometimes I’m planting seeds. Sometimes I’m watering the seeds.”

Fleming has lived that truth in many ways.

A few weeks before she graduated from college, she was sitting in church one day when the thought entered her mind that she needed to do missionary work. The thought also struck her that she didn’t need to go overseas to do it. That led her to teach for a year in a Catholic school in the then-poor, shrimping community of Bayou La Batre, Ala., which was featured in Forrest Gump, the 1994 film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

More recently, she was the director of religious education at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Indianapolis for seven years, followed by teaching religion at Father Michael Shawe Memorial Jr./Sr. High School in Madison for four years. She is now in her fourth year at St. Matthew.

“She is so devoted, giving and creative,” says Msgr. William F. Stumpf, pastor of St. Matthew and vicar general for the archdiocese. “That comes out because of who she is, her relationship with God and her Catholic faith.

“After she started here, she said, ‘This is my dream job. I’m getting to do everything I feel called to do—in terms of sharing my faith in a special way and still being a teacher.’ All that she does is an outpouring of her faith.”

Fleming says her life is focused on keeping “my eyes and my heart open to where God wants to lead me.”

“That’s always been a prayer of mine—to really be present to where God needs me,” she says. “And God always takes care of me wherever I go.”

She is also always willing to go the extra mile for God.

Instead of the traditional Vacation Bible School program that was offered this summer, Fleming “wanted to do something to make it even more Catholic, truly Catholic.” So, she developed her own program, “Mama Mary, Holy and Blessed,” a program that drew the young children into the life of the Blessed Mother and her appearances to children at Fatima and Lourdes.

“One day, the kids were given holy water,” she recalls. “The next day, a mom said her small child came to her and said, ‘Mom, would you bless me with this holy water?’ There was story after story like that. Another time, we took a statue of Mary, put it on the floor, and they were able to crown her with flowers. The kids really took it in. The parents and volunteers were blown away by how the children were touched by it. Mama Mary really came through.”

Paying it forward

For Fleming—who has also helped to develop a faith program for adults with physical and developmental disabilities—everything flows back to this truth:

Never underestimate the power of making God the heart of your life, and never underestimate the Holy Spirit as a source of strength and guidance.

“I know I can turn to God at any time and for any reason,” she says. “I’ve also learned to appreciate the role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives. I think that made a big difference, too. I feel more strongly with the Holy Spirit in me. Learning to embrace the third person in the Trinity keeps me going even more.”

She pauses before adding, “I’ve had an awesome life. But to say you have an awesome life doesn’t mean it hasn’t come with struggles here and there. Yet through the ups and downs, it just helps to know that God is always there. It’s such a comfort to feel God’s compassion, to feel God’s mercy.”

One of the major “ups” in her life recently came when she was married for the first time two years ago.

“I get to share things with my husband about what goes on at work, and we both get excited,” she says about David. “Being able to share my faith with him, and how he shares with me, one helps the other.”

She uses a similar approach in faith formation, inviting and including parents in their children’s journeys to receiving their first Communion and the sacrament of confirmation.

“I want to help parents be there for their children, to let them know the Holy Spirit is with them and that they’re not on their own. Anytime I’m preparing the teens or children for a sacrament, I always have the parents there at the meetings. I want them to really see what’s being taught. For some of them, it’s a great refresher. For some of them, they’re hearing it for the first time, or it comes to them in a different light now. Hopefully I’m a role model to them that the Holy Spirit really is with us.”

She sees her life and all her efforts in faith formation as a way of “paying it forward” for that vote of confidence that Father Banet gave her 40 years ago.

“That is what I’m doing,” she says. “I want them to get to a point, children or adults, to take their faith forward. Even to have a conversation with others. Having Jesus as part of the conversation doesn’t mean you’re coming across preaching. You’re sharing—to be happy in your faith, this Catholic faith, this gift that Christ gave us.

“I do feel like I’m passing that on. I’ve had a life of being able to share this gift with others.” †