Retiring after 32 years, Tuley ‘came for a job, and God gifted me with a ministry’

Christina Tuley, right, and Kathy Davis-Shanks of St. Bartholomew Parish in Columbus pose in a conference room of SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral Parish’s rectory in Indianapolis on March 20 with the components for assembling the holy oils for the archdiocesan chrism Mass, celebrated on April 26. (Photo by Ann Margaret Lewis)

By Natalie Hoefer

After Christina Tuley accepted the position of secretary for the archdiocesan Office of Worship in September of 1991, she was conflicted. She liked the job, but as a single 30-year-old, she needed a higher salary.

She prayed a novena to St.Thérèse of Lisieux, popularly known as the Little Flower, seeking direction. She told no one so that, if she received roses, she would know it was the saint’s telltale answer.

A month into the job, Tuley received at work “a dozen of the most beautiful, long-stem red roses with a card that said, ‘From your secret admirer,’ ” she says. “It was like, ‘OK, God. I’ll stay.’ ”

Since then, Tuley has impacted thousands of lives in the archdiocese in numerous, unseen ways.

If the archbishop came to your parish for Mass, confirmation or just to visit, she worked with the parish staff to coordinate it.

If you were confirmed at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis, she helped coordinate that, too.

She planned archdiocesan liturgies ranging in size from hundreds in churches to tens of thousands in large arenas—including every National Catholic Youth Conference closing Mass in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium since 2011.

Were you baptized, confirmed or anointed in some way in the archdiocese in the last 32 years? Tuley played a role there as well, helping prepare the sacred oils used in sacraments and rites.

Almost 33 years after saying, “OK, God. I’ll stay,” Tuley retired as manager of the Office of Worship on Aug. 1.

“I feel at peace with the decision, so that’s how I know it’s what God wants for me,” says the married mother of one.

The same was true of the role she served in for more than three decades: “I was here because that’s where God led me.”

‘It just felt like home’

The journey began around 1989.

Tuley had worked as an office manager for a jewelry manufacturing company for 10 years, the last two of which she had searched unsuccessfully for a new job with higher pay.

Finally, she was hired for a similar job making “a lot more money.”

“It sounded perfect,” Tuley says. “But two weeks into the job, I knew I had made a huge, huge mistake.” Her new boss had mental health issues, was a drug user, and his accounting practices were not legal.

Despite having no other employment and “scared to death [to quit] because it took me two years to find that job,” Tuley turned in her two-week notice.

That same afternoon, she received a phone call about volunteering for a ministry headquartered at what is now the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Catholic Center in Indianapolis.

“I don’t remember her name, but she could tell I was really, really upset,” Tuley says. “So, I blurted it out, how I just quit my job after two weeks, and I didn’t have anything to go to. And she said, ‘Have you ever thought about working at the Catholic Center?’ ”

A series of calls and a few days later, Tuley interviewed for the Office of Worship secretary job.

“When I came in for my interview, it just felt like home,” she recalls. She was hired that same afternoon.

The two-year job search, the two-week fiasco job, all were part of God’s plan, says Tuley.

“I wouldn’t have taken this job if I was working at the jewelry place because of the lower pay,” she says. “God needed me to leave the first job and regret the second one to get to where he needed me to go.”

Impressed by her work ethic, then-office director Father Stephen Jarrell increased Tuley’s salary in the next budget “because he said he didn’t want me to leave.”

The gesture affirmed her answered novena—although Tuley never discovered who the secret admirer was.

‘Genuine and authentic’

To this day, her former boss—and those after him who were interviewed by The Criterion—remains impressed not just by Tuley’s work ethic, but all that she brought to the job.

Father Jarrell, now a retired archdiocesan priest, calls her a “good collaborator” and notes her attention to detail, an important trait “because there are so many details involved in planning just a single liturgy and coordinating with so many different people.”

Multiply that effort by the thousands for liturgies in Indianapolis stadiums.

“We had about 23,000-24,000 in the old RCA Dome” for the Mass celebrating the Jubilee Year in 2000, says Father Patrick Beidelman, who helped coordinate the liturgy.

For that Mass and the one in 2009 at Lucas Oil Stadium marking the archdiocese’s 175th anniversary, Tuley “helped with everything,” he says, from working with him on the floor layout to arranging for altar furniture to supporting volunteers and more.

Charles Gardner, who was archdiocesan director of liturgy at the time Tuley was hired and followed Father Jarrell as director of the Office of Worship, recalls her being “the anchor” of the office in terms of planning and organizing.

And Tuley “brought a love of liturgy because of her background in music,” he adds. “Someone who was not as dedicated to living their faith and celebrating the liturgy could perhaps do the basics. But she added a depth to what she did because she was genuine and authentic.”

‘She’s one of my favorite people’

So is her personality.

“I always found her to be personable, cheerful, patient,” says Father Jarrell. “She is a very humble woman, and she has a servant mentality.”

Father Beidelman agrees. He went on to work with Tuley for eight years as archdiocesan director of liturgy then for 10 years as executive director of the Secretariat for Worship and Evangelization.

“While I was out in the front and got recognition, she wasn’t seeking recognition and didn’t get recognized for the part she played in other people around her being successful,” says the current pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Indianapolis.

Tuley’s behind-the-scenes ministry went beyond job responsibilities, Father Beidelman adds. Her office “was often a place where many people—including myself—could come just to visit or to process something in their life. It was not uncommon for people to stop in and just share family news or talk through a struggle or celebrate a joy. I always found that to be very touching that she ministered to her co-workers from her desk.”

Gardner succinctly summarizes his admiration for Tuley: “She’s one of my favorite people.”

‘Came for a job, gifted with a ministry’

Tuley considers herself “really blessed” in the role she held for nearly 33 years.

Serving the Church in central and southern Indiana is an extension of nearly a lifetime of service at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Indianapolis, where her family has worshipped for four generations. She has ministered there in some capacity since the fourth grade, including currently as a cantor.

“I just love the Catholic faith,” says Tuley. “It’s been inspiring getting to know other people in the [Catholic Center] and in the archdiocese and seeing their faith. I think sharing my faith with other people and them sharing it with me, it just kind of multiplies.”

That multiplication of faith is the same reason why one of her favorite liturgies to plan and witness is the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion, part of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

“Being a cradle Catholic, [the faith] was just part of my life,” she says. “At the Rite of Election, you get to see that there are still people who know this is the true Church, this is Jesus’ Church, and they want to be a part of it. They choose this.”

Planning and attending ordination and chrism Masses have been another of Tuley’s joys (“I’ve never missed either for 32 years,” she notes). But the latter is her favorite liturgy.

More precisely, it is what comes before the chrism Mass that she has treasured: making the chrism oil—olive oil mixed with balsam—that is blessed by the archbishop during the Mass and distributed to all of the parishes in the archdiocese.

“That’s the oil that is used for every baptism, every confirmation, every ordination, every church that’s built, every altar that’s consecrated,” says Tuley.

“That’s been the highlight of my ministry for 30-some years. It’s knowing that my little bit of what I did to prepare that oil impacts so many people. For 32 years, every baby that has been baptized, my hands touched that oil before it was blessed. It’s powerful, when you stop and think about it.

“I tell the same thing to the volunteers that help bottle the olive oil for the catechumens and the sick, that anyone who is anointed with that [oil], they had a small part of bringing Jesus to them.”

Tuley hopes to be one of those volunteers in her retirement. She also looks forward to “being there” for her parents, gardening, enjoying mornings—her favorite time of day—and traveling with her husband Sam.

But she has loved every minute of her time working in the Office of Worship.

“I came here for a job, and God gifted me with a ministry,” says Tuley. “I have been a really blessed woman.” †