If you haven’t heard about Ladies of Charity of Austin before, that’s by design. Since the end of the 19th century, these Catholic laywomen have intentionally shied from the spotlight while helping Austinites in need.
“To serve rather than to be served,” said interim President Ruby Roa, quoting French priest Saint Vincent de Paul, who founded the first Ladies of Charity association in 1617. Despite the legacy, the Austin chapter is calling it quits. “We’re dying,” Roa said of the struggle with membership retention.
When Roa joined nearly 30 years ago, however, the group was very much alive. Over 50 active members attended meetings and shared a rich local history. In 1921 the women founded a maternal home to help unwed mothers and adoptive families. Throughout the Great Depression, they operated a soup kitchen on East Sixth.
By midcentury, they opened a thrift shop on South Congress and ran it with other Catholic organizations – the profits funded charitable groups and covered utility bills and funeral expenses for the needy. In their spare time, the Ladies volunteered at food banks, prepared toiletry bags for the unhoused, and organized birthday parties for adults with developmental disabilities. They also put on fundraiser fashion shows and cooked chicken noodle dinners together.
“That was their social life,” Roa said.
Today, Roa tells a different tale. Membership hovers around six. The maternal home closed more than 10 years ago. The thrift store was sold and relocated to North Austin. Progress halted in nearly all service projects. Once-active participants moved to nursing homes. Some passed away. And young women have not stepped up to carry it forward.
“Their gift is hugely impactful for hundreds of families.” – Walter Moreau, executive director of Foundation Communities
This story is not unique to Austin. LOC chapters across the country have steadily declined over the last decade, and tanked even deeper with COVID, said Holly Walter, president of the national LOC board of directors. Walter said this all runs in tandem with the present-day drop in religious participation among young people – particularly women. The Pew Research Center reports that about 30% of Americans identify as religiously unaffiliated – a jump from only 9% in the 1990s. And a report by the Survey Center on American Life confirms Walter’s observation. Young women are leaving churches faster than men.
After trying in vain to recruit new faces for two and a half years, Roa and the other officers made the call. “It is very sad for us to dissolve the organization, because each one of the Ladies have had a passion for the project they worked in,” Roa said. “But I have a 95-year-old mother.”
Roa said it is not feasible for the remaining crew to continue serving like before. Closing with a final act of philanthropy, Roa and her team have donated the rest of the chapter’s money to Foundation Communities and Austin Pathways, a subsidiary of the Housing Authority of the City of Austin. Both nonprofits plan to use the funds to launch special services for low-income residents at new housing communities.
“Their gift is hugely impactful for hundreds of families,” wrote Walter Moreau, executive director of Foundation Communities.
The Ladies have also donated to St. Edward’s University to help fund renovations and equipment for the private institution’s inaugural nursing program. A new lab space in this program will be named after the chapter.
Roa said she hopes young generations will continue the work her group has accomplished over the century and change. “We know that the need now, today, is greater than it was 100 years ago or five years ago.”
As for the remaining Ladies themselves, they will continue to serve on their own. “It’s a lifestyle for us. It’s part of who we are,” Roa said. “We’ll do what we can, the best we can.”
This article appears in January 10 • 2025.