Open letter from Jennifer Bencivengo to Father Michel Dunn, pastor of St. Catherine’s and Saint Agnes Church in response to the church’s decision to reclaim parish hall and storage space used by St Catherine’s Players
Dear Father Dunn and the Greater Greenwich Community,
I am writing this afternoon wearing many hats: educator, practicing Catholic with a Jesuit education, community member, mother, and passionate advocate for the arts. I read with great sadness the news regarding the end of the 45-year relationship between St. Catherine’s Parish and the St. Catherine’s Players theater program. I feel compelled to write in hopes of reconsideration and to share what this program has meant — and continues to mean — to so many families in our community.
The teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola, are rooted in the holistic development of the human person — nurturing mind, body, and spirit — while fostering a lifelong commitment to ethical leadership, service, compassion, and social justice. In Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Jesuit Scholar Father Adolfo Nicolás wrote:
“The Ignatian imagination is a creative process that goes to the depth of reality and begins recreating it… Real creativity is an active, dynamic process of finding responses to real questions, finding alternatives to an unhappy world that seems to go in directions that nobody can control.”
Those words immediately came to mind when I learned of this decision because the Saint Catherine’s Players embody precisely those values. For 45 years, this program has not merely produced theater. It has formed human beings. It has built confidence, compassion, discipline, belonging, courage, creativity, and community. It has created a place where children and adults alike come together in joy, vulnerability, service, and love.
Please indulge me as I speak personally about what this tradition has meant to my family.
I am the single mother of a 12-year-old daughter who is deeply passionate about the arts and who is also proudly following in the tradition of Catholic education at Sacred Heart Greenwich. Three years ago, she walked through the doors of the parish hall to audition for her first Saint Catherine’s Players production. She knew no one. She was nervous, intimidated, and sitting among adults and seasoned performers waiting for her name to be called. When she finally stepped on stage, she sang “Shy” from Once Upon a Mattress — quite fittingly for the moment.
That single audition changed her life.
It opened the door to a community she now considers family. It gave her a place where she feels seen, valued, encouraged, and loved. It allowed her to perform alongside adults who mentor with kindness and fellow children who support one another with genuine care. She proudly refers to them as her “SCP family,” and some of her happiest moments are the late rehearsal nights spent in the parish hall surrounded by volunteers giving of themselves simply for the joy of creating something meaningful together.
Just last weekend, my daughter was confirmed by Bishop Frank Caggiano. As she stood before the Church and received the sacrament, she made a promise to embody the Holy Spirit in all she does. At 12 years old, she is striving earnestly to live that promise. She does so through the arts, through theater, through storytelling, through empathy, through collaboration, and through bringing joy to others.
When she heard this news, she cried.
Not because a show may end, but because something sacred to her feels as though it is being taken away. A place that has helped shape the young woman she is becoming. A place that has strengthened her confidence, her faith in herself, her sense of belonging, and her understanding of community.
At a time when we constantly speak about the mental health crisis facing children, the isolation many feel, and the need for meaningful connection and purpose, programs like Saint Catherine’s Players are not expendable luxuries. They are lifelines. They are ministries in their own right.
The arts are not separate from faith. They are one of the most profound expressions of it. Theater teaches us to listen, to empathize, to collaborate, to sacrifice ego for something larger than ourselves, and to see the humanity in others. These are Gospel values. These are Catholic values.
I understand there are often difficult logistical and administrative decisions behind changes such as this one. However, I respectfully ask that there also be consideration for the immeasurable human and spiritual impact this program has had across generations of parishioners and families for nearly half a century.
Traditions endure for 45 years not simply because they exist, but because they matter.
My hope is that this decision can be revisited with thoughtful dialogue, transparency, and consideration for the countless lives this program has touched. For many, Saint Catherine’s Players is not simply theater. It is home.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jennifer Bencivengo
Proud Parent and Principal