The Church-state debate has taken center stage once again in Washington, D.C., with the nomination of Judge John Roberts, a Catholic, to the Supreme Court.

The story of the role of faith in public and political life can also be told in less notable ways, through the experiences of three Washington women from Catholic colleges who bring their faith to work.

Dori Rutherford is an experienced Washington insider who openly draws from her Catholic faith to perform her government job. She works in the Department of Labor's Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, helping community-based nonprofit groups access federal funds. She deals mainly with small organizations that are not familiar with the government-grant process and don't have the budgets to hire professional grant writers.

“My job requires an understanding of the ways in which organizations of faith operate to help people in America's communities who are the most difficult to serve,” she explains. “My work revolves around empowering faith-based and community organizations to do more for people, and to do it more effectively. My Catholic faith is a perfect complement to my work.”

The White House Department of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was set up by President George W. Bush, with Jim Towey as head of the main office. Each executive agency has a faith-based office, like the Department of Labor's Center of Faith-Based Initiatives, which works with the White House.

Rutherford grew up in Pittsburgh and graduated in 1993 from Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., with a degree in political science and economics. She went to Washington to work with the conservative Heritage Foundation on domestic-policy issues and later managed the foundation's weekly lectures and seminars.

She got her first taste of a government faith-based program when she moved to Indianapolis to work for the mayor's “rebuilding families” program. Two years ago, she joined the Labor Department.

Married for six years, she and her husband, Jim, are expecting their first child in September.

Christendom helped her grow in the faith by “teaching from an unabashedly Catholic perspective,” she says. “I learned the historical and philosophical aspects of the Catholic tradition, which gave me a more profound understanding of the things I believe.”

In her work, she has seen ex-inmates turn their lives around through the help of a faith-based group the Labor Department funds, and witnessed a small nonprofit take a $25,000 grant and build the organization to almost double in size to serve more needy persons in the community.

“You get to see the results of your efforts,” she says.

‘Whatever It Takes’

Muffy Lewis' story has a Catholic “That Girl” quality to it. A young woman with no experience in politics goes to Washington and, within a week, she's working for a major pro-life lobbying group. A few months later she is hired by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and drafts anti-abortion legislation that last spring passed the House of Representatives.

“Some people spend years trying to get a break in D.C., so my story is surprising,” she admits.

Lewis grew up in Miami, Fla., attended Catholic grade school and a private high school there, and chose Boston College because of its Catholic reputation. Yet from her first class, she was surprised at the lack of commitment to basic Catholic teachings among some faculty and students.

“I was a routine Catholic at the time who didn't know much about the faith,” she recalls. “I wasn't able to argue with some of the things that were taught.”

After graduating in 1993, she returned to Miami and worked various jobs till a chance encounter with a committed Catholic couple changed her life. “My mother, two sisters and I spoke with them for four hours, and we were sobbing because what they said about the faith was so beautiful,” Lewis says. “They mentioned that their children went to Franciscan University in Steubenville, and I just said to my mother, ‘Whatever it takes, I have to go there.’”

She attended to a summer conference in Steubenville and enrolled in the master's program in counseling. “That conference opened my heart,” she says. “I had nine years of Catholic education and never before had I been at Eucharistic adoration and Benediction. When they brought the Blessed Sacrament in procession, I looked up at Jesus and heard him say my name and that he loved me. I knew I had to go to confession and change my life.”

After earning her master's degree, she moved to Washington with a sense that God wanted her there. At a routine meeting with Ros-Lehtinen, Lewis said she'd love to work with her. The congresswoman referred her to the Susan B. Anthony List, which hired her immediately to work on pro-life issues. Ros-Lehtinen offered her a job a few months later. She is now legislative director in the congresswoman's office.

“Everything I do goes back to my education at Steubenville,” says Lewis. “It was like a three-year spiritual retreat and immersion in Catholicism. I know that this is all God's work, putting me where I am. It has been a very strange route to Washington, but I love what I'm doing.”

Applied Talents

Working in marketing and business development for a major Washington law firm may not sound like an ideal job for a committed Catholic. But Adrienne Johannes says she lives her faith at work by aiming for excellence and ethical behavior — and serving as a quiet but firm witness to others.

“It's always a struggle to practice your faith to the fullest, but you don't have to be a social worker or feed the poor every day to do so,” she observes. “Even in the world of law, finance and capital, you can apply the tenets of the faith. It is very important that we find our personal talents, develop them and apply them in a way that brings benefits to others. In my job, I help develop new businesses here and overseas that benefit economies and give people jobs, income and a better life.”

Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Johannes got her start in Washington by working for four years for two of the state's senators, Frank Murkowski and his daughter Lisa Murkowski, who took her father's seat when he was elected governor.

Johannes was home schooled through high school and then went to the University of Dallas. The change in climate was dramatic but the school's solid Catholic character made her feel right at home. She graduated in 2000 with a degree in politics and soon after moved to Washington.

The past presidential election and the current debate over the views of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts have made faith an important issue in Washington, she says.

“It's exciting that we're having these debates about the place of Catholicism in the public square and politics,” she adds. “You can't really separate your Christian faith from your public life. You have a duty to shape society according to moral laws, and that means having these great discussions about faith.”

Stephen Vincent writes from Wallingford, Connecticut.