David Lyons has assumed the role of director for the diocesan Office for Social Concerns.
Lyons, who holds a juris doctorate from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Church history and the history of political thought from the University of Chicago, assumed the position on Oct. 30. He comes to the office after having worked with a public advocacy group and small litigation firm in Columbus.
Lyons is eager to serve the Church while bringing his legal and academic background.
“I love the Church,” he said. “It is the site of truth and goodness in the world, and it’s the way people, with certainty, can come to Christ – and we all need Christ in our lives.
“I’ve always been interested in politics, too. It just seemed to me that, OK, this is the way to marry this love with this interest.”
As director, Lyons will work to support the diocesan Respect Life Office, which includes efforts to repeal the death penalty and advocate against doctor-assisted suicide.
He will oversee six substantive areas or concerns, including support for respect life ministry.
His responsibilities consist of supporting rural life ministry; prison ministry, ensuring that incarcerated Catholics have access to the sacraments; and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, a national anti-poverty program headed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
He will also lead efforts against human trafficking and pornography.
While responsibilities and efforts for each area of the office vary, all are pressing concerns facing Catholics and larger society.
Lyons said he foresees positive movement toward achieving an end to the death penalty in Ohio. However, he believes it is likely only a number of years until the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide becomes a major issue in the state.
He noted pornography as a concern increasingly facing Catholics and secular society at large. Lyons will work to educate the faithful on its dangers.
Prison ministry is another key area of the office.
Lyons accompanied Bishop Earl Fernandes this month for two Masses at correctional facilities in the diocese on Dec. 20 and 23. He will work to ensure chaplains are present at such facilities.
The grandson of Iowa farmers, Lyons is eager to continue the diocese’s ministry to Catholic farmers and advocate for their interests.
He expressed hopes that more individuals will take an interest in farming. He said he looks forward to working on the next farm bill.
To advance the office’s six key areas, education will be a primary focus for Lyons. He said he plans to visit diocesan parishes and middle and high schools to discuss various social issues.
Having previously worked in the legal field and having taught at the University of Chicago, Lyons said he believes his training as a lawyer and teacher will be especially useful in communicating the Church’s vision with parishioners and students.
“We’ve got the better arguments all the way down,” he said. “We have the answer to every human problem. It’s one thing to have the answer. It’s another thing to present it in a way that’s actually going to compel people … compelling a conversion, a change of heart.
“That is something I think I’m going to be able to offer: being able to present the arguments in a compelling way, and not just as an argument, I mean, as a story about each listener.”
Lyons said he wants younger individuals to begin asking questions, to question the “modern conception of freedom” and whether material goods are producing the happiness they appear to.
He said he hopes to change hearts through prayer, study and action. He is eager to help students devote themselves to prayer and service to others.
He recognized pride and sloth as two of the biggest dangers facing the Church today. As a result, he said, he finds it necessary for individuals “to get out of their own ego-created prisons and their own – our own – quest for comfort and distraction.
“I do think that speaking to people, again, in a compelling way, in a spirited way is a way to at least encourage them to get out of that, and then, the other component of that is: What’s the next step then?
“What can they do next to engage? And there are ministries available in their own parishes where they can engage, so steering them toward those social concern ministries is part of the process, too.”
In addition to his background in law and education, Lyons brings his own Catholic faith and spiritual wisdom to his role as director.
Lyons’ spiritual director was the late Father Paul Mankowski, a Jesuit priest and scholar. He acknowledged having learned much from him.
“As hardnosed as he could be, Father Paul pointed out to me that, look, we are all wounded. Life is tough, and on our own, none of us are very good at it,” Lyons said.
“Getting people … to recognize that, that’s the entry point for getting to then recognize that the vision of social life that we’ve been told in the modern world is not going to make them happy, and that we have a vision of social life in the Church that will, but they’ve got to do the work.”
Lyons said he sees positive signs with younger individuals recognizing its dangers. However, he said, it will likely be a multi-decade process to guide people away from the impending culture of death.
“It’s work, and people don’t want to be uncomfortable. They don’t want to be unpopular – I don’t want to be uncomfortable; I don’t want to be unpopular,” he said.
“But if we’re not willing to stand up for babies who are being murdered, well, all these heroic stories we tell ourselves about what we would do in whatever historical example you want to trot out – if we’re not going to stand up for babies in the womb, we’re lying to ourselves when we tell ourselves we would have done the right thing in some other situation. People need to be called to do the hard thing.”
As Social Concerns director, Lyons will also be in charge of advocacy work with various governmental entities. Other responsibilities, he said, include writing and overseeing the office administratively.
The Office for Social Concerns falls under the diocesan Respect Life Office. The Respect Life Office was created earlier this year in July. Father Bob Penhallurick, pastor at Columbus St. Catharine of Siena Church, serves as its director.
Other staff members include Angelita Canlas, administrative assistant, and Mary Parker, who began earlier this month on Dec. 10 as associate director for the Respect Life Office.
The Office of Catholic Charities also belongs to the Respect Life Office. Deacon David Bezukso, who serves at Marysville Our Lady of Lourdes Church, will begin Dec. 31 as director of the Office of Catholic Charities.
The office was previously headed by Mark Huddy, who served as senior director for Catholic Charities and Social Concerns and retired this month after 31 years of service.
A Toledo native, Lyons moved to Columbus in 1995 to clerk for then-Justice J. Craig Wright of the Supreme Court of Ohio. He went on to join the Columbus office of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP as an associate and served as a state public defender.
He moved to Illinois to pursue graduate studies at the University of Chicago, where he taught from 2011 to 2023.
Lyons and his wife, Gretchen, have been married since 2016. They are the parents of two daughters, Amelia, 7, who is in second grade at Worthington St. Michael the Archangel School, and Helena, 3, who attends preschool at Columbus Immaculate Conception School.
The family resides in Columbus’ Clintonville neighborhood and belongs to Immaculate Conception parish.