Mother, wife, leader: Chavira’s personal and professional life reflect her ‘witness of Christ’

From Tony Gutiérrez with The Catholic Sun

Dr. Maria Chavira, Chancellor for the Diocese of Phoenix, has taken on multiple leadership roles in her life. Her accomplishments were most recently recognized by the Tepeyac Leadership, Inc. honoring her with its “St. Juan Diego Leadership for the World” award in June. But she considers her primary role as a wife and mother.

“Out of all of those roles that I play, the most important one has been my role as a wife and a mother. It’s in those roles that has prepared me most,” Chavira said in an interview with The Catholic Sun. “My role as a mom is to gather all my children and help them understand the importance of their faith — along with my husband — and work with them, listen to what it is that they need and to help meet those needs.”

Connecting her vocation to her leadership role with the Diocese of Phoenix, she added: “The Church is very unique and diverse. What you try to do is you try to listen to what the needs are that each of the people of God are bringing, and always to have a listening ear and heart for what it is that they’re going through and try to move them along their faith journey.”