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NAPLES, Fla. (OSV News) — Business consultant and Florida-based dealmaker Theresa Barbale recalled her first trip to Hollywood to promote a traditional-values film project knowing that she might be speaking to a movie production workforce with radically different views.
“I was very anxious to walk into a boardroom as a female who is thinking it is not OK to be transgender and to meet these production people who might have very wild thinking — but I presented the project as lucrative and I wasn’t judgmental; everybody came around,” said Barbale.
“My tone and demeanor can impact that: I can freely say things as a woman that maybe a man couldn’t. People will say ‘you are too right wing’ in business culture but that has to be navigated against, especially in terms of movie (projects) for children,” she said.
A graduate of Ave Maria University in Naples, Barbale started the consulting firm BMG Sol in 2021, and she is a founding partner of the Donum Plan, a charitable gift financing firm, helping aid nonprofits and for-profit organizations with growth and expansion strategies.
Barbale and her husband, Jim, are parents of six and are homeschoolers. The Barbales are also members of Legatus, an international organization of lay executives whose mission is to study, live and spread the Catholic faith in their business, professional and personal lives.
Legatus is a network of CEOs, presidents, managing partners and founders who aspire to be faithful ambassadors for Christ and lead as many other souls to heaven as possible, according to its mission statement.
As they gathered for their 2025 annual summit of Catholic business men and women Feb. 6-9, members of the Legatus International reflected on the never-ending challenges and opportunities of living their faith in the marketplace.
As a young woman and as someone who broke with the model of working for others and instead became an entrepreneur, Barbale said she found the Legatus network helpful in embracing all the responsibilities of being a business owner and employer.
“Legatus has awesome opportunities for young business owners just realizing what it means to own a business to embrace accountability and take that seriously,” she told OSV. “I think we need to renew the idea that you are responsible for your employees and learn how to do that as a Catholic business person.
“My parents worked normal jobs working for others so finding a community like Legatus was crucial, and getting the highest level of professionalism but also truthful, wisdom-filled opportunities. This is for you if you are open to taking criticism and taking advice,” Barbale added.
Chris and Molly McMahon from Pittsburgh told OSV News that in their early 40s, the couple decided to step back from the daily grind of work and family life and ask themselves what they could do to live more fully as Christians deepening their faith lives.
“It was a journey and it still is a journey,” said Chris McMahon, president and CFO of MFA Wealth and Aquinas Wealth Advisors, which guides clients in financial planning and values-based investing. “We helped start a local chapter of Legatus around 2005 with a lot of our friends: It started as a Catholic date night with a guest speaker and I became a chapter president in Pittsburgh.
“I think we realized as we were in Legatus that the people we talked to and interacted with were so alive in their faith that we were overwhelmed by it,” McMahon said. “We started doing more and more and eventually I got involved in the national Legatus, and we started leading (mission) trips.”
McMahon was also honored with Legatus’ “2024 Ambassador of the Year” award for his work in ethical investing and his community and international volunteerism along with his wife, Molly, who is founder of Mary’s Place Maternity Home in Pittsburgh and currently serves on the boards of Gift of Mary, Mary’s Place Maternity Home and Little Sisters of the Poor Pittsburgh.
Closest to Chris McMahon’s work life is ethical investing. Catholic religious orders, parishes, dioceses and individual investors are often unaware or misinformed about what unethical programs or activities are being supported through their individual or group retirement accounts and investments.
“I was just talking with a group of (women religious) in Canada and someone had come to them and said, ‘Here are the top 10 investments we recommend for you.’ We had to show them that we cannot support these things that are so contrary to our values as Catholics,” McMahon said.
The investment industry, he added, has been misleading people of faith and Catholic financial advisers, but technology is “pulling back that curtain and will radically change that world.”
“We have been so courteous and polite for so many years but now we are saying if your faith is important to you we can help you align and make sure your investments are consistent and help radically transform the world back to neutral,” McMahon said.
“You don’t have to necessarily give money to (a Catholic agency) but you can’t give it to things we are diametrically opposed to either.”
Legatus was established by Tom Monaghan, who is best known for founding Domino’s Pizza and Ave Maria University, but who has said he is most proud of founding Legatus.
Stephen Henley, who currently serves as Legatus president, said there are 90 chapters across North America, Canada and Mexico, along with at-large members overseas, and with an average chapter size of about 30 people.
Henley notes that the average age of Legatus members is about 60, which seems to be a sweet spot where a Catholic business man or woman has been successful in business but also at that age “you reach a half time when you move from success to significance — getting more involved with family and faith and take my faith more seriously.”
The Southeast continues to be a membership growth area, perhaps in keeping with trends in Catholic population growth overall. The Great Lakes region, the Midwest, Louisiana and Texas are also strongholds for Legatus.
Dr. Anna Korkis, an Iraqi-born Catholic and a gastroenterologist and hepatologist with over 30 years experience in the medical field, told OSV News that the educational and faith formation programming at Legatus functions are what most appeal to her.
“Nobody is more advanced than you in your faith journey and nobody is pushing where they are: We are all at different stages, and I think what is lovely to see is how people want to learn, and advance themselves. And there is so much to learn,” Korkis, who resides in New Jersey, told OSV News.
Korkis said she is doing “The Bible in a Year” program with Father Mike Schmitz and has downloaded the Relevant Radio and other Catholic apps on her phone for listening to faith content when driving her car or working out.
“Sadly I always thought I could have been catechized better, but we all feel that, and when we want to learn, this allows different avenues especially through our affiliations with the priests,” she added, in reference to Legatus priest chaplains and speakers. “I would never have done it on my own, educationally.”
Tom Tracy writes for OSV News from Florida.
