By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
September 17, 2025
When Joe Donnelly and his wife, Jill, moved into the ambassador’s residence in Vatican City in 2022, they made the place a home by decorating it with artwork by Indiana artists and, paying homage to their beloved alma mater, a few items from the University of Notre Dame.
The pieces of art from their home state gave them comfort in a new place and underscored Donnelly’s embrace of his roots. A native of New York, Donnelly settled in South Bend to earn his undergraduate and law degrees from Notre Dame and then stayed to start a small business and raise a family. His career in public service took him to Capitol Hill, where he served as a U.S. representative and then as a U.S. senator before heading to Rome as a U.S. ambassador.
However, wherever Donnelly went, he always carried with him a little bit of Indiana.
“Everywhere I go, people love the Hoosier State,” Donnelly said. “They look at us and think of hard work, of dedication, of faith and love of country.”
Donnelly, who stepped down as U.S. ambassador in July 2024, was the keynote speaker at the dinner following the St. Thomas More Society of Central Indiana Red Mass on Monday. Also, Julie Armstrong, executive director of the Indianapolis Bar Association, was honored by the More Society with the Woman for All Seasons award. The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop of Indianapolis Charles Thompson at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in the Circle City.
Red Mass celebrations are an annual event held across the state and the country, usually coinciding with the beginning of the U.S. Supreme Court’s new term in October. They offer prayers for all members of the legal profession and invoke the Holy Spirit as the source of the virtues of wisdom, understanding, and counsel.
The name sprouted from the Mass held in England in 1310 at Westminster Abbey to mark the start of the academic year, during which the celebrant was vested in red and the Lord High justices wore scarlet robes. St. Thomas More, who was beheaded for refusing to acquiesce to the demands of King Henry VIII, is the patron saint of lawyers, politicians and civil servants.
During Monday’s Red Mass, Archbishop Thompson spoke in his homily about the importance of tending to the common good. He said individuals need to be part of something greater than themselves, they need to be part of the common good and to meet the challenges of today’s society, they need to have integrity, courage, wisdom and understanding.
Thompson, recalling the words of the late Pope Francis, said, “May we be filled with hope as we strive to exercise the rule of law in a way fitting the dignity of persons and the sake of the common good.”
Working for the common good also was the centerpiece of Donnelly’s tenure as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Confirmed as ambassador by a voice vote in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 20, 2022, he arrived in Rome three weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine and, little more than a year later, the war between Israel and Gaza was ignited in October 2023.
“We worked nonstop trying to bring peace to Ukraine,” Donnelly said after the dinner. “Pope Francis and the (U.S.) Secretary of State asked us to try to help in Israel and Gaza as well, so it was on a lot of peace-building efforts as well as trying to make sure that the Vatican understood the United States’ views on issues. We didn’t agree on everything, but on the overwhelming majority, we did, and we worked very closely together.”
Despite the heartbreak and destruction, Donnelly stayed focused on tryinging to bring an end to the conflicts. A particular effort was made to rescue the children kidnapped by Russian troops whenever they entered a Ukrainian village or town, totaling upwards of 30,000 youngsters. He said the cardinals at the Vatican were able to retrieve about a thousand of the children and work is continuing to find and return the remainder.
Donnelly said his Hoosier values would not allow him to give up on the effort to bring peace and reunite the Ukrainian children with their families.
“My nature is you just keep plugging away to do the best you can,” Donnelly said. “And that’s the nature of the United States. When everybody (around the world) has almost given up hope, they look to (the United States) to try to help make it work. That’s our job.”
The youngest of five children in a devout Catholic family, Donnelly’s faith deepened when his mother died of breast cancer when he was 10. Donnelly turned to the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, the long-serving president of Notre Dame – who worked to promote peace and justice around the world – for advice after he was elected to Congress in 2006.
Donnelly, a Democrat, recalled Hesburgh telling him, “Don’t do what’s easy, do what’s right. If you do that … you’ll know what to do.”
The advice served Donnelly well as he worked in Congress to help his manufacturing-based district stay afloat during the Great Recession. He was faced with several votes on consequential legislation, including the Troubled Asset Relief Program , the bailout of the auto industry and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
“Doing what’s right, not what’s easy, is what made the decisions much simpler in Congress,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly was elected to the U.S. Senate from Indiana in 2012 and championed legislation to lower the suicide rate among members of the military by providing services and support. His bill, the Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act, named after an Indiana National Guardsman who took his own life, was signed into law in 2014.
After losing his bid for reelection in 2018 to now-Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, Donnelly returned to South Bend and taught in Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and Department of Political Science. In October 2021, Donnelly was nominated by President Joe Biden to be U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.
Donnelly told the Red Mass attendees that every person he met at the Vatican carried the same spirit that echoed the words of Jesus Christ: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
When he went to Washington, D.C., Donnelly said he tried to bring the lessons of compassion and hope that he learned in Indiana. He told the attendees that the country, now more than ever, needs Hoosiers to lead by their examples of kindness and compassion for everybody.
“Our country is in a troubled spot, but you are the answer,” Donnelly said. “If you seek division, you will cause destruction. If you seek unity, you will bring us together and that’s what our country needs is your leadership every day.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
