‘Doing the bold, beautiful things’: Passion for Church and social justice propels new ICC Associate Director

She hails from Australia, her Confirmation name is Meinrad, and she is embarking on a journey that will bring her love for the Catholic Church and its teachings into the public sphere in Indiana.

Roarke LaCoursiere was recently named the new associate director of the Indiana Catholic Conference (ICC), the public policy voice of the Church in the state.  It is a role for which she believes God has been preparing her all 24 years of her young but remarkable life.

“I can look back and see how God’s hand has guided me here,” said LaCoursiere, who officially took on the position in early September following two years of law school, experience in the Indiana Attorney General’s office and many formative summers at Saint Meinrad Archabbey and School of Theology. “Everywhere I’ve been, I have learned important things for this job. It’s wonderful for it all to have come to fruition like this.”

Alexander Mingus, who was promoted to executive director of the ICC in June, recognized LaCoursiere’s unique qualities as well as the work of divine providence as he sifted through job applications this summer and pondered who would replace him in the associate director role.

“There were a few things that stood out about Roarke,” said Mingus, who joined the ICC in 2020. “Obviously she is very smart, she’d been through a couple years of law school, and she is very interested in her faith, as evidenced by her years of formation at Saint Meinrad. Those were some characteristics that I was primarily looking for – someone who had some public policy or law or government experience, and someone who had clearly demonstrated interest in the Catholic faith.

“We had some very good candidates who applied, and I am grateful for all of those, but ultimately Roarke rose to the top,” he continued. “We are so blessed to have her in this new role, and I am looking forward to collaborating with her as we represent the Church at the Indiana Statehouse and beyond.”

‘So very connected to Saint Meinrad’

Although she now views her new job as the perfect fit, LaCoursiere could hardly have envisioned any of this in her early years, which took her from Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia, all the way to Terre Haute, Indiana.

Her mother, Teresa– a Terre Haute native with a young son, Denim – had met Ashley Matchett, an Australian whose career as a physical therapist had brought him to the western Indiana city. They fell in love and decided to marry and begin their life together in Australia, where Roarke was born. Eventually, with Teresa homesick for Indiana, the young family moved back to Terre Haute.

Today, LaCoursiere recalls a childhood in which the Catholic faith was important but not at the center of her family’s life. That all changed when her father – who had grown up in a Catholic family in Brisbane but had fallen away from the faith somewhat over the years – experienced what LaCoursiere calls “a major reversion.”

This led to a spiritual renewal within the Matchett family and young Roarke’s first watershed moment at Saint Meinrad: her introduction to the “One Bread, One Cup” youth formation program there.

“This is a program that is keeping young Catholics Catholic,” LaCoursiere said. “It’s very integral in the building up of the Church. This is where I learned about the Mass, the sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours, and I built community along the way.”

One Bread, One Cup is a five-day liturgical leadership conference focusing on the word, sacrament and mission of the Catholic Church for high school youth groups and their campus and youth ministers. The conferences, held in the summer, focus on leadership development, catechesis, liturgical and spiritual formation, and theological reflection.

As LaCoursiere took part in One Bread, One Cup every summer of high school, she could feel her faith grow exponentially with every passing year.

“Those weeks in the summer that I was at Saint Meinrad totally transformed my life and helped me to have an encounter with Christ that sustained my prayer life beyond the hill,” LaCoursiere said.

This profound experience also led her to choose St. Meinrad as her patron saint when the time came for her Confirmation at St. Joseph University Parish in Terre Haute.

As she was completing high school, prayer and discernment led LaCoursiere to apply to the One Bread, One Cup college internship program, in which college students return to lead the summer sessions for the younger participants. She was selected, and this brought her back to the monastery during the summers as she was seeking her degree at Pepperdine University in California.

“Those summers spent with other college interns who are also just on fire for their faith were very special,” LaCoursiere said. “They formed me.

“I attribute my strong faith today to the One Bread, One Cup program, and to this day, I am so very connected to Saint Meinrad.”

Brother James Jensen, who helps lead the program at Saint Meinrad, said that LaCoursiere’s God-given gifts were apparent then and will serve her well in her new role.

“Most college students don’t become interns, and most college interns don’t return in a ministerial capacity, and Roarke has done both of these things,” Brother James said. “This not only speaks to her character and her Catholic witness, but also to her love of Saint Meinrad and her ability to internalize the Benedictine values that we so strongly present to the high school youth.”

Brother James, who has both witnessed and influenced LaCoursiere’s faith journey for nearly a decade, says that her ability to connect – to her faith and to other people – is one of her greatest strengths.

“Roarke has an intentional ability to bring people together, and she is always informed by her faith,” Brother James said. “This is what she will bring to the ICC. I think what will inform her work the most is what she learned at Saint Meinrad – our Benedictine values of balance, of having a strong personal prayer life but also being able to externalize that and live that out in public ways.”

‘An extrovert’s dream job’

In addition to her time at Saint Meinrad, LaCoursiere had another formative experience of living in intentional community – one more stepping stone on her path to the ICC. After graduating from Pepperdine in 2021 with a degree in political science, she decided to return to Indiana and take a gap year before pursuing law school. She moved to the Fiat House, a home in the Broad Ripple area of Indianapolis where women ages 21 to 35 could share their Catholic faith.

“We prayed the Liturgy of the Hours together, shared meals together, and basically lived in community life but as lay people,” LaCoursiere said. “I had just been living the college life, and now I was surrounded by these professional women who were living fully for the Lord. Having their mentorship and friendship was something very influential for me.”

LaCoursiere became involved at nearby St. Joan of Arc Parish, which would alter the course of her life. It was there that she first learned of the ICC in meeting fellow parishioner Alexander Mingus, who had just taken the role of associate director, and his wife, Emily.

But then she was off to law school at Georgetown University, spending a year in Washington, D.C., before discerning that Indianapolis is where she wanted to remain. She transferred to the McKinney School of Law at Indiana University in Indianapolis.

The move back to Indiana was providential, as it coincided with leadership changes at the ICC. Angela Espada, who had served as executive director for five years, announced her retirement early in 2024. With the announcement not long after that Mingus would be promoted, a rare opportunity arose.

“I wanted to connect my education and my passion for public policy, for bettering society, and for promoting the common good with my Catholic faith,” LaCoursiere said. “So I had this decision to make: Do I pass on applying for this job that truly seems like a dream job for me, or do I stay the course and finish law school? That was something I took to prayer for six months, and the job continually took up more space in my heart and my mind. I’m so glad I trusted God in the process.”

She applied and landed the job just as she was preparing for another major life change: getting married. Roarke Matchett had met Chase LaCoursiere, the information technology director at St. Joan of Arc School, as they both were attending daily Mass regularly.

The two wed at St. Joan of Arc on June 29 and inspire all around them with their dedication to the Church and to ministry, particularly through their work serving the needy through the St. Vincent de Paul Society. 

“Words cannot express how wonderful of a person Roarke is,” said Sara Levy, a close friend and bridesmaid who teaches middle school science at St. Joan of Arc. “She is so passionate and so fierce about the things and the people she cares about. It’s beautiful to see her discerning the next things God is calling her to do and how much she is letting go and trusting that the Lord is going to take care of her and that God’s will is going to be done, even if it’s not according to what she thought.

“As we’re all figuring out our own things in life, there’s Roarke – she’s out there, doing the bold, beautiful things.”

For the past two months, this has included traveling the state in this election year and meeting with the five bishops she will help to represent in her new role, as well as with Catholic lawmakers and advocates ahead of the 2025 Indiana General Assembly.

“She is already learning so quickly, jumping in and meeting hundreds of people,” said Mingus, who has accompanied her on these introductory meetings. “She has excellent interpersonal skills and is very conversational, but she is also doing a lot of listening.

“I think we have a lot of potential in our little team as we continue to explore what areas God is calling us to represent before our state legislature, and also continuing to form ourselves well as we try to articulate the Church’s teachings in the public sphere.”

For LaCoursiere, the past few months have been a happy and productive whirlwind.

“One thing I love already is coming home from a busy week and telling my husband, ‘This is an extrovert’s dream job!’” LaCoursiere said. “I love meeting people, I love talking to them and hearing what they care about. As we’ve been going around the state meeting with legislators, they share with us what their priorities are for this upcoming session, and we get to dialogue with them about how to accomplish their goals through the lens of Christ and his Church’s teaching.

“I look forward to meeting all of the legislators and advocates and building relationships with these people who have committed their lives to bettering the state of Indiana through public life,” she continued. “To be part of that is an incredible opportunity.”