Catholic Charities of Philadelphia<\/a>. \u00a0Her retirement is scheduled for June.<\/p>\n\u201cAs a teenager, I thought that I was going to change the whole world. I\u2019m still trying. It was a call in my heart that I needed to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
That calling has led her to play a litany of roles in serving God\u2019s people, all of which she responded to with total willingness.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is someone who always says yes when it comes to answering God\u2019s call (with) so many different roles over the course of her career,\u201d said Dr. Jim Black, the director of the Youth Services Division at Catholic Charities of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever she was asked to do something, she always said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyes-Bugg, who belongs to St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Philadelphia\u2019s Northern Liberties section, was working for another social services agency in 1996 when she responded to a supervisor\u2019s call from Casa del Carmen, an agency of Catholic Charities that serves the Spanish-speaking communities of North Philadelphia. She soon joined the agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was serving families to prevent removing their children from home. I basically thought, \u2018Well, this is representing the Church,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIn every family that I was working with, I saw so much injustice going on, but also a lack of support.\u201d<\/p>\n
She fulfilled that role until 2002 before being called to begin the Office for Community Development for a year. She then helped launch the Cardinal Bevilacqua Community Center in Kensington, running it for 10 years.<\/p>\n
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Estela Reyes-Bugg with members of a youth program at the former Cardinal Bevilacqua Community Center in Kensington. (Courtesy Photo)<\/p>\n
Following that stint she led efforts to help organize volunteers to serve in numerous areas of Catholic Charities. In 2016, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput called for the launch of Project Rachel, post-abortion healing ministry of the archdiocesan Office for Life and Family with support by Catholic Charities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat attracted me to this ministry is that I was contributing to the Kingdom of God by helping those women in pain after the loss of a child to come back to God, to come back to church,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a core group that I recruited (as) volunteers, mostly pastors and religious sisters. And I said, \u2018I\u2019m alone here, I need you.\u2019 So it\u2019s how we started Project Rachel.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she wasn\u2019t done in launching new social service projects for the archdiocese, as she was called to open Fatima Catholic Outreach Center in Bensalem.<\/p>\n
Reyes-Bugg says throughout her career, she has always believed that \u201cGod doesn\u2019t choose the qualified. He qualifies the chosen.\u201d Her varied experiences reveal that God profoundly qualified her. Black considers her a \u201cSwiss army knife\u201d of skills, connections, resources, and openness to fulfill God\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cEstela is clearly one of those people who is driven by her faith, her love, her compassion, and that drive manifests itself,\u201d Black said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe knows absolutely everyone. Her outreach is just incredible. Her network of all the people that she knows is incredible, the connections that she can make, the ways that she can help people because of those connections, the way she can get people together and get people to the resources they need. She\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyes-Bugg holds a passion for people that reflects how she sees Christ in those she encounters daily, in every walk and facet of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cPope Francis said that famous phrase about encountering, \u2018There\u2019s nothing more beautiful in this world than encountering a person,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I get fed by being around people. It\u2019s my passion to identify needs. The power is in the relationship. I just always keep thinking about the Gospel, Jesus building that relationship, bringing the apostles with Him and say, \u2018Come and see, come and see, come with me.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI find so many good people that are also willing to embrace the mission of God, willing to embrace each other. I\u2019m delighted by that, and that\u2019s what gives me energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In March she cut down her in-office time before she completes her tenure in June. In retirement she will prioritize care for her family, but she will never stop her calling to compassion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I will ever retire from serving,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be home, not thinking about deadlines and get up so early (but) there are always chances to continue doing the work of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyes-Bugg, as always, will keep saying \u201cyes\u201d to the Lord\u2019s calling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, Lord,\u201d she tells God, \u201cand I\u2019m here to do your will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Estela Reyes-Bugg By Jay Sorgi \u2022 Posted March 27, 2026 Estela Reyes-Bugg always knew that God was calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3918,8364,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-150129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-catholic-charities-of-philadelphia","tag-jay-sorgi","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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