Gayle Benson to receive the St. John Paul II Award

by Peter Finney Jr.

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

Even though Gayle Benson has been a lector at St. Louis Cathedral since the early 1990s, she admits that when Pope John Paul II came to New Orleans for his historic visit in 1987, the closest she got to him was watching his addresses and outdoor Mass on television.

The owner of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans, who has donated millions of dollars to Catholic and other charitable causes, will be honored Oct. 3 for her generosity to the Catholic community and beyond as the recipient of the St. John Paul II Award at the annual gala of the Catholic Community Foundation of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

“It’s an incredibly humbling award, and I’m sure there are other people who would have been much more qualified,” Benson said. “Pope John Paul II was a remarkable leader who inspired so many with his compassion and commitment to unifying people. It reinforces my dedication to service, and it reminds me of the values the pope stood for. I strive to embody that in my efforts today with my philanthropy.”

Followed 1987 visit

Long before 2004, when she met and married the late Tom Benson, who owned the city’s two professional sports franchises, Gayle Benson was a parishioner at Holy Name of Jesus in the late 1980s. She recalls the excitement the city had for the papal visit in 1987.

“We still talk about it,” Benson said. “We have the plaque at the cathedral and the plaque at the archbishop’s residence. His visit really cemented our dedication to the church and the importance of the Catholic church in New Orleans, because New Orleans is a Catholic city, but until the pope comes here, it’s really not as special as him coming here.”

As he built his automobile, banking and real estate empire – before buying the Saints – Tom Benson underwent a metanoia in the early 1940s when he attended St. Aloysius High School through the generosity of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. The Brothers told Benson’s father to send his four sons to school there and pay whatever tuition he could afford.

Paying it forward

The Brothers’ benevolence indelibly stamped Benson as he climbed the corporate ladder. He may have been relentlessly driven in the business world, but he always felt compelled to give back. The $10 million he pledged in 2012 to Brother Martin High School – the Sacred Heart school that succeeded St. Aloysius – was just a fraction of his impressive largesse.

In 2007, the Bensons established the Gayle and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation, which has distributed more than $120 million to charitable causes.

Other major examples of their philanthropy include the Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center at Ochsner ($25 million); the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio ($11 million, plus a three-story house for use as an Oblate residence); and Notre Dame Seminary renovations ($9 million).

“Tom did give a lot before I married him, but he would do it quietly,” Gayle said. “I said to him, ‘Tom, I feel like when you put your name out there when you give something, you are going to inspire other people to give.’ It’s not an ego thing. It’s a thing that people are saying, ‘Wow, they did that. Well, maybe I could do something, too.’

“I find that as I give money to people in some of the projects that I do, I feel like other people are going to be inspired to do that. I’ve had people tell me that they have come to church because they were inspired, and that’s really what this is all about.”

Gayle said when she first met Tom, he was already contributing money to transform St. Cecilia Church in the Upper 9th Ward into the Shirley Landry Benson PACE Center, which provides day care and health monitoring to low-income seniors.

Hunger for God

At his Funeral Mass on March 23, 2018, Archbishop Gregory Aymond acknowledged that Benson had “many possessions, awards and accolades, but none of that goes with him. He takes with him only two things after a journey of 90 years – his hunger for God, that he may see God face to face, and a heart filled with love.

“He had a generosity toward others – to the needy, the forgotten and the mission of the church. He kept giving of himself and what he had. Yes, he was rich – rich in faith, rich in love.”

Will share her fortune

Gayle Benson has made it publicly known that her intention is to have the proceeds of her multi-billion-dollar estate used to help a variety of causes close to her heart in the New Orleans area.

“I don’t have any children, so I’ve divided it among the people in the city and my employees,” Benson said. “I just feel like I’m going to leave them something that nobody else could have. I’m just going to distribute it among the city and make it a better place – better than I found it.”

Benson said the root of her philanthropy is her Catholic faith.

“Every morning when I wake up – before I even get out of bed – I grab the readings of the day and I ask God to help me,” she said. “I’ve done it for years, way before I met Tom Benson. I would ask God to just guide me for the day to do what I’m supposed to be doing. And, every night before I go to bed, I ask him the same thing. Let me know tomorrow what I’m supposed to be doing because I want to do his will and I want to do his work. I don’t want to be distracted by other things in life.”

Sunday TV Mass

Several years ago, she underwrote the expense of televising the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass on Fox 8.

“I get notes from so many people who maybe can’t get to the Mass, but they tell me how valuable it is to them,” Benson said. “It’s such a blessing to be able to support that and let more people see that.”

With $10 million in seed money, Benson has established a separate foundation that she hopes will restore and perpetually endow St. Louis Cathedral, which she considers the interfaith icon of the city. When her schedule permits, she reads at the two Sunday Masses at the cathedral.

“I feel like the cathedral needs so much,” she said. “Tom had died, and I said, ‘You know what, I’ve got all this ability to help so many people. What else can I do?’ And, I looked at the cathedral and I prayed about it, and people started catching on. I’m hoping and I really believe we will finish it. I’ve asked God to help me with this.

“It’s all about giving and making people’s lives better than what they were before. My Catholic faith has instilled in me the values of service, compassion and stewardship. I mean, that’s all we have. And, I really think that it’s my responsibility to help others. Nothing makes me feel better than to know that I’ve uplifted someone else’s life.”

The Oct. 3 gala will be at the New Orleans Hilton Riverside. A social hour will begin at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. For reservations, go to www.ccfnola.org/annual-dinner.

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