Catholic Man of the Year Dr. Allen Lewis has seen things in his life that he can only say are miracles.
He shared some of these moving experiences after receiving the Catholic Men’s Luncheon Club’s 2022 Catholic Man of the Year award at St. Patrick Church in Columbus, Ohio, on February 4.
The first was a personal encounter with Christ in the spring of 1994 that changed his life forever.
He was a young pediatrician trying to return to actively practicing the Catholic faith when he went to Mass at the local Newman Center in Salt Lake City, where he lived at the time. He said in his acceptance speech,
I went to Mass at the Newman Center there and during the Nicene Creed, the Father embraced his prodigal son. I felt an overwhelming sense of love, mercy and welcome – the shalom of heaven. I had returned to my father’s house. Jesus knew I needed to have that encounter so I would have no doubt in my mind that He was real. The Lord had much to teach me, because I was trying to be too self-sufficient in everything.
That was just the beginning. Again and again in his life, he has felt the strong presence of Jesus.
Another time was when his son was diagnosed with autism 22 years ago. “It shattered dreams, yet resulted in my current career,” he said. “As I learned methods to help him, it helped me in the healing of others.”
His healing work is serving as a physician with a holistic emphasis. Lewis founded the Sancta Familia Center for Integrative Medicine in Columbus, Ohio, where he moved in 2010.
His practice “integrates traditional medicine with nontraditional practices such as the use of herbal, homeopathic, and other types of medication. He said this method emphasizes looking at what precedes an illness, how to heal it, and lifestyle changes to keep it from recurring.”
Inhis work as a doctor, he’s experienced Christ in other incredible ways.
One event that stands out occurred during his first three months as a pediatrician. He was called to save a newborn girl whose placenta had torn from her mother’s uterus. He recalled,
The girl was black from lack of oxygen or a heartbeat. We started doing what we were trained to do, but it wasn’t working. In my desperation, I cried out to God, “Don’t let this baby die.” Seconds later, her heart restarted, she became pink and was life-flighted to a nearby hospital. Today, as far as I know, she has no vestiges of the birth [difficulties] she had.
It’s because of this event and others like it that he knows miracles are real and still happening in our world today.
“People ask me if I believe that miracles occur. I say, ‘Yes,’ because Kristin has been diagnosed as cancer-free” after failing cancer treatment in 2020,” he said of his beloved wife.
God also emboldened him with “the strength to face the challenges and fears resulting from Kristin’s diagnosis with cancer five years ago.”
Lewis received the Catholic Man of the Year Award from among 17 nominees by a nomination committee of representatives from the luncheon club, Young Catholic Professionals, the Catholic Men’s Ministry, the Knights of Columbus and the Serra Club. The men’s luncheon club established the honor in 1957 and has presented it every year since then.
Regarding his work, he said, “The Lord tells me that if I continue to pray, I can continue to expect successful results.”
And today we celebrate...