A Little Background on John and Donna Kurtz
Donna Kurtz, the only daughter of Natale and Anne Fuselli, was raised in Newtown Square, PA along with her three brothers. She lived a typical suburban life until her conversion through the Catholic Charismatic Movement when she was eighteen.
While at Catholic University in Washington, D. C., Donna spent a summer in India and volunteered with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. This experience profoundly affected her. She felt an ache in her heart upon witnessing the countless number of orphans living on the streets. In a very short time Donna came to realize that she could easily love a child who was not biologically hers.
Donna met John Kurtz on March 30, 1981, at Catholic University as she was completing her course work.She graduated from Catholic University, Phi Beta Kappa, with a double degree in Religious Studies and Early Childhood Development.
John Kurtz is one of seven children raised by John and Irene Kurtz in a farming community in northwest New Jersey. He, like Donna, was shaken out of religious apathy by the Catholic Charismatic Movement at the age of nineteen.
A few years later, John had the opportunity to live and work in a few Catholic mission churches in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. It was during this time that he first witnessed children in need and came to know that he could love a dispossessed child in need of a father's love.
In the fall of 1980, John left Oklahoma to attend Catholic University with the Glenmary Home Missionaries seminary training. He didn't earn his degree there, but did meet his wife during a wine and cheese party, which, he's convinced, was more valuable than the diploma. In 1985, John completed his Religious Studies degree and graduated Maxima Cum Laude from LaSalle University in Philadelphia.
Click on the links below to read more about the Kurtz Family and SJH.
http://www.catholiceducationfoundation.com/inside/hall-of-fame/kurtz
http://www.defendlife.org/Aug08Newsletter.pdf
"John and Donna Kurtz share a passionate vision to bring the gift of a loving Catholic family to the least of God's children. The children they embrace are often seen as the most difficult to place; children of drug addicted parents, older boys who have been in foster placement for years with developmental delays, children with histories of abuse and those suffering from attachment disorders. These are the types of challenges that this loving and talented couple have embraced. They have been successful in reaching these difficult children with patience, skill and perseverance, love, prayer and the gift of a loving family. John and Donna, through their committed marriage embody the very incarnational covenant of Jesus Christ. They share a vision of the healing power of a faith filled home. They also continue to develop their personal and professional gifts as parent-educators/counselors that informs the structure and activities of their home-schooled family environment."
Dr. Theresa Burke Rachel's Vineyard Ministries
