An interview with Fr. Pius Pietrzyk, O.P., on helping the nation’s poor access legal services

Fr. Pius Pietrzyk, O.P., quickly chuckles when he’s addressed not just as “Reverend Father,” but as “Honorable and Reverend Father.”

“I don’t use the ‘Honorable’ title ever,” he says. But he acknowledges that it must be technically correct because he holds a position that was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. “I think so. But I don’t know. I’ve never looked it up. And never used the title,” he laughs.

In fact, Fr. Pius is likely the only priest in the country to have a Senate-confirmed appointment. He is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), a 501(c)(3) organization, created by the U.S. Congress in 1974. It works to fund organizations that provide legal services in civil cases to those who cannot afford a lawyer on their own.

The Board’s responsibility is to ensure that that money, almost all of which comes from the federal government, is spent according to the intentions of Congress. 

They also see themselves as national advocates for providing the poor with access to legal representation in civil cases.

He explains: “Most Americans understand that if they are convicted of a crime, they have access to a lawyer whether or not they can afford it. But what if you are threatened with losing your house or having your children taken away or something like that? Are you guaranteed access to a lawyer? Many Americans will say yes. They are wrong. They do not have access to a lawyer in the same way that they would in a criminal matter.”

Funds entrusted to the Legal Services Corporation go mostly to domestic cases such as evictions and violence against women, or cases where a right to benefits, such as Social Security or veteran’s benefits, are being denied. There are also grants for disaster recovery work, or issues in the field of education, among others. To qualify for access to the funds, a client’s annual income must be less than 150% of the federal poverty line. In 2026, 150% of the federal poverty line is an annual income of $23,940 for a single person, or $49,500 for a family of four.

For Fr. Pius, now 15 years into his work as a board member, this is a way for him to serve Christ, his country, and the poor. We asked him to tell us about this unique mission. (The interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Praedicare: What attracted you to this work?

Fr. Pius: I did not seek this out. I guess I was raised with a sense of civic obligation and responsibility so that when the government asks you to serve, your initial response is, “If I can, yes.” So it is an opportunity to serve in a great way.

The more I learned about it, the more I wanted to help. One, because of the nature of those who need to be helped. I spent most of my life as a lawyer. My application to college began, “I love the law.” I knew I wanted to be a lawyer on my first day of college. I sort of lived the law.

The importance of the rule of law and a functioning court system is essential to any civilized society. Which means you do have to provide some mechanism for the poor to be able to access those things or you are in effect denying justice to a whole swath of people. 

So that was attractive to me: a way to continue to serve the poor using my experience in the legal world. 

Praedicare: How has the Dominican charism and mission influenced your approach to this work?

Fr. Pius: One is the strong sense of virtue, and the developed sense of virtue, including Thomas [Aquinas’] sense of justice: the notion that justice isn’t simply that which is meted out by the government, but that there is an inherent right to things, and that any functioning society has mechanisms for its members to be able to secure justice. I think that’s really part of a Dominican understanding of the nature of a society like a state.

And not just Thomas. If you look at the [Dominican] tradition, for example, Bartolomé de las Casas and his speaking up for the indigenous people. Many of them were quite poor in comparison to the wealthier Spanish. There was a tendency by many in society at the time to see them as less than human and not deserving of rights. 

Because of our anthropology, there was a strong Dominican defense of the value of those persons, the equality that they must have in the law. Justice is fundamentally about equality, which the law protects. So even outside of St. Thomas–rooted in his teaching–it is very much part of the Dominican approach.

Praedicare: Has there been any negative reaction to your being a priest or religious?? 

Fr. Pius: It’s never been a problem. I’ve been “Fr. Pius” since the first day I was there. They’ve never seen me in anything but my religious habit. I’ve been in the legal community so long that I’m fairly well known and very visible. So it’s never been an issue at all. And sometimes we’ll visit grantees and I’ve been asked for blessings, and I’ve had my hand kissed by some of our grantees. I’ve never had anything negative.

Praedicare: When someone asks about the Dominicans, about your work as a priest, the habit, how do you respond?

Fr. Pius: I tell them the truth! Most of them are just curious about it. It’s unusual for them, particularly my path, because the firm that I was at in Chicago, Sidley Austin, is a large international firm. So people are often, particularly in the legal world, interested about the move from a massive, very successful international law firm like Sidley Austin, to doing what I do. 

Praedicare: What’s been the most enjoyable part for you?

Fr. Pius: Oh, hearing the stories of the clients. Meeting our clients. Hearing about the ways in which we’ve helped people.

I’ll give you a story. This was at one of our meetings in New York, and there was a woman who addressed us, and told us a little bit of her story. She had grown up as a child in an abusive household, very abusive. When she had gotten older, she had then moved to an abusive, romantic relationship. She didn’t think much of that, because she just thought that’s what her life was. At one point, it got bad enough that a friend directed her to one of our lawyers. The lawyer helped her remove herself from the abusive situation. But more than that, what the lawyer did was help her understand that she didn’t deserve to be abused, that it was possible to live a life without that kind of abuse. And she said to us, she said–as silly as it sounds to us–it just didn’t occur to her. It really didn’t. She just was so used to a life of abuse that she couldn’t even imagine a life without it. 

We got her out of it. The lawyer helped her get in contact with a social worker to deal with some of the trauma of abuse. When she was talking to us, she was a manager of a bank doing very successfully on her own, many years removed from the abuse. She really credits the lawyer–again, not just with filing a case for her, but utterly changing her life, and her view of what her life could be. Stories like that make everything that we do worthwhile.

Again, I’m not on the front lines doing that work–but knowing that I’m doing things to help facilitate that, that’s what makes it all worthwhile.

Praedicare: What from the Dominican tradition can our readers incorporate into their own efforts for the poor?

Fr. Pius: Thomas reminds us that charity is the form of all the virtues. And that our primary duty as Christians is that: love. Love God, and in loving God, love our neighbors.

Readers should ask themselves constantly, what can I do? What am I doing? And what can I do to serve those in need, particularly the poor? 

We do this kind of work, not because we like it, not because we’re going to get anything out of it, but because this person is in need of it.

Praedicare: What does it mean to be a friend of Christ?

Fr. Pius: To be a friend of Christ is to be a friend of those whom Christ loves, right? Christ died on the Cross for the salvation of humanity. He died for us, not because we are good–because he wants to make us good. To be in friendship with him is to assist him in carrying out that mission: that is, to tend to those for whom he died.

Fr. Pius Pietrzyk, O.P., entered the Order of Preachers in 2003 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2008. In addition to holding a civil law degree, he also earned a canon law degree. He currently serves as the Vicar Provincial for Administration for the Dominican Friars Province of St. Joseph.

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