Spending Valentine's Day in a Homeless Shelter

I took the photos below last year when I stayed overnight at the Emergency Warming Shelter at St. Mary's in Painesville, Ohio. It looked about the same last night.

Pope Francis's words pretty much sum up what we try to do. We let our hospitality, our actions, proclaim the message of the Gospel.

Last night we had 14 guests, sleeping on cots around the perimeter of the gym.

My cot, sleeping bag, etc. The same for all the guests.

Outside the emergency shelter. Last night was very cold, windy, and snowy.

Spending Valentine's Day in a Homeless Shelter

I, along with lead volunteer and organizer Kathy Philipps, spent Valentine's Day night at an emergency Warming Center/Homeless Shelter, with fourteen guests. Some of our guests could have died if they had to spend the night in the bitter cold and snow of Painesville, Ohio. The emergency shelter was provided by St. Mary's Parish, and I want to thank the parishioners, staff, and the pastor, Fr. Steve Vellenga, for their huge generosity, a generosity right in the spirit of Pope Francis and, indeed, Jesus, who admonished us to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless.

Our shelter has a minimum of basic rules, and these provide for the safety and well-being of our guests. We know the names and much about the lives of our guests, and we try to treat them as friends. We are not bureaucratic; we don't have endless rules and forms to fill out because we don't have governmental funding (in fact, almost no funding--just small donations and volunteer labor). In many ways we operate along the lines of the Catholic Worker, founded by Dorothy Day about 85 years ago. Dorothy's model was based upon the ancient traditions of hospitality, so central to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

For the most part, the night went well. Linda Coughlin and Dan and Kathy Philipps helped set things up, served a light dinner, and set up the cots, sheets, blankets, etc. They brought in a television/VCR unit and showed a movie, and they talked to the guests until after 9 PM.

Around 10 PM all the lights were extinguished and almost everyone fell asleep. Kathy was awakened in the middle of the night by a guest who was pacing and crying--she seemed to be suffering from anxiety. Her anxiety escalated into loud talking and great distress, and she and her partner left of their own free will around 4 AM. Another woman, suffering from mental distress, also left in the middle of the night. But most guests did fine and slept all night. People woke up around 6 AM, had a light breakfast, cleaned up the gym, and all were back on the street (including Kathy Philipps and me) by around 7:15.

I headed home at that time, having had about 6 hours sleep. Kathy, who slept very little, gathered all the linens into plastic bags and took them home for washing.

The night involved a lot of work, and maybe not enough sleep. But nobody died, nobody froze to death, everyone was offered shelter and food, everyone was treated with respect and kindness--Valentine's Day night was a success. You might say it was a night of love.

An Amazing One-Woman Play on Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker

A couple weeks ago, at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, I saw an incredible one-woman play on the life of Dorothy Day. Dorothy Day was the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement (co-founder, with Peter Maurin, Dorothy always said). I have been interested in the Catholic Worker since the early 1970s and met Dorothy Day many times. I ate dinners with her (along with maybe 30 other people), went to Vespers with her, and briefly talked with her over dinner. Some of my old friends, in particular Peggy Scherer, Terri Antholzner, and Pat Rusk, were very close friends of Dorothy Day. Dorothy even paid my phone bill one time when I was living in Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati. She paid it because her friend Pat Rusk had run up an enormous long-distance bill on my phone and Pat asked Dorothy to pay it. Some day Dorothy Day may be canonized an official saint, and that is about as close as I am going to come to knowing an official saint (I have known many unofficial saints!).

Dorothy Day at age 70 [credit Milwaukee Journal]

I first met Dorothy when she was about 77 years old. Even then you could sense her charisma and even her great physical beauty. I have always thought that some of the people that followed her in the Catholic Worker movement were attracted by her physical beauty as well as her ideas, her energy, her religious and political commitments.

The one-woman play I saw, "Haunted by God, was put on by  Still Point Theatre, and the actor was Lisa Wagner-Carollo. She portrayed Dorothy Day from age 20 to her death at 83 (November 29, 1980), and she did it with very minor changes in wardrobe, hair, and body position. It was brilliant acting!

This one-act play reminded me of the power of theatre to move and change people. The 200 people who saw this play will never be the same!

Postscript: I lived at the Catholic Worker house in Davenport, Iowa, in the summer of 1976. Margaret Quigley Garvey was the founder and leader of that house. She and her husband Mike Garvey have published books on Dorothy and the Catholic Worker. That summer has influenced my entire adult life.

Currently I work at a meal for the hungry and homeless at St. Mary church in Painesville, Ohio. The program, called the Karpos Ministry, was established five years ago by Kathy Philipps and a seminarian friend of hers. Hard to say home many people help put on these meals twice a week (serving up to 200 meals per night). The regular helpers number about 20, with another 10-15 coming occasionally.

The Spirit of the Catholic Worker and its mission to live out the Works of Mercy is alive and well!#


From Still Point Theatre's Website:

Lisa Wagner-Carollo

Lisa Wagner-Carollo - Founding/Artistic Director 

Lisa Wagner-Carollo is the Founding Director of Still Point Theatre Collective. She founded the company in 1993, motivated by a strong desire to combine ministry and theatre. Ever since, she has toured the country and overseas with Haunted by God: The Life of Dorothy Day. Among other productions, Wagner has also performed in and produced (for Still Point), the internationally toured Points of Arrival: A Jean Donovan Journey, a play that explores the life and commitment of one of the four North American church women killed in El Salvador in 1980. She is currently touring the United States and overseas with Strong Women, Haunted by God and Deep Listening (death and dying). Lisa also works as a facilitator in Still Point's outreach programs. Her education includes a B.S.E. from Emporia State University. Recently, she completed her certification as a spiritual director at Siena Center in Racine, Wisconsin and has recently begun a spiritual direction practice in the Chicago area. 

Awards: Outstanding Recent Graduate, Emporia State University, 1997 

Seeds of Hope Award, Wheatridge, 2009.

"Miracle of the Multiplication of the Chicken Wings": Kathy Philipps' Presentation at the Annual Peace & Justice Awards

Last night the Catholic Commission of Lake and Geauga County's 24th Annual Peace and Justice Dinner was held at the Center for Pastoral Leadership at Borromeo/St. Mary's Seminary in Wickliffe, Ohio. This extraordinary event will almost surely not get any media coverage so I thought I better write about it.

The evening opened with an hour of socializing followed by dinner, and I think that was the best way to proceed because we got to talk to old friends and meet new ones. One serendipitous meeting for me was with Tony Montanini, the husband of one of the Karpos Ministry workers, Kathy Montanini. Tony grew up in Leroy Township and knew my old Notre Dame/Innsbruck buddy Mike Celizic (as well as Mike's parents, Chuck and Lola, and Mike's brother Charlie). Tony had not heard of Mike's death from cancer a few years ago. I talked with Tony and many of my friends from the Thursday night Karpos meal for the homeless and hungry at St. Mary's Church in Painesville: Jan, Judy, Brian Rice, Ed and Christa Zivkovich, Kathy Flora, Dan Philipps, and others. After the social hour and dinner, Kathy Philipps was introduced and began her presentation.

Kathy Philipps doing her presentation on Hospitality, Hunger, and Homelessness

The presentation, featuring PowerPoint slides, was eye-opening and inspirational

Kathy Philipps' presentation was extraordinary, and gave an intellectual and theological rationale for the work we do in the Karpos ministry for the hungry and homeless--work we do every week of the year. Kathy co-founded this ministry with Gregg Stovicek some 4 or 5 years ago. Even the little things we do (the way we present the food and greet the diners, for example) has an intellectual and theological/biblical basis, and I found that incredible. My own approach to this work has been mostly instinctive rather than intellectual and theological and I really appreciate the framework that Kathy Philipps gave for this work. Her ideas apply to many other programs that encounter the homeless and hungry (and those with similar needs). It really connects with the Catholic Worker approach I experienced in New York City and Tivoli, NY, and in the Davenport, Iowa Catholic Worker where I lived during the summer of 1976.

Kathy told of our work this winter hosting an emergency warming shelter--38 nights during this cold and snowy winter St. Mary's opened the gym to the homeless. Some folks might have frozen to death if not for this. She also told a funny story about how one Wednesday or Thursday night meal we were way short of food. And somehow, let's say miraculously, the 100 chicken wings became 200, and everyone was fed. Often these are miracles of generosity, when in a moment of need someone just walks in with extra food from a reception or a funeral, and all of a sudden we have enough for everyone. Of course, careful planning and thought goes into the preparation and serving of our suppers--but we always leave room for the Holy Spirit and for the miraculous. Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker, would have understood and appreciated this.

Kathy's presentation showed the incredible extent of the hunger problem, even in prosperous Lake and Geauga Counties. At a given time there can be around 9000 children in wealthy Geauga County who are hungry. Lake County has many more than that. And in Cuyahoga County--the hunger problem is huge.

Kathy left me with an image of the new Pope Francis, with a lamb held over his shoulders, and the smell of the sheep on his skin and clothes. This is exactly what the Pope has asked of his priests and those who work with the poor--live with them, get the smell of the sheep on themselves:

“This is precisely the reason why some priests grow dissatisfied, lose heart and become in a sense collectors of antiquities or novelties — instead of being shepherds living with ‘the smell of the sheep' . . . This is what I am asking you, be shepherds with the smell of sheep.” 

*          *          *

Another nice feature of the evening was chatting with old and new comrades in the work of furthering peace and justice. I got to eat my meal next to Pat Denny and maybe talked her ear off all evening. We sat at a table with Fr. Mark Riley and Missionary Sister, Lisa Valentini (a real character!), and they both told funny stories about their missionary experiences.

Here are a few photos of my Karpos and St. Mary colleagues taken at the dinner last night:

Linda and Jan

Kathy Flora

Pat Denny

Fr. Mark Riley, Dan Philipps, and Sr.Lisa Valentini (missionary sister)

At the end of the evening, the "Sowers of Justice" award was presented to Terry and Donna Hawk, from St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Mentor. Terry and Donna have lived out the gospel injunction of serving the poor and needy for over 25 years, providing meals 2-3 times per month at St. Patrick's on Bridge Avenue in Cleveland, and working with a parish program involving a food pantry and emergency help with rent and utility bills. I felt that their work dovetailed nicely with our work in Painesville and Kathy Philipps' presentation.

A closing prayer was offered by Sr. Rita Mary Harwood, a sister of Notre Dame, who gave us a picture of Mary, the mother of Jesus, untying knots. Such an odd image. Sister said this picture was beloved of Pope Francis. Here is the image:

Sr. Rita Mary connected this image to our own mothers, maybe to all mothers. I felt so deeply moved by the reflection. Click here for Wikipedia's discussion of this painting.

It was such a grace for us to be at the Peace and Justice dinner last evening. We felt renewed and inspired.

Dorothy Day Article on Ernest and Marion Bromley and the Cincinnati Peacemakers

I've been reading Patsy Harman's book "Arms Wide Open," and it made me think about some of the characters in the book that I knew who were involved in a historic victory for the peace movement. Dorothy Day wrote about it:

 
"Bromley Eviction Halted"
By Dorothy Day
The Catholic Worker, September 1975, 3. 

As we go to press it gives me great joy to write of a victory on the peace front, a victory achieved by the valiant work of the younger members of the peace movement in the United States, which has long known the patient and long-suffering work of such bodies as the War Resisters and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, not to forget, to speak modestly, of the Catholic Worker. As of now, it looks as though our friends, the Bromleys, will not be evicted from the Gano Peacemaker house in Cincinnati, and that the sale of the house, which took place this last summer, will be annulled. Among others, credit can be given to Peggy Scherer, who, in addition to her manual labor here at the farm in Tivoli this past year, had continued her close collaboration with Chuck Matthei in Washington and other Peacemakers around the country. And Lee LeCuyer, who is a tireless worker at First Street, has also leafleted and picketed both in Cincinnati and New York. These are the ones who helped lead the movement which achieved this victory. Ernest and Marion Bromley's patient hard work--picketing, leafleting, resisting, speaking the truth--has not gone unnoticed.

It is a lesson for us all in the peace movement that gentle pressure, constant hard work, a faithful, straightforward--one might even say respectful--adherence to the Scriptural command to love our opponents and to exercise the virtue of hope even when all seems hopeless, offer a great example of the pure means to achieve our ends. Jacques Maritain impressed this use of pure means upon us as in the earliest days of the Catholic Worker. This victory also gives us all a sense of joyful gratitude, not only for the hard work of the young people, but even for those in government office who can respond, as they seem to have, to these persistent, though gentle pressures. Let us pray that this "little" victory will give courage to others around the country to take a stand, which involves a real commitment to the "voluntary poverty" we all talk so much about.

[This text is not copyrighted. However, if you use or cite this text please indicate the original publication source and this website (Dorothy Day Library on the Web at http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/). 

Suggested citation:
Day, Dorothy. "Bromley Eviction Halted". The Catholic Worker, September 1975, 3. The Catholic Worker Movement. http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/Reprint2.cfm?TextID=556]