St. Catherine Church

Some years ago, while living in Madison, I heard that Jimmy Carter, the former president, gave a talk at the University of Wisconsin and asked the question of the audience: “How many poor people do you have as friends?” The question made me think. At the time I knew only one person with two sons that could be considered poor. When that person got a decent job and become sought of middle class I had no one.

Nowadays in Milwaukee I have many good friends who are poor, or as I would rather say, people in need. Some suffer from illnesses and some have very low incomes but they are my friends and I feel very privileged and blessed to call them friends.

Yesterday Brian and I made a home visit with a lady, Denise, who lives directly across the street from St. Catherine Church and office. She is a fifty six year old woman who has suffered a lifetime of hardship. She has severe physical injuries and illnesses and has been scarred by many bad experiences she suffered as a youth, suffered by her son and grandchildren. Once she saw we were open to listening to her she opened up the flood gates of her life and experiences. I noticed she made references to her religious faith as she told her story. After listening for a long while I asked her if she had a Church or religious community she can turn to for comfort and aide. She mentioned that she attended, when she could, a small church nearby but they were really were not a support community. I mentioned there was a very kind priest, pastor of St. Catherine who lived in the Church rectory right across the street. That led her to tell a story of how she had met a woman from St. Catherine’s outside a few months ago. The woman was a member of St. Catherine St. Vincent De Paul Society (SVDP), which we represented. According to her they talked for over an hour and half and the woman gave her a voucher for the couch that I was sitting on. There was no mention of that voucher on her record sheet the central office had given us or she might have been told she can’t be served again for another six months.

Brian and I were representing the St. Catherine SVDP conference but both of are members of St. Benedict the Moor church, the original church for African Americans in Milwaukee or ‘colored persons’ as they were called. She told us about how St. Benedict’s had helped her get her GED after she had dropped out of school, was in trouble with the law and got herself together. It was probably not the Church but another Catholic Church program called St. Benedict that helped her in the 70’s but it did not matter. The Catholic Church was there to lend her a hand when she was in need.

Her physical needs for a voucher where small compared to many other families we visit in the neighbor. However, her need for a faith community was strong. As the woman from the Church she talked to, we were privileged to give her a bit of hope and concern.

The leaders of St. Catherine parish have recently decided to put the million dollars they received from the sale and closing of another Catholic Church in North Central Milwaukee into an endowment for ‘future Church’ use. Some of us had encouraged the Church to use the money for personal works of mercy in the neighborhood which is the main mission of St. Vincent De Paul. Our Holy Father says the main mission of our Catholic Church is the evangelical movement of serving the poor, ill, marginalized, our neighbors.

If St. Catherine Church was to be ask “Who is My Neighbor” as Jesus was once asked. I would say your neighbor is Denise, go visit with her.

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