Keeping
Faith
Joe Gutierrez, 70, has
carried his work ethic to the Pueblo Community Soup Kitchen nearly every day
for over eight years.
When he retired after 48 years as a machine operator, a foreman, a
member of the Marine Corps and an agricultural worker, he asked God to help him
stay busy. He came to the soup kitchen, where he works from opening until
closing. He cooks, washes dishes, cleans and lends an ear to the clients.
“My father raised me to work every day, so I like to come
here,” said Gutierrez, a parishioner at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Pueblo,
Colo. “God gives me the power to be in good health and help feed the poor
people and young kids who need something to eat.”
In 23 years of service at the House
of Charity in Spokane, Wash., Carolu Condon has contributed to the
growth in the services the homeless shelter provides. Since 1976, Condon has
served as a cook at the shelter, conducted fundraising and helped start the
shelter’s medical clinic.
However, the foundation of the shelter building is eroding. Condon
serves on the Catholic Charities’ committee for the Shelter 2000 Project
to relocate the House of Charity. “We’d like to have more room for
sleeping in the winter and help the kitchen out with more space,” she
said. The new building will be “larger but nothing fancy -- just more
serviceable.”
When a member of Holy Cross Church
in Covington, Ky., committed suicide in 1983, Mary Lou Gastright
thought, “The priest is going to pick out readings and he didn’t even
know him.” Gastright went to the family and asked if there was anything
special they wanted. That was the genesis of Holy Cross’ bereavement
committee, which was the first in the diocese.
Committee members contact the family, find out about the deceased
and help the family pick out songs and readings they want in the liturgy.
“We try to give the family as much as they want because this is the last
thing they will do for their loved one,” said Gastright, who said the
death of her own husband in 1985 helped her give more to the program,
“because I’ve been in the situation they’re in.”
Gastright, 65 and the mother of eight, is also chairperson of the
parish council and has worked in AIDS programs. She brought part of the AIDS
quilt to the Covington diocesan center in 1991.
Send suggestions for Keeping Faith to Teresa Malcolm at NCR.
Her E-mail address is tmalcolm@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, May 7,
1999
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