Feeding the hungry. Clothing the naked. Welcoming the stranger. Loving others as oneself.
Volunteers at five Charlotte area parishes practice the corporal works of mercy in a tangible way each week over the cold winter months, through a collaborative, interfaith effort of the Urban Ministry Center called "Room in the Inn."
Room in the Inn organizes overnight shelters for homeless women, children and men from December until March. These "neighbors," as volunteers caringly call them, are welcomed into the churches' parish halls, where they are provided a hot supper and a bed or cot, then breakfast and a bag lunch to take with them when they leave the next morning. The winter shelter program is part of the Urban Ministry Center's overall effort to help hundreds of people each year in Charlotte experiencing homeless and extreme poverty, providing basic services and strategies to help them get back on their feet.
St. Gabriel, St. Peter, St. Ann and St. Thomas Aquinas churches in Charlotte, plus St. Mark Church in Huntersville, all participate in Room in the Inn, welcoming the homeless one day each week through the winter season. The parishes' dedicated volunteers help bus the neighbors to and from the shelters, set up the tables and cots, cook and serve the meals, and stay overnight with the neighbors. They pray, they hand out clothing and toiletries, they help with laundry, and – perhaps most importantly – they lend a compassionate ear towards the homeless, who can be all too easily ignored on the streets of Charlotte. So far the parishes have provided more than 524 neighbors with overnight shelter and it is only half-way through the winter season.
Matt Daniels, director of Room in the Inn, expects the parishes will provide more than 866 beds for Room in the Inn neighbors this year.
"If we add up all the church beds that have been provided so far this season (Dec. 1, 2015 through Feb. 15, 2016) it comes to 10,594 beds!" Daniels says. "This is quite a large number but we still need more church participation to meet the overall need during the winter months, particularly Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. On many of these nights we do have to turn neighbors away because the demand outpaces our supply. My goal is to be able to provide 200 beds a night from December 1st through March 31st! We aren't there but we're working on it!"
St. Gabriel Church provides an overnight shelter on Thursday evenings. Frank Czaniecki, coordinator of the parish's Room in the Inn ministry, has volunteered for more than 13 years.
"At St. Gabriel's Room in the Inn, I gained so much satisfaction and gratitude from the homeless that I decided we could do more. I took over the ministry and wanted change for our guests, so we got beds instead of mattresses, (and now we provide) some basic clothing – socks, underwear, etc.
"I have been rewarded in many ways by the friendships, appreciation and prayers that they say because of what we do. Volunteers were hard to get, but what we do has been blessed with our parish's spiritual and physical participation."
Close to 200 people are involved in some way at St. Gabriel's ministry – driving vans, serving food, making beds, staying overnight with the guests, doing laundry for them, and more. At least six different volunteers join him each week – God's way of dedicating disciples to do His works of Mercy, he says.
"Room in the Inn is my sanctuary, where I can see how blessed I have been in my life. And I get great joy and satisfaction of knowing I am making someone's life better, even though it's a day at a time. My reward has come this year, when my 17-year-old granddaughter Kaitlyn decided this is what God wanted her to do. Every week she shares her faith and love with our guests and her grandfather."
Dorothy Menze assists Czaniecki at St. Gabriel Church.
"I have been involved with the Room in the Inn ministry for many years," Menze says. "Initially I provided food for our guests. Now I am responsible for coordinating the volunteers that provide the evening meal, bag lunches and breakfast food each Thursday evening. We typically host 20 people each week during the season. There is usually a mix of women, men and some children."
All of the neighbors are welcomed with open arms, she says.
"I think that it is important that we care for others in our community. Service to others was a value that I was raised with, and I have tried to teach my children this same value. This year, I bring my 4-year-old grandson to help us make the beds on some Thursdays. It is challenging to explain what we are doing and why we are doing it to someone so young and so blessed, but I feel it is important for him to begin to see the difficulties that daily life presents to so many."
Each neighbor parishioners welcome has a story and is more than willing to tell it to anyone willing to open their hearts and listen, volunteers say.
"Sadly, since the financial troubles a few years ago, their stories sounded much like our own story but for its outcome," says Deacon Joe Diaz, who coordinates the Room in the Inn ministry for St. Thomas Aquinas Church. "It showed us that if we had made different choices or had a major medical issue, we could have been recipients rather that participants of the ministry. 'There but for the grace of God, go I.'"
St. Thomas Aquinas Church partners with Advent Lutheran, Harrisburg United Methodist and Newell Presbyterian churches in the Room in the Inn ministry, providing shelter to 14 homeless people on Monday evenings. This is the 16th year the parish has taken part in Room in the Inn. Last winter, they sheltered 274 people.
"My wife Carol and I got involved with Room in the Inn about eight years ago as volunteers, providing pillow treats (goodie bags) given to each neighbor that spends the night. We did it as a way to help those less fortunate – much as you make a donation to a charity," says Deacon Diaz.
"It was not until I became involved through the diaconate formation that it became more than just a 'donation.' During the years of formation, my involvement grew to working each evening from set-up at 4 p.m. until the sleepover people arrived, usually by 8 p.m. This time included time eating dinner with the neighbors, which gave us time to meet them as people and not just as homeless."
Partnering with three other churches in the ministry gives Deacon Diaz, a Catholic convert, particular satisfaction, he says.
Lawrence Hauser, who has coordinated the ministry at St. Mark Church since 2013, has a particular empathy towards the neighbors he welcomes to the parish's shelter each Tuesday evening.
"I have a 44-year-old son who was diagnosed with a mental disorder at the end of the first semester of his senior year of college," Hauser explains. "My wife and I experienced him being on the streets for about 10 years. He is doing well now, but my wife and I are thankful for how many people reached out to him."
Hauser calls Room in the Inn "a personally rewarding and revealing experience" for the parish's 100 regular volunteers.
"I am sure I can speak for all volunteers: we have all been blessed by the neighbors," he says.
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
‘We are joyful disciples”
‘We are joyful disciples”WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception is Our Mother’s house. Each year, God’s children return to the stunning church which serves as the home base for the annual March for Life Prayer Vigil to end the tragedy of abortion.
On Jan. 27, thousands of North Carolinians, prolife pilgrims from the Dioceses of Charlotte and Raleigh, joined Charlotte Bishop Peter Jugis for the N.C. Mass to pray for an end to the injustice of abortion.
Looking out over the sea of faces young and old, Bishop Jugis reminded the faithful that they had come as joyful disciples of the Lord to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Lord and to ask Him to bless all of their efforts to protect and save the lives of innocent unborn children.
“We are joyful disciples. Make sure that you always remain as joyful disciples of the Lord and joyful witnesses to the Gospel of life,” Bishop Jugis instructed. “It is the love of Christ ultimately which conquers the evil of abortion. We have Jesus’ promise that He is with us.”
He reminded those gathered what Jesus told His disciples before He ascended into heaven after His resurrection from the dead: ‘Know that I am with you always, even until the end of the world. I am with you always.’ The disciples returned to Jerusalem with joy.
This is the promise He makes to us, Bishop continued. “What is more, as He ascended into heaven, Jesus raised His hands and blessed the disciples as He departed from them. And that is the image Jesus leaves with us. His hands forever raised in blessing us and remaining always with us even until the end of time.
Bishop Jugis said that makes us therefore joyful disciples of the Lord. Joyful witnesses to the Gospel of life.
“The evil of abortion is great but the love of Christ is greater and more powerful,” he explained.
“You have come to the best place possible to help you in your work for the unborn and that is the Holy Mass. Do not underestimate the power of the Eucharist. Christ is alive. Christ, who promised to be with us always is here and we must keep our attention always fixed on Him because it is He whom you are serving for the sanctity of human life.”
In the readings selected for the Mass, from Genesis 1:24-27 and Mark 10:13-16, Bishop Jugis highlighted the message of God with regard to the sanctity of life and how the ‘little ones’ are important to Jesus. He is watching out for them.
“We draw our strength and our inspiration from Jesus and our strength from the Eucharist in Adoration and in holy Communion. Never underestimate the power of the Eucharist in all of your work on behalf of the unborn to bring about change. It’s Jesus’ work,” he stated.
Bishop Jugis stressed that it is essential for all of us to be visible, public witnesses to the sanctity of human life.
“We must continue to tell our society that legalized abortion is unjust, a grave injustice to the little ones,” he said.
“We must continue to ask the question, “What about the human rights of the innocent child in the womb? Why is the right to life of the child in the womb not taken seriously? When are we going to correct this grave injustice?”
Bishop Jugis believes we must constantly place this issue before the conscience of our society in every way possible, to continue to ask the question and continue to try to speak to the conscience of our society.
“May the good Lord bless all that you do, as joyful witnesses of the Lord and joyful witnesses of His Gospel of life,” he said at the end of his homily.
At the conclusion of the Mass, thousands of marchers from the Diocese of Charlotte and the Diocese of Raleigh loaded up on buses and made their way to the March for Life.
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
