|
Parish Celebrates
Blessing of New Food Distribution Site By Ray Dyer OKLAHOMA CITY — Jeanette King said the idea for the Dorothy Day Center was the result of a group of parishioners at St. Charles Borromeo Parish organizing a JustFaith effort after learning about the ministry. JustFaith is a Catholic centered program that encourages involvement in social justice issues. The people at St. Charles took the message to heart. On Nov. 6, Archbishop Beltran helped dedicate and bless the new Dorothy Day Center, along with Father Paul Gallatin, pastor, Father Joseph Irwin, associate pastor and dozens of St. Charles parishioners who turned out for the celebration. Marcus Evans, one of the driving forces behind the construction of the Dorothy Day Center, said the site will serve as a food storage and distribution center for the less fortunate of the community. Working with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma City, Evans said food is purchased from the Food Bank for about 4 cents per pound. In September, parishioners and volunteers put the new center to use, delivering close to 12,000 pounds of food to almost 800 people in Oklahoma City. The 326 individual deliveries cost an average of only $1.35.
The center is named for Day, who in 1933 opened the first House of Hospitality, feeding the poor and homeless in New York City. She is credited with creating the Catholic Worker Movement. Archbishop Beltran praised the center and those who support its mission. “God calls us to do this kind of work,” the archbishop said. He said it’s important that the ministry is driven by faith as it would hold far less value if it were of a secular nature. Archbishop Beltran told the audience
of his visit to Liberia, Africa where his sister, Sister Sponsa
Beltran, a Catholic nun, founded and operates a school for disabled
children. Many of the children have made the school their home,
in fact, the principal of the school first arrived there when
she was nine-years-old. Unable to walk because of disabilities,
Sister Sponsa worked with the young girl she named Annie. She
educated her at the school and sent her off to college. Today,
that young woman, with the use of her crutches, makes her way
each day at 7 a.m. to the school she oversees, a school of 1,000
students. A printed flyer handed out at the dedication of the new center at St. Charles said years ago Dorothy Day emphasized that it is not large projects and accomplishments that are most important in the eyes of God, but the doing of small things with love and faith. Like delivering a box of food to the less fortunate. Or helping to free the spirit of a disabled child by allowing her to understand the great love God has for her.
Top: Archbishop Beltran blesses the new Dorothy Day Center. Fr. Joseph Irwin, associate pastor and Fr. Paul Gallatin, pastor of St. Charles are to his left. Middle: Jeanette King addresses the audience that gathered to celebrate the opening of the new food warehouse/distribution center. Bottom: Bob Waldrop and Marcus Evans outside the new Dorothy Day Center. Photos Sooner Catholic |
Evans
credited Bob Waldrop, director of the Oscar Romero Catholic
Worker House, with providing much needed energy and input into
the development of the Dorothy Day Center. In less than a year
some $94,000 was raised for the project. Much of the work to
build the brick center was donated. Evans said many Catholic
medals are buried in the concrete floor and prayer cards were
placed in the walls of the building. “This is definitely a Catholic
building,” said Evans, an Oklahoma City fireman. 