KEEPING
FAITH
Michel Sturm was warned when he wanted to work with
homeless youths. One social worker told him, “Walk away from this. If you
don’t, it will break your heart.”
But he persisted, and in 1991 he started Pathways to help homeless
teenagers in Fort Wayne, Ind. Currently, Pathways collaborates with Villages of
Indiana, focusing on kids in their late teens. They are placed in transitional
homes, where they are able to finish high school while learning daily life
skills.
“In the early years, we didn’t have any place to send
older kids, so many of them came home with me, and I got to know them
well,” said Sturm, father of five and a member of the Immaculate
Conception Cathedral Parish. Today, Sturm, 51, focuses his efforts on
fundraising. “But it’s harder to convey how bad the problem is
without putting a face on it,” he said. “So I try to get over and
visit and keep current with the kids we’re working with.”
For Noreen Begordis, one of
the greatest joys of prison ministry is to see the change when angry or
depressed inmates come back to the sacraments.
“It’s wonderful to see how God can work once they open
up a little bit and they turn their lives around through prayer,” said
Begordis, a member of All Souls Parish in Englewood, Colo., who has visited
Arapahoe County Detention Facility for eight years.
A Eucharistic minister, she holds Communion services and meets
with inmates one-on-one to talk and to pray. She has also sought donations to
provide prisoners with Bibles, prayer books and rosaries.
A trip to El Salvador allowed Jim
Mischler-Philbin, 34, to tell his classes at Holy Names Academy in Seattle
that “discipleship is still alive” in the church and in El
Salvador.
Mischler-Philbin, a theology teacher, was one of six delegates
chosen for the 1998 trip sponsored by Catholic Relief Services.
Mischler-Philbin attended Mass in the chapel where Archbishop Oscar Romero was
assassinated. The group learned about the Community Banks program, which
provides loans to poor communities, and met with local teachers to discuss
peace and justice issues.
After sharing his experiences with his classes, Holy Names agreed
to participate in the Rice Bowl program for Lent this year with a special focus
on El Salvador.
Send suggestions for Keeping Faith to Teresa Malcolm at
NCR. Her E-mail address is tmalcolm@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, April 2,
1999
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