November 2007
In her poem Testimonial, Rita Dove asks “how can I count my blessings when I don’t know their names.”
At Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, we see the benefits of the blessings you give and are grateful to know the names of those who support us and those we serve.
We serve about 50,000 lives annually throughout the community’s continuum of need. Our highly regarded mental health and behavioral programs at St. Joseph’s Home for Children provide residential and day treatment to children who have emotional and or academic needs.
Catholic Social Teaching holds all people are made in God’s image and must be valued for their inherent dignity and worth. We uphold that teaching in our programs and interactions with clients.
Whenever a child at St. Joe’s has a birthday, a group of bakers from Queen of Cakes Bakery in Edina bakes a cake tailored to the child’s wishes. Each month, General Mills volunteers host birthday parties. These programs are phenomenally important—in fact therapeutic—because celebrating a child’s birthday says “You truly matter, and we are so glad you were born.”
It does not get any more fundamental or essential than that.
We at Catholic Charities firmly believe we must not only meet people’s basic needs but also change how society addresses that impact poverty issues such as housing and health care.
Our Office for Social Justice works with parishioners to advocate for change. During the last legislative session, tireless advocates successfully worked to expand health care for an additional 20,000 adults and 30,000 children. Our Issue Action Teams presented almost 20 issue-specific educational forums in parishes.
Our Family Services Division served more than 1,180 women through its prenatal program in fiscal year 2007, and our Aging Services supported the independence of 506 elderly people.
Advocating, serving families, providing food and shelter and investing in children are how we allocate your gifts.
But when asked what Catholic Charities does, I answer that we are an anti-poverty organization.
An anti-poverty organization actively fights poverty and challenges systems standing in the way of people making better lives. Poverty requires systemic change, and each of us shoulders the responsibility to make it happen. We must fix a system that traps and forces people into poverty.
We serve about 1.2 million meals a year. Tonight, just as every night, about 1,500 people will sleep on a bed or mat provided by Catholic Charities. While we remain grateful to be able to serve, we don’t find satisfaction in increased demand for our services.
I would be ecstatic if we didn’t need an emergency shelter for families or to keep the Dorothy Day Center open round the clock. That won’t happen this year and likely won’t happen next.
Eliminating poverty is a massive undertaking. We must remember seemingly small steps bring real change. Last year, we saw those real results when our Housing First program moved 39 long-term homeless people moved into permanent housing. Thirty-nine people who lived on the street have a place to call home and the necessary services to maintain permanent housing.
As we gather to celebrate Christmas and the coming of the New Year, we give thanks for all you have given us and all we can provide to our clients. We know our work continues.
Fr. John Estrem, Chief Executive Officer
