June 2005

Here are some excerpts from Keith D. Berger’s University of Portland B.A. thesis “Hearing the Cry of the Poor: The Catholic Worker Communities in Oregon and Washington 1940 to the Present” (April 1992). If I ever get my hands on the original again, I’ll update this entry.
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River Sims, of San Francisco’s Temenos Catholic Worker, begins his ministry when the sun goes down. He walks the streets of his neighborhood, Polk Gulch, doing what he can for the mostly-young, mostly-male, addicts and prostitutes who congregate there.

He hands out sandwiches, condoms, lubricant, long- and short-tipped syringes, and “kits” with stuff needed to shoot heroin with proper hygiene. And, he’s a “presence of grace.”

In 2003, he said that the previous year he’d attended 24 funerals, and the average age was 19.

His blog takes most of this in stride.

River Sims in his apartment, with the infamous “Points for Jesus” t-shirt. Photo: Mike Benedetti.