Houses of Hospitality

“Implementing a Policy of Respect for Transgender People Living in Shelters”

Held at the SS. Francis & Therese Catholic Worker, 52 Mason St, Worcester, 7pm, October 29, 2008.

This is specifically for people who find themselves helping this segment of the population. In my experience, a lot of shelters are thrown for a loop when it comes to trans people.

One of the facilitators says, “This is not Trans 101. This is intended for people who already have a basic understanding of who trans people might be, and who are already committed to everyone’s basic right to dignity. It’s kind of nuts and bolts (what do I do about bathrooms, bedrooms, incidents w/ other residents, etc).”

Yesterday at dinner at the SS. Francis & Therese CW somebody pointed out that “the hero,” meaning Diamond Dave Maciewski, was on the front page of Friday’s T&G business section.

Here’s a detail from the photo of an SEIU march supporting janitors at the DCU Center:

Also pictured: Laura Suroviak, Catholic Worker Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, and an unidentified man.

Wormtown Taxi points out that the newspaper coverage was light on background details. I think it’s a scandal that neither Indymedia nor the SEIU nor anyone else in the local blogosphere documented this online.

I took a call one afternoon from a friend seeking a bed for a woman named “Nancy.” For once, we had not only one empty bed, but three, so I said, “Certainly.” When Nancy arrived, clad in a skirt, blouse, hat, and purple wig, I was surprised to see she had a prominent Adam’s apple, a five-o’clock shadow, and a deep bass voice. Although we have had an enormous variety of guests over the years, people of different nationalities, religions, characteristics, and, on some occasions, sexual preferences, we have never had a man dressed like a woman.
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What a delight to pick up today’s Worcester Magazine and see “Diamond Dave” Maciewski on the cover! (It’s from last week’s Stations of the Cross.)

The article is mostly about the Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker. Nice quote from co-founder Scott Schaeffer-Duffy:

“People think of anarchy as irresponsibility–but it’s not. It’s about individual responsibility.”

The article also touches on the Mustard Seed Catholic Worker soup kitchen, helmed by Donna Domiziano:

Following Catholic Worker doctrine, the Mustard Seed doesn’t apply for grants or seek state or federal funds.

“Day-by-day donations, that’s how we do it,” Domiziano says. “We live the gospel and it works.”

The only factual error I find was that he misspelled Ken Hannaford-Ricardi’s name. The funny thing is, the T&G misspelled his name last week in an article about the “rosary arrest.” I can’t tell you how much I will enjoy teasing Ken about this :)

Jean Kirkhope: “It’s crazy to think I can fundraise $6,000 to build a house for a family in Nepal. Even if I asked one dollar from every person I knew, I’d still come up $5,730 short. But I’m told anything is possible with God and I’ve always been a sucker for an optimistic view of the world. So I guess I’ll start praying and asking a lot more people I don’t know, too!”

“Please send $1 in a secured envelope OR check or money order payable to:
The Catholic Worker Farm
c/o Jeannie Kirkhope
885 Orchard Run Rd.
Spencer, WV 25276″

Pie and Coffee article on Jean’s Catholic Worker farm

More about this project

Congrats to Claire and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy! Past recipients of the Paulist Center’s Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice include Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Sister Helen Prejean, Father Fred Enman, and Paul Farmer.

Ken Hannaford Ricardi, Claire Schaeffer-Duffy, Scott Schaeffer-Duffy

Announcement:

The 2007 Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice will be presented to Claire and Scott on Sat., Sept. 29 during the 6pm mass. A reception will follow in the auditorium. The Schaeffer-Duffys founded the Sts. Francis & Therese Catholic Worker, a lay Catholic community which shelters the homeless, promotes peace and justice, prays and lives simply in community. The Schaeffer-Duffys’ lives have exemplified faithful living, risk taking, living in solidarity with the poor and leading others toward action on behalf of peace and justice.

Claire on TV

See also:

• Father Isaac Hecker at Wikipedia
• SS. Francis & Thérèse: The first 20 years
• T&G article announcing the award (scroll down)

Bruce, Scott, and a cake

The South Bend Catholic Worker today announced that they’re spinning off their drop-in center, Our Lady of the Road, as a nonprofit.

Mike Baxter announces the plans just before the end of mass at OLR.

They’re actively seeking donations to help them buy the drop-in center outright. You can’t make a tax-deductable donations at the moment, but you will soon be able to. Please contact peterclaverhouse@gmail.com for details.

OLR is open Friday and Saturday mornings, and is at 744 South Main Street in South Bend, Indiana. If you’d care to make a small donation right away, please bring by any of the following items:

• Coffee
• T-shirts
• Small canisters of shaving cream
• Dish soap
• Laundry soap
• Socks
• Trash bags (13 gal and 30 gal)

Grab yourself a cup of coffee while you’re there and hang out awhile.

Are you able to help the South Bend Catholic Worker with a donation?

They need the following items:

• Coffee
• T-shirts
• Small canisters of shaving cream
• Dish soap
• Laundry soap
• Socks
• Trash bags (13 gal and 30 gal)

I think they could also use a copy of the Joy of Cooking.

You can bring donations to their drop-in center, “Our Lady of the Road,” 744 South Main Street in South Bend, Indiana, Friday and Saturday mornings. If you’d like to volunteer at Our Lady of the Road, please stop by and say hello.

Your generous donation will keep Al fully caffeinated.

Last night I cooked dinner at the Catholic Worker here, and emerged from the kitchen to find a huge crowd assembled in the backyard for the meal. My heart filled with joy and I boomed out, “Happy Sunday!”

An Italian, in town for a conference, came up to me afterwards to remark that Buona Domenica is an established greeting, but that he’d never heard an English speaker say “Happy Sunday.” He said that Italians also say buona continuazione (happy continuance?), and buon proseguimento, which translates roughly as “happy follow-through” or “happy proceeding.” Also, they say buon lavorno for “happy work.”

I cooked pizza and white-bean-and-pasta soup. The pizza recipe is mostly from Cooks Illustrated. The soup is a white-bean-and-roasted-garlic soup from Isa Chandra Moskowitz, with a bag of pasta thrown in.

* * * *

This morning I attended the beginning of a Mennonite-Catholic theological conference at Notre Dame. It centers on the document Called Together To Be Peacemakers. This document does a good job comparing and contrasting the two faiths; I recommend it. The proceedings of the conference will soon be available at the conference website.

* * * *

You ever have one of those days when you’re hungover and sweeping out a soup kitchen, and feel like life is a burden, and then a ragged, weathered man sits down at the piano and riffs on “Let It Be” for 20 minutes, and the burden floats away? I love that.

On the front page of today’s Telegram & Gazette is an article about how Donna has closed the Mustard Seed Catholic Worker soup kitchen for a week, because she needs a break.

I don’t hang out at the Mustard Seed, but it’s my impression that closing the Seed is not news; it’s something she does several times a year. I talked to a couple Mustard Seed habitues today, and confirmed this.

“She closes all the time. Why are you asking me about this?”

It’s on the front page of today’s paper.

“You’re [kidding] me!”

So why does this make the paper? The article describes a note left on the door:

I would advise you to open up the doors for the hungry people who come there soon. Thank You.
[...]
If you don’t, I’m going to the newspapers and see what else can be done about this.

Hmm.

Obscenities have been omitted from this article in respect for the fine work done six days a week at the Mustard Seed.