Catholic Charities’ head touts agency

ORONO — The Rev. Fred Kammer called Catholic Charities USA, which spent $2.1 billion to serve 10.6 million people in 1997, the Avis of nonprofit social service agencies — second only to the YMCA.

People know about the hospitals, and the schools, he pointed out, but they’re not as familiar with Catholic Charities, and they should be.

Kammer, the executive director of the Virginia-based agency, was in Orono Tuesday for the first day of a three-day conference of Catholic Charities Maine board members, employees, priests, and both leaders of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Bishop Joseph Gerry and Auxiliary Bishop Michael Cote.

The organization’s “vision of caring” was the focus of remarks by Kammer, who is a Jesuit priest, author and activist.

Programs carried out by agencies around the country vary, said Kammer, who praised the work of the Maine program, which served 36,000 people and spent $18 million in 1997. The program has 712 paid staff and 772 volunteers.

Shelters, counseling, day care, food cupboards, help for unwed mothers, case management, services to the elderly, support for refugees, supervision of juveniles in the court corrections system, and treatment for the addicted compose many of the programs nationwide, but it all has to be connected to the mission, he said, “why we do what we do.”

In the United States, the roots go back further than the founding of the National Catholic Conference of Catholic Charities in 1910, back to at least 1727, when six Ursuline nuns in New Orleans started an orphanage, a facility for “women of the streets,” and a health care facility.

But even more, Kammer said, “the roots go back to the Old Testament,” where communities were aware of their responsibilities to the Anawim, a Hebrew term meaning “the little ones” or “those who cry out to God for help.”

The Jews knew of their obligation to help three categories of people in particular — widows, orphans and strangers, a term encompassing not only foreigners but anyone who was seen as different or left out. These days, he said, it would include the poor, refugees, minorities, people with illness or disabilities, and many others.

The priest noted that he once served on a panel with a representative of Islam and another of Judaism, and all three people cited the same traditions.

Kammer noted that Judaism has a term for justice, but none for charity. He quoted a Rev. John Donahue, “For a devout Jew, without doing justice, God remains unknown.”

Jesus brings those concepts forward in the New Testament, Kammer said, quoting the well-known “Whatsoever you did for the least of my sisters and brothers, you did for me,” from Matthew.

Primarily, Kammer emphasized a passage from the Gospel of John which recalls a conversation between Jesus and his disciple Simon Peter.

Jesus asked Peter three times whether he loved him, prompting Peter to say, “Yes, Lord, you know that I do.” Jesus’ responses were the memorable “Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.”

Those verses cover the mission of Catholic Charities, Kammer said, and the breadth of the agency’s work. It is a mission that can be explained at length, he said, and one that can also be summed up in a sound bite: “Supporting families. Fighting poverty. Building community.”

It is work that also incorporates advocacy, he said, a response to the fact that it’s not enough to operate soup kitchens. It’s also important “to ask why there are so many hungry in one of the richest nations in the world.”

Catholic Charities programs are effective and financially responsible, Kammer said, and even if the public knows little about the agency, the goverment sees its worth. In fact, program funding from federal, state and other governmental bodies make up 64 percent of Catholic Charities’ budget nationwide. The government “contracts” with the agency to provide various services.

United Way funding is also vital, he said, as is the money that comes from stewardship appeals through the parishes, and from private contributions.

“Tell the public your services work,” Kammer encouraged those attending the conference. “People are getting back on their feet.”

And remember, he said, “if you want to preach the Gospel in the late 20th century, you have to do justice.”