By Allison DiGennaro
“It is easy to delegate charity to others, yet the calling of every Christian is to become personally involved.”
These are convicting words from Pope Francis, written on June 13, 2023, on the memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, patron of the poor. Pope Francis continued to punch us in the gut with the truth as he stated, “We are called to acknowledge every poor person and every form of poverty, abandoning the indifference and the banal excuses we make to protect our illusory well-being.”
Ouch.
But how are we to actually do this?
Since 2019, the Diocese of Knoxville has helped parishes acknowledge the poor in their midst and get personally involved in caring for them through the Pope Francis Charitable Trust Fund. Fittingly named, this fund awards matching grants to parishes that start or continue a program that gets parishioners out of the pews to “go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”
Immaculate Conception parishioners prepare needed items for residents at Summit Towers in Knoxville.
Immaculate Conception (IC) Parish in downtown Knoxville has received thousands of dollars from this fund over the past three years to support and grow its ministry to Summit Towers, a high-rise, low-income apartment building just a block west of the parish.
Most residents of “the Towers” live with physical and/or mental disabilities and are over the age of 62. The apartments are 500 square feet and have one bedroom, one bathroom, a tiny kitchen, and typically house a single person. You may have seen Summit Towers on the news in the past because of reports of broken elevators, pest infestations, and inferior living conditions. Clearly, the Towers is the “neighbor” for the people of IC to love and serve!
Once a month, the parish prepares a hot lunch complete with dessert (banana pudding is a top favorite) and serves it to residents in their community room on the first floor of the Towers.
The monthly meal is known as “Hope Kitchen,” which started as a partnership with Catholic Charities of East Tennessee in 2021. The parish runs it independently now, but the name stuck because it matches the mission of bringing a meal with a side of hope.
Before lunch, volunteers from IC lead a rousing game of bingo with both practical (deodorant) and fun (2 liters of Coke) prizes. Summit Towers has a food pantry for residents to visit twice a month, and the parish helps stock it with much-needed items like toilet paper, peanut butter, and Vienna sausages.
Another great need is when a person first moves into an apartment. Some people are moving in from off the streets, so they are starting with practically nothing.
IC provides a plastic tub full of essentials for a clean start like a shower curtain, soap, towels, laundry detergent and a welcome note from the parish. With these hygiene and cleaning items, this “welcome kit” promotes dignity and self-respect in the person receiving them.
It sounds simple—a game, a meal, a towel. And it is simple. And it works. The key is consistency.
IC has been showing up for residents on the last Tuesday of the month since April 2021. Despite management and staff frequently changing at Summit Towers, and unstable personal situations causing challenges for residents, the Church being a reliable presence boosts spirits and brings hope. The volunteers who cook the food at church show up every month. The volunteers who lead bingo show up every month.
The volunteers who serve the meal, who sit and talk with residents, who clean up afterward, who donate items—they show up.
And the residents show up every month. They make it all worth it. When asked, volunteers will say that they themselves are far more blessed to serve than those they are serving. Pope Francis said about the poor: “We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them, and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them” (Evangelii Gaudium, 198).
Stepping out of our comfortable indifference, becoming personally involved—these things are hard to do! But once that first step, initiated by pokes and prods from the Holy Spirit, is finally taken, the Lord will guide the next steps and the fruits will come. Let us not miss a chance to show up and embrace the wisdom God wishes to share with us through the poor.
