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BY FRANCISCANS
12 Million Free Meals Served
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
SAN FRANCISCO (NC) - “We are
getting a new type of poor,” said the
Franciscan priest who has operated the
St. Anthony Dining Room here for
nearly 23 years -- and 12 million free
meals.
Despite the growing affluency of the
majority of Americans, Father Alfred
Boeddeker said that the lines of those
seeking a hot meal at the dining room
have steadily lengthened in the past few
months.
In March, the daily average was about
1,000; it is now 1,600. And the
Franciscan Fathers who run it say
there’s more to come.
Father Boeddeker, who founded the
dining room, said that inflation and
recent spiraling food prices have
increased the need.
“We are getting a new type of poor
seeking our aid. They include the
elderly, whose pensions or Social
Security at one time enabled them to
live modestly. Now, with inflation, they
are flat broke and unable to buy
sufficient food to feed themselves,” he
said.
Recently, I fasted for a couple of
days and--being hungry enough to
appreciate a good, hot meal-joined the
line at the dining room around ten
o’clock, on a slightly foggy morning.
There were already several hundred
persons ahead of me and by the time
the doors opened at eleven, many more
hundreds had arrived.
The waiting appeared endless and got
worse as the line slowly drew closer to
the food. With some impatience, I said to
my neighbor “Gee, it takes a long time
to get there.” He was a sad faced man,
about 30, and he quietly replied, “When
you’re hungry, it doesn’t matter how
long you wait, as long as you get there.”
An air of resignation was apparent in
the long line, but there was also a study
in contrasts. They were of all ages and
races-brown, black, and yellow-but
predominantly white.
There were the neatly dressed, the
shabbily dressed and the really ragged
poor, young, and old-some in bare feet
or shoes from which toes protruded.
And of course, there were some who
had sobered up sufficiently to be
admitted, but who still smelled of cheap
wine. Lastly, there were the flower
people-not a few looking withered.
Regulars greeted each other with
smiles and bantered about the topics of
the day. Ohe man seemed very much up
on the happenings of the stock market
and breezily observed that it was down
again, to which his companion replied,
“Yeah, I noticed that. I’m glad I don’t
have any money to waste on the ups
and downs.”
For the most part, however, there
was a lack of communication. People
shuffled forward, lost in their thoughts.
Several attempts at conversation were
shut off with a tired “Yes” or “No.”
Some seemed to have heavy burdens
which they didn’t want to share with a
stranger.
Still spirits perked up as we edged
nearer the food. It looked good and
piping hot. The menu for the day
whetted the appetite: salad, lamb stew,
rice, red cabbage, bread and margarine,
ice cream, and coffee.
The meal was served by volunteers
who gave big helpings. TTiey weren’t
there to offer sympathy, but
service-and it was with a smile.
I found a table, and sat down.
Conversation was easy, as hunger
diminished. A young man named Jim
interrogated me about my misfortunes,
which he took for granted. Having
answered him convincingly, he related a
story that has been repeated over and
over again.
Heeding Horace Greeley’s admonition
to “Go west, young man,” he quit his
job as a mechanic and came to San
Francisco. He soon found jobs were
scarce and his $200 savings ran out. He
had hustled on the streets before being
taken in by another youth with whom
he shared one room. He wants work,
but nothing permanent.
“I’m fed up with this life,” he said.
“I’d be better back home, but I don’t
know whether my folks will have me.
They won’t send the fare, so I’ll have to
get it somewhere.”
A middle aged man sitting next to
him suggested Jim seek work on a farm.
“Why don’t you?” Jim said. “I’ve seen
you here many times and you don’t
seem to take kindly to working
yourself.”
The tension was dissipated with the
arrival at the table of Franciscan Father
Floyd Lotito, assistant director of St.
Anthony’s, who greeted us all with a
cheery, “Good Morning,” and “How’s
the food?” We were then joined by a
husband and wife in their thirties. She
was pregnant and before long we had
their life story of misery and bad luck.
I looked around the dining room and
was surprised to see other couples, and
their children. There were also young
students, paying their way through
college, living in ghetto apartments and
existing mainly on this one hot meal a
day.
Some not-so-needy take advantage of
the charity of St. Anthony’s, and the
poor point them out.
“Those two fellows over there have
full-time jobs, but they come in here
almost every day,” one man said to me.
“They’ll probably die with all their
money under their mattress, but what a
way to live. At least, I enjoyed it while I
had it. Now I’m broke, but don’t care.
It’s not that bad. Just getting this one
meal, with a light night snack, I
manage.”
St. Anthony’s income comes solely
from private donations, and many
generous people of all faiths who keep
the dining room going. At least 50
people individually sponsor the cost of a
day’s meals and on the day they have
paid for, the name of the sponsor is
posted.
St. Anthony’s service is not confined
to the dining room. There is also a free
clinic for the poor; and employment
office; and a thrift shop. For volunteer
workers, there is a residence hall. In
addition, a meeting place is provided for
foreign students, and a low-rent
residence is operated for elderly women.
For those who want to get away from
it all, there is St. Anthony Farm in
Sonoma County. The poor who go to
the farm receive agricultural training
and accommodation in exchange for
work. The farm grows some of the
produce used in the dining room and
has provided country living for several
thousand over the past few years.
PAGE 2—The Southern Cross, September 6,1973
A LONG WAIT ... AND THEN THE FOOD ~
Editor Gerard E. Sherry (grey hair and black suit) joins
the long line of people waiting for a free meal at St.
Anthony Dining Room in San Francisco. At the end of
the line he reaches for a hot plate of lamb stew. Sherry
fasted and dressed poorly to experience firsthand what
life is like for the 1,600 average daily recipients of the
meals. (NC Photo by John Wright)
BACKERS FEW IN NUMBER
‘Right to Life’ Bills in Limbo
BY JERRY FILTEAU
WASHINGTON (NC) - Anyone who
hopes for-or fears-a constitutional
amendment to protect the unborn from
abortion is in for a long wait.
Six months after the U.S. Supreme
Court decision of Jan. 22, which
effectively struck down most state laws
restricting abortion, the status of
numerous constitutional amendment
proposals in the U.S. Senate and House
of Representatives is the same-all are
sitting in the subcommittee on
constitutional amendments of the
respective judiciary committees of the
two legislative bodies.
Any proposed amendment must still
survive subcommittee hearings, approval
by the subcommittees, approval by the
judiciary committee, passage by a
two-thirds vote in each house, and
ratification by legislatures of 38 states.
Just a week after the Supreme Court
decision Rep. Lawrence J. Hogan
(R.-Md.) introduced the first
constitutional amendment against
abortion in the House of
Representatives, Jan. 30.
Classified in popular jargon as a
“human life” or “right-to-life”
amendment, the Hogan proposal says
that “neither the United States nor any
state shall deprive any human being,
from the moment of conception, of life
without due process of law; nor deny to
any human being, from the moment of
conception, within its jurisdiction, the
equal protection of the laws.”
The amendment also protects the
aged, ill and incapacitated from being
deprived of life by the United States or
the individual states, and it enables
Congress and the states to enforce the
amendment by appropriate legislation.
The Hogan amendment has since
received 12 additional backers in the
House and was introduced into the
Senate June 29 by Sen. Jesse A. Helms
(R.N.C.).
Two similar amendments have four
backers in the House, and the human
life amendment introduced in the
Sentate by Sen. James L. Buckley
(Cons.-R., N.Y.) has been introduced in
the House and has three backers.
That gives some form of human life
amendment the backing of only 20 U.S.
Representatives-less than one-
twentieth of the 435-member House.
There is another major type of
amendment introduced in the House,
usually called a “states’ rights”
amendment because it would free the
individual states to decide whether or to
what degree they wise to restrict
abortion.
Four different states’ rights
amendments have been proposed so, far
in the House, with a total of 30 backers.
The most popular, introduced by
Rep. G. William Whitehurst (R.-Va.) and
backed by 26 Representatives, reads:
“Nothing in this Constitution shall
bar any state or territory or the District
of Columbia, with regard to any area
over which it has jurisdiction, from
allowing, regulating, or prohibiting the
practice of abortion.”
The number of names attached to all
of the amendment proposals in the
House adds up to 52, but because some
Representatives have attached their
names to two or more different
amendments, the actual total of
Representatives officially backing one
Dr more amendments is only 47 -a mere
LI percent of the House membership.
In the U.S. Senate official support of
a constitutional amendment against
abortion is hardly overwhelming,
either.
Five senators joined Sen. Buckley
when he introduced a human life
amendment May 31. The Buckley
amendment’s basic thrust is similar to
that of the Hogan amendment, with one
important difference: Buckley inserted
a clause making the amendment
inapplicable “in an emergency when a
reasonable medical certainty exists that
continuation of the pregnancy will
cause the death of the mother.”
No states’ rights amendments have
been introduced in the Senate.
So the total number of Senators
officially backing some amendment is
seven: Sen. Helms behind the Hogan
amendment and the six who introduced
the Buckley amendment.
According to a source close to the
situation, there is some expectation that
committee hearings will be held on the
two amendments before the Senate later
this fall.
Since committee hearings on
constitutional amendments normally
take place in the Senate first, there is
little chance that there will be hearings
in the House this year.
And the chance that an amendment
proposal will come to a vote in the
Senate before Christmas is slight.
But right-to-life forces are not
anxious to rush a vote now. They feel
that they have not developed enough
support in either house to achieve the
required two-thirds vote.
Pro-life groups are also uncertain
what form they would like an
amendment to take. Although they are
strongy in favor of a human life
amendment rather than a states’ rights
one, there is a tendency among the
groups to hold back from endorsing a
particular amendment until they have
had more opportunity to study its legal
ramifications and its political chances
for passage.
In the final analysis, the basic
question will probably be the political
one: What amendment, if any, has a
chance to become part of the U.S.
Constitution through the long political
process?
Readers Reply
Thanks from Alaska
Editor:
The power of the pen is well known.
But never under estimate the Christ-like
charity of the readers of THE
SOUTHERN CROSS. We Alaskans have
been given a real lesson in what it means
to be a part of the Mystical Body, or
more aptly the Communion of Saints.
We do appreciate your kindness,
thoughtfulness and benefactions more
than words can express. Your southern
hospitality is only outdone by your
generosity.
The rebuilding of our burned-out
church here at Douglas is dependent
upon our insurance settlement and
financing. But already we have received
so many gifts of altar supplies etc.
(much of it from the Blessed Sacrament
parish in Savannah) that we are not only
able to continue on a temporary basis,
but also to provide for our later
permanent church.
Currently we are celebrating Mass
during the week in the rectory. Three of
the four week-end Masses are there too.
But the main Mass on Sunday is in the
local resturant-bar. “Mike’s Place”.
Perhaps it is not exactly a ‘churchy
atmosphere’ but we are bringing the
Mass to the people. Maybe that is the
only way of meeting some of these
Sourdoughs. Honestly, we do have some
very wonderful people here in Alaska
too.
We are not sure if your amazing
response to our tragedy is due to the
power of the pen, or to the tremendous
personality of Fr. Tom Payne. We
suspicion it is from both. At any rate we
thought that you would be interested in
knowing that we have recieved
donations from over forty readers of
THE SOUTHERN CROSS, plus a
seventy pound shipment of church
equipment and supplies. Incidentally Fr.
Payne was recently our house guest as
he passed thru Juneau. He was looking
great; and just as gracious as ever. The
Editor
As the mother of five children, I have
had the opportunity to observe various
Religious education classes in the
different Parishes of Savannah. My
children have also attended Protestant
Bible Schools, with their friends. My
observations gave me quite a jolt, and
I’d like to share them with you.
My children loved to go to the
Protestant Bible Schools. They looked
forward, eagerly to each new day, as if
it was a great adventure. In contrast,
getting them to attend Catholic
Religious Education Programs is an
ordeal!
The reason for this difference, I
discovered, is that the Protestant
programs teach that learning about God
can be fun. They teach on a child’s level,
which is far more appealing to a child,
than the serious toned Catholic religion
classes.
I am not going to send my children
to anymore Protestant programs
because I want them to remain
Catholics always and grow up to love
the Catholic Church, as I do.
people in Alaska love him; he is doing a
tremendous job up here.
Again, thank you for helping us. Our
Lord will be your reward, exceedingly
great.
Rev. John J. Marx, Pastor
St. Peter’s Parish
Douglas, Alaska
Class
I feel the Catholic Church should
present Religion in a more varied tone. I
feel that only promise can come from
showing children that learning about
God can be an exciting, joyous,
experience.
The methods used in Protestant
Churches, are very inexpensive but very
rewarding to a child. A discarded bleach
bottle, some popscile sticks, and other
such items can make little objects that
children will point to with pride, and
say “I made that in my Religion class
and I’m learning about God.”
Margaret R. Strickland
Guyton
Saint Albert’s Hall
A Day and Resident
High School
Benedictine Sisters
Boerne, Texas 78006
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