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Southern Diocese of < Savannah Contents News 1-3 Commentary 4-5 Around the Diocese 6-7 Faith Alive! 8-9 Notices 10-11 Last But Not Least 12 Vol. 79, No. 43 $.50 per issue Thursday, December 16, 1999 “Light up for Christ” to keep Christ in Christmas Savannah's Knights of Coiumbus Council # 631, the oldest in Georgia, illuminated a Nativity scene at the corner of Bull and Liberty Streets, as part of the Knights' nationwide campaign to "Keep Christ in Christmas." Far left: Canyon Baker North watches intently. Left: the Nativity scene. Above: Members of the Spare Parts Barbershop Quartet offer renditions of popular carols. Photos by Jonas N. Jordan. “Saint Francis would have felt at home at Social Apostolate” Charles Hall stares through the window of the Social Apostolate where Saint Francis of Assisi welcomes Savannah's needy. By Jan Skutch harles Hall stands outside a plain storefront at Liberty and Price streets. He stares through burglar bars at a statue of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of the poor, whose eyes gaze back. Hall, a homeless man battling the realities of poverty and the bottle, knows that when the doors of the Social Apostolate of Savannah open, he will find a home—at least for this day. “I’ll be waiting for them to open the door,” Hall, 44, said. “People here are real nice. They treat you like you are somebody.” On this comer, its home since 1981, the Social Apostolate sits in the shadows of historic Savannah town- houses and around the comer from new townhouses under constmction. Several blocks away sits the Fred Wessels Homes public housing neighborhood. Saint Francis would have felt at home here. Not all who come or call here are homeless. More than half are not. But each needs a helping hand. A lot of activity is crammed into a relatively small area. A thrift shop, emergency relief services, a small director’s office that serves as a clinic one day a week and a soup kitchen- pantry all share space in a former business office. Some of the folk who come here will find their only full meal of the day in the soup kitchen. Others are grateful simply for a shower and shave. Many carry their entire life’s possessions in plastic Kroger bags or, for the more fortunate, athletic tote bags. Some have been coming to the Social Apostolate since Sister Mary Catherine Moore opened the mission in 1968—directed by Bishop Gerard L. Frey “to put people in the pews in touch with the poor,” recalls Mary O’Brien, the assistant coordinator and second-generation chief assistant there. For others, it will be their first and last visit. An almost primitive sign from an unremembered author hanging on the wall captures the spirit of this army of the humble: “Do what you can where you are with what you have.” A hot meal may fit the need. A to- go paper sack full of canned and boxed groceries dominated by plenty (Continued on page 6)