Couple shelters homeless
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THIS OIL PAINTING of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha standing with children of the world has been permanently installed at the mission in Caughnawaga, Quebec, where the beatified Native American is buried. (CNS photo)
Painting of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha sent to Quebec C AUG H N A W AG A. Quebec (CNS) - A painting of .BJesSl:d. Kateri Tekakwitha that' was in-' spired by a reported miracle attributed to the beatified Native American has been given a permanent home in the sanctuary of the mission in Caughnawaga where she was buried. Ceremonies permanently installing the painting. "Lily of the Mohawks." were held April 12 during a special Mass honoring Blessed Kateri. The painting by Arizona artist Marlene McCauley has been shown widely during the past 18 years. Mrs. McCauley did the painting in 1974. shortly after her 4-yearold son Peter was cured of a yearlong partial deafness in both ears which had been caused by an infection. Mrs. McCauley. at the recommendation of a priest friend. had asked Blessed Tekakwitha to intercede in her son's case. The boy's hearing was suddenly restored on April 18, 1973, the 317th anniversary of Kateri Tekakwitha's baptism. Ear surgery planned for Peter was canceled after doctors decided it was no longer necessary. . Later. documents stating that the cure has no medical ex planation were sent to the Vatican CongregatiQn for Sainthood Causes. The McCauley family traveled to Rome in 1980 to witness the beatification of Blessed Kateri. She was the first North American lay person to be beatified. In 1985. the family presented Pope John Paul II a videotape of "Lily of the Mohawks." a pageant they had Produced. Kateri was born in 1656 of a Christian Algonquin mother and a Mohawk father in the village of Ossernenon along the Mohawk River in what is now the state of New York. Her parents named her Loragode - meaning sunshine. At age 4 she .w.as,orphan~d a.n~ .. .. .: .
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partially blinded by a smallpox epidemic. She was taken in by her uncle's 'familv. At 20. she fled her home village'to Canada for fear of retribution from neighbors and relatives hostile to her Christian faith. Blessed Tekakwitha devoted herself to prayer and service to the needv of the Native American communit y of Caughnawaga. which she adopted as home. She died four years later. Mrs. McCauley. a painter and entertainer. has made Kateri Tekakwitha's sainthood cause a personal crusade. She has written a book." Adventures With a Saint: Kateri and Friends at Roma." which received favorable reviews from Bishops Donald E. PelotteofGallup. N.M.. and Thomas J. O'Brien of Phoenix.
Priest quits groups PHILADELPHIA(CNS)-The head of Catholic Social Services in the Philadelphia archdiocese hai, resigned membership in two na路路 tional organizations over their pro.. abortion stand. Msgr. Joseph P. Garvin, who is also archdiocesan secretary for human services, quit the National Association of Social Workers and the related Academy of Certified Social Workers. "The pro-abortion stance of the NASW becomes more and more pronounced every year with little tol.. erance for those like myself who believe that unborn children have rights along with those of us who were fortunate enough to born," Msgr. Garvin wrote in letter to the organization's executive director, Mark G. Battle.
Root Problem "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."-Henry ))avi~ :r:hor~au.. ' , . (' .
MARQUETTE, Mich. (CNS) - ''I'm not Mother Teresa. Bob's not Ghandi. We're just Bob and Caryl." They describe themselves as just ordinary people, but Bob and Caryl Bournique have begun to play an extraordinary role in the lives of homeless women and families in Marquette. Since October 1990 they have opened their home to more than 50 single women or families with children, for periods ranging from one to three or four months. They call their home Loaves and Fishes Hospitality House. It is their latest step in a spiritual journey that began in 1984 when Bob, then an FBI agent, enrolled in the Marquette diocesan Lay Ministries Leadership School and met Caryl. Caryl, then a nun, was adult religious education coordinator at St. Michael Parish in Marquette and became Bob's spiritual director. The two became very close, and after prayer they came to see marriage and working together as the path God wanted them to take. She obtained a dispensation from her vows and the}' married in 1986. They moved into his lakefront home on the south shore of Lake Superior'in Big Bay, about 25 miles west of Marquette. They went through Renew, a widely used program of parish renewal and lay leadership, and joined Pax Christi, the Catholic peace movement. They studied and reflected on the U.S. bishops' 1986 pastoral letter on the economy. From those and other experiences they came to the conviction that they should simplify their lives. "We started on that tack, first by just getting rid of some of the extraneous 'things we had around the house," said Bob, a 55-yearold native of Butler, Pa., in an interview with The Upper Peninsula Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Marquette. "Then we got rid of the house," interjected Caryl, who is 44 and comes from Peoria, Ill. They sold the house in 1988. For Bob the next step was more drastic. He resigned from the -FBI, where he had worked for 17 years. "I had grown such in my faith that I knew now that some ofthe things that I had to do as an FBI agent were not in keeping with the Gospel," he said. . He took up nursing as a second career. He became a licensed practical nurse and is employed parttime at Marquette General Hospital. In 1990 they bought a home in Marquette and converted it into an emergency shelter for homeless women and children. Within two . weeks it was filled to capacity, with four women and four children. The Bourniques said that initially they had to work through the idea of letting strangers into the house, but they soon learned there was something more difficult: letting their guests be themselves. "It's easy to let them come in the house and feed them and supply those kinds of needs, but the hard part is living with them and sharing each other's lives," Bob commented. "And the reason it's hard is the reason it's hard to live with anybody," Caryl said. "It's not hard because they're homeless. It's hard because they've had different life experiences." Caryl described their work for the homeless as "an opportunity that God has given us ... part of . \ our ~~9Ie faithj~!1P~ey:'
"We don't look on it as charity, generally. It's just a justice issue," said Bob. "We're the stewards., God gave us what he gave us, and we're supposed to share it with other folks." Families and single women are referred to the Bourniques by local agencies like the St. Vincent de Paul Society. By last December, 14 months after they first opened their doors, they had received requests to serve 159 people. They sheltered 53 people - 30 of them children - but had to turn down the requests of the other 106 because they had no room. The requests for help escalated sharply last October and November, following state cutbacks on public assistance, Bob said. He said the Marquette area could use at least two more emergency shelters. He and Caryl hope they can eventually expand their home from four guest bedrooms to seven, but'they will need volunteer help to do it. In accord with the principles and ideals of Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker movement, with which they are loosely affiliated, Bob
The Anchor Friday, April 24, 1992
said he and Caryl have received no government assistance and do not want to. Instead, they rely on Bob's part-time job and the volunteer work and contributions of individuals, churches and service organizations in the Marquette area. "We've just been overwhelmed with how much people are willing to help us do this and want to help us," Caryl said. "It's like they're out there concerned too, and maybe we're providing a way for them to respond to the homeless."
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