t eanc 0 VOL. 25, NO. 48
FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAV" NOVEMBER 26, 1981
GENEVIEVE PLANfE
Housi1ng thlEt hom,eless MANVILLE, R.I. '(NC) - A goat grazing in a French field more than 40 years ago symbolizes survival to Genevieve Plante. Mrs. Plante, then 14, was fleeing from France with a handful of neighbors as German troops entered the country in World War II. The goat proved to be the only source of milk for a baby in the group. Today, Mrs. Plante is a symbol of survival to modem-day refugees - Vietnamese and Laotians - in her home in Manville. And to this day she raises goats in her backyard. Mrs. Plante's escap1e story had a happy ending. Although German soldiers blocked her wagon and ordered her group to return to their French village, Mrs. Plante was unharmed. She later married an American soldier and left France safely. But she never forgot the terror of fleeing from her country and she is proud to have housed seven Asian families since deciding to open up her home to the refugees two years ago. "I said to myself, 'I have no money, but I have room and I live alone. What can I do?" she said. Mrs. Plante, a cook at Brown University in Providence, R.I., is divorced. Her five children are grown and away from home. "I like people. Why should I stay alone?" she said. She called the U.S. Catholic Conference and was referred to Fr!iends of Refugee FamiTurn to Page Two
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSEnS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
NEWARK, N.J. (NC) - "St. Augustine's not really a church that is closed in anymore, just waiting for people to come to us. We are reaching out to them," said Father Isaia Birolla, pastor of the parish which four of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity have made their home base. Since last June, when Mother Teresa came to Newark at the invitation of Archbishop Peter L. Gerety to establish a foundation, the Missionaries of Charity have lived in the previously disused parish convent in one of the poorest areas of the city. Through their loving works of charity they have sent Christ's message far beyond the boundaries of the church or convent. On their arrival the nuns immediately had the bingo sign in front of the church hall taken down. They converted the hall into a soup kitchen, which in the last few months has drawn 200 people for hot meals each day. They have taken the church outside its walls by going to the sick and elderly in their homes and regularly visiting a detention center for teenage boys. "What the sisters are doing is reaching people and showing a real concern and Christian charity," said Father Birollo. In early September there were about 80 regular guests at the soup kitchen tables, said Mother Premlata, one of the four nuns who Turn to Page Two
MOTHER PREMLATA
20c, $6 Per Year
KENT ALLEN
Feedi,ng the friendless PHOENIX,. Ariz. (NC) - Kent Allen, who six years ago was sleeping on the ground in Phoenix parks, recently donated food from the two restaurants he now owns as a repayment to the St. Vincent de Paul Charity Dining Room for treating him "like a human bei~g" when he was down and out. Allen never forgot how the St. Vincent de Paul Society had been a Good Samaritan to him. So last month he repaid what he considered his debt to the society. He and his crew of employees served some 1,500 meals at the dining room, which has been feeding the poor in Phoenix every day for nearly 30 years. It is run by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a group of Catholic laymen devoted to personal service of the poor. Over the years it has served more than 8.7 million dinners, some of which kept Allen alive in 1975. Allen's days of starVation began when a motorcycle accident left his right leg crushed and he lost his job as a truck driver. Unable to support his family, he eventually lost his wife and children. But Allen was determined to survive. "I had handled my own life in the past," he said. "I was determined to come through and make a success of things." For several months Allen became a street person, budgeting his few remaining dollars Turn to Page Two
give thanks for these people of God