Category: Houses of Hospitality

Mason Street Musings

From the September 2012 issue of The Catholic Radical. [PDF]. Illustration by Sarah Jeglosky, 1987.

“You are evil!” S. shouted only an hour after he called us “good people.”

In truth, I can’t really blame him. He has a bad temper, especially when he’s drinking, but he’s otherwise a decent person. He came by looking for specific help, which Claire agreed to give to him. While the details were being worked out, he talked at me, effectively slowing down my work on a garden shed behind our house. When I started losing patience, I thought, “S. is Jesus,” but that was a pretty big stretch under the hot sun. Then he told me that he had been writing letters to Jesus. I couldn’t resist asking, “Have you gotten any letters back yet?” Ignoring me, he went on to disparage his family and to praise the Catholic Worker. “They live in a house, but this is a home,” he repeated several times. I feared this was a prelude to a request to move in with us for what must be his ninth or tenth time in twenty years. Continue reading “Mason Street Musings”

Mason Street Musings

Originally published in the April/May 2011 issue of The Catholic Radical.

Ding Dong! “Good Grief!” I grumbled as I dragged myself out of bed. “Who the heck could be at our door at 2 a.m.?” I went into our chilly hall to see a young couple on our front porch.

I asked them in and quickly learned that they are musicians from Illinois who were sleeping in their van in a Walmart parking lot until it got too cold.

“Our van died in front of your house,” the husband said gesturing toward a vehicle jutting out at an angle from Mason Court into Mason Street. “We know the Saint Louis Catholic Worker,” he concluded, as if that pretty much told all we needed to know. Continue reading “Mason Street Musings”

Mason Street Musings

Expect the unexpected. You’d think, after sixteen years with the Mason Street Irregulars, I would have mastered this one rule of Catholic Worker life. As Scott reminded me many years ago, “You want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans.”

My plans for the three days following Christmas were pretty simple. With Claire, Scott, and the family away in New Hampshire, and Dave in the upper Midwest, vacationing with friends and relatives, I was going to stay at Mason Street to assure that the house ran like the proverbial well-oiled machine. Continue reading “Mason Street Musings”

Catholic Worker banking: a question and some answers

The Question

Dear Catholic Workers and friends,

The Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker community was founded in 1986. We did not want to be tax exempt and we did not want to receive any interest, so we opened an non-interest bearing checking account under the name “SS. Francis & Therese Catholic Worker.” Our bank called the account a club account and took my name and two other members of our community as signatories. For the past 15 years, my wife Claire and I have filed a tax return listing our personal income (from free-lance writing and public speaking) and have attached a letter on house stationary telling the IRS that our personal income was deposited in our house account and that we live and work in the Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker along with our four children, we do not receive salaries, but do have room and board which come out of private donations to our community. We also reported to the IRS how much was income was donated to our community and deposited in that account that are Fully-Verified and how many people were sheltered each year with those donations. The IRS never audited us or even asked us any questions.

Unfortunately, the manager of our bank called today and told me that our checking account was going to be closed in two weeks because it is no longer legal to have an account under a group name unless that account is a business account with a tax number different from my social security number. I called the IRS to ask them about this and a very nice woman listened to me explaining the Catholic Worker philosophy and our desire not to be tax exempt status or to receive interest. She suggested that we file to become a non-profit organization without tax exempt status, and I quoted Peter Maurin that the Catholic Worker is an organism not an organization. She dutifully referred to our community for the rest of the conversation as an organism. She told me that there was a form of nonprofit status that was not tax exempt, but admitted that it required considerably more documentation than we currently keep. She suggested that I talk to an accountant or tax attorney. I know neither.
Continue reading “Catholic Worker banking: a question and some answers”

Jan 10: Benefit concert for the Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker

“Keeping the House Warm”

A BENEFIT CONCERT

FOR SAINTS FRANCIS & THERESE CATHOLIC WORKER HOUSE OF WORCESTER

SATURDAY, January 10, 2009, 7 TO 9:30PM

ST. ROSE OF LIMA CHURCH

RT20 NORTHBORO, MA

FEATURING MUSIC BY

KEN STANLEY & FRAN REAGAN

AND

A TALK BY MEMBERS & FRIENDS OF THE CATHOLIC WORKER COMMUNITY OF WORCESTER

CONCERNING THEIR RECENT ARREST & TRIAL

For praying for an end of the war in Iraq

ADMISSION: FREE WILL OFFERING TO CONTINUE THEIR WORK FOR PEACE, JUSTICE AND SERVICE TO THE POOR.

CONTACT KEN @ 978-355-4445 – A WATER OF LIFE PRODUCTION

Workshop: Respecting transgender people living in shelters

“Implementing a Policy of Respect for Transgender People Living in Shelters”

Held at the SS. Francis & Therese Catholic Worker, 52 Mason St, Worcester, 7pm, October 29, 2008.

This is specifically for people who find themselves helping this segment of the population. In my experience, a lot of shelters are thrown for a loop when it comes to trans people.

One of the facilitators says, “This is not Trans 101. This is intended for people who already have a basic understanding of who trans people might be, and who are already committed to everyone’s basic right to dignity. It’s kind of nuts and bolts (what do I do about bathrooms, bedrooms, incidents w/ other residents, etc).”

Worcester Catholic Workers support DCU janitors

Yesterday at dinner at the SS. Francis & Therese CW somebody pointed out that “the hero,” meaning Diamond Dave Maciewski, was on the front page of Friday’s T&G business section.

Here’s a detail from the photo of an SEIU march supporting janitors at the DCU Center:

Also pictured: Laura Suroviak, Catholic Worker Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, and an unidentified man.

Wormtown Taxi points out that the newspaper coverage was light on background details. I think it’s a scandal that neither Indymedia nor the SEIU nor anyone else in the local blogosphere documented this online.

Mason Street Musings

I took a call one afternoon from a friend seeking a bed for a woman named “Nancy.” For once, we had not only one empty bed, but three, so I said, “Certainly.” When Nancy arrived, clad in a skirt, blouse, hat, and purple wig, I was surprised to see she had a prominent Adam’s apple, a five-o’clock shadow, and a deep bass voice. Although we have had an enormous variety of guests over the years, people of different nationalities, religions, characteristics, and, on some occasions, sexual preferences, we have never had a man dressed like a woman.
Continue reading “Mason Street Musings”

Goslow profiles Worcester Catholic Worker community

What a delight to pick up today’s Worcester Magazine and see “Diamond Dave” Maciewski on the cover! (It’s from last week’s Stations of the Cross.)

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The article is mostly about the Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker. Nice quote from co-founder Scott Schaeffer-Duffy:

“People think of anarchy as irresponsibility–but it’s not. It’s about individual responsibility.”

The article also touches on the Mustard Seed Catholic Worker soup kitchen, helmed by Donna Domiziano:

Following Catholic Worker doctrine, the Mustard Seed doesn’t apply for grants or seek state or federal funds.

“Day-by-day donations, that’s how we do it,” Domiziano says. “We live the gospel and it works.”

The only factual error I find was that he misspelled Ken Hannaford-Ricardi’s name. The funny thing is, the T&G misspelled his name last week in an article about the “rosary arrest.” I can’t tell you how much I will enjoy teasing Ken about this :)