1. Home
  2. NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS
  3. Workers furloughed during shutdown grateful for Catholic Charities’ help
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Workers furloughed during shutdown grateful for Catholic Charities’ help

Posted on March 2, 2019 at March 26, 2019 by admin
785 0
Workers with Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Charleston, S.C., provide supplies to assist employees at the Federal Correctional Institution in Williamsburg, S.C. (CNS photo/courtesy Catholic Charities)

CHARLESTON, S.C. (CNS) — Hundreds of people who were affected by the recent government shutdown received much needed help from Catholic Charities of South Carolina.

The shutdown was the longest in U.S. history, lasting from Dec. 22 until Jan. 25. It caused thousands of federal employees to work without paychecks while many others were furloughed. As the shutdown progressed, people felt the financial burden as they struggled to pay bills and buy basic supplies for their families.

In South Carolina, the Catholic Charities’ Pee Dee regional office came to the aid of workers at the U.S. Coast Guard station in Georgetown and the Williamsburg Federal Correctional Institute in Salters Jan. 25 by supplying food, bottled water, household items, diapers, baby supplies, hygiene kits and more.

Forty families received assistance in Georgetown, and more than 200 employees were helped at the federal prison, according to Kelly Kaminski, director of disaster services for Catholic Charities.

Kaminski said the Coast Guard families also received a lot of aid from other members of the Georgetown community. Catholic Charities, however, was the only agency that reached out to help the workers at the federal prison.

“There was an extremely positive response from everyone we reached,” Kaminski told The Catholic Miscellany, newspaper of the statewide Diocese of Charleston.

The Coast Guard station contacted the agency for assistance because the two had worked together in the past during hurricanes and floods that hit the area. Catholic Charities learned about the hardships at the federal prison after workers there contacted the Lowcountry Food Bank, which serves the Charleston and Myrtle Beach areas.

Food was the biggest need for prison workers, so the agency sent one of its mobile units to deliver pallets of food, plus baby items and hygiene kits.

The relief effort for the federal workers was coordinated by Michele Borbely, disaster care supervisor, and Megan Petillo, wellness services manager.

In addition to supplies, Kaminski said Catholic Charities offices in Charleston and Columbia also assisted federal workers and their families with paying rent and utility bills.

Kaminski said she is working with regional coordinators at the agency to prepare for future assistance efforts that might be needed if the government shuts down again later this year.

The website ThinkAdvisor.com, quoting S&P Global Ratings, said the 35-day shutdown cost the U.S. economy at least $6 billion in direct and indirect costs, “including lost productivity from furloughed government workers and contract workers and lost economic activity from outside businesses.”

Related Post

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Poor people from the Amazon have shown that God's creation must be treated "not as a resource to be exploited but as a home to be preserved, with trust in God," Pope Francis said. He celebrated Mass Oct. 27 to mark the end of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, which brought together bishops, priests and religious, and lay men and women, including indigenous people, from the nine Amazonian countries. Synod participants, some wearing their native dress and feathered headdresses, led the procession into St. Peter's Basilica. During the offertory, an indigenous woman presented the pope with a plant. Their presence was a reminder of the pope's rebuke to a bishop who had made a derogatory comment about an indigenous man wearing his headdress at the synod's opening Mass on Oct. 6. Instead of using a crosier made of precious metals, the pope carried a carved wooden crosier that the Vatican said was a gift from the synod. During the assembly, participants described the environmental devastation and social problems caused by mining in the Amazon. Pope Francis' homily about the Gospel parable of the self-righteous Pharisee and the tax collector drew parallels to the situation in the Amazon. It also appeared to address critics who have called the synod heretical. The Pharisee was "the most pious and devout figure of the time, and the tax collector, the public sinner par excellence," Pope Francis said. But in Jesus' eyes, "the one who is good but presumptuous fails; the one who is a disaster but humble is exalted by God." The Pharisee "stands in the temple of God, but he practices another religion, the religion of 'I,' and many popular groups, Christian and Catholic, follow this path," Pope Francis said. "The drama of this man is that he is without love." In contrast, the tax collector's prayer for mercy "is born from the heart," the pope said. "To pray is to stand before God’s eyes, without illusions, excuses or justifications." Everyone is both Pharisee and tax collector, the pope said. "We are a bit tax collectors because we are sinners, and a bit Pharisees because we are … masters of the art of self-justification." The Pharisee's attitude is apparent in "those who are prominent" considering others to be "backward and of little worth, despise their traditions, erase their history, occupy their lands, and usurp their goods," he added. The pope's words echoed the accounts of indigenous observers at the synod, who described a history of plundering of timber, rubber, minerals and other natural resources in the Amazon. That rapaciousness has displaced people from their land and spurred violence, including human trafficking and the murder of people who try to defend their territories. "In this synod we have had the grace of listening to the voices of the poor and reflecting on the precariousness of their lives," Pope Francis said. The "scarred face of the Amazon region," he said, shows that past experience has not been enough "to stop the plundering of other persons and the inflicting of wounds on our brothers and sisters and on our sister earth." The pope's language throughout the synod has echoed the words of his namesake, St. Francis, who praised God through his brothers, wind and air, and his sister, Mother Earth. Nevertheless, the gathering was sharply criticized by some Catholic groups that claimed it was heretical. The critics, who were active on social media during the synod, also claimed that a carved image of a pregnant indigenous woman that was used during some prayer services was a pagan idol. Pope Francis urged his listeners to reflect on "whether we, too, may think that someone is inferior and can be tossed aside, even if only in our words." "Self-worship carries on hypocritically with its rites and 'prayers,'" the pope said, adding that many people who fall into self-worship "profess to be Catholics, but have forgotten to be Christians and human beings, forgetting the true worship of God, which is always expressed in love of one's neighbor." Calling the poor "the gatekeepers of heaven," he said, "they were not considered bosses in this life. They did not put themselves ahead of others. They had their wealth in God alone. These persons are living icons of Christian prophecy." The pope paused during his homily to acknowledge the presence of "the poorest people of our most developed societies, the sick from the L'Arche Community," who were seated in the front rows in the basilica. He encouraged his listeners to "associate with the poor, to remind ourselves that we are poor, to remind ourselves that the salvation of God operates only in an atmosphere of interior poverty." "Let us pray for the grace to be able to listen to the cry of the poor," Pope Francis said. "This is the cry of hope of the church."

Christians must shun self-worship, pope says at synod’s final Mass

Posted by - November 2, 2019 0
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Poor people from the Amazon have shown that God’s creation must be treated “not as a…