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Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Merged Warren parishes focus on outreach

by Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 18, 2008

Kristen Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic Volunteer Bill Fowler loads a fridge in St. Teresa's pantry area. Cathy Gasowski, left, is the Christian service director at the St. Dorothy location, and Carmen Dotterer is Christian service director at the St. Leonard location.

Warren — The all-you-can-eat Friday night fish fries, a Catholic tradition in Warren, live on.

That's one of the long-time rituals saved at least partly because of parishes working together, as has been the case at St. Teresa of Avila Parish — formerly St. Leonard and St. Dorothy, of Warren — and its cluster partner, St. Clement, of Center Line. The long-annual Friday night gatherings at St. Leonard, running from October through Good Friday, was at risk of being no more as volunteers aged and didn't want to commit the time.

But after a parish community-wide meeting — including the former Ascension, of Warren, which merged into St. Clement last summer — all the shifts are filled, new people are being trained, and the fish fries continue to raise money for the parish, as well as build community, said Carmen Dotterer, the Christian Service director at the St. Leonard campus of St. Teresa of Avila Parish.

"It's so edifying to see four boundaries of people come together," Dotterer said. "People say, 'What can we do to help?'"

In fact, combining resources, having staff work together, and making community outreach the No. 1 priority has been the focus of St. Teresa and St. Clement Parish since the communities were reorganized this summer under pastor Fr. Michael Gawlowski. Dotterer and her counterpart at the St. Dorothy location, Cathy Gasowski, have been working to build up the parish's outreach programs, with a special focus on providing food to the needy. This year, for example, more than 100 families were assisted for the Thanksgiving holiday, while 140 were given help at Christmas assistance.

"We have a lot of turkeys over in our freezer," Gasowski said. "People just keep giving. People are really giving from their hearts this year. The parishioners are wonderful."

With the area's economic downturn, food has been going out more quickly, so the need is more urgent. But Dotterer and Gasowski have found that because the parishes are helping more people in a newly expanded area, more people are pitching in to help.

Gasowski said it comes back to trusting in the Lord and that He will provide. "That's key in all of this," she said. "The needs are really great this year."

Fr. Gawlowski's dream, Dotterer said, is for the food pantry to be open more days and more hours, with more volunteers to help, with the end result of feeding more needy. "Everything we have here, he wants to see get bigger," Dotterer said.

Kristen Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic Richard Stopczynski, Fred Giertz and Stony Mays, long-time St. Leonard parishioners, are regulars at the senior lunch program.

St. Teresa already partners with St. Martin de Porres Parish, also in Warren, for food collection, in addition to the St. Vincent de Paul efforts, Dotterer explained. One freezer keeps meats and another bread, and a printed volunteer guide shows how much each person receives based on how many people are in the family. For the homeless, volunteers try to save the easy-open cans that don't need a can opener.

The county's senior lunch program serves food at the site, and it's also a base for the Meals on Wheels program. "This is a main Christian service site," Dotterer said.

Gene Lasky, a regular at the senior lunch program, was a member of St. Dorothy Parish before it became St. Teresa of Avila. He attends because he likes the company and how it breaks up his day.

"It's a good program," he said. "You meet a lot of nice people."

He said spending time at the center has also allowed him to see some of the people who come in for help. "I never realized there were so many families in need," he said.

On a given day, people come in to the St. Leonard campus during the morning for assistance from the food pantry, or volunteer with the St. Vincent de Paul program. Also, one wing of the building, once a school, is being dedicated to the St. John Deaf Center, which was formerly associated with Ascension Parish. With the reinvolvement of the deaf center came the return of Sunday Mass to the St. Leonard campus, at noon with American Sign Language translations.

Area seniors come to the St. Leonard campus during the week to play bingo and have lunch, as well as to visit with their friends.

The communities are working together in other aspects to be a united parish community, too. For example, religious education now offers the same program in two different locations on different nights, giving parents an option if their schedule changes.

"We're working very hard to pull this thing together," Gasowski said. "We're working hard to be one family — all four of us."

Gasowski's found that in some ways, the merging of the communities has been a struggle, with people used to doing things their own way, for example. But, "I think we're beginning to do things well together," she said.

She said although working together has its ups and downs, "the good comes out in the end," she said. "God is good to all of us…. It's just been a good experience."