Warming the Body and the Soul
by James Koelsch
MOSAIC, Fall 2010

What does a priest do when his bishop wants to move him from where he feels called? Fr. Ronald DeHondt faced this question when Cardinal Adam Maida asked him to go to St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in St. Clair Shores.

"I told him that I'd prefer to stay in Detroit," recalls Father DeHondt. "But I'm a priest for the diocese, not for myself." So, he became pastor at St. Margaret in January 2003.

The move was quite an adjustment for Father, who had been pastor of St. Gregory Parish for twenty-two years. Not only was he now in a large suburban parish, but he had to discern what to make of his call to social ministry. Father always had associated the Catholic Church with helping others in need.

This association began during his education at St. Mary elementary and high schools operated by his home parish, St. Peter in Mt. Clemens. When he entered Sacred Heart Seminary after graduating from high school in 1964, his formation here nurtured those earlier lessons.

"There was a certain spirit of being involved in the Church's social ministries," he recalls. "It was a good balance to the prayer life and solid academics."

After graduating from Sacred Heart in 1968, he studied theology at St. Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. He rubbed elbows with missionaries who were attending the university and studying at the nearby houses of formation run by religious communities. "It exposed me to the universal Church," he says.

It also fostered a desire for urban ministry. After completing theology 1972, Father DeHondt let his preference be known and did his year of internship at St. Martin Parish on Detroit's east side. He was ordained in November 1973 and assigned to St. Mary in Redford for six years, and then to Our Lady of Loretto. He returned to Detroit in 1981 to begin his twenty-two year pastorship at St. Gregory. In 1997, the job expanded to include pastoring neighboring Madonna Parish as well.

"Given my background, it was difficult not to have a parish where social outreach is an integral part of what we do," says Father DeHondt. As he discovered, though, moving to the suburbs didn't mean giving up such outreach. St. Margaret had been participating in a homeless program called "McREST," in which churches rotate in hosting the homeless for a few days a week.

St. Margaret's ministry to the homeless would expand greatly, however, when Deacon Ron Channell read a story about a homeless man found frozen in a garbage dumpster. "Deacon Ron asked me, 'Can't we do something?'" Father encouraged the deacon to use the gym as a warming shelter on cold winter days.

Since then, the program, called "McWarm," has grown to offer about one hundred people a warm breakfast, shower, clean clothes and lunch three days per week from November through April. The day shelter is more than a place to warm the body. It is also a place to warm the soul-a place for basking in Christian fellowship and encountering the grace of God. Volunteers lead the group in prayer before meals and offer a short reflection. The parish also has a food pantry and clothes closet open all year long.

Another social ministry has blossomed under Father DeHondt, started by Sisters Noreen and Theresa Tenbusch. Being biological sisters, these "retired" sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary work as a team to orchestrate a volunteer ministry to the homebound and those in hospitals, nursing homes and hospice. They ensure these people receive regular visitors and also keep tabs on their physical and spiritual condition. As necessary, the sisters connect them with health care services and arrange visits by appropriate ministers of the sacraments.

"I knew I was supposed to be at St. Margaret, but I didn't know exactly why," says Father DeHondt. "You just trust the Spirit working in the Church." He is happy that he did.