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BY PRISCILLA GREEAR
Staff Writer
ATLANTA--At Catholic Social Services’ fourth annual luncheon, keynote
speaker Father George Clements urged people in the archdiocese to follow the
Gospel call to serve the lost by establishing parish programs to help
rehabilitate ex-inmates and drug addicts.
“I believe in my heart that we are not going to be able to solve the
drug problem unless we get God involved. We’ve got to do that. We’ve
got to get faith communities involved and it has nothing to do with
religion,” said Father Clements at the Festival of Hope luncheon June 11
at the Georgia World Congress Center. “Religion is for folks who are
trying to escape going to hell and spirituality is about folks who’ve
already been to hell.”
Undaunted by rain, some 500 people, including representatives from agencies
concerned with special needs adoption, offender rehabilitation and prison
ministry, gathered in a spirit of celebration and collaboration with interested
clergy and parishioners. Brenda Wood of WXIA-TV was emcee.
Father Clements, who was ordained in Chicago in 1957, became the first
priest in the country to adopt a child and subsequently adopted three more, out
of a concern for the number of older children awaiting homes. He founded One
Church-One Child in 1981, a program arranging adoptions for children with
special needs through churches. The program has grown to involve 60,000
churches in 38 states, including Georgia, and is credited with 90,000
adoptions.
Since 1993 Father Clements has been implementing the One Church-One Addict
program. This project recruits faith communities to offer love and spiritual
support to recovering addicts with help from public housing and court systems,
health care and educational agencies and substance abuse treatment centers.
Over 800 churches in 31 states have become involved.
Father Clements, whose ministry was the subject of an NBC movie, also began
One Church-One Inmate, a spin-off of the addiction program, to provide care for
men and women who were incarcerated. He now serves in the Archdiocese of
Washington, D.C.
After an opening prayer by Archbishop John F. Donoghue, Father Clements
related the story of eight finalists in a Special Olympics track meet in which
one runner fell down. Another runner, followed by the remaining six, went back
to help him so all could run together.
“Those people taught us what it is really all about. It’s really
not about winning, but it’s about whether or not we’re going to join
together on this earth,” he said. “Everybody needs help and the fact
is that we all need to look back to that one that needs help ... leave the 99
and go for that one that has fallen. That’s what we’re supposed to be
about.”
Serving the poor is the Gospel and Christ expects this of his followers, the
priest said.
“How can you worship with a homeless man on Sunday and ignore him on
Monday?”
He told of a 16-year-old boy he met with years ago. The boy told him of his
desire to be an obstetrician, but soon after he died of a drug overdose. Father
Clements then discovered that many youth frequented a local store that sold
drug paraphernalia. He mobilized a successful drive that resulted in a law
banning the sale of drug paraphernalia in Illinois.
Father Clements urged people to become personally involved, responding to
people in need one by one. At the Million Man March in 1995, a 21-year-old
dealer approached him about the One Addict program, he said. After waiting near
the parish all night, the man met with Father Clements the next morning and
told him he wanted help with his drug problem.
“Unless we get out there and get personally involved, this thing is
going to implode this nation because it certainly has nothing to do with any
race, any gender or any occupation. It has nothing to do with your lifestyle,
with your wealth or poverty.”
Father Clements hopes Georgians will accept his challenge.
“I’d like to see One Church-One Addict and One Church-One Inmate
get started in Atlanta,” he said. “That’s my hope for Atlanta
for the millennium. If we really want to make a difference we always have to
work together.”
Government, with its material resources and staff, is a good partner for
collaboration, Father Clements said, but many of its programs have failed
because they lack the love that faith communities can offer.
Two ex-inmates and former drug addicts testified at the luncheon on how
caring people were instrumental in transforming their lives. Jackie Thompson,
director of Justice for All, told how, as the son of an alcoholic growing up in
terror, he became a drug addict at 14 and began committing crimes until he was
arrested for breaking into a drug store in 12th grade. He served two years in
prison and received drug treatment before being paroled. His parole officer
became his friend and mentor.
“He took an interest in my goals, supporting me in what I wanted to
accomplish. It was through a relationship with somebody that cared about me
that I began to find out that I was normal. I didn’t know that,” he
said.
Donna Spearman of Revelation Seed Ministry said she served nearly seven
years in jail relating to cocaine addiction. Saying she found Christ while
incarcerated and felt freed when imprisoned, she stressed the need to bring
Christ to others. For many years she had walked the streets with churches on
every corner, but no one ever told her about Jesus.
“I thank God for people with big hearts. I thanked God for people who
looked past my faults and saw my needs ... for parole officers that believed in
me ... Because of individuals who reached inside themselves and remembered the
love that was given to them, I can stand before you today not only as a
survivor but as an advocate for women who are incarcerated.”
Charles Topetzes, director of parole for the State Board of Pardons and
Parole, said his agency is anxious to hear from parishes about collaborative
efforts for transition assistance to parolees. The state Department of
Corrections, through its Community Resource/Volunteer Division, and the State
Board of Pardons and Parole have both introduced programs, such as the
Community Linkage Program, to encourage individuals and groups to participate
in helping inmates and those on parole to live productive, crime-free lives.
Topetzes said churches can offer spiritual support as well as practical help
with housing and education. As 90 percent of the incarcerated eventually are
released into Georgia communities, “it is far wiser to assist these
offenders who want to make appropriate changes in their lives to live
law-abiding lives,” he said.
Georgia has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation with more
than 44,000 prisoners in the state prison system. An estimated 80 percent of
inmates are in prison today as a result of alcohol- or drug-related crimes, and
the recidivism rate is 38 percent.
Celebrating the good works of CSS volunteers, executive director Pam
Buckmaster presented the third annual CSS Golf Classic awards to St.
Michael’s Church, Gainesville, and Lewis Massey, president of Directo,
Inc.
Kim and Rick German of Cumming received the Henry deGive Award for serving
since 1990 as foster parents to 10 children through the Pregnancy, Parenting
& Adoption Services of CSS. They were also foster parents with an Alabama
agency and between the two places have fostered more than 30 children. Mrs.
German also co-founded the Children’s Advocacy Center in Forsyth County.
One Church-One Addict executive director Eric Donaldson described how the
program, based in Washington, works with churches. The interfaith program
offers volunteer training for relational and spiritual support teams to serve
at least one addict, and hosts or sponsors statewide and national gatherings of
volunteers, clergy, facilitators and clinicians. Volunteers work with addicts,
hold “recovery revivals” (spiritual sobriety celebrations) and
publish training materials and a newsletter. Donaldson said the program helps
to break down barriers, as churches often have a fear of this type of ministry,
and helps churches to identify and use resources in the community.
“The first thing to do is to commit to the long haul and realize that
this is not easy,” he said. Volunteers should commit to at least two years
of involvement, he said.
Gini Eagen, a lay minister at Corpus Christi Church, Stone Mountain, said
the event gave her a feeling of connection with other volunteers and motivation
to be more active in prison ministry. She hopes to establish the One Church-One
Inmate program. She and a RENEW group at her parish visit prisoners and offer
them support when released. They also respond to letters from inmates.
“I think, in a sense, we’re already doing that type of ministry.
This would formalize it,” she said. “I would like to see more
education for the community that this is the mandate of Jesus. It isn’t a
suggestion.”
For information on One Church-One Addict and One Church-One Inmate programs,
call (202) 789-4333. Call (770) 808-7121 for information on the One Church-One
Child program.
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