Parish offers cordial family welcome to San Francisco's hungry

Published: 2004-05-28

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- Weekly Wednesday night suppers for the needy at Most Holy Redeemer Church in San Francisco began three years ago when Patrick Mulcahey responded to his restive conscience. "I'd see them slink into the church hall after Sunday Masses, grab a cup of coffee and pastry, then leave. I'd think: 'Why don't we say it's OK to stay? Why don't we know their names?'" Mulcahey said. He brought his idea to his parish council and convinced the members it could be done. The council cautiously approved a "six-week dinner experiment." But Mulcahey, a four-time Emmy winner and former writer of "The Guiding Light" and "General Hospital" television soap operas, had little knowledge of how to go about feeding the needy. "I couldn't cook, I had no funding, no volunteers, and I didn't know what I was doing," he told Catholic San Francisco, newspaper of the San Francisco Archdiocese. He investigated several soup kitchens and analyzed meal programs within the city, but still lacked basic knowledge of what needed to be done. "Then, God sent me Kathleen Purcell," said Mulcahey. The woman called the rectory and was interested in helping the homeless in the neighborhood. "She wasn't even Catholic," he said.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .