Detroit parishes, schools lend a hand on efforts to curb crime

Published: 2004-09-28

DETROIT (CNS) -- Even though the murder rate in Detroit has declined significantly since the early 1990s, the city's violent crime rate is one of the highest among large U.S. cities, according to an FBI report released earlier this year. Detroit city officials, law enforcement officials and residents want to find ways to reduce the city's violence, and helping to provide some solutions is the Catholic Church. Through its parishes, schools and soup kitchens, the church is struggling day by day to replace gang rivalries and the drug culture with Christ's message of peace. "Churches come in contact with more citizens on a regular basis than any other institution in the city, other than employment and the city government," said Kenneth Hollowell, who works in Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's office as liaison for labor and faith-based affairs. "A lot of people listen to their spiritual leadership," he told The Michigan Catholic, newspaper of the Detroit Archdiocese. "The church has a very good opportunity to affect that -- it's just a matter of being engaged and informed."

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