Do With What You Have

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Julie Myers ’09 was in disbelief when she heard Pope Francis mention Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, as one of four ideal representatives of the American people. “When you look at the message the pope is conveying, Dorothy Day is the perfect example,” says the John Carroll campus minister. “Dorothy provided a personalism by doing works of mercy and helping others. It’s simple to make sense of, but hard to do.” It might be hard to do, but Myers, an English literature major with a concentration in Catholic Studies, is doing it as part of the Catholic Worker Movement. When she was a student at JCU, she volunteered at the Catholic Worker drop-in center in Cleveland, where she met her husband, Chris Knestrick. Myers and Knestrick, who both attended McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and received their master’s in ministry, live in the Fulton House of Hospitality in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. Of the eight people living in the house, about half are volunteers and the others are people in need, whether it be economically or mentally. They eat dinner at the Fulton house every night, including holidays. “The community is mutually beneficial,” Myers says. “They’re a part of our lives. They support Chris and I through their time, helping us on the house we’re rehabbing, financially when we were living in Colombia, and through sharing meals with us every night.” JCU students are involved with the Catholic Worker Movement, too. Every second and fourth Friday, from 2:00 to 6:15 p.m., a group of about six JCU students visit the Catholic Worker drop-in center in Cleveland to serve dinner. The center is a storefront that houses the dinners. A slow Friday will draw 50 people, and a busy one will draw 100. “The Catholic Worker is purely grass roots,” Myers says. “It’s not institutionalized. You do with what you have.”

Do With What You Have

January 13, 2016