Bringing Justice to the Downtrodden

One of the first things you notice upon entering off Ferndale Road is a large bin for food donations to supply the parish’s food pantry.

All throughout the large building are signs, posters, brochures, or people advocating caring for those in need—the elderly, shut-in, homeless, sick, hungry, and defenseless. During mass, children bring food for the hungry and give it to be blessed during the offering time.  The food pantry alone feeds an average of 10 to 15 people per day, not including walk-ins who “we just can’t say no to,” said Maureen Ruongrat, who works at the pantry.

You can’t talk with the Reverend Gerry Creedon very long before the conversation leads to social justice and righting the world’s wrongs—specifically Dale City’s wrongs. 

“This parish has a strong sense of community engagement and caring for the needy,” he said. “Not only looking at the symptoms, but the root causes. Why are people homeless? How can we help at that level?”

Creedon works closely with Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement, a collaboration of about 45 congregations trying to address the issues hurting Dale City, Prince William County, and Northern Virginia at large. Specifically, VOICE addresses immigration issues, foreclosures and affordable housing, and access to health care.

“Our parish’s zip code is especially high in foreclosures,” Creedon said. He said at one point he saw statistics saying that it was the highest in Northern Virginia. So Creedon and others are working with banks to modify mortgages and prevent more foreclosures.

This can mean anything from meeting with bank officials, to holding large informational gatherings, to lobbying Congressmen, to having seminars on how to modify your mortgage. Creedon says that the banks themselves are sometimes confused about their own standards and have bad communication between departments. As an example, Creedon told of one member of his parish who was on the phone with bank officials working out details for a modification of her mortgage, and then got a call from the same bank on her other line informing her they were foreclosing.

Matty Lupo heads the parish’s Social Ministry and Christian Life office and spends her days helping people maneuver the complicated systems of mortgages, health care, immigration laws, and DMV paperwork. These processes can be hard enough on their own, but especially for people for whom English is a second language, they can be so frustrating that people just give up trying.

“Banks will tell you to fax in some information, but then they don’t even have a working fax machine,” she said. She said she has gone with people to help them get federal IDs and driver’s licenses and sees them be treated differently and not given adequate guidance simply because they don’t speak fluent English.

When she’s not working with the people in the actual situations, Lupo is talking to officials and government officers about their needs. “I have a passion for helping people who have no voice,” she said. “The homeless aren’t going to go to the Capitol to speak to government officials, so I will.” She works with approximately 100 volunteers and has one part-time assistant.

She said the main thing everyone needs to remember is that those who are in the bad situations are still people. “Realize that could be me. I’m just one paycheck away from being homeless. People have forgotten their humanity,” she said. “Please, look people in the eye!”

Lupo says every day she works to prevent families from either falling apart or being pulled apart. “I help those who are already hurt, try to prevent others from being hurt, and talk to those in power and say, ‘Take it easy!’”

At least 50 percent of the members of Holy Family Catholic Church speak Spanish as their native language and there is also a high percentage of African Americans, Filipino, Vietnamese and other ethnicities. All the priests, including the Irish-born Fr. Creedon, are bilingual in Spanish and English and the church has a regular Spanish mass.

Creedon has led Holy Family parish since 2010, and he says it is one of the most diverse parishes he has ever encountered. In a congregation of 3,500 households, Creedon said it can be easy for these different groups to form their own sub-groups. But there are many who work to break down those divides within the church, which then encourages them to break down such divides in the community at large.

One way Creedon encourages assimilation among the ethnic groups in the parish is by integrating the holiday traditions of various nationalities—such as the time the parish celebrated the Irish traditions of St. Patrick’s Day with the Latino traditions of St. Joseph’s Day together. “It was a great event, with Irish food, Hispanic food, jigs, dancing, it was great,” he said. “Everyone can learn and be enriched by the different gifts we have to offer.”

“If you see that the stranger has something beautiful to offer, that changes your stereotype, your perspective, and broadens your horizon,” Creedon said. “You should model the world you want to live in.”