Catholic Charities consolidates aid sites

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Kevin Sartorius (left), executive director of Catholic Charities, talks with Clifford Lemons, project superintendent of the new Catholic Charities campus at Harvard Avenue and Apache Street. BILL SHERMAN/Tulsa World

By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer
Published: 3/2/2009 2:20 AM
Last Modified: 3/2/2009 3:03 AM

Catholic Charities will enter a new era of service to the poor when its $22 million campus at Harvard Avenue and Apache Street is completed in December, said executive director Kevin Sartorius.

The 75,000-square-foot complex of buildings on 15 acres will bring together several Catholic Charities ministries that for 50 years have been scattered at up to seven sites around the city, often in old, dilapidated buildings.

By putting all the services in a modern, centrally located campus on bus routes, Catholic Charities will be more accessible to people, and will be able to deliver services more efficiently, Sartorius said last week as he picked his way through the mud, concrete and steel of the construction site.

Last year, 60,000 people received food, clothing, medical services, housing, immigration help and professional counseling from Catholic Charities, the social services arm of the Diocese of Tulsa.

The new campus will have expanded services.

A commercial kitchen will allow hot meals to be served on site or frozen for delivery elsewhere.

Eight classrooms will provide education programs in nutrition, basic living skills, child care and English as a second language.

A group of Tulsa dentists have agreed to operate a free dental clinic inside the medical clinic.

The medical clinic will be in a partnership with the St. Francis Health System so that after the clinic has diagnosed a serious problem, additional care will

be available.

The steel buildings are only part of the story, Sartorius said.

The real story, he said, will be the hundreds of staff and volunteers who will work in the buildings to help meet the needs of Tulsa's poor.

"Very often their greatest need is not physical, it's spiritual. That's the humbling part; it's only God who can truly help them.

"The real problem is when people are not in a right relationship with God. We try to take a holistic approach," he said.

For example, he said, pregnancy in a young, unmarried girl is a symptom of other life issues that need to be addressed in counseling.

Sartorius said that only 10 percent of Catholic Charities clients are Catholic.

"We're in it to serve the poor. We're here to reveal Christ. We realize that for many people, that will not be in the Catholic Church."

He said Catholic Charities does a lot of work with immigrants, because both the immigrants and the government trust them.

The new campus was built with donations from 4,000 people and raised by 500 volunteer solicitors in 70 churches across the diocese.

More than $15 million of the pledges has been collected. The fundraising included a $3 million endowment to provide for long-term maintenance.

"There's no reason these buildings can't still be serving the poor 200 years from now," Sartorius said.

The only Catholic Charities ministry in Tulsa that will not move into the new facility is the St. Joseph Residence, which provides hospice care for people with HIV/AIDS.

Bill Sherman 581-8398
bill.sherman@tulsaworld.com

By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer

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rogerq, Pyeongtaek, South Korea (last year)

This seems to be a more practical way of helping the poor than building a shack, as an analogy, inside a building and buying $5,000 worth of books about that shack.

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Diana D, madill (last year)

catholic charities is the biggest provider for aid in this country outside DHS, and is a worthy charity, and its a priviledge to be a donor.

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bearway, Jenks (last year)

Nordic,

Actually the Oklahoma State Government, through welfare and Food Stamps gives more to illegals than Catholic Charities. Who is the leading provider of assistance to get those same illegals, legal? Catholic Charities.

Does Catholic Charities giving money to poor white folk mean they are promoting skinhead racists?

It seems the only group you are allowed to hate any more are the Catholics.

I wonder how you will feel if the Catholic Hospitals are forced to give abortions and decide to go out of the health care business rather than murder innocents.

Gotta love folks who hate so much they can't see beyond their bigotry.

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