The New Orleans Catholic Worker House

Last Saturday I spent the day working with some folks who are trying to open a Catholic Worker House in New Orleans’ Irish Channel neighborhood. Started by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933, the Catholic Worker Movement fights poverty, violence, and oppression on a local level across the country through the establishment of Catholic Worker Houses, homes where volunteers live alongside residents in need of shelter and support. It’s my understanding that homes often serve a particular population, for example people living with HIV/AIDs, people recently released from prison, elderly women, etc.

I had dinner with Katy, Joe, Dan, Paul and Sue from the New Orleans Catholic Worker a few months ago and found their goal of taking the experience of privilege and hierarchy out of the act of service really appealing. I’m not a Catholic, but recently I’ve come across a number of faith-based organizations and religious individuals I feel are doing productive and thoughtful anti-poverty work in the city.

I’m still learning about faith-based service work, so recommendations on theory and biography would be greatly appreciated. However, my initial impression is that when guiding principals are both shared and widely recognized–for example, the idea that God is on the side of the poor and oppressed and to serve God is to serve victims of injustice–there’s a foundation of common goals that are useful for community service and anti-poverty work. People also in general understand and accept The Church as a charity or place of community service so it can be easier for religious organizations to gain trust of a community.

The Catholic Worker goal of serving those in need and without judgment or hierarchies is appealing especially because I’ve worked with so many volunteers who come looking for gratitude for their service. It’s been my experience that traveling to a place like New Orleans to volunteer can sometimes reaffirm someone’s experience of privilege. Showing you how different you are from the person you’re serving, giving the impression that their circumstances would never be your own, and creating a divide rather than a sense of common humanity.

I’d fallen out of touch with the New Orleans Catholic Worker group during the holidays. But when I finally reached out last week, I was excited to learn they’re planning to move into a house February 1st. There’s a fair amount of work to do on the place before they move in next week and Dan invited me to a working day on Saturday.

I showed up with no idea what we’d be doing. Joe asked if I knew how to float drywall. I told him I’ve sanded and mudded, but never cut or hung drywall. “Perfect, I need someone to tape and mud some drywall patches.”

Katy gave me a quick tour of the two-story double shotgun. They’d brought down a wall in the front room so that the two apartments would be connected. From what I could tell, the house needed paint, tile, and general interior beautification but was would be warm and comfortable once the interior was fixed up. Joe pointed me in the direction of the drywall patches and I told him my ideas for mudding and taping the seams. “I’ve done this once, like 10 years ago, so whatever you want to do, go ahead,” he said.

And here, finally, after months of volunteering, I found myself in a unique position to do something that needed to be done and that I had experience in. Joe, or Katy, or someone else, would of course have been able to fix the patch (Joe finished all the mudding and sanding himself), but to go into an unfamiliar situation and understand the task felt amazing and was such a difference from the way things were when I first got here and barely knew how to use a saw or hammer nails.

I can see the benefit of my investment of time and I can see myself becoming a better construction volunteer because of the work I’ve done these past few months.

The walls won’t be perfect—they weren’t perfect to begin with, but I got the work done and I even taught Isaac, another volunteer who’ll be living in the house, how to mud. There was a feeling of purpose. People were here, figuring the tasks out because that’s what needed to get done. Volunteering to help the on the Catholic Worker house wasn’t just something to do to feel good about myself, it was a way to help friends who would in turn be helping others.

I’m excited to see what the house will become in the next year. For now, Katy, Joe, Dan and Isaac will live there and try to connect with the Irish Channel community served by organizations like Hope House (a faith-based org that provides a variety of services). Hope House actually owns this property and their experience and connections in the neighborhood will ideally give the Catholic Worker a stronger foundation in the Irish Channel.

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