Maria Duran on Catholic Radio

The Food Pantry at St. John XXIII Catholic Community has provided the parish with a great way to reach out and serve the needs of the community. For years, the parish has provided food on Thursday mornings (9 am-Noon) to families in the Montgomery-Tramway area and beyond.

The COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to food distributions in March. At that time, the pantry was serving about 200 individuals each Thursday.

Maria Duran, who volunteers as coordinator of the social concerns ministry (including the pantry) at St. John XXIII, said the closure was difficult for clients, many of whom were working families living in the Northeast Heights. But some individuals also came from Cedar Crest in the East Mountains and from the South Valley. "The focus is the hidden poor that we service that are in the northeast heights," Maria said in an interview with host Mary Woods on the Archbishop's Hour radio show.

The inability to serve the public was also hard on the volunteers. "It weighed heavily on all of us when the churches were closed.  My whole team and I were praying that we could figure out a way to open up our food pantry," she said.

*Maria Duran (second from left)

When things started to open,  the St. John XXIII pastor, Rev. Tai Pham, approached Maria about reopening the pantry.  "Father Tai, who is our wonderful pastor, said 'I do want the food pantry open'," noted Maria. 

The volunteers reached out to the community, and clients gradually started to return. Volunteers now serve about 100 individuals on Thursdays while continuing to practice social distancing guidelines. 

Listen to the interview, where Maria also mentions the parish's support for the Interfaith Hunger Coalition. There are other announcements and an interview with another individual before Mary begins her conversation with Maria, starting just before minute 32.  

*Photo: Maria at a fundraiser benefiting the St. John XXIII Pantry and Rio Grande Food Project. Also pictured are Ari Herring from the RGFP, Kathy Freeze from Catholic Charities and Sandy Gaudet, former St. John XXIII pantry coordinator).

A Radio Interview with Katie Morris and Her Work with CRS

On Wednesday, October 24, Catholic Radio broadcast an interview with Katie Morris on the Archbishop's Hour about her experiences working for Catholic Relief Services in sub-Saharan Africa, including her latest assignment in Ethiopia and her first posting in Malawi. Morris also spoke of her experiences in the Dominican Republic and Uruguay while volunteering with the non-profit organization Amigos de las Americas. At the beginning of the interview, she speaks of the influence that St. John XXIII Catholic Community, a parish that promotes the values of the Second Vatican Council, had on shaping her vocation to work in poor countries. Morris is currently back home in Albuquerque, on an extended leave from her work with CRS.


Here are a couple of excerpts from the interview

On her first assignment for CRS in Malawi

"..They call [Malawi] the warm heart of Africa.  And I certainly found that to be true.  [There was  immediate warmth and acceptance from people]  In a country that was profoundly affected by HIV. At that time, the prevalence rate was 18 percent.  It's much lower now. CRS role was mostly working home based and paliative     (minute 28)

On the steps that Ethiopia has taken to prevent the recurrence of the tragic famine that hit the country in the 1980s.
"It's really important to know that famine is no longer a part of the vocabulary in Ehiopia. The government of Ethiopia took that experience from the 1980s very seriously and they deserve a lot of credit. It's a global model--this public safety-net program. Essentially, they identify who they think are the poorest of the poor, the most vulnerable households who can't rely on traditional means of subsistence agriculture to feed their family. A member or multiple members of the family will complete public works or social infrastructure programs as determined by the local government. And CRS and our local partners work with them which initiatives those are or maybe should be. They put in a certain amount of time and then receive six months of food or cash transfers in return for their participation."  (minute 37)

Here is a Link to the audio of the interview, courtesy of host Mary Woods. (You might need a dropbox account to access the audio.  You can access Dropbox via Google).  The first 10 minutes are announcements, with background on CRS beginning at about minute 10. The interview with Katie Morris starts at about Minute 16.

Katie Morris also spoke briefly of her experiences with CRS at the recent World Food Day event in Albuquerque on Oct. 14.  Here is a blog post with a video of her reflection.