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George Andersen
SJ
| Mr. Andersen is the Associate Editor of America magazine.
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Msgr. Howard
W. Calkins
| Msgr. Howard W. Calkins was assigned pastor of Sacred Heart
Church, Mt. Vernon, N.Y. in July of 1996. Prior to his assignment,
he was parochial vicar at St. Charles Borromeo following a sabbatical
at the North American College in Rome. He was a pastor of ST.
Joseph of the Holy Family from 1982 to 195, and co-pastor of
St. Jerome’s in the Bronx, 1980-1982. He also served at Corpus
Christi parish in Manhattan, St. John’s, Kingsbridge, in the
Bronx, and ST. Matthews in Hastings-on-Hudson. Msgr. Calkins
was born in Manhattan; he graduated from Iona Preparatory School
in New Rochelle and Fordham University before entering Dunwoodie.
He was ordained May 27, 1967 and was named a monsignor in 1990.
Other than his pastoral duties at Sacred Heart, he is also Regional
Coordinator for the South Shore Vicariate. |
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Dorothy Cann
Hamilton
| The French Culinary Institute, which Dorothy Hamilton founded
in 1984, has educated more than 4,000 students and been selected
by the New York Times and Martha Stewart Living as their cooking
“school of choice”. Indeed, through one of her Master Chefs,
Alain Sailhac, Dorothy made the “French Connection” to Abraham
House. Chef Alain had been raised in Millau, the hometown of
Fr. Peter Raphael, and the four-star chef of Le Cygne (and later,
Le Cirque) served Christmas Day meals to Fr. Peter’s prisoners
at Rikers Island. Out of that friendship came the first Abraham
House fund-raiser at the FCI’s L’Ecole. “I was shocked to find
Cardinal O’Connor here, speaking passionately about Abraham
House”, Dorothy explains. “He explained how he had been scheduled
for a 15-minute visit to Abraham House and had ended spending
hours.” That piqued Dorothy’s interest and soon she was digging
through hard-pan and cement, sinking drains and resurfacing
and landscaping a backyard playground for the After-School.
She now serves on the Abraham House Board as Finance Chairman,
has led the current Strategic Planning for the future and regularly
welcomes the children to outings at her Connecticut home. “In
life,” Dorothy says, “you find few ‘adorable” people, in that
rarely used sense of the world, but Fr. Peter and Sr. Simone
are that. They work 24/7 with no comforts through the blare
of noise from the South Bronx streets. Too many people like
to make a grand gesture. I say, take your ideas down a few notches
and you can achieve wonders. “What do we need at Abraham House…enough
of a financial cushion, so we do not need to worry, month to
month. We want to begin an internship program allowing people
to come, live and help as they learn the secrets of Abraham
House and take and use them elsewhere. But most of all we need
space—a new six-story building that will cost $3 million. Now
that would be a grand gesture!” |
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Sister Rita
Claus
Sr. Rita Claus has cooked at more than one Burger King, counseled
at a
Manhattan detox center, been a practical nurse in Appalachia,
made waffles
and vichyssoise at a Belgian cafe, sorted onions alongside migrant
workers,
and this month began two new jobs: as a nurse in a mental health
facility
and as a licensed massage therapist. What is a nun doing as a
"masseuse"?
The Little Sisters of the Gospel, the order to which the founders
of
Abraham House belong, have their inspiration in the life of
Charles de
Foucauld, a French viscount, missionary-monk and mystic who
had a desire to
"cry the Gospel with his life". He sought to be a
brother to all who came
to him and imitated Christ by a life of personal poverty financed
solely by
his own manual labor. So it is that the religious at Abraham
House earn the
money they need for subsistence at jobs in the marketplace and
put the rest
of their wages, along with all their energy, into caring for
the poor and
neglected.
Sr. Rita considers herself a "spare tire" at Abraham
House. She does the
random drug testing of our Resident inmates, runs our Food Pantry,
which
provides staples for 100 families weekly, and otherwise serves
as chief
cook and bottle washer for the program.
Only reluctantly, and always with wry humor, will she tell
you about her
life. At 14, she decided to go to work in her Belgian town,
lasting just
one day in a factory that made Sherlock Holmes hats. Technical
school came
next, but her tomboy skills (such as chopping wood) did not
translate into
doing fine needlework, embroidery or repairing socks. At 18
she considered
becoming a Sister, but before committing herself to the life
worked and
lived alongside prostitutes in a halfway house for three years.
In May
1964 she became one of the first Belgians to join the Little
Sisters of the
Gospel, who now number 70, working in nine countries.
"Because Sr. Amy can't say no" and Abraham House
would run out of a month's
supply of staples in a weekend, Sr. Rita claims she decided
to operate our
Food Pantry. On Saturdays at 5:30 a.m., year-round, neighborhood
people in
need begin lining up in the dark across the street from Abraham
House. At
6:20 a.m. Sr. Rita and Libardo WHO open our door. Bags have
been prepared
with tuna, tomato sauce, Spam, ravioli, chili and beans, spaghetti,
rice,
peanut butter, canned fruit, baby food, dry milk, sweet potatoes
and dozens
of other staples. The food comes from state and city programs,
as well as
private donors like the Hope Kitchen. Sr. Rita uses a $10,000
budget from
the government to purchase staples that fit the needs of the
people on her
doorstep: grandmothers raising children, mothers with huge families,
elderly without work or welfare. Sr. Rita knows and has prepared
for most
of the people in the line, but always new families appear.
On Saturday afternoons an equal amount of food is distributed
to relatives
of inmates coming to the Family Center, and each week Sr. Amy
brings other
bags to people she visits as part of her neighborhood outreach.
Abraham House succeeds, Sr. Rita believes, because it does
not insist on
following a blueprint slavishly: "There is not just one
solution to a
problem," she explains. "What is important is that
we value people, pick
up on their needs, their aches and pains." Sr. Rita's life
reflects that
philosophy. Indeed, it lies at the root of her decision to become
a
masseuse. "People receiving chemotherapy and those with
AIDs need a gentle
touch," she says, ever practical. "Massage increases
their white cells."
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Brother
Kevin Devlin
Brother J.Kevin Devlin CFC, EdD. Director of Student Retention
Services at Iona College. Iona College is located at 715 North
Avenue
New Rochelle, NY 10801. Brother Delvin was a secondary school
teacher in Montreal, New Rochelle, Rhode Island from 1961-1979.
From 1979-1986 he was the Headmaster of Iona Grammar School.
Since 1985, Brother Delving has been working at Iona College
in Admissions and Retention. He is also an adjunct professor
in the Psychology Department.
His Board Afflictions are as follows:
previous:
Iona Preparatory School
Iona Grammar School
Iona College Advisory Board of Trustees
Boys Towns of Italy
present:
Hope Community Services
Abraham House
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George Horton
| Mr. Horton has worked for Catholic Charities for 20 years;
the first 5 were in the Child Welfare Dept., the second five
in Homeless and Hungry and the last ten have been in the Dept.
of Social and Community Development where Mr. Horton is the
Director. He is a graduate of Holy Cross College and the University
of Pennsylvania Law School. He became in -volved with Abraham
House through his service in the Dept. of Social and Community
Development. |
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Robert Murphy
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Robert Murphy was name senior vice president, multimedia
in March 2000. He is responsible for transforming ABC News
from a traditional broadcast news organization to a high-quality,
digital newsgathering organization, producing news program
content on a variety of platforms, including broadcast cable,
internet, broadband and wireless. Additionally, Mr. Murphy
oversees ABCNEWS.com, ABC News Radio and ABC NewsOne, the
affiliate news service of ABC News.
A 25-year veteran of ABC News, Mr. Murphy was a senior vice
president for Hard News for ABC News since January, 1993.
He had editorial, operational and budget responsibilities
for Hard News operations of the division. In this capacity
Mr. Murphy was responsible for all news coverage, ABC News
bureaus, "World News Tonight," "World News
Now," "World News This Morning," weekned news,
NewsOne, radio news, special events and political coverage.
Mr. Murphy joined ABC News in April, 1976 on the Washington
bureau's assignment desk, becomming its manager in March 1978.
He was named deputy Washington bureau cheif in January, 1980,
and served in that capacity through April, 1981, when he moved
to New York as director of television news coverage. He served
as vice president of television news coverage from 1984 until
his appointment to senior vice president.
Prior to joining ABC News, Mr. Murphy was a staff assistant
to Congressman Peter Rodino for the House Judiciary Committee's
impeachment inquiry from October, 1973 to October, 1974. He
was assistant superintendent of the House of Representatives'
radio and TV gallery from October, 1974 to April, 1976.
Mr. Murphy is a 1971 graduate of Fairfield University in
Connecticut. He holds a Master's degree in business administration
from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
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- Julio Castano
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One of the first Abraham House residents in the alternative-to-incarceration
program, John Lopez graduated in 1996. Since then, he as remained
in close contact and, in fact, held his wedding and reception
at Abraham House. Subsequently, he received a degree in engineering
and now he and his wife have two children. They return often
to Abraham House to try to help with the needs of the program.
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Rev. Peter
Raphael
| Fr. Peter Raphael was born in Millau, France. He left school
at 16 to work as a night telephone operator. He served in the
French military in Morocco in the early 1950s and there first
experienced the powerful draw of the desert. He says of it:
"The sky has total purity and the stars are clear. You
can detect their every movement. On such nights I learned the
voyage of the sky, the cosmic animation of the universe, the
encounter between the infinitely small thing that I am and the
infinitely great. The silence of the desert is worth the whole
sum of recorded music. It restores internal truth."
In 1961 Fr. Peter was ordained a Mission de France priest.
The group was founded just after World War II by the archbishop
of Paris, who wanted teams of priests to do manual labor alongside
workers in factories, who often were anticlerical and unchurched.
Since then, he has held dozens of jobs from the Pyrenees
to Appalachia to the Bowery. He arrived in New York in 1970
and at the end of that decade began to work at Rikers Island
and in 1978 became a chaplain in the prison. He and the Little
Sisters of the Gospel founded what would become known as Abraham
House soon after and in 1993 the Parish of Offenders at Abraham
House.
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Sr. Catherine
Quinn, PBVM
| Sister Catherine Quinn is a member of the Sisters of the
Presentation of the BVM currently serving as Congregation Leader.
In the past she has been a member of our congregation council
and has served as Formation Director for candidates and novices
in her congregation. Educationally, she has 3 Master degrees
in Religious Education, English, and Pastoral Counseling. Her
ministry experience is in the field of education - elementary
and high school. For 17 years she served as Co-vicar for Religious
in the Archdiocese of New York. |
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Leslie Crocker Snyder
| As an assistant district attorney in New York County under both Frank Hogan and Robert Morgenthau, Leslie became the first woman to try felony cases
and the first woman to try homicides. She then went on to become the chief and founder of the Sex Crimes Prosecution Bureau, the first one in the United States.
Additionally, she was the co-author of legislation including: New York's Rape Shield Law limiting the cross-examination of victims of sex crimes; the repeal of
corroboration requirements in sex crimes cases; legislation concerning aggravated sexual abuse; and other Penal Law Article 130 (sex crimes) reforms.
After leaving the New York County District Attorney's Office, Leslie became the Chief of Trials at the Office of the Special Prosecutor against Corruption
in the Criminal Justice System. She later became the Deputy Criminal Justice Coordinator and Head of the Arson Strike Force at the Office of the New York
City Criminal Justice Coordinator.
In 1986, Leslie was appointed to the bench as a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Criminal Term. During her tenure, Leslie presided primarily over the highest level "A-1"
multiple defendant narcotics felonies, drug gang/homicide cases, sex crimes cases, organized crime cases, and "white collar" criminal cases - which involved enterprise corruption,
Martin Act (stock fraud) violations and antitrust charges. She presided over the trials of many of New York City's most violent drug gangs, including, among others, the "Gheri Curls",
the "Wild Cowboys", the "Young Talented Children" and the "Natural Born Killers". In 1993, she began a relationship with Sr. Simone and Abraham House, becoming one of the first judges
put offenders in the Alternative to Incarceration Program. She also presided over cases which led to the reform of the private sanitation industry in New York City, in addition to
several stock fraud cases. In June of 2000, Leslie was appointed to the Court of Claims.
Leslie is the author of "25 to Life," which describes some of her experiences in the criminal justice system. Leslie Crocker Snyder joined KBT&F in October 2003.
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Gilberto
Rodriguez
| Gilberto Rodriguez is the Big Brother of Abraham House, a
person who has known the program and been part of it since its
earliest days in Brooklyn. At that time, Gilberto used to watch
Sr. Simone ladle plates of food and hand them out a window to
a line of poor people, often stretching three blocks long.
Gilberto fixes minds, hearts and the boiler at AH when it
clanks and shuts down. He is central to the program's success.
He was born in Puerto Rico, served 18 months time on a drug
charge more than 20 years ago, and now is superintendent of
a church in Brooklyn. Many weekday nights he attends Charismatic
Christian meetings in Brooklyn. He belongs to five such groups
and people in these groups try to support the work done with
prisoners' families at Abraham House in the Bronx. They make
small donations as often as they can, sums that Gilberto brings
regularly to Sr. Simone.
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Martin Ronan,
Jr. ESQ
| Martin Ronan is a practicing attorney specializing in trusts
and estates. He also serves as President of the McCaddin - McQuirk
Foundation amongst his other charitable interests. He and his
wife, Roberta, are weekly visitors to Abraham House. |
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Msgr. Kevin
Sullivan
| Msgr. Sullivan is Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer
of The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. He
was ordained a priest in the archdiocese in 1976 and subsequently
received a masters' degree in Public Affairs at Columbia University
and a Ph.D. in Public Administration at NYU. He has lectured
at both his alma maters and has served on the Notre Dame University
and New School for Social Research adjunct faculties. Msgr.
Sullivan joined the staff of Catholic Charities in 1983 after
spending seven years as an associate pastor of St. Elizabeth's
Church in Washington Heights. |
|
| - Jonathan Svetkey ESQ |
| - Kyle B. Watters, ESQ |
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