Imagine you have just spent your evening serving dinner to over 140 people in need. Your kids are at home with a babysitter, and you are anxious to get home to them for bedtime. The minutes are ticking by, and you have a train to catch. Suddenly, a woman asks you for help getting to the bathroom. Then she asks you to help her with supplies to clean her soiled clothes. And then she asks you to stay with her as she tries to wash herself off.
How would you treat this person who is standing before you?
This is a real experience, shared by a woman who worked with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago. A video about her story, found here, is only a few minutes long. But in describing her encounter with someone who came to Catholic Charities seeking assistance and was met with compassion, she captures both her own deep faith and the ethos of the organization. “I felt like it was an invitation,” she said, as if Jesus was saying: “Do you love me? Now is the time to show it.”
And as she put it, “the only appropriate answer from a Christian is: ‘Here I am.’”
The story was captured as part of the Catholic Charities People of Hope Museum, which made its debut on March 26 in New York City, kicking off a three-year travel schedule that will take the museum to locations all across the United States. The project, funded by a grant from the Lilly Foundation, aims to engage in “immersive storytelling” that shares stories of “neighbors helping neighbors.”
In order to do so, Catholic Charities has transformed a tractor-trailer into an immaculately curated immersive experience. Among its features are a poverty simulator that prompts the visitor to think about how he or she would react to challenging circumstances and an interactive screen showcasing data about poverty on both a national and state level.
But the highlight of the museum is a series of 42 videos, each of which features a staff member or volunteer describing a particularly memorable person or family they encountered through their work with Catholic Charities.
The videos are visually cohesive: They are all just a few minutes long, and each shows the person sitting directly in front of the camera in front of a brightly colored, patterned background. Their overarching message is also cohesive: Though those featured in the museum are diverse in the communities, identities and types of services they represent, they all demonstrate how positively shaping the lives of others shapes one’s own life in return.
Poverty is a multifaceted issue with far-reaching effects on families and communities. And as Catholic Charities chief executive officer Kerry Robinson said in a conversation with America, poverty is just “one dimension of the challenge before us” right now, which also includes social division and “all manner of assaults on human dignity.” When thinking about the scale of need in this country, it can be hard to know how to help. But the People of Hope Museum urges us to start by examining how we treat each other.
This perspective—about the importance of small acts, not just large ones—reflects what makes the broader work of Catholic Charities so important. As a Christian organization, what matters is not just the work the nonprofit does but also how they do it.
“Anyone can come to any Catholic Charities in the whole country and find merciful support, aid and assistance,” Ms. Robinson said. “I like to think that what makes Catholic Charities so compelling is not just the professional way that humanitarian aid is delivered but the merciful way that aid is offered.” This starts with treating each other as children of God, each born with equal dignity. “Beholding the person, knowing their name, knowing their story…it is the clearest expression of love of God and love of neighbor that I can witness to.”
According to Bill Gangluff, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at Catholic Charities U.S.A., inspiring others to be moved by this spirit of empathy is one of three main priorities of the project. They also want to use the museum to present Christianity as a vibrant, living source of hope. And perhaps most important, they want to encourage others to act with a spirit of generosity and mercy themselves—whether by “volunteering with Catholic Charities or simply by finding ways to get to your neighbors,” Mr. Gangluff said.
The choice to feature those who offer this aid in the People of God Museum, rather than those who receive it, was an intentional part of creating this “call to action.” As Kevin Brennan, Catholic Charities U.S.A.’s Vice President for Communications, explained, individuals were not chosen merely to celebrate their acts of generosity and charity, though all those featured are undoubtedly “exemplars of the Christian faith.” Rather, it is because they are relatable and real, representing all of us.
Though their commitment to Christian charity may be an outlier in our country right now, they are not beacons of hope because they have superior abilities or means. Rather, it is because they are choosing, every day and in every interaction, to live the Gospel. These stories are not impactful because we could never make the choices these people do, but because we could—and because every day we are offered opportunities to do so.
“As a visitor to the museum, you can see yourself in these regular people telling stories of often simple things they did that made a profound difference in someone else’s life,” Mr. Brennan said. “It allows you to more easily be inspired to act—to think ‘I could be like that person.’”
Many of the stories shared do not detail dramatic acts of service. They feature people showing up for work, sharing a smile, offering a listening ear or lending a helping hand. And yet all of the stories are profoundly touching and humbling—bringing many, including myself, to tears upon watching.
It is not the acts of service themselves that I find so moving, but the way in which choosing to serve others opens one’s heart in a way that is palpable even through a screen. Seeing how those featured in the videos were changed for the better by their encounters made me want to chase that profound openness myself. Though the project is ambitious and extensive, the message is simple: The best way to find hope in your life is by trying to give it to others.
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