Tigers' Casey tells teens to preach with their lives
Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published July 27, 2007
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Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
Detroit Tigers first baseman Sean Casey, known for being one of the friendliest players in baseball, chats with teens before his game July 20. Over his shoulder is a T-shirt gifted to him, commemorating the week during which teens from Kansas City, Mo., and Troy served the homeless of Detroit. |
Detroit — As the Detroit Tigers' first baseman Sean Casey told a group of teens last Friday night, in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi: Preach the Gospel always, and, when necessary, use words.
The teens, from St. Anastasia Parish in Troy and St. Gabriel Parish in Kansas City, Mo., had been preaching the Gospel all week through their actions at a weeklong service project at the St. Aloysius Outreach Center in downtown Detroit. Their week of serving the homeless and helping out at the center and parish culminated with the Tigers vs. Kansas City Royals ballgame. Before the game, Casey took a few minutes to talk to the teens and commend them for their work.
Casey also talked about how he, a lifelong Catholic, does his Catholic readings every day, and promised to give Royals' designated hitter Mike Sweeney a hard time. Sweeney was also supposed to visit with the teens but is on the disabled list.
While the students were waiting for Casey — being loud, as teenagers in a large group often are — third baseman Brandon Inge walked by and jokingly told them to "zip it," causing much laughter. Beforehand, they were able to watch batting practice and a few teens got a ball, including one who was celebrating his birthday that day.
Before Casey left the teens to prepare for the game, the students gave him a Life Teen T-shirt just like the ones the students wore commemorating their week. The Tigers ended up losing to the Royals that night, 10-2.
Before the game Friday, and before Saturday's 13-hour drive home for the Kansas City group, the teens from both parishes spent the week on several projects, including assembling "hope bags" of food, hygiene items and a list of homeless shelters, and passing them out to the homeless; cleaning and organizing much of the outreach center; and hosting a barbecue, one of the things for which Kansas City is known. The teens, about 20 from each parish, worked Thursday serving the early lunch barbecue that included beef sandwiches, coleslaw, baked beans, fruit and cookies.
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Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
Chris Discenna, of St. Anastasia Parish, Troy and Rachael Henning and Erin Hector, both of St. Gabriel Parish, Kansas City, Mo., serve food to be served to the homeless. | Diane Pickert, the Life Teen Youth Ministry program leader at St. Gabriel's, explained that she'd previously lived in the Detroit metro area, and was familiar with the St. Al's Center and its mission as a former volunteer. Even in Kansas City, she and the group's teens often heard about Detroit's struggles with high unemployment.
They arranged a week of mission work with the main goal of bringing hope to the people in the forefront, she said, as well as allowing the teens to see what they can accomplish and to "open their hearts to what God's calling them to do," she said.
Even over the course of a few days, she's seen the teens' responses go from less-than-thrilled to be working to asking what else they can do to help, she said.
Although the teens were busy assembling, cleaning, attending a praise and worship service, and preparing the barbecue, they took time out to attend Mass at St. Aloysius every day, which also served as a lesson that prayer is the most important thing someone can do for someone else, Pickert said.
Even beyond their service work, the teens have shown their generosity through the week. Pickert said one evening they hosted a homeless speaker in Troy, but he was speaking so late he missed the cutoff to make it to the shelter. The youths, not wanting him to spend the night outside because of them, took up a collection for him to stay in a hotel and have a nice breakfast the following morning.
Both the teen volunteers and the St. Al's guests enjoyed the week. Paige Messina, from St. Gabriel, said she didn't know what to expect from Detroit but was excited for the week. "We learned not to judge someone" without getting to know them, she said.
Annamarie Accurso said she felt her faith life was definitely stronger after the week of service.
Kansas City-area seminarian Adam Haake said he enjoyed working with the guests. "You try to find the face of Christ in the person," he said. "You have a better understanding of the Eucharist and Christ's presence in the Eucharist."
Anita Ruff is one guest who enjoyed the volunteers as much as they enjoyed working. "I love seeing these young people here," she said.
Orrie-Etta Walden, another St. Al's guest, said she appreciates that the teens went out of their want to make the guests feel that they were cared for. "I look at it this way: They didn't have to come in to do anything for us," she said. "It means a lot for people to come feed the homeless, to socialize with the homeless."
Chris Discenna, a St. Anastasia teen, said the following Monday that he'd enjoyed the week and that it had felt good to help where he was needed. He especially enjoyed distributing the Hope Bags, which gave him a chance to interact with the homeless, he said.
He said he took with him the knowledge that he'd done the right thing all week, and felt good about his work when St. Anastasia's pastor, Fr. J.J. Mech, mentioned during Mass the work the youths had done over the past week.
Pickert hopes to continue the project next year by hosting the St. Anastasia teens in Kansas City.
Outreach center directory Kathy Lynch explained that teens from various service groups come to the center over the summer. Some are organized groups, such as Young Neighbors in Action, of which the St. Patrick Parish in Brighton chapter was also helping out last week; others are simply parish youth groups looking to help out.
Lynch explained that Detroit is considered a mission city, so for many groups, it's an easier alternative than going to Mexico or another country to perform mission work. Groups have come from Wisconsin and Nebraska, for example.
"They are full of spirit," she said of the teens. "They want to work. They just want to serve the people in need."
Not only do the teens benefit, from seeing Christ in the homeless, but the guests are touched by the generosity of the teens. She said the homeless appreciated getting to sit down and eat a real meal, "like the banquet feast at Cana," she said.
"It's just God in action," she said.
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