The first day of winter, Dec. 21, the winter solstice, is the shortest day and longest night of the year. For people who are homeless, it’s a night that represents the harsh challenges of living on the streets. For the past seven years, St. John the Evangelist Homeless Shelter, a ministry of the Diocese of Green Bay, Wis., has sponsored an interfaith memorial prayer service to remember local men and women who have died while homeless. The service is part of Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, which has been sponsored nationally by the National Coalition for the Homeless since 1990. Green Bay’s memorial service began near the entrance of St. John the Evangelist Church with a candlelight prayer service and circle walk. A procession into the church featured men and women carrying candles and a pair of shoes or boots representing each homeless person who died in the Green Bay area in the past year—12 people were remembered at the service. A 13th candle was lit to remember all those who died whose names were unknown.
Winter’s Homeless
Show Comments ()
2
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Mike Evans
9 years 7 months ago
Perhaps we could form a national consensus that leaving anyone out in the cold, alone and suffering, is a crime against humanity. The current discussions on homelessness seem to center around who is deserving and undeserving of our compassion. Every life matters!
Joan Hill
9 years 7 months ago
In Boston there was (is?) a project for homeless youth called "I have a name." In Googling it I came across this link about how homeless people are invisible, simply looked past. https://www.facebook.com/CSI.LYNN/posts/1030432283655464
Somehow, even though I know they are individuals, it's easier to not look, to not reflect on "It could be me." Scary. We're all just people.
The latest from america
Pope Leo said that if the teen “had come all the way to Rome, then (the pope) could come all the way to the hospital to see him.”
A Reflection for Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time, by Molly Cahill
As emergency workers searched for survivors and tried to recuperate the bodies of the dead, Pope Leo XIV offered his prayers for people impacted by the latest shipwreck of a migrant boat off the coast of Yemen.
The Archdiocese of Miami celebrated the first Mass for detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz,” the Trump administration’s controversial immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades.