More than $370,000 to benefit The Door Is Open, Catholic Charities Men’s Hostel

The B.C. Catholic



Two downtown charities are getting a big financial boost, thanks to the recent Archbishop’s Dinner.

The highly anticipated event, which annually sells out all 900 tickets and features a “state of the archdiocese” address by Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, is a fundraiser for a cause of his choice.

At the Hyatt Regency Hotel Oct. 27, he praised The Door Is Open and the Catholic Charities Men’s Hostel. These centres “fulfill the Lord’s command: I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was naked, and you gave me clothing.”

The Door Is Open, operated by nuns and volunteers, offers 200-450 meals a day and runs other daytime services for the poor and homeless in the Downtown Eastside. The Men’s Hostel, less than two kilometres away, is a shelter with 102 short-term beds for less fortunate men.

“Sometimes they just need someone to talk to,” said Paul Jarjabka, who has lived in the shelter and now volunteers at The Door Is Open.

“I walk up and down Hastings Street, and I’ll hug and shake hands with 50 people in a five-block radius. ‘Hello, good to see you; good to see you again.’ It’s a recognition, someone saying something positive, it’s part of step-by-step getting people back to feeling like they’re worth something.”

Archbishop Miller said the shelter, operating at capacity for the last 10 years, is about to face some hefty bills.

“It will need to move to a new location,” he said. While it’s still unclear where the shelter go, Archbishop Miller hinted at possible changes to its services, including offering transitory housing and expanding the shelter to include women in need.

The move will be “costly, but necessary if we are to provide a safe, respectful, and supportive environment for those seeking shelter.” The Door Is Open is currently undergoing renovation as well.

Dinner proceeds, which amounted up to more than $370,000, will contribute to those causes.

In his address, Archbishop Miller shared some highlights of the past year.

“Ours, thanks be to God, is not a diocese of declining Mass attendance, shrinking school enrolment, a declining number of priests, or financial instability. For all of this, we should be profoundly grateful.”

There were many highlights for vocations; Archbishop Miller ordained five priests and 16 permanent deacons in the last year. His former vicar general, ordained in Vancouver, is now Bishop Joseph Nguyen of Kamloops, in his third month of running his own diocese.

Another 17 men are in training for the permanent diaconate.

Bishop Nguyen is the sixth priest from the Archdiocese of Vancouver to be ordained a bishop in the last 12 years, and the third in the last five, proving that “we have a strong and dedicated presbyterate.”

Archbishop Miller had high praise for the archdiocese’s refugee sponsorship program, which has welcomed 251 refugees in 2016 alone and is “awaiting hundreds more.” Since its inception, the program has welcomed thousands.

Other initiatives in the last year included participating in various dialogues with other religious and public groups: Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ gave rise to a few occasions for Archbishop Miller to meet city officials and talk about joint efforts to protect the planet.

With more than 400,000 Catholics. “We are by far the single largest religious denomination in the province,” and have a voice in health care, social services, education, and other areas.

A “painful concern” of his is the legalization of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, which have “cast a very dark and very ominous shadow not only over health care, but over the deeply rooted values that have marked Canadian culture for centuries.”

Archbishop Miller is vocal about protecting the conscience rights of doctors and institutions, and has contacted politicians on federal and provincial levels about assisted-suicide legislation. He said Catholics do the public a great service when they join the dialogue, and he hopes his flock will continue to do so.

The Archbishop’s Dinner has previously raised funds to support The Door Is Open, as well as other causes such as Catholics Come Home, education for seminarians, and ministry to migrants, prisoners, and refugees.

More information: https://youtu.be/79bhDSfcGtI.