Author: Daniel

Before my 2021 trip begins (and even during it), I have a day job as editor-in-chief of Metal Center News magazine. You’re forgiven for never having heard of it; you won’t find it on your local newsstand. MCN, as we shorten it without creativity, is a trade publication devoted to metal service centers.

Again, you’re excused for not knowing what a metal service center is. A metal service center is a distribution company that buys metal, such as steel, aluminum and copper, from the companies that make the metal (known as mills, including companies such as U.S. Steel, which you probably have heard of) and distribute it to smaller customers. They’re something like a wholesaler, though they often perform some work on the metal before shipping it to end users.

This, of course, is at least 32 more words than just about any reader cares to know about the metal distribution industry, so I’ll stop explaining the business and start explaining why I’m writing about it here. Well, for the first time since I started this project, my day job and my venture are coming into contact.

This week, I received a news release from my good friends at Petersen Aluminum Co., a distributor and manufacturer of aluminum products for the metal construction industry. Petersen was calling attention to the most recent project where its metal roofing products were used: St. Patrick’s Church in Galveston, Texas.

As you might know, sitting in Galveston leaves St. Patrick’s vulnerable to the storms that rise up from the Gulf of Mexico. The first church building was lost in 1871, just one year after construction, then its rebuilt church lost a spire in the Great Hurricane of 1900.

In 1905, the church heeded the call of the city of Galveston that every building should be raised to prevent future flood damage, and the five inches it was boosted almost certainly saved it during the devastation of Hurricane Ike in 2008.

Thus, when it was time to replace its roof, the church opted for the metal roofing panels used by Petersen, on display below.

I don’t know when, or if, my two worlds will collide again, so I thought I’d take advantage of this chance to share it here. Best of luck with your new roof, St. Pat’s.

Sunday’s Mass at Nativity of Our Savior took me somewhere I’d never been before: to the lectern, to speak to my fellow parishioners.

I was tasked with speaking as a representative of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the group I joined last year. At each of our three Masses, one of us was asked to address the parish about St. Vincent de Paul and the upcoming Walk for the Poor on Sept. 28. Unfortunately, only two of us got to deliver our remarks, as the visiting priest for Saturday’s Mass got his signals crossed and didn’t call up my SVDP colleague Michelle to speak.

It was a nice opportunity, and my remarks seemed to be well received. I hope my strong belief in the mission of SVDP was conveyed to the Nativity parishioners, and what a wonderful opportunity it is to serve in this ministry. I know I speak for my fellow members that we’d love to see a few more participants.

I also encourage anyone reading this to consider getting involved in your parish’s Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Or, consider starting one if you belong to one of the many parishes that don’t currently have one. It can be a life-changing experience, for you and the community members you serve.

Until then, please consider supporting your local Friends of the Poor Walk, scheduled nationwide on Sept. 28.

Here are my remarks to the parish:

Hello. My name is Dan Markham. I’m a parishioner here at Nativity. I come to you today as a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a group whose purpose is to serve the poor.

I joined St. Vincent de Paul a little more than a year ago, and it has been one of the most transformative events of my life. I serve as one of the members of the Home Visit team, sitting down with our clients to discuss their situations, and how we can help them.

Serving with St. Vincent de Paul quickly quashes any misconceptions one has about poverty. The people we help are not lazy individuals just looking to live off the hard work of others. These are people who have been hit with a health crisis that knocks them out of work. Or someone whose life is turned upside down by a death that eliminates a care provider or employer. Or a single mom whose paycheck is mostly consumed by child-care costs. These are the working poor. They are our neighbors. And they are in need.

And we are helping them. Our annual giving ranks second among all parishes in Northwest Indiana, and no parish provides more rental assistance than we do.

These numbers are a testament to two things: first, the support of you, the parishioners of Nativity, as well as the tremendous commitment from Father Kevin. He truly believes in our mission and our ministry, and will keep it front and center. Sadly, it also tells of the tremendous need in our community.

There are many ways you can help. You can contribute financially, whenever possible, through the envelopes you receive each month, or at our table in the foyer. Our capacity to help our neighbors is entirely dependent on how much we have available at a given moment. And those of us on the Home Visit team like nothing more than to see our balance at the highest level, knowing we can provide the maximum assistance to our clients.

Second, we would love you to join our ranks at SVDP. We’re a small group that meets the first and third Mondays of the month at 6:30 p.m. in the Cana room. We can absolutely use more volunteers, and I can promise it’s a fulfilling experience. Sitting down with a client in need is not the easiest thing you can do, but helping a family stay in its home, or keep the lights on, or ensure a child does not go hungry, is absolutely one of the most rewarding.

Finally, we invite you to participate, in some way, in the national Friends of the Poor Walk, scheduled from 9 a.m.-11 a.m. Sept. 28 at Gabbis Arboretum, formerly Taltree. More information is at our table.

There are few things clearer in the Bible than Christ’s commitment to the poor, the hungry, the infirm:

“Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’”  

We don’t ask you sell everything you own. But we implore you to look into your hearts and give what you can to aid us in our mission.

Thank you.

Visitors to Nativity of Our Savior, my home parish in Portage, Ind., were greeted with an unusual sight last weekend. The steps to the altar were lined with white crosses, similar to what you’d find in military graveyards.

Closer inspection showed each of the crosses bore the name of a city that had been the victim of mass shootings. Two additional crosses were there for nearby Gary and Chicago, which has avoided mass shootings but suffer gun-related homicides with all-too-much frequency.

It was a powerful image, and a sobering reminder of the pain that’s inflicted on communities almost daily, whether that’s in a single-shooter event, or those lives lost just one at a time.

I don’t know the answer to the scourge of gun violence. Nor do I imagine that Father Kevin McCarthy does either. But it is a subject that demands our attention, and hopefully that vigilant attention and concern can help in the pursuit of a solution.

A cross identifying the 11 killed at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, one of several mass shootings to occur in places of worship.

Saturday brought my wife and to Hamilton, Ohio, as we once engaged in our regular game of “Where are we going to live next year?” The city of 62,000 sits north of Cincinnati on the Whitewater River.

After driving around town, and somewhat limited in our ability to traipse by foot, we found ourselves with time to kill. Thus, it was quite lucky to discover Mass was about to begin at St. Julie Billiart, located just across the street from the unfortunately spelled Marcum Park. St. Julie’s was a gorgeous facility, but it was the opening song that made the biggest impression on me.

The song was a Polish carol titled Zlobie Lezy, or Infant Holy, Infant Lowly. But it wasn’t that version sung on Saturday. This version went like this:

Christ you spoke to us of children: “Let the children come to me
Do not stop them, for the kingdom is for little ones like these
God we grieve now as our nation falls its moral obligation to receive the refugees

I looked down, and sure enough, the lyrics were written in 2019, by Caroly Winfrey Gillette. This was not a song that just happened to match our world today, but was clearly written in response to the ongoing situation on the border.

I was surprised, and impressed. Regardless where one stands on immigration, there should be no dispute among Catholics about the treatment of the children in our care by our government. Jesus’s teachings on the subject of how we as Christians should treat the stranger, the refugee, the immigrant, are unmistakable. I was glad to see St. Julie Billiart and Father Robert Muhelenkamp unafraid to affirm that.

A few hours before we gathered for Mass, 20 people in El Paso were killed in one of the deadliest shootings in American history. By all appearances, the killer was motivated by anti-immigrant views.

As a country, we have to be better. And as Catholics following the words of Christ, we ought to lead the way.

As noted here a few weeks back, late May took me to Baltimore to see my oldest son’s graduation from college. Though I flew in, I made the 10-plus hour drive home in his car.

Since I started traveling to Charm City back in 2014, I’ve long wanted to stop at one of the most notable places along the way – the Flight 93 Memorial in Central Pennsylvania. This was my last chance, and I wasn’t going to pass it up.

The Memorial marks the spot on Sept. 11, 2001, where the last of four hijacked commercial airlines plunged into the ground, killing all aboard. It was the final tragedy on the most horrific morning most of us will ever experience.

I share my visit in this space because I think the passengers on Flight 93 acted in about the most Christ-like fashion of any people I can recall. We often talk about those who put their lives on the line for us – police officers, firefighters and military personnel, among them. And those individuals deserve our full respect. But most of them fully expect, or at least hope, to come home safely at day’s end.

That wasn’t an option for the passengers on Flight 93. By choosing to rush the cockpit and challenge the hijackers, they saved a great many lines at the absolute expense of their own. They died for us.

Today seems like a fitting day to salute them.