Chicago’s St. Francis House: 50 Years and Counting (CCW Ep 32)

In this episode of Coffee with Catholic Workers, hosts Theo Kayser and Lydia Wong sit down with Dan Justman, Quinn Smith, and Daniel Delapava from St. Francis House in Chicago to discuss the house’s preparations for its upcoming 50th anniversary celebration. The conversation covers the unique history of St. Francis House, its longstanding commitment to hospitality, and the vibrant community of guests and Workers who have helped it thrive. Dan, Quinn, and Daniel share their personal journeys into the Catholic Worker movement, reflecting on how their experiences of community living and service have shaped their lives and values. They also discuss preparations for the Catholic Worker National Gathering that was held October 4-6, 2024.

After the interview, Theo and Lydia reflect on what makes communities endure for decades.

Play the episode or read the transcript below.

Episode transcript

The following episode transcript was autogenerated from the audio transcript and subsequently reviewed and lightly edited for accuracy and clarity. Filler words (ah, um, like, etc.) and false starts have been removed to improve readability.

Theo Kayser: Welcome to Coffee with Catholic Workers, a podcast made by and for Catholic Workers. I’m Theo.

Lydia Wong: And I’m Lydia. We’ve both been a part of the Catholic Worker for the last decade and we’re excited to bring to you conversations with Catholic Workers from around the world.

Theo Kayser: Today we’re talking to Daniel, Dan, and Quinn about St. Francis House in Chicago and their preparations for St. Francis House’s 50th birthday this fall. They talk some about the national gathering they’re planning to celebrate the occasion and what it’s been like to look back at the history of the house.

Lydia Wong: Now here’s Dan, Daniel, and Quinn.

Dan Justman: Thanks, Theo and Lydia, for having us on the podcast. And my name is Dan. I’m one of the Workers here at St. Francis House. I’ve been here for off and on about four of the last seven years. I was introduced to the Catholic Worker by somebody who had lived at the previous Catholic Worker house in St. Louis and I, you know, then googled it. I was living here in Chicago.

I found the St. Francis House here and at the time I was actually working at a clinic right around the corner. So I started coming over for Monday night dinners and after kind of getting to know the live-in community at that time I asked them if they needed another Worker and I moved in and yeah. And then that brings us to the present day.

There were a couple years where I was gone and I’ve been back now since about August of last year when Daniel and Gordon asked me to come back and help out with things. And yeah, it’s always different and always the same here. It’s really been something this past year.

Lydia Wong: Great, thanks Dan. Who wants to go next?

Quinn Smith: I can go next. So hi everyone. My name is Quinn.

I’ve been at St. Francis House for a couple of months now. I came out here in late May and I was introduced to the Catholic Worker through my dad. He was a Catholic Worker for about a year or two years at the houses in Albuquerque and in Denver.

I came to a point in my life where I wanted to, I guess kind of break away from a traditional style of living. And what I would mean by that is, I don’t like working but I’m a Catholic Worker. And for me that means I want to dedicate like the majority of my time and the bulk of my time on a daily basis to what actually makes me more fulfilled and present, which is helping people: outreach, hospitality, and it’s enriching in a spiritual way and it’s a way to just break away from the kind of game a lot of people are stuck in where they trade their work and their time for money and then they use the remainder of their time how they so please. And it’s just not a thing that works for me and I think that’s a thing that a lot of people in this community have in common and something the founders felt very strongly about that our kind of current systems are not facilitating these things on their own. So that’s kind of what brought me here in a general sense.

And I was introduced to St. Francis House specifically through my dad who knows Dan here and they became friends of the house in Denver and that’s how I got connected here. So it’s been an interesting two months, a very, very busy two months.

Daniel Delapava: My name is Daniel Delapava and I am originally from Colombia. My first encounter with the Catholic Worker was here in Chicago. Just after I arrived to Chicago in year 1997, I met with the Catholic Worker community at Su Casa in Southside and then I was invited to help them with the transition that was going on there from the original mission.

The original Su Casa was the Central American Martyrs Youth Center, a place for survivors of torture coming from Central America. And when I met them in ’97, they were transitioning to a new mission with Hispanic homeless families, mostly women coming from domestic violence situations with several kids. The situation, the political situation in Central America had changed.

That was the reason for the new mission because there was not this flow of refugees coming from the wars in Central America. And I stayed there for five years in Southside Chicago. And after that, I moved here to St. Francis House in the northeast side of the city.

And I stayed here 2002, 2003, a little bit longer. Then I moved on with my own stuff for a few years. And then I went to Colombia during the peace process there.

And I came back to Chicago maybe six years ago, back to St. Francis House and here I am. That is the short story.

Lydia Wong: Can you describe a little bit of what St. Francis House is like? It’s one of the fun things about this, doing this podcast is being able to just sort of hear the varieties and different flavors of the different houses around the country.

Quinn Smith: I think St. Francis House has a very active and colorful community, both from the people that are living here and our guests on a daily basis. We have a lot of people who come by to volunteer on their own terms. And we have people who come by on our open house days.

And I’ve already seen a lot of good relationships and friendships forming and developing here. So I think the house being within like a dense urban center is a lot of that. There’s a lot of people here who are struggling or living on the streets. There’s a lot of people who are just looking for a place that they can hang out and meet people without having like too many expectations or too much, like, formality to it. It’s one of the only houses in the neighborhood. It’s one of the only places with a yard. And the house has been standing for a long time. So it’s a place that for a long time, people have enjoyed coming by to just, I mean, really just to hang out. Yeah, just to be.

Dan Justman: Yeah, I think so. Having been here a couple times over this recent history, you know, it’s interesting how the live-in community and especially the guest community has changed just in terms of who’s here.

But in terms of—and the mission hasn’t changed, although there’s been some adjustments to accommodate capacity as far as days that we’re open. And, like, throughout those changes, there’s still like this core feeling that remains no matter who’s running the house or what what conglomeration of guests live here or who the visitor base is at that time. And actually, one of the things that’s been really remarkable about this past year compared to the first time I was here is just the sheer number of visitors that we get on days that we’re open.

You know, one of the central pillars of St. Francis’s hospitality has been the Monday night dinner. And the vibe on a Monday night dinner this past year, and Daniel might expand on this because it started during a winter when I was not here, but it’s like a party, you know. We’re regularly getting 30, 40 plus people coming by from the nearby tent encampments over by Lakeshore Drive.

And it’s amazing how even bringing in people from those tent situations, it’s not to say that this is like a perfect place. It’s not to say that this place is a utopia free of conflict or anything, but it blows my mind consistently how little conflict comes up in this space. And I think that just says something about some kind of good spirit that exists here at this house.

People, from the visitors to the guests to the Workers must recognize that maybe subconsciously, maybe consciously, but like, this is a place of equals. This is a place to be and to be yourself. And we have some really good times with the visitors who come and, from what I can tell, can’t always be themselves at some of the other agencies in the neighborhood.

To be part of that and to also have that same opportunity, in a rambling way, that’s what St. Francis House is through at least my several years of involvement here. And I think that’s, I think that’s a really amazing thing. You know, Quinn’s talking about how this is like the only house on this block and it’s the only house where I think like, yeah, this experience can be had—for me, it’s a one of a kind thing to be here and to be part of that work and to offer that to whoever can come by.

Quinn Smith: Yeah, I think for a lot of those people that experience is lost a little bit. Being able to just go to a house and hang out, go in and out of the house, it’s not like, I mean, the vast majority of people living in the city are living in apartments, any city that is. And I mean, that’s just not the same.

And to have like, a place you can go to without having to pay, without having to have some sort of status, or without having to be part of some sort of club, you can just come in at any time and it’s open and it’s inviting. I think a lot of people just appreciate that on a personal level.

Daniel Delapava: Yes, after the pandemic, when we reopened the house for visitors, this crowd from the tent cities nearby started to visit us. It was a couple of them one day, next day four or five, next day 10 or 15, next day full house, 40 people. Then we were opening the house every day, Sunday to Sunday.

And it was 30, 40 people every day. That was very intense, but that was just coming out of the pandemic. So it was also like a refreshing flow of light coming into the house.

And they have been coming since then. And we have been able to create, to establish very personal connections, relationships with them. You know, we know them, they know us very well, I will say.

And it’s fun. They enjoy, for some reason they call us the White House. So you can hear them speaking over the phone like, hey, Jennifer, I am at the White House.

Are you coming? OK, see you here at the White House. So they love coming to the White House, hang out here, take a shower, have food, have coffee, more coffee, more coffee, take a nap.

And just hanging out is kind of like a low intensity party every time. And it’s fun. I personally enjoy living in community.

I don’t see myself living alone in an apartment. That doesn’t make any sense to me at all. Of course, community comes with challenges.

But I will not change community living for anything. And yes, there is something unique here at this house, at Francis of Assisi House. Sometimes we call it like the spirit of the, something like the spirit of the house.

Sometimes I refer to that like the angel of the house. It’s interesting to know that we are celebrating the 50 years of the house, that this house was not started by a charismatic leader who lived here for many years. There has been, some people talk about different, 20 different generations of Catholic Workers living at this house over 50 years.

So there’s a lot of changes, but somehow the house has not just survived, but sometimes flourished too. Well, perhaps it’s the spirit of angel of this house that keeps it running.

Lydia Wong: I think that is something we see frequently with houses where there’s some sort of charismatic person who starts the house and has a lot of energy for the mission. And then once they leave it, it really struggles because the people who join maybe didn’t have the same vision or mission and have difficulty pushing the house forward. What do you think are some of the things, I mean, there’s the spirit of the house that somehow has kept going.

What do you think are some of the factors that has allowed St. Francis to have such longevity?

Daniel Delapava: I really don’t know. Almost a couple of years ago when we started to talk about celebrating the 50 years of the house this year in October, the community at the time, we started the process trying to go back to the past, to the history, to the community history, to the political history, to the theological history, if you want, of the house. And we started reaching out people who, former Workers here from the mid-70s.

And that has been a very interesting process. And I really don’t know. That’s one of the questions that we will be asking ourselves during the upcoming National Gathering here for the 50 years.

There will be a panel with former Workers from the 70s, 80s, 90s, specifically about the lessons learned during all these years. So maybe we will find the answer then.

Lydia Wong: So what you’re saying is that people need to register for the National Gathering in October to make sure they come and find out all the secrets to immortality in the Catholic Worker.

Daniel Delapava: That’s a very nice way to put it, Lydia. And you can find all the information on our website, francishousechicago.org. We have all the information, the schedule, the registration form, and all the information that you need about accommodations, the archive, et cetera.

Theo Kayser: Daniel, some people might be kind of like me, and they’re like, oh, I got to go look up a schedule and a form and stuff. Can’t the wonderful people at St. Francis House just tell me what kind of great stuff to expect on a podcast or something like that? Maybe even for somebody who’s never been to a Catholic Worker gathering before and they’re thinking about making this their first one.

What should folks expect when they come to Chicago? And it’s the first weekend in October, right?

Dan Justman: Yeah, it’s October 4th through 6th. So Friday, October 4th through Sunday, October 6th. And we’re playing all the greatest hits.

We’re going to have, there’ll be food, of course. And so bring your appetites. We’re going to have live music from a former friend of the house on Friday night.

And also from Steve Jacobs from the Columbia, Missouri Catholic Worker after that. Saturday is a loaded day. You don’t want to miss it.

We’re going to have this panel with four former Workers and one very important person in the, not just the St. Francis House history, but the Chicago Catholic Worker history. They’re going to be discussing the lessons learned. And hopefully we’ll all be able to take something away from that.

We’re going to have round tables, a track in the morning and a track in the afternoon. We’re going to have another panel with the younger generation of Catholic Workers. I think there might even be a participant of that panel here right now.

And so it’ll be great to hear the younger perspective on what’s important and what’s been drawing new people into the mission, the cause, as it were. Saturday night, we’re going to have memories, toasts, more live music. And Sunday we’ll have mass from the most Reverend Bishop Bartosik here in Chicago.

And one final meal before we cap it off and close it out. So it’s going to be a really full weekend. It’s going to have, I think, everything you could want from a Catholic Worker gathering.

And we’re really excited about the fact that we’ve already got 25, more than 25 now, different Catholic Worker communities that have RSVP’d. So they’ve found the registration link at francishousechicago.org. And it’s folks from New Jersey all the way to San Francisco and everywhere in between.

So the more the merrier. It’s going to be a really good celebration, and I think we’re all going to be able to take something really positive from it.

Daniel Delapava: We want to have 50 Catholic Worker communities for our 50 years here in Chicago.

Theo Kayser: Well, St. Louis hasn’t registered yet, so 26 at least.

Lydia Wong: And Emmaus House has also been behind on our registration. Although we’ve talked about it, we just actually haven’t registered. So you’re getting closer every second, we’ll be up to 27 now.

Dan Justman: We know you guys are good for it.

Quinn Smith: It’s just a party that you can come to for free. And there’s food and there’s fun, there’s music. We have a really awesome venue, and it’s a sleepover at the place.

And you’re guaranteed to meet people that you’ll connect with and maybe even know for longer.

Daniel Delapava: Yes, we have been trying to balance the celebratory mood, the party, the 50 years celebration. That’s a key component, but we also want this to be a time for reflection about ourselves and how our own history during 50 years can be helpful for other Catholic Worker communities. We want, as Dan was mentioning before, to offer a platform to the younger Catholic Workers.

We are going to have roundtables with Catholic Worker farmers. So yes, there will be celebration, but there will be reflection too. And we are trying to balance all those dimensions.

Lydia Wong: Sounds like it should be a great time. Hopefully, hopefully a lot of communities can come on through. It’s always nice to be able to get together and just be inspired by what other communities are doing and be able to learn from each other.

Daniel Delapava: And the timing of the gathering is very interesting. It will be just a few weeks before presidential elections in the United States.

Dan Justman: Yeah, we’re really hoping, not to overuse a term, but the state of the nation doesn’t always feel very good when you’re looking at headlines. But we’re really hoping that everyone that’s going to be here is going to be on this same wavelength of community, nonviolence, hospitality. And so we’re really hoping that there’s that reflection component, that it’s also maybe just the balm that we need to get ourselves through what’s already been a trying political season, which is only going to be, I’m sure, peaking in some way right around that same time.

Daniel Delapava: It’s time to get together.

Lydia Wong: And thinking about that spirit of reflection can help prep you for October. I’m curious for each of you, what have been some of the meaningful parts about living in St. Francis? What are some of the things that keep you with the Workers?

There’s the things that are beautiful and the things that are tough. So what are the things that keep you grounded and keep you there?

Dan Justman: Well, I think for me, just the sense of transforming belief into direct action. During a couple of the years that I was not here at Francis House, I actually gave a shot to field organizing as a job for a little while. And that was during the midterms in 2022.

And it was demoralizing. It reminds me of Peter Maurin’s essay, They and We. They’re crazy. They shouldn’t do that. But we’re not crazy, or we’re not going to be crazy in the same way that we’re crazy. We’re going to do it this way.

And the communitarian revolution is a personal revolution. And one I plus one I makes we. We as a community and they as a crowd.

And to me, that’s what keeps me grounded is knowing that this means something. Trying to find praxis on social media or through phone banking or bumper stickers or something like that, but then basically still complying with kind of the standards at large. I found that to be really unfulfilling.

But here, holding the space for the people who need it the most, that’s just, I’m over capacity when I think of what that means for what that means for me personally. I’m knowing that we’re going against the grain, but in the way that we think is right. I think that definitely keeps me grounded.

That definitely helps me want to keep doing the work, even during those parts when it’s challenging. I’m knowing that the other way to do it is even more challenging in a deeper way. Does that make sense?

Quinn Smith: That makes sense to me. And my reasons are similar to Dan’s too. Living in a community and doing the things that, it’s not about being the Catholic Worker movement, it’s not about saying things.

It’s about doing things and doing the things that are written in the scriptures that Jesus did, doing the things that our founders like Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin sent out there and dedicated their lives to. It’s about doing those things and choosing to center your lives around the things that matter, which is people and community. Because most people’s lives are centered around their work and that’s it.

And there’s a lot of mediocrity in the working world and this is the opposite of that.

Daniel Delapava: I guess this is my turn here. What grounds me here? Well, I spent a few years at this house after starting in 2002, after 9-11.

Then I left and I came back six years ago. So that is a question that resonates in me. Something I really like to do is studying.

I really like to study, but I am not an academic and I never wanted to be an academic. This house gives me the opportunity to have an active life, a very active life, and at the same time gives me the chance to read my books with no rush. That’s a good balance for me and that’s something that helps me to stay grounded.

Theo Kayser: I like that, time to read your books. I was just reading a Dorothy Day article where she complains about, I wish we had more time to read our books. Well, as we’re wrapping up here, is there anything else we should know about St. Francis House or its last 50 years or the big celebration coming up in October?

Dan Justman: Yeah, I want to kind of double back to the previous part of the conversation where we were talking about the lack of a charismatic founder and yet the survival, if not occasional thriving of this house for 50 years since then. One of the really deeply enjoyable parts of being here this past year has been honestly getting to enjoy the fruits of that effort that Daniel was talking about, about recovering the historical memory of the house. There’s been two ways that we’ve been just unbelievably fortunate this year.

One is that David Buer, who is somebody who was involved in the house way back in the beginning and contributed a lot of effort to keeping the house running in the 80s and has since, shoot, Daniel, I don’t want to necessarily misspeak, but he joined the Franciscan Brotherhood, he’s down in Arizona now.

Daniel Delapava: Yes, he has been a Franciscan Brother for a long time now.

Dan Justman: This is so crazy. This is one of the crazy but really cool things about being at a place like this is Daniel and I went to go make one of our regular food pickups on a Friday morning. When we came back to the house, one of our hospitality guests was walking out and saw us and said, oh, there’s somebody in the living room waiting for you.

It’s David Buer. He cracks wise to us when we walk in. He says, have you guys just let anybody in here?

We talked with him. He asked how things were going. We talked with him about what his time was like back in the 80s.

And he just kind of casually mentions, oh, by the way, I’ve got a bunch of the old “At the Door” newsletters, and I’d love to give them to you guys. A couple weeks later, we had a package with a few of these old newsletters from the 80s. Talk about restoring the memory.

Then just about a month or two ago, we had gotten in contact with somebody who was kind of in the second wave of Workers that lived at this house, Lynn Miller. She said, oh, I found a binder with photocopies of just dozens of old newsletters. I’d love to make sure you guys have them.

She brought them by. Just flipping through them, you get this wonderful sense that even without a charismatic founder, the house has somehow always been a magnet for truly compassionate people who just somehow keep finding this place. There’s names that I don’t recognize writing articles in these newsletters.

There’s some names I do recognize, but just reading the thoughts expressed, reading the articles about homelessness in Uptown and how the city is failing its poorest people, or reading there’s one issue that’s dedicated to what St. Francis House means to each of the Workers that were here at that time, as well as they gave space in that newsletter to some of the guests that were here. Reading those thoughts, whether or not I recognize the names, I kind of recognize myself in that. I can recognize the spirit of the house in that.

That’s just been, I don’t know if that does any better at answering the question about how a place like this has made it 50 years, but somehow the people who need to be here apparently have always been able to find their way here. Again, just a really remarkable thing. It blows my mind to be sitting in the living room downstairs reading these newsletters and think that this is the living room where these newsletters were probably written.

The people in these stories were sitting right here in the same spot that I was. It’s the most real history tour that I could put myself through. I’m really grateful that somehow those newsletters even made their way here.

Just really amazing stuff.

Daniel Delapava: Yes, perhaps there will be something unique about this Catholic Workers’ Gathering for our 50 years, for the 50 years of St. Francis House, is that, of course, during 50 years, so many people have been involved with this house, as Workers, as guests, as friends of the house. That is a very solid, extended network of people. Many of them will be attending the gathering.

We are going to have a mix of Catholic Worker houses from all over the country, plus a very consistent crowd from locals in Chicago that have been involved with the house since the mid-70s. That will be very interesting. I’m looking forward to see how these two crowds combine during that weekend.

Theo Kayser: It reminds me of a Catholic Worker saying I’ve heard before, where it’s like, if you want to see 30 different communities, you can travel around to 30 different houses, or you could just be at one house for 30 years. It’ll be different at each time. Well, thanks so much, St. Francis House, for taking time to talk to us today.

Dan Justman: Hey, thanks so much for having us. And shameless plug, but if you have not already gone to francishousechicago.org and checked out who’s going to be here in October, October 4th through 6th, just go ahead and type that into your preferred browser, francishousechicago.org. We would love to see as many people as possible there.

And Lydia and Theo, thanks again for having us. It’s been really great talking and having this opportunity for reflection as well.

Quinn Smith: Yeah, thank you. It’s been nice to see you guys and listen and have this opportunity to be part of your timeline and just reach out.

Daniel Delapava: Thank you, Lydia. Thank you, Theo.

Quinn Smith: Wonderful.

Lydia Wong: See you all in October.

Dan Justman: See you all in October. Yeah, sounds good.

Theo Kayser: It’s fun to hear them talk about looking back in the way that they are at the different generations and iterations of the house. On a certain level, it reminds me of my experience at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, who also turned 50 a few years ago during COVID stuff. It was making me think about how in that house, there’s been a long-time anchor couple there.

But even with that being the case, it never was just that couple there. There have been so many people in and out over the years. We don’t think about them in this big, huge, same way as we think about Jeff and Catherine in LA, who have been there for an amazing 50 years, or someone like Dorothy Day, even, who was there for 50 years.

But day in and day out, they were there for a year, for a month, for 10 years, and chopping the lettuce for the salad, or stirring the pots. It’s interesting to hear them talk about looking back at those different generations and the nature of what it’s looked like for that house to have a more delineated generational configuration like that. It’s interesting.

Lydia Wong: Yeah, I think it’s part of what makes the Catholic Worker movement unique. It’s not necessarily tied to any one house. We have houses come and go all the time, and it’s not tied to any one person of every house.

People come and leave, and sometimes it causes houses to close. But I think, perhaps ideally, it’s much bigger than that. It’s not any one person’s vision.

And in some ways, I think that’s reassuring. It takes a lot of pressure off in knowing that it’s not any one person’s responsibility. It’s everyone together.

Theo Kayser: Yeah. I was thinking back to our recent episode talking to the Winona Catholic Workers, too, about how they feel like they were in the middle of this, or recently had gone through this big shift, big transition, and it’s kind of a new growth or new generation of that community. And then, yeah, here’s St. Francis House looking back in a similar way, and it’s just like, oh, there’s always been these growths and changes and metamorphosis within houses.

Lydia Wong: Yeah, yeah. And there’s something about, in thinking about the houses that have been able to last for these long periods of time, in some ways, they’re the ones, I think, that are able to figure that out of how to be flexible, how to shift with the times, just because circumstances change, and getting too tied down to them makes it so that houses close down.

Theo Kayser: Can you imagine Emmaus House turning 50? I was thinking about this. I was thinking about this for the St. Louis Catholic Worker, you know?

It’s kind of like, we just a couple months ago got a house, and like, oh, can I imagine this house in 50 years? I guess you have, like, almost a decade on me with the Emmaus House has been around for a little while, right?

Lydia Wong: It’s true. We got a head start, but we only started out planning for a year. That was our commitment when we started, and sometimes it still feels about the same.

We don’t really do long-term commitments here. People generally are sort of committed to be here until they feel called elsewhere, and so that that could be next year, or that could be another 10 years from now. I think that’s both.

Yeah, it’s what works for us, and if Emmaus House is around in 50 years, that’s great. If it’s not, I think, you know, we’ll feel like it’s been a good run.

Theo Kayser: Yeah, you definitely cannot plan for 50 years or whatever, you know? Like, it really is a, in my experience, like a true thing that, like, that saying, come for a month, stay for a lifetime, come for a lifetime, you’ll only last a month. I mean, I have seen that.

Like, people who are, like, this community is the best thing ever, and I am ready to, like, die here, and then, like, after that honeymoon phase works out, it’s like, oh, it’s, like, difficult to, like, live with people, and then you just, you can’t plan on it, or it doesn’t work out.

Lydia Wong: Yeah, and I can’t imagine committing to a group of people, or even a specific house for, like, a lifetime before really living with them and knowing them for a long period of time. You know, it’s kind of like a, like, a marriage commitment of, like, I’m going to stay here and die here. Commitment to the ideals, yeah, for sure.

But, like, this group of people, you know, that’s a big ask. I’m excited to see who all comes in for the National Gathering, hopefully both new houses and old houses, to be able to kind of think about this idea of longevity and both starting out and, I don’t know, I guess, hopefully not finishing, both starting out and seeing others who have been on the journey for a much longer period of time.

Theo Kayser: Totally. I mean, that’s the fun part of National Gathering. I mean, I’ll be there.

Are you planning on being around?

Lydia Wong: I hope to be. We’ll definitely have some folks from Emmaus there, and, you know, sometimes things just go crazy with schedules, but hopefully our whole house is able to make it up. Right on.

Theo Kayser: I was, one other thing I was thinking about since we talked to Daniel in particular was, he kind of mentioned, like I can’t imagine just, like, living alone in an apartment or whatever, like, by myself, like, enjoying being around other people and, like, the activity and, like, life-fulfillingness that gives, and I think at least at this time in my life, I feel very much the same way, like, and I was just thinking about how great it is that Catholic Workers exist and people like us can find community and hopefully share that community with other folks in need of it.

Lydia Wong: Yeah, I think in some ways, everyone’s searching for community in some way, whether that’s, like, St. Francis, where people feel like they can come in and have a place off the street, or for those people like us who feel like we were able to live and sort of share life on a day-to-day basis with other people. It’s a really beautiful, beautiful thing. Well, that wraps up for us another episode of Coffee with Catholic Workers.

If you want to reach out to us with any comments, suggestions, clarification of thought, you can reach out to us at coffeewithcatholicWorkers@gmail.com. We want to thank our audio engineer, Chris, from the Bloomington Catholic Worker, as well as David Hayes for our music and Becky McIntyre for our graphics.

Theo Kayser: Thanks for joining us again for some clarification of thought. We hope today’s conversation has been enlightening, and maybe even that you’re encouraged to go out and help build a world where it’s easier to be good.

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Coffee with Catholic Workers is a podcast by and about Catholic Workers. Every two weeks, join Lydia Wong and Theo Kayser for a conversation with some of their favorite Catholic Worker folk. Special thanks to sound engineer Chris of Bloomington, IN.