Photo By WILLIAM RIETER
Catholic Workers Peter Quilligan and Janet Daley wash dishes, one of many chores the community of people share at Whitman House which is commemorating its 25th anniversary this year.
Catholic Workers Peter Quilligan and Janet Daley wash dishes, one of many chores the community of people share at Whitman House which is commemorating its 25th anniversary this year.
Cleveland's Catholic Worker House continues
its 25-year commitment to service and action
CLEVELAND-Located on Whitman Avenue, just behind St. Patrick Parish on Bridge Avenue in Cleveland’s Near West Side neighborhood is a home where faith is lived and practiced daily.
In the spirit of founder Dorothy Day, the members of the Catholic Worker community known as Whitman House have a simple mission—to treat every person with dignity.
Joe Lehner founded the Catholic Worker community in Cleveland 25 years ago. Today it continues its commitment to social justice through nonviolence, works of mercy for the forgotten or forsaken, voluntary poverty and prayer.
A narrow hallway inside the home leads to a kitchen, dining room, mail and phone room, quiet room and chapel. In the Whitman House chapel, featuring an odd collection of basement sofas, photographs and artwork by local artists, Chris Knestrick talks about the group’s work today.
“I like to think that the early Christians met in a space like this,” he says of the rustic surroundings. But just like the austere chapel within, Catholic Worker community is more than it seems.
Existing exclusively on donations it has not only the workers living in the home, but also an extended community of friends who help in many ways.
About five years ago, it nearly closed until a new group of workers, including Knestrick, reinvigorated the community. It’s been thriving ever since.
This week, there’s a reminder posted on the house bulletin board that students from Magnificat High School will be visiting as part of an Urban Plunge, providing high school and college students an intensive crash course in experiences of the poor, homeless and the ministries and services to those in need.
The plunge is one of the many worker activities.
Dinner, served promptly at 6:00 p.m. is followed by a walk over to The Storefront at W. 42nd and Lorain Avenue. This drop-in center, operated by Whitman House is open weeknights from 7:00-9:00 and weekend mornings from 9:30-11:30.
“Friends,” as Knestrick calls the visitors, stop in for a meal, personal hygiene products or just some friendship and conversation.
In addition to Bible study, liturgy and prayer, workers also serve breakfast to day laborers twice weekly and lunch at St. Malachi Center twice monthly.
Every Labor Day weekend it hosts a nonviolent witness for peace and justice at the Cleveland National Air Show to protest what Knestrick calls, “the glorification of militarism.”
But more than those organized activities, the Catholic Worker community members engage in what Dorothy Day called, “The duty of delight,” to build community and relationships with the people who walk through its door.
That includes people like Knestrick, who at age 27, has been living at the Catholic Worker House for four years. A native Clevelander and graduate of St. Edward High School and Mercyhurst College, he had plans to attend graduate school in Toronto to study theology.
His plans slowly changed while an undergraduate at Mercyhurst. “I went into college with plans of becoming an FBI agent and I left college with a federal arrest record,” he says.
After spending a summer in the Catholic Worker House in Los Angeles, he discerned that the gospels are meant to be lived in daily life. He liked the Catholic Worker’s philosophy of addressing charity for others and social justice for all, realizing that it aligned with his understanding of Catholic social teaching.
While he has a faith perspective, he admits that people come to the Whitman House for a variety of reasons: attraction to the alternative lifestyle--they live for free and all share responsibilities for cooking and cleaning; focus on nonviolence; charity; and others just end up there.
“We offer hospitality here and that’s the heart of the house,” he says. “Community is the greatest thing we do, but it’s also the hardest thing we do because you’re sharing your life with others.”
“Friends” who come to the door can receive a meal and or help with a move or a friendly ear.
There’s not a lot of advance planning, rather the worker approach is more in the moment. “We’re not trying to achieve, just trying to be faithful.”
Knestrick knows he is living his faith. “I’ve learned more about God in our midst here than I would have reading about it in grad school,” he says.
Whitman House survives off of the generous donations from the community. Donations can be dropped off at 3601 Whitman Avenue or by calling 216-631-3059.
Hoke is a freelance writer.
Whitman House has been a beacon of hope for people living in poverty on Cleveland’s Near West Side for 25 years.
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