Texas-size ministry

National Catholic Reporter, August 11, 2000 by Pamela Schaeffer

Suburban Houston parish carries big clout in city

Something unfunny happened on Kathy Doran's way to becoming a social worker with designs on changing the world.

She got her master's degree, and then she got cancer: "breast to liver to bone," as she dispassionately sums up her 14-year-ordeal. Most recently, as of summer 1999, the cancer spread to her brain.

Obviously, this has not been good news for Doran, 49, or for her family, ironically, though, her illness has been fortuitous for her life goals and for her parish -- and by extension for Houston's struggling underclass. Though classified as Stage 4 terminal, Doran is very much alive, thanks in part to Houston's renowned M.D. Anderson cancer hospital and to her willingness to undergo even experimental treatments.

Meanwhile, Doran's parish, the suburban region it serves -- in fact, all of Houston -- have become heir to Doran's spirit, her sense of vocation and her dreams. With Doran leading the way, and Msgr. Bill Robertson lending support, the 3,200-family parish has become known throughout the metropolitan area for its efforts on behalf of Houston's poor.

The 22-year-old parish, Christ the Good Shepherd, is situated in suburban, upscale Spring, Texas, where a minority of Hispanic immigrants could easily be overlooked. Throughout Houston, the parish has come to represent Catholic social teaching in action. From Joe and Jane Parker, who pose as Uncle Sam and Aunt Samantha and urge parishioners and neighbors to be politically involved, to a group of gutsy activists who go head-to-head with public officials on selected issues, Christ the Good Shepherd Parish is determined to separate Catholic social teaching from the regrettable label it often wears: "Catholicism's best-kept secret."

No problem seems insurmountable, too complex, for the parish's cadre of social ministers. No chance to educate, to train parishioners for social activism, is missed. Many parish activists acknowledge that the world, at least the world of the poor in Houston, is better since Doran harnessed her energy to her parish.

A four-day visit to the parish in early spring meant accompanying social ministers on no fewer than five trips to central Houston, some 30 miles to the south. Two trips were for meetings with public officials on hospital district issues; a third was for a regular meeting of a Welfare-to-Work Network, where representatives of public agencies struggled to explain to parish social ministers how eligibility for public assistance is determined.

A fourth trip downtown took Doran to the University of St. Thomas, where she was meeting her husband, Joe, for a theology class. The couple, having raised three sons, is now working toward master's degrees in pastoral studies. The fifth trip was to deliver Doran for a chemotherapy treatment at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where she is renowned for her ability to defy an ominous prognosis.

Considered a miracle

"Most people who are Stage 4 drop what they're doing and go into hospice," said Providence Sr. Alice Potts, who has been a staff chaplain at M.D. Anderson for 24 years. "Kathy learned early on that cancer is only one-seventh of her life and knew that she was going to move ahead with the other six-sevenths. She is considered a miracle around here."

Although it's true that Doran kept right on going, she did shift her goals. "Cancer turned my life upside down," she said. "In an odd way, it was my opportunity to fulfill my vocation to serve." Unable to continue in her professional life, she focused more on home and family -- and the parish is both, she said. "Fr. Bill asked me to serve on the days I was able." As it turned out, that was quite a lot.

Despite the parish's distance from the city center, archdiocesan leaders and public officials know it well. "People often say, `Oh that one,' when they hear where we're from," said Pat Macy, who recently succeeded Doran as parish director of social ministry.

"This community is very devoted," Doran said. "We believe care of the poor is our primary responsibility, and other things flow from that." To assist one's "brothers and sisters in Christ," is a great privilege -- a point Doran stresses often. When lack of housing proved to be a pressing local problem, social ministers pulled together an interfaith coalition to buy a 458-unit apartment complex, The Bridges (see related story). When it was lack of public funds for health care, social ministers threw all they had behind efforts to get a new hospital district budget approved. When fresh produce was hard to get for families in need of food, the parish started a garden. (Doran likes to point out that the garden was a failure the first time the parish tried it, "when it wasn't time for God's call." A few years later, the same project was a huge success.)

"We go in any door we can," Macy said.

Programs include a crisis pregnancy center, bereavement support, AIDS support, child care and temporary housing through the Interfaith Hospitality Network, an ecumenical network of area churches that nave agreed to periodically devote some space to living quarters for homeless families. The parish is known for its vibrant liturgies, woven through with social justice themes and enriched by "choirs upon choirs," as well as for its creative religious education program.