New café at Baltimore Basilica designed to encounter the poor

Father Brendan Fitzgerald is convinced it’s just as important to evangelize people experiencing homelessness as it is any other person.

A big challenge at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where the priest is rector, has been that there isn’t a place people can gather in an informal way to have those kinds of life-changing discussions.

“A number of the homeless will come and spend time inside the church just to get away from the cold or the heat or the rain, but they don’t get engaged,” he said. “They sit in a pew for several hours and then they’ll leave, but no one’s talking to them about Christ or sharing their lives with them or inviting them into a real relationship.”

The rector hopes that will begin to change with the April 14 opening of the Sexton’s Lodge Café.

The new café, erected inside a structure built north of the cathedral in 1840, is meant to be a place where basilica parishioners can develop relationships with people who live on the streets just outside America’s first cathedral.

Open Friday mornings after the 7:30 a.m. Mass and Sundays after the 10:45 a.m. Mass, the café offers free coffee from Baltimore Coffee and Tea, along with prepackaged treats and juice boxes for children. The idea is for basilica parishioners and visitors to the historic cathedral to get to know their neighbors and their fellow Mass-goers, while having meaningful conversations about faith in a warm, welcoming environment.

“If this café project can be a space where people who don’t ordinarily get an opportunity to hear just a little bit about the life of someone who lives in poverty,” Father Fitzgerald said, “that would be a great good.”

The Sexon’s Lodge most recently served as a gift shop and storage facility. In the past, it had also been the home of Archbishop William D. Borders. The idea for transforming it into a café was inspired through the ministry of Abigail Steele, the basilica’s director of outreach. Steele had previously spent several years working in the basilica’s Source of All Hope urban missionary program that focuses on befriending people experiencing homelessness.

Steele had the idea of establishing a meeting place for fellowship and worked with the Given Institute to flesh out her plan. The basilica received a $20,000 grant from the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Institute for Evangelization. It also received a $60,000 grant from the Knott Foundation.

The funds were used as seed money for the program and to renovate the first floor of Sexton’s Lodge with a coffee counter, tables and religious art that includes images of people such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. Thérèse of Lisieux and Mother Mary Lange.

“It’s a low-cost program to run and we are relying on the generosity of people who believe in the program, along with people who visit and neighborhood partners,” said Maria Veres, the basilica’s director of mission advancement.

Volunteers and staff from the basilica serve as hosts, Veres said.

Father Fitzgerald said the café will also be used for small-group parish meetings, Bible study and the like. He would like to see it grow organically to operate on more days and perhaps include outdoor picnic areas on the basilica campus. 

The rector, who worked with Baltimore’s homeless when he was a student at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, acknowledged that not everyone understands the need for reaching out to vulnerable populations. The Gospel demands it, he said.

“It’s good for families to see the poor and to encounter the poor and to love the poor before they head back to the suburbs,” he said. “I think it’s a beautiful witness to see some of the poor genuinely worship with us on Sundays. We have some who have been baptized and they participate in the liturgy.”

Archbishop William E. Lori blessed the café April 14.

To volunteer at the Sexton’s Lodge Café, click here. 

Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org 

Related:

Sisters Poor of Jesus Christ bring love to troubled streets

Baltimore Basilica’s outreach to neighbors expands

Basilica missionaries bringing Jesus to city streets

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