Hope and Promise: Catholic Charities marks centennial, honors long-time director

As Catholic Charities of Maryland marked its 100th anniversary with a gala dinner Nov. 9, it was fitting that a major award was given to Harold A. “Hal” Smith, who led the agency for a third of its history.

Smith received the Monsignor Arthur F. Valenzano Joyful Servant Award, named for the late rector of the Baltimore Basilica “who lived the Gospel and preached the Gospel,” according to William J. McCarthy Jr., executive director of Catholic Charities.

In presenting the award, McCarthy said Smith was also a man who lived and preached the Gospel, leading Catholic Charities through growth, change and the evolution of the needs of the community.

Catholic Charities is the largest nonpublic provider of social services in the state, second only to governmental programs. It employs more than 2,000 people, supported by more than 8,000 volunteers, and serves tens of thousands of people in six focus areas: healing trauma and addiction; aging with dignity; welcoming new neighbors; helping people achieve independence; empowering careers; and supporting children and families.

McCarthy noted that Smith, as executive director, led the opening of Basilica Place, the agency’s first housing for older Marylanders. Through expansion over the years, the housing program now has 1,800 apartments in 24 buildings.

Praising all Smith had accomplished, McCarthy said, “Hal has done this with a joyful heart and exhibits the joy and love that Art Valenzano did as well.”

Before the dinner, Smith told the Catholic Review that just getting Catholic Charities to 100 years is an accomplishment, “especially given the last couple of years and seeing how the agency came through COVID. Seeing them deal with issues with excellence and passion is really gratifying to see.”

He said it was humbling to receive an honor named for Monsignor Valenzano, who was a “compassionate, humble person.”

Smith, who retired in 2009, remains involved in charitable work from Naples, Fla., where he and his wife Mary Angela now live. He works with Hope for Haiti, based in Les Cayes, Haiti, that provides schools and health care in a very poor area in the Caribbean country.

He also assists St. Matthew’s House in Naples, a Christian ministry based on the Beatitudes in Chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel. Smith said it is a program similar to Christopher Place and Our Daily Bread, cornerstone programs of Catholic Charities.

In his remarks after receiving the award, Smith said he was blessed to spend almost all his working life at Catholic Charities – 35 years total, with 33 of that as executive director. The agency “creates love in a community that desperately needs it,” he said.

More than 500 people, many of them employees, attended the dinner at the Marriott Baltimore Waterfront to mark the centennial of the formal founding of Catholic Charities in Maryland, although the roots go back to the early days in the late 1700s of the first diocese in the country, which then covered the whole nation. McCarthy noted that then-Bishop John Carroll decreed that each parish in the diocese use one-third of its collections for the support of its pastor, one-third for the upkeep of the church building and one-third for the poor. “This is where parish-based charity began,” McCarthy said.

The executive director rattled off tallies of people served in various ways, including more than 800 children helped by Head Start programs, more than 11,000 receiving behavioral health services, and the 100th class that will graduate Dec. 13 from Christopher Place Employment Academy.

“Behind every number is a person,” he said, “a person on a journey. Hope has been enlivened. That’s our greater promise.”

Hope and promise were themes of the evening, where McCarthy noted that the Greater Promise centennial capital campaign, with an original goal of $75 million, had raised more than $122 million “to lead our community forward.”

In remarks at the dinner, Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori noted that he had spent that very morning at one of Catholic Charities’ Head Start programs, helping give out winter coats as part of the Knights of Columbus Coats for Kids program, which has delivered more than 1 million coats worldwide since its inception.

The archbishop said he met children who come from great need – social and economic. “I saw the love and dedication of those who serve these children day in and day out. That’s just one slice of life in Catholic Charities.”

The mission to cherish the divine within each person, the agency’s motto, sets it apart from other service organizations. “Catholic Charities is loving one person at a time,” the archbishop said.

Terri Becks, president of the Catholic Charities board of directors, welcomed guests and said, “Together, we have asked: How can we help more? How can we give more? How can we love more? Catholic Charities has been asking those questions for 100 years.

“We not only meet people where they are in life, but we help them find a better way forward,” she said, with 90 programs at 200 locations.

At the dinner, Catholic Charities presented additional awards to those who support the work and mission.

The Bunting Family and the Church of the Nativity in Timonium each received the Distinguished Service Award for “exemplifying or significantly supporting compassionate caregiving and service.”

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Fells Point received the Anne Lindsey Otenasek Youth Service Award in recognition of volunteer service by high school students. A large number of CRJ students work at Catholic Charities sites as part of the school’s corporate internship program, and many volunteer outside of school hours as well.

The Youth Service Award is named for a young woman who had been a volunteer at Catholic Charities’ Gallagher Services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities before she died in 1988 aboard Pan Am Flight 103, which was destroyed by a terrorist bomb over Locherbie, Scotland. Members of her family attended the centennial dinner in her honor.

Before the dinner, employees of Catholic Charities agencies were recognize with Mission in Action awards: David Bena, clinic director, Cumberland, Villa Maria Community Resources; Allen Graves, head cook, St. Elizabeth’s Nursing and Rehab Center; Emmanuel Hamilton, program security assistant, Weinberg Housing and Resource Center; Mary Ann McCloskey, human resources talent acquisition partner; Jan Pennington, service coordinator, Reister’s View and Reister’s Clearing; Becky Stein, human resources business partner, Family Services.

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