Make a difference

Shortly after I arrived in Baltimore 15 years ago to become associate publisher and editor of Catholic Review Media, which was then known as the Cathedral Foundation, I started to visit parishes and meet pastors, parish staff and parishioners all around the archdiocese.

One early adventure took me as far west in the archdiocese as one can go, to do a parish profile at St. Peter the Apostle in Oakland.

But one of the most impressive pastors I met lived much closer to the office. Monsignor Richard W. Woy, who was then vicar general and president of the Cathedral Foundation board, encouraged me to meet Monsignor Damien Nalepa, pastor of St. Gregory the Great Parish in West Baltimore. Father Damien, as he liked to be called, had been hosting a gun buyback at his parish for a few years, working with the local district of the Baltimore City Police Department. The prior sponsor of the program had dropped out, so the Cathedral Foundation stepped up to provide some dollars and assist with raising funds.

In the three weeks before the Sept. 12, 2009, gun turn-in at St. Gregory, three people were violently murdered, one at the end of the block from the church. “We have to do something,” Monsignor Nalepa said. “We realize this isn’t the end-all answer to violence.” He admitted that some of the guns turned in were old and might not have had much street value.

We reported at the time: “The guns may have been used in plenty of crimes over time. According to police officers who helped process the guns, the weapons were particularly lethal. ‘Some of the smallest ones can be concealed in a pocket or hand,’ Monsignor Nalepa said.”

At that 2009 event, one man turned in 12 guns at the start of the day. One woman dropped off a rifle and a revolver, saying the guns had belonged to her late husband, and she was scared to handle the guns or even have them in her home. By the end of the day, 21 guns had been taken off the streets.

Eventually, the Catholic Review helped expand the gun buyback to two additional parish locations. However, after Father Damien died suddenly in August 2012, no one picked up the mantle – until last year.

Father Michael Murphy, pastor of St. Joseph Monastery Parish in Baltimore (and now Our Lady of Victory in Arbutus), saw a similar need to stem the violence in his neighborhood. In 2023, he partnered with the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s new Grief Ministry and other Catholic and community partners to raise more than $50,000. The August 2023 effort resulted in 362 guns being taken off the streets; this year, another 280 were turned in at a similar event.

Like Monsignor Nalepa, Father Murphy acknowledges that a gun buyback is not a panacea. “It’s all about building a culture of peace and promoting the sanctity of life,” Father Murphy said in promoting this year’s effort. “This isn’t a one-and-done event. We’re trying to show people there’s a better way.

“We’re not under any illusion that we are going to stop all gun violence,” Father Murphy said. “But we’re trying to change the narrative and promote the message that life is sacred.”

This year, more than $70,000 was raised for the gun buyback, but any funds left over after the event will be donated to the grief ministry program. The Grief Ministry coordinates with a unit of homicide survivor advocates who work for the Baltimore Police Department to provide care packages for families of homicide victims.

Getting one gun off the street may not have a great impact all by itself, but people such as Monsignor Nalepa and Father Murphy know that sometimes you must try to make a difference. Little by little, gun by gun, we can.

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