GREENPOINT — After participating in a Shalom Catholic Community food and clothing drive last month, and again on Nov. 8, Lee Frazier credited the organization’s local branch for consistently caring about the community.
“I rarely attend things like this because I don’t really have the time to, but it feels really good to know that people in the neighborhood do care,” Frazier said. “[Shalom Catholic Community] is a great asset to the community, and others in the community could take a very good lesson from this and try to help out more.”
For the fourth year, the local branch of the Shalom Catholic Community hosted its annual Friendsgiving event outside of San Damiano Mission Church in Greenpoint. The church’s pastor, Father Cristiano Pinheiro said the food and clothing drive is a celebration of “the gift of friendship and the gift of community.”
Barbara Freitas, a missionary of New York’s Shalom Catholic Community, said 100 volunteers helped collect and prepare the various clothing donations from the community. She said they also gave away 300 meals to the poor.
The drive coincided with the World Day of the Poor, an annual observance on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time. The day was established by Pope Francis in 2017 as a way for the Church to show solidarity with the poor.
The event also included silent Eucharistic adoration and culminated with Mass celebrated by Father Pinheiro, who noted the importance of bridging gaps in the community.
“I think it is a very good occasion for us to celebrate the gift of friendship, the gift of community, but including those who are in need and who feel isolated from the community into the community,” he said. “It’s a beautiful feast of the gift of community and the gift of friendship, going beyond the boundaries of Thanksgiving just as a family feast.”
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The event also included a conversation with Brazilian Moysés Louro de Azevedo, founder of the Shalom Catholic Community — an international Vatican-recognized private association “made up of men and women who, in diverse lifestyles present in the Church, engage in a community and missionary life,” according to its website.
“I appreciate you all being here to celebrate such a special day,” he told those in attendance. “Today, let us embrace the experience of meeting God’s mercy.”
Beyond the Friendsgiving event, Freitas said the monthly drives and community gatherings New York’s Shalom Catholic Community hosts are a way to demonstrate their commitment to helping those in need.
“Each year we hope that we can get more concrete answers [on how] to help them with their real needs, and we seek together with them as well,” Freitas said. “We hope that this path of walking together is a way for them to find God in their lives as well.”