2005 Evangelization Supplement

Terre Haute Catholic Charities proclaims
the Gospel of service

By Brandon A. Evans

The work of Catholic Charities all over the country is not just service to the poor, but something much more profound.

David Siler, executive director of Catholic Charities for the archdiocese, said that the work of evangelization is bound up into the work of service because evangelization is not just “speaking about Christ, but also being Christ to people.”

We know, Siler said, both theologically and biblically, that Jesus Christ is present in the poor—and that what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to him.

The role of Catholic Charities, he said, is to “show the example of what love is all about” to the world.

John Etling has spent more than three decades helping to create the archdiocesan Church’s ministry of Catholic Charities of Terre Haute.

Until April 28, he had served as that ministries director—a role that has been passed to his son of the same name.

Etling, his wife, his children and a small army of volunteers have routinely gone into what he describes as one of the worst areas of poverty in west central Indiana to bring the light of Christ.

The area they minister to has “got every ill you can think of—and we’re sitting right in the middle of it,” Etling said.

Since becoming a “convener” for Catholic Charities in Terre Haute in 1973 and later its director when the organization was made official, he had overseen the creation of many ministries.

Among them are the Simeon House, which provides congregate living for senior citizens; Bethany House, which provides emergency shelter to the homeless along with a soup kitchen; the Terre Haute Catholic Charities Food Bank; the Ryves Hall Youth Center, which provides a latchkey program and pre-school; the Christmas House, which gives families new clothes and gifts; and the Household Exchange, which gives donated household items to needy ­families.

“A great amount of what we do amounts to evangelization,” Etling said. “And evangelization does not necessarily mean that you’re going to convert people—but you’re converting them at least to a friendly position rather than an antagonistic position.

“There really is resentment in a lot of Protestant denominations against Catholics, and we have to come up against that.”

Sometimes that resentment can even show through when other Church organizations have to write checks to the Terre Haute Catholic Charities Food Bank, he said.

“They manage to do it in a way that Catholic Charities doesn’t get mentioned,” he said, “and I’m sure that’s deliberate.”

Etling also noted that not only are most of their clients not Catholic, but the same goes for their volunteers. †