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   From: PBARKER002@woh.rr.com   
      
   How one priest is bringing Jesus to the most dangerous city in the US   
      
   Baltimore, Md., Aug 3, 2018 / 12:17 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With the   
   highest per-capita homicide rate in the nation, Baltimore has been   
   called the most dangerous city in America - which is why it needs   
   Jesus, says Father James Boric.   
      
   But Baltimore can’t get Jesus if the doors to his house are closed.   
      
   It’s why Boric, who serves as rector of the Basilica of the National   
   Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, is   
   hoping to radically increase the basilica’s hours, increase the   
   availability of adoration and confession, and add new urban   
   missionaries.   
      
   He wants Jesus to be available to the people on their way home from   
   work downtown, to the people affected by the murders in the city (347   
   just last year), to the homeless who sleep near the basilica.   
      
   “Baltimore City is hurting. It is bleeding. It is in need of hope and   
   healing. It needs Jesus Christ in the Eucharist - the source of all   
   hope,” Boric said on the website for his campaign, entitled ‘The   
   Source of All Hope.’   
      
   “In my prayer, I know God is calling me to open the Basilica,” he   
   said, to provide a place of peace and prayer for the lost, the   
   homeless and the hopeless.   
      
   “I must provide that refuge here in the City. I honestly know that God   
   is demanding this of me.”   
      
   Currently, the basilica closes at 4 p.m. because it cannot afford the   
   security measures it would need to stay open in the evening.   
      
   But Boric plans to extend adoration hours until 8 p.m. Monday through   
   Friday, with more evening confession times as well. Confessions are   
   currently available at the basilica for a half-hour before noon on   
   weekdays, and for about 30 minutes in the late afternoons on weekends.   
      
   Funds raised in the campaign will go toward security measures and the   
   utility costs for the keeping the basilica open several additional   
   hours a day. The campaign will also help fund the housing and salaries   
   of the new urban missionaries. At the end of July, the campaign had   
   already surpassed its $106,000 goal by more than $44,000.   
      
   The urban missionary program will base its model on the Christ in the   
   City program in Denver, a homeless outreach ministry that opened in   
   2010 which sends young adult missionaries out to the streets to   
   befriend and bring Christ to the homeless.   
      
   Boric said he plans to visit Denver to learn more about how the   
   program works. He told the Baltimore Catholic Review that he plans to   
   hire two college-age students with street ministry experience to help   
   him form the program’s structure before hiring more missionaries, and   
   that he will also collaborate with Catholic Charities and other social   
   programs that provide resources to the poor and homeless.   
      
   While the program won’t be able to solve all the problems of the   
   homeless, Boric told the Catholic Review, “we can love them. We can   
   get to know their names and their stories. We can give them the word   
   of Christ and invite them to feel the peace of adoration. We can be an   
   evangelizing presence.”   
      
   The new campaign will only add to the good things already taking place   
   at the basilica, Boric said on the website, such as the speaker   
   series, last year’s successful Rosary Congress, and a 7-week   
   “Discovering Christ” catechism course.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)