Readers Respond - November 4, 2017

Kudos for article on Rep. Scalise
New Orleans

I’m writing you to give accolades on an excellent article about U.S. Representative Steve Scalise in the Oct. 7 edition of the Clarion Herald.

Rep. Scalise has been a tremendous supporter of our efforts here at Lighthouse Louisiana (formerly Lighthouse for the Blind New Orleans) in supporting legislation which affects the jobs of many Lighthouse employees, specifically our employees who are visually impaired.

Thank you for highlighting Rep. Scalise’s strong recovery and return to public office. Many thanks in authoring this article!

STEPHANIE KRELLER
Community Outreach and Marketing Coordinator
Lighthouse Louisiana

Priest of the poor
New Orleans

I much enjoyed the article of Oct. 21, “Ordained from poverty, priest’s life was lived for poor.”

The Good Shepherd sisters were integral to Father Joseph Wresinski finding his priestly vocation. We can say the same of the 4th World Movement in New Orleans: Sister Fara Impastato, O.P. (at the time Eucharistic Missionary of St. Dominic, E.M.D.) did her part to foster ATD 4th World in New Orleans (with the work of Msgr. Winus Roeten).

Both Msgr. Roeten and Sister Fara were committed and open to the work that Father Wresinski began with homeless families in 1957, but until recently, I never realized the extent. Earlier this year I picked up the book, “The Poor are the Church: A Conversation with Father Joseph Wresinski,” by Gilles Anouil and found inside that the book was translated from the French by both “Rootin’ Tootin’” Roeten and Sister Fara.

I recommend everyone read that book and also the fine biography, “Father Joseph Wresinski, Voice of the Poorest,” by Alwine de Vos van Steenwijk.

In the former book, Father Wresinski spoke that ATD 4th World is interdenominational and interpolitical, which means open to all regardless of religious or political affiliations, thus ecumenical; in the latter book, my favorite quote is by the renowned French painter Jean René Bazaine, who created the stained-glass windows for the chapel in the homeless camp back in 1957: “Nothing is too beautiful for the poor.”

Please read these books for hope so we all can eradicate poverty.

HENRI ANDRÉ FOURROUX III