Romero House in Ames, IA

 

My week-long visit to the Mustard Seed farm ended with a quick 24 hour visit to the Romero House of Hospitality in town.

Operated by Matt and David and their summer worker Luke, Romero House helps a half dozen or so unhoused men with overnight hospitality. They’re also connected to mental health professionals who come to the house weekly to offer their services to folks in need.

I often tell folks who inquire about the “Catholicness” of the Catholic Worker movement that there’s a spectrum. I’ve seen houses that pray vespers every night and I’ve seen houses that won’t let priests say mass at their place because of the church’s position on women and queer folks. I’ve known CWs who like Dorothy Day are benedictine oblates and I’ve known Catholic Workers who are atheists (and even one or two who identify as Jedi!). Romero House would fall somewhere on the “more Catholic” end of the spectrum.

While my short visit only allowed me a brief glance into their life, one thing that was apparent about their Catholic Worker was the centrality of prayer to communal life. Hourlong evening prayer and silence is observed each evening before dinner, morning prayer is said each morning at 7:30, and daily mass is attended at their parish St. Thomas Aquinas when possible.

Their chapel space is the most formal of the CW houses I’ve come across and they were excited to have recently received permission from their bishop to host the eucharist in a tabernacle at their home.

Besides prayer I did glimpse some of the other regular CW work happening around Romero house: CWs preparing dinner for the house, being attentive to their guests physical and emotional needs, preserving food, caring for their yard chickens, having meetings, etc.

The Romero House CWers commented more than once on their lack of simple living and while its true that their house seemed well provisioned in terms of food and other daily needs I noticed that the three Catholic Worker folks all seemed to share a small room cramped with bunk beds. I’ve been rereading Dorothy Day’s Loaves and Fishes lately and was reminded of her thoughts on simplicity that “people can be poor in space alone. ”

One aspect of the Romero House that is unique to the few dozen houses I’ve seen is their use of “smart” technology around the house. Most noticeably was that of the locks on the front and back doors. Everyone who lives there has their own code and when they leave this can be changed. This helps solve the question some CWs ask themselves of who within their house receives keys and the security concerns then associated with the regular turn over many houses see. Their set up also included a basic PA system so that when there was an announcement for the house, such as dinner being ready, all it took was someone pushing a button and broadcasting for all to hear.