Casa Maria - Milwaukee
Milwaukee was a strange visit for me because it was the one stop where covid made a serious appearance. Unfortunately right before my visit a community member tested positive and was isolating on the third floor of Casa Maria. Not only is avoiding covid just generally a good idea but my next stop after Milwaukee was to visit my sick grandmother so I wanted to be extra cautious.
Normally I like to live a lifestyle as close to that of the average community member as a visitor possibly could and that means living in the community house if possible. Casa though was blessed with a full house of Catholic Workers at the time of my visit so I had the pleasure of staying with Lincoln just a couple blocks away. Avoiding the community house ended up lessening covid concerns and had the added bonus of giving me a chance to talk CW with another Catholic Worker nerd (Lincoln recently edited the complete writings of Peter Maurin). So in the end it was weirdly fortunate that Harmony House (the building the CWs live in) didn’t have space for me that week.
While I didn’t get to hang out around Casa Maria as much as I would have liked but I did get to shadow for a large chunk of Caitlyn’s house shift.
House at Casa looks a lot like house shifts at any number of CW houses. Answering the phone and door, accepting donations, being attentive to the needs of folks living there. Casa Maria does three house shifts per day: a morning person who cooks lunch before going off shift, an afternoon person whose last duty is preparing dinner before going off shift, and a night person.
One unique duty of the house person at Casa Maria is that they wash laundry for their guests. Their basement which serves as storage has had house essentials walk off before so it's become a Catholic Worker only space. But the people living in the house obviously need clean laundry! So all day long the house person keeps the laundry rotating.
Besides housing women and children at Casa they also distribute clothing, baby needs, and furniture to folks out of a series of garages behind their house. Their resistance work often entails advocacy for families struggling to find their way through an often unjust CPS system. Casa even owns a neighboring house dedicated to providing a space for families navigating that system.
Lincoln took me along to a protest supporting the family of Brieon Green who died under suspicious circumstances in the Milwaukee County Jail.
As a side excursion I used one of the community’s many free tickets to the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Normally I like to live a lifestyle as close to that of the average community member as a visitor possibly could and that means living in the community house if possible. Casa though was blessed with a full house of Catholic Workers at the time of my visit so I had the pleasure of staying with Lincoln just a couple blocks away. Avoiding the community house ended up lessening covid concerns and had the added bonus of giving me a chance to talk CW with another Catholic Worker nerd (Lincoln recently edited the complete writings of Peter Maurin). So in the end it was weirdly fortunate that Harmony House (the building the CWs live in) didn’t have space for me that week.
While I didn’t get to hang out around Casa Maria as much as I would have liked but I did get to shadow for a large chunk of Caitlyn’s house shift.
House at Casa looks a lot like house shifts at any number of CW houses. Answering the phone and door, accepting donations, being attentive to the needs of folks living there. Casa Maria does three house shifts per day: a morning person who cooks lunch before going off shift, an afternoon person whose last duty is preparing dinner before going off shift, and a night person.
One unique duty of the house person at Casa Maria is that they wash laundry for their guests. Their basement which serves as storage has had house essentials walk off before so it's become a Catholic Worker only space. But the people living in the house obviously need clean laundry! So all day long the house person keeps the laundry rotating.
Besides housing women and children at Casa they also distribute clothing, baby needs, and furniture to folks out of a series of garages behind their house. Their resistance work often entails advocacy for families struggling to find their way through an often unjust CPS system. Casa even owns a neighboring house dedicated to providing a space for families navigating that system.
Lincoln took me along to a protest supporting the family of Brieon Green who died under suspicious circumstances in the Milwaukee County Jail.
As a side excursion I used one of the community’s many free tickets to the Milwaukee Art Museum.
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