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Friday, March 30 2007 SCOTTISHCATHOLICOBSERVER 21
MICHAEL O’DONNELL
ONE NIGHT I was sitting at my computer to work on an essay for my permanent diaconate course. I’ll admit I distracted myself by looking through the website of an US Catholic newspaper. Grabbing my attention was a feature about a new film called Room at the Inn by Gerry Straub, a former TV producer who’s worked on a number of well-known programmes.
Straub had spent the last ten years making films that focused on the lives of the poor and, in 2002, founded the San Damiano Foundation—a Franciscan ministry promoting concern for the poor, social justice, peace, and nonviolence. How did this happen?
In 1995, Straub had long abandoned the Catholic faith and was in Rome working on a book in relation to St Francis and Vincent van Gogh. He found himself quite tired one day and wanted somewhere to rest. The church of Sant’ Isidoro was open; thus he entered and picked up the scriptures where he read Psalm 63: ‘O God, you are my God, for you I long.’ Somehow, he felt God had broken through the silence he was experiencing and was extending his love to him. Immediately, he felt the call to journey, with St Francis of Assisi as his guide. Subsequently, Straub changed his focus of the book to St Francis and St Clare. Sun And Moon Over Assisi was published in 2000 and won the best spirituality hardcover book of the year awarded by the Catholic Press Association in the US.
Straub’s focus was on poverty—he could not work out why St Francis would want to be poor as well as serving the poor. Straub had lived a materialistic life. In 1997, in an attempt to understand this, he spent time living with the Franciscan friars at Kensington Inn, Philadelphia. Here, he learned about poverty, about prayer, and what it means to be totally dependent on God for everything. From this Straub made the film We Have A Table For Four Ready, which was shown on various TV channels and at speaking engagements.
To further his spiritual awareness, Straub spent time with Franciscans throughout the world and in 2001 he embarked on a journey with Br Gearoid through India. Straub found himself in a world away from Hollywood. In Calcutta, he was horrified by what he found. There are over two million homeless in the city. People of all ages slept by the side of the road. Although a seasoned TV producer he could hardly lift his camera such was the emotion he experienced.
Straub later went to Nairobi, Kenya where five percent of the population live as squatters in small bits of land, usually no wider than 20 feet across on which they build huts. There was no running water, electricity, or toilets. Misery and disease was all around.
He went on to visit Mexico, Jamaica, and The Philippines. In 2002, he completed another book, When Did I See You Hungry?—a powerful commentary on poverty through pictures and reflections by people such as St Francis, Oscar Romero, and Martin Luther King. With support from people who had read the book, When Did I See You Hungry? was put into film with Martin Sheen narrating. This led to the establishment of the San Damiano Foundation.
Straub has made seven other films. Endless Exodus focuses on people who cross the border from Mexico and Central America into the US to try to earn a living; Embracing The Leper is about a man who gave up everything to serve a colony of lepers in Brazil; Rescue Me illustrates the story of a mission that provides food, shelter, and rehabilitation programmes to the poor and homeless in Skid Row, Los Angeles; Holy Pictures stresses the stillness and silence of spiritual life; Poverty And Prayer reflects on the impact of filming; The Patients Of A Saint is the story of a US doctor who gave up everything to set up a home for sick children in Peru; Room At The Inn is a journey into the bleak and grim world of chronic poverty centring on the St Francis Inn in Philadelphia.
Straub’s latest, Where Love Is, is the story of a Capuchin soup kitchen, which has faithfully served the people of Detroit since 1929. Today it continues with social projects attached to it.
In speaking to Straub, who is a member of the Secular Franciscan Order, he believes that his films try to focus on a faith that compels its followers to embody the compassion of Christ; to embrace the poor, to help feed and clothe them, to walk with them, to be one with them, to share their suffering, and to share their transformation.
We have to come to see Christ in the poor. Praying creates an awareness of God and that awareness elicits a response. Prayer is crucial to ministering to—thus, we must all take time to pray.
We cannot focus just on ourselves; we must also focus on others. ‘With little or nothing, they share themselves, they give what they can…all that the poor widow could’ (Lk. 21:3). God is present and sometimes it is us who have to die to an unhealthy self to be fully alive in God.
Straub believes that to turn our backs on the poor is to turn our backs on Jesus. I believe that once people see his work on film the excuses for turning our backs are now meaningless.
The mission of the San Damiano Foundation is to communicate through films the spirituality of St Francis and St Clare of Assisi. The church of San Damiano in Assisi, Italy, is the birthplace of the Franciscan movement. In that small, dilapidated church, St Francis heard the voice of Christ speak to him from a painted Byzantine cross telling him to rebuild the Church. It was a moment of transformation for the future saint. The Foundation desires to help inspire similar transformation within individuals, within the Church, and within society.
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