CHARITY NOW

WINTER 2022

NOW IN HIS 21ST YEAR AT THE HELM of one of the region’s largest charitable organizations, Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, the executive director of Catholic Charities of New York, has immersed himself in the scope and history of human hardship in New York, and in ways to address it. Archways sat down with him recently to ask how we’re doing, as a Catholic community and as a society, in meeting the challenge of rising needs in a time of uncertainty for the economy, public health, and social justice.

Archways: Back in March 2020, you told us, “Because of the economic impact . . . it’s going to take four or five years for us to get back to any semblance of what ‘normal’ means.” Nearly two years later, how would you characterize the situation for those in need in New York?

Msgr. Kevin Sullivan: Fortunately, we are in a much better place than we were early in 2020, but with the variants and the ongoing issues of vaccinations and boosters, we are still in the midst of this. And even if the latest variant recedes soon as predicted, we still need to deal with the economic fallout – in the utilization of office buildings, in the hospitality industry, in the entertainment industry. The impact is going to continue, I think, for the next three or four years.

We are going to have to figure out how to deal with the new environment. Every single one of us is living in the shadow of the pandemic. Every single one of us is trying to figure out how to negotiate this new world. Obviously some have been impacted a lot more than others, but all of us are trying to figure out how we deal with this.

AW: How do you think we have done in addressing the needs created by the recent crises?

KS: Our governments, federal, state, and city, responded in an extraordinary way to mitigate a potentially devastating financial impact. In my estimation, they prevented a tremendous amount of human suffering. The provision of additional food, in which Catholic Charities played a major part, enabled many to have nutritious meals for themselves and their families. Eviction moratoriums kept people in their homes. The extraordinary development and production of vaccines and testing made them available almost universally. I believe we did a very good job trying to make sure that vaccines and tests were widespread, even for people who, in other circumstances, might not have access to certain necessities of health care.

Unfortunately, the pandemic also highlighted some of the issues we face as a society. It’s well documented that the health impact of the pandemic was particularly devastating in poor communities and communities of color. Often members of those communities had no ability to work remotely. They needed to travel back and forth to jobs that enabled us all to go to the grocery store, and to buy food or to take the bus where we needed to go. Those communities were impacted more than the people who could work remotely, who didn’t have to travel, who could easily keep themselves distanced and safe.

As we moved through the pandemic, some other fault lines in society were raised as well. Fights over masks, fights over curfews – they took on a very difficult and often tense atmosphere. Then there was the division in who wants to take the vaccine and who doesn’t. We’re still not as far along as we might have been, had these divides and tensions not developed among us.

AW: Do the divisions in our society exacerbate the problems of the needy?

KS: Divisiveness helps almost no one and hurts the poor and the vulnerable more than anyone.

AW: What does our approach to charity need to be as we face increased needs over the next few years?

KS: As human beings, we have a responsibility to try to make our world caring and fair. When there’s an earthquake, we need to respond to the people who have been impacted by that earthquake. When there’s a fire, we need to respond to the families who have lost their homes and family members. We need to respond to them.

There are crises that are small and devastating to a family or individuals, and then there are the ones that are global, like the pandemic. We have to figure out how to respond to all of them in a way that is caring and just. How do we put order back into a world that has been so disordered by these disasters?

There is a critical role that philanthropy plays, and obviously a more robust philanthropic effort is necessary. However, philanthropy can’t do it alone. Government has a role in responding to disasters, local and global – and in response to this pandemic, as I said, the government did respond in a very strong way: by accelerating the timeline of a vaccine, by making testing available, and in the provision of economic supports for families and individuals and businesses.

The third area is each of us as individuals. We can’t divest ourselves of our individual responsibility to respond to the needs around us. So you need philanthropy, you need government, and you need individuals in order to respond to the multiple crises that we are facing as individuals, as communities, and as a whole world.

I do a radio show called Just Love, and one of the things I say every week is, “Just love God, just love your neighbor, just love yourself, and our world will be more just and more compassionate.” What individual Catholics can do is to act responsibly to fulfill our own obligations to God, to ourselves, and to others. To be responsible members of our families and of our neighborhoods. To be responsible in our work. If we as individuals act responsibly, then collectively we create a society that is more just and compassionate.

AW: Have contributions to Catholic Charities been affected by the downturn of the economy?

KS: Catholic Charities does its work because of the generosity of its benefactors and because of a strong partnership with government. In midst of the pandemic, foundations and individual donors have been incredibly generous to Catholic Charities in enabling us to meet the needs of our neighbors who are hurting. Government has stepped up to the plate, as well, and we’ve been able to increase our partnership with them in the work of meeting basic needs.

AW: Do you see light at the end of the tunnel? What gives you hope?

KS: It’s very hopeful that at our darkest times, when everybody was losing their jobs, and there was so much that was problematic, our government stepped up with some really important help so that people didn’t lose their apartments, people didn’t go hungry, people could provide for their families. It’s hopeful that we were able to meet many of those needs and that so many of our institutions were able to survive. Yes, they “hung on.” And we lost some of them, and that’s not hopeful, but a number were able to survive.

As we walk around our city, it’s not back to where it was, but it’s not the ghost town that it was a little over a year ago. Housing is changing. People move out, people move back. There is the beginning of restoring a certain rhythm, like before – not the same – but there is hope. There is light.

We’ve seen that there is a tremendous capacity for people to act in the best interest of others and of themselves to foster the common good. It is almost unfathomable to me how, in the course of a day or so, New York shut down, and the overwhelming majority of people complied with what were very intrusive protocols. We did it – not without tremendous sacrifice, pain, and, let’s not forget, the hundreds of thousands of people who died, were in hospital, et cetera – but we were able to respond and to do that. The way New York responded is, to me, an indication of the image and likeness of God in us.

For more information about Catholic Charities of New York and/or to make a contribution, visit catholiccharitiesny.org.

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