The Providence Phoenix This Just In

MISSED CONNECTIONS
Citing the demise of the food pantry at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, activists question the church's commitment to helping the needy
BY STEVEN STYCOS

The Rhode Island Community Food Bank has ceased supplying the food pantry at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Providence after pantry volunteers charged that food was being improperly used. The controversy raises questions about not only the cathedral's handling of the federally funded food program, but the Catholic Church's commitment to the unfortunate.

As the symbolic center of the Catholic Church in Rhode Island, the cathedral towers over the Diocese of Providence's headquarters in downtown Providence. Bernard Beaudreau, the food bank's executive director and an active Catholic, however, calls the operation of the cathedral's food pantry, "one of the poorer examples of how the food ministry should be handled . . . If they want to live by the gospel, here is apostolic work right down the stairs and they're shunning it."

The pastor of the cathedral, the Reverend Francis Guidice, says the food pantry, which still distributes surplus food, is only temporarily closed. Calling the dispute a "tempest in a teapot," Guidice blames the controversy on the pantry's former manager, Angelo DiMario of Charlestown. DiMario insisted without proof that cathedral staff and longtime volunteers were stealing food, Guidice says, causing repeated conflicts. "He gets very emotional and strong and very opinionated," says Guidice.

But four food pantry volunteers interviewed by the Phoenix defend DiMario as a hard-working volunteer who dramatically improved the pantry's operation. "Angelo has really been treated unfairly," says Todd Adams, a cathedral parishioner and pantry volunteer. "People don't go to church because of things like this." Another volunteer, Barbara Renner, calls the entire incident "faith-shaking," adding, "Angelo and [his friend] Joanne [McNamee] weren't going to play the game and they were thrown out."

While Beaudreau doubts that food was stolen, he faults the cathedral for not resolving the problem. "[DiMario] was trying to manage his own budget," Beaudreau says. "People who have a lot of energy, a lot of passion, but may have limitations -- you have to manage that."

Because of the recession, the need for emergency food has grown considerably. The cathedral's food pantry is one of 42 operated by Rhode Island churches, according to John Barry, secretary for social ministry for the Diocese of Providence. Most of its funds come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which last year gave $138,982 to a diocesan fund for distribution to individual pantries. While they ran the cathedral's pantry, McNamee and DiMario say, they provided several bags of groceries a month to about 350 people.

McNamee and DiMario started volunteering at the cathedral's pantry in 1999. McNamee converted to Catholicism that year and with DiMario, who is also Catholic, started working at the pantry to fulfill her community service requirement. The work was especially meaningful, they say, because they had been homeless in the past and received food from the pantry.

The cathedral staffer who handled ordering was hospitalized in March 2001 and McNamee and DiMario took over. Shortly afterwards, DiMario was surprised to learn at a food bank orientation that pantry food wasn't to be used for church events or other unaffiliated programs. He posted food bank rules at the cathedral and tried to stop what he says was constant pilfering of supplies.

At the same time, DiMario dramatically improved the program, says Josephine O'Connell, who manages the nearby St. Francis Food Pantry in Providence's Jewelry District. Using his truck, DiMario stretched limited funds by buying food from the food bank for eight cents a pound, rather than paying more to a wholesaler. This required more work, because the expanded orders had to be transported from the food bank's West Warwick warehouse and divided into individual bags. But it brought results on the street. "People got more food from him [DiMario]," O'Connell says, who adds that the bags were "much bigger, much more generous."

Conditions became critical, though, in September, DiMario says, when 10 cases of food disappeared from the cathedral's basement in a week. Adams, who worked in the pantry's storeroom with DiMario, confirms that the cases disappeared, but Guidice says it wasn't possible for that quantity to be moved without it being seen. Despite his complaints to Guidice, DiMario says, more cases disappeared in subsequent weeks, leading him to contact the police and seek a secure storage area in October.

These actions enraged cathedral Sister Cecelia Ferro, DiMario says, and in an angry confrontation, the Reverend Normand Valois, who was filling in for the sick Guidice, closed the pantry October 26. Guidice, however, blames DiMario and McNamee for the confrontation, saying they put candles and altar wine dangerously close to the cathedral's furnace after storing food.

DiMario does not know where the missing food went, but he had several arguments -- which Renner and another parishioner, Dawn Radican, confirm hearing -- with a longtime cathedral volunteer who insisted that the food should be used for church functions that serve the poor. Guidice confirms that on one occasion a small amount of food was improperly used for a church dinner.

The conflict has simmered since late October. Volunteers Adams and Renner are upset that Barry and Ferro rebuffed their efforts to resolve the dispute and retain DiMario's and McNamee's energy and leadership. Citing "a misunderstanding between two groups of nice people," Radican, a cathedral lector, says she can't "understand why the church is mad at Angelo." Barry refused to comment on the dispute, referring questions to Guidice. Ferro didn't return calls seeking comment.

The situation bothers Beaudreau, who's active with ex-priest and activist Henry Shelton on poverty issues. In contrast to Episcopal Bishop Geralyn Wolf and individual Catholic parishes, Beaudreau says, Rhode Island's Catholic bishop, Robert E. Mulvee, seems aloof and reluctant to become involved with issues involving the poor. "It's time to shake the [Roman Catholic] hierarchy and get their attention, because frankly, they don't give us any attention," he says.

Barry rejects this view, saying that his office lobbies at the State House on low-income housing and food issues. "Nobody can be more supportive of these issues than Bishop Mulvee," Barry says.

Guidice says he plans to reopen the cathedral's pantry under Ferro's leadership. But Karen Malcolm, the food bank's director of agency services, says the food bank will offer help only if the church provides a well-designed service plan.

Meanwhile, DiMario and McNamee have asked FEMA to investigate and are struggling with what they see as a clash between the teachings of Catholicism and the actions of their church. "Spiritually, being a Catholic is the best thing I ever did," says McNamee. "That's why it's been so painful for the faith to be abused in this way."