Another Inspiring Maryknoll Affiliate Life

L-R: Larry Radice MM, little Don, Celine, Don, Jim Sweeney (R.I.P.)

So many Affiliates continue to live committed lives, dedicated to the four pillars of Community, Spirituality, Global Vision and Action. Most often, their commitment is hidden to all but a few. By cosmic happenstance (it could have been fate) I came across one of those hidden lives just last week.

I hadn’t heard from friends Don & Celine Woznica for a long stretch. Not even the annual Christmas card. I wrote to them to check in and make sure they hadn’t been buried in a Chicago blizzard or scooped up by aliens in one of those saucer rocket ships. Don wrote back right away. An inspired Affiliate life was uncovered.

While not getting his permission and fervently hoping he won’t file a lawsuit, the majority of the words that follow are Don’s about Celine. Beforehand though, a few words about Don himself – at the risk of that lawsuit. After the family returned from many years in Latin America as Maryknoll Lay Missioners, the always understated and reserved Don, worked as a primary care physician until retirement in a Chicago inner city clinic primarily serving Latino/a patients.

Don’s words:

 Celine is so over-busy (surprise, surprise)… let me give you a brief update. 

 Migrant ministry is the biggie.  Celine started a small program for a group of migrants who were living at a Chicago Police Station close to Oak Park.  At first it was mostly to offer showers, breakfast, toiletries, and clothes twice a week to 30-40 people.  It has ballooned to providing 400-500 people per week with the amenities listed above, with the addition of supplying shoes/boots, coats, and blankets.  (Showers have gone by the wayside, since we recently moved to a much larger facility, a closed Catholic school that has no showers.)  We also have had physicians giving medical consultations, a priest offering spiritual and counseling services, and a woman doing ESL classes.

 Earlier this year, Celine was one of 6 people to receive a Chicago Archdiocesan award to honor the work that she has coordinated.  The Catholic Parishes of Oak Park also received an award from Cardinal Cupich for that same work, and Celine of course was the one who accepted the award on behalf of the parishes of Oak Park.)  So, in her retirement, Celine is probably putting in 40-60 hours per week on this program.   

Celine’s words about the work with migrants:

The experience has made us appreciate basic human generosity and the incredible resilience, strength, and faith of our migrant brothers and sisters.

THANK YOU Celine and Don