Encountering the homeless, building relationships

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

A local college student has encountered Jesus’ passion in a meaningful way – in homeless people he and others befriend.

“Seeing Christ ... particularly in the poor on the streets ... I am seeing Christ walking on the road to Calvary right in front of me,” said Mateo Peschiera, a 20-year-old Quinsigamond Community College student from North American Martyrs Parish in Auburn.  

The young women who volunteer with him and other young men remind him of St. Veronica, who, tradition says, wiped Jesus’ face as he carried his cross.

Mr. Peschiera said their “ministry of presence” is called Encounter, an outreach started in Boston in 2020, inspired by Christ in the City, which began in Denver, Colorado, in 2010. He got Encounter going in Worcester last October, he said.

Encounter’s goal is for its leaders and volunteers, and the homeless (and occasionally nursing home residents), to encounter Christ in each other, he said. Members seek to affirm the human dignity of these people, addressing their need for relationship rather than physical needs.

“We love them” and therefore hope for better situations for them, but do not actively engage in corporal works of mercy like feeding and housing them, he said of the homeless. After establishing relationships, Encounter members might accompany homeless friends to social service appointments, but that’s not the outreach’s purpose.  

While Worcester’s Encounter is currently for people ages 18-35, Mr. Peschiera said there are hopes of expanding it to other ages. He said people not involved should still see Christ in the homeless, pray for them and not be afraid to talk to them, whether or not they couple the conversation with a donation.

Mr. Peschiera and Julia Canty, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Charlton and a Worcester Encounter team leader, and Father Donato Infante III, director of the Worcester diocese’s Office for Vocations, attended a Christ in the City leadership conference last month in Denver. Mr. Peschiera also participated in Christ in the City mission trips in Denver last March and Detroit last summer.

“I was … most inspired by seeing the long-term relationships the missionaries had with their friends on the streets,” Ms. Canty commented.  

Christ in the City and Encounter aim to form Catholic young adults to better live their faith, learning how to love and be loved in their relationships with God and others, Mr. Peschiera said.  

He said Father Infante had the idea of starting something in Worcester and encouraged him to do so.  

“I was filled with so much fire” after attending SEEK 2024, a national conference of the Catholic outreach organization FOCUS, in January 2024 in St. Louis, Missouri, Mr. Peschiera said. “Discerning the priesthood started” there and continued through Christ in the City and Encounter. Now he is applying for the Worcester diocese’s priestly formation program.
In January 2024 he joined the Boston Encounter for formation and visiting the homeless, he said.  

“I fell in love with it,” he said. “To be human means to be loved by God in our poverty and being called to love people around us in their poverty,” including their poverty of loneliness.
Encounter does not aim to evangelize or meet bodily needs, though those outreaches are good, Mr. Peschiera said. Members sometimes pray with the homeless or give them items such as rosaries or hand warmers, but that’s not the focus.

“When people treat each other like vending machines, they don’t treat each other like people,” he explained.

Some people tell the homeless about God and drive them away, he said. Others treat them like garbage or walk past them. Mr. Peschiera said many of homeless people’s problems stem from broken relationships. By befriending those individuals “we are affirming their personhood … In that way it’s also a pro-life ministry.” Homeless friends “bring us so much joy. … When we build consistent relationships” and learn about their struggles and joys, that’s “incarnational – like Jesus came and experienced the fullness of human life ... living with ... the people.”  

Sometimes they share a Google Voice number that the homeless can call or text, and team leaders can access those messages, he said.  

Mr. Peschiera said he and others invite people of different faith communities and walks of life to join Encounter, which is Catholic. He said he’s been organizing monthly Encounter gatherings at St. Bernard Church in Worcester, where he trains participants for street ministry. He also organizes street teams and delegates some of the work.

Ten to 25 people attend the Encounter gathering any given month, he said. They attend Mass, usually celebrated by Father Infante, eat together, receive formation and training, visit the homeless for two hours, then process that experience together. They are to take the culture of encounter to their homes, schools and jobs too.  

Some do the street ministry once or twice a week.  

“We go in groups of two or three,” both men and women,  with a team leader, when visiting the homeless, Mr. Peschiera said.  

“I’m inspired by the empathy in the feminine hearts in my sisters that I’m gifted to walk with,” he said. “I see St. Veronica in them.”

He said Encounter participants are taught how to avoid or respond to difficult situations, including non-violent communication and ways to de-escalate problematic situations. They carry no cash, walk in highly visible areas and don’t interact with people under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If they encounter someone in serious danger they can call for help, but he has had to do that only twice, he said.  

When initiating conversations with the homeless “we start with small talk,” he said. “They’ll tell us where they’re from. Some of them have college degrees. Some of them have interesting hobbies.” Some say, “I’m so glad I met you; no one talks to me.”

Some hesitate to trust them. Mr. Peschiera said listening is important and Encounter members don’t pry.  

“We walked Christmas night,” he said of himself and two volunteers. “People were so appreciative and surprised that these college kids walked up to them shivering and alone” that day.  

“Our Lord did not exaggerate when he said to serve the poor was to serve him,” commented Encounter volunteer Remington Janssen, a WPI senior.  “He speaks through his servants on the street and it is a privilege to hear him in their stories.”

– Those wanting more information can email encounter.christ.worcester@gmail.com.