Founding Board Member Fr. Christopher Smith Reflects on 30 Years of Hope Builders

As Hope Builders celebrates its 30^th anniversary, we asked some of our founding partners and changemakers to reflect on the legacy of the organization.

Father Christopher Smith—the pastor of St. Joseph Church in Santa Ana when Hope Builders’ founder, Sister Eileen McNerney, moved into the neighborhood—recalled the vision for a brighter future for young people trapped by their circumstances that continues to inspire hope and action today.

Recognizing the need for a path out of poverty, violence, and trauma, Fr. Christopher championed Sr. Eileen’s efforts and supported her vision in any way he could, as he shares below.

Fr. Christopher reflects, “The original vision of creating a place of hope for young lives has become more than a vision. It is now a living, breathing, thriving reality in perhaps an even more troubled and complicated world than the neighborhood out of which it emerged”.

This would not be possible without the community of Hope Builders, its supporters, employer partners, volunteers, and most importantly, the young people who have trusted us to walk alongside them on the pathway to prosperity.  “Thousands of young people have had the courage to walk through the doors of Hope Builders over these 30 years. To you, we say, thank you.”

 

Full Remarks from Fr. Christopher Smith

Hope Builders 30^th Anniversary Reflection

As many of you know, I was the pastor of St. Joseph Church in Santa Ana from 1990 to 2005. I had never been a pastor before, so I remember looking forward to this assignment with lots of excitement and a good measure of nervousness.

I have often said that my experience at St. Joseph Church was life changing for me personally and as a priest. The opportunity to serve as pastor at St. Joseph remains one of the greatest gifts God has given to me in my priesthood. I clearly remember, however, that my first years there did not seem like such a gift.

The neighborhood around the church, and indeed, many neighborhoods in Santa Ana and central Orange County were very troubled in those days. While the families and people who lived in the neighborhood were wonderful, sincere and hard-working, the social environment was in distress.

I remember how the school principal and I would walk around the perimeter of the school yard in the mornings before school, picking up the needles of those who shot up on drugs the night before.

Many nights gunshots could be heard, usually kids in gangs randomly firing the guns as part of their gang initiation or just to scare people. One of those times was an early evening when a two-year-old boy was shot from a passing car while in the arms of his father who was returning home after getting a haircut.

I remember the first funeral Mass at which I presided for a teenager who had been killed in a drive by shooting. I particularly remember the sobs of his grieving mother who was inconsolable. I came to learn that this would be the first of many funerals for young people who were the victims of violence in the neighborhood.

I remember tense, almost adversarial relationships for a while between the parish which was hoping for rehabilitation of those who were in gangs and the police who whose main focus, rightly so, was enforcement of the law.

These are just some of the experiences of those troubled and complicated times out of which the question was posed, “What can we do?”

If you’ve ever asked that question in the midst of a particularly difficult or challenging time of life, perhaps you have thought, as I have thought at times, “we can’t do much.” Or maybe we have just given up altogether, and have said something like, “We can’t do anything. All we can do is pray” and hope that God will do something.

We are here today because 30 years ago, Hope Builders voted no to both of those options. You saw something more than the tragedy and heartache of the time. Guided by the vision and courage of Hope Builder’s founder, Sr. Eileen McNerney, you knew that something more was possible.

You allowed yourself to see young people lost in desperation, young people who had lost all hope, young people who were falling through the cracks of society and sinking deeper and deeper into lives with no meaning or future.

You did not say, “There’s not much we can do.” As the stories of tragedy and pain multiplied you did not say, “I give up, we’re out of here, we’re just going to have to leave this in God’s hands.”

You opened yourselves to listening to Sr. Eileen and others who said, “I wonder …

I wonder if there could be a place where young people who have little hope for a better future could come and find hope.

Then you started to say, “I wonder …. l wonder how we can gather people of good minds and good hearts to create such a place of hope. And you started to dream that such a place could be created.

Out of that wondering and dreaming, and under the patronage of Saint Joseph, another person who listened to his dreams, Hope Builders, was born.

These 30 years later, by the grace of God and the generosity and hard work of you and so many people, the original vision of creating a place of hope for young lives has become more than a vision.

It is now a living, breathing, thriving reality in perhaps an even more troubled and complicated world than the neighborhood out of which it emerged.

I like to think that acts of goodness do not die. The fullness of God is about the good that we do continuing to live on through the lives, the actions and the places created out of goodness. Hope Builders is one of those places.

The reservoir of hope is fuller because you, because we, allowed ourselves to wonder and dream. The reservoir of goodness has grown because thousands of young people have also wondered and have had the courage to literally walk through the doors of Hope Builders over these 30 years. To you, we say, thank you.

As we look to the future, may the reservoir of goodness and hope growing ever deeper because of Hope Builders embolden us to say, in 2025 and beyond, “I wonder ….. “