When All of Us Are Home
Sister Mary Scullion - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sister Mary Scullion has been fighting to end homelessness for more than thirty years. She clearly believes that every person deserves to have affordable housing, health care, and an education. But she has also come to believe that every person benefits—the giver and the receiver—when working to help others.
When I was a student at St. Joseph’s University, I began to spend time on the streets of Philadelphia, getting to know the men and women for whom these streets were their only home. The more I developed relationships with them and the more I got to know them, the harder it became to head home at night while they remained outside.
In time, I came to a powerful insight: When we see a person on the street we can no longer pass by and piously say, “There but for the grace of God go I”—but rather “There go I.” As Dr. King taught us: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
In this journey, I have had many great teachers—including Georgianna Simmons, who lost nine of her toes to frostbite, and who, despite a daunting mental illness, was a powerful advocate and woman of great love. Or Joe Williams, who turned his years of addiction into a passion for recovery and now, with a college degree, runs a recovery house for homeless men.
I’ve been doing this work for more than thirty years, and I’ve been radically changed. People who have nothing have taught me so much about life and grace, about faith and compassion.
Among the lessons they have taught me is that ultimately, people who are homeless need the same opportunities we all need: decent, affordable housing; quality education; employment; and access to healthcare. Their lives so eloquently witness the fundamental truth of the dignity of every person. Contrary to our society, which values those it deems productive and prosperous and often marginalizes those who struggle with homelessness, I believe that every man, woman, and child possesses gifts, worth, and potential. Everyone matters!
And so, I envision and work for a society in which each person is given the opportunity and resources to achieve their fullest potential and to contribute to the common good.
I also believe that our greatest power is unleashed when people come together across social boundaries to form a community united by a common vision. It is through “the power of we,” as our friend and partner Jon Bon Jovi reminds us, that we come to know the deepest truth of our humanity.
This is what I truly believe: “None of us are truly home until all of us are home.”
In 1989, Sister Mary Scullion co-founded the nationally recognized Project HOME, which provides supportive housing, employment, education, and healthcare to enable chronically homeless and low-income persons to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty. Her advocacy resulted in the right of homeless persons to vote and a landmark federal court decision regarding the fair housing rights of persons with disabilities. She received the Philadelphia Award and was selected by Time magazine as one of the “World’s Most Influential People” in 2009.