1/15/04--Boston College Law School is pleased to announce that the 2004 Isaac
Hecker Award for Social Justice, given out by the Paulist Center-Boston, will
be awarded to Rev. Fred Enman, S.J., Law School Pastor and Special Assistant
to the Dean for Students. He is given the award for envisioning and creating
Matthew 25, a model which draws on the resources of the community to provide
an end to homelessness for those struggling with poverty.
In receiving the award, Rev. Enman joins former local and national recipients,
including Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Bishop Gumbleton, and Sister Helen Prejean.
For thirty-one years the award has recognized North American Catholics who have
labored for a more just and peaceful world. The award is named after Isaac Thomas
Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers. The Paulist Center is a worshipping
community in the Catholic tradition with emphasis on social justice, education,
and evangelization located in Boston, MA.
Fred Enman was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1952. In 1978 he entered
the Jesuit novitiate. Ten years later he was ordained a Catholic priest in the
Society of Jesus. His academic degrees include a B.A. from Wesleyan University
(Middletown, CT), a Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School (1978), an M.A.
in Philosophy from Boston College, an M.Div. and a Th.M. from the Weston Jesuit
School of Theology (1988 and 1989) and a Diploma of Legal Studies from Oxford
University (1990).
Fr. Enman taught at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester from 1990 to
1994. From 1994 to 1997 he worked full-time with Matthew 25. Since 1997 he has
been working half-time as Assistant to the Dean for Students and Chaplain at
Boston College Law School and half-time as the Executive Director of Matthew
25.
In 1988, Fr. Enman along with Tim Healey and Jim MacGillivray of the Boston
College Class of 1987, founded Matthew 25 whose mission is to provide food relief
and housing relief to people in economic need. The group is ecumenical and interfaith.
The most visible work of Matthew 25 has been the rehabilitation of abandoned
houses in Worcester, Massachusetts. The organization brings together college
students and high school students who volunteer their talents to turn abandoned
eyesores into neighborhood gems. The college students (mostly from the College
of the Holy Cross) have helped with interior demolition, painting, staining
and landscaping. The high school students from Worcester Vocational High School
work under the supervision of their teachers and have done virtually all of
the carpentry, electrical, plumbing and heating work. Matthew 25 has acquired
the properties, coordinated construction, and raised all of the money to buy
the required construction supplies.
When the houses are completed, the apartments are rented to low-income families
at a percentage of their income. In addition to finishing work on five houses
in Worcester and beginning work on a sixth and seventh, Matthew 25 also acquired
its first abandoned house in Boston. Many Boston College students have already
volunteered and YouthBuild Boston has been doing the carpentry work.
The award ceremony will occur on Saturday, January 24, 2004 at the 6:00 PM liturgy
at the Paulist Center at 5 Park Street, Boston.
The Paulist Center is a worship community of Christians in the Roman Catholic
tradition in Boston, Massachusetts. The Paulist Center attracts individuals
and families throughout the greater Boston area who are drawn to the Center's
ministries of worship, family religious education, and social justice. For further
information please visit the Center’s
website.
