Dear Fellow Pilgrims on the information super highway,
Remarkable as this technological boom may be that has brought us web sites, chat rooms, and the like, I would like to tell you about a genuine miracle that is taking place here at St. Matthew's.
We are a Black Catholic parish in the heart of North St. Louis, Missouri. We have borne the brunt of all the big city ills this nation has to offer; urban flight, homelessness, racism, gangs, poverty, blight, shattered families, drugs, and all the rest. But this web page is a small symbol of the miracle that now transforms our parish and our neighborhood.
A few months ago, St. Matthew the Apostle Catholic Church initiated a program called "Revitalization 2000". Our strength is Jesus Christ on the altar at Sunday morning Mass. From there, inspired by the graces of that Sunday morning Celebration with its lively Gospel music and human warmth, we go to work rebuilding this Church and this neighborhood. Black and white, young and old, male and female, city and county, have pooled their strength to renovate the church and build a barbecue restaurant out of an abandoned building. We formed an employment committee, a fund raising committee, an urban renewal committee, housing committee, and much, much more. We are in the process of raising seven hundred fifty thousand dollars to build a new parish hall and renovate our gymnasium, and, if all that is not enough, we have our own web site! In this web site you will find the history and tradition of St. Matthew. I pray you will enjoy it. I also pray that if you are so inspired, you will come and join our little miracle.
God bless you, Pilgrims,
Father Matthew Ruhl, S.J.