Page 16 - Catholic Extension Magazine Winter 2019

16 INSPIRE

Lumen Christi Recipient

When McCarter
first arrived in
Allendale 28 years
ago, he encountered
great poverty and
neighbors who did
not know each other
and were lonely.

A transformative friendship
A s McCarter’s dream to restore Shreveport

neighborhoods though caring relation-
ships was growing, he needed support.
Knowing that where he “encountered
the poor, he encountered the Catholic Church,” he
reached out to the bishop of Shreveport at the time,
William Friend. McCarter explained his vision to
renew their city by “re-villagizing” its poorest areas.
The bishop was deeply moved.
“Bishop Friend told me, ‘We’ll make this happen!
Every parish in the diocese is open to you to come
and share your plan,’” said McCarter. “He helped
me to move from wanting to make a difference McCarter meets Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1998.
to actually being willing and able to make a
difference.” The bishop gave McCarter a check for with Pope John Paul II. McCarter recalls that Bishop
$10,000, the project's first seed money. Friend said, “I want the Holy Father to meet you and
Bishop Friend was on McCarter’s first board for you to meet him.”
of directors, which convened around McCarter’s Perhaps the most compelling part of their
dining room table, and created Community Renewal relationship is that Bishop Friend inspired McCarter,
International in 1994. The bishop was a key player in who at the time was a Protestant minister, to convert
CRI's growth and one of its most ardent supporters. to Catholicism.
Their friendship continued for years, including “Our friendship fundamentally changed my life,”
the two traveling together in 1998 to Rome to meet said McCarter.