Every morning Jean Fedigan wakes up and starts her day by going to her prayer room.
“I ask God to please direct me today to open my heart and put me where He needs me to be,” Fedigan said.
God has called Fedigan to serve at Sister José Women’s Center (SJWC) in the Diocese of Tucson, Arizona. The center, which Fedigan founded in 2009 while serving as the chief nursing officer at University of Arizona Physicians Healthcare Hospital, is named after her mentor, Sister José Hobday, a Franciscan nun who spent her life caring for the poor and marginalized. In the spirit of its namesake, is dedicated to the care of homeless and trafficked women living on the streets of Tucson.
Most of the women who come to SJWC have a mental illness, live on the streets in tunnels or on bus stop benches and face nightly threats of violence. These women wake up and, as Fedigan says, ask themselves, “How do I survive today?” Fedigan established SJWC to combat the dehumanizing realities that homeless women face each day.
More than just providing shelter from the desert sun or access to showers, laundry, meals and clothing, SJWC has a deeper mission on behalf of these vulnerable women. It seeks to ensure that these women feel loved, respected and assured of their human dignity.
Love, dignity and respect
In 2009 Fedigan learned about a winter night shelter for men. When she asked where the women went, she was told they were turned away because the shelter could only take men due to the potential for violence against women.
“That didn’t last long before I said that’s not OK,” Fedigan said.
She went to her pastor, Msgr. Tom Cahalane of Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church, and asked to speak at Sunday Masses about the idea of creating a women’s shelter. She rallied volunteers and opened the winter night shelter for women.
Fedigan notes that God teaches us through other people, most especially through the women she is privileged to serve.
One January night, around 2 a.m., a young guest named Lisa slipped out of the shelter. At 6:30 a.m. Fedigan went outside the shelter and saw Lisa standing completely naked. Lisa didn’t know what had happened to her clothes and told Fedigan she thought she was losing her mind.
After helping the young woman get clothed and comfortable, Fedigan recalled the words in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25:
Lord, when did I see you naked?”
Fedigan serves people of all religions, cultures and walks of life. Her compassion is freely offered to all without judgment because she sees the face of Christ in all whom she meets. Many guests have simply told her: “You made me feel human today.”
Safety for those without safety nets
Through the help of donors and several volunteers as well as Fedigan’s inspiring leadership, Sister José Women’s Center has gone from being a shelter for women just during winter months to offering services year-round, day and night.
On a typical day, 100 women will come to SJWC. Its gates open at 7:30 a.m. Fedigan and her volunteers cook breakfast for the women, offer them a fresh shower and assess needs. Health services, case managers and counselors are on-site to help the women.
Fedigan’s center is the only shelter in town that allows the homeless to bring their pets. Fedigan and the volunteers have embraced this added component of their daily work—namely, feeding the animals, safely sheltering them and making sure they are healthy—because these pets are not just companions but also protectors of these women as they navigate the dangers of life on the streets.
An overnight shelter program is available for women who are exhausted and/or mentally incapable of being out on their own. It is also for women who have secured a job and need to stay longer so they can make the money necessary to transition into their own housing.
Helping women become more self-sustaining and be safe are certainly primary goals of SJWC. However, its true mission is to help the women understand their inherent worth as human beings.
Fedigan does not prefer to talk about her ministry in terms of her many impressive statistical outcomes but rather through stories and memories of transformation.
She recalled the first winter at the shelter when Tammy, a woman in rough condition who had spent years in the desert, approached Fedigan. Tammy told Fedigan someone had stolen her Bible and she missed reading it. She asked Fedigan if she could read the Bible to her. At Tammy’s request, Fedigan read 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13, which includes St. Paul’s famously inspired words that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Fedigan remembers Tammy’s face changing; she became less wrinkled, had a beautiful smile and listened intently.
When Fedigan finished reading the chapter, Tammy got up, walked five steps away, turned back, looked at Fedigan and said,
God loves me.”
Knowing that this woman felt profoundly loved was the only measurable outcome that mattered to Fedigan that day.
Catholic Extension Society is honored to share the accomplishments of Jean Fedigan, a finalist for the 2022-2023 Lumen Christi Award. Visit this page to read the other inspiring stories from this year’s finalists.
