The memory of that night – and the question she didn’t ask the young man – haunted Kathy Bogan for a long time. As usual on that wintry night, Bogan drove along the streets of Indianapolis with two volunteers, stopping to give soup, sandwiches, socks and sleeping bags to homeless people. At one of the stops, Bogan met a young homeless man. As they sat and talked, the man began to cry, sharing with her that he had no place to go, and no one he knew in the city.
“Times like that are very emotional. They’re also very spiritual,” says Bogan, a member of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Little Flower) Parish in Indianapolis. “Like most of the people we meet, he was very thankful to God that we came along to help.”
Bogan listened to the young man. She also gave him some food and some things to keep him warm. But as she drove away, she remembered there was one thing she didn’t do, one question that she didn’t ask the young man, that bothered her.
“I usually ask their names so I can pray for them by name,” she says. “but I never asked him his name. For a long time, it bothered me, especially since I never saw him again.”
While that moment haunted her, it also inspired her in her volunteer efforts for a homeless ministry in Indianapolis called Helping Our Own People.

An excerpt, reprinted with permission from January 14,2011, an article in “The Criterion” , “Concern for less fortunate people leads to special outreach efforts in archdiocese” by John Shaughnessy