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Erie Times News
Priest with Erie roots finalist for Opus Prize
Nov. 17, 2007

An Erie native, who's spent the past three decades working on behalf of the homeless in the nation's capital, has been awarded $100,000.

The Rev. John Adams, president of So Others Might Eat, was one of two finalists for the Opus Prize.

The $1 million winner, Brother Stan Goetschalckx, founded an education program for refugees in Tanzania. The Rev. Norberto Carcellar, who was the other $100,000 finalist, represents the Homeless People's Federation Philippines.

The Opus Prize is a humanitarian award recognizing "unsung heroes" who "combine a driving entrepreneurial spirit with an abiding faith to combat social problems, including poverty, illiteracy, hunger, disease and injustice," according to the foundation behind it.

Adams' Washington, D.C., organization has a mission of not only serving meals to the hungry and homeless, but also restoring their hope and dignity through programs that help them become independent.

The organization serves more than 800 meals a day, Adams said. It also offers a summer camp for inner-city senior citizens in West Virginia.

The organization also runs medical and dental clinics and offers job training and drug treatment.

Adams said the prize money will go toward a $20 million effort to provide 1,000 housing units in Washington, which has 9,000 homeless.

"It will help us greatly," he said.

Helping people is something Adams, 66, said he's always wanted to do. He attended local Catholic schools, first at St. Boniface School in Greene Township and then high school at the former Sacred Heart Seminary in Girard.

Adams studied philosophy, theology and social service at Catholic University of America. He was ordained in 1969 as a Claretian and worked in Illinois, Iowa and Virginia before joining So Others Might Eat in 1978.

He visits Erie, usually for Easter and Christmas, said his sister, Beth Adams, a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie.

She represented their family, which includes three other brothers and two other sisters in the Erie area, at the award presentation in Washington this month. They are children of the late Jessie and John Adams.

Beth Adams, 50, said it was exciting to see her brother honored. "I was very proud of my brother," she said.