The Good Samaritan Project in Lawrence County, Ala., was started by Bob Laremore and the local Catholic community to distribute food and clothing to those in need.

Holy Thursday 2003 was the first time the Catholic community in Alabama’s Lawrence County gathered for worship in its present location, and the room gained a significance that night that it retains to this day.

The two-story building, rented as the new home of Resurrection Chapel, was a former beauty shop in Moulton, the county seat. Members decided to use the space on the ground floor for meetings, classes and community meals. Up a short flight of stairs was the room they designated for worship.

“We’re in the upper room,” pastoral coordinator Bob Laremore recalls saying, as they completed their climb and settled in for a remembrance of the Lord’s Supper. He says this mission still refers to their worship space as the “upper room,” a place where the community comes together to meet the Lord.

Since this Catholic community was first called together in 1993 by Bob Laremore, they have gathered in a variety of spaces. In 1994, they worshiped in a shut-down, rat-infested barbecue stand. And several of their other spaces were “sold out from under us,” Bob says. Yet the community continued to grow and thrive and now packs in about 35 chairs for services in the one-time beauty parlor. They’re searching now for an even larger space to tide them over to the day when their community will receive permission from the Diocese of Birmingham to build a church of their own.

Lawrence County, in northern Alabama, is an area similar to other Glenmary areas. A small percentage of the population is Catholic and the poverty rate is almost double the national average. Although it is surrounded by counties that Bob describes as “well-to-do,” Lawrence struggles economically because of a public education system with a dropout rate of close to 50 percent.

The small number of Catholics in the county is growing, however, for two reasons: the influx of Hispanics and a few Anglo families who move into the area. The community has Mass twice a month and, on the other Sundays, Bob conducts Sunday Worship in the Absence of a Priest.

A source of pride for Bob is the congregation’s reputation for caring for the county’s needy population. “The Catholics started outreach in the county in the form of the Good Samaritan project, which has subsequently been turned over to the community,” Bob says. The project collects and distributes food and clothing for those in need and also offers assistance with utilities.

Attention to justice and outreach to the poor have given the Catholic community in Lawrence County a reputation as “one of the smallest churches that does the most outreach,” Bob says.

Bob moved to Lawrence County in 1993 in order to establish a Catholic presence as part of Glenmary’s program for Establishing Mission Churches with Lay Leaders. Since that time he has become a recognized leader in the community. And his relationships with leaders in other Christian communities have led to ecumenical services with Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal congregations.

“I think one of our main roles has been to help bring groups together,” Bob says. “We’ve helped different churches and racial groups come together and we’ve helped people bridge cultural gaps.”

“When I first came, you would hear some preaching against Catholics and the Catholic faith,” he says. “Now, when people hear that kind of thing, they apologize to me for it.” As the leader of the Catholic community, Bob graciously accepts the apologies, and he says there are far fewer reports of such anti-Catholicism now than when he began to gather the Catholic community in 1993.

Bob brought his experience of serving a large urban parish in Denton, Texas, to this small rural county in need of a Catholic presence. Bob has established that presence by keeping in contact with the community at all levels, he says.

Bob considers the work he does with local law enforcement agencies one of his most important means of contact and of evangelization, “I’m what’s called a ‘law enforcement chaplain,”’ he says, “and I’m on call with the local sheriff and the state police.” When people are killed or in an accident, he explains, “I go with the police officers to tell the family.”

Bob also ministers to police officers, firefighters and those who are the first to respond to victims in time of community crisis. Frequently those “first-responders” suffer from post-traumatic stress similar to that experienced by people who are direct victims of natural and human disaster, he says.

When Bob first heard of the need for such chaplains, he assumed that the International Conference of Law Enforcement Chaplains was recruiting Baptists because that denomination is dominant in Alabama. Upon inquiry, however, he learned that they were open to having ministers of other faith traditions. So he trained for certification and has taken the classes required to reach the senior level.

“It’s stressful,” Bob says of his chaplain role. “It pulls your ministry into areas where you’d rather not go. But it’s also rewarding. People are grateful for your presence.”

In addition to his work with law enforcement Bob, a deacon, teaches homiletics classes to diaconate candidates for the Diocese of Birmingham while making sure an effective Catholic presence continues in Lawrence County.