The following story first appeared in the Autumn 2004 Glenmary Challenge.
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The Mysterious 'Regional Worker'
Father Les Schmidt—On the Move, Behind the Scenes,
Making Things Happen
By Father John S. Rausch

CONNECTING DOTS: Father Les Schmidt at one of the many meetings he attends to help put local issues into a larger context.

For over 30 years Father Les Schmidt has defined the meaning of “regional worker” by traveling, on average, 1,000 miles per week and sleeping in a network of rectories and private homes throughout Appalachia and the South. He combines the roles of catalyst, messenger and, sometimes, outside agitator.

“What I do is basically respond to others,” he explains. He may talk with a southern bishop one day about private prisons and listen to the struggles of poultry workers the next.

“Where I am is not dictated by me, but by the situation,” he continues. “That’s why it’s difficult to explain regional work.”

Regional work is intended to serve local mission ministries by offering a bigger picture. His master’s in sociology helps him bring a needed analysis to patterns overlooked on the local scene. Only after connecting the dots can the gospel mandate become clear.

Some of Father Les’s work involves compassionate listening to victims. Other times he enlists bishops and Church people to raise a moral voice. In some cases he deals directly with local folks; other times he encourages academics or journalists to get involved. Each situation requires a tailored strategy and unflinching pluck.

During his years in regional work Father Les has rambled through all parts of Appalachia and the South dealing with labor and social issues. In the early 1970s he stood in solidarity with coal miners striking for safety in Stearns, Ky. He joined the J.P. Stevens campaign centered in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., to unionize mill workers.

In the 1980s he helped rejuvenate the Catholic Committee of the South that gave an institutional voice to the struggles of grass roots folks and publicized the precipitous land loss among black farmers, especially in Mississippi and Alabama. The unsafe conditions of poultry workers and the unfair contracts for poultry farmers became the focus of much of his work in the late 1990s with the Catholic bishops of the South, culminating in their 2000 pastoral letter on the poultry industry, Voices and Choices.

Currently Father Les is examining prison topics such as juvenile justice, mandatory sentencing and the privatization of prisons. This is part of his present work with the bishops of the South facilitating a six-part pastoral on criminal justice.

He plans to attend this year’s annual meeting of the Catholic Chaplains in Prison Ministry. As he mixes and mingles, he will share the story of Margaret Fontaine Richey, a woman he met on his travels. She now coordinates a pilot project in the Diocese of Mobile (Alabama) that challenges each parish to make available a bed and a mentor for a few weeks to help a newly released inmate transition back into society and find a job. A former prisoner herself, she faced a stonewall of rejection after her release until Catholic Charities opened some doors for her.

Among his many projects over the years, one in particular stands out because of its far-reaching impact: This Land Is Home to Me, the 1975 pastoral letter by the Appalachian bishops. Father Les, with the help of Sister Beth Davies, convened over 100 small meetings of local mountain people to learn their needs. That research led directly to the pastoral that has influenced ministry in Appalachia ever since.

Father Les’s regional work has helped keep the ministry of Glenmary—and the larger Church—focused on a critical point of biblical theology, which he explains by quoting This Land Is Home to Me: “the cry of the poor is the voice of the Lord among us.”