1. 6 Western New York Catholic/August 2004
By Erin L. Nappe
Staff Reporter
When Mother Teresa was asked
how she intended to eliminate poverty
or hunger, she said it was one person at
a time.
Ten years ago, two Buffalo natives
began taking on these issues at a local
level, turning an abandoned church on
Buffalo’s East Side into St. Luke’s
Mission of Mercy.
Founders Amy Betros and Norm
Paolini met on a pilgrimage to the
shrine of Fatima, Portugal, in 1992.
Betros owned and operated Amy’s
Place, a restaurant in the University
District of Buffalo. Paolini was a
researcher at Roswell Park Cancer
Institute. Both were already serving
God and helping those in need in their
own ways.
It was on that trip that Bishop
Edward M. Grosz told them of the
church that was being sold on Buffalo’s
East Side.
“The bishop said we should buy the
church,” Betros said. He knew of her
interest in St. Faustina and the Divine
Mercy. The church contained the only
image of the Divine Mercy in the area.
“I came and looked at it, and I fell in
love with it.”
Paolini was involved in renewal
programs with the diocese. He and his
wife had been with a prayer group
called New Creation.
“It was a group of individuals who
were extremely broken,” he said. “God
led my wife and me to minister to them
for over 10 years.”
Through his involvement with the
prayer group, he would give money to
those who were in need.
“It was a preparation for what I’m
doing now,” he said. “I was in debt
because of it, and I prayed that a
foundation could be set up to help us.”
His prayer was answered, but not in
the way he expected. Shortly after, he
met Betros.
“I knew she had the same kind of
heart,” he said. Betros was doing the
same thing at her restaurant, giving
away money to those in need and
feeding the hungry from her kitchen.
“We prayed, and God led us to
purchase St. Luke’s,” Paolini said.
Betros and Paolini met with Bishop
Edward D. Head, who agreed to sell
them the church for $200,000.
The doors to St. Luke’s Mission of
Mercy opened on Aug. 1, 1994. The
mission now has 15 missionaries and
100 associates, and countless other
friends and volunteers who help keep
the mission’s programs running.
St. Luke’s has no payroll. All the
work is done by volunteers. The
missionaries live in one of the 20
houses owned by St. Luke’s.
St. Luke’s Mission is celebrating its
10th anniversary with a year-long
jubilee. Every month, they have been
invited to a different parish to celebrate.
A number of events have been
planned for the official anniversary
weekend. On July 31, they held a picnic
for the neighborhood. Father John
Mattimore, SJ, celebrated Mass, and a
reception was held for all current and
past residents of the mission and their
families.
On Sunday, Aug. 1, Bishop Grosz
celebrated an anniversary Mass fol-
lowed by another reception, this one for
the associates, missionaries and bene-
factors of St. Luke’s. Special events will
continue throughout the year.
Both Paolini and Betros describe the
mission as a family. Betros is known as
mom or grandma, and Paolini is
affectionately called Uncle Norm.
“But they are truly our brothers and
sisters, and we are God’s family,”
Paolini said.
And just as a family does, St. Luke’s
offers unconditional love and forgive-
ness to those who come looking for it.
“The more we love, the more the
world gets healed,” Betros said. “In
order to do that, we have to lay down
our lives, not in the literal sense, but we
die to our own desires, and our own
agendas.”
Both Betros and Paolini truly lay
down their lives daily for the mission.
“God brought me here for my own
salvation, Betros added. “Norm taught
me about mercy and giving. The more
he taught me, the more I loved it.
St. Luke’s opens its doors to every-
one. Some come and stay only until
they are healed enough to move on.
Some stay only for a night or two for
something to eat and a place to sleep.
Still others stay on as missionaries
themselves, giving back to the commu-
nity that helped them get their lives
back.
“We serve those who are most in
need, the abandoned, the homeless, the
addicts, the criminals, the sickest of the
sick and the poorest of the poor,” Betros
said. “They’re with us forever. We’re a
family.”
No one is judged or turned away.
“God’s in charge of sin,” Betros
said. “I’m not. People learn by mercy.
Once you’ve been shown it, you give
it.”
When the mission first opened,
Mass was only held in the church on
special occasions, with special permis-
sion from Bishop Head. They began
having regular Sunday Mass there in
1999. Both religious education for
children and the Rite of Christian
Initiation of Adults are offered. Betros
said over 200 people have been bap-
tized, and 50 children are currently in
religious education at St. Luke’s. The
mission has a full-time chaplain, Father
Mattimore, who was commissioned for
this by the Jesuits in 2002. The congre-
gation is known as the Servants of
Divine Mercy.
“We center ourselves around the
Eucharist, draw from Jesus and hope to
draw people to Him,” Betros said.
The church itself is the center of all
St. Luke’s operations, both figuratively
and literally. Beyond being a place to
worship and reflect, it is used to
distribute food and toys at Christmas
and on other special occasions. The
offices are located in the sacristy.
“The church is the most important
place for us,” Betros said.
The old parish school is used for a
number of programs and activities. The
basement, where the old school
cafeteria was located, has become the
kitchen and dining area for the entire
mission.
Jeanne Marinaro, a missionary who
has been with St. Luke’s since its
beginning, works in the kitchen. She
cooks, serves food and organizes the
volunteers.
More than a soup kitchen, the
kitchen at St. Luke’s is a center for the
community. Marinaro said many people
have been healed by being able to help
out in the kitchen.
“People come in angry, and we give
them love,” she said. “We’re a family.”
Over the course of a year and a half,
Photos by Patrick McPartland/Staff Photographer
Norm Paolini and Amy Betros stand outside St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy, an
island of charity and hope in one of Buffalo’s poorest areas.
Rasheen Mallory plots his next move in a game of Connect Four.
Missionaries open their arms and hearts to Buffalo’s

2. 7Western New York Catholic/August 2004
Marinaro watched a woman get
herself clean and put herself
back together through working
in the kitchen.
“It’s giving back that gives
you a feeling of worth,” she
said. “Thank God for St.
Luke’s. It gives hope.”
Another missionary,
Norbert Bentkowski, made the
transformation from one being
served in the kitchen to doing
the serving. He helps in the
kitchen, cooking, cleaning and
helping things run smoothly.
Food donations come in
weekly from Joseph’s Catering,
Entenmann’s, Upstate Farms,
Wegmans, Tops and Rich
Products. In addition, the
mission spends $1,500 per
week on food.
Two meals a day are served,
and Marinaro said that she sees
from 250 to 300 people per
day.
“People don’t just come
for the food,” she said. “They
come for fellowship and
love.”
Marinaro said they say
grace before each meal, and
she tries to teach discipline,
conscience and sharing. For
example, if she sees two
children fighting or shouting,
she will stop them, and pray
out loud for their parents.
“There’s so much violence;
we need to teach children to
be peacemakers,” she said.
Upstairs, the first floor of
the school is devoted to the St.
Luke’s Mission Mall. Mission-
ary Charlene Mallory runs the
mall, collecting and sorting
donations of non-perishable
food items, clothing, toys and
various other items. When
everything is organized, the
mall is opened for people to
come in and find what they
need. Mallory said a couple
hundred people will come
through on a typical day.
Betros said the donations
are very important, but even
more important are the
volunteers who keep things
going.
Upstairs, classrooms are
used for summer youth
programs and religious
education.
Among the various
buildings that are home to
missionaries, residents and
those making a stop along
their path, is Good Shepherd,
a recovery house for those
suffering from various addic-
tions.
“It’s a place to get a new
beginning and start over,”
Betros said.
Men and women living at
Good Shepherd find commu-
nity and support. They live as
a family, sharing household
duties and helping each other
in the healing process.
In the past 10 years, there
have been tests of faith. Most
people probably would have
given up, but Betros and
Paolini put their trust in God
and kept the faith. Back in
1995 and 1996, Betros said
they needed $25,000 just to
stay open and no idea where
that money would come from.
“I had confidence that the
Lord would provide what we
needed, but I knew that I
needed to forgive anyone I
was holding on to anger or
resentment towards,” Betros
said.
For three hours, she
meditated, asking God to help
her forgive those who had
wronged her in the past, one
by one. When she was fin-
ished, she opened the mail,
and there was a check for the
$25,000 the mission so
desperately needed.
“God is true, but we have
to trust,” she said.
Another test came in 1997,
when St. Luke’s had scheduled
a concert by a contemporary
Christian singer from Ireland.
The tickets had been sold, but
the singer had to cancel at the
last minute because of an
illness.
“We owed the gas com-
pany $27,000. We knew there
was no way we’d get that
money without the concert,”
Betros said.
The gas was shut off, and
Betros said she prayed that
they’d be able to feed the
people who were waiting for
food. Two truckloads of
charcoal were delivered. For
two months, the missionaries
cooked with charcoal and
heated water for baths in
coffee pots. An article ran in
the Buffalo News, and the
concert was rescheduled.
The newspaper article
brought in $10,000 in dona-
tions, and the concert raised
$17,000. Betros paid the bill,
and the gas was back on.
Out of this difficult time,
two permanent and important
parts of St. Luke’s were
formed. First was the Voices
of Mercy. People were going
to arrive for the scheduled
concert, and Betros knew
there needed to be music. She
called some of the missionar-
ies, and they practiced some
of the songs they sang during
worship. They performed for a
crowd of 400 to 500 people
and got three standing ova-
tions.
Now, the Voices of Mercy
travel and perform, healing
through their music. They
sing at weddings and funerals
and various other special
events.
The Friends of St. Luke’s
also formed during this time.
They held a corn roast to
benefit the mission raising
$4,000. The corn roast has
become an annual event and
has grown each year. Last year
they raised $16,000.
The missionaries and
associates who work with St.
Luke’s come out of a calling
from God.
Betros said they have
never refused those who offer
themselves to the mission.
Missionaries make commit-
ments for one year at a time.
Some stay a year or two and
move on, and others have been
there from the beginning.
“If you’re drawn here, you
come. When you know it in
your heart, we’ll take you,”
she said.
Looking back on the past
10 years, both Betros and
Paolini want to express their
gratitude to all who have
helped and supported them
through the years.
“Without them, we
wouldn’t be here,” Betros said.
“We were called and we
said ‘yes’ without knowing
concretely what lay ahead. We
opened our hearts to the Holy
Spirit and took things one day
at a time,” Paolini added.
And how have the past 10
years changed him?
“It’s shown me that all of
what God says is, in fact, true.
When we truly love one
another, He gives us a joy in
our hearts beyond any mate-
rial or social gain,” he said.
“That joy becomes a strength
to do His work.”
Jeanne Marinaro peels potatoes that will be served at lunch.
St. Luke's serves meals twice a day to anyone in need who
walks through their doors.
Charlene Mallory, who works in the donations rooms of St. Luke's, hangs some newly donated
clothes which are given to anyone who asks for them.
neediest at St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy