As you pull off New Jersey Turnpike Exit 4 at dusk, the sunset frames Philadelphia's city lights. The view evokes something like the thrill of seeing the Manhattan skyline. But your vantage point - River Avenue in Camden - lacks the glamour of the boroughs of Brooklyn or Queens.

Much of Camden, population 80,000 consists of small, rundown buildings - some inhabited, 40 percent deserted - amidst litter-strewn lots. A local newspaper headlined an article, "Who would want to live here?" A church pastor later quipped, "Who would want to minister here?"

The Franciscan Christophers Coccia and Posch, for two. Father Christopher Posch hails from Plainview and he comes to Camden after spending a year of training in Bolivia.

The team at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 2818 River Avenue, has found many ways to minister. And the friars are the first to point out it's not just a friar operation.

On a typical Monday evening, Fr. Christopher Posch, OFM, and Mrs. Myrna Figueroa, a parish lay leader, welcome a dozen young people in the friary basement-clinic-meeting room. It's 8:30, the earliest the representatives from several households can get away from their long workdays. They want Mass more frequently, requiring special consideration, since many work Sundays. They describe basic needs: medical care (Sister of Mercy Anne Kappler, director of the parish clinic, will help) legal assistance (Myrna will seek someone), English courses (the most important qualification to teach, says Chris, is simply a desire to serve). These young men and women are sincere, spiritual, articulate - but you won't understand a word they say, unless you speak Spanish.

The Mexicans are the latest arrivals here. A friar from Mexico, Fr. Roman Gomez, OFM, during his year in Holy Name Province's fraternal exchange program with Franciscans from Mexico, spent alternate weeks living with them, inserting himself into their daily lives: cooking, doing wash, cleaning, celebrating Mass in their homes. The trust built through his presence is evident.

Fr. Posch picked up a working Spanish vocabulary during a special year of training as a friar in Bolivia in 1992. His dedication and good humor make up for a "gringo" accent. He invited Myrna, who is bilingual, to participate with the group of Mexicans. "At the first home Mass, she told her story of how difficult it was for her and her family from Puerto Rico in the beginning. But look at her 45 years later, a big sign of hope for them. One of their concerns was what happens when someone is taken to an emergency room. Well, Myrna gave all these people her phone number and said if anyone is rushed to the hospital call me. I'll be with you. I'll make sure they listen, and I will not let them arrest you. Unfortunately, someone did have to call and she followed through - she is like the patroness of the group, the mother. Roman was a paisano, a shepherd. (Rev. Mr.) Tito Miranda, a deacon here, is a daddy." And what is Chris? "I just kind of pull everything together. I'm not strong enough in the language - when it comes to the heavy stuff. God blessed me with people who are!"

Br. Christopher Coccia, OFM, arrived a year ago as administrator. The place needed a lot of physical care, and working with his hands, he applied his expertise in repairs and construction. "I felt that the Franciscans, which I joined 43 years ago, had what I wanted - to serve God through manual labor, which I'm still doing," he explains. To his ministry of maintenance, Br. Coccia added vocation and parish work, and he was ordained a permanent deacon in 1983. "It's very nice to conduct a baptism or a wedding or a funeral. Being an MC for provincial professions, working closely with the bishop, is a wonderful privilege. Yet I can derive just as much pleasure seeing the new lights go up outside the convent." A few weeks ago a pipe was clogged and Br. Coccia appeared, plunger in hand: "I guess this is the only crosier I'll every carry!" he joked with Tito, with whom he works closely. "But in many ways, I think we have the best of two worlds: being in the daily grime of stuff, and being with the people. Ministry is service to people, no matter what it is. Whether it's fixing the toilet or being in the pulpit."

As a youngster in Malden, Mass., Coccia thought about being three things: a Franciscan, a fireman, a funeral director. He's happy he got all three. As the only fire department chaplain in Camden, he commends firefighters, knowing what it's like to go into a burning building: "I mean, you never know."

The deacon duo is trying to get the parish property up to par. Chris C had to borrow money to get the ceilings fixed in the school, "Safety wise, number one, because there was a ceiling collapse about a month after I came. Fortunately, we didn't have any fatalities. And I have to get that money back somehow. So we don't run out of work. Between the two of us ..." Tito chimes in, "You give it to us, we will fix it."

Chris and Tito are working on organizing a men's group: "They can help the parish and it gives them the feeling of responsibility." Active groups include the Rosary Altar Society and the Damas (Hispanic women's group). Up and coming are the Young Peacemakers, the Homework Club and RENEW faith sharing groups.

As a non-priest parish administrator, "Or maybe head janitor," jokes Chris, he is a pioneer in the diocese. "And probably the first one to have an assistant deacon too!" He confides he'd love to be able to do certain things a priest does: "A good example is deacons cannot administer the Sacrament of the Sick, and it would be so nice to be able to offer that to the person. You do your visitation, this person has talked about things to you, shared things, and then you have to get a different minister for anointing."

Twelve families, including Tito's, started a regular Mass in Spanish at St. Anthony's. Tito is a man who has deep love for people, affirms Chris C. "I think he sees Christ in all ages." Tito's call to the diaconate was discerned through a specific need. "We don't have Spanish vocations for priesthood. But looking back, he was doing almost the same things that a deacon was doing."

St. Anthony's is a center, like an umbrella, says Tito: "It's a place where everybody comes together, Catholic and non-Catholic." An important part of that umbrella is St. Anthony of Padua School. Principal Linda Meehan directs the education of 231 children in grades K-8, by teachers who could probably find better pay elsewhere. Each morning the green-and-yellow-clad kids, most of Hispanic, Caribbean or African-American background, line up outside for a prayer - the parking lot does double duty since there is no gymnasium or auditorium. "We're in a poverty area" notes Chris C, "and we don't have money like some parishes, which are lucky because their parishioners have it." A group called St. Anthony Saviors helps subsidize tuitions. Chris and Tito, whose accomplishments include cleaning and overhauling the church choir loft and completing a crying room, a reconciliation room and a bathroom, have at least improved the lighting in the lot. They can often be found hunkered down amidst boiler pipes in the school basement. They wired a computer room, and, perhaps almost as important, there are no longer power failures when the vacuum cleaner and coffee maker are operated simultaneously.

Posch teaches music and morality and life skills to the 7th and 8th grades. "And once they graduate you often never see them again, so I'm trying to make a bridge, formalize a relationship, invite them into youth ministry." He and Linda got the diocese to sponsor a social worker who is here a day-and-a-half per week "that's a start, but we really need a full time case manager."

Linda observes, "Chris Posch is the dreamer and Chris Coccia is the practical man, and I get to benefit from both." True? Generally speaking, in a certain sense, says Posch. "I love to dream of how things can be, and then follow up. Like the Peacemakers project, teaching youth peacemaking skills. It's like Jufra, 'Young Franciscans,' in Latin America, the most effective thing I've seen for giving them identities as instruments of peace in school, work, relationships, to exercise the values of the gospel as lived by brother Francis. We're starting basically in the Catholic community, in the Cramer Hill neighborhood, and next year we will go into two public middle schools. One part is educational, and the other is helping youth to determine their own ways of expressing their identities as peacemakers to make the neighborhoods safer."

The area is riddled with drugs, litter and crime. Churches are in a collaborative cleanup mode. One nearby hotspot is now drug free. Others are targeted. "I would wish," says Chris the dreamer "to have unlimited resources in order to build community centers and renovate abandoned houses."

Every Tuesday the parish hall is a place of welcome for a couple of dozen people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS. Deacon Tito and the Secular Franciscan fraternity began this Francis House drop-in program to "experience together a meal with Jesus, for transforming encounters and companionship," as Posch puts it. The parish van wends its way through rubbled streets to pick up participants. As they climb aboard - a young man, a grandmother-daughter-granddaughter, a quiet woman, another young man - their expressions convey relief. Back in the hall, as they sit down to eat and talk with willing listeners, it's hard to tell who's who - sick, caregiver, grieving - unless you have a relationship. The group just celebrated its first anniversary. Four have died, including a 25-year-old friend of Chris. But with each passing, seeds are planted at the church, and the blooms are full of life.

During formation Chris Posch had a concern that sacramental demands might keep him from outreach. "But when I look in the eyes of people and see their lives, their faith, their suffering, I realize I'm part of a wide, profound picture. I've found that sacramental ministries let me in. Relationships are the fruit of that. The first summer, I had five funerals, and went through the whole bereavement. With the Mexicans, we were praying, saying Masses in their homes. Once that was real, they started coming here. Youth ministry, RCIA, Quince~neras: the people want sacraments. It's an entry point." With over 200 baptisms, 40 confirmations, 60 first communions, 27 adults entering through RCIA, the year here is full of sacraments.

Even with its limited resources, St. Anthony's sponsors children in Haiti and Guatemala. Programs for Camden children include a bible camp - the church is considering an ecumenical partnership. "Basically, we want to teach these kids to love Jesus, and teach them survival skills," Chris P says. "Many times it seems leaders talking about ecumenism come to a standstill over compromising understandings. But when you enter into relationships or joint projects, all that stuff is put aside. Anyway, with ecumenical gatherings in Camden, it's mainly to give thanks for something or it's to intercede to God big time. In a New Year's Eve vigil, people fasted and prayed for peace for 60 hours, one hour for every homicide in the past year. The last thing on our mind was how to properly phrase our prayers."

Many of the people are very broken, says Posch, "be it family situations, abuse, living in very difficult times. Sometimes, it's like living in the center of a big wound. And people just give. They work their best to be healed, and a lot of times people are healed by serving other people. That's the greatest joy, to be a part of that."

In November, Fr. Paul Breslin, OFM, returned to the parish after serving a year in the friar exchange program in Mexico, and Br. Richard James, OFM, came on board from a previous assignment in St. Petersburg, Fla. Now Chris C looks forward to a fuller Franciscan presence.

Fr. Breslin is putting his Spanish skills to good use at Mass and English-As-a-Second-Language classes for small groups of people from the Dominican Republic and Mexico: "I've met several people in Camden from Puebla, where I've been for the last year," he says. "I wasn't using any English in Mexico, so that's an adjustment."

He is also reacclimating himself to the US temperature - "it's 50 or 60 degrees colder here!" - and to the rhythm of life. "In Mexico we had early prayers, Mass, and then breakfast at 8:30 or 9 a.m. Then you'd work, have a main meal between 1:30 and 3 in the afternoon, and take a siesta if you could," he explains. "After that, you go back to work from around 5 to 8 p.m. and then at 9 or 10 p.m. it's customary to have a last meal. The friars would all sit down together to eat. It's a very long day." When he was out visiting the mission chapels, the days were even longer, often without a siesta.

Br. James visited Camden for a month this summer and found he enjoyed the opportunities for ministry there. "I'm involved in you-name-it," says Richard of his duties at the busy parish. "I'm substitute teaching at the school, doing music at the parish church, helping with finances, and on Monday nights I teach ESL. I'm involved in everything!"

Last year, Br. Coccia announced he hoped to do his first Spanish homily on Thanksgiving Day 1997 - and he did. "Yes, I was scared," he admits, "but I'm glad I took the risk. It felt great to share myself with our wonderful people. In a sense I've been blessed - when I get up to speak, Tito has been right beside me translating." Chris, Tito notes, could not speak the language before he came to Camden, but he still came, and that is appreciated. "Little by little he picks up words. And the people know he is here for what he is, and they love him for it. He's doing things and people say, "if he can do it, I can do it.' That's what community is all about."

Mission Statement of St. Anthony of Padua Church

We, God's people of St. Anthony of Padua parish, in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, are a family of faith. Inspired by the gospel of Jesus Christ, called into life and mission by our baptism, and centered around the Eucharist, we seek to be a living witness of God's saving presence and love to all in our neighborhood.

We strive to sue actively our rich diversity of Spirit-given gifts, so as to live among ourselves, and spread among our neighbors, the justice, peace and freedom of the reign of God, by taking part in the transformation of the spiritual, physical, social, political, economic and cultural environment of Cramer Hill.

We minister out of diverse cultures, in the Franciscan spirit, seeking to accept all and to make them feel welcome in our parish community. And we call all to use their gifts in service of God's people - especially the poor, the immigrant and the marginalized. To accomplish this, we draw strength from our belonging to God's family and from our unity with each other.