Parking is available on Emerson, across and around Hunt Armory. 

The St. Jude Parish “Sharing the Light” Speaker Series invites you to join us Thursday evening, January 26th as Ray Werner, playwright, composer, and lyricist presents Shantytown, the musical Ballad of Legendary Fr. James Renshaw Cox. Ray will be accompanied by Michael Gallagher, composer, arranger, and vocalist. 
 
Beginning with the stock market crash in 1929, the Great Depression was the worst time ever in our country with more than 34 million out of work. Pittsburgh was hit extremely hard as it was dominated by the steel industry. Poor people without jobs, homes, or food roamed the streets, hopeless. 
  
This is when Fr. Cox, Pastor of Old St. Patrick’s Church in the Strip District became a moral and political force, organizing huge relief efforts and soon recognized across the country as the Depression Priest. 
  
Fr. Cox was perhaps one of the most influential individuals to apply Catholic social teaching to the challenges of the American worker, leading clergy and laity into a new era of social activism and political mobilization. In 1932 he led an estimated 12,000 from Pittsburgh on a march to Washington, demanding a meeting with President Hoover. By the time they arrived in Washington, the numbers swelled to 25,000. 
  
The legacy of Fr. Cox has been all but forgotten, but thanks to our friend and neighbor, Ray Werner, his story is now being told. You won’t want to miss this presentation. 

For more information and livstream link.