In 1990, a winter blizzard forced homeless people to huddle against the walls of Saints Peter and Paul Jesuit Church on St. Antoine Street in Detroit. "The pastor saw them and he brought them indoors and put on a pot of coffee and literally, just as a way to protect people from the winter storm. That act of kindness launched the church into this ministry to the homeless that now spans 31 years," says Rev. Tim McCabe, Executive Director of the Pope Francis Center, the ministry organization that evolved from that first contact during a snowstorm.

The ministry initially began as a warming...