About 50 people gathered at the Church of Our Saviour on Park Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday morning, March 14, for a Mass in remembrance of unhoused men and women who died on the streets of New York City due to exposure and other factors related to homelessness. 

The Mass was organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio, an international Catholic lay organization founded in Rome in 1968 and present in more than 100 countries. Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, chairman emeritus of Catholic Charities of New York and pastor of the Church of Our Saviour, was the principal celebrant. 

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Among those remembered were Modesta Valenti, 71, who died on January 31, 1983, near Rome’s Termini Station after an ambulance crew refused to transport her, and Steven, a friend of Sant’Egidio in New York, who died alone on January 12, 2016. Along with Modesta and Steven, the names of more than 40 people who died unhoused, many during the winter of 2026, were read aloud at the Mass, along with the circumstances of their passing. 

“You who are here today are doing a wonderful thing, giving thanks and praise to God, coming here to remember two individuals, and many more individuals, as the candles will give witness to, who may be people others have forgotten,” Monsignor Sullivan said in his homily. 

Drawing on the Gospel parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Monsignor Sullivan reflected on why Jesus left both figures nameless. He suggested it was intentional — so that every listener might see themselves in either role. 

“Jesus wants you and I to consider ourselves as either potential Pharisees or potential tax collectors,” he said. “He wants you and I to maybe fear that we might be called out, because we get a little bit too caught up in how good we are.” 

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He praised those in attendance for their commitment while offering a gentle challenge, borrowing a line from his mother: “When I got a 92 on my spelling exam, she said, ‘Why didn’t you get 100?'” 

Members of the community lit candles and placed them at the altar as the names of Modesta, Steven, and others being remembered were read aloud. 

A friendship, not a program 

Paola Piscitelli, president of Sant’Egidio USA, said the organization’s outreach grew out of a simple conviction: that friendship, not service delivery, is what the unhoused most need. 

“We weren’t an agency or anything like that,” Piscitelli told The Good Newsroom. “We were just encountering them, offering some food — that was like a bridge to reach them.” 

Sant’Egidio volunteers go out twice per week in Manhattan, distributing approximately 500 meals each week. On Tuesday evenings, about 60 guests gather at the Church of Our Saviour itself. The meals are prepared at St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, whose staff make their industrial kitchen available to the organization free of charge. 

Over time, Piscitelli said, those interactions have grown into genuine relationships. Volunteers and the people they serve celebrate birthdays, holidays, and vacations together. 

“It’s really a big family, a large family,” she said. 

‘One common denominator is loneliness’ 

Asked what drives people to the streets, Piscitelli was careful not to oversimplify. 

“For many reasons — there is not one category, definitely,” she said. “I would say there is a condition of vulnerability: loss of work, mental illness, addiction. With addiction, you never know if it comes before or after.” 

But across all those circumstances, she said, one factor stands out. 

“One common denominator is loneliness. That, I would say, is the thing that makes everything worse.” 

Even after individuals obtain housing, she noted, many continue to return to Sant’Egidio’s Tuesday gatherings — not out of need, but out of belonging. 

“It’s not only the roof over your head,” Piscitelli said. “It’s really the desire to be connected again.” 

WATCH: New York City Faith Communities Unite to Address Critical Homeless Crisis 

She described the need for permanent affordable housing as the most pressing and persistent challenge the organization encounters, noting that the problem extends further than many realize. 

“Sometimes we meet the case managers of some of our friends, and they are in the shelter themselves because they don’t have enough money,” she said. “So you see that there is something wrong in the system.” 

Sant’Egidio works alongside Catholic Charities of New York and other organizations in addressing those needs. Piscitelli said collaboration is essential given the scale of the problem. 

“There is a lot of need,” she said, “so the more the better.”