Camden's visionary 'Father Bob' is retiring

Msgr. Robert McDermott grew up on the 2900 block of Carman Street in the thriving East Camden of the 1940s and '50s, when family, faith, and community were a seamless whole.

So when "Father Bob" returned to East Camden as pastor of St. Joseph's Pro-Cathedral Parish in 1985, he brought along the lessons he learned on Carman Street, where people kept tabs on each other's kids and nearby Dudley Grange Park was for athletes, not drug dealers.

In 1985, "the conditions of life were terrible" for many East Camden families, says McDermott, 73, who retired last week. "It was difficult for them to be successful."

I remember the neighborhood then. Crack was ascendant, vacant houses littered the landscape, and residents feared that St. Joseph's school - a Westfield Avenue landmark for generations - would close.

But East Camden also was home to a growing Hispanic community, and hundreds of refugees were arriving from Cambodia and Vietnam. McDermott spoke neither Spanish nor Vietnamese, but was, in his words, "driven by the message of Jesus to care for our brothers and sisters."

Thirty years later, St. Joe's is an anchor in East Camden, a polyglot Roman Catholic parish with 900 families, and ministries serving 3,000 individuals annually.

The elementary school is thriving; the early child development program is growing; the parish mission has expanded into community development and homeless services.

The neighborhood still struggles, but progress is visible. Nearly 1,000 units of housing, much of it in East Camden, have been rehabbed or built by the St. Joseph's Carpenter Society.

"Father Bob has been the visionary for everything we do," says Pilar Hogan Closkey, executive director of the Carpenter Society, a nonprofit that so far has trained 650 tenants to become homeowners. "Families are at the forefront of the plan."

The society was established on McDermott's watch; he'd learned a thing or two about housing by helping his father, a carpenter and entrepreneur in home remodeling and construction.

"Some of the thoughts that have led me over the years" arose from that hands-on experience, says McDermott as we walk along 28th Street between Federal and Westfield.

I remember reporting a story from that block in the '80s, when it was pocked with empty houses. The Carpenter Society has renovated most of the vacant houses and planted trees. Residents do the rest.

"Ninety percent of our original home-buyers are still in their homes," notes Mark Hodges, executive director of the Joseph Fund, which raises money for the parish.

"We didn't give people houses; they had to earn them," he adds. "Father Bob's philosophy of service has always been a hand up, not a handout."

McDermott will stay on as chairman of the Carpenter Society board and remain active in ministries, including the Joseph's House homeless shelter. The parish also operates the Romero Center, a retreat and community service program, and a ministry called Lifting up Camden's Youth, which helps prepare high school students for college.

Running the parish for nearly 30 years "took a lot out of me, and my family started putting some pressure on me" to retire, McDermott says. "Some of my priest friends said the same thing. So that's what got me to say yes."

The Rev. Joel Arciga Camarillo, who has been assistant pastor, is overseeing St. Joe's until the Diocese of Camden names a new pastor.

"I'm looking forward to getting away a couple of times a year," adds McDermott, who will reside at the St. Mary's complex in Cherry Hill. "I've never been able to do that."

Here's wishing you a happy retirement, Father Bob. You've earned it.