![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/121\/2013\/05\/FrDollarBill.jpg\" "\\"CALIFORNIA")
<\/a>The following column was written by Jerry Costello:<\/p>\n\u201cYou don\u2019t have to solve all the world\u2019s problems,\u201d the priest told his parishioners. \u201cBut don\u2019t ignore them, either. Do what you can to improve things, even a little bit. That\u2019s what Jesus wants us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s good, sound advice. And each time I hear something like it I think back to Father Dollar Bill, a priest I remember from Los Angeles. That wasn\u2019t his real name, of course; it was Father Maurice Chase. But everybody knew him as Father Dollar Bill. Especially the people in the city\u2019s most desperate neighborhoods, along Skid Row, where he\u2019d give out those bills to all takers, as long as the money would last.<\/p>\n
When he died a couple of years ago, in his nineties, the obituaries would criticize his brand of charity, complaining that it had no \u201clong-term impact\u201d on its beneficiaries. Father Dollar Bill would just smile and keep handing out the money when he heard that kind of complaint. One obit, by Ian Lovett in The New York Times, explained why that was so, quoting Father Chase himself.<\/p>\n
Knowing full well that a dollar bill wouldn\u2019t get someone off the street, Father Chase\u2013or Father Dollar Bill, if you prefer\u2013explained, \u201cI\u2019m trying to give them hope. To give them a sense of dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even his critics, acknowledging that many people spent the money in an unhealthy way, could see the sense of that approach. \u201cI think his desire to bring people love was true, and can certainly be modeled by the rest of us,\u201d said the Rev. Andy Bales, chief executive of the Union Rescue Mission.<\/p>\n
Father Chase, ordained in 1953 by then-Msgr. Fulton Sheen\u2013later an archbishop and even then a world-famous preacher\u2013was a veteran of fund-raising efforts in Southern California, for a time assisting the president of Loyola Marymount University. He began giving away cash to poor people in the 1980s, using money he had raised himself. At one point he would raise and give away about $100,000 a year, relying for help on the celebrities he knew\u2013people like Bob and Dolores Hope, and Bob Newhart.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just a glorious man,\u201d said one woman who had spent two decades on Skid Row. \u201cHe was always there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Father Chase acquired his nickname because he usually gave away singles. But that wasn\u2019t always the case, especially around major holidays, when fives and even hundreds would find their way into the hands of eager recipients.<\/p>\n
He continued making his weekly trips to Skid Row almost until he died. \u201cI love it,\u201d he said. \u201cGod has given me the happiest part of my life at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was on the street that word of his death spread quickly. \u201cDollar Man is dead,\u201d one man said. Another mourned, \u201cHe will be missed, not because of the dollar. Because of what he offered me spiritually.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man known as Father Dollar Bill cheerfully acknowledged that his was an imperfect charity. But he met the test of the priest mentioned above, the one who advised his parishioners to improve things even a little bit. That\u2019s what Father Maurice Chase did, and he did it with a style and a love for the poor that won\u2019t be easily forgotten<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following column was written by Jerry Costello: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to solve all the world\u2019s problems,\u201d the priest told his parishioners. \u201cBut don\u2019t ignore them, either. Do what you can to improve things, even a little bit. That\u2019s what Jesus wants us to do.\u201d That\u2019s good, sound advice. And each time I hear something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":488,"featured_media":2863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,35,40],"tags":[113,108,111],"class_list":["post-2862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catholic","category-charities","category-inspiration","tag-catholic","tag-charities","tag-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Legacy of Father Dollar Bill<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The following column was written by Jerry Costello: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to solve all the world\u2019s problems,\u201d the priest told his parishioners. \u201cBut don\u2019t\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/05\/the-legacy-of-father-dollar-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Legacy of Father Dollar Bill\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The following column was written by Jerry Costello: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to solve all the world\u2019s problems,\u201d the priest told his parishioners. \u201cBut don\u2019t\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/05\/the-legacy-of-father-dollar-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christopher Closeup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-09T17:01:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-05-09T17:04:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/121\/2013\/05\/FrDollarBill.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"231\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Rossi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tony Rossi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/05\/the-legacy-of-father-dollar-bill\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/05\/the-legacy-of-father-dollar-bill\/\",\"name\":\"The Legacy of Father Dollar Bill\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-09T17:01:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-09T17:04:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/9215d33862959dfe2334a97a802ebf1d\"},\"description\":\"The following column was written by Jerry Costello: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to solve all the world\u2019s problems,\u201d the priest told his parishioners. \u201cBut don\u2019t\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/05\/the-legacy-of-father-dollar-bill\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/05\/the-legacy-of-father-dollar-bill\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2013\/05\/the-legacy-of-father-dollar-bill\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Legacy of Father Dollar Bill\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/\",\"name\":\"Christopher Closeup\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/9215d33862959dfe2334a97a802ebf1d\",\"name\":\"Tony Rossi\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef58b23d79989facf5779819377620d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef58b23d79989facf5779819377620d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tony Rossi\"},\"description\":\"After graduating from St. John's University in New York with degrees in Communications and English, Tony Rossi found a job at the Catholic media organization, The Christophers, that allowed him to indulge his interest in religion, media, and pop culture. 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