July 14: A Servant of Justice

Eighty-one-year-old Msgr. Marvin Mottet of Davenport, Iowa, received the 2012 Servant of Justice Award in Washington, D.C.  It came from the Roundtable Association of Catholic Diocesan Social Action Directors.

According to a story carried in Catholic News Service, Marvin Mottet’s exposure to social action dates back to childhood when he saw his parents helping others during the Great Depression—sharing food with strangers, or waiting for payment on milk deliveries.

As a seminarian and then as a young priest he became more involved with the cause, helping to launch the Catholic Interracial Council and ultimately, in 1978, becoming executive director of the U.S. Bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
When he returned to Davenport he continued his involvement in the Catholic Worker Movement, and threw himself into parish work in the inner city.  Through it all, his ministry has been buttressed by an active prayer life that continues unabated.

He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy

from the ash heap.  (Psalm 113:7)

Teach me to be a servant of justice, O God.