Anthony Hodes

Review of Catholic Charities of the Arch...

I was hugely disappointed by my interaction with t...

I was hugely disappointed by my interaction with this office this week which only multiplies the reasons to distance myself from the church that I was raised in. I mentor a family that immigrated from Afghanistan 3 years ago on Special Immigrant Visas after their dedicated work in the American embassy in Kabul. We had been referred to this CC office to get some questions about citizenship for them and then try to find a path for their nephew to come here from Germany. The front desk person was less than helpful and throughout the interaction she and others assumed that this couple was Spanish....giving them spanish material and asking if the needed a spanish including the woman consulting as their attorney, Cheryl Martinez Gloria, who apparently runs the immigrant advice program. Ms. Martinez Gloria was not only condescending in her interactions with the husband and wife, she was downright disrespectful of me as someone that has been assisting this family for 3 years and incapable of understanding how there may be nuance to legal conversations with them that may be hard for this couple to understand who has a limited understanding of English. The woman who took information from the family was hostile to me and unwilling to admit that she might not have told me on the phone about a $35 cash fee....insisting that it was not her mistake but my "misunderstanding" . The entire experience represented the opposite of the servant mentality upon which the best of the catholic church is built and a slap in the face of this Muslim couple seeking help who have served our country with diligence.