Claude Paradis was once a hungry homeless man, living on the streets of Montreal, Canada. He struggled with alcoholism and opium addiction. With a dark future, he once thought about suicide.
But he did not end his life like that. Today, he is a priest who spends all his time taking care of the physical and spiritual needs of those who have fallen into poverty, prison, and prostitution.
“The streets brought me to the Church, and the Church brought me back to the streets.”
Last December, Dad decided to sleep on the street for a month, to care for the homeless side by side.
He hopes that he can accompany those in need and at the same time make the citizens of Montreal realize the difficult reality of the homeless.
Father Paradis founded an organization called Notre-Dame-de-la-rue. Every night, Dad brings food and provides a place to sleep for the homeless. He also did pastoral work, celebrated the sacraments, offered Mass, and performed funeral rites for them.
His father's partner, Kevin Cardin, was also an opium addict, but received help to transform his life.
The Our Lady of the Streets organization is supported by Montreal archbishop Christian Lépine, who sees the initiative as “the encouraging presence of the Church.” The city also supports this effort.
Father Paradis said, “Our mission is to bring encouragement. We don't just give people a place to sleep, we go out and find them, like a door-to-door service. We talk to them, sometimes pray together before they return to the difficult reality of the streets.”
Father Paradis knows well how difficult that reality is. Dad grew up in the Gaspé area and worked as a nurse in Cowansville, then he came to Montreal at the age of 25.
But dad couldn't find a job. “Isolation and despair engulfed me,” he said.
When living homeless, my father even thought about suicide. “I started doing cocaine and then meth,” his father recalls.
But then, “I was given the grace to meet God right when I was doubting Him. On a small street in Montreal, where no one passes by, I passed by an old church, suddenly my instinct forced me to turn around and go inside the church.
At that moment, I felt a profound and powerful encounter with God. He realized that he did not want to die, but wanted to become “a man of the Church.”
Father Paradis overcame his addiction and now ministers to many people facing the same challenges he did.
The 57-year-old priest who has dedicated his life to serving the poor said, “I wanted to stay on the road, until the very end.”