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Shakedown. The Corktown Guild and the Co-op are not the only instances of Holy Trinity help and selfhelp. There is a "foot clinic" run by Chiropodist Earl G. Kaplan in his spare time, a dental clinic operated by volunteers from the Detroit Society of Dental Hygienists, a legal clinic manned by top lawyers. There is a Filipino Club, a Puerto Rican Club, a chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous (membership: 1,000), a St. Vincent de Paul Society, a credit union that started with $80 in 1947, now has assets of $147,000; there is even a two-night-a-week "Corktown College" (tuition: $1.33 a month), which offers such courses as English, citizenship, Spanish and folk dancing with the slogan "Never too old to learn."
From time to time it has been suggested that a dozen or so of the parish's 25 assorted activities be brought under the jurisdiction of Detroit's prosperous United Foundation, but Father Kern is dead set against it. "It would take away our charm," he explains with a smile. "We've got some pride, too. People help us down here because they want to—we don't recruit. The benefits of giving are somehow lost when it's mechanically deducted."
Holy Trinity operates at a loss of about $300 a week, but much of this deficit is covered by the "Ecclesiastical Shakedown Society," a group founded in 1957 by Earl ("Hank") Shurmur, a Detroit TV cameraman. Hard drinking occasionally led Hank Shurmur to bed down at Holy Trinity, and after Father Kern "straightened him out," Shurmur began putting the bite on high-salaried executives all over the city for contributions. The society shook down $4,200 the first year, has already topped $3,000 so far in 1960. Members send materials and food, as well as money. One member contributed 900 cases of slightly damaged canned goods, and another collected enough money to buy Father Kern a new car (the pastor sent it back, kept his 1955 Ford).
Sins of Weakness. Pastor Kern, 52, is the son of a Pontiac assembly-line worker, a graduate of Sacred Heart Seminary, and a former chaplain in the Catholic Worker movement. He came to Holy Trinity in 1943, was made pastor in 1949. Since he took over, reports Juvenile Court Judge Nathan Kaufman, the area around Holy Trinity Church has had the lowest juvenile delinquency rate of any comparable slum area in the U.S.
"We have many sins of weakness here," says Father Kern. "But I'll bet the Lord will be easier on these people than on folks who say, 'Send them back where they came from.' My biggest problem is to get people to help and love each other. That's what the mystical body of Christ is all about."