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Sister Joan Koliss, flanked by her father (left) and Knights of Columbus New Hampshire State Deputy Tom Ingham, displays her award. |
Sister Joan Koliss received a special honor-the Granite Award-from New Hampshire Knights of Columbus. The award is presented yearly to “an outstanding citizen…who, by that individual’s life, exemplifies and magnifies the great virtues of patriotism, leadership, and humanitarianism. Joan was chosen to receive this award because of the outstanding work she has accomplished in Nashua on behalf of persons who are in need. When she first moved to Nashua in 2004, Joan initiated a pilot program at Immaculate Conception Church. The program proved very successful and in September 2004, Joan expanded the program-hoping to provide assistance to people in need, not just to one parish but to all of Nashua. She has now become part of the Corpus Christ Food Pantry and with help from seven parishes as well as from several local agencies assists families with housing, utilities, prescriptions, dental, and other services.
What made the presentation even more special for Joan was that her father, himself a member of the Knights of Columbus, was invited to introduce her. Mr. Koliss explained how Joan had originally moved to New Hampshire to be of service to the family after her mother had a stroke. After her mother’s death, Joan continued to be a support for herf ather and got him involved in the Social Service program at Corpus Christi. “Joan is a very devoted daughter who brings sunshine into my life every day,” Mr. Koliss told the assembly.
A Husband Honors His Late Wife–and becomes a “Father” Once Again
Since October 4, 2004, Father John Albert Opoku-Acquah has been Peter Koliss’ son. Maybe not in the legal sense, but it’s symbolic of the closeness of their relationship.
John, the pastor of St. Anthony Parish, a diocese of worshippers from ten tiny villages around the city of Mampong, in south-central Ghana in eastern Africa, was spending a month as guest pastor in Nashua, New Hampshire. Koliss, a longtime communicant of the church, had scheduled a memorial service for his late wife, Evelyn, on October 4. She had died in March 2004.
“I was surprised to see this new pastor, but he did a fantastic job with the service,” Koliss remembers. “Afterward, we talked for awhile, and I invited him to dinner with my family.”
John’s story fascinated Koliss and his daughter, Joan, a Franciscan sister who presently heads Nashua’s Corpus Christi Food Pantry. With a flock that covers a huge geographical area, John preaches at nine different churches, seven of which are structurally crumbling and beyond repair. His only help preaching is from one of 10 strategically placed elders.
One village, Daaho, has no church. There, John says Mass in an open field.
For all of it, John gets no salary. There’s no money to pay him. It’s no use passing the collection plate at services—nobody has anything to put in it. John depends on donations to live.
Koliss listened closely. He thought of Evelyn and John’s nice memorial service. He looked at pictures of decaying stone facades and walls that were once decent, little churches, places where John’s flock still gathers to worship, because it’s either there or a sandlot.
John was doing great work. He could reach more people with bigger, stronger churches, Koliss mused. Better yet, with a little money, he could help clothe and feed them, get them medicine.
Retired after forty-three years at Bell Laboratories, Koliss had an idea. “I started a fund for John, in memory of my wife, to help build some new churches and help his people with clothing, food, and medical expenses,” he says. Into that fund Koliss would put $1,000 of his nest egg each month, $2,000 on special occasions, like in July: “It’s John’s birthday.”
A year later, the Knights of Columbus entered the picture. A longtime member, Koliss had pretty much dropped out when Evelyn was ill. But after her passing, he reactivated himself. Daughter Joan insisted he keep busy.
John, too, is a Knight; he joined in 1982 while serving for a year at a church in Michigan after completing his graduate studies at Notre Dame.
Koliss looked at the calendar. The Knights would be holding their 107th annual state convention in Nashua in early May. Delegates from all of New Hampshire’s seventy-five councils would be present.
With an engineer’s diligence and the heart of a true humanitarian, Koliss drew up a detailed proposal to his fellow Knights and got himself on the agenda. The convention was last weekend.
His brothers were more than receptive, he says. “Oh yes, they were great...one council pledged $1,000 on the spot,” Koliss says with a smile. The delegates brought the proposal back to their respective councils.
With the Knights’ help, Koliss said, the eventual goal is to raise $100,000 to build five churches in five years. Because the American dollar is worth $20 in Ghana and the legal minimum wage is 18 cents an hour (construction workers get 50 cents; trained, skilled labor gets a dollar an hour), Koliss and the Knights are raising the equivalent of $2 million. Although the churches won’t be palatial – they’ll be adequate, at least, and strong and safe.
As of May 1, Koliss’ personal donations had swelled the fund to $21,000. The first church is already under construction, he said--it’s St. Francis Church in the village of Nyinampong, maybe a dozen miles from Mampong. It will be dedicated in honor of Evelyn Koliss, her proud husband said.
Excerpts printed with permission from The Telegraph, Nashua, N.H.
