Douglas Alles retires as executive director of Catholic Charities of Idaho
By Emily Woodham
Staff Writer
It was not unusual for Doug Alles to leave the office late. As executive director for Catholic Charities of Idaho, long hours, especially during the holiday season, were to be expected. But he was caught off guard on a mid-December evening a few years ago when the CCI office doorbell rang.
It was not unusual for Doug Alles to leave the office late. As executive director for Catholic Charities of Idaho, long hours, especially during the holiday season, were to be expected. But he was caught off guard on a mid-December evening a few years ago when the CCI office doorbell rang.
Alles invited her in, found the necessary paperwork, and ensured her children would have gifts in time for Christmas. “It was a tiny window into true vulnerability,” Alles said. “It was an encounter in one of those thin places.” The ancient Celtic term “thin place” describes a sacred event or encounter, a place in time where heaven and earth meet in sheer vulnerability.
“I’m not really a practitioner; my work is management,” he continued. So I didn’t get to experience those thin places as often as those who are serving the people day in and day out.” Although their work is challenging, he said burnout is less frequent than one might imagine. There’s a renewal in what they do. That’s true sanctity.”
The holiness that Alles sees in others, Bishop Peter Christensen sees in Alles. “Doug is a person who has a close relationship with Jesus,” Bishop Peter said during the Mass celebrating Alles’ retirement. He said those who live out their faith have a powerful effect on others. When Bishop Peter met Pope St. John Paul II and St. Teresa of Calcutta, they had an immediate impact on him because of the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
“Those who are close to the Lord are full of goodness, peace and joy. I remember meeting Pope John Paul II, and the minute I shook hands with him, tears came to my eyes unexpectedly.” When he met Mother Teresa, Bishop Peter said the experience of being near her was also remarkable. “She had a presence, and you couldn’t help but be delighted in that presence,” he said.
“I say all this about meeting them because I’m aware of such blessings in knowing you, Doug, and so is everyone else,” Bishop Peter continued. “Your faith is so true, transparent in all your transactions – with the care that you give those in their time of need, as well as in your dealings with the colleagues in ministry who serve with you. In listening to you and watching your selfless service to others, Jesus again is made known; the love of God the Father is made visible.”
The Bishop added that Alles consistently brought all problems into the light of his faith. “There’s a depth to you that’s pretty amazing. I want to thank you for that.” He said Alles’ sense of purpose and mission in his work will be hard to replace.
At the Mass, Bishop Peter presented Alles with the Guardian Award, an annual accolade given to those who watch over and care for the Catholic community in the Diocese of Boise. Alles received the award for his “years of service and dedication to the missionary Catholic Church.”
Alles began working with Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., in 1995. He was 36, married with four kids, and working in human services when he came across an opening for a Catholic Charities deputy director position.
“I was a bureaucrat. I was managing contracts and overseeing programs for interstate kids when I saw the opening at Catholic Charities,” he said. He felt it was a chance to integrate his skills with a higher meaning and purpose. “Thankfully, that worked out.” Alles stayed on at Catholic Charities of Portland for nearly 20 years, first as director of social services and then as interim executive director.
Although working for the Church is what drew Alles to Catholic Charities, he was not always a Christian. Alles had been raised in an agnostic home and did not seriously consider Christianity until he met his wife, Jennifer, in college. “Jennifer introduced me to God and then to Christ through the scriptures and her Christian witness in college. In our walk with Christ, we read the Bible and then the Church Fathers and the holy mystics. Finally, in mystery and enchantment, we found the Eastern Orthodox Church
in the early 1980s,” Alles said.
Bishop Peter Christensen and Douglas Alles gathered at the new offices of Catholic Charities of Idaho on Nov. 3, 2016 for an official blessing and dedication.
In 1984, they entered the Catholic Church. “The religious experience of our Eastern Christian formation found full root in the teachings of the Roman Church. Here in the Catholic Church, the difficulty and hardship, beauty and excitement of life were celebrated and understood, mystically, but also in full engagement with the world of our time,” Alles said.
“The Roman Church offered a rich teaching opportunity in family life, which led to an explosion of children,” he said. Rejecting society’s emphasis on happiness through materialism and embracing the Church’s teaching on marriage and family continues to give the Alleses great joy as Doug retires. Their family grew to seven children, and now they have a bevy of grandchildren. Their son, Christopher, and his wife, Emma, recently had triplets. (Christopher Alles is a sculptor currently creating statues of St. John the Evangelist and of St. Catherine of Siena for the Cathedral in Boise.)
In 2014, Alles accepted the Catholic Charities of Idaho executive director position. Their family immediately became parishioners of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, and Jennifer, who homeschooled all their children, joined Treasure Valley Catholic Home Educators. Jennifer now is a substitute teacher at a charter school.
In retirement, Alles and his wife plan to stay in Boise, where they have put down roots. Although the challenges for Catholic Charities seem to be rapidly increasing with the changes in American culture, Alles believes there is a lot of reason to hope.
“It used to be that the dominant culture helped you to be good. That’s not true now. It will entice you into all sorts of things, and a person can really be harmed by this culture. So, we definitely need to pray. However, you have to trust the core goodness of Christianity. We just have the best story because it’s a narration built in love.”
The Church needs its confidence back, he said. “It’s too divided and too confusing right now. You have to call people to something greater than themselves, and you have to believe that we’re free, that we have the freedom to pursue virtue. If you don’t have freedom, there’s no virtue.”
Empathetic accountability is necessary in maintaining the dignity of people, he said. “We don’t just want to hand out stuff and make them dependent. We want to call them into a responsible life because that’s what dignity requires.”
Alles wants to encourage people to live up to what Pope St. John Paul II called “infinite dignity.” “Live up to it. Stand in your dignity because that’s life-giving.”
Although he will miss working with his colleagues and many other aspects of Catholic Charities, it is helping people find their dignity that he will miss most. “Those encounters in the thin places, where there’s no pretense—that’s when the people are ministering to you. In those encounters, you realize all of this on earth is going to go away; we don’t hold onto any of this stuff. Yet the people who have fallen to such a place of desperate need still have the capacity to articulate gratitude—that’s real human dignity. And that’s dignity being ministered to me.”
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