Dorothy Day is sometimes considered the most important American Catholic. During the Depression, she sometimes stopped in Davenport when she travelled the Midwest. In 1972, Fr. Mottet knew she was passing…
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Through his friend Matt Ahmann, Fr. Mottet got Martin Luther King, Jr. to Davenport in 1965 to receive the Pacem in Terris award. It was a tremendous experience. They hired…
Mother Teresa
When Mother Teresa came for the Pacem in Terris award in 1976, the event was a simple supper at Assumption High School. Two years later, when Fr. Mottet went to Washington, D.C.…
Catholic Worker House
When Fr. Mottet launched the first Catholic Worker house beside the railroad track in Davenport, it filled up in twenty-four hours because so many people were homeless. One of the…
Project Renewal
Fr. Mottet called Sr. Concetta "an excellent social worker." Multi-problem families drove him nuts, but Sr. Concetta took them apart one problem at a time and kept working on them. She…
Quad Cities Interfaith
When Fr. Mottet came back to Davenport in 1985, he found some Protestant ministers who were already meeting because factories had closed, thousands of jobs had been lost, and they…
CASI Center for Active Seniors
Sr. Concetta started Senior Iowans, which later became the Commission on Aging for Senior Iowans. At that time, the Scott County Commission on Aging was what Fr. Mottet called “a talking…
Citizen Lobbyist
A chance to promote “the greatest miracle of my life”