As a volunteer at Turnstyles, the thrift store of Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas in Overland Park, he's supposed to be on the hunt for donated items that prove the old adage: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

The people of the archdiocese have been very generous [in the past]. It’s very much a part of the tradition of our church to reach out to all who are poor, be they in our backyard or throughout the world. We are to be to them the...