TOLEDO, Ohio — On Monday nights in south and east Toledo, healing doesn’t just happen inside a hospital. It happens in parking lots, fellowship halls and church basements — wherever people gather, share and pray.
Dr. Richard Paat, a clinical professor with the University of Toledo Medical Center, has been leading a volunteer medical outreach known as Labre for the past decade. The weekly clinic and food pantry bring together UTMC medical students and student volunteers from St. John’s Jesuit, Saint Ursula Academy and Notre Dame Academy to provide free health care and meals to anyone who needs them.
The effort is named after Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, the Catholic patron saint of the homeless. Each Monday evening, Paat and his team set up first at Queen of Apostles Church before traveling across the river to Saint Louis Helping Hands in East Toledo…