The Father McKenna Center, is a place that carries on the work of the late Rev. Horace McKenna who was known as the "priest to the poor". Father McKenna used to say that his role was to hang on to people until help came.

Fr. McKenna was born on January 2, 1899 in New York City as one of 12 children.

"The son of Charles F. McKenna, a respected chemist, and Laura O'Neill McKenna. Educated at Fordham Preparatory School, he entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on-the-Hudson on July 30, 1916. Between 1921 and 1923, he taught in a Jesuit school in Manila, Philippines. There, he discovered the desperate needs of the poor and oppressed. He was ordained June 23, 1929 and assigned to pastor parishes in southern Maryland amidst poverty and segregation including St. Peter Claver's Church, St. James' Church, St. Ignatius' Church and St. Inigoes'. He was active in civil rights, Vietnam-era anti-war protests and the Poor People's Campaign." ("Horace McKenna." Wikipedia. 2010 Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 27 Sept 2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_McKenna.)

Fr. McKenna served at St Aloysius in Washington DC from 1953 to 1958. Then he spent 6 years as assistant pastor at the Church of the Gesu in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1964, he returned to St. Aloysius where he remained until his death in 1982.

Fr. McKenna worked tirelessly throughout his life in Washington DC for the rights of the poor. He founded SOME (So other Might Eat) a soup kitchen, clinic and jobs center and Martha's Table which serves the needs of homeless women. He was also instrumental in the development of Sursum Corda Cooperative, a low-income housing project in the neighborhood just north of St Aloysius Parish in Washington, DC.

In 1983, in honor of the legacy left by Fr. McKenna, the Father McKenna Center opened it's doors in the basement of St Aloysius. His love for those in need is present and active today in the continuing mission and work of the center that bears his name.