Bishop Kevin J. Farrell said he hesitated only briefly before offering up the Catholic Diocese’s conference center as housing for Louise Troh and her family.
“I had to think of the consequences but it was in my heart all the time that I had to something,” Farrell said Monday, as the fiancée of the Dallas Ebola victim and her family remained in seclusion behind an iron fence.
“We help people because we’re Catholic, not because they’re Catholic,” he said. “It is an example of what it means to care for our brothers and sisters .. irrespective of where they come from, what race or what religion they were.”
Troh, her 13-year-old son and two adult nephews have spent more than 15 days in a four-bedroom cabin at the Catholic Conference & Formation Center in Oak Cliff as they watched and waited to see if the contracted the deadly illness.
Dallas officials said Monday they will remain at the site — protected from intruders by an iron fence around the property — until they can find suitable housing elsewhere.
Farrell said he joined Wilshire Baptist Church Senior Pastor George Mason in prayer Monday with Troh and her family before speaking with reporters.
“They’re doing very well,” he said. “[But] Louise just lost a loved one. Prior to that ... she lost a sister. These are difficult times for them.”
Farrell also called on other members of the local faith community to help stop the spread of fear and panic over Ebola.
“I hope the whole community can now come together,” he said. “We’re all Christians. What would Jesus have done?”
Farrell said he offered up the cabin — whih he described as set apart from others on the property in a far corner — after being approached by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
Officials had no place else to put them, he said.
“I considered every property the church owned,” he said.
Because Troh and the others did not develop the illness, there will be no need to decontaminate the property, Farrell said.
