Tulsa's Madonna House, Where Karen Guzman Cares for Women and Their Babies

By Katelin Montag

Catholic Charities has been a major resource for those in need in Tulsa for many years. One part of Catholic Charities, the Madonna House, is a refuge for pregnant women who don’t have anywhere else to turn.

Karen Guzman has been the coordinator for the Madonna House for about a year and said their main goal at the Madonna House is to take care of the babies.

The Madonna House is a free program that accepts residents through an application process. Once there the residents have to fulfill certain requirements. For example, they must either go to school or have a job, to keep living there.

Guzman said they try and give the residents as many skills as possible to better themselves and prepare for the future.

Guzman said that she did suffer a general disillusionment after her first few months at the Madonna House. She thought that with all the resources and donations that are given to the residents many of them would be able to turn their lives around. However she soon found out that while some do meet their goals, the majority of the residents do not.

“I expected much more of a transformation to occur,” Guzman said. “We can’t make everyone’s life better even though we want that for them.”

Guzman also went through a shocking experience her first month at the Madonna House when one of the residents was stabbed by another resident. It was not a serious injury, but the altercation was enough to make Guzman wonder what she had gotten herself into.

Guzman went to TCC as an adult and got an associates degree in counseling. After going through Virtus training at her church to learn about how to prevent and handle sexual abuse, she felt that God had called her to go back to school. She got a bachelor’s degree in psychology and went on to get her master’s in counseling psychology at Northeastern State University.

Now Guzman is focused on the Catholic Charities move to a new campus in December. The new facilities will be completely stocked with brand new furniture and supplies.

The new Madonna House will also allow them to take in more residents. Guzman hasn’t thought much about her future at the Madonna House since the move is coming up so soon, but says she always tries to be open for what God may call her to do next.

Learn more about the Madonna House at their website.

Katelin Montag is a communication student from Tulsa.