People involved with Catholic Charities Counseling and Adoption Services gathered Friday to celebrate the organization's 50th anniversary.

The organization was created by the Diocese of Erie in 1953 as a family casework agency, said Robert McCrarey, director of Catholic Charities. A similar movement was already under way in this area called the Federation of Catholic Charities of the Shenango Valley, he said.

The two groups joined and, over the years, changed names several times and expanded to serve 13 counties in northwestern Pennsylvania, McCrarey said. The agency took on the current name of Catholic Charities Counseling and Adoption Services in 1991.

In addition to counseling and adoption services, Catholic Charities, which has Mercer County offices in Sharon, Greenville and Grove City, offers free help to new biological mothers and fathers through Project WIN (Women in Need) in the areas of parenting information, stress, anxiety and depression, decision making and relationship problems.

John O'Malley attended the luncheon Friday at the Normandy Banquet Center, Hermitage, with his daughter Grace, 2. O'Malley and his wife Michelle, Hermitage, adopted Grace from China with the help of Catholic Charities.

Part of the adoption process included a six-week home study of the O'Malley family. "Catholic Charities was the only local place that had a program to do the home study," O'Malley said. He said the agency was also able to complete the home study within the necessary time frame.

"Of course today Michelle and I are so grateful, especially because of what's going on in China," O'Malley said. He said the area where Grace was born is where Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome originated.

Monsignor Michael Gaines, Episcopal vicar of the Diocese of Erie and president of the agency's governing board, said the efforts of the people involved with Catholic Charities are focused "to help people in the various struggles of life."

"The work is God's work. The work is wonderful work ... There is nothing more that embodies the gospel than taking care of those with needs. This agency has certainly done that," Monsignor Gaines said.

"We literally assist people from cradle to grave," Monsignor Michael McGraw, executive director of Catholic Charities, said. He said there is a network of caring people who are committed to making a difference in the quality of life for all people and treating all people with dignity and respect.