What is the importance of the Resurrection Church in the memoir, Undocumented?

The author's family attended Resurrection Church, a Roman Catholic Church in Spanish Harlem. At the time they joined, the priest was Father Michael, who became an important mentor figure to the author and to the other young men who went there, some of whom became altar boys. Because Father Michael allowed the young people who attended the church to use it and its facilities as a kind of community center, it became a place where the author and his friends could gather and hang out in relative safety.