2024 Catholic Worker in Review (Part Two)
In the second half of 2024, Catholic Workers mobilized on Gaza, illegal land seizures, the rights of migrants, militarism, and more. Here's part two of our recap of the year.
2024 IN REVIEW
This week, we continue our review of a busy 2024 in the Catholic Worker Movement. Did you miss part one (January—May)? You can read it here.
June
Two CWers Begin 100-km Pilgrimage for Peace on Their Way to Prison. Two Catholic Workers, Susan Crane of Redwood City, California, and Susan van der Hijden of Amsterdam, set off on a 100-kilometer Pilgrimage for Freedom from Nuclear Execution on Friday, the Feast of the Visitation, according to the website of the Amsterdam Catholic Worker. At the end of the pilgrimage, both women will enter a woman’s prison, where they will begin serving sentences of 229 and 115 days, respectively, for repeatedly entering Büchel Air Base in Germany to advocate for a nuclear-free world.
After 14-Year Campaign, one Catholic Worker Celebrates Assange’s Release. Longtime Catholic Worker activist Ciaron O’Reilly expressed a mix of emotions following the news of Julian Assange’s release on Wednesaday. “Julian Assange has pled guilty to a crime he never committed,” O’Reilly told Roundtable in an email from London, noting that “horse trading” is a typical feature of the U.S. justice system. “It’s been 14 years of Julian’s life, detained without charge in England. It’s been 14 years of my life trying to earn the release of Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange. I’m emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted.” O’Reilly was at Assange’s first court appearance on Dec. 7, 2010, and had been camped outside Belmarsh Prison in London when he was released this past week. O’Reilly first met Assange in 2012, when he and former SAS soldier Ben Griffin were recruited by Sarah Harrison to provide security for the WikiLeaks founder, who had sought asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Marc Ellis, Pioneer of Jewish Liberation Theology, Dies at 71. Marc Ellis, the theologian who pioneered Jewish liberation theology and whose career trajectory was profoundly transformed by his encounter with the Catholic Worker, died on Saturday, June 8, according to a Facebook announcement by his family. Ellis had been battling an illness for several months. In recent years, Ellis has been an outspoken voice insisting that Jewish liberation bound up in the liberation of all those oppressed, occupied, or marginalized, particularly Palestinian liberation. His time at the New York Catholic Worker in the 1970s and at the Maryknoll School of Theology introduced Ellis to Latin American liberation theology. He became a critical scholar connecting Latin American liberation theology with post-Holocaust Jewish theology.
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July
Catholic Workers Bring Messages of Peace, Repentance to National Eucharistic Congress. The Catholic Worker had a tiny presence at the National Eucharistic Congress last week in Indianapolis, with about twenty Workers and pilgrims coming together in a park near the Indiana Convention Center for a picnic supper and roundtable. But despite those small numbers, most of the 50,000 people attending the Congress got to hear about the Catholic Worker Movement and Dorothy Day. Martha Hennessy, one of Dorothy Day’s granddaughters and a peace activist in her own right, spoke to about 5,000 people during a breakout session on Friday. Catholic Workers from South Bend, Indiana, distributed copies of The Catholic Worker newspaper, Dorothy Day holy cards, and postcards with artwork connecting the Eucharist with care for the unhoused and hungry. And on the final night of the event, Bishop Robert Barron (of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester and Word on Fire fame) delivered an address that used one of Dorothy’s columns as a launching point.
Ugandan CW Sekitoleko Detained, Tortured, Following Intervention in Illegal Land Grab. Michael Sekitoleko, founder of the Uganda Catholic Worker, tells Roundtable that he was released on Friday following a 28-day detention in jail following his intervention in an illegal land seizure. Sekitoleko said he was met by police at his home on June 9 and detained without explanation for three days in the Kiboga jail before being charged with “Unlawful Society/Inciting Violence.” Seven other activists involved in the intervention were arrested at the same time, he said. Sekitoleko and the activists had been supporting 37 peasant families who were being threatened with the loss of their land in an illegal land seizure near Kiganzi village.
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City of New Haven Cuts Power to Tiny Homes at Amistad Catholic Worker
Everyone Wants a Revolution, but No One Wants to Do Childcare
August
In the Philippines, Nazareth House Welcomes Those Living with HIV/AIDS. About ten years ago, Noel E. Bordador was a social worker in New York City, working with unhoused persons living with HIV/AIDS. As dire as the situation was for his clients, Bordador knew things were even worse for people living in the Philippines, where he was born and spent his childhood until his family immigrated to the United States. After volunteering at the New York Catholic Worker’s Joseph House, he had an idea: Why not start a Catholic Worker in Manilla specifically for people with HIV/AIDS? That’s how he came to open Nazareth House Catholic Worker (known locally as Bahay Nazareth) in the house that once belonged to his grandmother in December 2016.
At St. Bakhita Catholic Worker, Survivors of Sexual Exploitation Find Community and Hope. In the late 2010s, Anne Haines began to occasionally join a group called the Franciscan Peacemakers on their pre-dawn lunch deliveries to women on the streets of urban Milwaukee. The plight of the women on those streets made a particular impression on her. “There’s so many people who are survivors of sexual exploitation, and my heart is really with people who are survivors. It just seemed like an area of need,” she said. “Catholic Workers, what they do is start up when they see a need, and that was something that really resonated with me.” Haines, who had visited or volunteered with several Catholic Worker communities in her 20s, left her position with the archdiocese in 2021 to open a Catholic Worker community devoted to helping the women recover, heal, and begin life again.
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Catholic Worker Points the Way to a More Joyful Church, Author Says
Duluth’s Hildegard House Sponsors Asylum Seekers and Refugees
LACW Marks Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing at Vandenberg Space Force Base
Dorothy Day Guild Discovers Footage of Dorothy Day Speaking at the 1976 International Eucharistic Congress
Dorothy Day Foundation Seeks to Help CW Communities Stay Open
September
‘Blood on Our Hands’: Peace Delegation Seeks to Ease Palestinian Suffering. Three Catholic Workers returned to the U.S. on Wednesday after spending nearly a week as part of a multi-faith peace delegation to the occupied West Bank. There, the delegation visited Palestinian farms, villages, and neighborhoods where residents have been repeatedly targeted by Israeli settlers. They also held a peaceful demonstration outside the Rafah border crossing and the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. In an interview with Roundtable, Mark Colville described how settlers, often with military backing, terrorize families, burn cars, and destroy homes. “We had some pretty front-row experiences of people who are suffering,” said Colville, who is part of the Amistad Catholic Worker community in New Haven, Connecticut. “It's hard for me to say anything else except, you know, Israel is a deeply, deeply sick society. And that sounds like a radical statement if you never put foot over there.”
Illegally Detained 80 Days, Ugandan CW Activist Finally Returns Home. Elizabeth Nakiwolo, one of three founding members of the Uganda Catholic Worker, is home with her three children after spending 80 days being held in unofficial detention facilities. She and fellow UCW founder Michael Setikoleko were both arrested on June 9 and subsequently detained without being charged or having a court hearing. The pair were among seven activists attempting to inform residents of Kiganzi village of their rights under Ugandan law as they faced displacement from the land where they lived and farmed. The activists had gone to the village with lawyers in early June to advise the 37 affected families, most of them farmers growing matoke or coffee. Follow-up: As Uganda Land Activists Recover, Details of Land Grab Emerge
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October
CWers Gather in Chicago to Celebrate, Reflect, and Connect. Being a Christian anarchist movement, the Catholic Worker has no set schedule for its gatherings; basically, people get together when a community feels inspired enough to do all of the work of hosting one. This year’s gathering was organized by St. Francis Catholic Worker House in Chicago to help celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. St. Gertrude Catholic Church generously provided the venue; some Alexian Brothers who are friends of the community coordinated (and maybe paid for?) the meals, which were outstanding; and the whole St. Francis Catholic Worker extended community pulled together to provide hospitality. About two hundred people attended the gathering over the course of the weekend, including many longtime veterans of the movement: Kathy Kelly, Frank Cordaro, Brian Terrell, Ann Suellentrop, Becky McIntyre, Sarah Fuller, Theo Kayser, and Lincoln Rice were just a few of the people hosting roundtable discussions.
Archbishop John Wester Urges Catholic Workers to Raise Voices for Nuclear Disarmament. The world urgently needs new conversations about the threat posed by the revival of the nuclear arms race, Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, said in a recorded talk to Catholic Workers gathered in Chicago last weekend. “We were lulled into complacency after the Cold War ended,” Wester said. Now, though, “we are in a new nuclear arms race that is arguably more dangerous than the first, with cyber weapons, hypersonic missiles, artificial intelligence, and multiple nuclear adversaries—all amid climate change and economic instability.”
Also:
Remembering Michael Sprong, Longtime Catholic Worker and Peace Activist
CWer Will Return to West Bank to Help Families in Masafer-Yatta.
Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez Remembered as Father of Liberation Theology
St. Francis CWers Reflect on Lessons Learned from 50 Years of Community
November
Group Provides Direct Support to Gazan Community, Bypassing Formal Aid Routes. What if people in affluent countries were able to provide cash assistance—and emotional support—directly to people under siege in Gaza? That’s the basic idea behind an initiative being proposed to the Catholic Worker community by Garry Jones, an Irish musician and composer, with the support of his wife, Kate Hennessy. (Hennessy is a writer and the granddaughter of Dorothy Day.) Jones got the idea after connecting with Yusuf El-Mbayed, a Palestinian poet and journalist based in northern Gaza, who works with a team of young Gazans to deliver critical aid to Gazans suffering from deprivation and conflict.
Iowa City Catholic Worker Plans to Protect Immigrants. The Iowa City Catholic Worker hosted a Mass and meeting on November 15, gathering about 70 people to address concerns over mass deportation plans proposed by President-elect Donald Trump. According to an article in The Catholic Messenger, newspaper of the Diocese of Davenport, the group discussed strategies to safeguard refugee children and immigrant families. Iowa City CW co-founder David Goodner outlined plans to reactivate a Rapid Response network, expand Legal Aid services, and train parish teams to recruit members and leaders. Additional measures include hosting trainings on Know Your Rights, Protective Accompaniment, and how to have one-on-one conversations. The community also plans to coordinate with national partners for a May 1, 2025 Day Without an Immigrant action.
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Marj Humphrey, Former CW Editor, Heads to East Africa on Restorative Justice Mission for Maryknoll
Michael Bremmer’s Forty-Year Adventure in the Catholic Worker
December
Laughter in the Catholic Worker. Is it gauche to laugh in such grim times...or is it a strategic move that opens up new possibilities? Claire Lewandowski went looking for levity at the L.A.C.W., and shares what she found. Her essay is a wealth of funny stories and wise insights. “It feels true that the Catholic Worker attracts a certain self-serious type: philosophers, dreamers, doers, who have steeped their minds in the evils of the world and come to the Worker for a chance to try their hand at putting things right,” she writes. “But I have also met another type: the joker, the holy fool, the teasing party host who leaves everyone laughing. In fact, these two types often reside in the same person. It’s just that the first one tends to smother the second with a pillow so he doesn’t ruin the moment or distract from the work. I say we let him breathe.”
A Primer on the Cost of Upgrading the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Arsenal. Unknown to most Americans, the U.S. is spending billions annually to upgrade its nuclear arsenal, going so far as to recruit even school children for the project. If you’re not familiar with the details, read Paul Popinchalk’s primer on the program. It’s from the most recent issue of The Catholic Radical, newsletter of the Sts. Francis & Therese Catholic Worker in Worcester, Massachusetts.
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We’ll be back next week with regular issues of CW Reads and Roundtable.
About us. Roundtable covers the Catholic Worker Movement. This week’s Roundtable was produced by Jerry Windley-Daoust and Renée Roden. Art by Monica Welch at DovetailInk. Roundtable is an independent publication not associated with the New York Catholic Worker or The Catholic Worker newspaper. Send inquiries to roundtable@catholicworker.org.
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