CWs Celebrate Wins in the Fight Against Cities Criminalizing Homelessness
Plus: CW joins German anti-extremism protests; hope and healing in Uganda; migrant rights in Taiwan; and Dorothy's thoughts on Carly Simon's "I Haven't Got Time for the Pain."
Standing Up for Humanity
A few hours before this newsletter went out, I stumbled across a Facebook post from House of Hagar’s Kate Marshall. The post featured a video of a front loader scooping up the possessions of homeless people who were being cleared out of their camp by the city of Wheeling, West Virginia.
Renee and I had been following House of Hagar’s ACLU-backed lawsuit against the city of Wheeling, but Kate’s post brought home the impact of the city’s anti-camping ordinance in a way that none of the mainstream news coverage had:
It didn’t matter how much our homeless friends begged and said they had nowhere to go. It was not a day to deliver humanity, it was a day to deliver an ordinance against it.
There is no way to forget the devastation and trauma on the face of a homelesss person watching their shelter and belongings be crushed with the massive violence of a machine and snatched into the teeth of the scoop and then fed to the dumpster. It is a hauntingly heartbreaking glazed stare, of knowing that your city doesn’t just think your shelter and belongings are trash, as they throw your life away.
My friends started their day very poor. They ended the day even poorer.
In a way, Kate captures the essential mission of the Catholic Worker: standing up for the dignity of those who have been pushed—sometimes even bulldozed—to the margins of society, and doing so not just with words, but with action.
Today’s newsletter documents other Catholic Workers going about this important work on behalf of marginalized and oppressed people around the world: Taiwan, Uganda, Germany, Gaza…and Connecticut, where the Amistad Catholic Worker also celebrated its own small victory in the fight for the rights of the unhoused.
In a world all too quick to “solve” the “problem” of inconvenient people as expediently as possible, these stories of Catholic Workers “standing up” give me hope.
Warmly,
Jerry Windley-Daoust
FEATURED
Featured reads on CatholicWorker.org.
At the Uganda Catholic Worker, Healing and Hope
This week continues the second part of our series, “The Catholic Worker in Africa.”
After his two cofounders left in 2015, Michael Sekitoleko operated the Uganda Catholic Worker largely on his own, renting houses in rural villages and providing hospitality to a dozen or so guests at a time: victims of domestic abuse, newly released prisoners, refugees, the mentally ill, abandoned children, and HIV-positive individuals. On top of all that, he visited hundreds of schools to promote peace and nonviolence.
How did he manage to handle it all himself? Basically, he formed the guests into an ad-hoc community, developing a schedule for the house and assigning everyone roles and responsibilities. It went pretty well for five years, until COVID hit.
Read the rest of the story at CatholicWorker.org, and if you missed it, catch the first part here.
CW NEWS
Bread and Roses CW Joins German Anti-Extremism Protests
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Bread and Roses Catholic Worker (Hamburg, Germany) participated in the anti-extremism protests that took place last weekend, in which as many as 1.4 million Germans took to the streets across the country.
The protests have been gathering steam since the release on January 10 of an investigative report about a secret meeting that took place in November between far-right politicians and members of neo-Nazi and Identitarian groups to plan the expulsion of millions of foreign-born Germans, including those with German citizenship. According to the report by the nonprofit journalism group Correctiv, about two dozen people attended the meeting, including members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has grown in popularity in recent years.
In Hamburg, police estimated 50,000 people turned out, according to the AP, leading the event to be cancelled early due to safety concerns. Dietrich Gerstner, a member of the Bread and Roses community, said that protests had taken place in Hamburg over multiple days, with as many as 100,000 people turning out.
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“People for the first time understood that there is a real danger coming from the ‘right-wing,’ from the neo-fascists, the extreme nationalists,” Gerstner told Roundtable by email. “But still, many don't understand that our governments…oftentimes do the job of the right-wingers in that they do more and more anti-migration and being-hard-on-the-borders politics!”
Protesters expressed support for democracy, solidarity with migrants, and anti-fascist sentiments. Some called for the AfD to be banned.
Bread and Roses Catholic Worker offers hospitality to refugees and immigrants, many of whom are undocumented. The community holds an annual “Stations of the Cross for the Rights of Refugees” as well as an annual memorial service for those who died attempting to reach Europe.
“It's not enough to just protest,” Gerstner said. “We have to change the public discourse towards accepting the real challenges of this age—climate change/catastrophe, migration as reality and normal, being part of one human family, accepting responsibility for our role in the global system of exploitation of people.”
The next round of protests will be held on Sunday, January 28, he said.
Plight of Palestinians is top of mind for many CWs
The plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank remains front and center for many Catholic Workers, as evidenced by the way the topic dominates the latest issues of two CW community newspapers.
“Ending the horrible war in Gaza remains our daily obsession,” Claire Schaeffer-Duffy writes in the latest edition of The Catholic Radical, the newspaper of the Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker (Worcester, Massachusetts). The edition leads with two essays reprinted from prominent Jewish commentators.
Peter Beinart, a professor of journalism and political science at the Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York, writes that “October 7th and Hamas’ political support have to be understood in the context of the failure of a series of other Palestinian efforts at resistance against Israeli oppression.” While he doesn’t justify Hamas’s massacre of unarmed civilians, he believes “Israel and the United States have actually empowered Hamas by discrediting and defeating other Palestinian efforts at gaining Palestinian freedom, efforts that did not involve attacks on civilians.”
“I can only use the word horror that my people, people who know in our bones such a deep history of expulsion, oppression, and mass murder, that resonates through so many of our family histories and communal memory, could be doing this to another group of people,” Beinart writes. “In Jewish religious terms, it constitutes a desecration of God’s name.”
The Catholic Radical also reprinted an opinion piece by Bernie Steinberg, the director of Harvard Hillel from 1993 to 2010, under the headline, “Stop Weaponizing Anti-Semitism.” The piece was originally published in The Harvard Crimson on Dec. 27, a few weeks before Steinberg passed away on Jan. 16.
“I know what antisemitism looks like and I do not take the issue of violence against Jews lightly,” Steinberg wrote. “I have monitored, with vigilance, the kinds of speech that Israel-aligned parties are calling ‘antisemitic,’ and it simply does not pass the sniff test. Let me speak plainly: It is not antisemitic to demand justice for all Palestinians living in their ancestral lands.”
And the January/February edition of Hospitality, the newspaper of The Open Door Community (Baltimore, Maryland), featured as its lead article an analysis of the consequences of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent siege of Gaza.
Dr. Joseph Groves, a friend of the Open Door Community and a retired professor of peace and conflict studies, writes that “we are in a radically uncertain moment.” Groves says that at a minimum, the leadership in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel will need to be replaced before any resolution to the conflict can emerge. “My biggest concern is where Israeli leadership will come from. All the Israeli political parties are war parties right now and the Israeli public supports the invasion of Gaza by a wide margin. Who in Israel has the vision and courage to step up and be a peace party? We’ll find out.”
House of Hagar suit against city of Wheeling resolved days after being filed
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The city of Wheeling, West Virginia, granted an exemption to its anti-camping ordinance on Tuesday, just days after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against it on behalf of House of Hagar Catholic Worker and a woman who is homeless.
The city ordinance banning public camping went into effect January 1, and the city moved to bulldoze homeless encampments last week. The ACLU sued the city over the ordinance and also sought a temporary injunction to stop the clearing of camps.
House of Hagar Catholic Worker, Catholic Charities, and about two dozen other organizations serving unhoused people had been lobbying the city council for weeks to grant an exemption to the ordinance, which passed on a 5-2 vote in November.
Kate Marshall, House of Hagar facilitator, told local media that the Catholic Worker had petitioned the city manager’s office for an exemption to the ban as recently as December, but received no response. “Unfortunately, this has been a pattern with the city,” she said. “We have been sending proposals and requests to the city every year regarding more efficient ways to manage the crisis of homelessness, and these have also gone unanswered.”
The city manager’s office granted an exemption that allows public camping in a parking lot across the street from the offices of Catholic Charities in Wheeling. Marshall welcomed the breakthrough, but said more work remained to find a longer-term solution.
“No person should be put into a position where their existence is illegal because they are poor,” Marshall said. “Filing a lawsuit was a last resort, but we could not stand by while the city effectively criminalized homelessness. We also could not remain silent while people experiencing homelessness witnessed bulldozers destroying what little they had…. Much work remains, and we urge city officials to unite with service providers and community members to find genuine solutions that we have long asked for.”
Read Marshall’s moving January 20 post on Facebook regarding the city’s demolition of a tent encampment (includes video).
Taiwanese shelter for migrant workers is modeled on the Catholic Worker
A shelter serving some of the 150,000 Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan is modeled after the Catholic Worker. That’s not surprising, given that its founder, Maryknoll Father Joyalito Tajonera, spent time volunteering at Maryhouse in New York City, an experience that led him to become a Catholic priest.
After being ordained in 2002, he returned to Taiwan and established the Ugnayan shelter in Taichung, using the Catholic Worker as a template. (Ugnayan means "connection" in Filipino.) Maryknoll magazine recently profiled Father Tajonera’s work:
“I ran the ministry like a Catholic Worker house, a place where migrants could hang out, relax, eat and play games. A house that feels like home. And we’ve done that for 22 years,” he says. “We don’t make too many rules except meal time and cleaning time. We’re open 24 hours a day. People know that if they walk in, they will be welcomed.”
Life is often difficult for new workers when they arrive in Taiwan. The community created by Father Tajonera — affectionately called “Father Joy” — provides comfort and safety.
His response to migrants in need is very practical, says Guilervan Omnes, a young volunteer.
“Many times at midnight there will be migrants seeking shelter, and Father Joy never asks them where they’re from or what religion they profess,” Omnes says. “He just asks, ‘Have you eaten?’”
Besides offering hospitality, the Ugnayan shelter focuses on empowering migrants to address their problems, especially in the face of exploitation by brokers and employers. Father Tajonera encourages collective action among workers to hold corporations accountable for their employment practices. Through the Supply Chain Due Diligence Program, he has successfully influenced companies to improve conditions for migrant workers.
You can read more at Catholic Outlook, the newspaper of the Diocese of Paramatta. Or read a 2018 Maryknoll story with photos.
Hennessy among political prisoners interviewed for Rattling the Cages
Martha Hennessy is one of three dozen current and former political prisoners featured in the new book Rattling the Cages, a compilation of first-person oral histories documenting their incarceration. “Their stories and experiences also serve as examples of the inhumanity of the carceral system and the depravity that the state embraces to maintain power,” authors Josh Davidson and Eric King write. “The fact that these interviews are filled with love, compassion, concern, empathy, and hope—with humanity itself—shows that no level of carceral torture can kill the revolutionary hope for a better world.”
An excerpt from Hennessy’s contribution to the book appeared in a recent piece in Inquest, an online publication about ending mass incarceration in the United States. In it, she speaks of the struggle to “hold onto your humanity” while in prison: “The dehumanizing I found to be just so, so shocking. One woman tripping and falling and fracturing her elbow, and the way they treated her. They didn’t give her care, and that was incredibly painful to watch. Without my faith, I would have been more bitter, I would have been more angry.” Read the whole piece here.
QUICK TAKES
Amistad Catholic Worker (New Haven, Connecticut) is hoping its backyard “village” of tiny homes will pave the way for other private residences to put tiny homes for the homeless in their backyards, too, according to a story by Connecticut Public Radio. The village recently received electricity hookups with the help of city staff, who are working on a proposal to allow what they are calling “accessory dwelling units” such as Amistad’s six tiny homes, which fall in a regulatory gray area.
The London Catholic Worker (UK) helped organize the first monthly Vigil for Refugees at the Home Office–the United Kingdom’s government ministry responsible for immigration and refugees–on January 15. The Tablet magazine covered the prayer vigil. Rev. Martin Newell, a member of their community, was also quoted in The Church Times, speaking on the importance of Christian solidarity with the oppressed in the Gaza conflict: “I think it’s really important that this conflict is not seen as Jews against Muslims. Firstly, there are Christian Palestinians; and also it’s not a religious conflict in that sense: it’s about fundamental issues of justice and oppression and violence and war.”
Dr. Carol (Charlotte Rizzo) Berrigan (widow of Jerry Berrigan) died January 13 at the age of 93 at home in Syracuse, New York. Her obituary details her commitment to the civil rights and peace movements, as well as inclusive education. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations to the Friends of Dorothy Catholic Worker (212 Wayne St., Syracuse, NY 13205) or Peace House (321 Phelps Ave, Kalamazoo, MI).
Dorothy Day had issues with singer Carly Simon–or at least her song, “I Haven’t Got Time for the Pain.” During an hour-long interview with The Hippie Catholic, Brian Terrell of Strangers and Guests Catholic Worker (Maloy, Iowa) recounted that the song was playing on the radio while he was working on The Catholic Worker newspaper when Dorothy walked past on her way from the chapel. “She stopped, and didn't look at me, but she cocked her ear and was listening to the lyrics,” Terrell recalled, laughing. “And she stood up tall and looked at me in rage, shaking her cane: ‘You must always have time for the pain,’ and shook her head and walked on.” Terrell went on to make the point that we often avoid looking at what’s painful, thinking that will make us happy; in reality, he said, the opposite is usually true.
APPEALS
San Sebastian Catholic Worker (Kansas City, Missouri) appeals for funds to help it purchase a house for its new community.
Mustard Seed Community Farm (Ames, Iowa) is actively seeking interns and community members to live and farm with them for the 2024 season.
St. Louis Catholic Worker is holding a pizza and beer fundraiser on Feb. 3 at Sophia House; donations will go toward the fund to purchase a house.
The newly formed Little Platte Catholic Worker Farm is seeking gifts and loans to help them purchase a 37-acre farm near Platteville, Wisconsin.
Tombstone Quaker CW (Tombstone, Arizona) is seeking a live-in volunteer.
Bloomington Christian Radical / Catholic Worker (Bloomington, Indiana) seeks new live-in volunteers.
CALENDAR
January 27 | Virtual event
Building a World Without Nuclear Weapons: An Urgent Imperative
February 2 | Virtual event
Committed Together: Raising Kids in Community
February 16 – February 18 | Platteville, Wisconsin
National Biennial Catholic Worker Farmer Gathering
Mar 3 – Mar 24 | Virtual event
Dorothy Day Guild Book Study
March 23 - March 29 | Nevada
Sacred Peace Walk (Nevada Desert Experience)
April 12 - April 15 | Kansas City, Missouri
Midwest Catholic Worker Faith & Resistance Retreat
A FEW GOOD WORDS
Is This What Peter Meant?
From On Pilgrimage
by Dorothy Day, in The Catholic Worker, August 1, 1959
The breadline “showed.” It was showy. They were there for all to see. How many men are being fed! How this goes on year after year! Yes, it is a minor miracle, but it is heartbreaking that these men come in just for soup and bread, and then go on, and we do not know their names, we do not recognize their faces, we can in no way assuage their anguish.
“Is this what you meant when you talked about Houses of Hospitality?” I asked Peter Maurin one day when our house in Baltimore was being closed by injunction, because it was overcrowded and breaking the law when it sheltered both Negro and white.
“It serves to arouse the conscience at least,” was his only reply at that time.
Thanks to Renee Roden for her help with this week’s newsletter. Thanks also to the National Catholic Worker E-mail List team, whose work provides the leads for many of our items.
Have Catholic Worker news to share? Send it to info@catholicworker.org.