Opponents Stoke Fears of Housing-First Shelter in South Bend
Plus: What's next for Uganda CW; welcoming the Rechabite CW; the nonviolence of Jesus; sewing ecobags; and Vishnewski's "How to Open a House of Hospitality."
How Do You Mark the Death of a Community?
We’ve noted the birth of quite a few Catholic Worker communities in the past six months–Little Platte (Wisconsin), San Sebastian (Missouri), Staten Island (New York), St. Louis (Missouri), Divine Mercy Gardens (Georgia), Eliza B. Conley (Kansas), Ozark Foothills Farm (Missouri), to name a handful–and this week, we talked to Sean Domencic about his family’s newly listed Rechabite Catholic Worker.
But the demise (or dissolution, if you want to be less grim about it) of a Catholic Worker community often goes unnoticed, as this issue also attests. It’s understandable: the birth of a community is usually announced, and even publicized, whereas the dissolution of a community isn’t something that people want to dwell on, much less celebrate.
That’s too bad. The small item about the dissolution of the Waukesha Catholic Worker (see the Briefly section, below) sent me down a rabbit hole into the community’s rich history. Did you know the Waukesha Catholic Worker had a prison ministry, or that it helped rescue an alcohol treatment court that was in danger of closing due to the loss of funding? Or that the community often welcomed guests with mental health challenges?
The Waukesha community is not the only one to close without much comment or ceremony; last January, Craig and Carol Larson shuttered the Parkland Catholic Worker, a farm in northwest Manitoba, after more than twenty years.
It would be good, I think, to have some sort of Catholic Worker ritual to mark the closing of a community—an intentional space to remember and celebrate the good done by a community over the course of its history.
Warmly,
Jerry Windley-Daoust
P.S. By the way, I want to extend a warm welcome to Zak Sather, a recent graduate of Carleton College who is teaching English in Germany as part of a Fulbright program. He recently stumbled across the Catholic Worker online and was both surprised and excited to discover a community where, as a Catholic interested in social justice, he “fit.” Renee and I are happy to have his help.
P.P.S. With so many new Catholic Workers opening, it seemed to be a good time to revisit Stanley Vishnewski’s classic 1965 essay, “How to Open a House of Hospitality.” Don’t miss it at the end of this newsletter!
NEWS
What’s Next for the Uganda CW: How About a House–and a Farm?
In the third part of our series, “The Catholic Worker in Africa,” Uganda Catholic Worker founder Michael Sekitoleko dreams of creating a sustainable, revitalized community—in spite of skeptical clerics, malaria, and a stalled-out fundraising campaign.
“I want to have a community that can go on to help people and impact our society even when I’m gone,” Sekitoleko told me. (He’s only in his mid-forties, but he’s had plenty of close calls with death, which may explain why it’s top of mind for him.)
Despite the challenges, he is still doing peace and nonviolence training for schools—and mapping out a path to a sustainable Catholic Worker community. That path includes buying a house, registering with the Catholic Church and the government, inviting experienced Catholic Workers from overseas to mentor him, establishing a wider network of support, and developing a cottage industry to make the community self-sustaining.
Read all about what’s next for the Uganda Catholic Worker at CatholicWorker.org.
South Bend CW’s Plans for Shelter Stalled by Public Fears
Our Lady of the Road, a drop-in center founded by St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker, has encountered loud public opposition to its plans to build an 80-bed, $12–16 million low-barrier, housing-first facility in cooperation with the city of South Bend, the South Bend Tribune reports in articles this past week.
The South Bend Redevelopment Commission on January 25 voted to postpone its $277,000 purchase of a parcel of land for the proposed New Day Intake Center following testimony from more than a dozen nearby residents and business owners who spoke out in opposition to the plan.
Elected leaders in St. Joseph County have been vocal in opposing the plan, holding a press conference this week to address the fact that five convicted sex offenders are currently living at Motels4Now, a housing-first shelter Our Lady of the Road began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Motels4Now originally opened in 2020 with funding from the CARES Act. County officials voted to end funding for Motels4Now in early 2023, but the city of South Bend provided $1.5 million in funding to keep it open.
Opponents have criticized housing-first shelters as being too lax and say they bring down nearby property values. They also raise safety concerns, despite the proposed facility’s extensive security measures, 10-foot-high fencing, and a buffer zone.
Sheila McCarthy, director of Motels4Now, said the housing-first approach has had a good track record in the city. More than 700 guests have been served since the shelter opened in August 2020, with 78 percent ending up in stable housing.
“If you’re opposed to homelessness, we are eradicating homelessness,” McCarthy told the Tribune.
Moreover, she said, if unhoused sex offenders don’t have a place to go, they pose more of a danger to society than if they have stable housing.
Read the South Bend Tribune’s coverage about the commission’s decision to postpone the purchase here and a follow-up piece about county officials’ press conference opposing housing-first shelters here.
Goodbye, Holy Family CW; Hello, Rechabite CW
Hours after their wedding on August 15, 2020, Sean and Monica Domencic moved into a house in the Cabbage Hill neighborhood of Lancaster with itinerant Catholic Worker Elliot Martin, officially launching the Holy Family Catholic Worker.
Now, a little more than a year after Holy Family CW agreed to dissolve, the Domencics are starting something new in one of the two houses that Holy Family once occupied. They’re not starting a new community with other people (at least not yet); instead, they are committing their family to living in the tradition of the Catholic Worker. In doing so, they join many other Catholic Workers centered on a single family.
“We are just a Catholic Worker family seeking to live out the rule of life God has called us to,” Sean Domencic told Roundtable. The Domencics have two small children, including an infant born on New Year’s Eve. “We do certainly hope to be part of a bigger community based on that calling at some point. But we are not actively recruiting for some particular community vision, just open to visitors, friends, and collaborators, and leaving whatever comes next in God’s hands.”
Their Catholic Worker family is now listed in the community directory as the Rechabite Catholic Worker. The listing for Holy Family Catholic Worker has also been removed.
Why did Holy Family CW close, and what does Rechabite refer to? Read the full article at CatholicWorker.org.
“The Gospel of Peace” Examines the Nonviolence of Jesus
Art Laffin (Dorothy Day House, Washington, D.C.) reviewed Fr. John Dear’s new book, The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence (Orbis), in a recent issue of the National Catholic Reporter. Laffin writes:
Dear's new book is a landmark original commentary on the synoptic Gospels from the perspective of nonviolence. In this painstaking work, Dear reveals that nonviolence is at the heart of Jesus' teaching and action, and a primary requirement of Christian discipleship.
Tragically, as Dear noted to me upon the book's release, "We have so thoroughly rejected and buried this Gospel truth that it almost seems impossible to us, yet it's right there in every line of the Gospels, if you read it from the perspective of nonviolence." Throughout the book, he dispels the fallacy of redemptive violence, shows how all violence is antithetical to Jesus and highlights exemplary peacemakers and movements throughout history that have embodied Jesus' nonviolence.
Read the full review at the National Catholic Reporter.
Did John Courtney Murray Undermine Prophetic Catholic Voices?
John Courtney Murray, the prominent 20th-century Jesuit theologian known for his efforts to reconcile Catholicism with American religious pluralism, may have inadvertently caused a rupture between theological reflection and active engagement with real-world problems, according to three theologians who recently met to discuss Murray in light of the Catholic Worker.
Larry Chapp, a retired professor of theology and founder of Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Farm (Harveys Lake, Pennsylvania), hosted a conversation with Benjamin Peters and Michael Baxter on his YouTube channel. Peters, a professor of religious studies at the University of Saint Joseph, co-founded St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker (South Bend, Indiana) with Baxter and Margie Pfeil. Baxter, a professor of theology at Regis University, also co-founded Andre House (Phoenix, Arizona) with a Holy Cross priest.
Murray's efforts to align Catholicism with American cultural norms may have inadvertently contributed to a bifurcation between theology and social engagement, marginalizing more radical or prophetic grassroots voices within the Church such as Dorothy Day, they said.
The wide-ranging discussion touched on contemporary political and social issues, including the challenges of homelessness and the moral implications of modern warfare. Drawing on the example of the Catholic Worker Movement, the three called for a deeper, more theologically informed engagement with social issues, one that transcends conventional political ideologies.
Baxter called Dorothy Day, Walker Percy, Flannery O’Connor, and Thomas Merton “some of the most interesting Catholics in our history,” citing them as examples of Catholics who challenged both Church and state and who transcended easy categorization.
“It's really a good sign when a Catholic doesn’t fit in (with) what’s going on in America,” Baxter said, ”not just in terms of falling into the liberal or conservative camp, but of thinking about the place of Catholicism.”
The full conversation is available on Chapp’s YouTube channel.
BRIEFLY
Jessica Reznicek has been placed in “disciplinary segregation” for 60 days, according to Bill Quigley, her attorney. The 42-year-old climate activist and member of the Des Moines Catholic Worker community was sentenced to eight years in prison in June 2021 after pleading guilty to a single count of damaging the Dakota Access pipeline; controversially, the judge enhanced the sentence on the grounds that it was an act of domestic terrorism. “Jessica sounded good and wants people to know she is OK,” Quigley wrote. Friends and supporters are encouraged to send her mail: Jessica Reznicek # 19293-030, FCI Waseca, PO BOX 1731, Waseca, MN 56093. Watch an eight-minute interview with Reznicek or connect with supporters here.
The Waukesha (Wisconsin) Catholic Worker has been de-listed from the CW Community Directory after it was brought to our attention that it closed in 2020 after 23 years in operation. The board of directors made the decision to dissolve the Waukesha Catholic Worker following the sudden death of longtime director Judith Williams on January 17, 2020. Read her obituary here and watch a 2010 interview with her at the Midwest Catholic Worker Gathering on Youtube.
The Bread and Roses community participated in an “ecobag sewing workshop” in October, according to its latest newsletter. The cloth bags are designed to keep pots and pans hot for hours after they are taken off the stove, allowing the contents to slow cook and saving energy in the process. Sewing and cooking with the bags “is one way to make a small personal contribution” to climate activism, writes Birgit Gödde. The community also hopes to install solar panels on its roof next year.
Martha Hennessy will be traveling to Scotland in March for various speaking engagements and Catholic Worker related events. If you’re in the area, you can check out her tentative itinerary at CatholicWorker.org. Hennessy, a longtime peace activist and Catholic Worker, is the granddaughter of Dorothy Day.
Jeremiah Taylor, founder of the new Vulnera Christi Catholic Worker in Wichita, Kansas, wrote a reflection on Dorothy Day, labor, and this upcoming Sunday’s Gospel for U.S. Catholic. He writes: “Day’s assessment that the work of the gospel is ‘endless and will always stretch on before us’ illuminates, for me, this week’s gospel, where Jesus, after working tirelessly the day before, seeks out solitude to pray and refresh himself. Yet even then, the apostles interrupt him, and say “everyone is looking for you.”
APPEALS
Friends of longtime Catholic Worker Ciarin O’Reilly are raising funds to help him continue his vigil in solidarity with Julian Assange.
The Uganda Catholic Worker continues to seek $50,000 for the purchase of a house in Kampala.
The newly formed San Sebastian Catholic Worker in Kansas City continues to raise funds for a new house.
St. Louis Catholic Worker continues to raise funds to purchase a house.
For a longer list of Catholic Worker communities appealing for financial support, visit the Appeals page at CatholicWorker.org. Looking to become a Catholic Worker? Check out active calls for volunteers.
Send Catholic Worker appeals to info@catholicworker.org.
CALENDAR
February 4 | Staten Island, NYC
Staten Island Catholic Worker Volunteer Meeting
February 16 – February 18 | Platteville, Wisconsin
National Biennial Catholic Worker Farmer Gathering
March 3 | Virtual event
Dorothy Day Guild Book Study
March 13 - March 25 | Scotland
Martha Hennessy Events in Scotland
March 23 - March 29 | Nevada
Sacred Peace Walk (Nevada Desert Experience)
April 12 - April 15 | Kansas City, Missouri
Midwest Catholic Worker Faith & Resistance Retreat
April 28 | Staten Island, NYC
Dorothy Day Art Show & Craft Fundraiser
A FEW GOOD WORDS
How to Open a House of Hospitality
From “How to Open a House of Hospitality”
by Stanley Vishnewski, in The Catholic Worker, December 1965
We are indeed happy to know that more and more people are thinking in terms of hospitality in order to take care of the poor and the unfortunate—those who are broken in body and soul. The works of mercy are sorely needed in these troubled times and a House of Hospitality run along correct Christian principles can become an effective center of rich Christian life. It is the dream of the Catholic Worker that a hospice will be part of every Catholic parish in the world.
A House of Hospitality is not just a place where the poor come to be fed and to receive emergency treatment at a personal sacrifice by its staff. A hospice should be a cell of Christian living that seeks to give the world an example of what the full Christian life is.
To the rich it would provide the opportunity of winning heaven by serving Christ in His poor. The poor would then come to realize the great dignity of their lot and would not strive for riches, but for holiness. The rich would become poor and the poor would become holy.
A House of Hospitality cannot remain silent and passive in the face of the great injustices of the present capitalistic system. A House of Hospitality — and by this I mean the staff and guests — will try to create a new social order within the framework of the present system. They will do all that lies within their power to bring about a social order In harmony with the Gospels.
It is true that there will be a multiplicity of problems (as there will be human beings) in the operating of a hospice, but rarely will they be the problems that people tend to bring up as an excuse not to begin.
Fortunately, there is always a small core of dedicated persons who refuse to become discouraged. The thought of the difficulties to be met seems to imbue them with the courage to start.
Thanks to Renee Roden and Zak Sather for their 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.