The Radical Implications of Easter
Plus: On the frontlines of Chicago's migrant crisis; the long road to nuclear disarmament; personalism vs. technology; and an ethnic Jewish reader calls for the CW to "do better."
What the Risen Jesus Teaches Us
A week ago, Catholic Worker communities around the world walked the Stations of the Cross in public settings to call attention to how Christ continues to suffer and be crucified today in the person of those who are denied what they need to live an abundant life or who experience hate and violence.
The Works of Mercy that stand at the center of Catholic Worker life are all about recognizing and responding to the crucified Christ. Catholic Workers tend to be good at embracing the cross: “Sacrifice and suffering are part of the Christian life,” as the Aims and Means note.
But the cross would be meaningless without the Resurrection, and as Claire Schaeffer-Duffy noted during our panel discussion on nuclear weapons, Easter has radical implications for Christians, too. We are called not only to resist the forces of death and destruction, but to embrace life: “That is what Jesus is showing us in Easter, that our conviction that death has the last word…is not true,” she said. “And so we have to take to heart what Jesus is saying about the sanctity of life, of life with a capital L, not just our puny little corporeal selves, but Life, and God inspiring, respiring, breathing through it all.”
Writing during another Easter season, decades ago, Dorothy Day reflected on the final “glorious” chapter in the Gospel of Luke in which the risen Jesus appears to the his startled disciples; it is only by practicing meal hospitality to him—offering him a piece of fish to eat—that they finally know that it is really him, We are in much the same position, she says: “It is most surely an exercise of faith for us to see Christ in each other. But it is through such exercise that we grow and the joy of our vocation assures us we are on the right path.”
Jerry
Reader Letters: Why Is the CW Silent on Israeli Hostages?
A few weeks ago, we received a letter from a reader in response to our coverage of Catholic Worker protests of Israel's actions in Gaza. “As an ethnic Jew raised by one Jewish parent and one Catholic parent, I want to know why the CW sees Gazans as innocents to be protected (and they are!!), but Israeli hostages as not worthy of the same support?”
The letter writer goes on to document the history of Christian persecution of the Jewish people, as well as their own painful experiences with antisemitism, including the kidnapping of their daughter. (We are withholding the name of the letter writer at their request out of concern for their safety.) The letter writer says that Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker were inspirations to them as they were growing up. “Now, I feel like I can’t hold onto the pacifism of the CW anymore as a safety. It clearly parcels out its compassion for only certain groups of people.” They go on to ask the Catholic Worker to “do better”: “The CW is concerned with their interests only and not all humankind when they support only one side. As an ethnic Jew who loves Israel, Palestine, and the CW, I ask you to turn your rallying cry into a compound sentence for the sake of God’s grace and love for all: Permanent ceasefire now and release all the hostages now!”
We also received a letter from an “old” Catholic Worker from the Philippines. Weena Meilly moved Into a Catholic Worker community after retiring and not having enough money for housing. “Since then I have been living in voluntary poverty. A liberating and meaningful poverty indeed! I have lived a Catholic Worker at heart, I hope, and am loving the synodal, pilgrimage life of moving from one place to another.”
You can read both letters here: Reader Letters: 'Our Lives Matter, Too'
You can send us your own letter by replying to this email or to jerry@catholicworker.org. Please put “Roundtable letters” in the subject line.
FEATURED
Emmaus House CW Welcomes Migrants Bused from Texas
For the past two years, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has implemented a policy of transporting migrants to northern cities. One of those cities has been Chicago, where in May of last year, the sheer number of migrants overwhelmed the city’s capacity to serve them.
When the city began housing some of the migrants in police station lobbies, Emmaus House Catholic Worker was among the many volunteers who stepped in to fill the gap. On a recent episode of the "Coffee with Catholic Workers" podcast, Lydia Wong, a member of the community, shared the extensive efforts undertaken to assist the migrants, many of whom were Venezuelans. The Emmaus House volunteers organized meal deliveries, arranged showers, and distributed clothing and essential supplies. The community converted their own living spaces into donation storage and coordinated large-scale food rescues to feed those in need.
Here is an excerpt from the podcast:
Right now, a lot of our focus at the house is centered outside of the house. At the moment, we only have one guest staying with us. Over the past two years, Texas has been busing tens of thousands of migrants, primarily Venezuelans, from the southern border to Chicago. There’s been 26,000 new arrivals into Chicago, and initially, it was a small trickle, but in May, things sort of exploded. The city was housing people in hotels, but in May, things grew rapidly, and they were not able to respond. Their response was to have people sleep at police station lobbies, literally in the lobby of a police station. They weren’t providing anything for them, no water, blankets, clothing, food, literally nothing. All across the city, these small groups began organizing at each station. Our house sits between two stations, District 11 and District 10, and we became heavily involved in caring for both of those stations. We had a very small group of volunteers, primarily us and our extended community on our block, along with a handful of other people. Our neighborhood is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago. People were living there, and we were busing people to our house for showers, taking meals over for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, providing water, shuttling gallons of water back and forth, doing things like just trying to provide basic clothing for people, trying to arrange for people to have contact with their family through Wi-Fi or phones, getting a mountain of donations. We still have two of our spare bedrooms filled with donations and many donations in our garage. Gradually, the city started building up some of their services, like giving food, but the city didn’t start providing lunch for all stations until September, which is multiple months in, and at that point, there were 2,000 people staying in police stations across the city. At the peak, there were around 2,600 to 2,800 people in police stations, and that was far overflowing the lobbies. We were sourcing and providing tents and sleeping bags, having at District 10 near us at one point about 70 to 80 people outside with an additional 40 people inside. It was definitely intense because if we were not supplying things, people would not eat, people would not drink, people would not have clothing. Then things started to get colder, and the intensity really started ratcheting up. We had unseasonably cold weather beginning in October, dipping down into the 30s, with multiple families outside, people totally unprepared for the cold. We were trying to make sure that people had warm clothing, that when it rained, we could come the next day with dry clothing because everybody was soaked out there. Our worker is a little bit different in that everybody either works a traditional job or is in school currently except for me. I was primarily doing this as a full-time job. It was definitely intense, multiple weeks of 40 or 50 hours a week of both caring for these two stations and transporting donations from richer parts of the city down to the poorer parts. Things have slowed down a little bit, enough shelters have now opened that everyone is out of police stations as of December 15th, but that was a long haul and some cold weather for people to still be living outside.
You can listen to the entire episode or read a transcript here: Lydia Wong: Welcoming Migrants Bussed From Texas (CCW Ep 22)
Why the Nuclear Issue Matters Now More Than Ever
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This spring has seen a surge of Catholic Worker activism around nuclear proliferation. Last week, Catholic Workers were among fifty people who walked from Las Vegas to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), where the U.S. government is conducting subcritical testing as part of the effort to maintain and update the United States’ nuclear arsenal. (See CWers Among 50 Activists Protesting Drones, Nukes, in Nevada.) On Good Friday, the Hartford Catholic Worker organized a protest at the naval submarine base in Groton, Connecticut, home to U.S. nuclear submarines. And in another week, Catholic Workers will gather in Kansas City for a retreat culminating in a protest at the National Security Campus, where 7,000 employees produce more than 80 percent of the non-nuclear components in U.S. nuclear weapons systems. And the April edition of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker newspaper, The Catholic Agitator, features the nuclear issue prominently, including an interview with Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, whose pastoral letter, Living in the Light of Christ's Peace:A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament has been widely circulated among Catholic peace activists.
What is behind the upsurge of activity around nuclear nonproliferation? That was the focus of a panel discussion sponsored by Roundtable this past week. The panelists included Brian Terrell from Strangers and Guests Catholic Worker in Maloy, Iowa, Claire Schaeffer-Duffy from Saints Francis and Thérèse Catholic Worker in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Ann Suellentrop, who is the vice chair of PeaceWorks Kansas City and on the national board of Physicians for Social Responsibility. All three have worked on nuclear disarmament for decades. And with the resurgence of the nuclear arms race–including a U.S. push to modernize its nuclear weapons arsenal at a cost of $2 trillion–they say that now is the time for a renewed push.
In a wide-ranging conversation, we talked about how the success of the “nuclear freeze” movement of the 1970s and 1980s led to complacency among activists. We dug into the history of the Catholic Worker’s involvement in the nuclear disarmament movement, and explored its spiritual dimensions.
“On an immediate assessment, you know, you’re just out there doing a little protest or a little civil disobedience,” up against the entire system of American power that the nuclear weapons program embodies. “But every gesture, every effort, every human act is an opposition to this agglomeration of death. And we have to believe, and it’s not a naive belief, that God acts in these tiny gestures. There’s no other way to act.”
You can watch a video of our conversation or read the transcript here: The Long Struggle for Nuclear Disarmament.
The Catholic Worker (Still) Has a Computer Dilemma
“Is it possible to propagate the dignity of manual labor if the only means available is a computer?”
This is just one of the dilemmas raised by Katherine Temple (better known to CWers as Kassie) in a 1983 article in The Catholic Worker newspaper titled “Our Computer Dilemma.” At the time, the New York Catholic Worker had just acquired its first computer in order to print mailing labels for the newspaper. A student of the French personalist philosopher and theologian Jacques Ellul, Temple took a “dim view” of the innovation.
Nearly forty years later, Liam Myers helped to launch the New York Catholic Worker’s Instagram page. Now, he has written an essay of his own for The Catholic Worker newspaper reflecting on Temple’s question as someone who grew up in a world whose digital tools are all-pervasive.
For those of us born into a digital era, to resist technology would be, at some level, to resist our very selves. Therefore, rather than questioning whether or not we should engage with technology, I wonder instead how we can raise questions for our movement, and our newspaper, in light of the realization that technology has already invaded our lives, in order to faithfully reimagine a right relationship to technology.
As longtime readers of this paper will know, Kassie was a student of Jacques Ellul who was a French philosopher, theologian, sociologist and Christian anarchist. Ellul has had a great impact on the NYCW thanks to Kassie. To many, it seems that Ellul’s fears about the way in which society would be impacted negatively by technology have arrived. This can be seen in the increased automation of jobs, taking away the dignity of physical labor. It can also be seen through AI’s development and use anywhere from educational institutions to medical labs to police departments. Even utilizing facial recognition on smartphones has become a subconscious daily act for many people. We recently welcomed Frank Panopoulus who gave a Friday Night Meeting and pointed out the idolatry of Transhumanism, the belief that humans can evolve beyond our physical limitations thanks to technologies. All of these technological advances are a part of a broader “technique” which Ellul pinpointed through his work.
In his book Hyperreality, Frank Mulder explains Jacques Ellul’s use of the word “technique” as “not so much a certain technology as a whole social system that is rationally pressing onward towards more efficiency, more means, in every sphere.” Ellul was deeply concerned by the increased role technology played within society, and the lack of critical examination of said technology. In an article entitled “In Your Face-Book” from May of 2011 Carmen Trotta postulated that Ellul “believed it was immediately necessary for a critical mass of the people to critique, that is, constructively criticize with intent to alter, technology’s developments.” Ultimately Ellul saw religious faith as the last bastion in a world becoming more and more transfixed with technology. He was quoted as saying the following in a 1981 interview: “I describe a world with no exit, convinced that God accompanies [humanity] throughout history.”
In “Our Computer Dilemma” Kassie raises a few dilemmas that the computer purchased by the community in 1983 brought out. Most pertinent for us to consider is the following: “Peter Maurin taught us about pure means and the Church’s teaching about not accepting the lesser of two evils. Is it possible to propagate the dignity of manual labor if the only means available is a computer?” In May of 2011, Ted Walker posed a question which echoes Kassie’s stated dilemma: “How do we let go of solving such problems, of realizing that human relationships will never be, and never should be, efficient or even rational?” Both of these questions point to the necessity of working with one’s hands in community, and questioning how technology could render work, community and personal relationships obsolete. I resonate with these concerns as I raise the following question: how can we engage in an increasingly online world without losing touch with the physicality of the Works of Mercy?
You can read Myers’s essay in its entirety on CatholicWorker.org…or, if you prefer print, wait for it to come out in the May issue of The Catholic Worker.
BRIEFLY
Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, an outspoken champion of social justice and peace, died Thursday in Detroit, where he was an auxiliary bishop. In 1983, he co-authored the groundbreaking U.S. Catholic bishops’ pastoral letter, “The Challenge of Peace.” He traveled the world speaking out against war and injustice and was arrested multiple times while protesting U.S. involvement in war. Gumbleton was also instrumental in co-founding the Kay Lasante Clinic in Haiti in partnership with House of Grace Catholic Worker in Philadelphia. Read more here: Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Gumbleton, promoter of solidarity with those in need, dies at 94 - OSV News | See a video of Day House CW in Detroit honoring Bishop Gumbleton’s life in front of his house on Good Friday
The life of Catholic Worker artist Fritz Eichenberg will be the subject of a new biography being written by Br. Luke Devine, OSB. He gave a presentation on the project at Maryhouse (New York Catholic Worker) on Friday, March 15; you can listen to it here: On Writing a Biography of Fritz Eichenberg, Up to 1933
The role of art and artists in the Catholic Worker Movement will be the subject of a webinar sponsored by the Dorothy Day Guild on Tuesday, April 9. “Featuring a conversation with visual artists Sarah Fuller, Becky McIntyre, and Rachel Mills, this event will explore creativity in the works of mercy, the Catholic Worker printmaking tradition, and the intersection of art, hospitality, and activism.” See the event page for registration information.
The collected writings of Philip Berrigan were published on April 2 by Fordham University Press. A Ministry of Risk was authorized by the Berrigan family and took editor Brad Wolf three years to compile. The book’s marketing blurb reads: “Threading the vibrant fabric of history with autobiographical insights, introspective theology, and a clarion call to activism, A Ministry of Risk offers both a living manifesto of nonviolent resistance and a journal of spiritual reflection by one of the 20th Century’s most prophetic voices.” You can learn more about the book at philipberrigan.com.
Claire Schaeffer-Duffy of Sts. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker was recently profiled by Worcester Magazine as part of an article profiling women who make a difference in the area. In addition to her Catholic worker role, the magazine also highlighted her work as program director for Worcester’s Center for Nonviolent Solutions and as an award-winning freelance journalist. Read the profile here: Meet this year's Women Making History
The April edition of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker’s Catholic Agitator features an interview with Archbishop John Wester, who discusses his evolving perspective on nuclear disarmament, the moral implications of nuclear weapons, and the role of the Catholic Church in advocating for peace. In "Digging Up Art Archives," Sarah Fuller and Becky McIntyreshare their journey of uncovering the history of printmaking in the Catholic Worker movement. And in "The Nuclear Family Crisis," Matt Harper reflects on the challenges of balancing family life with social justice activism, exploring how the prioritization of the nuclear family can sometimes hinder broader social responsibilities and advocating for a more communal and inclusive approach to family and activism.
The April newsletter of Baltimore’s Open Door Community, Hospitality, is out. In "Resisting Georgia's Death Penalty," Lee Carroll reports on the ongoing efforts to abolish the death penalty in Georgia. In "Entering Deeply Into the Story: Introducing the 'Radical Bible' YouTube Channel" Wes Howard-Brook shares his journey of engaging with the Bible in a radical and transformative way, and introduces his YouTube channel, Radical Bible, which offers in-depth commentary on biblical texts.
The April edition of the New York CW’s The Catholic Worker is also out. In "Saintly Six: How Long, Lord?" Ralph E. Moore, Jr. highlights the contributions of six African-American candidates for sainthood, known as the "Saintly Six," to the Church and society. And in "The Profound Role of Whales," Koohan Paik-Mander explores the significant role whales play in mitigating climate change by sequestering carbon and maintaining healthy marine ecosystems. The newspaper is only available through a print subscription, although back issues are archived at the Catholic News Archive.
And finally, Dorothy Day Tampa reports on providing Christ room hospitality, a feature article about its Breadcoin network, and helping to pay the court costs needed to close out guests’ cases and unencumber their driver’s licenses. Read it here.
CALENDAR
April 9 | Online webinar (Dorothy Day Guild)
Art, Hospitality, and Activism
April 12 - April 15 | Kansas City, Missouri
Midwest Catholic Worker Faith & Resistance Retreat
April 13 | The Center at Mariandale, Ossining, New York
Revolution of the Heart: The Spirituality of Dorothy Day
April 28 | Staten Island, New York
Dorothy Day Art Show & Craft Fundraiser
May 8 - May 12 | Kent, Great Britain
European Catholic Worker Gathering 2024
June 3 - June 7 | Cuba City, Wisconsin
Stories of the Land: Decolonization, Earth Regeneration, & Spiritual Ecology
A FEW GOOD WORDS
The Mystery of the Poor
From “The Mystery of the Poor”
by Dorothy Day, in The Catholic Worker, April 1964
On Holy Thursday, truly a joyful day, I was sitting at the supper table at St. Joseph’s House on Chrystie Street and looking around at all the fellow workers and thinking how hopeless it was for us to try to keep up appearances. The walls are painted a warm yellow, th ceiling has been done by generous volunteers, and there are large, brightly colored ikon-like paintings on wood and some colorful banners with texts (now fading out) and the great crucifix brought in by some anonymous friend with the request that we hang it in the room where the breadline eats. (Some well-meaning guest tried to improve on the black iron by gilding it, and I always intend to do something about it and restore its former grim glory.)
I looked around and the general appearance of the place was, as usual, home-like, informal, noisy, and comfortably warm on a cold evening. And yet, looked at with the eyes of a visitor, our place must look dingy indeed, filled as it always is with men and women, some children too, all of whom bear the unmistakable mark of misery and destitution. Aren’t we deceiving ourselves, I am sure many of them think, in the works we are doing? What are we accomplishing for them anyway, or for the world or for the common good? “Are these people being rehabilitated?” is the question we get almost daily from visitors or from our readers (who seem to be great letter writers). One priest had his catechism classes write us questions as to our work after they had the assignment in religion class to read my book The Long Loneliness. The majority of them asked the same question: “How can you see Christ in people?” And we only say: It is an act of faith, constantly repeated. It is an act of love, resulting from an act of faith. It is an act of hope, that we can awaken these same acts in their hearts, too, with the help of God, and the Works of Mercy, which you, our readers, help us to do, day in and day out over the years.
On Easter Day, on awakening late after the long midnight services in our parish church, I read over the last chapter of the four Gospels and felt that I had received great light and understanding with the reading of them. “They have taken the Lord out of His tomb and we do not know where they have laid Him,” Mary Magdalene said, and we can say this with her in times of doubt and questioning. How do we know we believe? How do we know we indeed have faith? Because we have seen His hands and His feet in the poor around us. He has shown Himself to us in them. We start by loving them for Him, and we soon love them for themselves, each one a unique person, most special!
In that last glorious chapter of St. Luke, Jesus told His followers, “Why are you so perturbed? Why do questions arise in your minds? Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself. Touch Me and see. No ghost has flesh and bones as you can see I have.” They were still unconvinced, for it seemed to good to be true. “So He asked them, ‘Have you anything to eat?’ They offered Him a piece of fish they had cooked which He took and ate before their eyes.”
How can I help but think of these things every time I sit down at Chrystie Street or Peter Maurin Farm and look around at the tables filled with the unutterably poor who are going through their long-continuing crucifixion. It is most surely an exercise of faith for us to see Christ in each other. But it is through such exercise that we grow and the joy of our vocation assures us we are on the right path.
Most certainly, it is easier to believe now that the sun warms us, and we know that buds will appear on the sycamore trees in the wasteland across from the Catholic Worker office, that life will spring out of the dull clods of that littered park across the way. There are wars and rumors of war, poverty and plague, hunger and pain. Still, the sap is rising, again there is the resurrection of spring, God’s continuing promise to us that He is with us always, with His comfort and joy, if we will only ask.
The mystery of the poor is this: That they are Jesus, and what you do for them you do for Him. It is the only way we have of knowing and believing in our love. The mystery of poverty is that by sharing in it, making ourselves poor in giving to others, we increase our knowledge of and belief in love.