Undoing the Wounds of War
Plus: Gaza flotilla; NYCW rooftop garden; Martha Hennessy in Scotland; Dorothy on poverty and pacifism; and down the rabbit's hole in pursuit of community.
Undoing the Wounds of War
For the past two and a half years, I’ve worked with a group of about a dozen ordinary people here in Winona to resettle refugees from Central America, Afghanistan, and Ukraine—all of them refugees of war or gang violence.
Many of these individuals had to leave beloved family members behind because the immediate threat to their lives was so great. In one heartbreaking case, our friend Massouma was separated from her two boys at Kabul airport; U.S. personnel told her that her boys would leave on another plane, but instead, they were left behind, staying overnight at the airport until their ailing grandmother could retrieve them. Masouma, whose husband was assassinated by the Taliban, has been waiting to be reunited with them ever since arriving here in 2021. She is still waiting, and we pray daily for her children to be allowed to travel to the U.S.
Hers is not the only heartbreaking story, of course. We have worked with other refugees locally who have faced similarly difficult separations from children. This is what war does: It destroys life, it destroys the land, it rips apart the hearts of children and their parents.
This past week, though, we had a “Resurrection” experience. Edelber, who fled Colombia in October 2021 after being kidnapped by a gang that threatened to kill him, has spent the past two years worrying about the wife and two boys he left behind.
Thanks to a series of small miracles—and the help of many, many good and generous people—he is finally reunited with his family. He works a night shift, so he was asleep when his wife and two boys arrived here in Winona. They snuck into his room and woke him up to a joyful reunion that you can watch here.
The wounds of war are healed by the Works of Mercy, and thank God for those who practice them.
In the coming days, Catholic Workers from around the Midwest will gather in Kansas City, Missouri. Then they will risk arrest by blocking the entrance to the National Security Campus, where 7,000 employees ensure that our nation’s nuclear arsenal is capable of thoroughly destroying America’s enemies—and their children, and the land.
Those of us who perform Works of Mercy to undo the wounds of war are often praised and admired by our neighbors. The Catholic Workers who clog the war machine for the briefest of moments in the coming days are more likely to be scorned and criticized. And yet, isn’t it wiser and more merciful to prevent the harm of war before it destroys families than waiting to staunch the wounds after the harm is done?
By the way, if you would like to help Edelber’s family cover medical, legal, and travel expenses, please do so through their GoFundMe.
Jerry
P.S. A quick note about who should not be paying for a Roundtable subscription: In the past week I have received two notes from people apologizing for not being able to pay for Roundtable. To be clear, if you are on a limited income, choosing to live in voluntary poverty, are supporting other important causes, or are otherwise unable to pay for a subscription, for heaven’s sake, please don’t worry about it. You can get everything that Roundtable publishes without paying for a subscription. Thank you for all of the ways that you participate in God’s ongoing renewal of the world and its people.
Reader Letters: Removing the Plank in the U.S. Eye
Last week we published a letter from an anonymous writer who was critical of Catholic Workers who protest Israel’s actions in Gaza. This week, Brian Terrell offers a response. While conceding that “there is much that Christians and Catholics in particular have to repent of regarding our treatment of the Jewish people,” Terrell goes on to take issue with the letter writer’s contention that “there are only Jewish hostages (in Palestine).” “There are more than 7,000 Palestinian hostages held by Israel today who are not Jewish, even if they are unseen by the writer of this letter and by most of the world.” As for Catholic Workers’ seeming silence on the atrocities committed by Hamas, Terrell points out that U.S. taxpayers aren’t paying for Hamas’s acts of terrorism. “Our protests around the genocide in Gaza are not primarily protests against the actions of Israel (this is the responsibility of Israelis) but of our own government’s complicity in those crimes. If the US were arming and supporting Hamas, we would be protesting that, too. But this is not the case.” Read his entire letter here.
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Down the Rabbit’s Hole in Search of Community
Tyler Hambley writes about how his encounter with a Catholic Worker community led to personal transformation and a deeper, richer understanding of community–and his faith. Here’s an excerpt from his essay, which originally appeared in the April issue of The Catholic Citizen, a ministry of the Church of the Assumption in St. Paul, Minnesota:
Long before I became Catholic, I stumbled onto a dinner hosted by a Catholic Worker community. That night I felt a little like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. The shift from what I’d thought I knew to the new world being revealed in front of me was as exhilarating as it was bewildering. People from drastically different walks of life—rich, poor, black, white, young, old, clergy, and lay—deliberately sitting down together for a festive evening of agenda-less joy just didn’t register with the social experiences I’d had prior. For as little as these folks shared in background, they seemed to come alive—to bloom fully—when praying, eating, and celebrating life together. And that togetherness, it was easy to see, was coextensive with the liturgical gestures of the Lord’s Table that had initiated it.
Naturally, I came back later that same week and before long, I was hooked by that little community. I remain hooked to this day, some twelve years later, though I’ve never quite managed to stop stumbling and tumbling. Perhaps that’s because thick Catholic community life remains a definitive challenge to the culture of individualism that sticks so stubbornly within my veins.
Looking back, I was drawn to Catholic community for ulterior motives, though I didn’t know it. For example, I wanted to be around other people who cared about the “least of these” because I thought such concerns led to “activism”—an “activism” no different from the many secular efforts for “social justice” or “advocacy” I’d participated in elsewhere. Likewise, I was probably attracted to community life for the opportunity to save a little money through the sharing of resources or the chance to fill out my resume with collaborative writing endeavors. Perhaps too, I wanted to be around other Christians who were serious about tradition and orthodoxy, though I was less trusting of the traditional pursuit of simplicity and poverty for love of God and neighbor that the Saints exemplified. Mostly, I found myself just trying to fill a gap in my otherwise full but disparate social calendar. And hey, the food was good!
Yet, the more I stuck around, the more my attempts to shore up my identity as a unique and “caring”—yet still self-sufficient—individual got frustrated. This community and the daily practices I shared with them wouldn’t let me turn the situation into a project of my own self-making. Furthermore, my attempts to “help” my poorer housemates—to do for them—seemed less and less substantial than our merely being present with one another as friends, at a personal sacrifice. Favors were still asked, of course, but I was the one asking for favors as much as my homeless friends were. One such friend helped me build a wood fence and a railing on the front porch of our hospitality house. I couldn’t have done it without him. And so, a mini-economy of mutual gift-giving began to form through our fellowship. Communal presence itself was making each one of us whole in ways we could not imagine on our own. Yet, despite all of this, bewilderment continued for me because I did not yet have—and almost certainly still do not have—a truly Catholic understanding of what a human being is.
Consider what we’re all up against. Our social order assumes that human beings are first and foremost individuals, and human society is a collection of individuals who, when associating together, must find ways to preserve a negotiated freedom from the conditions and burdens that the presence of others places on us. Notice that the isolated individual is taken for granted as the starting point for social and political reflection. So when we individuals must interact, we do this largely through the categories of—but also all of the practices involved with—“rights,” contracts, and management. These categories only further enhance our individualism, even when we use them as the basis for “community.” Yet, we have a hard time imagining what other basis for togetherness there could be. No amount of opt-in, voluntary social outings can cover over these more fundamental arrangements that keep us held at arm’s length from one another.
But is this social order constructed as it is on the foundation of the human-being-as-individual actually congruent with a Catholic view of the person? After all, we are made in the image and likeness of a triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yes, there are three persons, but only together do they share one essence. Community—not individualism—is written into the very image of God. If we are made in that image, our personhood is unintelligible—even incomplete—apart from a deeply shared life with others.
Read the rest of his essay at CatholicWorker.org.
Martha Hennessy: ‘It’s You That Gets Nailed on a Cross’
Martha Hennessy made a “highly anticipated” week-long public speaking tour of Scotland with her sister, Kate Hennessy, in March. Hosted by the Glasgow Catholic Worker, the granddaughters of Dorothy Day spoke to students at the University of Glasgow and to Catholic and Scottish Episcopal parishes in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
“The Hennessys had a private audience with Archbishop Nolan, took part in a meeting at the Scottish Parliament hosted by Bill Kidd MSP, and paid a visit to Faslane to pray at Clyde Naval Base, home to Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons,” according to a recent report in the Scottish Catholic publication Open House.
The publication adapted Martha Hennessy’s Glasgow University talks into a first-person essay in which she discusses Dorothy Day, her canonization cause, and how her grandmother’s example led her to a life of voluntary poverty and radical social and anarchic political activism. In the following excerpt, she describes the challenge of participating in a Plowshares action targeting a U.S. naval base hosting Trident nuclear submarines:
As we walked onto the naval base, I was terrified. To do something that you have great fear over doing, to act, to take a step that is risking your personal safety, I found to be such a challenge. But I believe these actions have given me a much deeper understanding of my faith. How am I to take personal responsibility? How can I have some kind of an impact? With non-violent action, it is important not to focus too much on what you will achieve. You do what you do, not because of the results or that you have stunning success or any of that. It’s you that can get nailed up on a cross when you respond to the issues of the day, especially with the Plowshares movement. A lot of people in my family think I’m crazy for the things that I have done, and in the ways that I’ve gotten involved with non-violent activism. Some raise questions about the rights and wrongs of breaking into military facilities. Some believe Dorothy did not support these actions because of the destruction of property. That was one question Dorothy had; another was the secrecy. Gandhi, in his acts of non-violent resistance, would tell the British exactly what he was going to do ahead of time. That is something that non-violent direct action should be practicing, but you’re not going to get onto these U.S. military bases by announcing yourself. Is the cutting of a padlock more devious and more horrifying than dropping a nuclear bomb on an open city?
Dorothy’s stance and that of the Catholic Worker met with resistance from the institutional Church. The Catholic Worker movement is a lay movement, and you don’t wait for the clergy to lead the way. You don’t wait for the bishops. You pay attention to the saints, and to the situation faced today. The Cardinals really hounded Dorothy in her lifetime. The church gave Dorothy a hard time, and now as part of her canonization cause they want to exhume her and put her in the church with all the men who gave her so much trouble. We have bishops and cardinals in the US today that fully understand what the Catholic faith should be about, but there is also a very right-wing Christian fundamentalist voice that is having its way in the United States right now. We do have some support, we had one bishop write a letter of support for the King’s Bay nuclear weapons non-violent action, but generally speaking, it’s a slog.
Dorothy was our charismatic leader. She is a saint who lived her life in a way that was just beyond comprehension for most of us. Dorothy said, “Don’t call me a saint, I don’t want to be dismissed that easily”. I believe what she was saying was, come help me with this work. I have tried to do that.
You can read the entire article, including her account of returning to the Catholic Church and involvement in the Catholic Worker, at CatholicWorker.org.
CWs Participate in Gaza Flotilla, Action at Senate Cafeteria
Catholic Worker and peace activist Cassandra Dixon will be among hundreds of international human rights observers participating in the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) action in mid-April to break the blockade of Gaza. The flotila will consist of multiple ships carrying 5,500 tons of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The action aims to confront the ongoing illegal blockade by Israel while addressing the widespread catastrophic hunger affecting the region.
“It's a huge honor and privilege to be able to go along on this humanitarian flotilla,” Dixon said in an email. The action is more critical than ever, she said, since multiple aid groups suspended operations following the killing of seven World Kitchen aid workers. “I have every hope that a way will open, and these thousands of tons of humanitarian aid will reach the people who so desperately need it. And I desperately hope that our continuing efforts will move our country to end military funding of Israel, restore UNRWA funding, demand a permanent ceasefire and call for the immediate opening of border crossings.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Catholic Workers were among the hundreds of Christian peace activists who blockaded the U.S. Senate cafeteria, demanding an immediate cessation of U.S. military aid to Israel and a redirection of resources to provide food and humanitarian aid to Gaza. The protest, led by Christians for a Free Palestine, saw participants from diverse Christian denominations, including clergy and laypersons, join in a prayerful and nonviolent demonstration inside the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
More than 200 activists held a public worship and communion service on the Capitol grounds before moving to the cafeteria. They chanted, prayed, and sang while displaying banners with biblical references, such as “Blessed are the peacemakers” and “Woe to you who slay the hungry.” Their blockade resulted in 50 arrests, with those arrested processed and released the same day. The action was followed by a spontaneous singing procession in the tunnels of the Senate Buildings, which was dispersed by the U.S. Capitol Police.
THE ROUNDUP
The Vatican on Monday published Dignitas infinita, a declaration meant to reflect on human dignity and contemporary moral and social problems. Five years in the making, the document commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirms the “indispensable” nature of human dignity in Christian anthropology. The document lists war, poverty, violence against migrants and women, abortion, surrogate motherhood, euthanasia, gender theory, and digital violence as “grave violations of human dignity.” The document emphasizes the ontological dignity of the human person and the equal dignity of all people, regardless of their living conditions or qualities. Advocates for transgender and LGBTQ people have strongly criticized the document’s treatment of transgender issues. Find a detailed analysis of the contents of the document at The Pillar; read a roundtable discussion of the document’s take on gender theory at Inside the Vatican;
Brian Terrell and Kathy Kelly joined Radio Active Magazine to discuss the Midwest Catholic Worker Faith and Resistance Retreat being held in Kansas City, Missouri, April 12-14. Jerusalem Farm, Cherith Brook Catholic Worker, PeaceWorks Kansas City, and others are organizing the gathering. Listen to the interview here.
MAGNIFICAT, the newsletter of Nazareth House Catholic Worker in the Philippines, is out with its latest issue. (Read it here.) Articles include:
“Being Christ’s Body” on the Christian duty to act and make sacrifices in solidarity with those suffering; the community has been sending letters to the White House and fasting for peace for the people of Gaza.
“Community Updates” describes the community's engagement with political prisoners and migrants, and its distribution of rosaries made by inmates.
“Reflection on Spiritual Gifts” shares a reflection on the spiritual significance of a gifted chalice and paten.
“Community Spiritual Life and Practices” covers the community’s challenges and adaptations given the absence of a regular priest. An icon and a painting was given to the community by a death row inmate.
House of Grace Catholic Worker has written a lengthy and moving tribute of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, who passed away on April 4. “For us, and for the House of Grace, Tom Gumbleton was not only a partner, but also a beloved friend and spiritual mentor. While this news did not come as a total shock, the reality of losing someone so important to our path and critical to our work has deep and profound impact. … Tom knew and lived within God’s boundless embrace. In one of the last conversations we had, Johanna asked him: ‘Tom, what are you doing?’ ‘I am just sitting here letting God love me.’ It is a beautiful thing to know that the embrace of God has carried him home.” Read the entire tribute here. And read Gumbleton’s reflects on his life in a posthumous essay published in America magazine.
Peter Maurin Farm has fallen into disrepair following the 2022 death of Tom Cornell, leaving Maryhouse without the thousands of pounds of produce it had received from the farm for decades. Now, though, community members have created an Integral Ecology Circle that has planted a garden on the roof of Maryhouse. The initiative is a new take on Peter Maurin’s vision of agronomic universities. "We are building something new in the shell of the old," Jim Robinson, a professor at Iona University, told Religion News Service. Read the entire article here.
CALENDAR
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
Poverty and Pacifism
From “Poverty and Pacifism”
by Dorothy Day, in The Catholic Worker, December 1944
If we examine our conscience in this way we would soon be driven into manual labor, into humble work, and so would become more like our Lord and our Blessed Mother.
Poverty means non-participation. It means what Peter calls regional living. This means fasting from tea, coffee, cocoa, grapefruit, pineapple, etc., from things not grown in the region where one lives. One day last winter we bought broccoli which had the label on it of a corporation farm in Arizona or Texas, where we had seen men, women and children working at two o’clock in the morning with miners’ lamps on their foreheads, in order to avoid the terrible heat of the day, which often reached 125 degrees. These were homeless migrants, of which there are some million in the United States. Carey McWilliam’s “Factories in the Fields,” which you can get at any library, tells of the conditions of these workers. For these there is no room at the inn.
We ought not to eat food produced under such conditions. We ought not to smoke, not only because it is a useless habit, but also because tobacco impoverishes the soul and pauperizes the farmer, and means women and children working in the fields. Poverty means having a bare minimum in the way of clothes, and seeing to it that these are made under decent working conditions, proper wages and hours, etc. The union label tries to guarantee this. Considering the conditions in woolen mills, it would be better to raise one’s own sheep and angora goats and rabbits, and spin and weave and make one’s own blankets and stockings and suits. Many groups are trying to do these things throughout the country, both as a remedy for unemployment and for more abundant living. The School of Living at Suffern, N.Y., the Catholic Rural Life Conference at Des Moines, Iowa, both have publications discussing these ideas.
As for the dislocation in employment, if everyone started to give up their jobs. Well, decentralized living would take care of such a situation. And when we look at the dirty streets and lots in our slums, the unpainted buildings, the necessity of a nationwide housing project, the tearing down that needs to be done if we do not in the future wish to have it done in the hard way and have them bombed down, then we can see that there is plenty of employment for all in the line of providing food, clothing and shelter for our own country and for the world. We should read A.J. Penty on the machine and Fr. Vincent McNabb, the greatest apostle of all. Their books are in all libraries.
Poverty means not riding on rubber while horrible working conditions prevail in the rubber industry. (Read Vicki Baum’s “Bleeding Wood,” and Andre Gide’s “Congo Journey.” And what a strange conglomeration of authors I am handing out!) Poverty means not riding on rails while bad conditions exist in the coal mines and steel mills. Poverty means not accepting that courteous bribe from the railroads, the clergy rate. Railroads have been built on robbery and exploitation. There are stagecoaches, of course, and we are only about a century past them. But pilgrims used to walk, and so did the saints. They walked from one end of Europe and Russia to the other. We need saints.
Roundtable is an independent publication of CatholicWorker.org. It is not affiliated with The Catholic Worker newspaper published by the New York Catholic Worker.