Report on the Holy Innocents Faith and Resistance Retreat in Washington, D.C.

by Art Laffin

Focusing on the theme: ”Let all the World's Children Live--Remember the Massacred Children and Create the Beloved Community in a Disarmed World," more than sixty people from the Atlantic and Southern Life Communities, and the New Jerusalem Community in Philadelphia, gathered in Washington, D.C. December 27-30 for the annual Holy Innocents Faith and Resistance retreat. The retreat included a moving ritual on the theme of the retreat, several compelling panels with parents and children reflecting on their experience living in Catholic Worker and resistance communities,  prayerful reflection and liturgy,  three nonviolent actions, and a spirited talent show.

The Massacre of the Holy Innocents by Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1311 

On December 28, the feast commemorating the slaughter of the holy innocents in Bethlehem ordered by King Herod, the community held an early morning witness outside the Pentagon metro entrance. Displaying a small mock drone warplane, eleven people staged a "die-in" to represent children and numerous others who have been murdered by U.S. Drone attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere. They were arrested and charged with failure to obey a lawful order and released several hours later with a February 17 court date. Following the arrests, as hundreds of military and civilian workers streamed into the Pentagon, the remainder of the community held a prayer service in the fenced-off area outside the Pentagon metro known as the "free speech" or "protest zone."

On December 29, the community held a noon-time witness in front of the White House. Using the "mic-check" form of speaking that is practiced by the Occupy Movement, the witness included a reading of the massacre of the holy innocents (Mt. 2: 13-18), an account of how U.S. Drone warplanes are murdering innocents today, a "die-in" using a mock drone warplane, an offering of peace, justice and nonviolence resolutions for the New Year, and a creative spirit-led dance with people singing "Down By the Riverside." This same action was repeated again on December 30 at the White House with one addition. Toward the end of the witness, streamers with statements of how Drones can be transformed to serve life were placed on the mock drone warplane by adults and children. The retreat concluded with a closing circle at the anti-nuclear/anti-war vigil site across from the White House that was started by the late William Thomas and where Conception has vigiled for the last thirty years.

Let us continue to pray with and for each other in this New Year as we conspire to create the Beloved Community. For with God and each other all things are possible!

Those arrested at the Pentagon were:

Bill Frankel-Streit, Little Flower Catholic Worker in Virginia

Amber Mason, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker

Kevin Mason, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker

Kathy Boylan, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker

Clare Grady, Ithaca Catholic Worker

Marie Grady-DeMott, Ithaca Catholic Worker

Steve Woolford, Silk Hope (N.C.) Catholic Worker

Liz McAlister, Jonah House

Sr. Margaret McKenna, New Jerusalem Community

Rosemary Thompson, Baltimore peace activist

Joan Wages, Peace activist from Central Virginia

_________

Art Laffin <artlaffin@hotmail.com>

Dorothy Day CW House

503 Rock Creek Church Road, NW

Washington, D.C. 20010

Phone: 202.882.9649 or 202.829.7625

http://dccatholicworker.wordpress.com/

Catholic Workers Occupy Northwood Military HQ

EASTBURY, HERTFORDSHIRE, UK--Sixteen Catholic Workers closed and occupied the Main Entrance of Northwood Military Headquarters. Scott and Maria Albrecht, Henrietta Cullinan, John Lynes and Rachel Wood pitched tents, knelt and prayed in front of the main gate for 2 hour while others vigiled holding signs. One tent had the words, “The Prince of Peace pitched his tent among us” John 1:14. A sign said, “War is not a Solution” which is a direct message from the Young Afghan Peace Volunteers and another Pvt. Bradley Manning’s Quote, “Exposing the true nature of 21st Century asymmetrical Warfare”. A banner stating, “Occupy Northwood HQ not Afghanistan” was hung on the fence. The gate remained closed for the duration of the occupation. 

The Catholic Worker group had gathered to mark the Feast of Holy Innocents; when Catholics remember the children murdered by king Herod in his search for the infant Jesus. Catholic Workers make the connection with the powerful who continue to kill the innocents today in war, specifically Afghanistan. Northwood HQ is the command and control center for British forces in Afghanistan, all joint forces and NATO operations abroad. Northwood HQ has recently experienced a £1.2 billion building project; these funds could have otherwise benefited the community. 

The five occupiers were: Maria Albrecht (50), Scott Albrecht (49) from the Catholic Worker Farm, Hertfordshire, Henrietta Cullinan (50) from the Catholic Worker in Hackney, John Lynes (83) Quaker from Hastings and Rachel Wood (28) from the Catholic Worker group Sheffield. 

A group statement said, “At a time when government cuts are affecting innocent children, pensioners, teachers, the sick and refugees the last thing we need to be doing is to continue spending billions on warfare. Human lives are the deepest cost. The government complains about a few tents occupying a small square outside St. Paul’s cathedral while we’ve sent thousands of soldiers to occupy other people’s countries and destroy their lives. This government needs to get its priorities right”. 

The Catholic Worker Farm

thecatholicworkerfarm@yahoo.co.uk

www.thecatholicworkerfarm.org

_______

Source:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/12/490585.html

Children of the "New" Afghanistan

A Thirst That Won’t be Quenched

by Ken Hannaford-Ricardi

Ken Hannaford-Ricardi

KABUL--It’s early evening near Pole Sorkh (po-lay sork) Square in western Kabul.  Although it’s barely 6:00, winter’s cold bare feet have already started their walk across our apartment. Ali, Abdulai, Roz Mohammend, and Faiz have joined Maya and me on the floor of a small room that later will double as a bedroom for a quiet evening of reading and studying. Like most of the others, I’ve cocooned myself in a thick quilt and I’ve begun reading Ha Jin’s novel of the Korean War, War Trash.

Not five minutes into the Prologue, I sensed Faiz edging his way over to me. His voice quiet, almost a whisper, slips out into the room; “Will you study with me?”  Over the next fifteen minutes, we worked our way through three short lessons in a workbook written for first graders.  Each consists of a simple, one page story followed by a series of questions based on the text. They are extraordinarily simple; they seem almost humiliating for a twenty year old young man. As we study, nineteen-year-old Roz Mohammed shyly carried his blanket and English language dictionary to our corner and settled in.  Every so often, he’d shyly interrupt Faiz as he read and say, “Teacher, what does this word mean?”

Across the room, Maya and Ali worked on the meanings of basic words culled from a middle school dictionary.  Ali studied intently, pronouncing each word carefully, as if it were an egg that might easily be broken. “Basket. Bully. Bundle,” he would say, repeating each word until he got it right.

A half hour after we began, still only a few sentences into Ha Jin’s prologue, I looked across at Maya and asked, “Where in America can you find anything like this?  A cold room, nothing but quilts and a kettle for tea on the floor, and four boys asking us question after question about a language they’re trying to learn.”  In truth, this type of thing happens all the time in our small apartment.  The five young Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers who live here with their friend and mentor, Hakim, never go anywhere without a workbook or dictionary. After breakfast, one pulls a sheet of paper from his jacket pocket and begins to study.  Waiting for a ride, another asks, “What does this mean?”

Across the hall from us live four university students.  One is studying electricity; one aspires to be a pharmacist.  Two days after our arrival, one of them, a young man named Said, knocked on our door and asked if one of us would like to help them learn English.  Maya and I settled on meeting them in their apartment at 7 pm that night.  The first class had three students; the second, five; now there are six.  We work from copied pages and a white board.  Each student actively participates.

Each of these young men, all symbols of the “new Afghanistan,” possesses a thirst that won’t be quenched.  In our conversational practice, we talk of how they will shape their country in the years ahead. According to some figures, 68 percent of Afghanistan’s thirty one million people are under eighteen years old. No matter what the old guard wants to believe, the future of Afghanistan belongs to the young. We can only hope they won’t be co-opted by the temptations dangled before them by western “leadership.” We can only hope they’ll grab the reins of power and gallop off in a new direction, one of peace and reconciliation.

If the world you and I inhabit really wants to help these young people, and I doubt very much it does, it will do all it can to slake their thirst for knowledge. It will provide all the help they ask for, and nothing more. It will respect their intelligence and desire to find their own way. These students deserve our respect. They know, no matter what we say, they don’t have it now.  It’s about time they do.

Ken Hannaford-Ricardi is a long-time Catholic Worker from Worcester, Massachusetts. This is his second visit to Afghanistan. He can be reached at keninafghanistan@gmail.com

________

Source:

http://wagingnonviolence.org/2011/12/a-thirst-that-wont-be-quenched/

For Catholic Worker, Life-giving Work Is a Form of Prayer

by Sr. Camille D'Arienzo

Julia Occhiogrosso, 50, was the sixth of seven children born to Frank and Gloria Occhiogrosso. Her twin sister, Christa, followed her by 3 minutes.

Julia Occhiogrosso

Her parents, respected leaders in their local parish of St. Jerome in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, sent their children to its elementary school. And as owners and agents of Ideal World Travel, they could arrange trips for anyone to go anywhere in the world, taking particular delight in sending tourists to the Holy Land.

They could not have guessed that three of their daughters would journey across the country to live among the destitute served by Catholic Worker communities in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. These are lands made holy by those who devote themselves to serving society's homeless and hungry men, women and children.

Julia, what values did your parents instill in you?

My parents valued integrity. They led a life guided by Christian principles. They modeled hard work and contributed to the local community. They had a caring relationship with each other and commitment to the family. They provided solid ground, consistency and a loving, affectionate home.

How did your siblings influence you?

During my years at Edward R. Murrow High School, my eldest sister, Rosemary, was studying to be a nurse and working as a volunteer with the United Farmworkers in Delano, Calif. I was aware of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers movement because my two older siblings, Regina and Michael, were active with their local boycott in Brooklyn. I was 13 when I joined them on my first picket line.

Did anyone exert special influence on you?

Rosemary, through her letters describing her work with the poor in California. Her words, "We must never forget the poor," stayed inside me. While Regina and Michael had liberal political perspectives that certainly affected my formation, Rosemary was motivated by her Catholic faith. While Rosemary was in Delano, members of the L.A. Catholic Worker recruited her to administer their free clinic on Skid Row. In 1979, she joined the LACW community.

What brought you there?

The summer my twin and I graduated from high school, our parents gave us airline tickets to visit Rosemary. Rather than opting for Disneyland and other tourist attractions, I was drawn to working in the soup kitchen. Little did my parents expect us to come home with a desire to join the Catholic Worker. Following that first summer, I returned to New York to attend SUNY Cortland. Throughout the year, I stayed in contact with Catherine Morris, an LACW leader. The next summer, Christa and I returned as volunteers.

Did some particular experience strengthen your resolve?

I remember tagging along with Mary Smith, a nurse in the community. We went door to door in the run-down Skid Row hotels. Mary spoke Spanish, informing the families about a summer project for children. We walked tenuously through darkened hallways, avoiding broken glass. The air reeked of urine. Peeking out from behind their moms were little children with dazed eyes. They seemed to wonder, "What can you do for me?" My heart knew in those moments that I was being invited to be with the poor. In 1982, I dropped out of SUNY, and Christa left the New York School of Visual Arts. We lived and worked at the LACW until 1986.

Christa then left to pursue her degree as an art therapist. Rosemary moved on and I was commissioned to open the LACW's first sister house in Las Vegas, not far from the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, which we opposed.

How did you get started?

LACW volunteer Rick Chun spent six months with me. We hit the streets serving ice water to people in the streets. We asked what would best serve their needs. They wanted coffee and breakfast for the day laborers. This was the start of the morning soup line.

Did others join you?

For the first five years, different people came for six months to a few years. The lack of a consistent, long-term community was taking a toll on me. Just as I thought I needed a break, Gary Cavalier, whom I'd known at the LACW, joined me. We shared similar values. Gary brought insight, energy and creativity to the LVCW. His background in printing and publishing helped improve our newsletter, Manna. We were married in 1994.

How did that change your life?

Because I wanted a family, we adopted two boys. We moved out of the hospitality house with Gary commuting to run the projects. When the boys started school, I was able to spend more time at the Worker. We soon were running a grassroots interfaith program for homeless families, along with the Catholic Worker house.

Did the boys bring about any change in your commitments?

In 1996, we moved closer to a Montessori school run by a friend who accepted the boys without charge. When they approached adolescence, Cody and Nick began developing bipolar disorder and were reliving the psychological trauma of early childhood abuse and neglect. By the time they were 12 and 13, we were losing them to the streets. Many years at the Catholic Worker had shown us the pains of mental illness, but now it was in our home.

What happened next?

After they spent months in dangerously disturbing acting-out behaviors, I found a place in Colorado that understood what was happening and how to help our family. In the summer of 2010 we were granted a sabbatical leave to move to Colorado for the support and expertise needed to stabilize our sons.

What happened at the LVCW?

The work continues. Just when we needed to leave, a couple that had spent a year in L.A. volunteered to take over. Gary commutes to Las Vegas. And day by day we work toward our sons' stability and independence. The older will be 18 in March. We've taken in three more foster sons and plan to return to the LVCW in a few years.

Julia, you've taken on some large challenges. Has any particular Scripture passage sustained you?

Different passages speak to me differently in different moments. The parable of loaves and fishes and Matthew 25, "Whatsoever you do to the least of these you do unto me," have special meaning for me. The paradoxes and metaphors found in Scripture show up often in my thoughts and they influence my writing.

What is your image of God?

I envision God incarnated in the dynamic of human relationships. I embrace my image of God when I'm able to revere both the wounds and sacredness in myself and others. In human relationships, we're given the privilege to engage in the give-and-take of a love that endures suffering, sacrifice and commitment, as well as a love that comforts, rejoices and hopes.

What about your faith is most meaningful to you?

Faithfulness to Jesus' message of radical love and forgiveness provides infinite possibilities toward personal and social transformation.

Who most influenced your belief system?

Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, co-founders of the Catholic Worker Movement. Other influences include Jeff Dietrich and Catherine Morris, who were my first mentors with the Catholic Worker and remain loyal friends.

Please explain.

I was in my 20s when I first joined the L.A. Catholic Worker community. It was a very exciting time for me. The work with the poor and nonviolent peace protests and living in community all felt right for me. But it was not until a couple years into it that I became interested in understanding the history, vision and principles that sustained the Catholic Worker lifestyle. Dorothy, Peter and all the early members of the Catholic Worker gave expression to a contemporary understanding of the Christian life that still inspires my journey.

Where did you feel most at home?

Surrounded by the love, friendship and support of my community and family.

Why?

The heart of the Catholic Worker mission revolves around the practice of the corporal Works of Mercy, and I have known the treasures and disappointments of attempting to follow this practice faithfully. It is this type of human engagement that continues to be a path of personal challenge, introspection and spiritual growth. For me, the practice of the Works of Mercy provides the opportunity to experience the power of God's love incarnate.

How do you bring your faith to the workplace?

Here in Colorado, I work with some of the most severely abused and neglected children in our society. Their need for healing requires much patience and understanding. They exhibit behaviors that would push the kindest of hearts to abandon them -- this is indeed part of their pathology. Jesus' witness of relentless persistence to the outcast "undeserving poor" is an enduring model for me. My faith in the presence of the Divine in even the most volatile and aggressive ones sustains me in this work.

How do you pray?

In many ways. I feel close to our Creator when I walk down a beautiful country road. In the same way, I know God's wonder and holiness in liturgical rites and communal prayer. Prayerful moments can come to me as I comfort a crying child or look in to the eyes of a man as I serve him a bowl of soup. Creative, life-giving work is a form of prayer for me.

What in contemporary Catholicism encourages or distresses you?

What distresses me about Catholicism is the misuse of power and the hierarchical structures that in many cases are antithetical to the Gospel model of love and service. What encourages me are the many, many ordinary people of faith who are guided and inspired by the powerful social teachings of the church.

What causes you sorrow?

I am filled with sorrow about injustice to the most vulnerable members of our society. Human suffering and destruction to creation causes me great pain.

What causes you joy?

I am filled with joy from friendships, community and holy work. The gift of beauty, especially from creation, fills me with joy.

_______

Source:

http://ncronline.org/blogs/conversations-sr-camille/catholic-worker-life-giving-work-form-prayer

Kathy Kelly Speaks about War on Terror

America’s longest war should come to an end

by Lewis W. Diuguid

Before New Year’s Eve, people of conscience and people who refuse to accept war as a solution should go to the Central Library downtown.

Until Dec. 31, they’ll find the “Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the War in Afghanistan” murals on display. The gigantic art illustrates the bloodshed and costs of America’s longest war and helps inspire creative solutions.

Kathy Kelly, who coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, spoke about the same concerns this month at the library beneath the murals and at Holy Family Catholic Worker House. “If people knew what was happening in direct consequence of our war of choice, if people knew they would say no,” Kelly said. “This is not how we want to be.”

It’s why the war in Afghanistan must end just as this nation was relieved by the war’s conclusion this month in Iraq.

Kelly is no stranger to Kansas City, having been jailed in the 1980s for planting corn on missile silo grounds. She has visited Afghanistan four times with others interested in peace to learn about the effects of the war on everyday Afghans and neighboring Pakistanis. She shared those stories in connection with the American Friends Service Committee library exhibit.

One mural depicts scenes of U.S. drones, silhouetted children scattering, bloodshed and the unmanned planes flying off in a mechanical detachment from the trauma they caused on innocent civilians. Kelly, a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, is a petite, nonthreatening, 58-year-old Chicago native. She carried no weapons in Afghanistan, wore no armor and was not embedded with the U.S. military.

Like Mohandas Gandhi, her presence and voice bring peace to war-torn areas. Kelly pushed peace in Iraq before and during that war. She’s at it again in Afghanistan. She told stories of kids gathering firewood being slaughtered by drones.

In another instance, women going to market in three vehicles were attacked by drones. Two of the vehicles were destroyed.

Information that the vehicles may have contained women and children was overridden in the interest of U.S. troop safety. What’s clear is the information from drones and other technology exceeds military intelligence’s ability to digest it and act accordingly.

“My friends, war is always counterproductive and futile,” Kelly said. “The military is accelerating our decline.”

When it comes to drones, President Barack Obama is worse than President George W. Bush. According to one report, by March 3, 2011, Obama had ordered 180 drone strikes compared with Bush’s 42.

Kelly met several individuals who had no idea what 9-11 was or any knowledge of a terrorist attack in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, which provoked the 10-year-old, $2 billion a week war in their country.

Americans must constantly combat what President Dwight Eisenhower correctly called the military industrial complex, which uses U.S. lawmakers and profits from endless wars. People need to see the devastating effect fighting has on innocent civilians.

The downtown library exhibit focuses on that in the traumatized expression of a girl in a scarf in a mural titled “The Children of Afghanistan.”

The horror is in a mural of a woman with a prosthetic leg titled “What’s Lost.”

Kelly said a man who showed her photos of members of his family who had been killed in the war asked, “Do you think that we like to live this way?”

Kelly urged the audience to get involved to end the war and get the United States to rebuild that nation, which for 30 years has suffered from warfare. “People have the capacity to end wars by raising their voices,” she said.

The silence is consent, and no one can afford to sit by and be silent anymore.

Source:

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/25/3335705/americas-longest-war-should-come.html

Fool for Christ: The Story of Dorothy Day, with actress Sarah Melici

by Rosalie Riegle

Fool for Christ premiered at Maryhouse in New York in February of 1998.

When Dan Berrigan saw the play for the first time, he wrote, "Fool for Christ is worthy of the original Dorothy.”

In this one-woman drama, Melici masterfully plays Dorothy as well as eleven other characters important to her life, including Forster Batterham, the father of her daughter. As a costume, she wears a simple replica of the prison uniform from Dorothy’s last arrest, when she was jailed with the farm workers in Delano, California, supporting Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers union campaign.

Sarah Melici toured the country with this wonderful play about Dorothy’s life, performing at colleges and parishes and Catholic Worker houses, sometimes being called back for repeat performances.  Our Catholic Worker house in Saginaw, Michigan brought her both to Saginaw Valley State University and to the Diocesan Center, and she stayed at our house, where the guests all loved her.

Sarah Melici

Unfortunately, Sarah is unable to tour with the play at the moment, but we are blessed that a beautiful video of her play is available.  So even if you can't bring Sarah in person to your community, you can still bring this professionally done performance (not just a taping of the play but a video Sarah commissioned).   

If you buy the DVD, you can view it as a community, show it to explain Dorothy to your parish and your friends, even use it as a fund-raiser as many houses did with the original play.

As Dan Berrigan says, "In this monologue--passionate, funny, and heartfelt--Dorothy Day lives!" 

To order, click on http://foolforchrist.com/dvd.html.  Mention Catholic Worker On-line Journal and take a 20% discount when you buy two or more DVDs.

Belgian Catholic Workers Join Wake at Border Detention Center

On Saturday the December 10, 2011, the International Day of Human Rights, Catholic Workers in Belgium organized a "wake" mourning the detention of refugees and “illegalized” immigrants.

Belgium has six deportation centers (a type of border prison), and number seven is being built. Eight thousand people pass through these centers each year in Belgium alone. Some people are held for a few weeks, others for several months or even longer. In different individual cases Belgium has been convicted by the European Court of Human Rights violations for illegal detention of refugees. Still, the construction of the new center just goes ahead.

It was an inter-religious wake, with 45 participants from different communities including Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant and Muslim. At the wake each community brought prayer, song, biblical reading, meditation or a witness, according to particular tradition.

The wake had a good media response and was on local and national television.

Fr Johannes Ghent CW johan@catholicworker.be.

http://thechristianradical.blogspot.com/2007/12/news-from-belgium-catholic-worker.html

Community Newsletters

Page 1 of The Catholic Worker issued July/August, 1955.

"...For those who are huddling in shelters trying to escape the rain...For those who are walking the streets in the all but futile search for work...For those who think that there is no hope for the future, no recognition of their plight--this little paper is addressed...."

The Catholic Worker, May 1, 1933 

And, with those words, the Catholic Worker movement began on May 1, 1933.  Before the homeless shelters, the soup kitchens, or the farms, the first act taken by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin was to publish and distribute a newspaper named The Catholic Worker.  It sold for a penny a copy.  The paper is still published today—at the same price—by Catholic Workers in New York City.  The editors of that paper choose to keep it only available in hard copy form, so you cannot read it online.  To receive it, write the editors at: The Catholic Worker, 36 East First Street, New York, NY 10003, United States. Phone: 212-777-9617.  The price for a mailed subscription is $.25 cents.  Larger donations, of course, are gratefully accepted.

In keeping with that tradition, many Catholic Worker communities publish their own community newsletters.  Some are not online, but several are.  Catholic Worker Journal has a section for these publications at this link.

http://www.catholicworkerjournal.com/cwcommunitynewsletters.html

If we don't have your newsletter, please email it to us, and we’ll be delighted to add it.

Recent newsletters we’ve been sent are:

Vancouver Catholic Worker

http://vancouvercatholicworker.org/FTWDecember2011.pdf

Strangers and Guests Catholic Worker, Maloy, Iowa

http://www.catholicworkerjournal.com/sower.dec.2011.pdf

Cherith Brook Catholic Worker in Kansas City, MO.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/72758121/Cherith-Brook-CW-Advent-2011

or  http://cherithbrookcw.blogspot.com/2011/11/cherith-brook-advent-2011-newspaper.html

Omaha Catholic Worker

http://www.omahacatholicworker.com/Omaha.CW.newsletter.12.2011.pdf

LA Catholic Worker, The Catholic Agitator

http://lacatholicworker.org/agitator/CatholicAgitator-2011-12.pdf

Tacoma, WA, Catholic Worker

http://www.catholicworkerjournal.com/Tacoma.Nov.2011.pdf

Dubuque, IA, Catholic Worker

http://www.catholicworkerjournal.com/DubuqueNewsletter.pdf

Dorothy Day and Radical Journalism

by Jim Forest

I recently found a book, Art for The Masses: A Radical Magazine and its Graphics 1911-1917,  that I want to recommend to those with either an interest in radical journalism or in Dorothy Day. 

Dorothy Day, center, and two friends selling the New York Call in 1917. 
Day left The New York Call to work on The Masses.

The book features much of the best art published in The Masses, one of America's most remarkable journals.  Dorothy Day worked with The Masses in the months before it was closed by the US government in 1917, all its files and back issues confiscated, and the editors arrested and charged with sedition. The "crime" was opposition to US entry into World War I. Dorothy wasn't arrested because her name was not on the masthead when the warrants were written, and so she was able to get out the last issue. The publisher is Temple University Press. Used copies of both the hardcover and paperback edition are easy to find at used book sites.

The book is based on an exhibition organized by the Yale University Art Gallery in 1984. Used copies of both the hardcover and paperback editions are easy to find of used book sites. It offers not only a great deal of the journal's best artwork but also makes for fascinating reading.

The book's cover.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/6510178243/in/photostream

A look at the journal: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/4816363012/

Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masses

Jim Forest <jhforest@gmail.com>

Jim and Nancy Forest

Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands

Video of Jim Forest Speaking at Maryknoll

Another YouTube video has surfaced online of Jim Forest’s October appearance at the Maryknoll Speaker Series.  A long-time Catholic Worker and friend of Dorothy Day, Forest was invited to talk about the life of Dorothy Day.  Forest is the author of All Is Grace, a definitive biography of Dorothy Day published by Orbis Books.  Other well-known books by Forest include The Road to Emmaus: Pilgrimage as a Way of Life and Praying with Icons.

For more information about Jim:

Jim Forest <jhforest@gmail.com>

Jim and Nancy Forest

Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands

http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/

City Honors Catholic Worker Hospitality House

SAN BRUNO, CA--The City Council recognized the San Bruno Catholic Worker Hospitality House with a written proclamation on November 3, formally thanking the staff for their hard work and dedication to the community. Vice Mayor Michael Salazar and Mary Nunnery presented the proclamation on the shelter grounds, located at St. Bruno's Catholic Church.

The founders of the Catholic Worker Hospitality House, Peter Stiehler and his wife Kate Chatfield, opened the center in 1996 and have been accommodating guests and serving meals since then. At present, the house is home for eight guests and a place to eat breakfast for the homeless every Tuesday through Friday.

After the city officials thanked Stiehler, Peter also said he was thankful to city for supporting the shelter.

"The people of San Bruno have been so supportive of all of our work over the years," Stiehler said. "No one wants to have a homeless shelter or soup kitchen in their town because (they) don't want folks who need to use such places. But San Bruno responds with the heart. We're able to do this and have been able to do it for 15 years because of the generosity of folks in San Bruno."

Source:

http://sanbruno.patch.com/articles/san-bruno-city-council-recognizes-catholic-worker-hospitality-house#video-8344265

Write a Prisoner

by Leonard Eiger

“I was in prison, and…”

Holiday Greetings People of Peace.  And, what a year it's been!  For those of us in the Anti-Nuclear and Anti-War Resistance Movement it has been a year of continued struggle against an ever growing (and out-of-control) Military-Industrial Complex.  From drones to nuclear weapons and more, dedicated peacemakers have steadfastly resisted the dominant culture of war.

At places like Fort Benning, Y-12, Kansas City, STRATCOM, Hancock Field, Downing Street  and Jeju Island, resisters stood their ground taking a stand for justice and peace.  They spoke out against a host of immoral and illegal actions by their governments.  And for their actions many were arrested, tried and put in prison.

Acting on conscience, they have become prisoners of conscience.  Some serve a few days or weeks, while others serve months or years.  Helen Woodson was recently released after serving nearly 27 years for the Silo Pruning Hooks Plowshares action!

All are jailed unjustly; it would be inconvenient for governments and the corporations they serve to face the truth and let real justice be served.

They may be out of sight, but they are not forgotten.  Consider spreading a little extra Holiday cheer this Christmas.  Send a message of support to one (or more) of these prisoners.  Include some news from the outside.  I frequently print articles from the progressive press - Common Dreams is a great source - and include them with my letters.

You can find addresses for prisoners of conscience at the Nuclear Resister's Inside & Out page: http://www.nukeresister.org/inside-out/

The Nuclear Resister also keeps us up-to-date on what's happening in the anti-nuclear and anti-war resistance movement in the U.S. and around the world:  http://www.nukeresister.org/

Finally, a BIG SHOUT-OUT to all who support resisters - from those who support them during actions, to legal teams, to prison support teams - on their journeys.  We're all in this together.

Read Advent reflections from these prisoners of conscience.

An Advent Message by Bix Bichsel

Advent: Walking in the Light, by Susan Crane

___________

Leonard Eiger <subversivepeacemaking@gmail.com

Puget Sound Nuclear Weapon Free Zone  (Coordinator) www.psnukefree.org

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (Media & Outreach) www.gzcenter.org

Disarm Now Plowshares (Media & Outreach)

http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com

Email:  subversivepeacemaking@gmail.com

Blog:  http://nuclearabolitionist.blogspot.com

Blog:  http://subversivepeacemaking.blogspot.com

 ______________

[Ed. Note: Our incarcerated brothers and sisters not involved in peace and justice also need letters.  You can find inmates by contacting prisons in your state.  Write a Prisoner is an on-line resource that connects inmates with pen-pals.  Their web-site is here.]

Women find help at Catholic Worker, St. Margaret's house

Residents applaud positivity, safety

  

SOUTH BEND, IN--When the woman, homeless and wandering the streets, turned up at the door last Christmas Eve, there was room at the Catholic Worker House.  Carmen had been there before, in 2008, and when the disability checks that had helped her move out stopped coming, and the friend where she was staying was evicted, she found a bed on the third floor of the house near downtown South Bend.

“This is my second time around,” says Carmen, who has moved to a first-floor bedroom to save her knees from the stairs. She spends her nights in the Catholic Worker House and most of her days at St. Margaret’s House with other women in similar circumstances.

The House ministries provide complementary day-and-night services to women. At least three participants in the St. Margaret’s House day program, which opens at 8 a.m., have found lodging at the Catholic Worker House, where residents must be out between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.  “St. Margaret’s House is a wonderful place to go,” Carmen says, adding that the service offers food, clothing and supplies as well as helpful classes on such topics as budgeting and stress.

“I don’t visit anybody unless they’re positive,” she said. “St.Margaret’s is a safe place for me.”

Wanda, who lost three jobs and her house about five years ago, was on the street when she first heard about St. Margaret’s House in May.

“People kept saying ‘you need to go there and take a shower, get something to eat; it’s a nice place and the people are nice,’ ” she recalls. “I said ‘I’m going to go,’ and I did. They were right.”

Wanda was the keynote speaker at the St. Margaret’s House Fashioning Our Lives event last month, where Carmen was a model. Wanda’s story includes a predatory mortgage loan that ballooned while she lost her full-time job and two part-time restaurant jobs.

“After I lost my house, I had gone from people to people until I ran out of spaces to go,” she says. “I was on the street for about six weeks, sleeping in the park and stuff,” until a friend let her move into a building with no heat or water.

She moved into the Catholic Worker House this month.

“It’s truly a community,” Wanda says. “They welcome you into their home. They live there too. They trust us. I’m warm, I’m happy, I’m fed, I feel good. It’s fabulous, truthfully.”

Source:

http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2011-12-10/news/30503625_1_wanda-carmen-margaret-s-house

Catholic Worker community has served Winona's homeless and those in need for almost 20 years

Dan Wilson, a live-in volunteer, plays cribbage with Sue Wallow at Bethany House. 

WINONA, MN--All they ask is your first name. Every day, the Winona Catholic Worker community breathes life into the words of the Gospel, offering home, help and a hot meal to whoever comes to the door.

"Knock and it will be opened," the Gospel reads. No questions asked.

"There are no forms to fill out," said Laurie Watson, a live-in community member at Bethany House. "We don't check IDs or ask questions, except ‘What is your first name?'"

Winona Catholic Workers have been opening doors to people in need since the Dan Corcoran House opened in 1992 at 802 W. Broadway. The house was named in honor of the Rev. Dan Corcoran, a chaplain at Winona State University's Catholic Newman Center who inspired a generation of students with his commitment to living the message of Jesus, according to Mary Farrell, one of the founding members of the Winona Catholic Worker community. The two-story house, that had long been student housing, offered shelter and hospitality to women and families in need of a place to stay. Four years later, when a house just down the block came up for sale, the community was able to open Bethany House, 832 W. Broadway, to offer hospitality to single men.

It's the only non-referred emergency shelter in Winona County, Watson said, "and there's a real need."

That need has many faces, and speaks in a diversity of voices.

There's Bill, who on a recent evening spoke of how he spent the wee hours of Black Friday with the crowds in a Walmart parking lot. He wasn't there to shop. He was trying to catch a couple hours' sleep in his broken-down van before resuming his search for a job the next day.

There's Dan, who had hot chow and a bunk while on deployment in Iraq, but neither waiting for him when he came home.

There's Stacy, who needed a place to land while she got her financial and emotional feet back under her. Her stay at Dan Corcoran gave her the time she needed to find her niche in the larger community.

"People who come here are in crisis," said Molly Greening, live-in volunteer at Dan Corcoran. "They literally need to take time to breathe."

"We need to meet them where they are. Help them feel secure. Feel at home."

Greening speaks of providing a "ministry of presence" to the people who share the home. "Just being there," she said-to listen, to comfort, to play a game of cards or run an errand in an unfamiliar city-is as important as meeting physical needs for food, clothing and shelter.

Openness to the whole person and the recognition of every individual as a person of equal worth and value is at the heart of the Catholic Worker movement, Watson said. It's demonstrated as community members live in the same house, eat the same food, and for the most part have the same income as the guests living temporarily among them.

Voluntary poverty puts workers on equal footing with guests, Watson said, allowing them to see the world from a perspective closer to those they serve.

A simple, welcoming routine

In practice, voluntary poverty means the six live-in community members and their guests depend on donations and their own enterprise to meet daily needs.

Winona Catholic Worker provides beds for up to five live-in guests at Bethany House, and beds for up to 14 at Dan Corcoran. They offer open hospitality Monday through Friday from 4-7 p.m. at Bethany House, a time when anyone is welcome to come in and relax with the community, take a shower, do laundry, and enjoy a good hot meal.

Guests are asked to comply with two simple rules at Bethany, Watson said. No drug or alcohol use, and be in the house by 10 p.m. Dan Corcoran has a few additional rules intended to avert potential friction in a larger house. Guests are not asked to sign in and out, attend religious services or perform household chores.

"You don't ask guests to clean your bathroom," said community member Mike Abdoo.

Both houses are paid for, Farrell said, largely through the generosity of the Winona community. Day-to-day needs are met through donations of food, both groceries and food left over from events or prepared by friends. Cash donations cover other expenses and donations of clothing, furniture and services help meet the needs of guests and community members.

Live-in community members purposefully limit work time outside the community to about 15 hours a week, to prevent commitments from interfering with providing hospitality and presence to guests, Watson said.

"There's a joke that Catholic Workers aren't Catholic and they don't work," said community member James Johnson-adding that there is an element of truth lurking in the sentiment.

"To be present to someone you have to be here," Greening said. "It's really as simple as that."

Catholic with a small ‘c'

"Dorothy Day (one of the founders of the Catholic Worker movement) was Catholic, so we're Catholic Workers," Johnson joked.

The reality is that while the movement has a definite Christian and Catholic flavor, expressed in the traditional emphasis on the importance of performing traditional Works of Mercy and service to the poor, Catholic Worker volunteers and their supporters are more likely to be non-Catholic than members of the Catholic Church, Johnson said.

"We are definitely not ‘that homeless shelter run by the Catholic Church,'" Greening said.

There are no formal ties between the institutional Catholic Church and the Catholic Worker movement, or the local Catholic Worker community, Watson said. Nor is Catholic Worker affiliated with Catholic Charities.

Catholic Worker communities are also independent of government programs and assistance, Watson said. Not being involved with government programs means communities are able to offer hospitality as they see the need, rather than abiding by government standards and limitations, she said. Independence from government extends to refusing to file for tax-exempt status, meaning donations to the Catholic Worker community are not tax-deductible.

Catholic Worker communities not only stand apart from the government, they are often critical of it. Social action is deeply ingrained in the Catholic Worker tradition, and members of Catholic Worker communities are supported and encouraged to join in protesting injustice. Community member Matt Byrne said the way of life reminds workers every day of the need to fundamentally change elements of society.

"These houses exist," he said, "because we live in a society that forces some people to be homeless."

For more information on the Winona community, visit www.winonacatholicworker.org.

Source:

http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/article_d387df3c-23aa-11e1-a3e7-001871e3ce6c.html