THE CATHOLIC WORKER
Subscription: Vol. XL No. 9 DECEMBER" 1974 25c Per Yeor Price 1¢ Behold, He Comes As One Who Is Poor -Housing Journeys By DOROTHY DAY By LARRY ROSEBAUGH What did Holy Mother the City do (These notes from the diary of Fr. in the Thirties-those grim days of the Rosebaugh are a "poor man's journey." Depression? Now we are having what Written in the Fall of last year they tell broadcasiters call a recession and infla of his life with the destitute of our cities. tion combined, and people are homeless "The Holy Spirit was calling me," he again and breadlines grow longer and writes, "to the experience of being the there are more of them. Sugar is exor poor man to whom the soup was ladled bitant and rents of slum apartments are out.'; Fr. Rosebaugh is an Oblate priest. a hundred dollars a month and more. He spent 20 months in prison, 10 of When people are evicted, landlords close them in solitary, for his part in the down the apartments and then entire "Milwaukee 14" raid on a Selective buildings and wait for slum clearance Service office in protest of the Vietnam and speculators and developers. People War. After his release he ran a job re sleep in doorways, empty buildings and, ferral center for the unemployed in if they are lucky, get tickets for a night's Milwaukee. At present he is on the road lodging or two in "flop houses." to Brazil, journeying to work with Dom As small children, we used to read Helder Camara. Eds. note.) Horatio Alger and .the plight of home Milwaukee, November 11.-A year or less newsboys. Dickens and Upton Sin two ago, when I was making a r~treat, a clair later gave me pictures of poverty woman prayed over me and discerned in our American cities. my direction. As I recall it, it had to do Hoos~ the Homeless with my becoming a· vagabond, a wand- My generation experienced the De erer, one on the road. · pression and the work of public author The priest upstairs talks of Harlem, ities trying to handle it. The Roosevelts of the conditions there, his experience in and their Work Projects: Artists, Wri the subways, and how we identify with ters, -!J.'heatre projects, civilian conserva this condition; that's precisely where the tion corp camps, the latter showing great challenge exists. How prone I am to .imaginatia11 and bancmna the probl~ of surround myself with thiJ! world's com jobless teen-agers. forts until they overshadow my true But it is -:he city homeless I want to calling! . write about. Our back files are not The need to go deeper into myself and available to me as I write, as I am to the Spirit who speaks there has been spending Thanksgiving Day on Staten vital. This summer 1· changed my living Island, so I will trust to my memory. I quarters from a shared apartment to an wrote a number of articles in the paper empty garage space, walking out on close about the municipal lodging houses, friends to follow an inner drive. Then I visiting them over a period of years, and built a tiny shack and lived there in the looking back I repent me of the harshness experience of silence. The need for pray of my judgment of the city's work. Now er, for _quiet is fl gift; and that gift has I realize how much was done in those been a further revelation into the reality nonviolent days, before wars brutalized of the Gospel as it is meant to b~ carried our population. · Wars conducted by out by me. The last two and a half years those same benevolent authorities. here in Nlilwaukee have brought me -to During those years, before W.W. II the point where, after testing myself in brought employment to all, we had not a whole realm of lived-out experiences only a succession of municipal lodging of street conditions, the need to move on houses, all in mid and lower Manhattan, as a priest, an Oblate, overwhelms me. but "the longest bedroom in the world," I have seen a certain level of human -a pier at South Ferry, where double tragedy lived out by men and women decker beds stretched down the long in the State Street area of Milwaukee; length over the water, and the heat was Fritz Elcbenberc the despair of drugs and confusion of piped in by the same system that heated people's minds as they. go in and out of those skyscrapers which made N.Y. our city's mental wards. My inner drive famous. is to see more of the reality ~ncountered In addition to that, there was another by men and women of our city streets. pier stretching out into the East River "From the beginning, my Church has been what it is The people who show up at Salvation which, as I remember it, was like a today, and will be until the end of time, a scandal to the Army Shelters, _missions, for free meais-; bazaar with many booths stretching the are a portion of those who know desti length of it. Here men could get a shave, strong, a disappointment to th~ weak, the ordeal and the tution . . . but if is among these that I a haircut, have their clothes cleaned and consolation of those interior souls who seek in it nothing but feel presently affiliated and with whom pressed while they waited, and so on. I am being called to identify. Hitting the These were public facilities to take care myself. Yes, ..• whoeuer looks fot me there will find me there; road by way of thumb, and b'Jarding of the homeless and unemployed. but he will haue to look, and I am better hidden than people down in the Skid Row facilities of our One of the municipal lodging houses cities draws a whole new dimension from for women (we all called these.buildings . think, or than certain of my priests would haue you belieue. the gut: fear. the "Muni") was on West Fourteenth St., November 15 and 16. How does one some old houses adjoining, with all their I am still more difficult to discouer than I was in the little ba.Sements forming a large dining room stable at Bethlehem for those who will not approach me recount what was in effect· a prayer un which was so cozy and attractive that one folding, a step into the dark, truly a faith of my old friends (unemployed) confess humbly, in the footsteps of the shepherds and the Magi. It is excursion? ed that she went there for her Thanks It was good going through the exper giving and Christmas dinners. It was true that palaces haue been built in my honor, with galleries ience here in Milwaukee, a registering better than the C.W.Lshe said-you could and peristyles without number, magnificently illuminated day and going through .the formal indoc be anonymous and independent on those trination that precedes admission into feastdays and just walk in. (Today, one and night, populated with guards and sentries. But if you want the Rescue Mission (a very cold, cal of our "Ladies" is going around sampling to find me there, the .deuer thing. is to do as they did ·on the culated speech given by one of the staff the dinners served by the Volunteers of ministers on Jesus' love and forgiveness America and the Salvation Army. It is old road in Ju·dea, buried under the snow, and ask for the only along with a series of q\lite personal a beautiful, sunny, mild day of holiday thing you need-a star and a pure heart." questions about myself). But the Mission cheer.) was clean, served good food, ,:and pro- (Continued OD pap Z) George Bernanos (Continued on page 3) THE CATHOLIC WOl{KER December, 1974 .
· Vol. XL, No. 9 December, 1974 a Farm With a View By DEANE MARY MOWRER --Wintry winds wail about the house, our pr6blems will become more acute. roar symphonically among late Novem The crowding together of too many CAlliOU( ~WORKER ber's naked boughs; stirring wild music people of such varied and disparate out of dead leaves and the organ reson backgrounds, age groups, and personal Published Monthly (Bi-monthly March-April, July-Aqust, ance of pine and hemlock trees. White ities often makes for difficult living. October-November) caps surge on the river, prancing in futile Sucll conditions become more formidable ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT protest against December's icy shroud. when exacerbated by too· many mental· PETER MAURIN, Founder Juncos swerve- through the winds, look cases and seribus alcoholics. Yet God DOROTHY DAY, Editor and Publisher ing for snow. Melanie, voice vibrant willing, with the help of friends and PATRICK JORDAN, Managing Editor with joyful anticipation, cries-"Snow readers, we hope to persevere. Associate Editors: is coming." Then between gusts of wind Remembering the primacy of the and waves, chickadees call: Christmas JAN ADAMS, CHARLES BUTTERWORTH, JACK COOK, MARTIN J. CORBIN, spirit, as Dorothy Day has taught us, we RITA CORBIN (Art), CLARE DANIELSSON, FRANK DONOVAN, EILEEN EGAN, is coming. Drop down dew. · Let earth shall certainly need to spend more time EDGAR FORAND, ANNE MARIE FRASER, ROBERT GILLIAM, WILLIAM bud forth a Saviolll'. in prayer. For those of us who like to HORVATH, HELENE ISWOLSKY, KATHLEEN DE SUTTER JORDAN, WALTER Up in the field the goats skip to warm spend part· of our prayer-time in the KERELL, ARTHUR J. LACEY, KARL MEYER, CHRIS MONTESANO, DEANE themselves, seeking a more sheltered spot chapel before the Blessed Sacrament, it MOWRER, PAT RUSK, JANE SAMMON, ARTHUR SHEEHAN, STANLEY to browse. From time to time they look is good that the new chapel is being VISHNEWSKI. anxiously toward their still unfinished ·made even more beautiful. Barbara Editorial communications, new subscriptions and change of address: barn. "Where will we be," they bleat, Engst, a friend and neighbor from Cort 36 East First Street, New York, N. Y. 10003 "when the snows come down?" But Tony, land, -New York, arrived last night with Telephone 254-1640 Andy, Florent, Terry, Peggy, Mary Jo a floor sander with which she and Alice Subscription United States, 2Sc Yearly. Canada and Foreign, 30c Yearly. Subscription rate and all the barn builders view with are hard at work cleaning up the badly .of one cent per copy plus postage applies to bundles of one hundred or more copies each soiled floor of the chapel. Theirs is a month for one year to be directed to one address. satisfaction the signs of accomplishment already visible in the barn, and mention labor of love and will surely bring bless Reentered as second class matter August 10, 1939, at the Post Office hopefully the new-purchased lumber ings to us all. Deo gratias. of New York, N. Y., Under the Act of March 3, 1879. waiting for the roofing. Early in Decem Wo.rk, too, is a kind of prayer, and ber, they aver, the barn will be ready many share in that form of prayer here. for occupancy. But Billy Goat tosses his Farmer John's winter work has already horns, shakes his head, and bleats-"lf begun with the care of th~· furnace. Both they don't hurry up with that old barn, furnace and water pump have given John ON PILGRJMAGE I'll take my wives and kids and hibernate special problems, and would, I think, (Continued from pace 1) six houses of hospitality; a house in the whole winter· in a' woodchuck's become quite inoperable without his Kansas City and in the quad-city area of den." . maintenance. Then we would have even There was another Muni on East Fifth more violations. Gordon and others have Street in the Fifties, which occupied an Davenport, Iowa; a new house in Chicag-0, One reason for the delay in finishing I been putting up storm doors and winter entire school house, and there was space with Karl Meyer one of the group! the barn is that Cathy St. Clare, who had Visitors from the Niagara house and the been helping with the barn and other izing windows with plastic. Sean keeps for a cafeteria as .well as dormitories and busy at the daily routine of washing entire families were taken in. Schenectady house were with us at work projects, has been incapacitated for several weeks with a badly fractured leg. cups and maki.Iig things ready for meal Once when we were overcrowded at Tivoli this last month. Stanley will be home soon to tell us all that is happen After spending some time in the hospital, time. When Domini<; cooks beans, they Mott Street, in the old rear tenement, and enduring much pain, Cathy is home are so delicious one does not crave more and we filled an additional apartment in ing in Milwaukee. Many houses around the country, small and homelike, are with us now, but will have to continue expensive forms of protein. Chuck's front (we had all this space in two un with her leg in a. cast for six months. whole wheat bread deserves a special heated buildings with no baths and shar better than the impersonality of city ''muni's:'' , Needless to say, her activity will be award, though the reward is in the eat ed toilets with another apartment on each greatly curtailed. Meanwhile, Cathy is ing. But then all of our bakers and floor), I visited the Chancery Office when In New York some years ago, Fr. Wendell, O.P . had in his parish two making good use of this restricted period. cooks--Alan, Florent, Mark, Alice, John, Cardinal Mcintyre was. a humble bishop With the he!P of Tommy and Mary Jo Arthur, Carol, Kathleen, Mary Jo, Earl, and always available, and asked him why youpg women who had a 4-room apart ment. The city used to call this she is learning to play the recorder. She Terry, Peggy, Joan, etc.-do a good job we could not use also the rectory of St. is also doing some good reading and with what they have. We thank them. Mary's Church on Grand St. for ad type of apartment a dumbell apart ment. That is, the two inner rooms were taking a lively interest in all that hap The Creatures Praise Him ditional quarters for the homeless. (With· pens in the house. She has many visitors, Comings and goings are always with the Puerto Ricans increasing in numbers smaller than the first room and ·the rear kitchen. The two inner rooms were the including the children-Joshua, Tanya, us at the Catholic Worker, yet there on the East Side, it is now a big parish bedrooms, and the sisters who rented this Melanie, and Clime. The other day when are some whose goings are particularly and the rectory is used again.) The then I went in to see her, I encountered Alice, regretted. We certainly miss Marge Bishop Mcintyre assured me we would apartment had 2 doubledecker beds, so that they could share with two others. Linda, and Lorraine making plans for Hughes who was in charge here for sev have nothing but headaches with this our soon-to-be-enjoyed Thanksgiving eral years but left us last spring to broadening of activities. The bllilding in We used to send up young girls to them and they in turn sent us older women. dinner. Since my two readers are absent settle in West Virginia near Chuck spectors, health and fire inspectors would -Miriam on a slide show trip with Stan Smith's Catholic Worker farm. We also give us a rough time, he assured us. Those girls who received help never felt themselves to be recipients of charity. ley and Kathleen for a period of helping miss Clare Danielsson who did so much We are finding that to he true. Indeed, out at First Street-Cathy is now reading to make our lives more interesting and it started on Mott St. when one of the They could have been school friends or relatives. The two originators of this tome. pleasant during her five years with us, women we housed and fed complained The Sorry-State Economy but is now working full t ime at the to the health department about a meal delicate charity are both married now with big families. God has blessed them. One of the books which Cathy has Psychodrama Institute in Beacon and she did not like and we were harassed finished reading to me is Schumacher's plans to begin studies for a Ph.D. in by building inspectors for some time over _. New York is big. Our house on First Street, five stories and basement, seems Small Is Beautiful. A good introduction January. Another absence much felt the equipment of our kitchen. to Schumacher's ideas is set forth in Pat among us is that of Helene lswolsky who We are experiencing the same troubles Jordan's article "Hard Times·N-
I December~ 1974 THE CAT H 0 LI C W 0 R K E-R
CREATION
the Great Spirit gave
the bear thick fur to keep warm
the eagle wings to fly
the turtle a shelf to hide in
the ant medicine to work
to naked man '. he gave words
to imitate them
James A. Janda
Three Generations ' / .Native Americans: The ·Enduring Tragedy By Ann Bill . than for a White American. Inadequate sociological conditions combined to political and legal systems of the U.S., housing, lack O'f sanitary facilities and form the genesis of the Native American and how to make them work for their The events surrounding the occupa non-existent central heating contribute Movement. cause. tion of the Village of Wounded Knee, to the general illness of the population. , The sparking event was the "termina At this time there also emerged the South Dakota last year took the Ameri Such exotic varieties of malnutrition as tion" of specific Native groups during Native American veterans. Through ex can public by surprise. Images of the kwashieker exist in a large section of the Eisenhower administration. The tensive travel they were exposed to new passive "Indian" (I shall use the proper the population, although many Ameri unique status given tribes was removed ideas, and became aware of the struggles term, Native American, throughout the cans believe such ailments are indigen from several groups, including the of previously colonized peoples. The rest of the article), bearing ~overty and ous only to India and parts of Africa. 'Klamath and the Menominee. This parallels between these oppressed pain in stoic silence, so pervade the Most reservation Native Americans must placed unbearable financial pressures on groups and their own people were not public consciousness that the rise of the haul their water, and the water is often them. They had to begin paying sub lost on them. · ' Native American Movement was not contaminated. stantial taxes on their lands, and event readily noticed. I would like to explore In addition, many Native American Education has been employed as a ually had to sell a great deal to pay veterans took advantage of the GI Bill. the reasons for such a movement, and deculturating toql. Well into this half their debts. The fate of these groups examine this change in mood from one They became the first sizable group of of the century there were schools where angered all Native Americans and college-educated Native Americans who of silent stoicism to active resistance. the speaking of one's own language was roused the interest of many Whites. A This is a twofold task. First, to explore could argue their cause in a manner to forbidden and met with physical punish conference held in Chicago in 1960 to which Whites would respond. They acted the why (those conditions which demand ment. Native American religions have protest the policy of termination brought a reshaping of Native American-White as liasons between the White and Native never (with a few exceptions) been together concerned Natives ifrom ~any worlds. relations), and second, the why now (an given sanction in the schools, and often tribes and from different geograp'hical examination df the sociological and psy The Civil Rights Movement created their practice is explicitly forbidden. locations. The common enemy-the an atmosphere which was conducive to chological factors which came together threat of cultural genocide-tied them in the fifties and sixties to form the Native Americans have found political the articulation of grievances. Many and governmental institutions unrespon together. They came to realize the Native American leaders took part in combustive mixture which has now be commonality of their concerns and con gun to explode). sive to their needs. From the begin the movement and gained organizational ning, relations between the races on firmed one another. Native Americans skills that they later applied to their Roots of Outcry this continent have been characterized must take a stand now, -1t was felt, or own cause. The Civil Rights Movement It is difficult to convey through words by the propensity of Whites for making their needs would be forever ignored. also set the pace df public sympathy, the depth of poverty in which many and breaking treaties as expediency dic Besides this feeling of resolve, there which made Whites more receptive to Native Americans live, the denial of tates. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, was a PQpulation of Native Americans the beginning of the Red Power Move their rights, and the psychological pres which has primary responsibility for whose political awareness had been ment. sures to which they are subjected. Putt the quality of Native American life in sharpened by the urbanization of the The development of the conununicat ing aside their rather obvious griev this country, has ;been for years the Native American group. After World ions networks contributed to the fiow of ances-that Native Americans have had tool of powerful .economic interests, re War II, more and more Native Ameri information to reservation people, and an entire continent stolen from them moving lands from Native American ,cans moved to the cities either at the heightened thek discontent with the by force; that they have been deceived, contr~l if they appear to have mineral or suggestion O'f the BIA or on their own in condition of their lives. abused and the objects of genocidal gov agricultural utility. Native Americans search of jobs. Today, almost one-half ernment PQlicy-let us move to the have little voice in the management of of the Native American population is Finally, there was the return of many more immediate sources of dissatisfact their own affairs. Although elected tribal \lrban. Urban Native Americans have people to Indian ways, e~pecially to ion. councils exist in many locations, many gained greater understanding of the (Continued on Page 8) First, most Native Americans are poor. tribal chairmen are BIA pawns who do The annual income runs on the average not represent true leadership. Native about $1,500 per year, but is as low as traditionalists do not accept the election $500 on some reservations. If they can concept, but put their faith in. grass Th.e Jagll:8.r and the Moo.n find employment, Native Americans are roots leaders. But in any event, even concentrated in low-paying, low-status the hands of good leaders are tied, as THE .JAGUAR AND THE MOON. By Pablo Antonio Cuadra. Translated by Thomas jobs. The distances between reservation most important tribal decisions are sub Merton, Greensboro, N.C.; Unicorn Press, 1974. 39 pages, Illustrated, $5.00. Re and industrfal centers, lack of formal ject to approval by the BIA. viewed by Br. Patrick Bart. training, and discriminatory hiring Finally, outright prejudice also plagues Pablo Antonio Cuadra is one of the most exciting Latin American ,poets working practices, all contribute to the high ,rate the Native American who lives on or within the primitive Indian tradition. He is also a leading intellectual figure of of unemployment. What land they have near the reservation. All of these pheno Nicaragua (he has been co-editor of La Prensa since 1954), and is one of the strongest is often non-arable and unfit for grazing. mena are the answers to the why-the voices in Latin America against tyranny of any kind. Having completed university If it is fertile, chances are it is tied up in need so deeply felt by many Native studies, he abandoned his law profession because it was incompatible with his true a complex heirship network in which Americans, that the lives they lead need vocation. He became a migrant farm worker and cattle herdsman for twenty years, many people own a fractio?}. of a 160-acre changing. · and his experience led him deeply into the native indigenist movement prevalent parcel. The land O'ften ends up being in Central America. Movement Politicizes leased to outsiders-usually Whites Cuadra's PQetry owes itS strength to the vital Indian present, through which wpo rent the land cheap and realize large These conditions testify to the need the past still breathes in all the art~architecture, folklore, music, poetry and drama. profit on the crops. for change. How was it that in the As Thomas Merton explains in his introduction, "Cuadra, then, absolutely refuses The average life-expectancy for an late sixties and early seventies a move to regard the Indian heritage of Central America as a matter e1f archeology ... it adult, male Native American is about ment against those conditions grew_ 44 years-almost twenty years shorter where none had existed before? Several (Continued on Page 7) .THE CATHOLIC WOK.KER December, 1974 36 East Fir_st ·Notes in Brief By ANNE MARIE FRASER POPE PLEADS FOR WORLD'S bracket; and in property owned by fol The Catholic Worker Positions state, case was rejected again. The clerk would HUNGRY lowers of Mother Cabrini, an Order dedi " ... y;e advocate a personalism which hear none of our story. We hadn't com Statint that the world food crisis is ' cated to serving the poor and the sick. takes on ourselves responsibility for plied with a previous demand (one that the result of ''the insufficient willinl' For more information about the demon changing conditions to the extent that we was impossible to meet) and our reasons ness of nations to contribute to a be~r stration, "No Room at the Inn," to be are able to do so. By establishing Houses did not matter. We returned home frus distribution of available resourees," held outside Columbus Hospital on 19th of Hospit1'lllty we can take care of as trated, angry and beaten. (A neighbor Pope Paul told the UN-sponsored World St. at 2 p.m., Sunday, Dee. 22, contact many of those in need as we can rather hood law office has taken the case.) Food Conference held in Rome last tenants at 777-6346. than turn them over t-0 the impersonal After a day in a Welfare center, re- month that, "The right te satisfy one's • charity of the State." At times, hospital . turning to St. Joseph's House was a joy! hunger must be recognized by everyone." • • ity at St. Joseph's Ho~~ becomes im Bill quieted us with steaming coffee; Said the Pope, ''That right is based on MARTIN SOSTRE BEATEN AGAIN personal charity; at times, we even in Ginny and Kathleen, visiting from the the fact that all the goods of the earth On May 19th, Martin Sostre was beaten volve people with the impersonal chaTity Farm, were folding appeals with Jonas; are destined primarily for universal use by New York State prison guards for of the State. When our beds are full, we Jimmy worked on a radio. Even the noise and fol' the subsistence of all men, before refusing to submit to the dehumanizing _ send men and women to the Municipal was welcome! any individual appropriation." rectal 'examination. Because of this as Shelters or to the Welfare Department. November The Pope appealed for cuts in military sault, he filed charges, against the State. One night a worker from the Emer arms budgets, insisting that such re As a reprisal, the State has now charged November is an especially busy time him with assaulting prison guards. Short gency Welfare unit called and asked if a sources could be used instead for food w-0man just Teleased from the hospital at the Worker. The appeal, October-N-0- ly before appearing at Clinton County. vember issue, and December issue of the aid and development. Be pointed out could spend that one night with us., The "the absurdity of a situation in which CGurthouse on Nov. 4th· on this matter, next day she would receive emergency paper had to be folded, labelled and Sostre was again given the degrading mailed. John Geis and Cliff told enough some people can be satisfied with highly assistance. Seven weeks later, she was entjched and diversified consumption, rectal examination'. When he resisted, he still with us, having been rejected by corny jokes on the 2nd floor to keep us was neatly strangled by a prison guard. all laughing while we were filling the while millions of other persons are fac Welfare. It amazed me that a woman wh-0 ing starvation." Friends are alarmed for his safety, and was penniless, homeless and disabled was mailbags. Brother William Parker and urge supporters to write Judie Robert Sr. Grace Robinson borrowed cars from The Pope warned against relying on Feinberg, Clinton County Courthouse, not qualified for public· assistance, so forms of industrialization and technical she and I went one morning to the local their communities to deliver the bags to Plattsburgh, N.Y. 12901 in Sostre's be the post office. Frank Donovan, Lee Le solutions to solve the world's food prob haH, calling for the charges to be dropped Welfare office to appeal her case. We lems which are not based on "funda arrived before 8 A.M. Already the line cuyer and Pat Jordan worked for days and for Sostre's protection while in State preparing the annual report for the post mental human values." Be deplored the custody. stretched along the street. By 9 A.M., one-sided solutions- set forth by many when the doors opened, we were fiftieth office. (Lee can match almost any t-0wn • • with its zip code in his sleep!) While the of the richer nations to meet the food in a line ~f . over a hundred people. As work of the paper went on upstairs, crisis by means of population control. UNIVERSITY OF THE STREETS we filed in, a guard gave us numbers on "It is inadmissible,'' said the Pope, "that 130 East 7th Street green, white or pink cards which indi Smitty, Andy, Arthur, Tony, Peter, Marc and Brother Tom carried on the soup those who have control l)f th~ w~th and New York, N. Y. 10009 cated what line we should go to next. resources of mankind shouldtty to re Dear Dorothy, We waited on. our line in a huge room line. Tom has left us, after two months, to work in a boys' home before he returns solve the problem of hunge_r by forbidd The University of the Streets is going partitioned into corrals - a reception ing the poor to be bom, or by leavlnc to have to discontinue its typing/office area, an interviewing area, a waiting to Australia. There have been some welcome diver to die of hunger the children whose training classes unless we can figure out area. At the reception desk to which our parents do not fit into the framework of a way to pay the bills till January 15, line led, the "client" tried to explain his sions from the wOTk. · We celebrated theoreti~ plans based on pure hypo when Manpower funds are expected. Do or her situation to a man or woman who Dorothy's birthday with pie and ice cream, and the following week there was theses about mankind's future." you think any C.W. readers would send filled out the appropriate form to be In his speech the Pope also issued a as any small amounts to_ help a5 keep given to the awropriate interviewer, a birthday cake for Esther. Marcel faith fully shows his Saturday night movies. call for the reform of agriculture and the doors open? TWenty-six former drug after an inappropriately long wait. By our attitudes toward it. Be emphasized, users are now working after receiving 9 :30 we were settled in our plastic chairs And we have all enjoyed visiting and participating in Walter Kerell's vibrant as did the Vatican delegation to the Con our training, and I am sad to think of in the waiting corral with about 60 other ference, the important role of agricul "shutting down" .on those still coming. people, who sat in rows, staring blankly art exhibit in a Soho gallery. Walter's display included paintings, sculptures, tural workers in solving the world food Sincerely, ROSE MORSE past each other, some paging or t):iumb crisis. · Subsequently, the Vatican pledg ing absently through the morning news drawmgs and brightly-painted shirts and (P.S. Four hundred and fifteen other jeans. ed $100,000 to the Conference for the paper. An occasioJ!al remark was passed, development of farming. young people, trained at the schoof- in but no conversation. One man, after an Pat Jordan ended the Friday night The Pope concluded his address with other skills, have gotten jobs, includinr apparent heroin fix, was dozing against series on personalism with an inspiring this stiff advice:-''The. time has come for one of our C.W. family, in the last few the wall; a m-0ther tried to calm her talk on Martin Buber. Buber's writings energetic and binding decisions, and for years.-D.D.) · whining infant; a young couple shared on the I-Thou relationship, community, an end to alibis." • • • a container of coffee; an old woman c-0m and the Hasidic spirit speak, directly to · A leaflet entitled "Bunger Informa PUBLICATION NOTES plained to herself; and a man, with a the Catholic Worker philosophy. Oti an tion Sheet" has been prepared by and ,The War Resisters League 1975 Pea.ce · broken leg, shifte.d the weight of his cast. other Friday, Paul Avrich spoke enthus is available from the Community for At 12 o'clock (lunchtime), one clerk got iastically about the Christian anarchism Calendar and Appointment Book, "Where Creative Nonviolence, 1335 N. St. N.W., Am I Going?", is available for $Z.75 a up in the middle of an interview leaving of Solzhenitzyn, whose writings defy the Washington, D.C. 20005. his clients waiting at his desk for one totalitarianism of the Soviet government. copy from WRL 339 Lafayette St., NYC hour; no-one was called between 12 and December is the anniversary of the death • • • 10012. This year's theme is the rearing 2 o'clock. The woman on my left took of Thomas Merton, whose vision contin AID APARTHEID VICTIMS of childreq. a buttered roll from her bag and began ues to inspire the American church. Gor Sybil Sticht. whose letter on Apar her lunch; several others followed suit. don Zahn began a series of Friday night theid Victims in South Africa appeared STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, They were apparently veterans of this in the March-April C.W., writes again MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION meetings on Thomas Merton with a con ( Act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685. system and immediately spotted the new cise study of Merton's nonviolence which that she has many requests for aid from Title 39. United Sures Code). comers. After lunch, the interviews went is rooted in the Gospel message of non the "discarded people" of" South Africa. I. Title of publication: THE CATHOllC WORK· faster and I began to prepare our defense. ER. violence, and is especially sensitive to "Many of these peopJe are ex-political 2. Dare of filing: September 23, 1974. Finally at 3:30, after more than 7 hours the sufferings of the oppressed. Hearing prisoners, old people, invalids and 3. Frequency of issue: 9 rimes a year (monthly Cl<· of waiting, we were called. By 3:31 our of the nonviolent struggle of an oppressed widows. They ha.ve no money, no food, cepr double issues Mar.-Apr., July-Aus. and Oct.-Nov.) 4. Location of known office of publication: 36 _/ people always reminds us of the present no work and no future." The aid can Eut lsr Succt. New York, N .Y. 10003. day struggle of the United Farm W<>rk: take the form of clotbinl' pareels and 5. Location of the headquarters or general business office of the publishers: Same. ers. The consumer boycott and picket food parcels (since the government tol 6. Names and addresses ·of publishu. editor. and Tivoli Far111 lines remain· the most effective actions. erates this type of assistance). "I am managing editor: Publisher: Dorothy Day; Editor: Dorothy Day; Managing editor: Par Jordan; all of 36 Each Saturday Bill Griffin and others trying to find 'adopters' who would like East ht Strttt, New York. N .Y. 10003. (Continued from pap 2) from the house have been joining farm to share a little of their relative ·abun 7. Owner: Dorothy Day, 36 Easr lsr Stttct. New York, N .Y. 10003. came a sweet twittering announcing gold workers in picketing a major fruit store dance." For the ·names and addresses of 8. Known bondholders. mongagcn, . and other se finches. There they were, a happy flock. in our neighborhood. Though they have those in need, write Syb•l Sticht: 2099 curity holden owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mongagcs or other securities : Some in their winter olive green, some met with harassment and violence from Mamolia Way, Walnut Creek, Calif. None. still in summer's gold. Best of all, per. the fruit stand's management, the picket 94595. 9. For optional completion by pulilishus mailing at ing remains constant. the regular rares ( section Bi.121, Posts! Service Man· haps, Ruth saw a fox sparrow who al • • • ual. ) 39 U.S.C. 3626 provides in pertinent pan: '"No lowed her to peruse his russet markit}gs As we prepare for the holidays, we TENANTS TO VIGIL COLUMBUS person who would haw: been entitled to mail matter HOSPITAL under former section 4359 of this title shall mail such in detail. The fox sparrow, like the remember that the bounty in the fruit . matter at the rares provided under this subsection unless tree sparrow and white-throated spar and vegetable stalls and on our tables is Tenants fit. two apartment bulldlnp he files annually with the Posts! Service a written re· quest for permission to mail matter at such ratts." 0 row, is among those winter visitors the result of the toil of the farmworkers owned by Columbus Hospital in New In accordance with the provisions of this stature, I whom we are always glad to have. What around the country. Our holiday.celebra York City have called for a vigil out hereby request permi ..ion to mail the publicJ1tion n&!Ped luxury of woods, and birds and·weather. in ircm 1 at the reduced postage rares present!{ autlior· tions, like most faniily reunions, are side the Hospital on the Sunday after izcd by 39 U.S.C. 3626. Frank Donovan, associate edi· Our fellow creatures, all, as St. Francis always hectic but joyous. This·year, Mary noon before Christmas. For years the tor. business manager. · knew. To Him Who made us all, with St. Lathrop is back frolll' her year's study H011Pital has been trying to oust the 10. For completion by nonprofit organizations au· thorizcd to mail at special rares: Nor applicable. Francis we sing-Praise Him. in France .and Jerusalem, and Marge and tenants, first for a parking facility, and 11. Extent and natutt of circulation ( Finr fi~re is We move towmd Advent and the Johnny Hughes have returned to New when that failed because of public pres- average no, of copies each issue dliring preceding 12 months; (parenthesized figutt is actual no. of copies of Nativity. For all our friends, readers, and York from West Virginia for the winter 1 sure, for a gut-renovation scheme which. single i5'ue published nearest ro filing dare. ) : A. Total' benefactors, we pray a holy Christmas, to join in the festivi.ties. Harold Henry would effectively allow the Hospital to no. of copies printed: 85,000 ( 86,000); B. Paid circu· larion: 1. Sales through dealers and ~en. strttt ven· and a New Year filled with the hope 'and will beg.in to decorate the house for raise tenants' rents to a point where don and counter sales: None (none) ; 2. Mail subscrip love the Christ Child brings: Gloria in Christmas, and Jimmy's desk will make many of them would be forced to move. tions: 78,000 ( 78,000) . C. Total paid circulation: 78,000 ( 78.000). D . Pree clisrribution ( iAclucli1111 excelsis Deo. way for our 1Christmas tree. The aroma · The tenants, many of long-standing, are samples) by mail, carriu or other means: 5,000 (5,· 'of1 Roger's l!laking bread· will fill the calling on the Hospital tO rent the 30 500) . E. 1'oral clisrribution: 83,000 ( 83,500) . l'. Of. fice use. leftover. unaccounted, spciled airer printing: If we Jdllt men, what brothers will we house and the pile of wrapped Christmas rent-controlled apartments which are 2,000 (2,500) . Tocal: 85.000 (86,000) . I cenify that have left! With whom shall we live gifts will mount. The warmth of Christ NOW .EMPTY in the bulldinp-this in the statements made by me above arc correct and com a city chronically of housing, par pJ-. then! mas will help us challenge another chill short FRANK DONOVAN. Astoc. Ed., :Nbat Banh ing winter on the Lower East Side. ticularly housing in the low-income Business M....,er ·
/ December, 1974 THE CATHOLIC WORKER The Stone Which the Builders 'Rejected THIS MAN JESUS: An Essay Toward a the Christ Event, i.e., its Resurrection associate with this season of Advent. who God is . . . through his humanity'' New Testament Cbrlstology. By Bruce faith, and the formulation of the To be concrete, there is his ·discussion (p. 150). Vawter. New York: Doubleday, 19'13. Gospels. of Messiahship. He investigates this For Vawter, the transforming event of Zl6 paces, $5.95. Reviewed by Pat Such an investigation is rooted in. his concept, a later development in the the New Testament (both for Jesus and :Jordan. tory. "History is a .record of events that thought of Judaism, in its historical the -Christian people) is the\ Resurrection. It discloses Jesus in his essential relation This is an exacting book, born of re- ·have been transmitted with interpreta setting at the time of Jesus, along wirth tion .. . To investigate the interpretatign the many ramifications such a body of to God. With it began the.. Church's un fined scholarship and a considered inte derstanding of who precisely This Man grity. Its subtitle, conspicuously modest, is the onl~ way we have of investigating thought had on the Jews of that period. the event itself" (p. 24). The reader soon By delineating the various strands of the Jesus is. Vawter nates (with Kasemann) is both illuminative and misleading. For that while Jesus did not place his person while Fr. Vawter "outlines the coi;istitu becomes aware that modern criticism has concept at the time of Jesus (Messiah enormously - complicated historical in as priest, prophet, teacher, liberator, but his work in the forefront of his own tive elements of New Testament thinking preaching, in light of the Resurrection ' on the mystery of Christ" with great quiry into ·the Gospels. But, Vawter suffering servant; as messianic people), points out (and this is the value of this Vawter· creates a more ready compre- the community responded to his mes skill, he also points the reader toward . . sage and mission with its own precise splendid but diffi~ult little boo)t), "it such important realms of faith that both acknowledgement of him as Messiah and one's head and one's heart are at times has neither made it impossible nor rendered it superfluous." Son of God. This is certainly in keeping overwhelmed in their insufficiency. with the personality of Jesus discernible I will not attempt to judge this book It is with the high boots of scholar in the Gospels: he is the One who came for its scholarship. (It would take a ship that Vawter leads us through the as servant to do the will of his Father. S!!holar to do it.) Rather, I wish to in landscape we have seemingly knoWn so Yet with the Resurrection comes the dicate something of the author's pur well from afar, but which becomes wild community's deeper recognition (Vawter pose and method, and the book~s import and surprising with every penetrating terms it a "retrospective power") of the for those of us who will never exercise step into Biblical study. We begin to dis full meaning and import of the teach either Fr. Vawter's sacred trust as a cern, for example, the various christo ing and person of Jesus, i.e., the true scholar of the Scriptures or have the logies which exist within the New Testa nature of him as Son of God. intellectual tools which he so adequately ment itself and actually see them in the Vawter's method ·of investigating the ' employs in this undertaking. process of development. But just when Sr. Mary Lou Rome Fr. Vawter is the author of several the unkn1:1wn and new become almost New Testament sources, "the mystery," engulfin-g-for the reader, our guide flash hension of why the newly emerged is .exacting. He shirks neither from mod books on the Bible (A Path Throuch Christian community of the New Testa Genesis and The Four Gospels). A for es forth with the sword of enlightenment ern scholarship nor from the weight of we thought was surely and irrevocably ment endeavored to utilize the concept in tradition. His appreciation of the theo mer President of the Catholic Biblical speaking of Jesus. But more important, Association, he has lectured around the lost (an enlightenment that makes us logical preciseness of the early Councils, country and is presently head of the realize such a thing as "catholic scholar ' and indeed its distinguishing mark, is particularly the Oalcedon formulation, is ship" really yet exists). It is precisely that the Christian community used tbe ready and avid. He remarks that while Theology Department at DePaul Univer concept in its own definitive way. As sity in Chicago. His scholarship iS up the variety of images, notes Vawter, the theologizing has its limitatio~ "Had ''variety and the contrarity of the lines seen in the New Testament, Messiahship the Church evinced no interest in the to-date, and the present volume shows is someth1ng distinct and different than not only his familiarity with the litera that converge" in the Gospel portra,it nature and being of him whose activity ture of the field, but of ecclesiology, which give us a clear understanding of all its antecedents. How can this be? had actually called it to life, it would dogmatics, and history as well. The book, This Man Jesus, this most remarkable Says Vawter: "The explanation of this have achieved .something of a record in "an outline" (and thus we might hope "someone unlike anyone else." To help extraordinary state of affairs is un the annals of human incuriosity" (p. 141). the basis of a more lengthy .study), de us comprehend anew the "revolutionar doubtedly the extraordinary personality His own study has the merit of illumina clares Vawter's chagrin at present-day ism of Jesus," i.e., to meet a person Un of Jesus himself, which escaped all the ting without formalizing: it allows am theology's "disinterest in the central defined by, yet recognizable through, a usual categories. Jesus impressed his biguities to remain with which we are contemporaries variously as rabbi, pro invariably destined to live in the life figure" of Christ.• To remedy this, Vaw ~ score of human categories: this is in ter sets out to study and discourse on the deed a remarkable feat. And by doing it, , phet, and teacher, and all these impres of faith: Again Vallejo put it well: historical events which had a decisive I believe, Vawter has accomplished some sions have been registered in the Gospels. ''We want them to call him finally by In registering them, however, the Gos effect on the Church's understanding of thing of the "comprehending ·anew" we his own name." pels also confessed that they were ap Aiaa that simply coaldn't be done. proximations which, if pressed, would By always arching back to his initial belie .rather than define what had oc concern (the decisive role of the Church's curred in his proclamation of the king Resurrection faith), by consistently add Namibia: Being Born dom of God" (p. 97). Cesar Vallejo, the ing to it fuller layers of understanding the Roman Catholic Bishops. Peruvian poet, caught something of this . (for example in his discussion of the Three years ago, Namibia-a mandate in a poem Robert Bly believes speaks of territory occupied by South Africa in In 1967 the U.N. had established the Christ. Wrote Vallejo: Wisdom Literatures and their impact on defiance of the United Nations-was Council for Namibia to administer the the christology of the New Testament), swept by a general str,i.ke which crippl-· country and aid the Namibians toward They demanded in loud voices: ..• Vawter draws the reader again to a ed the country for months, particularly complete independence. South Africa re "We want a mass· of men like him to meeting with the Lord of the Scriptures the lucrative base metals industry which fused to allow the Council to send repre stand in between him and another themselves. If we can say, as I believe is so benefits So~h A'f.rica and various sentatives 1n!o the country, and meaning man just like him." true of this book, that it gives us a re multi-national corporations, some of ful efforts to dislodge Vorster's satraps And that simply couldnit be done. newed sense of the _ineffable mystery of them American. The Black African hav~ failed, largely because South Africa What Vawter has ·done here, but the wisdom and favor of God, if it opens workers walked off because of poor has compliant friends in the United King what theologians and others are n.ot so for us a way of approaching the Script wages and liv.ing conditions, and because dom, France and .the United States. But apt to do, is to turn us once again -to ures and their Lord with a new and of the contract labor system which sep change ~s imminent. The Portuguese the person, Jesus, this unique man, the prayerful directness, .fhen such a book arated men from their families and re withdrawal is well underway in southern summation of Revelation who "showed us . and its author deserve our gratitude. duced them to a modern version of Africa, and the Republic of South Africa • serfdom. has for the first time a militant r.adical But behind the protest lay the un Black African government-to-be on one quenchable urge for freedom from foreign flank: Mozambique. Angola, which lies The Jagwlr and the Moon domination which for decades has held just north -0f Namibia, is sure to be free (Continued from pace 5) the Namibians in thrall, first under the in the near future. Already steady re ports of. talks between African leaders is to him something living, something that boils and fights for expression in his German Empire and 'later under the own soul, and in the soul of his people" (p. 8). · South Africans operating with a mandate and the Vorste~regime are in the press. - South Africa is flying political balloons El J"aguar Y: la Luna (The Jaguar and the Moon) unites both poems -and pictures from the League of Nations. The Lea of P~blo Antomo. Cuadra in a livin~ r~ality of great beauty. We are indebted to the · gue's· successor, the U.N., has tussled weekly, trying to hang on to as much as possible, floating the jdea of partition publish~rs of Umcorn Press for brmgm~ out this handsome volume in such a fine with South Africa since 1946 on various translat~on by the late Thomas Merton, monk and poet in his own right. The layout issues. Finally fu 1966 the U.N. revoked of Namibia and the continuation of its Bantustan mini-state scheme. and des1~ perfectly complement the English translations with SpaniSh facing texts the mandate. South Africa would not .and drawings by t4e poet. budge. On June 21, 19'71, the internation But Namibian leaders and the U.N. I yield to the temptation of quoting one of the poems which I found especially are determined on a free and unified al Court of Justice declared South Afri full of meaning, entitled: "The World is a Round Ea~the~ware Plate": . ca's presence in Namibia illegal. Nami Namibia. The people support this un bians reacted spontaneously: tribesm~n qualifiedly, all three-quarters of a million A mean fate surrounds our life with fear. I Whichever way we turn, we meet / faced up to government-appointed chiefs; of them. (The 90-odd thousand Whites Beasts lying in wait. I The bat, in the East, seeks / Possession of your shadow. / must soon decide whether they are Nam students demonstrated; chiefs not in the · In the West, the crocodile I Fishes for your secrets. I Eagles, in the South, pay of the South Africans spoke out; a ibians or not.) Led by the South •West week later two Namibian Lutheran lead Africa People's Organization, the largest, destroy I All traces ~f your history. I In the North, the jaguar '/ Chases -your ers, Bishop Leonard Auala and Modera most widespread political group in Nam future star. ibia, and strengthened by a rapidly grow tor Paulus Gowaseb, issued an Open Let Ah, tell me, I Who can protect my inmost heart? ter to the South African Prime Minister ing sense of solidarity which began to Balthazar Vorster, listing the grievance~ operate with the strike three years ago, Or who could resist being moved by these poignant 'lines which bring the volume of the African people and calling on the people of Namibia are at least within to a close? ("Lament of a Maiden for the Warrior's Death"): South Africa to work with the U.N. to sight of nationhood. Under the leadership bring independence to Namibia. 'Their of Sean MacBride, former head of Am ~ver since the old· days I The rain weeps. I And yet / Young is the tear, / Youq stand was supported totally by Anglican nesty International and winner of the IS the dew. · . Bishop Colin Winter and in large part by 1974 Nobel Peace Prize, the U.N., despite Ever since the old days I Death has stalked; I And yet J Your silence is new / the laggardly Western powers, is now And new is my pain! · ' . becoming serious about its responsibili A life of nonviolence means not merely ties to this "sacred trust of civilization" One regret: on a recent visit tO the Merton Archive at the University of Ken- occasional revolution but perpetual -as the original mandate termed Nami tucky, I unearthed four additional translations of Cuadra by Merton (from the revolution..- and not merely revoluti9n bia. same volume), which for some unknown reason, !failed to get published in Emblems but joy in revolution. William Johnston, of a Seaso~ of Fury, and consequently in this edition. Had they been included here, Vinoba Bhave Episcopal Churchmen for South Africa another umque feature would have been added to The Jaguar and the Moon. Page Eight THE CATHOLIC WOJtKER December, 1974
The Mushroo111 Pickers of· Mo~gan Hill By JAN ADAMS this industrial arrangement: since the - tion. The work is legally classified as poverty when asked for a wage in On September 7 some 80 .mushroom mushrooms grow year round at artifici agriculture so no labor laws guarantee crease. pickers employed by Steak-Mate, Inc. in ally controlled temperatures and humid workers' rights. · The Steak-Mate mushroom strike ls Morgan Hill, California, walked out on ity, they work year round instead of only As with much of California agriculture, certainly not the most important struggle for a peak harvest season. strike seeking higher wages, better work the. strikers are struggling against ~ot the UFW is caught up in this fall. Cesar Chavez commented recently: "Since ing conditions and the right to form a Facing the Conglomerates an individual farmer, but a huge corpora union. They sought help from the Unit tion. Last year the Ralston-Purina <;:om we've lost the grape contracts, we've But work at Steak-Mate combines all conducted more strikes than in the his ed Farm Worker s Union field office in the usual disabilities of farm labor with pany purchased Steak-Mate from its Salinas and received strike sanction. local owners for $10 million. Ralston tory of the movement. It's curious, huh? the added · oppression of human opera It shows how dead we are!" Especially Since that time, many have been on tives made subject to the artificial en Purina, based in St. Louis, also produces breakfast cereals and dog and cat food. important, thousands of citrus workers the picket lines 7 days a week, 10 or vironment. As is usual in unorganized have struck in Arizona seeking union re more hours a day. The company hired agriculture, workers are disposable, the cognition, a struggle which could win a labor contractor to import strikebreak victims af the whims <>f bosses and fore the entire citrus industry. The boycotts ers. He makes stops in the skid rows men. The walkout at Steak-Mate began of grapes, head lettuce and Gallo wine of Oakland and San Francisco each o~er the firing of a worker who had go on. But these few families in Morgan morning, jamming his bus with people received permission from one foreman Hill ha111e demonstrated again the con desperate for any j<>b. The contractor to punch out his ailing son as well as viction which farm workers have learned and most of the strikebreakers are himself, but was oilsted· by another fore from their union struggles: that through Black, setting up a tense situation be man for doing' it. Though the work goes d~dication and sacrifice, injustice can tween them and the Chicano strikers. on year rotind, ..employees are treated as be ended. Their unequal contest with Steak-Mate also advertized on radio for if it were the peak of a hurried harvest. Ralston-Purina should remind us frat new workers while the strikers counter Although officially they are entitled to wherever there are pockets of farm ed with spot announcements about the a day off a week, ilf a foreman asks workers, oppression is going on to bring strike. A Santa Clara county judge is them to come in they know they must food to our tables. sued an injunction limiting picketing. ·...t or lose their jobs. The hours of work The mushroom strikeors need help. Steak-Mate seems at first sight an odd vary unpredictably with the state of the Direct contributions to their relief can place for a strike by the United Farm mushrooms. One day workers may re be sent to Coalicion Christiana, c/o Fr. Workers. The mushrooms are grown in port at 7 A.M. and be sent home by 10 Richard Garcia, St. Catherine's Church, a plant, several long single-story ware A.M. because the plants cannot be picked It owns the Jack in the Box chain of Morgan Hill, CA. 95037. To help build house-type buildings. If it were not for just yet; on another they will be kept hamburger stands. Since Ralston-Purina the agricultural workers' union through the signs bearing the company name, until midnight or 1 A.M. to complete bought Steak-Mate, the workers have out the southwest, send help to the Un you might think it another electronics the work. It takes three years tenure at been pushed to produce more for the ited Farm Workers of America, Box 62, faetory. The workers do benefit fr9m Steak-Mate to earn a five-day paid v~ca- same piece rates. The company pleads Keene, CA. 93531. Bread for the Road: .A Poor. Man's Diary (Continued from pa«e 3) there in the nothingness we'll be given can Bishops say that the Church must an understanding of some of the pain of three or four coats, long johns, heavy light and bread to sustain us. not turn its back, but must risk its life the Third World. I did pray to know November 21. The road: getting from · pants are part af it. Appearances are not in order to make known these injustices. better what this existence of the streets important when the possibility of· .being one city to the next; being stranded on November- 26. Cold again. Very. few is about, and it's been given to me: its stranded outside for the night '.in the rainy, cold nights, sometimes all night; · cars on the road, and miles from any mean, cruel, everyday routine; liquor is never knowing whether it would be two cold. and rain is always present. ~ 1 "felt where, and again the need to put myself the God of State Street. There didn't annoyed when, without ·pretense, people _ hours, three or four before the next ride at the disposal of the Father's way. Soon seem to be much Christlife this morning turned to look at me, and continued to comes along; alone. The cities, the streets. a pickup, driven by a young man, stopp on the bowery. Two different aspects of poverty, but look: a different creature. Though there ed. He was riot going far, but I was December 3. Definite types af works, are no words to express those glares, I they blend into a powerful experience: welcome to stay with him for the night. practical and needed, seem to .be emerg was made aware of the fact that when· when one has nothing else to turn to We stand in rain, in cold. We meet the Spirit speaks many things about ing from this trip: a free, floating broth one doesn't meet certain acceptable men themselves traveling the roads from erhood of the streets, helping where one standards of dress and appearance, he people, about life and about an all East to West: men with strong consti encompassing love. can and as best as one can, being present becomes less than human in many eyes. tutions, with a toughness beyond that among those with nawhere to go. Per How does the man or woman who has NovC?Jllber 22. Arrived in Rochester, known to one who has experienced se haps the depression must set in more only a few tattered, not-too clean, clothes N.Y. ·The phone directory gave the name curities all his llie. We meet people who of a Mission which, after walking across completely, and maybe flares and rockets feel in our cities? Out of place in church:.. are students, young . businessmen, etc., fly over our cities before a brotherhood town, I discovered did not exist. As it who share their stories, their lives with es, restaurants . .. began getting dark, I came upon two and sisterhood occurs that is real, mean us. ingful, to the hundreds of human per November 20. The frustration of dire men sharing a pint Of wine, and asked December 1. New York City without poverty doesn't really impress until we where a place to sleep was available. a · dime in my. .poc:itet. I gave my last sons on the streets. We must not remain become utterly improverished. The sterile, but open and prayerful, full of They replied that this city , ad no such dollar to a need}/ person, becoming needy the hope given us in silence. pains af hunger become real to us only place, but that I could get a meal at. St. myself. I pick my way down new streets, when they ate ours. In the meantime, Joe's church-which turned out to be a having to ask for a dime to call the we can only try to put ourselves in the Catholic Worker's House of Hospitality. Catholic Worker house. It's. late, not place of such victims, and attempt to After walking in the cold for hours in a much room there, but come anyway. One alleviate some frustration and pain. strange ci y, not knowing where to go, AM before I find my way to the bowery Tragedy I am reflective of what Jim Douglass it is meaningful to have two frie.udly .. . a weird experience walking the streets (Continued from page 5) is saying in his Resistance and Contem poor men direct one to a place to stay. asking for a dime to ride the subway, plation book: we keep going down into I went through 'the soup line at the humiliating. Now it's cold and damp, and Indian religion1 The people I talked to the pit of nothingness . . . sacrifice at Catholic Worker. Although my exper the Catholic Worker is closed tight.• I at Wounded Knee ear lier this. year, for the experience of the whole . . . and ience has turned me against Day Labor begin to walk by park benches, alley example, felt t}?.is was a unifying, stren Agencies, I wanted to get a sense of how ways, doorfronts. A taste of poverty: to gthening factor. They believe that pride many persons· file into such places, so walk all night with nowhere to go, know in Indian identity is increasing in the Friday Night Me~tings at 6:00 AM I went to. one. A day at fac' ing that the Salvation Army has good ' younger generation. . tory cleaning and sweeping made me food but ·wants 25 cents a meal, and I In accordance with Peter Maurin's Realization and Change desire for clarification of thought, the appreciate physical work, despite the don't have 25 cents. Men standing out in Catholic Worker holds meetinp every fact that it was at the hands df those the cold, here and there. Finally, feeling While it is common to seelc an answer Friday night at 8:30 p.m. at St. Jo }Vho make money off those desperate exl;i.austed, I saw a woman with a coat or one explanation for a social phenom seph's Bouse, 36 E. 1st St., between for a day's pay. On the road again for over her head sitting by a wire basket, enon like the Wounded Knee occupa First and Second· Avenues. After the New York. trying to keep warm from the tiny fire tion, adherence to any unicausal expla discussions, we continue to talk over Cold, rainy dark highways·greeted me. she had made within it. Another man nation of such an event avoids both the hot sassafras tea. Everyone is wel Thoughts of turning bac~ doubts of . and I approached together, and these two extent and the complexities af the come. hitching in this kind of weather, came began to talk about survival on the city many factors which combine to bring it tumbling in. These kinds of thoughts streets, vyhere one could go to get warm, about. I have briefly mentioned a few December 6 - Julius Lester: Meet would be a common thing: · doubting how the subways are closed and don't that have contributed to the rise of the inp with Thomas Merton. thoughts; a prayer, a call on the Father allow men and women to sleep there any Native American Movement. What · ev December 13 - Barbara Wall: and then, usually, but not always, a ride, more at night, that certain apartment ents will next unfold is hard to deter Marx's Concept of Community-. a resurrection, hope and life arising from buildings leave entrances purposely open mine. But the decision oJ._a tough-mind December 20 - Carmen Mathews: the grave. Such a warm feeling comes for persons to get in out of the cold, ed St. Paul judge to dismiss the charges Christmas Reading. to me when people pick me up, and im~ how to build a fire that would last the against Russell Means and Dennis Banks, December 2'7 - No Meeting. mediately relate as if we'd known each night using only one piece of wood at leaders of the occupation of the village January 3 - "Frameup": Film on other for years. a time. of Wounded Knee, is an occasion for the Case of Martin Sostre. November 23. Yesterday was Thanks Hundreds of men this morning in the optimism. Judge Nichol was clearly giving. All works together: the spe~king social center, many sleeping on th& floors shocked and outraged at the behavior January 10 - Fanchette Clement: of the Spirit is all around. We must be with sores, wounds, glad to have the bare of the government and its agents at Poverty and the Fourth World. discerners, and pray that slowly all is floor as their blanket, bed, pillow all Wounded Knee. He is apparently a man January 17 - Ned O'Goi:man: Trip seen as a movement towards the God of - combined. This I needed to see: to lea.ve who learns from exposure to facts. to China: Slides. Abraham. Milwaukee, and go places where I had Doubtless there are many others whose January· 24 - Richard Chavez· and November 24. As I sit reading the never been, and leave myself open to in attitudes could be changed by a full Dolores Huerta: Nonviolenee and the Theolou of Liberation, I come across the jury, fear, the crazed minds of the de :·ealization of the facts of Native Ameri Farmworkel'S- Bishops' statement on the need of our spairing, the misery of the night. Now ~ an life and a massive educational effort identification with thet"poor. The Mexi- I am getting that for which I prayed: . is needed to .reach them.