TH& :· .. : ·tJ CATHOLIC

8ubacription1 Vol. XXXIII No. 3 DECEMBER, 1966 2ao Per Vear Price lo Albert Camus Jim Wilson Gets 3 Years And the Church B7 JACK COOK By THOMAS MERTON Only partially awake, yet fully enraged at the events which were "Why do you call m• 'Sir'?" to take place this day (December said the prison chapla.1.n, "why 9), I descended the stairs of the don't you call me Father?" "You are not my Father," said building on Kenmare Street, where most of the Workers live, t he condemned prisoner, "you are with the others'." and knocked at the door of one At the end of Albert Camus' of the women's apartments in or­ novel The Stranger, there is a der to assure myself that I had a long dialogue between priest and Tide to Newark, New Jersey, where condemned prisoner. The chap­ Jim Wilson, my friend and fellow lain, an average, sincere, zealous and not overbright pclest ls trying On November 30th, Thomas to grapple with the stolid unpellef C. Cornell, co-chairman of the of a man whom he considers the Catholic Peace Fellowship, worst possible type af hardened Marc Edelman and Roy Lisker criminal. He finally drives !he were given 6-month sentences man to complete desperation for having burned their draft which explodes at last into a cards at a rally a year ago. curious blend of Zen-Satori and ex­ Their conviction will be ap- istentialist revolt: the unexpected pealed to the Supreme Court. result of priestly zeal! The pris­ oner is a, single-minded Algerian Catholic Worker, was to be sen­ clerk, Meursault, who in a mo­ tenced for committing, as he said ment of thoughtlessness shot a in his statement to the court, "this man. He felt himself to have crime: I refuse to kill." been partly irresponsible bu't The door opened upon Dorothy failed to realize the importance and Pat Rusk, both prep~ring to of defending himself in terms that go to Mass before setting off. Their (Continued on page 4) mood, in utter contrast to mine, (Continued on page 7) New Front CHRY.STI E In ~~HK,.4 --~~~~ El Malcriado Editor STJtEET · Sends Latest News By PWL l\IALONEY Th• pace of life has been Of California Strike stepped up recently at Chrystie Street. The Fire Department has By BILL ESHER made life difficult by discovering When the rain comes the strike QL:bristmas d?rtttings a variety of violations of the in 'the grapes in Delano, Califor­ Building Code. Many of the vio­ nia, moves onto a kind of new TO all who have written to ta, to ln the field. Fort,. 7ean ml- TO Archbishop Helder Camara, of lations are minor; a few, such as front. The lights burn very late all our readers and writers, to all 1Tatlna' to look for food la too Recife, Brazil, in danger of jail re-wiring and major ceiling re­ in the so-called "Pink House," a we encounter each day, to all who Ionc. Waces are not ~JchtT­ for his championing the cause of pairs, will be costly unless we are dilapidated tract home into which sit down to break bread with us, flve cents an hour, the,. are the destitute, and what more hon­ able to move reasonably soon. The the expanding Farm Workers Un­ to the poor of the world, to th• 1lxt7, .ft.ft)' or forty cent. an orable residence for such a John rain leaks through the roof as it ion, led by Cesar Chavez, has destitute of the world. To all the hour--a Texas discrace, a na­ the Baptist? We hope he ii a is; a heavy snow may be the final spread itself. When I go there it powerless ones of the earth I can tional dis&Tace!" (Quoted ln forerunner of many such bishops blow. is sometimes to find Dolores Hu­ only quote David's canticle to our th• Texas Observer, Sept. 16.) who will suffer in their efforts to Our car, a 1961 Volkswagen bus, erta studying compulsory-arbitra­ Lord-"In Your bands are power Christmas GreetJnp put on Christ and put off the old has been the cause of a few head­ tion law with a burning intensity, and micht; 7oun it la to rive ev­ TO Hugo Blanco, peasant leader man, to use the terminology of aches this month. Because of a her always-present supply of erythinc &Tandeur and strencth." of Peru, rfor the past three years St. Paul. constantly recurring clutch prob­ somewhat ragged children trying Chrbbnu Greetinp waltinf trial in prison, sentenced Chrisbnas Greetings lem, Chris Kearns took the bus to to pester and distract her. It is thia fall by a military tribunal, to the VW dealer for repairs, and it TO Jim Wilson, beginning hit TO Richard Sigh, of Grenada, Dolores who is taking on the huge twenty-five years. On appeal the was stolen from the dealer's park­ three-year sente~ce for refusing to Mississippi, whose leg was broken DiGiorgio Corporation in contract prosecutor demanded the death ing lot. The police recovered it be conseripted. on the first day of school in Sep­ negotiations, without a lawyer on penalty, and the case is being con­ tember. A woman rammed her the next day, but the transmission the scene in Delano, and without TO all other prisoners opposing showed signs of trouble. Each day the Vietnam war, giving up their sidered now. Pray for· him, dear umbrella between his legs and he any special knowledge, other than readers, and write to Presidente it becomes more apparent that the freedom so that man may make a was beaten with clubs by men as the school of experience. More im­ Belacinde Terry, Lima, Peru and bus needs to be replaced. The cost few more steps toward freedom he lay on the ground. To his portant, she is negotiating with to the Conseje Supreme de Justi­ father also who lost hit job as part of continual repairs and the prob­ ihard-nosed professional union of­ from war. ability that it is short-lived leads TO all languishing in prison we cia, Lima, Peru. And to his Em­ of the family's martyrdom in the ficials for jurisdiction. People inence, the Cardinal of Peru. us to request a car or small truck send .the reminder al:So, in St. Am­ civil rights struggle. Operation who don't know Dolores are wor­ Chrisbnas Greetings in decent condition. The car is brose's words, "The &Tace of the Freedom, c/ o Rev. Maurice Mc­ ried that she will make a mistake: TO Francisco Juliao, exile from crackin, 932 Dayton Street, Cin­ used to pick up food and clothing, ask too much, or give too much. Holy Spirit knows no lancuid ac­ and to deliver the paper to the 'tion.n You are most active in your northeast Brazil, living in Mexico cinnati, Ohio, 45214, is helping And it is not the first time that City, who organized the peas.ant post office, so it is a vital necessity. inactivity. these and other families in a simi- people have underestimated this leagues and who wrote in his Let­ lar plight. - - The community has been en­ Christmas Greetings beautiful little woman. ter to Isabella, his daughter: Chrlsbnas Greetings larged with new faces and one old What do the people do when it TO all the striking agricultural "I do not understand why the face. Jack Cook, former teacher raln.s.7 First, there are the workers in Texas and California, world must be divided into TO Vinoba Bha.ve, who fifty years and volunteer worker for the ...cabs": winter provides an equal­ living in destitution while heads Marxists and Christians who ago gave up hl.s home and took up Catholic Peace Fellowship, has llnf process and there is no work of corporations and growers draw disagree on the philosophical pubHc service under Mahatma come to work at Chrystie Street. tor t hem or for the strikers. My fantastic incomes from their sweat; level but agree on the human Gandhi and who since his death Jack does much of the paper work nei1hbors, for example: About to Father Antonio Gonzales, of level. If Marx proclaims has walked the roaas of India from and acts as doorman during the twenty of them-mostly small Texas, who was one of the leaders equality of opportunity for 'all village to vil1a.ge working and pray­ soup line. John Burslem has come children- li ve in an ancient four­ of last year's strike and pilgrimage (from each according to his ing for the building up of village from Canada to stay for a year. room fa1 house, with boles in in Texas, and who cried out, on abilities and to each according communes through non-violence, John is also responsible for the the. walls and the roof bif enough seeing his mother and father in to his needs) (Christ was more the rich g\ving t o the poor and the huge amount of filing and paper to admit the dog11 and cats. When the rally of marchers: radical when he told the rich poor sharing with each other. work that is necessary to publish it rahu they just get wet, that'• "We want these people to cet younc man to leave everything Beginning his seventieth year, ne a newspaper. The third arrival is writes: all, and now moat of their chil­ enoU&'h for their children to and follow Him. From this I a homecoming; Chuck Bazzinetti dren are tick from it. The elec­ eat. M7 mother had eighteen find that to be a Christian is After an age man has to cast has returned after a prolonged tricity has been off now for almost children and she has been more difticult than to be a off his attachments, illusions stay in the hospital. Charley a week. Of cour.se they want the workinc ln the fields for forty Marxist," (Part of a quotation and greed, be it of social serv­ Keefe, a living legend on the Bow­ atrlke to win, but they think they years. She still works in the found in the new Mexican ice or philanthropy. The tra­ ery because of his fine soups, has are too cloH to the margin to fields. She Just came back Jesuit Review Comunidad. He ditional course is to go on car­ successfully weathered a hernia mlsa any opportunity for work from Minnesota. Why should goes on to say that since he rying on a great deal of operation at Veterans Hospital. that comes along. Thl.s is their she have to do that? My father cannot be a half-way Christian activity ~d giving it up when Thanksgiving brought IDan¥ (Continued on pal• 8) bu cancer 7et he la workin&' he prefers to be a Marxist.) f the century. Gone now Sr. Mancha atruck up a conversa­ refused to do 10, stating tbat "to Associate Editor-&: confess to somethinli! I did not do the weeping and the wailing of tion with Simmons and took him CHARLES BUTTERWORTH, JACK COOK, RITA CORBIN (Art), to his home to meet his wife and in order to gain my freedom tUnited States. 25c Yearly Canada and Foreign 30c Yearly and bearing his· story, accompa­ found," and that both the Ameri­ we sometimes forget that travel Subscription rate of one cent per co~>y plus oostage applies to bundles of one nied him to the hotel and- awak­ can and Mexican goveril!IIlents will lmndred or more copies each month for. one year to be directed to one address [undamentally is motion and that ened Simmons. The police ques­ continue to dawdle in the matter, motion, suddenly arrested, can tioning was cursory: Simmons did a reminder t<> our congressman Reentered as second class matter August 10 1939. at thl' Post OITice have violent results. There are not weigh two hundred pounds, might be in order. The reminder of New York. N Y., UndPr the Act of March 3. l8711 still the terrors of the road and he did not have blonde hair, and ineed not be long, just a few words: the night, and they are not all the "I am interested in the case of ~121 he did not have two iold teeth. results of motor failure, burst They apologized, left, - and Sim­ Dykes Simmons. When will he be tires, and the unmarked curve on mons went back to sleep. A rou­ freed? Why isn't he free already?" a mountain road. tine radio report was filed by the You never know. Lots of us have On the niJlht of October 12th, police of the town to the state occasion to travel lonely roads at ON PILGRJMAGE l 959, Dr. Paul Villagomez, a den­ headquarters. night. It would be good to know tist residept in Monterey, Mex­ Several hours later, a detach­ that if any of us ran a.foul of the By. DOROTHY DAY ico, had occasion to find himself ment Of State Police arrived at terrors of the night that someone traveling a lonely secondary road the hotel, seized Simmons, drove would giv·e a thought to our wel­ Someone said to me last month, With the increasing tensions in in Mexico. some 50 miles south of fare. In the natural order of ...... What are you going to write about Latin America, Africa and Asia, him to jail and held him incom­ Laredo, Texas. With him in the municado. Their questioning of course. In the tra111scendental our fl you are no longer going on pil­ we need constant study of the non­ car were his two younger sisters, worries lllle moot. grimage around the country?" And violent revolution in which we are him was lengthy, exhaustive and Martha, twenty-one; Hilda, eight­ thorough, including beating, tor­ 1;he went on to tell me she would engaged. een; and his brother Juan, four­ miss travelling in thought with me Visitings ture, and holding a cocked pistol STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, teen. The family group were re­ to his head and threatening him 1;ince she could not go herself. One When the last issue of the Cath­ turning from a visit with friends MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULA­ olic Worker came out, I was again with instant death if he did not TION (required by Act of October of the pleasantest ways to travel in Texas. 23, 1962; Section 4369, Title 39, very often is with a map and guide visiting for two days at my daugh­ confess. The Mad Hatter aspect Past a wide curve in the road United States Code). book, right in your own bed at ter's in Perkinsville, Vermont and of the questionini was increased and entering a stretch of lonely, 1. Date ot Filing: October 1, 19H. night, especially if you have been then for four days in Montreal by the fact that Simmons had only mesquite-studded mesa, the car a rudimentary knowledge of Span­ 2. Title or PublJ.cation: The Catho­ to the places described, which are with my granddaughter, who is in lic Worker. ground to a halt with a clogged ish and only a dim realization of always turning out differently 2. Street, and it was a pleasure to sit Montreal. Which meant that I 6. Names and Addresses of Pub­ could get to Mass at the shrine the shooting ol Hilda Villagomez. lisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: and talk with these Catholic, non­ From then due process of law, church each morning, breakfast in on, Dorothy Day, 175 Chrystie ~t., N.Y., violent friends of the Nationalist N .Y. 10092; 1\Iartin Corbin, Man­ the cafeteria and then go aboot by the standards of any civilized Party, which is working for inde· society, was consistently violated. aging Editor, 175 Chrystie St., XY., pendence of Puerto Rico from the city to visit my friends, Dixie N.Y. 10002. MacMaster and her mother, Dr. Simmons was forced to dress in 7. Owner (If owned by a corpora­ United States domination of their white shirt and trousers and led Karl Stern and his wife, Jack Bir­ tion, its name and address must be culture and their economy. We before the dying Hilda Villagomez stated and also immediately there­ mingham and his -Browser's book­ will have more to say about Puerto alone. By Mexican law Simmons under the names and addresses of shop at 3505 Avenue du Pare, stockholders owning or holding 1 Rico in a future issue of the paper should have been in a line-up, where there is plenty of room to percent or more of total amount of in which we also hope to have a among at least a half dozen other stock. U not owned by a corpora­ sit around and dip into all the thorough review of two books men wearing the same cIA..hes tion, the names and addresses of the books which you had thought were which have recently come out. One and fitting, roughly, the same individual owners must be given. If out of print and which he has owned by a partnership or other is Non-Violence and the Christian fuel line. The delay was exasper- physical description as the assail­ painstakingly found and made unincorporated ft.rm , its name and Conscience by Fr. Pie Regamey, ating, and, surveyinl[ the situa- ant. The state prosecutor alone address, as wen as that of each in­ available. Jack's idea of a book­ O.P., published by Herder and Her­ tion, Dr. Villagomez, as head of heard Hilda's dying, whispered dividual must be given.): Dorothy shop is a place where like-minded der with a preface by Thomas Mer­ the family, came to a value judg- alleged identification: "He is the Day, 175 Chrystie St., N.Y., N.Y. people interested in mutualism, 10002. ton and a foreword by Stanley ment: be would get assistance and one-but if I am wro.ng may God peace and freedom can get togeth­ 8. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees; Windass. One of the chapters, •he would travel fas-ler alone, so forgive me." A member of the and Other Security Holders Owninf dealing with the violent gentleness er and plan economical publishing, or Holding 1 Percent or More of translating, etc. accordingly he left his sisters and American Consulate, who very of Christ, speaks of the gentleness brother with instructions not to apparently was ignorant of the Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages On Sunday mornng Sue and I or Other Securities (If there are having the infinite intensity of di­ move from the car and went on rudiments of Mexican law, stood went to the Russian litur.giy at Our none, so state): None. vine love, a terrible love, a con- foot down the highw.ay toward the by without protest during the al­ 9. Paragraphs 7 and 8 include, in 1uming fire. Lady of the Presentation and met nearest -garage. When he returned leged identification. Simmons was cases where the stockholder or se­ "The world o'ffers us," Pie Rega­ Father Ledit, S.J . who was taking -two hours later he found his sis- formally charged, tried and sub­ curity holder appears upon the books Father Leoni's place for the day. of the company as trustee or in any my writes, "the spectacle of a co­ ter Martha and his brother Juan sequently sentenced to death by other fiduciary relation, the name loss·a1 Y . th• .t\merican by Rita C~,b~. oui; afi edltfl.'· ...... ~ ' . ' ' ' ! • I r l>ecembel', 1966 THE CATHOLIC WORKER Page Three

bera of the Ark seem to have found a way to peace. It is a way A Farm With a View that others could follow-if they Joe Hill House By DEANE MARY MOWRER wished, if they dared. The first Sunday of Advent, By AMMON HENNACY Cold blows the wind across the have the weapons and striking co.ming so soon after Thanksgiv­ Darrel Poulson is to be shot at CW readers should write at wave-tossing Hudson. Cold blows power t o attack us with the very ing, seemed overflowing with the the wind among the :fallen leaves kind of weapons in which we so sunrise on January 9, 1967. This once to the Board of Pardons, bounty and thankfulness of that will be the sixth time he bas faced State Capitol, Salt · Lake City, shivering on the ground. Yet I foolishly repose our hope for bhe day. _paula de Aragon and her feel the December sun warm upon future. War between nuclear the dawn. William Fowler, the Utah, and ask that Poulson's death daughter Rachel, who visited us court-appointed lawyer who has sentence be commuted to life im-­ my cheek, anq know that It shines powers can only mean disaster for so often at the beach houses, came brightly on chickadees, sparrows, both. We have only a short time defend~ Poulson at his own ex­ prisonment in the State mental for a first visit on Thanksgiving pense for five years, will probably institution. juncos, and nuthatches feeding to learn how to live in peace with Day. .l,,oe and Audrey Monroe, appeal to the Boar d of Pardons On November 11th smne of and twittering at my southern win­ other nations, how to practice that who now that they have a car us dow boxes. Then I hear the wind genuine love and goodwill which before the execution date. Since picketed and poster walked down­ come more often, were also , with November 14th, I have been pick­ blow through the pines and hem­ all men respect. 0 Mary, Mother us, bringing guitars and an inex­ town in memory of Saint Martin locks, and I think the trees sing, of Sorrows, weeping for the suf­ eting Governor Rampton and the of Tours, who was a conscientious haustible bounty of good humor Board of Pardons daily for an like a living Advent wreath­ fering and evil men inflict on and goodwill. Mrs. Jean Keelan objector, and the four anarchists Mak~ straight the way of tM: Lord. each other and on your Son, pray hour at noon in front of the State who were banged in Chicago on and her boys, who spent some Capitol. Susan Anderson, the Stir up our hearts and come. for us that we may seek and find time here during the Peacemakers November 11, 1887. I will lead a His peace. wife of a professor at the Univer­ poster walk against the war in It is the Feast of Our Lady of conferences, seemed delighted to sity, has been helping me picket, On the feast of the Immaculate Vietnam at noon on the Saturday Guadalupe. This morning at Mass be here, as we were to have them. often wi~h her bab!· Conception, F·ather Guerin of the Alba Ryan, Lorraine Freeman and before Christmas. -in which Dorothy Day, Stanley Rabbi Relkin, Dean Frensdorf, Marist Fathers came to say Mass her boys, Beth Rogers and Fran­ The men continue to come and Vishnewski, Arthur Lacey, Joe of the Episcopal Church, Hugh for us in our chapel. Like Spike, ces Bittner, George Nelson, Don go at our Joe Hill House. For new Dumen ki, and I participated at St. Gillinhan, the Unitarian minister, Father Guerin is an old friend. Parrish, Pas q u ale Valenziano readers I repeat that our address Sylvia's, in Tivoli-I prayed for and Lowell Bennion, a liberal During the mid-nineteen-fi.fties, John Burslem, all helped us t~ is 346% S. 4 W. All are welcome all those near to us who have Mormon professor at the Univer­ he often came over from the enjoy the day and the good food to come day or night. asked for our prayers, who have sity, have publicly opposed this need of our prayers. Most particu­ Marist Novitiate on Staten Island '\v~ich Hans and several helpers larly I prayed for Jim Wilson, who to say Mass for us at Peter Maurin had prepared. So Advent began had just received a three-year sen­ Farm, or give retreats and days for us with thanksgiving. tence to prison for burning his of recollection. Now that the But on the first Sunday of Ad­ Chrystie Street draft card and refusing to cooper­ Marist Fathers have moved their vent the shopping centers and (Continued from page 1) ate with any form of military serv­ Novitiate from Staten J.sland to marl<:et p 1 a c e s were already ice, for preferring to serve the Rhinebeck, Fr. Guerin is once crammed with toys, gauds, gadg­ gifts of food from generous people gentle Prince of Peace rather than again our neighbor and has prom­ ets, and all the fabulous merchan-· in the ·area. We received enough murder his brothers. Then I ised to say Mass for us whenever dise of luxury, temptingly dis­ to provide a large dinner in the * evening and a regular meal instead prayed for peace, that Our Lady, played Christmas gilts a~ainst a Queen of Peace, might intercede background of canned Christmas of soup for_ the line. Jim Wilson for us with her son, the Prince of carols. And in the forests ~he demonstrated his culinary talents by cooking a tasty meal for the line Peace, that He might warm, trans­ slaughter of the great and beauti­ Sl,N~­ eccb form, the cold winds of hate blow­ ful evergreens had begun, so that and Tony Bizewski was responsible ing through our hearts so that we, those who had never thou!lht to CiOG-' €SIA for the excellent turkey dinner in like the pines and hemlocks, might plant a tree might marvel at the the evening. sing (being made straight, made beauty of a dead one. No Christ­ execution. I have written to the The Thanksgiving weekend was ready by His love)--Gloria in Ex­ mas tree stands by His · manger Catholic bishop asking him to take also the occasion for giving thanks cel is Deo. who cries with eold and hunger a stand or at least to allow those for other gifts; my wife gave birth Yet I write in Advent. Cold t?e cold and hunger felt by mil~ priests , who are concerned to to a healthy son. Six minutes later, winds blow across the Hudson, lions of children all over the speak up, but I have had no re-, Dave Miller's wife, Cathy, gave birth to a daughter. among the dead leaves. In Viet­ world. How can He hear the an­ gels singing when the radio and sponse. If the weather does not forcibly nam the winds of war blow cruelly, P?onsgraph, muzak and televi- For readers who have not fol- cruelly, through the leafless trees remind us, Thanksgiving warns of s1on, have stolen their song? lowed this case, Darrel Poulson t!he approaching winter. Winter is of defoliated forests, over the na­ In a community like ours, the was committed, when still a young palm-burned bodies of innocent a particularly difficult time on the days of Advent must be filled with man, to the State mental institu­ women and children. 0 will He Bowery; the need of wine's warmth work as well as prayer. Those tion in Provo. He had been seems more acute, and the cold not lie cold in His manger? When who work know that work is obsessed with sexual matters for will the crooked be made straight? a long time. One day, after be pavement is a les.. than inviting Sancta 1'1aria, ora pro nobls. prayer. With some ill, with others place to spend the night. Rags be­ coming and going, there have been was paroled, be told the police come a matter of urgency; they Yesterday at Mass-it was Gau­ many newcomers who have helped that he was going to do something dete Sunday-I heard the priest are the dilference between frost­ out from time to time. So the list bad again and asked them to lock bite and comparative warmth. We read those lambent words of St. of those who keep the routine him up, but they replied that he Paul: Rejoice. Again I say, rejoice. would appreciate gifts of winter work going is not short: Bob Stew- had not done anythini yet. The clothing, especially heavy coats. The sun had come out, dispelling art, John Filligar, Hans Tunnesen next day he killed a baby-sitter. the fog of the preceding week, but We distribute these cl.othes every Mike Sullivan, Fred Lindsey, Alic~ He was quickly convicted and sen­ afternoon to all who ask for them. the day was still rejoicingly mild. Lawrence, Kay Lynch, Rita Cor- tenced to death. Because one of Kay Lynch remarked, as she drove ~in, Marge Hughe.s, John McKeon the three alienists "."ho w~ sup­ Ruth Collins and John Coster us to Mass,. that the mountains have addressed us twice last Luigi, Brother Placid, Reginald -po~e: to h~~!i eta=;: h~~ lbad month, on the first occasion about across the river once again showed Highhill, Leslie Zitz, Ursula Mc- no een cleda t tho tehs. by, is .awt - clear and bar e and sparkling. Then Guire Arthu La d yer appea o e 1g er cour s, the new CW house and lts accom­ when we returned from Mass, I ' r cey an many but to no avail panying legal technicalities, and others who hel>ped out even though · on the second about their work in heard again the twittering of many they stayed for only a few days. In m.y I declare that it is possible for him to 1et away. le?ffe~ forming cooperatives ·in Harlem. birds, in the trees, about my win­ Stanley Vis.hnewski works at his Poulson s guilt is shared by: the So on the Fe11t of our national December's scheduled speakers in­ dows, joining, it seemed to me, in patron, the Immaculate Cone printing and writing. J'im Mc- h~~ · in that it provides the basic the chorus of the day-rejoice, re­ clude Robert Lowell, the poet, and tion, I prayed again that our coun­ Murry.., with the hetp of Joe di tra:nmg for 2ood and evi.l t?a.t joice. Dr. Robert Pollock, of Seton Hall try might learn to live in peace Carlo, haa almost completed his ~mdes a man throuihou~ his life: University. Sundays at St. Jo.seph's rural hermitage. Helen Iswolslcy has the Church, because it argues with other nations, in peace- and Paul Mann recently incurred the house of hospitality are usually made much headway with her theology and for2ets to prac~ce amity at home. 0 Mary conceived wrath .of the government by fail­ times of rejoicing; for they mean translation and haa written several the Sermon on the Mount, which without sfo, pray for us who have ing to report for his pre-induction not only the liturgical joy of the articles. Dorothy Day has also says to ret.urn iOO~ for evil ln­ recourse to you. Teach us how to physical. No action has been tak­ day but also the gathering of fam­ written several articles, some of s~ead of evll for. evil, and to far­ talk:, how to do, that our words en to pr06ecute hiD'l yet. ily and friends in that other com­ and actions may be illumined wdtich have been published in An give seventy times seven; the munion of good food and good with peace. Maria, has done some work on her sehool, because it stresses subject talk. So it was on Gaudete Sun­ book, and written more letters matter instead of meeting of "We ellllllOt resist war and la­ day. Our old friend, Spike Za­ Visit From Sbantidas than many ot us would write in needs of students as they seek an Justice with Just a few, no matter wicld, had come all the way from The second . Sunday of Advent many years. Marty Corbin keeps ed~cation and th~ tools with how aaint17 or coiu-Ueous they Mexico to visit us. We bad not was made memorable for us hi:re busy with his editing, has attended wh1.ch to face society ll1!d :find may be. I do not thiDii It wu part seen Spike since he had brought at the farm by the visit of Lanza soµie important conferences, and their own W~Y, and the State, be- Of Christ'• coapel &hilt the worl• the Bishop of Tepic, Mexico, to del Vasto · and his wife, Chan­ given several talks to colleges and cause its prJSons are schools for would be aand autoDiaticall,- er spend the night and say Mass in tarelle. A student and friend of other groups. Kay Lyneh, in ad- ~ri~e and it stre~ses punishment that He would save It automatl­ our chapel at Peter Maurin Farm. Gandhi, Lanza del Vas:to is the dition t-0 her many other duties, 1Il its courtJI, prisons. and "."ars callJ'. The auumptlon wu that For awhile after dinner, . Dorothy founder and head of a community finds some time to help me pre- rather than treatment ID hospitals mankind would reapond." Day, Helen Iswolsky, :Kay Lynch, in France where non-violence is pare the material for my book. and mental institutions. Re•. ~c-~el Scott and I sat talking with Spike, who taught and practiced. The Ark is Some of us also si:~nd time In the ------­ told us of his present work among a self-sustaining community, a chapel. And if work is prayer, ELEGY the poor campesinos of a remote, way of life stripped down to the prayer is also work. As for the tropical region below Vera Cruz. essentials of utility and beauty. sick among u.!I, they know that suf- on the fourth annivenary of the death . of We spoke, too, of Jim Wilson and The life is austere, and devout, fering is both work and prayer. Louie MaHignon the other conscientioua objectors with living and liturgy blended The sound of a mower throairh the &Tt9I and of our ever-present anxiety Books and Films in a sacramental attitude toward w.. like a sick man's 1trunlin&' for breat•. [.', about the escalating war in Viet­ all life. They raise their own yet even in Advent, life on a nam. Dorothy said that perhaps sheep, spin and weave their own Catholic Worker farm is n<>t all The leaves from the tree fell, Spike's isolation might save him wool, desiiJl and make their own work. We have our diversions. I thoU&"ht, like hands at lta llde. in the event of the United States Books are popular with almost homespun clothes. They believe Like a meanlnc that passes from the mln4 suffering a nuclear hol9caust. · It everyone. Helene Iswolslry, hav­ in prayer and fasting, but they Quiet came and made the sound elusive. seemed a grim thought for such have also led and organized some ing finished reading me E . M. For­ a rejoicing day. Yet how utterly of the moat daring demonstrations ster's A Room With a View, is now I feU a pain in the quiet unretilistic it would be to think for peace. We ftalt truly honored well into Sigrid Undset's g.reat That wun't ace or autumn. our country can continue- it.I pres­ to have the del Vasta. with us and trilogy Kristin Lavranadatter. ''· ent militaristic, imperialistic, ma­ to hear them tell of their work. When Marty Corbin has time, he n seemed to occupy and leave the la'tt'll, terialistic course without paying Sunday mornine, they chose to continues reading to me from Dick­ The thine responsible for fearflll tho11data ens. On Friday nights, there are any penalty for the reckless disre­ walk to Mass and back, Lanza And desolatlon. I thoucht ol my deceuel prefesser, usually several for Bob Stewart or gard of the lives and well-being wearing sandala without socks. Who knew the quiet u pity for the old, of others. It can only be a ques­ Before they left they sang for us Kay Lynch to drive to the free tion ' o~ tim~-;-a~4 thl,I ~ _time .ipay the beautiful song of the weavers movills at Bard College. One And death as ecstasy for certain llvee be much shorter than we·thlnk­ an'd the prayer they sing before memorable night. Helene Iswolsk.y,_ Allowed--at last-.-to be uel~ ••• until nations hostile to u.s will meals. ' F-0r themselves the mem-· (Continued on page 6) Berberi Muea Pafe Four THE CATHOLIC WORKER Deeember, 1966

his society was wlllinf to under- French elel'IY under the Na:tis; :But secularist demands of himself. "I 1 tand and accept. }J a result he he 1110 represent.I the Church ·as certainly believe · that the Chris­ got the . death penalty when, 1n' she eonfr·ont1 man in ·hi1 moral tian has plenty of obligations," fact, there were enough extenu- and metaphysical estrangement-' Camus admits, "but the man who ALBERT CAMUS 'A ating circumstance• to warrant a his "lostness" in an absutd world. himself rejects these <>bllgations much lighter sentence. . What will she oft'er him? Can she bas no right to point them out to One IJf the themes of the novel rive him anYthinf more than a one who bas recognized their is the ambiguity and "absurdity" predigested answer and a' con­ existence." This is charita.ble of 0 p I n I 0 n and aelf-questfoninf would be l01t if it did not raiM of a justice which, though logical 1ollng rite? Does she ask of him hlin, Indeed. Pharisaism works within the Church. On the con­ the cry ol condemnation In the and right in its own terms, is anything more than conformity two ways: on one hand the man trary, he called for iuoh aell­ presence of force. It appean seen to be an elaborate tissue of and resignation? At the outbreak who thinks that it Is enough to criticism and self·examln·atlon, that 1hi. Toice w11 raised. But fictions-a complicated and dis- cJf the plague Paneloux delivers a recognize ·an obligation by a purely and he approved of It when be met I swear to you that milliona of honest social game in which there hell-fire sermon on the justice of forma1 and punctilious ful1illment, It, for example, in bt. friend the men, myself included, never Js no real concern for persons or God and the punishment of ln­ Is a pharisee. On the other the Dominican p er e Bruc~berge'l" heard it; and that there w11 in values. Meursault is condemned, lquity, the need for penance and man who detects the failure and ("Bruck"). Camus' .n 0 ·t e books the heart. of believers and un­ tn fact, for not playing that game, for a return to decent ch:trchgoing points to it, without fulfilllng an abound In sp'irituaI nosegays like believers a solitude which did as u made abundantly clear when lives. In ·other words the plague equivalent obligation himself, u these, culled from the g·arden of not cea11e to ifOW as the daya the prosecution proves to the ls a punis,hment. But for what, also a pharisee. Camus had an Bruck's conversation. went by and the executioners jury's outra2ed satisfaction that precisely? Sin! Later he learns, exquisite eye for this kind o·f "G. has the look of a priest, a multiplied, It was later ex· the accused did not weep at his by working with the doctors in the thing, as his novels show (see espe- sort of episcopal unction. ·And I plained to me that the condem­ mother's funeral In the trial the "resistance," that things are not cially the perfect pbarisalsm of can hardJ.y bear It In Bishops." nation bad indeed been uttered, sentimental exploitation of this quite so simple as all that and that Clamence In The Fall).' According "Those Christian Democrats but in the lan'1Ua~e of encycli­ fact curiously assumes a greater such ·a black-and-white interpreta­ to him, pharisaisn:i is one of the give me a pain in the neck." cals, whleh is not clear. The lmportance than the murder it- tion of social or moral crisis no worst plagues of our time. In The Camus naively said to Bruck: condemnation had been pro­ i;elf. The whole prosecution is longer convinces anyone. He pro- Stranger the whole trial Is an "As a young man I thoug-ht all nounced but It had .not been 1ensational, pharisaical and in- ceeds .to a new position which is, exhibition of the pure pharisaism priests were happy." Bruck re­ understood. Who cannot see in deed irrelevant to the actual case. however, still unconvincing be­ of French bourgeois culture. plied: "Fear of losing their faith this where the real condemna­ All through the trial. the accused, cause no one can make out quite Camus Is no less aware of the makes them limit :their sensitivity. tion lies? Who does not see though not particularly smart, what it Is. He now, in fact, de­ pharisaism of Marxists, 11s we see H becomes merely a negative v<>ca­ that this example contains with­ gradually realizes that society is mands a wager of blind faith that in the Jong section devoted to tlon. They don't face up to Hfe." in It one of the elements of the interested not In what he really sounds like fatalism. In the end he them in The Rebel. And Camus added: "His dream, a answer, perhaps the whole an­ did but onlv in completely re- lays down his life, but his sacrifice 1f it is not the business of the great conquerin.g clergy, but swer to the question you have con'structing .his personality and is ambiguous because; for obscure non-believer to judge the Chris- magnificent in its poverty and asked me? What the world ex­ his actions to make him fit Its own motives of bis own, be has refused tian's behavior, lit is qevetrtheless audacity." Pover·ty and audacity pects of Christians is that capricious requirements-:-its need medical help. essential that the Christian be a were two qualities that appealed Christians speak out and utter for the compleat evildoer. There Is in The Placue· a ·de- Christian if he is going to engage, more and more to Camus. He their condemnation in such a And now the prison chaplain, cisive dialogue between Rieux the as atristian, in dialogue with looked for them, a.s we &>hall see, way that never a doubt, never having taken for granted all that doctor and Paneloux the p!':.2st somebody e'..se. Already. in 'those in the Catholic Church but did a sinile doubt can arise In the has been decided in the court- after they have witnessed the suf­ days Camus had run into CathoMcs not always find them. heart of even the simolest man. room, proceeds to work the pris- ferings and death of a child. Pane­ who, in their eagerne~ to be III That Christians get out of their oner over in the interests of other loux no longer has any glib ex­ "open," wer.e willing to throw It would unduly complicate this abstractions and stand face to requirements: the need for a com- planation, but only suggests that their Catholicism out the window. article to go into Camus' difficul­ face with the bloody mess that pleat penitent. Since to repent we must love what we cannot un­ True, the example he cites ls not ' ties wi:th the Augustinian theology Is our history today. The g"ath­ one must first believe, the chap- derstand. Rleux replies, "I have a convincingly scandalous. In a dis- of sin ·and grace, and the reasons erlnc we need today ls the lain simply tries to convince different conception of love. And cussion with MaTxists at the Sor- why be took scandal at a certain gathering together of men who Meursault that in bis heart of I shall refuse to the bitter end to bonne, a Catholic priest had stood pessimistic religious approach to are resolved to speak out clear­ hearts he "really believes" but love {his scheme of things In up and exclaimed, "I too am anti- the problem of evil. But we recall ly and pay with their own per­ does not know that he believes. which children are tortured." Th-is clerical." There are a lot of us that at the University of Algiers, son. When a Spanish bishop Meursault replies that though be is a caricature of the theology of who know exactly what be meant Camus wrote the equivalent of an blesses political executions he cannot be quite sure what inter- evil. Does Christianity demand and would, by now, be wlllin·g to M.A . . thesis on "Plotinus and St. Is no loncer a bishop or a ests him, be is quite certain of that one "love a system, an ex­ join >him in ·Ms declaration, if by Augustine." J.t ls not enough to Christian or even a man • • • what does not interest him: and planatlon, a Scheme of things," "anti-clerica1is.m" is meant' weari- say, as one recent writer has. said, We expect· and I expect that all this includes the whole question which for its coherence demands neSB and exaspera1tion with the that if Camus had read Teilhard those will gather together who of religion. Meursault is right to that people be tortured? Is that seminary veneer of self-assurance., de Chardin instead of Augustine do not want to be dO&'!I anll feel offended by the priest's self- what the Gospel and the Cross Intolerance, exi:ert knowledge of he would have been more likely who are determined to pay the assurance, which simply adds to mean? To some Christians, unfor­ inscrutable sciences, and total mo- to become a Christian. Mayqe so, price that has to be paid U man the affront that the court has vis- tunately, yes. And it ls they who maybe not. :But he remained more is to be somethin&" more than 1ted upon his dignity as a person. present Camus with an absurdity or less lmpa.led on the same a doc. All through the Imprisonment against which he must revolt. This dilemma a.s Ivan Karamzov: If This Is strong meat and it baa and the trial, the prisoner has in is not a question of ill-will or cul­ there ue evn and suflering in the 1ost nothing of its strength. since fact been treated as if he were pable scandal-only a tragic mis­ world, and if God is omnipotent, 1948. It can be repeated today, not there as if be were so com- understanding. Camus' evaluation then •the fact that He permit& the and perhaps with greater effect plete a n~nentity that he was not of the Church is not unusual and evil must mean that He ls re- than before, since the Vatican able to think or even experience not totally unsympathetic, but it apcmsible for it. Allld if the evil Council· has so obviously and ex­ anything validly for himself. "I Is especially worth attending to, h11 to exist in ord-er ·somehow to plicitly told all Catholics to llstea am with you," says the chaplain since Camus has retained a kind jll8tlfy the divine omnipotence, to what the world has to say to with smug assurance based on of moral eminence (which he him­ then Camus will return bis ticket them. This Is it! perfect moral superiority, "but self often repudiated) as the con­ to paradise, he doesn't want to go Camus' challenge is nothing you cannot realize this since you science of a new generation. By there if it means admitting that new. We can say the same thine bave a blinded heart." In the end reason of his personal Integrity, this ls "right." to ourselves, and we do when we the prisoner reacts with violent his genius, his eloquence and hu Stated in the terms in which are In the mood. And yet there indignation against this cumula- own record In protest and resist­ be states it, the problem becomes remain always that fatal ambiguity, tive refusal of lawyers Chis own ance, Camus still speaks to our an esthetic one which cannot that confusion, the muddle, the included), judges, jury, the press, world with resounding authority. really be solved by logic or meta- fuss, the hesitation, the with­ the Church and society at large His judgments carry much more physics: a question of structure drawd into obscurity, and finally that Is unsatisfactory because it the negation of what we just said. to accept him as a person. There conviction than tho~e of Sarti;e, in it is considerable bite in the sen- for example, who has thrown in lacks ha·rmony and unity-it ls We give 'out with one hand and tence "I answered that he was his lot with Marxist power poli­ fact to him. esthetically aqd take It all back with the other. not ~Y Father, he was with the tics, or those of Marcel and m-0rally absurd. He cannot accept We promise everything and then it others." After all what Is a Fa- Mounler. who, though respected because it repels his lmagina- cancel it all out by promising the. ther whose relation with his "son" outside the Church, have exercised Rita Corbin tlon. It is like a play that falls opposite to someone else. In a apart in the third act. To demand word we have to p!ease everybody. is no· more than his relation with their influence mostly inside It. r.al superiority to the laity. Nevec­ • chair or a table-and a chair . u. that one simply accept this with So we are uncertain, dubious, theless, if one ls a priest, one can­ resignation and to say it ls "right" obscure. And fin.ally we just give that is about to be thrown out If we as Catholics wish to get not all<>w oneself the rather In­ (in the sense of 11tisfactory to up and keep our mouths shut. with the rubbish? some Idea of what the secular decent luxury of repudiating one'• man's deepest sense of fittingness Fully to understand the impllca­ Another iron.le sentence shows world thinks of us and expects of fell'<>w priests en bloc· in order to and order) is simply an affront to tlons of Camus' stark demand we up what Camus thought of the us we can still with profit turn to lnd:ulge one's own vanity or man, thinks Camus. And a lot of have to see it against the back­ Church, as exemplified at least by Camus and queston him on the wounded feelings. It Is quite true, otber people go aloni with him. ground of his t•h-0ught and not this priest: "Accordinc to him the subject. As a matter of fact, and we must admit it, that life as a We need not argue the theoretical against the background of what has Justice of men was nothing and shortly after the end of the War, priest in these times of questioning point• here. been standard practice in Ghris- the justice of God everything". I the avant-&"arde Dominicans at the and renewal is ne;ther simple n<>r What is crucially Important in tian society for centuries. We can remarked that It was the former publising house of Le Cerf Invited easy. One has to live with things our world ls not evil as an ab- accept with great good will that had condemned me." The Camus to come and answer this that do not seem to 'be authentbic straci scenario but evil as an ex- Camus' declaration of the neces­ chaplain appears to make a dis- important question. Notes on the or honest, let alone· agreeable. One istential fact. It is here tnat sity to protest againiSt injustice t inction between the justice of talk were preserved. They are Is likely to be impa1tient for re­ Camus speaks most clearly to the and evhl.. But when we look a little man and the justice of God, but very instructive antf h:w~ lost none forms ·that are not only Long in Ohurch. The unbeliever and the closer at society the picture Is not in actual fact he has , assumed of their validity today. coming but may never come at all. Christian both live I.µ a w<>rld in so simple. It ls on the contrary that · the justice of man is the Camus opened his remarks to And one may at the ~ame time be which they confront evil and the very Intricate, and threads work justice of God and that the truth the Paris Dominicans with some the target of crit:icism Wlhlc.b, absurd. They have dltrere.nt ways within threads In a complex social of the verdict is the truth <>f God. Interesting observations on dia­ though ambiguous, has enough of understanding these facts, but tapestry in which, everywhere, When bourgeois society speaks, logue. We are by now familiar ground in fact f our fellow Catholics. We mucli for granted by him that he requires openness and honesty, free himself of these distressing thentic protest and resistance. are involved everywhere in every­ does not even think of question- and this supposes first of all that conditions by joining some Nldical Camus then raises the question thing and we have to go easy . .. ing It. on both sides there ls a complete minority and taking up · a position that bas recently been h-0tly de- Perhaps that Is why it is so simple Another priest, more subtly por- willingness to accept the other as from whioh 1he -can righrteousily bated as a result of Hochhuth's to blast . off a-gainst Communism. · trayed by Camus, ls the Jesuit he is. This also presupposes a attack his fellow cler.gy. If what The Deputy. Why did not Rome There are no bishops of OUl\'I in Paneloux In The Plague. In this willingness to be oneself and not he see·ks by t·hls ls comfort for his speak out more clearly and force- Russia and we have nothing in­ novel Camus created a great mod- ·pretend to be someone else. On own ego and recognition by .an in­ fully aiainst the crimes and bar- vested there exeept hopes. Com­ ern myth in which be described the part of the non-believer group of his own choice. Camus barities of Nazism? munism has made It easy for us: man's condition in this life on (Camus courteously begins with warns him that Jie ls deluding Why shall I not say this here? by la 1ingle-minded hostility to eart~. It refers more especially to the non-believer) it Is esstntial to himself. For a long time I walt.ed during the Ohurch it bas become- the one French society. We know that The avoid a kind of secular pharisaism Nevertheless, we must .not take thpse terrible years, for a .fqrce we can .always -condemn f Plague is also about the German (pharisaisme laique) which in the Camus' dis1ike of ~ ·anti-eledcal strong voice to , be lifted u,p in w.l thou t compi;omise at any 1. occupation of France, and Pane- name of Christianity demands priests" too, absolutely.-. He did Rome. I an unbeliever? ;Exa.ct- moment .... until, perhaps we start l loux represent• in some sense the more of , the Christian than the not mean ito silence •ll public ly. For. I knew that spirit ma·~ deal.I with Communbm l --.. .. I December, 1966 THE CATHOLIC WORKER Page Fi"e hope for a little 1upport. U 1he ten by h11 friend Bryce Paraln. an have . to rebuild our world aa cannot lead, ahe can at least exlatentiallat who became a Cath­ that we have to rethink Jt. Thia follow! ollc ln the late forties, when he amounts to saying that we have In the same interview, speaking was closely associated wfth Cam­ to give 1t back ibl language .•• ND THE CHURCH of the poet Rene Char, "the big- us. In fact we cannot do full jus· The vocabularies that are pro­ gest event in French poetry since tlce to Camus' relations with the posed to us are of no use to from pa1e 1) Rimbaud," he says he expects far .Church without taking into con­ us ... and there is no point in more from poets than from moral-, sideration his interest in the ideas e Byzantine exercise upon too. Then there will ~ n5ycho­ money, which is vile, nor with profound level. ferings of men . . . loglcal, and other planes. And ca.Uone, Ca.mua aees ''the abeurd." that pitiable thin2 they call 'La In an age of highly academic It ls unfortunately true that What we accept 111d come to term1 the structure C}f this world is Morale'." (Note that in French linguistic analysis, Camus appre­ the "Byzantine exercises," not only with, he ~nounces and retsi&ts. penetrated and informed by sin. primary schools there is-or was elated the courage of Paraln, who of logical p05itivism (which never­ The "absurd" of Camua i1 not The child ls not born in Para­ -a weekly class in "La Morale" sees the problem of language as theless has a certain limited value) _ the metaphysical &b&urd and dise. It is born in a criminal in which the children memorize ultimately a metaphysical prob­ but of all kinds of technical a-nd aeant of Sartre, and hU "revolt" humanity. In order to have ac· the most appalling platitudes. One lem. The questioning of meaning specialized ·thinking, tend to re­ 1.- not the Sartrian na\J.9ea. The cess to justice, to sanctity, the wonders if our catechism is much raises the whole question of real­ move us from the world in which ablurd of Ca.mus ls the gap be­ chlld, as it grows up, will have better.) ity itself and in the end Parain others, and we ourselves, are t een the actual shape of life to make a personal act C}f judg­ It was said above that The is asking one thing above all: can plunged in the dangers and the. ment, of refusal, of choice. H and intelli~ble truth. Ab6urdi:ty is Rebel is not a fully successful language make sense if there is sufferings C}f an increasingly ab­ eempounded by the ambiguoU& and will have to make ·a personal thesis on revolt. In spite of some no God? In other words; what is surd and unmanageable social false explanations, interpretations, act of Otpposi•tion to the values acute and detailed analysis and the point of talking about truth situation. As Camus and Parah1 coI1JVention.s, justification.s, legali­ of its tribe, of its caste, of Its diagnosis. nothing is very posi- and falsity if there is no God? Is have seen: we ha.ve to rethink that u.tions, evasions which infect our nation or of its race, and of its tively prescribed. But there re- not man, in that case, reduced to whole situation and we .no long­ 1truggling civilization with "the .social class, in order to attain mains a basic ambiguity in the putting together a series of more er possess it.he language with which· plague," and which oflten bring us justice. To a cel'tain extent it to do it. mo.st dangerously close to perfect wm have to leave its tribe, its Such a language will necessarily Bihilism when they offer a security nation, its care, its class, its race, confine itself at first to formu­ llased on a seemingly rational uu as Abraham the father of the lating what ls accessible to all ol ab6olute power. f.aithtful did, he left Ur of the men. But it will not talk down to H is here that we are forced to Chaldees to go into a country them or cajole them. It will enable confront the presence of "the that he did not !mow. Holiness them to lift th~mselves up. Yet if absurd" in the painful, humiliating begins wi·th a breach. Nothing the al'tist, the peasant, the .scien­ contradiction.s and ambiguities can dispense this child from tist and the workman are all go­ which are coll6tantly and every· breaking with "the world." In ing to communicate together, their where evident in our behavior as order to enter into Christianity, language will have to have a cer· -Christians in the world. To men­ the child will have to choose be­ tain simplicity and austerity in tion only one: the scandal of men tween the values of the world, order to be clear to them all with­ who claim to believe in a rellgion •the values C}f the tribe, its na­ out degrading thought. This means of love, mercy, forgiveness, and tion or its social class, and the not the attainment of a pure clas· peace, dedicating themselves values of the Gospel. It must sic prose (though Camus admits wholeheartedly and single-mind­ renew its scale of values. It he thinks of a "new Classicism") edly to secular ideologies of hate, must, as it were, be .born anew, but rather of a kind of "superior cruelty, revenge and war and from the spiritual point of view; banality" which will consist in lending to those ideologies the it must become a new creature. "returning to the words of every­ Tertullian said one Ls not born aupport of a Christian moral Rita Cor)Jin. body, but bl'inging to them the casuistry. And when the Church a Christian. One becomes a honesty that is required for them officially examines her conscience Christian. The access to Chris­ book. In his study of modern or less arbitrary noises in the soli­ to be purified of lies and hatred.'' tianity represents a new birth. before the world and repudiates revolutionary violence and his tude of a mute world? Are these It is at this point that we can see this contradiction, many Catholiai One can ·then legitimately dis· analysis of its inevitable trend to- - noises anything more than the what Camus is asking not only of &till find W!ays of ignoring and tinguish between the state which ward tyranny and mass murder, signals of animals and birds? intellectuals but a!so of the precedes this new birth and the evading the consequences C}f what Camus attributes this to the god- True, our noises exist in a very Church: this purification and resti­ the Church has said. "The arms state which follows it. The stiate lessness of modern revolution- complex on-going context of de­ tution of lang-uag-e so that the race is an utterly treacherous trap which precedes this new birth aries. At the same time he admits velopment and are richly associ­ truth may become once ag-ain un­ for humanity and one which is the state which the Church that without God there can be n-0 ated with one another and with ambicuous and fully accessible to call "original sin." injures the poor to an intolerable rational philosophy and practice Of other cultural phenomena: but all men, especially when they need (Christian Metaphysics) degree Divine Providence nonviolence. Yet he still cannot can they be true? And does this to know what to do. urgently demands of WI that we But does the Catholic Church make the Pascalian wager of faith µ:iatter? Or are they merely in­ I think that everybody wlll free ourselves from the age-old clearly and always deline the re­ (by which he seems at times to cidents in a developing adventure readily admit that the language of 1lavery of war. But if we refuse to lation of the Christian to secular be tempted). II there ls to be a that will one day end in some the Church is distinguished by a make this effort ..." (Vatican society in these terms? Does it choice between f;iith and the ab- kind of meaning but which, for "superior banality," but this is Council II, Gaudium et Spes, 81.) not in fact, like the chaplain in surd, his stoic conscience will, in the time being, has none? not the kind that Camus was talk· Who is making a really serious ef­ The Stranger, identify itseU at the end, dictate the choice of the Parain rejects this post-Hegelian Ing about. We can certainly say fort? .A few of WI are perhaps Umes with this society? absurd. And the "absurd man" of position and returns to the classi­ that the Ohurch speaks without thinking· it over! Certainly the For Camus it is clear that a Camus remains strangely isolated cal idea of language as able to hatred and that she does not lie. Church has spoken without am­ certain type of thinking and talk­ even though, if he is consistently provide grounds for at least ele­ On the other hand, as we saw, it biguity, though still in ofiflctial ing, a certain mental attitude, faithful to his steady view of the mentary certitude. If language ls quite possible for her to speak language: but if Christians them­ even though it may be vested in absurd, he should proceed to a has no meaning then nothing has in such complex, unclear, evasive .telves do not pay attention, or the most edifying pontifical revolt that joins him in solidarity any meaning. Language has and bureaucratic language that simply shrug it.he whole thing off, cliches, betrays a firm commit­ with other men of his own kind. enough meaning, at least, to re­ her message ls simply inaccessible the ambiguity persists, and it is ment to economic and political But this solidarity lacks human assure us that we are not floating even to a reader of some education perhaps more disconcerting than interests which are incompatible validity unless ft fs in the service in a pure void. In other words, and average patience. With a few it was before. The prisoner in The in the long run with the message of life and humanity. In other -communication becomes possible, outstand·lng exceptions, the clergy, lStnng-er did not even hope that of the Gospel, the true teaching words, revolt ls legitimate only if and with it community, once it Catholic thinkers, teachers, wri>t­ the chaplain would be any les.s of the Church and the Christian it refuses all complicity with mass is · admitted that our words are ers, .too often speak so confusedly, absurd than the lawyers and the mission in the world. It ls the murder and total!sm of whatever capable of being true or false and i • • Page Sis THE CATHOLIC WORKER December, 1966 On Pilgrimage New Front In Delano (Continued from page 1) (Continued from Page 2) first winter in California, and out file unionists-patiently walk tba and the sick. And every other day noon I t<>ok a bus from A1'bany at of fear, stupidity or necessity, picket lines, scheme their way they have not joined the buelga. into newspapers, and raise money is spent in prayer and study in the one-thirty, which brought me in1o Boston at six. CaHing John Oort's No work for the scabs, and very and food. Then there are the church. A m o n g the Samari- home, I f<>und that I was just in little opportunity to picket for the truck-chasers: strikers who f<>l­ taines is Fr. Saey's mother, now time for the wake. Arriving strikers. About a hundred strik- low the loads of grapes to dis­ eighty-five, and there are eight in at the funeral parl<>r, I met ers went to Los Angeles last week tributors and stop them wibh their infirmary. The day of the Arthur Sheehan, Ignatius O'C<>n­ for a "gate collection" at the en- pi~ket _lines. There is th~ boycot~ 1 Samaritaines begins at six with a nor, Cat!herine Ahearn, John Kelly, trance to the big auto plants and third m a successful line. This meditation and then Mass. They the Oorts and Oharles Dasi<>li, Oni missile factories. The money they ' one is against Perelli-Minetti and live on alms and keep silence ex­ Shea and her !husband and two of raised will help bolster the de- Sons, a winery. an~ vineyard. i11 cept where charity and their work lher children, and tw<> of the Lit­ pleted strike fund. Without the McF-arland, California, five miles makes speech neceessary. It was tle Sist~rs of Jesus who live in help of the AFL-CIO, we prob- from here. they themselves who rejected the that area and work at manual la­ ably couldn't make it, but their And there is the principle ol hour a day of recreation and talk bor in a Catholic Hospital. There help is not really enough for us nonviolence, which permeates all which Father Saey suggested for was a beautiful service led by 'lo make it very comfortably. of these activities. The picket lin• them. He gives two confer·ences a Father Francis from tlhe British Cesar is . in Mexico, presumably passed the test"last month, when, week and two on Sunday. The Honduras. laying the groundwork for closing after the striker Manuel Rivera room was lined with shelves of The wake service is contained the border, an essential task if was viciously run down by a , 1 books, all uniformly covered with in Our Parish Pran and Sings, a the strike is ever really to change rancher's truck and crushed, they ·1 bcown paper and neatly titled. book published by the Liturgical the lives of farm workers in all did not retaliate. This kind ol They enjoy bhe best of spiritual Press at Collegeville, Minnesota. California and Texas. And while thing is very, very hard to do, be-­ reading and conversation, one Ther~ were additiona~ readings he was gone, one of the old-line cause it makes you very angry to might say, with the great. They fr<>m the Scriptures, including AFL-CIO organizers who has been see someone run down like thi.3. listen to them and sipeak to them tha•t wonderful scene from the helping us, was tortured and Rivera is slowly recovering. and to God in prayer. 36th chapter of Ezekiel, which bas maimed in the most bestial man- A week later that same picket Abbe Saey started to give re­ so comforted me in time of war: ner by unknown assailants. It is line saw the capitulation of the treats in 1937 and ceased to give "Come from the four winds, 0 a huge power game, deadly se~ rancher, Goldberg and Sons, mak­ them in 1942. He can no longer br-eath, and breathe upon these rious, and all of us are willing ing the third victory for the farm give retreats, and the women with slain that they may live. Thus pawns in that game, because the workers: Schenley, DiGiorgio, and Wlhom he works are silent, so there says the Lord God: Behold, I will stakes are very high, not for our- now Goldberg. are no new recruits for this work. open your graves, 0 my people; selves, but for the farm workers, "Leroy's H-0use," next door to I warned him that if I wrote &bout and I will bring you home int-0 A Farm who have no way out if we fail. the Pink House, shelters a small this work he was liable to receive the land of Israel. And you shall Outside of the power game, co.rip.s of shock troops, who are ex­ visits from many kinds of app.Ji­ know that I am the Lord, when I there is the daily routine, which perts Clike Gilbert Padilla) in get­ cants, so great is the hunger for open your graves and raise you With a View is not deadening because we can ting benefits to which farm-work­ holiness, but so few count the cost from your graves, 0 my people. see the whole picture and our in- er union members and strikers are or can pay it. However, anyone And I will put my Spirit within (Continued from page 3) dividuM place in it. Every day entitled t<> under state welfare and attracted to such a vocation should you, and you shall live, and I will Marty Corbin, Kay Lynch, Joe de Manuel Sanchez and Helen Serda disability laws. There is also a place you in your own land; then be given a chance to try it. No one "bold court" in their hiring hall credit union, and there will soon Carlo, Pasquale, and I went to be t w h · could Jive in such silence or in you shall know that I, the Lord, -which is a part of an old tor- a co-op s ore. e ave a p1eca 1uoh hard manual labor if she was have ~oken, and I have done it, Bard College to hear Olga Andrey- tilla factory facing the freeway, of land, eighty acres outside of priests look back on a full and fruitful whom of us know so little. We to organize those three states, "Farm W<>rker Press." Every tM» who wish to update the Samari· were delighted a week or so later using the small helps that we can weeks we publish a magazine con­ taines, but, as Father Saey points life. She had started the Catholic wihen Professor Minihan came to give th.em. The process is just as cerning the farm-worker move- Worker in Boston, and Arthur out, there is not much U1Pdating to Sheehan and John Magee had visit Helene her~ at the farm ana simple• and as complex as that. ment called El Malcriado. lt cos.ta be done about the family wash of come to liv.e in the house on Tre­ continued the discussion in our din- Medical Care $2.50 a year and is- well worth It. l·ng room As one might eX!pect on (For instance, Princeton Universit• the poor. Two parishes are merg- mont Street which Peter Maurin · While all this is going on, two ~ ing, and ther e is a rumor that be is and Stanley Vishnewsky and oth- a farm with woodland paths and trailers, sitting in a . muddy e.n- saw fit to pay us the exol'bita:nt . to be trans.ferred. But be ~as out- ers had often visited. They had an i ncoin ,.·,..arable. vi·em"• u" ralking campment on the ed"e of Delano, sum of one hundred dollara"' for a lasted pastors and other vicars at ld d ·ed on d·is . ls f •t d. r ·on ,.. set of ba'Ok issues): - th t so papers an carri - is a o · a avon e ive si · bulge with people. This is the St. Ireneus. Karl told me _a cussions on the Boston Oommon. T.he other day I particularly en- miraculous Farm Workers Health We also publish books and ree- . d lk up the high and ards about the strike. Huelg-a, bw Anne F·reemantle once asked him ·Hospitality continued for many Joye a wa Clinic, which has actually sur- ·~ ·11 hi.ch i's the si·te of Eu"ene Nelson, co.sts $1.50. It t.ells where to go to confession and he years. The Upton farm was bou~bt woo d e d h1 w vived since the beginning of the " sent her to Father Saey. When by the Boston group; four f.amilies J 1m. •s 'h ermi't age. J im. an d Joe • the strike on donations of time and the story of the early days ol tne . des along the strike and has some pictures-. be saw her on her return her settled there and twenty-eight b u ild ers, ac t e d as gul . money by dedicated doctors who comment wa.~, "Another St. John children grew up ·there. Ed Willock wav an d cruou-'- t th e house · It is a drive three hundred miles from Basta, a very beautiful book of 1 tif l h 'tage where Con ·photos. and text, costs $2. The 33 of t11e Cross. came to the Boston house and beau u ermi • · · San Francisco to Delano in order · On the St. Lawrence decorated its. walls with murals, te1111plation will surely d~ell. · But to spend a day treatini people rpm. record, costinlil'. $3.98, is Vina The next morning I .tarted for and went from there to help start Jim himseLf should describe it. . who desperately need their heal- La. Ca,asa. 'It's sort off rouih, but Some of us enjoy more intellec- ing hands. In my only profession- Pete Seeger liked it, and it is cer­ home but stopped at Caughnawaga, tihe Worcester House of Hospital­ tainly unusual-. . an Indian village, to visit with ity, and married -0ne of .the girls tual and esthefic pursuits. Although al contact with them, their volun- The Farm W<>rker Press is • Father Plante, the nephew of who came to help; later he came folk singing continues p-0pular, teer dentist fixed up my rotting lik 1 t r t t ~ &S the strike of whh;h it i., . Father Pacifique Roy, the priest of to New York to start the ma.gazine some of us e a so o is en ° teeth. The "professional" r-ela- an integral ' pnt, and it is only whom I have written so often, Jnterrity with Carol Jackson. recorded classical or liturgical tionship was gone; here another thr-0ugh ail kinds of financial gym• and he gave me more ma-terial for From that magazine came a com­ music. One night recently Helene human being simply he-lpini me, nasties that it is possible to pub­ the book I am writing, All Is munity of iamilies up the Hudson, Iswolsky, Marty, Jim McMurry, and together' we were part o! the llsh these 1blngs. Right now ~ Grace. We talked about the re- wi.thin ,commuting distance fro!ll Joe de Ca-rlo, and I gathered in whole thing that ·is the Delano need money badly. At first r waa treat movement, about fhe family, New Y<>rk, who built eaeh others' Helene's, which has become our strike. I guess that is what com- selling "shares" . of ownership iu about Indians, and about the river houses and aided each other in Russian center, to heiir Jim and · munlty really means. It really Farm Worlter Press to our support­ .- itself, which·we looked out on while sickness and in !health. Thltt com­ Joe give a reading of some of their w_prks: In spite of horrible condi- ers fQr $10 -each; but the ranchers 1 we ate lunch together In- a little munity is· stm there. and the farm poems. The poems were good and tions, impos~ble tasks, disorgan- are always keeping the Jaw down aitHng room in the old rectory. ait Upton, though. . both the old were well 'read. I am glad ~at I ization and occasional stupidity, on us, and my laiwyer tells me tbat. Up to forty ships a day 10 Boston and the Worooster houses have them on tape, and can list~n thjg saving force provides a con- If we continue, I will go to jail. throu~h the locks ol ~ St. Law- are no longer operating. But John to them again. tinual regeneration !or everyone So I will beg readers- of th I rence and ·tJhey seem to ride high McKenna, a teacher, and the Tonight as· I sat at my typewrit- here: our value as individuals is Catholic Worker to send us. $16 .abov. you, great vessels of twenty- former Cathie Sullivan, who Is er: Helene came to my room to reaffirmed in the obvious value of "t.okens of support," so that- we can six thousand tons, bearing wheat or 111ow his wife, have been running a tell me that it was snowipg. I put the whole scene. It is because of carry <>n our very important worfl:, iron ore. In mi:d-December every- .house of 'h0&pitality in. ·tp-e slums on my coat arid stepped out on this that the scabs want the strike of keeping everyone informed; 1 thin1 is frozen and t.raffic stops, but of Bo.ston and now 'at Roxbury, the roof which we call the sun to win, that Dolores has the about' the strike, ·and more irn­ it begins again around Easter. They for the past year. deck. I 'felt the wet flakes on my strength. to tlibt against hard- Jl(>r.tant, of pr<>viding a newspaper are contemplating, it ia said, an- It is not of these ttllnga that llhe chee!C and the accumulated soft- bitten arbitration lawyers, that for the £.arm workers which is the.Ir 1 other great w.aterway connecting newspapers spoke in their obit­ ness under my feet. I heard the the Teatro can so easily communi- rk as secretary white moment, I thought of the In describing the whole thing, contributions to th~ Union, oc to . , of bhe year. They have robbed 1ihe of the Im.temational Ladia' Gar­ true meaning of Christmas. I I haven't evep scratched the iur- the Clinic, but we do need money Indians even here at the reserva- ment Workers' Union for inany prayed that all our friends and face: people fanning out from ourselves very badly, and I am not tion, taking the river front, Which years. She had aided the worker readers might enjoy a holy and Delano across the whole country: .ashamed to beg for it because ol is now Crown property, for Sea- in the needle tr-ides, and she blessed Christmas with the peace Jerry and Jane Brown in tbe the. work we are d-0lng. way. had 'helped the· imemploye,d and which only the Christ Child can vineyards of New York State;· Eu- An.d als-0, ple.a.se go to y-oor Boston Requiem the unemployable$. A great and give. O Mary, Mother of God, gene Nelson, Tony Crendain.. and liquor store, and ask ifuem to take Two weeks af.ter I got back I beautiful life. May •be rest ln pray for us that we may not forget the Chandlers in Rio Grande City, Perelll-Mine.tti products off their received a telephone call at Tivoli peace. that where there are those who are Texas, the end of the world, hold- shelves. Their hr.ands ar. Elnea telling me of the death of Jane hungry, He is hungry, where there ing out against. the impossible Cellars' and Trlbano. Marra, wh o was responsible for "Not what thou an, nor what are those who are cold, He is cold, odds of an open border and ruth­ starting all the Catholic Worker thou hast been, doth God reg"ard where there are those who are suf- less police repression. The strike . ALBERT CAMUS: with mercital Qes-but what feting, He is suffering. Hark; the· is ori the streets of San Francisco, acli11jties in the Boston area. She hiii "Lfberb- is not _a , cttt that one was to tie buried ·from the cathe­ thou Wouldst be." . herald - angelS sing. Peace · on . where . our workers there-chu~ch dral on Wednesday, to Tuesday · The · Clo.ud of Unb~ eartll· l<> men of &ood wilL people, y-0una radicals, rank-and- -lvea from a atate or a leader." Dttemher, 1966 THE CATHOLIC WORKER Jim Wilson's Day_ in Court Visiting a ~risoner CContinued from page 1) wa1 one of joy and gaiety. Miss u were here, in this courtroom, BJ' CHARLES BUTTERWOR-TH _ Day spoke eagerly of the hnpor- being granted to him? and didn't Some of our friends anc\ visitors one and would be very happy to tance and power of Mass, of Jim's he (Jim) think that it was neces­ will undoubtedly remember Tony, hear from friends who knew him act as a form of martyrdom; she .sary, in order to preserve these who used to help Roger O'Neil at the CW. If you can use hand­ spoke, too, of how strongly she felt rights, that Americans, kom time give out clothes at the old Chrys­ stitched leather goods (w oman's about Jim, whose absolutist posi- to time, f,ight for them? Not meet­ tie Street house. He. was kn.own shoulder bag, man's wallet, key tion, unencumbered by laWYers in_g with the response he desired, to us then as Tony Morrisev. case, etc.), for gifts or personal and compromise, stark in its Chris- he then went on to observe that When we moved fo Spring Street use let him know what you would tianity, was truly that of the Cath- Jim was "a very wr-0ng man with at the beginning of 1959 Tony did like. olic Worker. Mass seemed, how- a high degree of immaturity,"-one n.ot go with us. In 1960 we learned His address is: Robert Morton, ever, uppermost in their miOOs at who looked up<>n himself as a law that he had been arrested, and I 49026-C, Reidsville, Georgia 30453. the moment; rage, unfortunately, unto himseLf; who obeyed only went to visit him in jail at 100 being uppermost in mine, I did not those he liked.. He had no choice Centre Street. He and two other ask'. if -I might join them. but to condemn such arrogant Im- Book Review men bad been cau_ght trying to The ride from dreary New York .maturity. Judge Shaw then sen- steal some whiskey from a bar. to dismal Newark was uneventful, tenced J·im Wilson to three years' THE RESPECTABLE MURDER- On this charge Tony did over two yet fraught with anxiety and ten- im'Prisonment. ERS bJ Paul Hanly Furfey. years in Auburn prison. Mean­ sion. Arriving in plenty of time, Jim Wilson comes from an up- Herder & Herder, $i.50. Re- while he became engaged to a Dorothy invited Pat and me to per-middle-class background and a viewed by ST•ANLEY VISH- girl he had worked with at St. breakfast in a restaurant near the most conservative town in New NEWSKI. Vincent's Hospital. Federal Co~rt Building. A joyful Jersey. Working with us he pre- Look in the mirror. What do As soon as he was released from bre'.11dast, m her words. But, ferred the raw r eality of the first you see there? A smiling kindly Auburn, Tony was arrested again. agam, I could not meet that occa- floor of Chrystie Street's St J<>· · · 1 f Th fl r f a Although we had known nothing sion. To be sure, I remembered seyh House-the unabashed. hu- Jovra a~e. ~d re t ec ion ~ of any previous trouble, it seems the joy with which the early Chris- manity of the soupline the fre- Pt erson w o wAou n; ~at~se ar;: that be was wanted by the Georgia tians are reported to have met quent and raucous figh~ the piti- - ob anytohne.l godo cf1 i~en fw o th · d th th · . • o eys e aws an re rams rom authorities. In March 1957 Tony eir ea s; e perenmal Chris- ful needs of the men on the Bow- k" ki hi d A h had been convicted in F·ulton tian paradox: one must die in or- t th d d bird fl IC ng s og. person w. o re- . ery, o e secon an entencing; shared, too, their relief peace movement, the preoccupied several memorable retreats for the However, the United States Su­ when that date was finally made Christians of our time; but also the staff and took- an active part in the preme Court refused to hear the known to them; and, in dread and minor officials of our Kafkaesque work. case and In February 1964 Tony ' bope, awaited the passing of sen- state. He tries to reach cops, p1·0- His two books (written at that was taken back to Georifa. In Prisoners for Peace tence. bation Olfficers, judges, F.B.I. time) Fire on the Earth and Mys­ escaping fram prison he had taken It was long in coming. We · had agents, even self-seeking consci­ tery of Iniquity were searing in­ a guard's ' automobile and he 1966 time to grow accustomed to the ence-ridden professionals who, dictments of the social evils in the therefore received a life sentence, The list of those imprisoned in pretentious decoi:_ of the court- 1liP5et perhaps at the polarity en 30's and at the same time outlined which he is now serving. the United States for refusal of room; the buzzing tete-a-tetes of Jim's and their lives, sought him a program of action for those in­ After investigating the case, an conscription and other anti-war lawyers and defendants in the seats out. terested in working for a Chris­ American Civil Liberties Union activities is longer this year than around us, oblivious to the drama Jim was taken away. Outside, tian social order. His latest book lawyer in Atlanta wrote to me: ever before and we hope that your going on in front of the judge; ac- our group broke up: some to take will cause many a "good citizen" "If we were successful at a readers will flol}d the prisons with customed to the harsh o1ficiousness Raona back to the city; Miss· Day to examine his conscience. hearing on the writ the maximum greeting cards during the holiday of the courtroom detectives, who and Pat Rusk to be temporarily The criminals. of our society are relief we could expect is an order season. Please remember that would not tolerate the babies cry- lost in the maze of industrial Jer­ not only the ones that have been f<>r a new trial. At such a new your card should bear only your iqg; we grew accustomed, also, to sey, then to watch the sun set, placed behind bars for the Indi­ trial, Mr. Morton (Tony ls known name and address; in most cases, the unvarying formulae - the and finally to return to the Worker vidual crimes of murder, robbery, in Georgia as Robert Morton) cards containing personal mes­ monotonous repetitions-,of Judge for dinner· still others remained rape. No-according to Monsignor might possibly get the death pen­ sages will not be delivered. A few Shaw who, in addressing each de- to be with 'the Jehovah Witness as Furfey, the greatest crimes in his­ alty for robbery by force. In ad­ minutes of y-0ur time while pre­ fendant, addressed him in exactly he was sentenced. He was not con­ tory have been committed by the dition, he could possibly later be paring your Christmas list can ~ e same words, informing him of fused anymore. 'Yes, he was guilty so-called respectable people-the tried for his 1957 escape. A1J mean a lot for the morale of tho· e his unpar8;1leled rights and privi- of refusing to be inducted. No, he stolid, well-meaning citizens who things now stand he e<>uld pos­ who are -making the sacrmce of leges, particular, of course, to the would not accept co11nsel. N-0 he form the bulk of our society. sibly 1et a parole after serving months or years in jail for the cause of peace. The list below is pres_ent situation. would not seek CO statu.s. No: he The real criminals -and murder­ seven years. I think, after study-­ Fmally, after all the arraign- would not kill. The jud,ge, be­ ing this· case, that it would be to as complete as we can make it; a ers of society are the good citizens list of prisoners for p ea c e ments, after all the dull procedure, wildered hao no recourse but to (look in the mirror, dear reader) his ~ advJ1ntage not to aeek a new the time of Jim's sentencing ap- sentence' him to three years' im· trial, via habeas eorpus, but to throughout the world can be ob­ who give obedience to evil laws. tained from the War Resisters proached. A Jehovah's Witness, prisonment. Monsignor Furfey makes a claim seek a parol• based upon good League, 5 Beekman St., New York, who 1:1ad pled g~ilty, as Jim did, to Ra,ge, then, must give way to joy. for civil disobedi'ence, for what is behavior, ric., at the appropriate N.Y. 10038. re.fusmg to be mducted, was to be called the virtue of disobedience: time." aentenced first. He appeared con­ "Thieves, robbers, murderers, "To be charitable, one must often Souihern Hospitality James A. Johnson, Dennis Mora, fused and the judge s:oon convfoced swindlers are examples of what be disobedient." Having occasion to go to Dnid A. Samas, Fort Leaven­ him that he wa.s; if ihe wan!ie.d to.re­ one must not. be, and they inspire It is the good citizen, by his Georgia this 1NJD1Der, I decided to wor.th, Kansas. Christophe.r H o d g k i n, Fretl tract his plea and call for legal aid in men's minds a horror of wrong blind obedience to doubtful laws, visit Tony at the prison In R~ids­ the judge would assist him. H~ doinc. But men who commit acts his silence J1nd his disinclination to ville. I arrived at nearby Claxton Moore, Georze Jalbert, Federal waa asked to sit do"':n ..nd think it of theft, of robbery, of chastise- upset the modern conventions, on a Saturd8" night and tele­ Prison Camp, Allenwood, Pa. over. ment, and gild them with some who is responsible for the alaugh­ phoned the local Catholic church Jerry Venable, Federal Reform­ .Jim was called to the beMh. ttligioUB, acientifle, or liberal ter of the European Jews and the to ftnd out the time of Sunday atory, Chillicothe, Ohio . The judge asked if he wanted coun­ justification-who do It as land- horrors perpetrated by the Nazis. Mass. Father Richard Steinkamp Barry Bassin, Federal Peniten­ Eel .. "No, Sir" J·im replied. Judge owners, merchants, or manufac- answered and, when he learned tiary, Lewisburg, Pa. to It la Shaw then went on to point out mrers--appeal to others Imitate is ~ who responsible for the my 11ituatlon, eame for me in his Darryl Skrabak, Federal Re­ .... _ir ts th inj t _,_ bombing of noncombatant.. It is car and drove me to the rectory formatory, Lompoc, Calif. th~ ,t religious gro.unds were the MIC ac ; ey ure no o....., h h 0 · "bl f the basis !or refusing military service ihose who suffer under them, but etyw ~-s :espo~i e o; .ufov­ for a TV dinner. While we were Francis Galt, Jon Jost, Federal in this ca:se also, to which Jim thousands and millions of men er ~n . egra a on o m1 ons, eating, Father James Hite, who Correctional I n 1 t., Sandstone, whose morals they ruin by de- both m this country and abroad. agr~ed. But the Judge dropped turned out to be a friend of the Mlnn. atroJ'inc the distinction between What is horrifying and disturb­ t~ issue and s.poke of h<>w, as it Cll'thollc Worker, came in. He is Kebert Twlccer, Stockade, Fort appeared to him, Jim wa.ii4not go­ cood and e'\'Jl in these men'• ing 1-' the realiz.ation that these the chaplain at Reidsville and Hood, Texas. ing to do anything the law re­ minds. A atncle sentence of death, crimes against humanity were not knows Tony, -eo he arran&ed ior Mike Witiela, P06t Stockade, carried out by m.en not under committed by criminals outside Fort Knox, Kentucky. Q~. Interrupting the Judge, me to attend the prison Mass on the influence. of passion, by the . law; they wen! committed Paul Perrier, Stockade, Fort Jw asked if he might read his Sunday. pr09perous, edueated persons with within the framework of the legal I wu able t.o talk to Tony for Polk, La: statement, and i~meaiately, the the encourqement and assistance system-often with a farcial trial Michael Couch, Treasure Island manner of Pavlov's d{)gs, the over an hour. Visitation takes of Christian cleteymen, eorrupts to maintain some pretense of le­ Brig, Calif. Judge replied, "I .will take into place in a large room and b very and brptal.izes mankind more than gality-and the ordinary good citi­ free. There b no table between Jeffrey Whittier, Federal You '. \1 consider-ation anything, ete., etc." hu.ndreds or thousands of murden zen stood by and approved. Inst., Ashland, Kentucky. After Jim had read his statement prisoner and visitor, children are eommltted by uneducated workinc The slave system, with all its David Bell, Terry Sullivan, Wil­ which did not seem to be of great permitted to visit, husband and men, usually in an access of pas- horrors, was kept going only be­ liam McMillen, James Walsh, Fed­ Interest to the Judge, the latter wife are allowed to embrace. I sion. Every war even the shortest, cause good people believed in it rearned that conditions in the eral Correctional Inst., Danbury, asked him if there were auy other with all Its accompanyinc losses, and gave it their support. It is ln­ Conn. country in which he would be prison had improved greatly in thefts, tolerated excesses, rob-' teresting to note that the argu­ the past year or so under the new Robert A. Hill, Federal Reform­ gra~ted auch rights and p11ivileges beries, murders, with the supposed ments against the abolitionists are warden, A. L. Dutton. Tony works atory, El Reno, Oklahoma. justification of its necessity and almost the same arguments used in the prison hospital and is the Grecory Beardall, John PhilUps, lmp~rtant Notice Justice, with the praise and against the peacemakers who op­ equivalent of a practical nurse. Tom Rodd, Federal Reformatory, In the near future, the Post -glorification ef warlike deeds, with pose war as ~ a national policy. He enjoys his work and is reading Petersburg, Virginia. Office Is coinc to require ZIP prayers for the flag and the "It is apparent," Monsignor Fur­ medical books in his spare time. Murphy Dowouis, Federal Cor­ eodes on the mailfni'. of all peri­ Fatherland , and the hypocritical fey writes, "that the great lnjus­ He bas given up the idea of a new rectional Inst., Seagoville, Texas. odicals. We ask our readers to amdety for the wounded, corrupts tices of history, the exploitations trial and is instead hoping for Raymond Crane, Stockade, Fort help facilitate the extra work man more in one year than mil- of the defenseless, the massacres probation after five years. Even Jackson, South Carolina. . this will involve for us by ln­ Hons of robberies, arsons, and of the innocent, the savage per­ this will require legal expenses Felix Chavey, James M. Taylor, eludinc the ZIP · code on all murders commited by Jndividua111 secutions, are perpetrated not by and Tony bas therefore been do­ Stockade, Fort Ord, Calif. new subscriptions and chances under the influence of passions ia disreputable men who disobey ing leather work to make extra -- Anderson, Bert Kanew~ke·, of address. the eourae of hundreds of years." good laws, but by respectable men income. Naval Correcln>nal Inst., ·Ports­ LEO TOLSTOY who obey evil laws." Tony can receive mail from any- mouth, New Hampshire. .. Ptlf• Eight THE CATHOLIC WORKER December, 1966 Catholic Peace Fellowship A Poem Dedicated To Terre Des· Hommes Takes Shape In New Jersey (Written after reading Esther Frankel's letter In the July-August issue) By .JEAN KEELAN Terres des Hommes, consider how loud your voice Is. W.e were a roomful of individu­ again, we chose a date in about I can hear it, far as I am from the glaciers where I once lived, al• packed into a living room, seat­ three weeks. There was a supper, Y.odelMng out to those who hang on ropes In the blue crevasse ed on chairs .and floor, leaning in brought by those who had come, Or dangle from rock, the cord unravelling swliftly, swiftly. from the dining room or the foyer. many spirited conversations, a visit They are lost In a mountainous and eternal country, Most of us had never laid eyes on from a Congressional candidate The landscape tight-lipped, gigantic, as they swing, grimacing, each other before, but we were all who was using his campaign to ed- , Deaf to the high clear yodel saying: This Ls the way, this ls the wayl Catholics living in New Jersey: a ucate people in the moral use of white power, and gradually people (I saw the children dancing in Southeast Asia in August, di·aftsman, a textbook-company Dancing daintily, prettily, with their scarves of napalm, consultant, a hotel worker, a teach­ left, thanking one another warmly Albert Camus for the experience. And that was Their cloaks of phosphorus. These expensive gifts we have given them er from Rutgers, a union man, a They will be permitted to keep forever. The opal wings computer programmer, a high­ it, not a meeting but a happening, (Continued from page 5) renewal, agape. This was the first arrive at new aspects of the truth, Of the tissue that once was epidermis contrast so school teacher, a priest studying Effectively with their dark and alien skins). for an advanced degree, a house­ meeting of the Catholic Peace Fel­ in other words dialogue, com­ wife active in (and enduring) a lowship of New Jersey. munity, not only among believers Terre des Hommes. I hear you calling out that there is time poverty program, a priest assigned Ed note: Priests, religious and but between believers and unbe­ To return before the last storni whistles down from the north, to a suburban parish, a plumbing lay people in New Jersey who Before the ropes unravel to a thread.· "In Europe," lievers 111 well. jobber, a nnn teaching biology, a would be interested in getting to­ You write on the stubborn snows, In letters as tall high-school student, a college gether informally to discuss Cath­ The whole work of Albert As the palm-trees of quite another continent; teacher of English, a salesman, an olic principles and practice in re· Camus is centered upon the idea "In Europe we have found several hundred beds advertising copywriter, a physicist, gard to war and peace are urged of telling the truth. The relation For the children." You draw an arrow, showing where ·- and a priest administering high­ to get in touch with Mrs. Keelan, of words to the inscrutable pres­ The Swiss lakes lie, where cows wear garlands school. Most of the people were in who lives at 23 Oakwood Place, ence of what he called the power Of gentianes around their necks, where children their late thirties or early forties. Elizabeth, New Jersey, and repre­ of words to identify the absurd as May rest for a while beneath the ether masks. The question we put to ourselves sents the Catholic Peace Fellow­ such. The function of words In es­ was "What can we do to learn and ship in that area. tablishing community among men (In the jungles of their homeland no silky tiger moves, spread Christian teachings on engaged in resisting and overcom­ No zebra stamps on the plain, no elephant trumpets, no water buffalo peace and non-violence?" We de­ ing the absw·d. The power of Ruminates, shiMing rice paddy greens between its jaws. The leaves cided first to speak in turn, iden­ words to lead revolt in a creative Have died silently under the stutter of helicopter spray, tifying ourselves by name, town, CHRISTMAS and life-affirming direction. The And the children, dancing without gas-masb, turn toward us occupation, and motivation. · power of words aiainst murder, And smile at their own deaths, wondering a little, not wishing to intrude.) • "I was a conscientious objec­ GREETINGS violence, tyranny, injustice, death. tor during World War II. I have The novels, stories and essays of For a long time your yodelling went unanswered, Terre des Hommes; (Continued from page 1) been deeply interested in peace all Camus eXiplore this question from Then the words came, written on heavy white paper, white my life, but the world has become death comes at God's bidding. many angles, and everywhere As the White House. "Dear Terre des Hommes," it began, increasingly brutal and now my I am, however, inclined to take they reach the conclusion: we live , And con tin tied: "The American Air Force cannot be used to transport son is in the armed forces. I have another course-to enter be­ in a world of lies, which is there­ Vietnamese had no influence whatever, not fore death the finer domain. fore a world of violence and mur­ Children who might be in need of medical attention. There exist1 even in my own family." This idea has been haunting­ der. We need to rebuild a world No American financial means to assist your activities. me for two or three months .•• • "I was in the service in World of peace. We cannot do this un­ Yours truly." And the signature? I swear it is not mine. As acting decreases, action less we can recover the language I wouldn't have had the time to write the letter out. War II but I think this war is mor­ gets stronger. One should be ally vicious and politically stupid." and the thinking of peace. I'm working creatively, tcying out variations on the themes they dance, able to master a technique of The tragedy that is latent be­ These children who sHde throu~ the moonUght, bat-colored now, • "I was born and raised right this kind .•• by purity of head hind the fair and true declara­ Screeching like bats. Their dance cannot be mazurka, not polka, here, a member of the Italian and heart. A mother's deci­ community. When I was a boy of tions of the Church on peace; Not bolero, nor hornpipe, or jig. It must be sion to forego a meal because justice, renewal and all the rest A regional dance to which they step carefully, carefully, fourteen I had a traumatic experi­ of some particular conduct of ence. I saw a priest bless cannon is that these words of truth and So as not to disturb the flesh that still clings to their bones. the child, has an instantaneous hope are being devoured and Kay Boyle that Italy would use against Ethio­ effect on the latter • • • it de­ pians. I never got over that. I pends up0n God's will, not on swall~wed up in the massive con- P------.. saw many other terrible things Man's effort, and yet it is im­ fusion and indifference of • 1 I after that and ·haven't been much possible without effort. world that does not know how to ib~ iD terms of peace and Jus- L E T T E R · with the Church. Until tonight." s Christmas Greetinp • "I don't know much about tfce because in practice the word peace. I came here to learn." TO all in Southeast Asia. And it peace means nothing but war and • _ • "People, Catholics anyway, are is with hanging head and heavy the word justice means nothing ------­ heart that I write this, filled with but trickery, bribery and oppres- where al'I they? Sometimes I conditioned to accept only what sion. they hear from the pulpit. Unless shame for my country. To tho.se Works of Mercy fffl a little lost among the in Ind1mesia, reeking with the MapamnUdm. there is more direction given from Anything the Church may say 175 Chrystie St. smell of blood where anti-commun­ those in authority, we're lost." to such a world is immediately New York, N. Y. Abo, I appeal to you as a teach· ism has meant a massacre of near­ translated into it.t opposite-if in­ er. I am teaching English in a is Dear Friends: • "War is irrational and man ly a million people these last years. klbbut. in lsNel. To give my chil­ aupposed to be a rational being. deed the Churchmen themselves Peace and God'1 blessing. I How little attention has been paid are not already be~iled by the dren m-0:re practice in Engllsh I Yet when I speak from the pulpit to these fearful deed.s1 Speaking write this letter as a note of ap­ same doubletalk as the world in peal. My wife Catherine, my am trying to find pen"'PaY• f-0r I infuriate people by the score. of Vatican Council II, Pope John, which they live. those who want t-0 write to Ameri­ They say to hell with you and they daughter Juanita, and I want to beloved by the world, said he was To all of us, Camus is saying: cans. Their ages range from thJr.. never give you a second chance." pronouncing no anathemas. He begin a Catholic Worker house of "Not lying is mor• than just not hospitality in Washington, D.C. teen to seventeen years, and acbout • "The Church never supported was speaking with love to all men, dissimulating one's acts and in­ :forty want to write. If you have or us during all those cold years .in in all the world, in his Pacem in We need your :P'l"ayer.s and gener­ tentions. It is carrying them. out osity. ·know of any children who would cold C.O. camps, but several peo­ Terris, without exceiption. and speakinc them out In truth.'' be interested iin corresponding ple became Catholics. Who can TO all in Vietnam, north and Our dNire is to live a life of voluntary poverty while serving with young kibbu~1, would you see why?" south, we canI\ot speak In words, Ed. note: Thomas Merton's please giv• them my name and but more in tears. I say to my.sell, most recent books, all pub­ the corporal and spiritual needs • "I belong to a Church that is of our brothers and sisters in add.rese and tell them to write to known definitely for two things: it's God will wipe away all tears from lished by New Directions, me, giving name, .age, sex pre­ eyes, as He has promised, but as are: The Way of Chuang Tzu, Christ. We beg from you for the against birth control and for Bingo. mean~ by which we c.an live and ferred, and interests? If there Is If it had not been for reading the for us, in our pro9I1erity, in our interpretations of the Taoist a SUI'plw of Americans, I am sure pride, we can only do penance. philosopher; Gandhi on Non­ serve. Catholic Worker I would have left St. James the Apostle will be our that I can find correspondent. for God is not mocked. There is a Vlolence, selected texts from years ago." patron. "If anyone is a hearer of tlle extra children on nelghborinir · Certain things kept coming up fearful retribution laid up for us, Non-Violence In Peace and kibbutzim. War; and Raids OD the un: the word, and not a doer, he is as· each of the 24 present spoke: we who made and dropped the first I pr.efer my ohlldren'a pen-pala speakable, a collection of hla like a man looking at his natural "I am alienated from Catholicism. atomic bombs and since have sup­ to be about a year younger than plied nuclear weapons to other own prose pieces and draw­ face in the mirror: for he looks I'm out of step with everyone in at himself and goes away, and pres­ they, u younger chlldren will be nations. . ings. my parish and peI'haps in my town. ently he forgets what kind of man writing in simpler English; but th• I have often thought that this What madness is this, that the point Is not imperative. U.S.S.R. and China, ifol'merly our he ls. But he who has looked care­ Church couldn't be what Christ, fully into ·the pemect laiw of liberty Th'8lllldn1 you in advance fOJ' who once was poor, had founded.' allies are now our enemies and Philadelphia Area your tim•, help and considerati