TheThe HartfordHartford CatholicCatholic WorkerWorker St. Martin De Porres House St. Brigid House What does God require but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly... Micah 6:8 Brian Kavanagh And Elizabeth said to Mary: —Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled!“ Advent2004 1 The Hartford Catholic Worker Established November 3, 1993 Volume 12 Number 5 The Hartford Catholic Worker is published bimonthly by the St. Martin De Porres Catholic Worker community. We are a lay community of Catholics, and like minded friends, living in the north end of Hartford, working and praying for an end to violence and poverty. We are not a —tax-exempt“ agency. We do not accept government funding. Our ability to house the homeless, feed the hungry, witness for justice and peace, and work with the children depends on contributions from our readers. We are not paid. We can be reached at: 18 Clark St., Hartford CT 06120; (860) 724- 7066, [email protected] and http://mywebpages.comcast.net/catholicworker/ We are: Brian Kavanagh, Morlianna Evans, Jacqueline, Christopher, Micah and Ammon Allen-Doucot. St. Martin‘s Wish List ä spaghetti sauce, beef stew, peanut butter, jelly, canned meat and tunafish . laundry detergent J juice and healthy snacks for the afterschool program C Beds, dressers, pots and pans, and kitchen tables ô new unwrapped toys: PLEASE NO stuffed animals, GUNS, OR WAR TOYS á new children‘s socks, under Mary, Johanny, Jeanesty, and Duncan with UCONN STUDENT/athletes: Anne Strother, wear, hats and mittens Ashley Battles and Jessica Moore W your continued prayers and financial support J egg cartons Thanks! St.St. Martin‘sMartin‘s CalendarCalendar W Please join us on Tuesday, December 7, and January 4 for the celebration of Mass at St. Brigid House, 18 Clark St., Hartford. Refreshments and conversation follow Mass. UCalling All Elves, Calling All Elves: please join us for our annual Christmas Party for the neighborhood children on Saturday, December 18. Set up at 10, Party from Noon until 2 and cleanup from 2 until 3. If you or your group are interested in helping out please call us at: 724-7066. Thanks! þ Our vigil for an end to war continues on Friday‘s from 11:30-12:30 outside the Federal Building on Main St. in Hartford. Please bring a sign and join our call for an end to the American military occupation of Iraq. á Rock and Bowl Fundraiser to benefit the Voluntown Peace Trust and Camp Ahimsa. Friday, December 10, 7-9:30 PM T- Bowl Lanes on theBerlin Turnpike. Call Terri Allen, 956-1738, for details. Honor the memory of Phil Berrigan with prayer: Sunday December 5 4PM St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Brooklyn, NY and with Nonviolent Action againt war: Monday December 6, 10AM Isaiah Wall at the UN. For more info. call Anna Brown 210-915-4963 2 Genocide in Sudan: A Catholic Worker Response Christopher Allen-Doucot at large, were mostly silent about the to comfort the survivors of the genocide, When the death camps of Buchenwald genocide and did nothing to stop it. Years the only effort to intervene to stop the and Auschwitz were liberated at the close later, after trips to Bosnia, Chiapas, purge has been an under funded and of World War II a shocked world declared Palestine/Israel, and Iraq my younger son understaffed effort by the African Union to —Never Again!“. This provide —observ- outrage among the people ers“. of the world was not equally It is time for a shared by the Allied new moment in governments. Though the history. In the face Allies knew as early as 1942 of the historical that predominantly Jews but unwillingness of also Gypsies, communists, governments to Catholics, gays, and stop genocide, mentally impaired persons, people of con- were being systematically science have to eliminated by the Nazi government and Ammon poignantly asked me why I went to band together to do more than say —Never their minions next to nothing was done stop wars all over the world but not in Again“. In a way it makes sense that the militarily to disrupt or stop the Holocaust. Africa. I didn‘t have and answer. people of the world have to step up and Preventing or limiting the genocide, a word Since the Rwanda genocide world come to the defense of a people suffering not yet coined in 1945, was not a military leaders, including president Clinton, have genocide at the hands of their government. objective of the Allies but rather a wel- proffered apologies for doing nothing and Governments will always be reluctant to act comed ancillary result of defeating the again swore that genocide would never since governments often have dirty hands Nazis. again be tolerated. Dreadfully, another themselves and fear that intervening in the Fifty years later Hutu extremists in genocide is under way; this time in the dirty deeds of another nation may open Rwanda hacked to death with machetes African republic of Sudan. Even though UN themselves up for similar intervention or 800,000 civilian Tutsis and moderate Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that prosecution. It was for precisely these Hutus in a mere 100 days. This time not the situation in Sudan —leaves [him] with a fears, under the guise of —national sover- only the governments of the world, but the deep sense of foreboding... the interna- eignty“, that the United States failed to people of world also, knew of this genocide tional community cannot stand idle.“(April ratify the Genocide Convention for 5 as it was occurring. Whereas the US and 7, ”04). Criminally, the governments of the decades! the UN belatedly responded to the world and the U.N. have to date stood idly Gandhi believed that in response to concurrent genocide in the former Yugosla- by as the government of Sudan and its injustice if one could only choose between via which was deemed to have potential proxy militias have engaged in the mass doing nothing or using violence in defense implications of import to American slaughter and forced exodus of the of the oppressed than the moral option would interests no such interests were apparent in —African“ people of the Darfur region of be to use violence. Of course Gandhi knew Rwanda. In the wake of the ill fated Sudan. there was a third way, the way of nonviolent Somalia mission (written about in these While the governments of the world are intervention and noncooperation with the pages in our inaugural issue 12years ago) thought to be synonymous with the oppressor. As a Christian I do not believe that president Clinton did not deem the —international community“ we know that violence is ever a viable, moral option. prevention or the interruption of the the international community also includes The US government is obviously not Rwanda genocide to be worth risking the non-governmental organizations (NGO‘s pacifist and thus uses a different calculus in lives of American soldiers. To be fair, 12 egs. Catholic Relief Services, Human Rights determining whether or not to respond to a years ago we too, that is the Hartford Watch), churches and religious institutions, situation. In the case of Rwanda the Canadian Catholic Worker and the peace movement the corporate world, and individuals. While General in charge of the UN force was told by some humanitarian aid groups are working (Please see Genocide p.4) 3 Genocide, Cont. of Rwanda. We will not sit by as genocide several hundred civilians sheltered there for Genocide, Cont. is again perpetrated. the duration of the crisis...[one high ranking an American officer that —one American In lieu of an intervening force such as UN official in Rwanda said] ‘if there was casualty is worth about 85,000 Rwandan previously described I hope to travel to any determined resistance at close quar- dead“. President Bush and Senator Kerry Sudan in the coming weeks with three other ters, the government guy tended to back are both on record opposing US interven- Catholic Workers. Assuredly our efforts are off‘“ tion in the Sudan because of the absence quixotic and symbolic, but they are also The effort to stop genocide in Sudan by of an obvious vital American interest. Again concrete. We are going to deliver medical 4 unarmed Catholic Workers may seem to as a Christian, I believe that the lives of aid, raise awareness in our home commu- be the height of folly but what can be said persecuted people are of vital interest and nities, get in the way of the death squads of the lack of effort by much the rest of the their defense not only merits but demands and simply offer hope to the refugees that world? Of what comfort are condemnations intervention. they have not been forgotten by the outside and after the fact apologies? While 4 Ideally there would exist today a world. There have been reports that some Catholic Workers may be unable to save a reservoir of persons who have been trained refugees fear aid delivery because the soul it is possible that we can stop an in mediation, conflict resolution and Janjaweed sometimes attack right after attack on a village or refugee center. If nonviolent intervention that could form deliveries to steal the relief supplies. there were 4,000 of us we could effectively cadres when needed to respond in defense Maybe our presence will deter such an stop all attacks. The madness of our effort of life in situations like Sudan. Currently attack. is not our methods but that there are only several smaller groups of committed History provides ample examples of 4 of us.