Catholic Peace Fellowship Bulletin, June 1966

the catholic peace felloUJsbip JUNE BalleLio 1966 i!#f W&IW*e ¥#5 89M'&i§d95Sii&AMM&& "'' 11 &k*E·M!fii§#MRWW*'tFQ&YWS ;;gee- P*MEIM A FRIEND IN NEED, IS A FRIEND Swing on my foot, sweet child; From Bible Belt notice your great friend. forget dead parents- burned home, charred aunt. to Mary's Day you are now with friends- by James H. Forest ugly war ... There is a Pima Indian prayer stand beast action. we must because . ing out in large blue letters on the must justify wall: "The Creator has made the world. guilt, Come and see it." guilt ... Right now, I must smile a bit at the thought, with the piles of unanswered we must because . because. letters and unread journals mounting those poor men on every side, threatening to hide even are not free. the office windows from sight, even that little slice of lower Manhattan skyline look, son, we come to make you free. that keeps most of the sky from us. The dead father, chances of seeing the Creator's world, burned village, at least for the next month or so, seem fourteen year old brother remote indeed. questioned as Viet Cong, Yet I am just back from three weeks poss of world-seeing (Oklahoma City and Norman, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San ibly we're wrong. Francisco and Berkeley). The weeks again, again, are worth telling about, especially as rat-tat-tat-tat-tat. many of the persons and situations I came in touch with should be more -Sister Mary Claude, IHM Wor:d Wide widely known. Oklahoma I confess I approached "the buckle To Robert Kennedy on the Bible belt" with certain reserva We are writing to call your attention to matters of deep concern to our tions. A New Yorker, I have always membership. Four men identified with the peace movement in one way or been puzzled by persons who choose to another have been killed within the past three months. The first was Ivan live away from oceans. Yet my stay in Oklahoma, as guest of the St. Thomas von Auw Johnson, a student at Rochester University whose home was in More Catholic Student Center of the Binghampton, New York. Ivan was associated with the Catholic Worker University of Oklahoma, was as excit movement. He died on March 4, as the result of a beating inflicted on a ing as the Mary's Day festival that was street in Rochester where he was recognized as a Vietnam war opponent. to come in Los Angeles or life with the On May 16, Leo Bernard of the Socialist Workers Party was shot to intentional community in Berkeley. death in Detroit. His assailant explained that he was "killing Communists." I arrived in Norman April 23, a Sun The hysteria that warped this man to thinking that it was a service to our day, to addre3s wh'lt turned out to be society to kill Communists can be traced, we suspect, to the effects of the a large and enthusiastic audience. Even Vietnam involvement. the hostile questions presented by the Most recently, last Friday, May 20, our friend and fellow worker, Addi editors of a local "traditionalist" pub son Wilkins, a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and a recent full lication ("The Yellow Sheet," see Na tional Catholic Reporter for April 27, ( continued on page 2) p. 1) were useful for the purposes of · the meeting. Father Swett, assistant chaplain of the Center had met me at the airport. It seemed to be largely his idea to have Please Write a Check Now the Center sponsor meetings which Though Catholic Peace Fellowship appeals have happily been rare, drew upon speakers from fairly distant we must break our monetary silence before the summer sun begins areas: Fr. John L. McKenzie, S.J., driving bill collectors to our office and apartment doors. from Chicago, John Leo, Bob Ram The CPF is now nearly $1,000 in debt. Income, though steady, con busch and Dr. Mark Stern from New tinues to fall farther behind expenses. York, Michael Novak from California, etc. Fr. Swett is young, dark haired, We don't wish to bore you with the statistics. We are a frugal cool in what I can only call the hipster group, live simply and spend cautiously. But we do have a growing sense of the word. With Fr. Ross. chap stack of bills from the printer, the landlord, the telephone company. lain of the Center, and the active as We don't enioy holding out the beggar's bowl. But we must-and sistance of several lay students and hope you will help in filling it. faculty members, he has obviously done (cont!nued o>z. page 4) 2 JUNE 1966 marco i. frisbee writes Peace Week In the Abramic Spirit At latrobe Teach-in's, debates, open forums: Dear Editor: these are the basic forms of discussion In reports on the Rhodes Congress I I think we ought to go back to the well known practice of the Kings of that have been used in protesting the was struck by the fact that the Russian Vietnam war on the American campus. Orthodox delegates played such an ag Israel and J uda in the fifth and sixth centuries B.C. when they were having Few colleges of any worth have not had gressive role in promoting the Soviet so much trouble with Assyria and at least one teach-in or something simi lar. politic of "peace." This of course shows Babylon. They too were disgusted by Yet Catholic colleges and seminaries that it is very dangerous for any sentimentality and moralism, and they Church to promote a policy of peace, as might well consider a somewhat differ went right directly into the heart of ent form of discussion-such as was it will by the very fact cooperate in the the problem with a genuine red blooded insidious work of the Red imperialism. pioneered last February by St. Vincent religious rite: the sacrifice of the first College students and faculty in La I am sure this explains why so many born. moral theologians in this country are trobe, Pa. I fully realize that this suggestion At the "Week for Peace" held there, ill at ease with the thought of peace will shock sentimentalists, but this is and are putting their best efforts into the debate atmosphere was entirely re no time to worry about their cringing moved. While participants repr .sen ted showing us how nuclear war is the susceptibilities. We have got to get sure courageous and Christian thing after diverse perspectives on the war (rang fire propitiation if we ar~ going to win all. Be;tter dead than red. ing from the American Legion to the this war against the irreligious hordes. Catholic Peace Fellowship), verbal fire At the same time I feel we ought to Here are the advantages of my plan: works and point-getting rhetorical dis look for a more original and creative 1) Morally speaking, it is simply a plays were replaced by a prayerful at solution to the problem: a solution that choice between two evils. We choose mosphere of learning and exchange. will be at once religious and realistic. the lesser evil. Is junior going to grow After classes throughout the week, a Frankly I agree with those who are be up to be a Red Communist? God for Mass for Peace was celebrated in the ginning to be weary of the sentimental bid! If the war comes junior is going to Abbey church. Afterwards a bculty ism of the Sermon on the Mount. be dead anyway. If he cooperates in member addressed himself to the peace Of course, I think religion is essen his ritual immolation, he will be doing question in the light of his particular tial. The spirit of sacrifice is essential the greatest thing any man can do. To discipline. In the evenings (long into too. But don't you agree that the spirit pass junior through the fire, as the the evenings) "conversations" with out of sacrifice has become effete and sub quaint old phrase has it (meaning that side guests were held. Among the par jective in our day? It is a kind of wishy junior becomes a whole burnt offering ticipants were Professor Dietrich washy moralism, nothing more. And to Moloch), is only a physical evil, Ritschl of the FOR, Charles Strain, this leads me to my "creative" solution. whereas if he has to live under Red CPF, a Duquesne University graduate This solution is realistic, and it calls domination, that would be a moral evil. student who organized the peace vigil for intestinal fortitude! (continued on page 8) at St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh last Christmas, Mr. James Flowers, com mander of American Legion District 61, Latrobe, William Reeds, also of the Legion, and the CPF's Thomas Cornell. To Robert Kennedy ... Culmination of the Week was a con (continued front page 1) celebrated Mass for Peace with Arch time staff member of the Student Peace Union, was shot and killed in Rich abbott Rembert Weakland, O.S.B., of mond, Virginia, along with a companion who was not known to us, Malcolm ficiating. Norment, 41, formerly of Colfax, Illinois, the son of an FOR member. The In announcing the Week a flier ex two were shot repeatedly from behind, and their bodies dumped in a ditch. plained: "If anything is to be accom We are asking your help, Senator, in pressing for a full investigation of plished by this Week for Peace it is strictly of an individual and personal the murder of Addison Wilkins and Malcolm Norment.

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