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Romero's Legacy 2 ROMERO’S LEGACY 2 Faith in the City: Poverty, Politics, and Peacebuilding Foreword by Robert T. McDermott Edited by Pilar Hogan Closkey Kevin Moran John P. Hogan The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Copyright © 2014 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Box 261 Cardinal Station Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Romero’s legacy 2. Faith in the City: Poverty, Politics, and Peacebuilding / edited by Pilar Hogan Closkey, Kevin Moran and John P. Hogan. p. cm. -- Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Faith. 2. Justice and Politics. 3. Religion—Christianity. I. Hogan, John P. II. Hogan Closky, Pilar. III. Moran, Kevin. BT83.57.R66 2007 2007014078 261.8-dc22 CIP ISBN 978-1-56518-2981 (pbk.) TABLE OF CONTENT Foreword: A Vision for an Urban Parish v Robert T. McDermott Preface xiii Pilar Hogan Closkey, Kevin Moran and John P. Hogan Introduction: Faith in the City: Joy and Belief in the 1 Midst of Struggle Pilar Hogan Closkey and Kevin Moran Chapter 1 The Challenge of God’s Call to Live Justly 13 Tony Campolo Chapter 2 The Hidden Face of Racism: Catholics Should 27 Stand Firm on Affirmative Action Bryan N. Massingale Chapter 3 Images of Justice: Present among Us: 37 Remembering Monsignor Carolyn Forché Chapter 4 Politics and the Pews: Your Faith, 57 Your Vote and The 2012 Election Stephen F. Schneck Chapter 5 Justice or Just Us: World Changing 63 Expressions of Faith Jack Jezreel Chapter 6 Make Us Instruments of Peace: 77 Peacebuilding in the 21st Century Maryann Cusimano Love Appendices A. The Ongoing Legacy of Oscar Romero 93 Peter Feuerherd B. The Call to Fix Structural Causes of Economic Injustice Now 101 Simone Campbell, SSS List of Contributors 103 Romero Lecturers 105 Index 107 FOREWORD A VISION FOR AN URBAN PARISH: DANGEROUS MEMORY, HOPEFUL FUTURE, SERVANT CHURCH ROBERT T. McDERMOTT In 2001, I gave a presentation to a small group of staff and supporters at the Romero Center. I spoke about my Maryknoll-sponsored trip to Central America and the ideas it provoked for pastoral work in Camden. I was deeply moved by Archbishop Romero’s story, his servant- leadership, his life and his death. His tragic execution at the altar is an image that stays with me. His blood, shed for his people, is mixed with the blood of Christ. That is part of the “dangerous memory” of Romero, but is also the eucharistic call to a hopeful future. That presentation led to discussions about an annual lecture sponsored by Romero Center Ministries. The idea caught on and the Romero Lecture series was born. Through the years, the lectures have challenged us to focus, from a faith perspective, on the problems in our city, our country, and our church, and to seek new solutions. I tend to be an optimist, as I think all faithful Christians are called to be. However, in recent years—world wide—anxiety, even despair, seems to have grown abundantly, while hope has fallen on hard times. Even our faith perspective has been dulled by scandal within the Church.1 ANXIETY, HOPE AND THE SUFFERING POOR By no means do I want to give the impression that all change, all modern life is negative; too many good people are out there trying; too many good things are happening. Nonetheless, over the past thirty years, we have witnessed profound changes in our society, some very recent and detrimental: a dramatic increase in income and wealth inequality, the virtual control of regulatory policy by big business, the suppression of unions and organized labor, the continued growth and power of a national- security state, massive incarceration of poor African-American and Latino men, the Trayvon Martin tragedy, thousands of desperate children at our border, big money’s growing control of our electoral politics, and the gutting of the Voter Rights Act. The city of Camden, one of America’s poorest, is probably a prime example of collateral damage from these national and global trends. Most importantly, the poor are forgotten and the middle class stagnated. The “great chasm” between Lazarus and the vi Robert T. McDermott rich man in Luke 16, with its lament and warning, should give pause to all of us. The linkage of the global and the local was made clear by the visit of the consciousness-raising national campaign “Nuns on the Bus” to St. Joseph’s in Camden.2 That big bus in our school yard further opened our community and called us to deep reflection. How could we, in a wealthy, educated country, have failed so miserably on a jobs bill, immigration reform, gun control, outlawing—or at least limiting—drone attacks, cutting food programs for our poorest children, extending unemployment benefits for victims of economic depression, and climate change? I realize these problems are not simple, and solutions are complicated and often costly. However, in large measure, the poor suffer because of our political failure—our structural sins. What has happened to us as a people? Where do we stand as followers of Jesus of Nazareth? In spite of the negative litany I have just run off, there are signs of hope. I remain an optimist. For example, we need to give the Affordable Health Care Act the chance and time to succeed; it needs to succeed. The recent debates about income and wealth inequality have, at least, provided space for discussion about the need to raise the minimum wage and perhaps even to start talking about a “living wage.” It is, indeed, a mockery of Gospel values, and Catholic Social Teaching to think that a person can work full time in the richest country in the world and still not be able to support herself, much less, feed a family. Today, more than 46 million people in America live below the official poverty line.3 Nonetheless, there are still signs of hope. Proponents of immigration reform are still hard at work and are not giving up. And, I, for one, refuse to give in or give up on finding a way to reduce gun violence. Too many young, innocent children and young people are dying from our raging epidemic of gun disease. We, as church, need to pull out all stops to overcome the crippling ideological divisions that rule our politics, and at times, even our church. A just wage, immigration reform, affordable housing, gun control, and school nutrition programs are not just political and economic issues; they are moral demands. The people of Camden are the victims of these social- structural sins. We must find the way to transcend partisanship, put issue over party, and solve problems. For me, personally, my 30 years as pastor of St. Joseph’s Pro- Cathedral have opened my eyes and heart to the glory of God found in the poor and the not-so-poor, in the givers and receivers, in the young and the old, and in the various cultures found in East Camden. Camden gets a great deal of bad press, some deserved, but I see and feel much love in this struggling community and many reasons for hope. There are many dedicated workers for renewal—in the political sector, in the public sector, in the private sector, in local NGOs, and in religious congregations. A Vision for an Urban Parish vii I am moved profoundly by the friendship and love I can feel from parishioners at St. Joe’s and the surrounding community, and the love and care they show to one another. The poor and the not-so-poor help one another and care for one another. I see every day the commitment of the staff at the Romero Center, and I am energized by the exposure and reflection possibilities they provide to high school and college students from the area, and across the country. I am heartened by the hard work and steady structural and economic impact of St. Joseph’s Carpenter Society as it reaches for its one thousandth new or rehabilitated affordable housing unit. I am proud of the inauguration and growth of Joseph’s House for the homeless and of the positive contributions of the Pro- Cathedral School, our Child Development Center; and the transformative role played by our “Lifting Up Camden’s Youth Program.” These parish components ignite the Catholic sacramental imagination and call us all to “action on behalf of justice.” These signs of hope are, for me, sacramental - eucharistic signs. The parish church is a sign to the wider community. We are a community of faith that lives out Christ’s “paschal mystery.” Amidst East Camden’s woes over the years, the ministries mentioned above have helped the community, in a modest way, no doubt, to face problems, rekindle faith and hope, and often even to transform death-filled events to life-giving gestures. Juan Luis Segundo illustrates the social justice role of the liturgy and sacraments, a role too often overlooked: “…the sacrament is dialogic. It prepares the Christian community to speak its liberative word in the history of mankind. Obviously enough each generation of human beings faces different problems. But our faith tells us that they share a common denominator: a death and a resurrection, a death for a resurrection.”4 This is what we reenact every Sunday—the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We share his body and blood and that sharing calls us to listen, serve, and commit to the poor, and to a more hopeful future. This is what keeps us going at St.
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