; CATHOLIC WORKER ·
Subscription: VOL. XL No. I JANUARY, 1974 25c Per Yea r P r ice le He Will Bring Justice to the Nations. Property Persecution California agriculture comes close to These are sad days in Refice, in the being a disaster area in the nation's eco Brazilian Northeast. On July 24, Opera nomy, but no one could reach this con tion Hope, a self-help organization spon clusion simply by a visit to the state. Its sored by Dom Helder Camara, Arch fertile valleys are heaping up produce bishop of Refice, was holding a regular for the tables of Americans, while its meeting at the Episcopal Palace. During fruits are famous throughout the land. a break, Vieira and Dida went out for Where, then, is the disaster? This ques a short walk in the night air. They did tion could be answered by doing a little not return. They have not been heard of farming, but it w.Duld be safer, easier, since. Vieira, an agronomist, lived • and and quicker, to do some reading and at worked at the Taquari sugar plantation, tend a meeting or two--such as the Na a 16-farm project owned and directed by tional Conference on Land Reform Operation Hope. Dida was a young mem which was held last April in San Fran ber of the Local Residents Council of cisco, under the sponsorship of the Na Bairro Coelhos. Coelhos is one of the tional Coalition for Land Reform. poorest favelas in Recife. Police and mili Is land reform needed in the United tary authorities, wnen questioned, had States? Sheldon Greene, general coun no information-and no interest in look-· sel to the Coalition, who spoke at the ing for the two men or their "kidnap Conference, told his listeners: pers." Their abduction was simply a "We know that each year 100,000 "non-fact." farms are abandoned, and that rural On August 29, Biu disappeared in the America has sustained a population loss same way. A seminarian at the Regional of 40 million people in the last 50 years. Institute of Theology, he helped co-ordi Concomitant with the abandonment of nate the Bible study groups known as small farms and the migration to the "Encounters of Brothers"-another pro cities of a heretofore agriculturally de motion of Dom Helder-and was work pendent rural population has been the ing in Youth Pastoral. increasing entry into agriculture of mul Next it was Amorim's turn. In his own tipurpose business interests, bringing favela-bairro he had organized Operation with it an increase in farm size and ab Hope-bringing the people toge_ther to sentee ownership of the land. Once press for piped water, garbage-removal, populous areas occupied by independent sewage and other services. When local small landholders interspersed with authorities failed or delayed intermina small rural service communities are be bly, they pitched in to do the work them ing transformed into feudalistic estates selves, and they . are now completing, -possibly one. of the most significant from their own resources, a civic center economic and social transformations to where 1hey can have meetings training be experienced in our history." · ON PILGRIMAGE 1 courses, medical assistance, a primary The obvious comment is that transi By DOROTHY. DAY school. A week before, Dom Helder was tions of this sort are "normal" in a com a popular guest at a party thrown by the petitive society. Survival is for the Perkinsville, Vermont. cipline aimed at the common good most "!l'illingly accepted by all. I've admired neighborhood to celebrate the birth of strong, the most efficient producers. But Outside my window the snow is still Amorim's first baby. On the morning of the strength .of these enormous farms, falling from a sky which is grey. The this New England school for years and am happy that Hilaire has been a_ccept October 4, Amorim awoke to firid a car Mr. Greene says, is not due to their ~orecast is rain and sleet to follow. Early with three men parked outside his house. ability to produce food more efficiently m the morning Mary's Jim was called ed there. Happy too, to find one of Graham Carey's daughters one of the No official plates, no uniforms, but in at less expense: to clear and sand the roads. He works Recife there is a saying: "Beware of the "Studies have demorl"strated the family for the town, and is on call as -.early as p~pils,. . Gra?am. Carey was a great car with three men!" Eventually he had farm to be the most efficient unit of 2 a.m. Martha is taking care of the ani friend of Enc Gill, whom Peter Maurin held up to us as one of the leaders we to leave for work. On the way he was agricultural production. Summarizing mals. Maggie and Katy are chopping forced into. the car and has not been ~ould ~ollow. Gill played a great part the studies made on the subject of farm wood for the kitchen stove, and in the heard of since. Another "non-fact"! 1~ shapmg what Peter called his syn efficiency, G. P. Madden concluded dining room the big wood stove which Like the raid on the building which holds four large logs is heating the liv thesis of Cult, Culture and Cultivation 'All of the economies of size could b~ houses the Curia of th~ Archdiocese, the achieved by modern and fully mechan ing room as well as taking the chill off and Graham not only lived it but als~ helped us to get started on the farms we Regional Secretariats of CNBB and ized one-man or two-man farms.' The the three bedrooms which open out from CRB. This occurred soon after release of study concluded that the major dif it. have lived on, helpi11g us purchase them and supplying us with our first cows o~ the protest document "I Have Heard the ference between the small and medium- " I am very comfortable in my room Cries of My People" signed by Dom Hel sized farm and the large farm was which used to be Eric's (he lives in several of them. The East Hill School is not far from my daughter's, and Hilaire der and most of the Bishops and Reli simply that the latter had the potential Springfield ten miles away with his lit gious Superiors of the North-East. Later to produce more profits for the · farm tle family). Becky, her husband John runs home now and again to borrow bis own saw. It is also near Weston Priory the Federal Censorship Bureau in Rio owner." and four-year-old Sheila are in their sent the followfag warning to the Press: This becomes true, not necessarily newly built three-room cabin down the where the Benedictine monks are friends of ours. Dr. Bliss's school is not a Catho "Be it forbidden to make any or every from more efficient farming, but through road in the next field. There is already reference to or commentary on the in t~e power of the conglomerates and syn a woodshed and a work shop added on lic school or a Quaker school or a Men nonite one or anything else, but a fine vasion of the Metropolitan Curia of Re dicates which go into agriculture to con to their little house. Have I accounted ~ife and the taking bf documents per du.ct vertical operations, supplying ma for all my grandchildren? Nickie is with example of a New England school where young people delight in the variety of taining to the CNBB, since such is abso chmery and other equipment fertilizer us while his wife and three children are lutely false and without foundation." seed, and feed ' at one end, they occupations. We sang a grace before the ~hile visiting her people in Connecticut· and (Continued on page 3) also process and market the product at Susie and Jack and the two chiidren Sunda,Y dinner, "Praise God from Wl:tom the other end. Profits taken as suppliers Tanya and Kachina, are at Tivoli. ' all blessings flow,''. and I was glad that and distributors make up for any losses there was singing there and folk danc- Hilaire is at the East Hill Farm in iJ)g, too. ' TAX RESISTANCE LITERATURE in the farming, which are frequent. But C~ester, Vermont, a school run by the the small farmer must live on farining A note about singing: both on the War Tax Resistance's latest pamph Bhss family, a school which combines let is entitled "The Fiscal 1974 Budg alone. He cannot sell his produce at a academic work and farming. Tamar and picket line and at the Masses with the loss. Meanwhile, the agribusiness while United Farm Workers, and in the farm et: Who Benefits?" The work details I visited it Sunday, and though most of where taxes go and how even larger sustaining a farming loss, may find its the children were home for the holi prison where I spent almost two weeks real estate increased in value. "Last last summer, we sang each evening at amounts are being expended for mili days, some of the students had to stay tary purposes. Compiled by Robert !ear," M~. Greene remarks, "the largest to take care,of the animals, sheep, horses, the Mass, one Spanish hymn after an Calvert, it is available from War Tax item of mcrease of agricultural assets cows and so on. It is a school under the other. The thought came to me then was the enhancement of real estate value guidance of the Blisses, built by the stu that singing itself is a wonderful exer Resistance, 912 E. 31st St., Kansas -a growth of $6.3 billion.'' cise in breathing. Why, oh why don't we . City, Mo. 64109 for 50c a copy, plus dents, fed by th~ students, one might -postage. (Continued on page 7) almost say run by the students, a dis- (Continued on page 2) Page Ttoo THE CATHOLIC WORKER January, 1974
Vol. XL No. I January, 1974 36 East First By PAT .JORDAN "My aspens, dear, All felled, felled, soupline for years. The· soup, made and CATHOLIC ~WORKER are all felled." Thus the brute opening served from the ranks, was tasteful to of Hopkins' stunning poem "Binsey Pop the men. Published Monthly' (Bi-monthly March-April, July-August, lars-felled 1879." So we begin this First Eventually John followed Charlie October-November) St. column again by recording the death Keefe and Jack Cook as proprietor of ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC WORK.ER MOVEMENT of another of our family's fairest trees, the soup itself.. He took great pride in Pl!Tl!R MAURIN, Founder John McMullan, felled by a crashing fall this, arising at 4:30 in the morning and DOROTHY DAY, Editor and Publisher in Christmastide, 1973. walking the dark blocks from the hotel PATRICK JORDAN, Managing Editor .John McMullan to the First St. House. Several times he was mugged at this early hour, but even Associate Editors: He was born in Northern Ireland in tually the abductors ca.me to realize it JAN ADAMS, CHARLES BUTTERWORTH, JACK COOK, MARTIN J. CORBIN, 1908. His family was Catholic, but owned was "John the soup cook," and allowed RITA CORBIN (Art), CLARE DANIELSSON, FRANK DONOVAN, EILEEN EGAN, a small farm in Kilrea near Derry. John him to pass unassaulted. - EDGAR FORAND, ROBERT GILLIAM, WILLIAM HORVATH, HELENE ISWOL was baptized in the local Church of St. SKY, KATHLEEN DE SUTTER JORDAN, WALTER KERELL, ARTHUR J. John loved the quiet hours of the Mary, and as a young man worked the day, the early hours when he was LACEY, KARL MEYER, CHRIS MONTESANO, DEANE MOWRER, PAT RUSK, family farm with his father and three KATHY SCHMIDT, ARTHUR SHEEHAN, STANLEY VISHNEWSKI. alone with the freshly made coffee and brothers. In the early 30's he immigrated the just-boiling beans. He called these Editorial communications, new subscriptions and change of address: to America, following by several months "the best hours." He would set the table 36 East First Street, New York, N.'Y. 10003 his younger sister Mary, who had come Telephone 254-1640 for breakfast, and brew the oatmeal. to live with an uncle in Brooklyn. John Then would come daylight, Arthur with paid the uncle rent, and was soon taken Subscription United States, 2Sc Yearly. Canada and Foreign, 30c Yearly. Subscription rate the paper, and finally the bustle, the on of one cent per copy plus poslJlae applies to bundles of one hundred or more copies each on by a fellow Irishman, digging ditches slaught. He would begin looking toward month for one year to be directed to one address. for the gas company. He implied it was the night's television and the next morn downright fortuitous to have a job in ing. Reentered as second cIAss matter August 10, 1939, at the Post Office those years. Other jobs were to follow of New York, N. Y., Under the Act of March 3, 1879. I can't say I always ate John's soup or before the war, as a maintenance work liked it. Sometimes it was superb, but er, and as a short-order cook in Sheeps other times it was so concocted my stom head Bay. ach's eye would boggle. But for all that, When the war broke out, John served it sustained hundreds of us for years. in the American Coast Guard. 'He spoke When asked what kind of soup he had about his days in Norfolk the way a made today, John would answer "soup ON PILGRJ.MA(iE high-seas sailor speaks of ports across de joor" (in the ma·nner he had learned (Continued from pace 1) lioz, Schubert, . Chopin, etc. It is not a the Pacific. In this there was the trim · from Charlie Keefe), or "oriental soup have more singing in our Catholic distraction, it is a pacifier. As St. Ter pride which was a pervasive aspect of today." He would say it in a gleeful style. Churches, like the singing at Monsignor· esa of Avila said as she grabbed her his manner. Then throwing back his head, he'd laugh Hellriegel's church in St. Louis where castanets and started to dance during After the war John returned to live till his face and forehead turned red. he has always paid a choir master to the hour of recreation in her unheated with his sister, who was then settled in John had, as I mentioned, a sense of the teach the children from the earliest convent, "One must do something to a small town near the Jersey shore. But line. Seldom did he lord it over our grades, and whose singing inspires the make life bearable!" Had she encoun for John the place lacked the fluidity of guests, although the temptation was entire church tq sing? Chanting and tered a hostile atmosphere which jur the city, the excitement and anonymity. there. Instead he had greetings for many singing are so natural a religious exer ther chilled the air, on the return from He soon moved back to New York. a man, greetings that were personal and cise, involving body and soul! one of her pilgrimages? I just· gave St. John was an urban man despite his bespoke comradeship. He would lend . . . . If I do not give a report about Teresa's Foundations to Ruth Collins to origins. On several occasions he visited money to some, give cigarettes to others. my :family once a year, as so many of . tide her over a rough period in her work the Tivoli Farm, only to return quickly When Mary died and Wong went upstairs our old friends do, I get letters complain for the Harlem project in which Jerome to the city. The slowness of the farm was to work on the paper, John felt somehow ing about it. So I have given my report, and Rita, Ruth and John, and we too, more oppressive to him than the chaos alone. There was no longer the protective and add that all families have the same down here on First Street are all in of First St. Here he met scores of visitors buffer he felt in Mary's handling the problems and the same sufferings, be volved. I should include John McGee and voluntee~. kept up with the daily door. The younger people who began cause there is no love without suffering. and his wife Margaret, and Carmen newspapers,. and could talk with aumer working the line allowed more to go on So let us rejoice with those who weep, Mathews too, in this co-op housing proj ous friends. Here too, he had easy access unchallenged. At times he felt betrayed and turn to Scripture for both weeping ect. I should call it a co-op rather than to the Punch that was his weakness, and by this, the sensitive, gentle man that he and rejoicing. I have great confidence a "foundation." In the modern sense, the surety of a place he was needed. was. He began drinking more, and his in that saying of Julian of Norwich, "He Dwight McDonald once described a John first came to the Worker at 175 "holidays" became extended. will make everything to turn out well!" Chrystie. He lived on the Bowery then, Still, he loved his work to the end. The The Penguin edition of this classic, which at the Palace Hotel (one of those eu last meal he prepared was the morning was a favorite of Thomas Merton, brings phemisms for the circles of Heli>. Serv feast on Christmas Day. He wore multi me great comfort. ing the soup at St. Joseph's House along colored bowling shoes while he worked. I spent Christmas with my sister, side Wong, he came to be known as He loved red shirts, and wore his pants a staying with her Christmas eve and "Irish John." Together with Mary Galli bit too high. His walk was a shuffle of Christmas day. The previous few days gan, Wong and John set a gruff but wel feet, his cadence something akin to a gal- I had spent at Tivoli and am looking coming tone that was the style of the (Continued on page 6) forward to getting up there again in February. Letter Writing "I have observed it in general of tb'ose who are very fond of scribbling, Aid Striking Farm,workers other thinp, that they are least of all We appeal to readers of the Catholic Worker to continue- and intensify the boy to be depended on for writing letters. cott of all non-United Farm Workers Union grapes, iceberg lettuce, and wines- God forbid that any of my friends foundation as a large body of money particularly Gallo, F.ranzta and Guild wines. This is a dark time for the working sbould judge of my regard for them by surrounded by people trying to get some men and women of the fields, members of the United Farm Workers, who seek the punctuality of my correspondence." of it. Words change their meanings over ,to claim their dipity and rights as working people. We must aid them in their Edmund Burke, statesman, wrote that the centuries. nonviolent struggle for justice. . before the American revolution. I found The work really is an attempt to take By their own labor, farmworkers are seeking to change the conditions of their it as a letterhead on a note from Conor over an old tenement and repair it so impoverished lives. They have created their own union, the United Farm Workers Cruise O'Brien to Martin Corbin who it is livabJe, and keep the families liv Union under the leadership of Cesar Chavez. They bave asked us to refuse to is now teaching in Montreal. I have ap ing in it (some were born in it) rather aup~rt th.e conditions that exploit them and their children. Farmworkers are propriated it as an excuse and an apol than let it be demolished and the people amonc the lowest paid workers in America. $2600 is the average annual income ogy to all our readers. I cannot even scattered who have long been neighbors. for farmworker families. Their housinl' is often in dilapidated, overcrowded promise to do better. I know I will never And oh, in all non-violent works to Hoovervilles, often with no toilets or sinks. The infant mortality rate am.one catch up on my mail. Forever there will them is 125% higher than the national average, while a farmworker's life expec be letters left unanswered, except for "build within the shell of the old," the suffering which goes on, pain which tancy is but 49 years. 800,000 farmworkers in the fields are under 16 years of age. the prayers I say as I open my mail in And the average level.of education is the eighth grade. the morning or read all the mail which turns into joy when we realize that such has piled up while I am away on my pil suffering keeps us close to Christ, and After five years of the original grape boycott, farmworkers under the UFW grimages. "To breathe prayers over we learn that "in the Cross is joy of banner won contracts with almost ZOO grape growers in 1969 and 1970. These them as I read them" sounds trite and spirit," as the Imitation says. contracts brought better working conditions, grievance procedures, higher wages, pietistic, but I mean it. I'd pray out loud Yes, I feel guilty about not answering a medical plan, and pesticide protection. In the summer of 1973, most of the but there are enough people around here letters. I apologize because I know I contracts expired. Instead of renegotiating them in good faith, the growers brought talking to themselves. Some of it irri cannot keep up with the work and be in the nonrepresentative and corrupt Teamsters Union, signing sweetheart c0n. tates, some of it is heart-rending, a lot cause I have two speaking engagements tracts with it while neither consulting nor respecting the wishes of the workers of it is cheery and bright. in January, ' in New England (the hard and the rights of the workers' own union, the UFW. Of course, there is on occasion vio est time of the year to travel there, yet The UFW has sent its members throughout the country, asking consumers to lence. I came back from my Christmas the most beautiful), and in February, boycott grapes, wines, and lettuce which are not union harvested. Do not buy visiting to find 'that the towel racks in March, and April, too. But I am suddenly grapes and iceberg lettuce which carry no Aztec Eagle, the Union Label of the the bathroom on the women's floor have cheered by a letter from a reader who UFW. Do not buy Gallo, Guild, and Franzia wines, or any wine from Modesto disappeared. Have they been ripped out, tells me to go on travelling, that she County, Calif. (all owned by Gallo). The UFW desperately needs volunteer assist to use as weapons of attack, or has some enjoys my journeys. And this after a ance as well as financial help. Contact your local boycott center and volunteer one only done it "to annoy, because she ve-ry inadequate account of. them. (I your time, even an hour a week will be appreciated. And send whatever financial knows it teases"? This morning to ward am engrossed as soon as I get home, es- assistance you can on a regular basis, no matter how small, to the United Farm Work- off the noise I have my radio on- Ber- (Continued on page 8) ers, La Paz, Keene, California 93531. The Editors January, 1974 THE CATHOLIC WORKER Page Three • Faith Purified, Unity Forged lll Brazil (Continued from pace 1) Its role was to try to solve problems in about Dom Helder, Operation Hope, En and "Fear not, I have overcome the world:" Overall numbers of those attend What are the hidden motives behind areas of Church-State attrition or con counters of Brothers, youth groups, his ing meetings of Operation Hope and En this persecution? First of all, it is a flict. The Bishops, at the request of Dom seminary professors and their teachings, countjrs of Brothers have dropped, but subtle way of getting at Dom Helder who Helder, had asked the Generals to en he was told his arrest had been a case of they are still being held, even though is too well known internationally and quire about the whereabouts of the miss "mistaken identity." · ing men. At the September meeting of - Yet it is out of these tragic events those who attend know that they are I too well loved by the people to be turn ed into an imprisoned hero or a martyr. the Commission, General Murley had in By sporadically abducting his friends formed them that Vieira and Dida were and· collaborators his enemies are play being held at the H.Q. of the Brazilian ing a hideous cat-and-mouse game with Fourth Army in Recife. This information WHICH SHALL WE PERFORM?- him. A nl.\Jllber of times he has gone to was at once passed on to Dom Helder the Secret and Military Police, with his who, the next day, asked for an explana bag packed, offering himself with the tion from the Commanding Officer. (Un THE WORK~OfJAR words of his Master: "If I am the one der present law, nobody may be held for you seek, let these go their way." But more than 30 days incommunicado or 60 20-Century oppressors have more refin days without charge.) But the reply was IISfROY CROPS ed methods of torture than bodily cruci still the same. The military authorities fixion. at Recife knew ,nothing about Vieira and AND IANl>5EIIE Secondly, the abductions have gener • Dida. General Murley must have made ated a climate of fear in the poor bair a miljtake! FOOD SUPPttE~ ·< ros where Operation Hope and Encoun Both men may, in fact, be dead. Re ters of Brothers have their meetings. cently, on a "tip-off," Dom Helder visit DESTRO~ i\OME> The families of participants are particu ed the morgue where four· years ago he larly nervous and their neighbors ask found the battered body of Padre Hen )CAlTER FAM\~E5 suspiciOusly: "Don't these arrests prove rique, labeled "unknown." There he the rumors that Dom Helder is really a found the body of another "unknown," subversive and his groups Communis a youth officially listed as killed in a (ONTAM\ NATE tic?" Everybody knows that' the jails of traffic accident but with a peculiar Recife are already full of students and rOUJld hole in his head. It was not Vieira WATER·lMPRl~ON syndicate workers. The atmosphere of or Dida-but who was it? fear and mistrust is heightened by com On the very day of his inquiry, the plete censorship of these "non-facts" on fifth victim disappeared. Antonio also Dl5S~liX·INfOCT TV, radio and press. Instead, the wild had worked in Operation Hope. On Oc \JOUND5~·BliRN S· est and most fearsome rumors abound. tober 17, Arnaldo was taken away and RecenUy, the palace was broken into at the following day nine men, in three ~th- THE llVING night, functionaries have been harassed cars, picked up Diogo. Arnaldo was Pres atta Corbin in the street outside, one has resigned ident of the Local Residents• Council out of fear and others are near break of Bairro Coelhos, of which Dida was a ing point. member, and Diogo's father is a func that the renewed Church of Recife is risking life and liberty by coming. The On Thursday, October 4, came some tionary at the Curia. The next day, Car being born. What years of pastoral plan wheat is being winnowed from the chaff. real news. At a time last year when it lito was taken, again by nine men. He ning, courses, seminars, had failed to Faith is being purified and uni~y forged. was a member of a Local Residents looked as if Church and State were on a achieve, the regime through its official This inspiring courage of God's little collision course, the Federal Government Council in Casa Amarela, but by no and para-official persecution is succeed means a leading figure. ' and weak ones is what gives Dom Helder and the CNBB agreed to set up a bi ing in doing. Vigils of prayer for those and his friends the hope they need to lateral commission consisting of three · - Biu was released the day Diogo was who have disappeared are full to over continue the struggle. Right now they Generals and the President, Vice-Presi taken. He had been held at Military flowing-in spite of being unadvertised. are studying how best to proclaim as dent and Secretary General of the CNBB. H.Q. After five weeks of questioning Their mottos are "neither hate nor fear" "the Lord's year of favor" the Holy Year announced by Paul VI, the year when the Spirit of the Lord will be given "to bring the good news to the Ammon and the Works of Peace poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and By ROBERT GILLIAM on the Catholic Worker. "Specifically, war, war preparations, and "an act of to the blind new sight, to set the down This month marks the fourth anniver he led the movement into a new level of public penance for having been the first trodden free" (Luke, 4, 18-19). This in sary of the death of Ammon Hennacy. pacifist activism . . ." (William Miller, people in the world to drop the .atom spiring courage of the weak is what It is a good time to recall him' and all A Barsh and Dreadful Love, p. 283). bomb, to make the hydrogen bomb." They most seems to preoccupy many of the he has meant to the Catholic Worker Civil Disobedience were arrested five times in the seven defenders of the regime. movement. Ammon was the "office manager " and years of demonstrations, and se.rved three Sad days in Recife? Yes, but· glorious jail sentenc~ . One year the judge weari Ammon was born in 1893 in Negley, mail man. He answered correspondence days too! Ohio. As a young man he became a So and wrote his column. Every afternoon ly asked Ammon how many times he had cialist, but his heart seems to have been he undertook some form of public acti done this. "Five ti.n;les, next year will be (This article was written by a priest in with the more flamboyant Wobblies. He vity, usually selling the paper on the six," Ammon said. The same judge Brazil who must, for obvious reasons, re was sent to Atlanta Penitentiary during streets, but often picketing. He picketed thought Ammon should be more con main anonymous. We are grateful to the World War I for refusing to register, Internal Revenue and the Atomic Energy scientious about rendering unto Caesar. Editors of COMMONWEAL for allowing and for his antiwar and antidraft agitat Commission often. Every year he fasted "I told him that God was not getting us to reprint It from their Dee. '1, 19'13 ing. He spent nine months in solitary at and picketed around August 6, Hiroshima enough around here and Caesar was get issue. Eds. note.) AUanta. He later told the story in "God's day, and continued for as many days as ting. too"'nluch and that someone should Coward." He read the Bible, especially it had been years since that great crime. stand up for God." the Sermon on the Mount, and later Tol It was an act of penance and a protest. In 1963 Ammon left New York to stoy's The Kingdom of God is Within In 1958 he lengthened the fast to forty found Joe Hill House in Salt Lake City. You. He became a Christian, an anarch days. Dorothy felt that Ammon's fasting He was 70. He supported the house large Friday Night Meetings ist, and a pacifist. The conversion was was the most important of his many con ly by his own work. He continued to In accordance with Peter Maurin's for life. In the mid-thirties Ammon met tributions to the Catholic Worker. From write regularly for the CW and, of course, desire for clarification of thourht, the Peter Maurin and was much impressed. time to time, he left for a cross country he agitated wherever and whenever he Catholic Worker holds meetinp every He became a regular reader of the Cath speaking tour. He served as a liaison could. When he could get a reliable hand Friday nirht at 8:30 p.m.. at St. Jo olic Worker. with the larger peace movement and to watch the house, he would set out on seph's Bouse, 36 E. 1st St., between After jail Ammon married (common regularly involved the CW in peace ac one of his speaking ·tours. During the First and Second Avenues. After the law) and there followed years of farm tion. In 1957 he took part in a vigil and time in Salt Lake City, Ammon left the discussions, we continue to talk over ing, social work, odd jobs, travelling, picket at the A.E.C. in Las Vegas. In 1958 Church and remarried. In 1970, at 76, he hot sassafras ·tea. Everyone is wel political activism, and family life. Later, he demonstrated against missile bases in died. He was on his way to picket the come. the marriage dissolved, and Ammon be Florida. He took part in a walk protest capitol on behalf of a man on death row. January 18 - , Fr. Themas Berry: came an agricultural day laborer. The ing the building of nuclear submarines Ammon never registered for the draft l'he Vision-Quest of the American In work pleased him; it gave him freedom, in New London, Connecticut. In 1959 he and he never paid taxes. He was a good dian. and best of all, there was no withholding. was arrested for trespassing at the missile man and a brave man. He worked harder He spent his free time writing, speaking, base in Omaha, Nebraska, and subse than anybody. He was bright, earthy, January Z5 - Film: "Nanook of the travelling, picketing~ and distributing the quenUy served a six-month sentence at and honest. He was a powerful and mag North". Catholic Worker. He . contributed irreg Sandstone Federal Correctional Institu netic figure. He did what he said. He February 1-Fllm: "Salt of the ularly to the paper throughout the for tion. was important to the CW because of the Earth". ties under the tiile, "Life at Hard Labor." Ammon and Dorothy led the annual courage and consistency of his actions. He had met Dorothy Day in 1941. She Civil Defense protests in New York City He solidified the liaison with the peace February I-Sidney Callahan: An was, he said, " .. . the one person I know from 1955 until their termination in 1961. movement Which Robert Ludlow had be rer in the Women's Movement. who lived the ideals which I belieyed." In 1955 A1;mnon and Dorothy interested gun. More than anyone else, it was Am February 15-Robert Brown and Ammon liked the Worker because, of all several peace groups in co-sponsoring a mon who got Catholic Workers into the Ronald Larry of the Fortune Society: the peace groups, only the CW he said, demonstration to protest the drills. The streets and the jails. He was an impor The New York Prison Scene. saw the importance of his consistent supposed _1?urpose of the drills was to tant example to many of the Catholic February 22-Allan Solomonow of position of tax refusal. prepare people for a nuclear attack. At Workers who went to jail in the sixties. CONAME: Can the Arabs and the Is In late 1952 Ammon entered the Cath a given signal, people in the streets were It was Ammon who pressed the persona raelis Survive Each Other? olic Church. Dorothy Day and Robert to proceed to a shelter. Failure to comply list logic of "the one man revolution." Ludlow were his godparents. In early was a misdemeanor. Dorothy and Am His basic point, he said, was that "one March 1-Film: "Man of Aran". 1953 he joined the staff of the New York mon w:anted to assemble a group in a person could secede from the system and March S:-Danilo Dolci: Plans ·tor CW. Throughout the fifties and sixties public park who would refuse to take take the alternative of a life of hard the Future. Ammon exercised a profound influence Shelter. It was a demonstration against labor" (Miller, p. 291). I "
THE CATHOLIC WORKER January, 1974 L E T We too need a change. . Neither of us / will need a place to turn to when IIlS Vietnam Prisoners •' has lost our committment to WTR,. in decides to come down on them for their Strike Lessons ·fact bpth of us feel its importance is resistance? 5027 Knox St. greater now than before. So we will not No. 208, 37 Eden Place Philadelphia, Pa. 19144 These issues have to be decided soon Toronto, Ontario stop urging people to take up war tax and therefore we are calling a Working Dear Dorothy: resistance, but we would like to couple Dear CW: The December issue reached us a few Committee Meeting for January 11-13, the Two things have happened here in that with a broader non-violent program. second weekend in January. days ago. It is a fine issue. I see Hilde We have already started a mail order Toronto which may be of· interest to gard Goss-Mayr is still working on the It is becoming clear that ms feels readers of the CW. One was the visit of book store dealing solely with non-vio much safer in "coming down"· on war task she was doing when I was in New lence. After Bob stops working to pay Cesar Chavez recently (Torontonians eat York and heard her speak. tax resisters now than they did a number a lot of grapes-more than any other off our WTR debts he will move full of months ago. Apparently they feel My work with The Defenders in Ju time into working with the Non-Violent city in North America save five, I think). venile Court is very time consuming. there is no united movement to cause He cheered up the boycott movement Studies Institute of which the book store them any serious trouble. Are they But I did get to hear Bishop Thomas is a part. Angie will spend her time help- here a lot. We have a number of UFW Gumbleton speak on the political pris right? If ever we needed to show a united group of people it is now. organizers in residence and tbey have oners in South Vietnam-how 80% of begun to picket and to publicize already. Well, that's about all. Please let us , the income of the South Vietnamese However there has been a lot of vio hear from you so we can have all needed governmenf comes from the U.S., and lence and bitterness at a strike at a about his personal contact with four arrangements made for the Working Committee Meeting. Also, please be small plant called Artistic Woodwork. A men who had been released from tiger small union organized the workers, who cages after six years, legs paralyzed and thinking ef people who could ake on the responsibility of the National Office. struck when management insisted on a shriveled-but spirits intact-still ready clause in the contract which permitted to resist-and without anger. Hope to hear from you soon. In peace, only a very limited form of grievance pro• May God continue to bless the CW cedure to the workers. The strikers have family. Angie O'Gorman Bob Calvert had a lot of support from students and Love, other trade unionists and from various Charlie Butterworth groups on the Left in Toronto. Many of the workers walking the picket line are U.F. W. Fund immigrants from Greece, Italy, or Portu War TaX Resistance P.O. Box 97 gal, or from the east-coast provinces of War Tax Resistance Escondido, Calif. 92025 this country. But they and their sup 912 E. 31 St. Dear Friends: porters have been arrested on minor Kansas City, Mo. 64109 The farm workers of the United Farm but costly charges, in great numbers, and Dear Friends, Workers of America under the leader the police, who sh,epherd the strike We want to ask you, at .the beginning ship of Cesar Chavez are now engaged in breakers into the plant in the mornings, of this letter, to read it carefully and to a life-struggle for existence. You can have been accused of strike-breaking. . respond to it as soon as possible. Some help by boycotting non-UFW table The violence comes from both sides, major questions are raised and the an Ade Bethune grapes, non-VFW head lettuce, and an· but the police are certainly more savage swers depend on each of you. ing to start a Catholic Worker House, Gallo wines. than the pickets. It is sad to see, and First, as of May 1974, both of us will and will also help with the non-violence A check made out to the National one does tend to lose one's self-control resign our positions on the National program. Farm Worker's Service Center is tax when one sees a large man throw a Staff.-- However, we will stay on as vol Although Bob will continue to work deductible. Your check can be sent to small woman to the ground. The 'l'oronto unteers as long as is needed to help who until the present debts are paid, whoever the union headquarters; La Paz, Keene, police have had their collective reputa ever 'takes over the National Office and ·takes over the national office will be re California 93531. tions smirched by their behaviour in until the present debt is paid. We have sponsible for programs they initiate and Sincerely yours in Christ, this strike, and I guess the Left has a decided ·this after quite a bit of thought their ongoing expenses. Fr. Victor Salandini few lessons to learn aoout self-control and after talking to a lot of people. The It seems that this decision on our part also. I include myself. National. Office needs some fresh thought in turn calls for some decisions on your And I do believe the CW helps me. I and different ideas. We became con part. Who · will become the National like to read it more than most other vinced of this when only three Centers Staff? . Is a National Office necessary? Nearings ' Books things I read these days; it's right up responded to our last mailing, which we What about Tax Talk and the printing of Social Science Institute there with Merton and Kropotkin, and felt was a rather important one. liter ature? What about those people who Harborside,. Maine 04642 really restores my soul; your account of Dear Friends: "the little way" causes the Marxists I Forty years ago, in 1933, Scott wrote talk with from time to time to shake and published Fascism, an analysis of their heads in amazement, but I am Tivoli: a ·· Farm With a .View the social changes taking place in Eur unable to take with ultimate serious By DEANE. MARY MOWRER ope. It is except~onally _ timely today, ness any other form of political action, when the U.S. population is beguiled and for myself and toward others on w,hat It is Epiphany. The sound of a cock sponsored by the Massachusetts Council doped .with TV and rendered wary by ever scale I care to consider. crowing challenges the raw, snow-preg of Churches. Those interested in private the disclosures of manipulation, menda Peace to you all, nant January afternoon amid subdued showings of this program should contact city and robbery in the highest circles of Ted Whittaker twitterings of wintering birds feeding at the above through National Public Tele USA public life. Social Science Institute my window. This morning at Fr. AndY's vision. Th_ose interested in a Stanley is issuing a second edition of Fascism, Mass, we heard again the Gospel story Vishnewski slide show of the Ca:tholic with a new introduction pointing di C. W. Agrarianism of the Magi who followed a star to bring Worker . should contact Stanley Jiere at rectly at the United States. You should,.. their gifts to Him, God Incarnate in a the Catholic Worker Farm, Tivoli, New read · this 56 page paperback. 1 Maolis Road / Child. Now a comet flashes around the York 12583. Good fortune took us to China in May Nahant, Mass. 01908 sun, following its charted course, seek Christmas Celebrations June, 1973. The chance was unexpected, To the Editors: ing Him from Whom it issued as did Epiphany, I think, might be called and so doubly welcome. With a party of My thanks to all at 36 East 1st Street our simple souls. Where is our star? the climax of the Christmas season. • six we visited coll~ctive farms, factories, for their· kindness during my recent five What gifts do we bring? This year the events leading up to the schools, hospitals: observing, questioning, day visit. I am also glad to see that the Stanley on Celluloid climax were pleasant enough to re listening. We offer- you some facts and worker as worker is getting a little more Shortly after lunch when I went out lieve the winter solstice depression and conclusions in a 24 page pamphlet: Peo space in the paper. It has always seemed to taste the air, I encountered Stanley keep away winter doldrums, at least for ples China in 1973. China's advance to me that for a paper with the name Vishnewski who had just returned from a while. The high point of both Christ points to one way out of the world's sit Catholic Worker, there isn't much in the giving a slide show at the Unitarian mas and New Year's festivals was, of uation: through social revolution. paper that would in~erest American Church in Kingston. Stanley has a fine course, Midnight Mass celebrated by Fr. The China pamphlet costs forty cents, workingmen and women in their own collection of slides from the early days Andy in the living room. Miriam Carrolt, or three copies for. a dollar. The Fascism relationship to their actual jobs. of the Catholic Worker on down to pres with her he1pers, had decorated the liv book sells for a dollar. If you will send The farm workers get fine coverage. ent days, and has given a number of ing room, as well as other parts of the us' two dollars we will mail you. three Jan Adams has written good pieces. The slide shows throughout the Northeast. house, though Dominic Falso decorated pamphets and the bpok post free. Oneita and Farah strikes have been cov On many occasions Stai:i.ley also shows the chapel. Candles for the occasion were In the Green Revolution, ered. And more recently we have seen his slides to interested visitors here at made with a touch of real artistry by Belen & Scott Nearing two interesting reports by foundry the farm. One such interested visitor Bob Tivani. Music for Mass at Christmas workers-one American apd one Chil not long ago was John Cort who worked · was provided by Dorothy, Carter, who ean. with the Catholic Worker many years sang her own arrahgement of a Gregor And yet, as you enter the hou.'le on back 'when he and Stanley and Marge ian Gloria accompanied by a Chinese W.R.L. Founders First Street, you are immediately greet Hughes were young Catholic Worker dulcimer. Such music expresses the won 6300 Greene St. ed by a sign on the wall which says that enthusiasts. der and awe which are always part of Philadelphia, Pa. 19144· the Catholic Worker, among other good Early in January, Stanley, with Clare a Christmas Mass. Dear Dorothy Day: · vs. bad things, stands for Agrarianism Danielsson .and Kathleen Jordan, jour After Mass a group, including Bar You may have seen in The New York vs.-lndustrialism. What do you m"ean hy neyed to Boston to tape a television bara Miller, Barbara Agler, and Fr. Times of November 25th a notice of the agrarianism? Come to think of it, I was show for National Public Television. Andy, sang a Russian Christmas song death of Tracy D. Mygatt. Tracy had an never really sure what Peter or Dorothv The program was divided into two parts, which Helene Iswolsky had taught them. especially warm spot in her heart for meant by it. one on the active life of the Catholic Later, after Christmas refreshments in the Catholic Worker and its valiant Taking Dorothy's advice," I have just Worker, the other on the' contemplative. the dining room, Stanley led all singers staff. Her friend, Frances Witherspoon, read Kropotkin's Fields, Factories and Gordon Zahn and two members of in many traditional Christmas carols. who also has the greatest respect for all Workshops. I am- sorry I didn't read it Catholic Worker-related groups also For New Year's Mass our young Filipino of you, is very ill. 37 years ago on Mott St. There are dif participated. The program was sched friend, Ramon, vacationing from Oberlin . With every good wish, ferences between Peter Maurin and uled for showing early in January on College, played his guitar and sang with Sincerely yours, Peter Kropotkin. Kropotkin was a great "Swords . and Plowshares" which is (Continued on page 8) Lucy P. Carner admirer of technology and the machine. . ' r.
January, 1974 THE CATHOLIC WORKER Page Fi.,,, T He was a distributist, yes. He wanted is organized and performed. The effects of the economy are clear to Also we can pass them out at the col workers to be scholars and scholari; to be I hope the Catholic Worker will help see-150 for dinner is now a common leges in the town. workers, yes. But he wanted_factories to keep thi.~ kind of momentum going. occurrence. Also, through some gifts to Peace-let us pray for one another, in the fields, though "not those large Sincerely in Christ, families and a large donation, it seems Margaret Quigley establishments, of course, in which huge John C. Cort that we may be able to have enough for masses of metals have to be dealt. with a down payment on some land. Only and which are better placed at certain thing that we lack now is the tirrie to Worcester spots indicated by Nature." Or, keep look for the land. We have all been very steel mills off in a corner. The Unselfish Man busy especially with the holiday season. Mustard Seed He wanted "those airy and hygienic, 1520 N. Willow I hope that in_Jan. we will be able to B.ox 148 and consequently econ·omical, factoriei; Lake Forest, Ill. 60045 start looking in earnest. Worcester, Mass. 01609 Dear Dorothy and Friends, in which human life is of more account Dear C.W. friends: . I hope that all is well at the farm and than machinery and the making of extra Your work is an inspiration to all. I Enclosed is a check that I received city. I am sure the recent deaths have from a Worcester parish after speaking profits, of which we already find. a few often copy your contributor's words, been difficult for everyone there. samples here and there; /factories and giving them credit by name, and send about the Catholic Worker and our store them to the prisoners I write. My chil It is a rich and generous gift of God front hospitality center, the Mustard workshops into which men, women and for Joan to be with child again. It is dren enjoy the Catholic. Worker also, Seed. I am sending it to you in response children will not be driven by hunger, but with great joy and anticipation that we .. will be attracted by the desire of finding and it inspires them to work towards an to the Fall Appeal. look forward to being parents. It is We at the Mustard Seed suffered a - special news we wish to share since it· setback two weeks ago when a small fire -. makes so real the joyous news of Christ- started in a garbage can from improper mas. ly disposed cigarettes. The damage was Fondly, mostly smoke and water. We had closed Peter. Maurin:· Easy Essayis Chris and Joan M9ntesano at 9 p.m., someone saw smoke at 9:05, and ,by 9:20 it was entirely out. Unfor MECHANIZED LABOR tunately, the landlord asked us to leave Gandhi says:/ "Industrialism is evil." his building-this accident was the last lndustriallSm is evil/ because it brings idleness Boston straw for him. He himself had been won both to the capitalist class/ and the working class. Haley House derfully generous to us, but many of Idleness does no good/ either to the capitalist class 23 Dartmouth St. the upstairs tenants complained of al or to the working class./ Creative labor Boston, Mass. 02116 coholics hariging around the front of h\s is what keeps people/ out of mischief. Dear Fellow Workers, building, and a few had threatened to . Creative labor I is craft labor. We here at Haley House are attempt leave and find apartments elsewhere. Mechanized labor/ is not creativ~ labor. ing to meet the needs of the homeless So, for the time being, the Mustard NO PLEASURE IN THEIR WORK men of Boston. We certainly do not ex Seed is in transit. We had, during the pect to meet all needs nor reach all men. year, progressed from. being a mere seed· Carlyle says:/ "He who has found his work, (There are 4000 homeless men in Boston, to something mor~ like a sprout. We shall let him look/ for no other blessedness." ; and we serve approximately 125 men find new quarters and carry on some But workmen/ cannot find happiness/ in mechanized work. daily.) But we try to be thorough in how. Love to and prayers all. As Charles Devas says,/ "The great majority, what we do. Hoa Binh, having to perform/ some mechanized operation Shawn Donovan et al which requires little thought/ and allows no originality, We serve three meals every day. The I and which concerns an objecU in the transformation of which, men can obtain clothing from us twice whether previous or subsequent,/ they have no part, a day. We provide a place for a man to cannot take pleasure/ in their work!' get off the street during the daytime- Kansas City a place that offers warmth and safety. Shalom House I INDUSTRIALISM AND ART We do . not provide rehabilitation serv 40 South 13th St. ices. We do not allow people to come in ' Eric Gill says:/ "The notion of work · Kansas City, Kansas 66102 has been separated/ from the notion of art. who will bother the men. about their Dear Friends, The notion of the useful/ has been separated lives. We want a place where the men We've moved! After many months of from the notion of the beautiful./ The artist, can come and quietly be with themselves looking and waiting, a building has fin that is to say,/ the responsible workman, without outside intrusions. ally been found to shelter Shalom House. has been separated/ from all other workmen. There is a group of twenty of us who The new location will be suitable for The factory hand/. has no responsibility do the daily tasks of the store front. present needs, and the building is sound for what he produces./ He has been reduced Then there is a much larger group of and adequate. to a subhuman condition/ of intellectual irresponsibility. people who enable us to continue: give The building will provide space for Industrialism/ has released the artist · us the food to feed the men, the clothes the Peace Center and its activities, living from the necessity/ of making anything useful. to cloth them, and the money to pay the quarters for myself, and also several Industrialism/ has also released the workman bills so that we have a place to seat "Christ-rooms" for overnight lodging for from making anything amusing." them. But winter is here again; food, guests who may be in need of such help. fuel, and everything else is going up in Parishes and other groups should feel INSTITUTIONS AND CORPORATIONS price-and those old bills! So please free to refer requests they receive to Sha Jean Jacques Rousseau says:/ "Man is naturally good. keep us in mind this winter. lom House: Space is normally limited to but institutions make him bad, Peace, so let us/ overthrow institutions." :t'he McKennas I say: Man is partly good/ and partly bad, but corporations,/ not institutions,/ make him worse. "An institution," says Emerson, "is the extension/ of the soul of a man." Davenport Institutions are founded Catholic Worker House to foster the welfare/ of the masses. 806 W. 5th St. Corporations are organized · Davenport, Iowa 52802 to promote wealth/ for the few. Dear Dorothy: So let us found/ smaller and better/ institutions Things in Davenport, Iowa are going and not promote/ bigger and better/ corporations. well. We began doing hospitality the first week of September, after practi cally reconstructing the hoµse. Now an activity suited to their tastes, and unselfish man. You've spanned my par we're pretty well settled. We feed about where, aided by the motor and the ma ents' and my children's lives. You bring twenty-five men and women each eve chine, they will choose the branch of the laborer, the Indian, the fruit pickers, ning, and others from morning till late activity which best suits their inclina miners, young and old together with a in the evening. We've been donated a tions." (Emphasis added.) Doesn't sound deep understanding that comes with a store front in the downtown area so very agrarian to me. As Kropotkin in deep sensitivity for their feelings, love we can distribute free clothes. We have dicated 75 years ago, this is something and respect for them as for God. fall plowed-some land (a couple of acres) that is already happening. It is happen Keep the soup pots hot! so we can plant in the spring. ing in America, as well as Germany, Love, The cold weather brings men each France, Israel, Yugoslavia and Sc'andin Dr. Louise Lombard night-we have about ten-twelve guests, Ade Bethune avia. It is even happening in big com although our accomodations are far panies like General Foods and Proctor C. W. Houses: from elegant. The men remind me that men, but in an emergency you might & Gamble. the floor is better than sleeping on the phone us and hopefully we can arrange San Francisco levee or in a box car. Soon we will have temporary hospitality for a couple or It isn't necessary to eliminate em the other side of our duplex, and we'll family. It's just that our space and facili ployers, as the CW seems to think. What Martin De Porres House be able to set up dormitory rooms, mak ties are quite limited. is necessary is the development of dem 2826 23rd St. ing things more comiortable. The Shalom House Newsletter will be ocratic participation and the employer's San Francisco, Cal. 94110 Our weekly discussions are going out before too long, and more details acceptance of it. Since the Lordstown Dear Dorothy: well-Igal Roodenko has been here as will be available then. The House will strike in 1972 American Unions have be Joan and I have wonderful news. We well as John Baranski from the Evans now be open many more hours; call if in come more conscious of the need to en are going to have another child! It is ton 4. - doubt, or· drop by if you are in the area. large the area of collective bargaining such joyous news especially during Ad Could you put us on the mailing list Your visit is a blessing! and to win recognition of the worker's vent. Our child will be due in August. for 300 Catholic Workers'! Our men are Shalom, right to have a say about how his work 'J;'hings are going well at the house. passing them out at Masses in the area. Fr. Dick Wempe THE CATHOLIC WORKER January, 1974 Notes in Brief • 36 East -First CAMARA ON RIGHTS DECLARATION and actions in Norway, India, Vietnam, (Continued from pare 2) a sandwich now and then or an egg and fried potatoes. He always made sure Dom Helder Camara bas called for a Latin ~erica, the U.S. and many more. leon gliding into bay. In warm weather t>orothy had sQme of the canned milk for greater spirit of humility and brother The Study Kit comes in a sturdy port he and Sal would sit for hours in front of hood on the eve of the 25th anniversary folio. It contains sixteen articles (30_pp), her coffee in the morning. And when he the house. And at table his place in the finally had a check comuig in for of the Universal Declaration of Buman an introduction, and a su1rested readinr ~is upper corner of the- dining room had a ability following a leg operation, he Ripts. Said Archbishop Camara in a list. Writes Mandy Carter: "We hope you quiet all its own. Rothk.o Chapel (Houston, Texas) news will be able to contribute towards the would put some of it out to get this one Altho he sometimes felt uncompre on a bus to sobriety in Philadelphia, or release: ''H each of you, freely and true $1..%5 cost to print it. However, if you hended by the younger volunteers, John to yourself, expresses your conception of don't have the full amount, don't hesi send a brother in Ireland seedmoney for what man is; if each of you listens to had an openness to them that was un the farm. tate to have us send it to you anyway." matched. He was ever solicitous of those the other, there will without any doubt WRL/West, 833 Bairht St., San Fran he thought had come to truly work John had his Irish, too, a vein of belli emerre a vision of what is essential in cisco, California 94117. gerence that could be gotten up. To sit man, not in the name of principles but rather than . take advantage. His was a certain tenderness and interest not com in his chair was to learn it shouldn't be in the name of who man is. The world • • • done. To criticize his cooking was to be today refrains from •ellinr man who be PAX CHRISTI TALKS, PACKET mon to most around the house, and a friendship that could be inspiring. Whisk unwelcomed. He had no tolerance for is precisely because it would then be AVAILABLE loafers, what he called "Catholic Shirk forced to respect him and to refashion ers said he came back to New York be All talks delivered at the Foundinr cause of John McMullan: John received kers." He also had a curious vanity for its structure accordinc to a human iden- .Assembly of Pax Christi, held in Wash letters from friends all over the country. appearance and would gather sacks of tity." ; inrton, D.C. October 5 to "I, 19"13, are clothing, some of which went for sale available on cassette tapes. · One, Dana LaRose O'Brien, sent him a • • • mug from Ireland this summer. when in a pinch. At Mike and Micki's PUERTO RICAN WORKERS SPEAK The talks deal with some aspect ol wedding he wore a blazing chartreuse "Puerto Rico Libre," the bulletin of the overall theme: "Gospel Nonviolence: John did not become old. He liked con shirt that was an hiatus in the church. the Committee for Paerto Rican Decol A Catholic Imperative." 'J,'be tapes are temporary music, and on one occasion Red, like his face in laughter, was his onisation, reports ill its November issue beinr offered at cost, $1..%5 per tape, pest bought the Beatles' record "Let It Be" favorite color. that a resolution passed by the Puerto are included. Please make checks pay because it fit his philosophy. His gener Rican Workers Concress Against the osity went beyond cigarettes. He would But I would have to say that blue dom able to "Pax Christi-USA." inated this rather private person. It was Birh Cost of Livin&' in October bas re The first tape contains the opening' share the little extras a Catholic Worker his customary dress. There was a reserve, jeeted the construetion of a proposed talk of Dorothy Day of the Catholic cook can manage with this person or that, a just pride, a propriety about him. Like superpori, oil refillery, metallurrical and· Worker movement, and the closinr ad so many alcoholics, there were hidden petro-cbemical complex in Puerto Rico. dress of Brother Andrew, founder of the The resolution stated that the complex Missionary Brothers of Charity, male sorrows locked deep within him, and these served to make warm but "undermines the interests of the Puerto companion order to Mother Teresas' Mis him Rican workinr class," and exhorts the sionaries of Charity. The tape is 51 min A Lament somewhat distant. He unde.rstood others who were walking the line and would pvermnent authorities to "Dedicate utes in lenrth. By STEVE NOWLING their efforts to the development of arri ne second tape, 90 minutes in lenrth, give them his own brand of encourage culture, the fishinr illdustry, and lirht is a record of a panel discussion on the They tell me, Catherine that you are ment. His friendship had a gratuitous industry as alternathres for economic de theme and includes the followillr speak dead but how could they know? How quality that did not attach strings but velopment which will benefit the work ers: Gordon Zahn, Tom Qnirley, Tony could they know that if you could die, "Let be." inl' people of Puerto Rico, and which will Mullaney, Sr. Gloria Fitqeraid, Rev. it would have been years ago when John had had trouble with steps for be altematives to the hirh cost of livlnr." Brian Heir. your five-year-old son was stricken with years. He had bad ankles, perhaps from · "Puerto Rico Libre" is available from The third tape, 90 minutes in lenrth, spinal meningitis, or when your husband a previous accident, and we used to the eommittee, $3. for 1% issues yearly, is a record of a second panel on the over abandoned wife and child, or when you watch him when he'd go up to bed. (He Box 1240, Peter Stuyvesant Station, N.Y;, all theme and features the followinl' walked Times Square each day selling had moved into the fourth floor a year ~- N.Y. 10009. speakers: Eileen Eran, Clare Danielsson, trinkets and candy to pay for rent and and a half ago, following hospitalization • • • Tom Cornell, Willa Bickham, and Kay food for you and your growing boy, or for varicose veins.) The night after ROTEST PACIFIC ATOM 'D;STS Pollack. when fire destroyed your last apartment Christmas he slipped while coming down Last summer the "Fiji Times" (June Still available from Pax Christi is a and took the life of your son. for supper from the top step on the sec U) reported that: '"Two French rellrtous Peace Packet which includes the follow No, Catherine, you did not die. You ond landing. He plunged the f1,lll flight, orpnisations have tnl&'l'ested that Chris inr: "The Nonviolent Cross" by James continued living and struggling year fracturing his cervical spine and suffering tians workinr on the nuclear test pro Dourlass; "Peace and Nonviolence" edit. · after year after year. By normal reckon a complete paralysis. After ten days, he grams could justifiably refuse to take by Edw.ard Guinan, CSP; "Kill for ing maybe 74 years. But you are so much succumbed, dying on the feast of the put in the eominf 1eries of explosions. Peaee" by Richard lWeSorley, S.J.; "Six older, Catherine, for who can count all Epiphany. The Roman Catholic Peace and Justice Essays" by Thomas ~erton; "Catholics, the minutes that were years as you sat Those ten days were days of grace. M Commission and the Council of the Conscience & the Draft" edit. by Eileen in one cramped room after another with Kathleen said he seemed to live them for French Protestant Federation said in a Eran; Annotated Bibliography on Just us, enduring merely on will. Many came joint statement ... 'A Jarre number of ice/Peace. to visit him, including his sister. He could Christians •believe that· a unilateral re Special Price: $5. from Pax Christi, not speak but could move his lips. One nunciation by France of its nuclear arm 1335 N. Street, N.W. Washinrton, D.C. of the first things he communicated when ament policy would be a 1'e5iure of ma~ !0005. he regained consciousness was "I'm al · jor impact. It is not excluded, then, that • • • right, I'll be OK." This was characteris measurin1 the seriousness of the circum MAJOR VICTORY FOB FARAH tic of John. As in life, so in death. He stances some Christians mi1ht feel it WORKERS, INJUNCTION did not wish others to be overly an.xious their duty to express their faith by re OVERTURNED for him. Several times he asked for a fusals . . .' " - All charges aralnst the Center for smoke, but of course, was attached to an Similarly, the Bulletin of the ATOM United Labor Action and the Ama11a oxygen machine! And his eyes smiled Committee (Apµist Testin1 On Muru mated Clothinr Workers of America, and when we told him the line was having roa) stated that in Suva, Archbishop an injunction arainst their picketin1, extra turkey because we'd been given Pearce joined in protest, sayin1 he was were dismissed on Jan. 9th in the Na the bed sagging, the battered chest of so many this year. He suffered perhaps ~ in accord with the "bishops ot the en tional Labor Relations Board bearing drawers, the leaking sink, and the single, three cardiac arrests, the final one the tire Roman Catholic ChW'cb, who in 1965· over the boycott of Farah pants and Sib most telling. He was anointed and ex deseribed the arms race as an utterly bare flourescent bulb hanging in the leys Department Stores in Rochester, N.Y. center with the long~ string switch trail pertly cared for up_to the end. treachero'!IS trap for humanity which in This constitutes a major victory in the jured the poor to an intolerable degree." ing almost to the bed. How many hun Fr. Lyle conducted the funeral Mass. efiort to support the 3,000 Farah work dreds of years did you sit staring out It was said on the table where John had • • • ers, and is also an important vietory to that dirty window with the drooping made so many bowls of soup, cut so maJJ.y OPERATION MANNA defend the ri1ht to free speech. venetian blinds at other women's· sons, carrots and parsnips, peeled so many The Manchester
' January, 1974 . THE CATHOLIC WORKER PageSnen
W. H. A uden·: Faith and the Ironic Hero / By HELENE ISWOLSKY recalled her first meeting him at the minded, Bohemian air. He never really by a spirit of good will, so that there was Third Hour. This is a small ecumenical looked like a Bohemian. He was too rarely a discordant note in our midst. In her November, 1973 "On Pilgrim group which we founded in 1946, and in courteous and attentive. And he was not Auden helped moreover by contributing age," Dorothy Day told about the late which Auden showed interest. I remem absent-minded, but keenly aware of several poems and an essay to our publi poet W. H. Auden's friendship and sym ber his comiJlg to one of our first meet everything that was going on around i:-a tion the Third Hour. The name recalls pathy for the Catholic Worker. She also ings in my sitting room with only half a him. He was always interested in people the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit dozen chairs available. So he sat on the and in their ideas. on the Apostles (Acts II, 15). We shall al floor, stretching his long legs on a worn And this is why he was for us so wel ways be deeply grateful for the poet's 36 East First out carpet and smoking a pipe. With his come, not only as a great poet but _also generosity. rather untidy sandy hair and his re as a man who understood and sincerely Auden was a born ecumenist. He be (Continued from page 6) served, almost timid, look, he reminded liked our small ecumenical endeavor, at longed to the Church of England, but he dent. News came that Charlie Keefe hasl me of an English student rather than of that time quite unpopular and almost un was also on cordial terms with Catholic been struck by a patrol car, suffering a famous man of letters. known. Many historical and theological priests and laymen as well as with the another broken hip. John Alex was hos Later when a friend kindly lent us a ·subjects, which became so important in Russian-Orthodox, and was an admirer pitalized with serious respiratory mal larger apartment for our meetings, Au the days of Vatican Council II, were dis of the Byzantine liturgy. He understood functions. Two other guests, one a hem den promised to come, but did not ap cussed at the Third Hour meetings by a th ~ m instinctively. His insight was based ophiliac, the other an epileptic, spent pear. We were later told to our confu few Catholics, Protestants a~d Ru~sian on not only theology, church history or time at hospitals. And Dorsey stayed at sion that the elevator man would not take Orthodox. We sometimes felt . we were liturgy (though as a man of culture he home but battled with pleurisy none the him up, because of the visitor's shabby skating on thin ice. It was thanks to men had sufficient knowledge of them). His ~ _ less. rain-coat, turned up collar and absent like Auden that we were bound together insight was the projection of a deep re On the brighter side, Arthut J. Lacey ligious consciousness. Though restrained celebrated his 50th birthday on January and reluctant to show off his faith, he 6. Evidence that he is at the golden mean had a direct perception of what it meant. came at Christmas when Arthur was in Land Reform Tackled He had an ear for the Divine, like musi vited to two parties-one for children cians have an ear for music. and one for adults. We were blessed with (Continued from page 1) Fund. There, everything from small Auden's, religious consciousness is re farms, Kibbutzim, Moshavim (coopera flected in his Christmas Oratorio. I still many visitors over the holidays includ The idea behind land reforms is to ing Larry Rosebaugh and Fr. Griffin.' tive villages), and whole new towns are remember my delight when I first read make land available to those who want it in The Commonweal in the 1940-ties. Jack Cook and Walter Keren came one to live on it and work it. In most parts planned and established on trust land. night for supper, Jane and Dorothy re There is so little true religious poetry, of the country, the farms used to be "In short, the trustee concept is an that it always appears somewhat of' a turned from Ireland with tales and an small. This was the original idea of the eye to returning. Pam Mumby ended her activist approach to the problem of re miracle. Later I found in one of Auden's founders of the country, later reflected distribution of resources, and while it essays that chaste and almost stripped stay with us, while John ·Cort came to in the Homestead Act; but little by little, visit for a week. We learned much from is initially aimed at the land, as it grows treatment of a subject approached too from a variety of causes, the land came and develops strength as a movement it often and from too many angles super him. One night Tom Sullivan, Jerry Grif under the control of large land compa• fin and James O'Gara came to reconnoi can begin to reach out into other areas ficially. nies and real estate syndicates. This of resource management." This essay was entitled "The Ironic ter with John. We felt then a rare con trend, which still continues, the land re nection with forty years of Worker tra Hero" and was first published in the formers hope to reverse. The dream of the National Coalition Third Hobr. Later it was included in a dition, past and present. for Land Reform is to provide access to We shall cherish memories of Mi Robert Swann, of the International In book rnntaining various other pieces of the land. This opportunity, for those who Auden..;; prose. "The Ironic Hero" deals chael Kirwan, who left us in December, dependence Institute of Ashby, Mass., . want it, is seen as "the key to alleviating bustling around the Worker for a year proposed the community land trust as an with Don Quixote, but on a deeper level 1 rural poverty, easing urban overcrowd it deals with sanctity. and a half, taking the stairs three at a instrument for holding the land in trust ing, reducing welfare costs and unem- time, bringing in 'Qooks he'd unearthed and allocating its use to farmers who The essay is a meditation in which the in antiquarian book shops along 4th Ave., would lease it in perpetuity. The trust is author shows us that Dpn Quixote is an pa1nting Easy Essays on the walls. After a quasi-public institution, chartered to "ironic character," because he is unlike much generous work here, Michael has hold land in stt:!wardship, with power to the other heroes of classic literature. returned to Washington, D.C. to complete protect the iise-rights of those who have There is· the epic hero, who performs his carpenter's apprenticeship and study taken up leaseholds. Explaining the idea, spectacular deeds; and the tragic hero theology. We miss him in countless ways, he said: who suffers to expiate his sins or else hardens his heart and rebels against but trust he will carry on the CW tradi "Trusteeship and stewardship can be tion in all he does. fate's injustice. As to the comic hero, he built on a long tradition in many socie may also give performances or'even suf ChrisUnu ties (Indians of North and South Ameri fer, but his misfortunes or extraordinary It was the Advent Wreath Michael had ca-the ejidos of Mexico, the tribes of feats arouse nothing but laughter. woven which helped prepare us for Africa, the 'commons' of England and New England, the Crofters' system in The Christian saint is neither epic, nor Christmas. Someone hung a decoration tragic, nor comic hero. He is a man who under the crucifix made of computer Scotland, .the Eskimos of Alaska. And in recent history, the Gramdan movement has absolute faith, loves God and loves cards sprayed gold, and I thought how his neighbor. He acts without vainglory, pleased John Cort would be to see this in India and the Jewish National Fund he suffers and fails in the world, but for in Israel)." aspect of technology being Catholic him "it is a blessing, the sign that he is Workerized. Mike and Micki played With the trusteeship approach to the on the right path, a sign that he is in the Santa, wrapping presents for days with problem, land would be purchased, not truth." Like Christ who is his guide, he Anne, and no one went empty handed. expropriated. Experience with land is no hero at all, but "the suffering serv Carmen Mathews read Dickens' Christ trust operations in Georgia has shown ant" whose kingdom is not of this world. mas Carol for us at the Christmas party. that application of this plan can be far And such, Auden tells us is Don Quix It was the most beautiful reading I re reaching: ote, the knight of Faith, "who, like the member, and had all of us Lazarus-like Rita Corbin saint is riever discouraged in his defeats, Scrooges saying "Merry Christmas" af "A trust can b11 used as a holding mechanism for all sizes and tracts of who persists in his tireless quest along terwards. Then followed Fr. Lyle's cele ployment, protecting the rural environ- the right path." He speaks in the lan- '4, bration of midnight Mass. Many visitors land. Some of these tracts may be large enough to build entire new towns (large ment, · and building a stronger dem- guage of feudal pride and chivalry, but attended. The Liturgy was heightened ocracy." seeks to serve. He uses the terms of feu- by Steve Didon.'s Bach Interlude for gui or small) or simply used as farms or as conservation tracts. Land reform is not a new idea, but dal romance, of his love for Dulcinea, tar. Afterwards we devoured Pat Mur the participants in this San Francisco which is the earthly eros. But in reality, ray's exquisite home-made coffee cake "Because large segments of land are Conference felt that they were witnes- Auden points out, it is the language of and prepared for the meals of Christmas held as a unit, the trust can .utilize the . . . love for all in Christ, the Agape. ses of an hlStonc occasion. The mood of In our ti.me h th h" t · ted d Day. These were handled by John Mc entire region. This is, from a planning th d " · hi h ·t hed d , w en e sop lS ica o Mullan and Bill Healy in the morning, viewpoint, the most logical unit for re . t; iscussions was g -pi c an ex- not care for saints and do not like to and Ed Forand, Frank Donovan, Robert source planning. . . . This flexibility c1tmg. Nearly 500 people were there, · \ mention suffering, it is vital, and revital Smith and John McLean at night. Need permits both short and long range stra fror;n every part of the country, to sha~e izing to find in this essay of Auden the less to say, they (and we) rated four tegies which can include small farms, th~1r ~o':"'ledge, hopes, and plans.. Their anatomy of sanctity. Reserved and sober ·Stars. large farms, or combinations of both. ob1e~hve ':8 a fundamental change m the ing as it is, "The Ironic Hero" reveals I could go on eternally, no doubt, but In this way, the modern technology of relat1i;insh1p o~ people to the lai:id. Fur- Don Quixote's mystery and gives us the this paper has only four columns 'per the large scale farm can be utilized th~r. mformahon m~y be obt~1?ed by key to Auden's own faith. wntmg to the National Coahhon for page. So may we say a general thank-.. while at the same time, the trust can encourage and promote the new ecologi Land Reform, 345 Franklin Street; San you to all those who made this a bounte Francisco, Calif. 94102. For details on ...- "The first condltiQn necessary in order ous holiday. To those who have come to cal fertilizers and farming systems to the Land Trust idea, write to the In to practice the Word of God ·1s to be speak at meetings, to Jol:m Jacobs who avoid the dangers of monocultures and willing to commit oneself in the proCess brings bread and repaired the Clothing pesticides. In the short range, at least, ternational Independence Institute, West Road, Box 183, Ashby, Mass. 01431. of liberating mankind. But this process. Room, to Roger who shows us a hundred large scale use of machine technology is demands an historical commitment, it de necessary to compete with the agri kindnesses, to an· our readers, a prayer mands a transforming action that is will business farm system. Land redistribu (Eds. Note: This article is reprinted ful thank you. ing to face the active opposition of those tion or resettlement creates more small from the June 13, 1973 issue of MANAS, After a year of many·sorrowful deaths, a journal of independent inquiry. Edi who dominate the world. of wars and breaches in public trust, farmers, but does nothing to insure their survival." torial articles in this fine publication go "In order for the First World to hear Bach's Christmas Cantata came to me unsigned, as MANAS wishes to present the Word of God, it must undergo the with assurance for the days ahead. May Land management of this sort is not ideas and viewpoints, not personalities. experience of Easter . . . That is, it must it to you. Es bringt das riclit .Jubeljahr, without precedent. Swann says: Issued weekly, except during .July and die as the First World, and be reborn as "It is truly a year of jubilation,/ why "In Israel the advantages of flexibility August, the subscription price is $5 a the Third World. Theology must come should we be always sad? I Arise! Now iii planning can be seen very clearly, year from Manas Publishing Company, from the Third World. It cannot come is a time for singing,/the little Jesus since over two thirds of the best land is P.O. Box 32112, Los Angeles, Calif. from the bourgeois." turns away all suffering." held in trust by the Jewish National 90032.) Paulo Freire / Page Eight THE CATHOLIC WORKER January, 1974
OnI Pi·Igriri:1age (Continued from page 2) "Dear Dorothy: Frank Donovan tells house in Los Angeles. Ttiere is truly a ons and prisoners, beginning with Dos pecially on First Street by the sufferings me you want to write something on the continuation of the loaves and fishes toievsky's Bouse of the Dead, Chekhov's around me, but also with its compen increase of the price of beans and so miracle going on all the time, when folks - book ·about the prison settlement on · sating joys-an increase of love and forth. I priced many of them at' the sup- start this simple gesture of love, of Sakhalin, Kropotkin's In Russian and · trust in our family of "undesirables." . ermarkets and all I can say is that gang breaking bread with our brothers and French Prisons, and now the 1973 edition What a beautiful word "desire" is, re in Washington must be going mad (! isters in Christ. "They knew Him in of Walls and Bars by Eugene V. Debs, minding us that the Lord said, "With know we are supposed to remember the breaking of bread," is the comfort- published by Charles H. Kerr and Com- desire I have desired to eat this passover everyone in our prayers, but there are ing and terse statement in Luke 24 :35. pany in Chicago. And of course there is with you before I suffer." I read th~t some who make it very difficult). Read Ireland The First Circle, by Alexander Solzhe- in the King James version years ago these and weep. Whole pea, 63c a pound; I ended my last sketchy column in the nitsyn, Nobel Prize winner, and his Day and felt the passion of .desire which he green split pea, 75c; yellow, 57c; pinto December issue just as I was about to in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, both felt-the yearning in his heart for all bean, 63c; lima, 53c; cllick pea, 57c; go to Belfast, Ireland. (It was not really stories of the labor camps of Russia. men, not just his friends. And now I white pea bean, 63c. Keeping in mind a column last month but a series of let- There is a lot about prisons in Ammon's read that Grand Central Station is clos that when we get figures from the gov book, and we strongly recommend it for ing its d.oors from 12-6 a.m. for fear ernment, on the increase in prices on a the spirit he showed. He never pulled the waiting rooms will be filled with monthly wholesale index, if the increase his punches but tried to convert others undesirables. But the Lord desires them is 1 % to 2% each month, this is ·consid · to his own· point of view, including the with . strong desire in his heart-these ered high. Also when people complain guards and keepers during his imprison homeless ones. "As long as you have .about 4, 5 or 6% increases, they yell in ments. He had plenty of blind spots, was done it unto one of the least of these, flation. Now take peas, beans, etc., an ab a WASP of sorts, became a Catholic be -· you have done it unto Me!" solutely necessary staple for the Puerto cause he loved the Catholic Worker, left Prices Ricans, blacks-any poor. Up to a short the Church because he could not accept its time ago we could, for approximately discipline, loved the saints. because they Our Christmas season is over now, $30, get 300 lbs. of beans, lentils or split suffered martyrdoms and emulated their and we did indeed fe.ast, what with the peas. This same lot costs us now any courage, esteerii.ing courage as the high generosity of our friends who supplied where from $180 to at least $200. The est virtue. His was a lifelong struggle us with much canned goods and many beans and so forth sold in the retail against war and capital punishment, and turkeys, 25 from the United Parcel Com stores would cost a few cents more each one might say he died on the picket line, pany for one thing. I am reminded of a pound than we paid for them by buying protesting the comipg execution of two Christmas when, in return for turkeys in 100 lb. bags-but in either case the convicted murderers. He was 11aken to we had given them, a few of our neigh inflationary increase amounts to not 2% a Catholic hospital where he was nursed bors brought us "surplus commodities" or even 10% but 500 or 600%. I don't by nuns and visited daily by a dear such as bags of quick-cooking rolled think anything else in the country has Fritz Eichenberg friend, a priest, who annointed him be ., . : oats. In the depression. we used to get been inflated like this, whether Cadil fore he died. His Protestant. and Catholic .•. cans of "home relief beef," brought in lacs, yachts or what have you. Please AMMON HENNACY friends attended his funeral Mass in Salt · .. .!:. , . a·s gifts from our neighbors in exchange write a scathing article! Peace, but to Lake City. His first wife and two daugh -· for clothes or some of the goodies ·our men of good will! Love, Ed F orand." ters I wrote home.) I flew over to Ire ters and their husbands flew and drove readers sent in. Believe it or not, we got I think his article is scathing enough. land from England after dark and the up for the funeral and a Unitarian .f;amily honey from Illinois once, and oysters I could not do better. Thank God the trip took only 45 minutes. There seems which Ammon held dear provided the from Maryland, and a frozen salmon by young crowd goes up to the market at to be a lot of coming and going between funeral breakfast for us all. If our read air freight from Seattle! Hunt's Point and begs for food, and Liverpool and Belfast, and it is claimed ers wish to read Ammon's autobiography, This is all a preliminary to writing down to the fish market to get donations that Liverpool has increased by fifteen .which I consider a classic, write to Joan what Ed Forand wants me to write there. Carmen Mathews, our favorite ac percent in population since the Trouble · Thomas, Box 25, Phoenix, Arizona 85001. about, and that is the price of beans, tress, gave us ·canned hams, and Trap started. I was only twenty-four hours in The December 22 number of the peas and lentils, which are a basis for pists sent cheeses to us and to. the Mary Belfast, staying that night at a Simon Peacemaker contains the story of Dan our morning caldron of soup which knoll Cloiste·: nuns who are living in house and talking to the folks there; they Goodman's Selective Service violations, serves hundreds of men each morning. the slums here on the lower east side spoke only of their personal troubles, not for which he was sentenced in an India Ed himself is one of our editors, our who then passed them on to us. of the tragedy of the city. Their attitude napolis court to six years, four incarce treasurer and keeper of accounts, who Now that Christmas is over the soup was hopeless; it seemed as though they rated years and two on probation. Read pays all the bills, who supports himself gets a bit thin now and again, but there felt it had always been going on, this the Peacemaker to keep in touch with with a part-time job, and makes the is plenty of bread and tea and coffee, bitter strif~ between brothers, and al prisoners of conscience. Write 10208 Syl soup Monday, ·Wednesday and Friday, and we manage to feed all who ' come ways would. The streets seemed deso van Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45241. which means' very ear.ly rising. just as I saw it done in my last summer's late and deserted, and yet it was a fam A long article which begins on the His note to me, placed on my desk visit to the Martin de Porres house in iliar sight to me, having visited just front page of the Wall Street .Journal this morning, reads: San Francisco and the Ammon Hennacy such places in Detroit and Chicago after for January 2, tells of what is called riots and fires made havoc of formeriy Aversion Therapy, and the subhead con- ~ friendly neighborhoods. I took the train tinues with the omnious words, "punish for Dublin and was delighted to be greet ing people to change behaviour." The Tivoli: a F.arm With a View ed there by Jane Sammon of our First article tells facts and figures, names (Continued from page 4) to number eighty or thereabouts. There Street house who had been in England names · and states the drugs used to with me and had gone to Dublin before the help of Barbara Miller, Joe Geraci are many men from the road-or "am "change behaviour." The article ques bassadors of God" as Peter Maurin me. I stayed at the Campbell House and tions-"Is It Old Fashioned Torture?"'' and others. went to the annual meeting of the There are a number of small children called them-taking refuge from Winter_ Jessica Mitford has written a book on here. There are alsa some recovering Simons; and having received a letter Kind and Usual Punishment which with us, and these seemed to find that from Michael Cullen telling us of his special magic in the Christmas celebra from mental illness and other afflictions. should be read and pondered mi. Noth As always there- are young an.d old and move to Ventry, a , small fishing and ing has changed since the slaughter of tion which belongs most particularly to boat-building village in the southwest of children. As for food, -Alice Lawrence in-between. There are, of course, the both prisoners and guards at Attica a usual problems which go with such a Ireland, Jane and I took the train to few years ago, and we need to do all we cooked both Christmas and New Year's Tralee the next day and were met by dinners, superbly as always. But Kathy disparate assortment of people. Most of can to keep in touch with prisoners and the problems that are found -elsewhere, Michael and Pat McEll~gott. We had a protect them and work for them. St. Clair and her helpers looked after most delightful two days and left in a the shopping and provided those extra will be found among us. The book which has just been pub Our third-S unday afternoon discus flooding rainstorm only making the lished by Charles H. Kerr and Co., delicacies which help· to complete a plane at Shannon Airport because the Christmas feast. Although we were sions have not gone quite as planned. Chicago, containing Eugene Debs' pris Tony Equale kept his commitment in plane itself was late in taking off. Hav on ""'.ritings and his suggestions as to happy to have a number of guests, we ing .had a two-day glimpse of Ireland, I were sorry that Joe and Audrey Mon November to tell us about his ideas of what can be done, is well worth study community. In December, however, Tom fell in love with it, and will most surely ing. Ammon had the greatest admiration roe could not be with us. We are thank make another pilgrimage there. We were ful to all who sent in special donations Cornell was ill and unable to ·speak, and love for this great leader in the labor though he has promised to do so at a right on the bay from which St. Brendan movement who polled one million vates for our Christmastide, especially to the set forth on his travels, and we saw Bruderhof who brought quantities of later date. Miriam Carroll is scheduled ~or President while he was in prison to speak this month on Montessori edu ' through the mists the road which led up during the First World War. Just now as food. In these days of soaring food prices, to St. Brendan's mountain which is al what better gift than food. cational methods. Ed Turner will speak I am finishing writing this column, I · in February. Jacques Travers .will speak most 3000 feet high. We saw the stone read over the story of the prisoners' re The Corbin's Canada soon, . we hope. Dorothy Day has houses and the stone fences and the action to Debs departure from Atlanta Marty Corbin, who is teaching at Daw promised to speak to us in May. Al bright green fields, and still there were Penitentiary, where Ammon also served son College in Montreal, Canada, ar though she did not speak on a Sunday purple flowers on the hedgerows -and during the Fir st World War, and was a few palms which let us know that rived here on Christmas Day. A~ few afternoon, Helene Iswolsky gave us a once-again deeply moved. days later, however, he and Rita· and very interesting talk on Emmanuel the weather was tempered by the Gulf Let us pray for all the prisoners we .... their children set out for their new home Mounier and the Russian philosopher Stream. I want to go back and read the know, for those who write to us, such as in Montreal. We miss the Corbins who Berdyaev one night in December. Since lives of the saints and scholars and make Mar tin Sostre whose picture hangs on have been with ·us since we moved to Helene had known both these men well, a month-long retreat there. God willing. our office wall, and Eddie Sanchez and Tivoli, but we are glad that Marty has and had worked and studied with them Ammon, Prisons Arthur Banks, and all the other men, a job which will enable him to use some during her long residence in France, the Other things to think about thi~ month. the countless thousands of meii and wo- of his fine scholarly abilities. And we talk added much to our understanding January 14, 1970 is the date of Ammon ' men who are held behind prison bars. hope Rita will continue to pursue her art of these men, both as thinkers and .hu Hennacy's death, arid when I finish writ When even the prestigeous Wall Street work and find new outlets for it. Mean man beings. ing this column I'll be sitting down read Journal publishes such a column or hor while we are glad that she will continue It is Epiphany. The J.anuary air is ing over some of his stories of the In rors, we must awake to the. condition of to provide drawings for · the Catholic filled with the promise of snow. I wait dians, or the date palm grov es where h e these sufferers and do what we can to Worker. · for Vespers' bell. 0 wh.er e is the star worked, or the irrigating he did, or of help them. Pray also for Father Lyle and The loss of the Corbins has hardly that will lead us to Him? Agnus Dei, the prison cells he had been in. I have his halfway house for prisoners iI1' East diminished our size since we continue Miserere Nobis. a goodly selection of books about pris- Harlem.