( TM8 1

CATHOLIC WORKER I .1 Vol. XXXIV No. I JANUARY, 1968 8ubacriptlon1 Price le -· 25o Per Year

But people from house con­ tinued, day after day, to try to see him. AMeeting with Ignazio Silone George Johnson, that Interna­ By JACK COOK tional hiker and OW Man-about­ BT DOROTHY DAY Town, visited u.~ just before In wrestling with the problem plete an interview as I would "May I never see another one," lobby, benonviolence in an age of mass Silone wanted to learn more tall and partially paralyzed in o:ie morgues, where the walls are lined possesses the art of being accepted violence; it seems to me that the about Peter Maurin (our founder) leg, like some rudderless ship in with lockers much like those ln as an equal by everybody­ writings of Ignazio Silone are of and ~ his peasant background. He bus stations. He was worried about his battered, grimy, stuffed wtth Bowery Man or professional; hence immense importance. When I first knew of Marc Sangnier's move­ my reaotion, for decomposition had rags and newspaper-swollen over­ he enlisted the aid of the head read Bread and Wine in the ment and hil journal, Le SiUon. set in. I assured him I was suf­ coat, into o ur kitchen Christmas man at Bellevue and both wandered forties, I was deeply impressed, which was suppressed ·in France ficiently acquainted with death. He morning. As always, Mike's decla­ the wards l.n search of Pete. We not only with the story of the at the time that Peter Maurin remarked, "It can't be any worse mation was appropriate and point­ finally learned on the morning revolutionary returning secretly lived there. He also wanted to than the dead Viet Cong." Dennis, ed. Not only is it true to say of of Christmas Eve (from another lrom his exile in Switzerland, but know whether I was a practicing being older and far more llcqu•aint­ him that he feeds on death, but brother, who came by later that with the call to a personalist ap­ Catholic, and expressed surprise ed with death, was not permitted that death-in cold and pain, in day with a 20-pound turkey· for proach which must precede any at the opposition The Catholio filth and squalor, in loneliness and to descend for fear of a heart us) that he had died in a different communitarian effort. Worker met with from some of the attack. abandon-4eeds on the men of the hospital. I had heard from Father Jack hierachy. He spoke of Danilo Bowery, As I write, it is reported Irish Pat, born and raised in Tom Likely has spent the holi­ English, a former OW editor, of Dolci, whom I was to meet later. the mountains· of Western Ireland, to me that in the basement of the days in the hospital, although he Silone's visit to the Trappist mona­ and of whom I wrote in the last old brownstone in which "Mama" deserted the English Army and went there much against his will. stery of the Holy Spirit at Con­ issue of The ,catholic Worker. joined the Irish Republican Army. used to live, a Bowery man last Only by taking advantage of one yers, Georgia. Silone spent the I knew from others that he had night in 5-degree Weqlther died He fought in the Battle of the of his ever more frequent and day at the Abbey within the en­ provided Dolci with generous fi- · from exposure. It is only fitting Four Courts in Dublin during violent seizures were we able to closure, and it was left to Father nacial help and had appeared in tha·t at the southern .end of this Easter Week and then in the Irish get the ambulance here and have English to be guest master and court during his many trials. He via dolorosa one finds the "Tombs" Civil War. We are uncertain of him committed. The ulcerous sores converse with his wife, a beautiful did not particularly like his cam­ (city jaiU a:id the morgue. his life in America before he came on his leg were aggravated by an I r i s h w o m a n whom he met paign against the Mafia, though It is about 8:30 Tuesday night, to the CW. Some say a prison inexplicable burn. His leg is set during his exile in Switzerland. he said that it showed great the 9th of January. Dennis Ward .guard; others, a trolley car opera­ in a removable cast, he is re­ They had come to Atlanta to dis­ courage. Perhaps he felt that the and I have just returned from the tor. He had been with the CW ceiving oxygen directly to the cuss the problems of the South time consumed was time lost from O.lfice of the Medioal Examiner­ since Staten Island days. Always lungs, and his face gives the im­ and had been brought to the his work ol regional alleviation a euphemism for that morgue on somewhat belligerent, tho ugh pression that the mortician had monastery by the editor of the of destitution, through study 30th Street and 1st Avenue, where harmless, he mellowed considera­ already . "set" it. Atlanta Constitution because there groups, buliding up of coopera­ unidentified dead bodies picked, up bly toward Christmas time. When Chuck returned from was an interna!.ional meeting of tives and the work toward irriga­ on the streets of Manhatten are Bayonne Pete, who had been "viewing" Pete for the last time, the Trappist order going on there. tion and reforestation. taken. " Case No. 294; Male; White; with the CW since before World he was quite disturbed, for he On another occasion Silone and Silone himself was born in Pes­ approx. 59 years old; picked up in V'ar II, died the morning of Christ­ could not recognize his friend. ' his wife had visited New York cina, an ancient town on the front of 22 Spring Street, N.Y.C.; mas Eve. On that day, also, one Earl Ovitt received 3rd degree and New England and had called slopes of the Mariella mountains, 8 Jan. 1968; unide:itified." year ago Nick the Waiter died. burns on ten per cent of his body the office of The Catholic Worker, in the Abbruzzi. His father died Irish Pat McG<>wan is dead. The metaphysical mysteries that when a valve on a steam pipe, di­ but I did not receive the message when he was ten years old. There We were told by a young night­ permeate life on the Bowery are rect from the furnace which he until they were well on their way were three sons, and the oldest clerk that all the office workers all the more real and raw during was trying to fix, burst. He, too. back to Italy. was injured when he fell from a had le.ft. It was an inconvenient this time of tinsel and general is hospitalized. Both Earl and So I was delighted when I was roof where he was playing and time to identify the dead. After 9 gaiety. Tom Likely sing the old songs. invited to dine with them in broke his back. He was terribly and before 5 o'clock was ideal. But Chuck Bassinette; a longtime Earl's "Hello Dolly," in fact, serves Rome in late October. We went crippled, but his mind was keener ·we happened to meet the medical f,aiend of both (rish Pat and Pete, as both his entrance and (some­ to a restaurant on the Piazza than ever. He died at fourtee·n. director

I THE CATHOLIC WORKER January, 1961 Vol. XXXIV No. I January, 1968 Notes on Permanent Revolution ·:OO'HOLJC~~ ER BT JAMES HANINK . Such an l.neredible, utopian re­ of the nvoluntionary world. If iolve led him to the nonviolent Tellhard ii to be called a churelt­ (Offered la the hope tlaat the reconciliation of the cross. man, so Je Marx. If Erie:h Fro.IDDl P11ltlislle• Monthly lep&emlter to Jame, Bl-montJaly Jwly-AllC99& ltread, which 11 indeed rising, may !11 to bear the proud title of human­ -oaGAN JI' TRI: CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT 1te shared at tile banquet table.) Our nonviolence expresses the PETER MAUKIN, 1..-ounder roo.t direction of our discipleship. ist, so is Pope Paul. Furthermore, DOROTHY DAY, Editor •nd Publisher • How muoh ought we dare? To those who speak of the self­ if we see the Church as the pil· MARTIN J. CORBIN, Managing Editor How much ought a man hope? For defense of the Law, we begin with grim community of believers in the Associate Editoru precisely what sort of a dream the fearfully apparent: "In this self-transcending human concern, CHARLES BUTIERWORTH, JACK COOK, RITA CORBIN THOMAS S. HOEY, WILLIAM HORVATH, MARJORIE C. HUGHES, hard by the core of the Ohristian in the reality of utopia but question CHRISTOPHER S. KEARNS, DAN KELLY, WALTER KERELL, PHIL believe that war is still an apt project of existence lies the un­ means of vindicatinl' violated out loud those nominal Christians MALONEY, KARL MEYER, DEANE MOWRER, HELEN C. RILEY, who reject in a hundred practical PAT RUSK, ARTHUR SHEEHAN, ANNE TAILLEFER, E!JWARD compromising demand for Utopia. rights." (John X.XIll) But it is TURNER, STANLEY VISHNEWSKI, JAMES E. WILSON. Anarchist critic Paul Goodman because our life is not to be clung ways these elements of the good New subscriptions and ch•nae of addreu: diagnoses as symptomatic of post­ to but poured out, because our news. 175 Chrystie St., New York, N. Y. 10002 modern man the inability to take nonviolent witness is part and .. With this passion does Daniel . Telephone OR 4-9812 seriously the promise of social rev­ parcel of our work in the redemP­ Berrigan, breathing the disciple­ Editori5I communications to: Box 33 Tivoli, N. Y. 12583 olution, precisely because we no tion of all men for the Kingdom, ship of an imprisoned war resister, Subscription Unltecf States, 25c Yearly. Canada ed Foreign 30c Ye.rl)' longer see the apocalyptic-eschato­ that we come to affirm with Father speak of·Jesus: Subscription rate of one cent per copy plus postage applies to bundles of one logical direction of Christian rev­ John L. McKenzie: "Jes_us pre­ bundred or more copies each month for one 7ear to be directed to one addresa. It's what they beard his elation as credible. We cannot sented in his words and life not whole life say that counts. Reentered as second class matter August 10. 1939, at the Post Office pray "Come, Lord Jesus" because only a good way of doing thirtgs, That's what we have of him. of New York, N. Y., Under the Act of March I. 1879 our societal conceptualizations not only an ideal to lie executed Something transparent, some­ simply cannot- tolerate the Mes­ whenever it is convenient, but the thinl' running, springs in the siah's return. In this our treas­ only way of doing what he did." desert.••• Such a man speaks ured calcification-let us say it • For us Christians sweet Lady through his pores, he writes immediately-bourgeois society is Poverty has proved to be the most on the air, there is nothinl', A Response to The Resistance classically pagan. Our soclety does elusive of mistresses. Or so we nothinl' about him but elo­ n()f; grow organically; rather it say. But it is, of course, the siin­ quence. • • • And all of it fit­ By JACK COOK su1Jers a choking accre.tion. The ple truth that we persist the most ting-, fi.Dall)' hltersecting, mak-· The followinl' addresa was one daries there must be, then let only creative, nontechnocratic reluctant of lovers~ We need to ing sense, dissolving again, of several speeches aiven by non­ them be drawn between the poor thrust towards a daring society be poor for the sake of reality. being aerepted, violated, east cooperators at the Eastern Con­ and oppressed on the one hand, (with the exception of Christian We need to be poor materially be­ aside, befouled, confronted, ference for Non-Cooperators with and the privileged and oppressors anarchism) has risen from the cause we are poor in courage and put to death. the Selective Service, held in New on the other. The former are my ftower children and the New Left. spirit. Honesty would have us II this be Christ, then what will York City on October 30, 1966. It motherland; the latter are my Both are in sharp reaction to the show our poverty to one another, we dare? If this k:enosis won re­ was printed ori&inallY by my foreigners. So I, too, draw the paralyzing rule of techno-urban­ so that together we may come demption, what wins the revolu­ former students at Hobart Collece, line between those who suffer and ism, the arms race, and the blas­ into one community of need. Pov­ tion? In the beginning we were not Geneva, New York, in The Review those who in1lict that suffering. phemy of human beings dying of erty and nonviolence are of one able to speak, not even the dozen (Fall, 1966). We offer it here, as And foremost among the latter is malnutrition. But neither an over­ cloth. We are not our own to de­ comical- words of tbe baby. How straining esthetics nor an angry we did when it was first spoken the United States Government. I fend, and no one is ours to destroy; long a time it has been . . . now and first printed, , to encourage say "No" to that government. I realignment of power blocs can we belong to each other. Our no use speaking, unless we speak win for us the Utopia we demand. and advocate noncooperation with will not be a party to her crimes, goods are not ours to be held "springs in the desert." Our lives The path leads another way. Selective Service. Secondly, to nor will I permit myself to live onto; rather what we have is first sound the only words the r-emain­ offer to those "resisters" (some in tacit agreement with her poli­ To understand the possibilities the possession of all others. i11g listeners hear. And with all two thousand yonn.g' men), who at cies; hence, I have rejected the of our society thoroughly and rad­ Thomas Merton bas said that that there is to be said, said so th~ present moment are or ma)' status of one whose occupation is icaHy, we must awaken to the sometimes be wished he had not loudly and clearly, we must speak soon be non-cooperators, some -according to law-essential to Church herself as a permanent, even a name o! his own so that so as to be understood. · ground (admittedly "our" l'fOUDd) national welfare, i.e. a teacher, in avowedly utopian organism. The nothing of his might help men to • In case anyone is in the least to stand on; since, from what we favor of no status at all, save that paradoxical Kingdom is here and wage war. The Christian of the bit doubUul about what sort of read and bear, the voices we have of one who directly and person­ now, without and within, and West knows full well that it is action is entailed in building up heard, there appears to be but ally opposes that government's un­ about this world. Because we do within his pcwer to limit the daily, the earth, I suggest the program rage, fear, and energy behind ttie just laws; its ·suicidal-for the hu­ pray "Come, Lord Jesus," because silent death by starvation of the of thJ!. Christ:Uln .non.\dQ.le.nt. left· aetion of many of them. man race-foreign policy, its un­ we know that "the world which people of the Third World. How developing nonviolence as a work­ We respect those responses (as just and most diabolical warfare, you see before you," the contem­ much can we afford to hold back? able alternative to modern war; unreflective as they are) and and .finally, itS too, too solid ex­ porary, unpossessed world, "is Our wealth names us Dives. If we democratizing and socializing the almor, as all men of conscience istence. passing away," we claim a man­ begin our experiments in justice nation-state, ultimately reshaping must, the government which com­ I affirm, then, not only love and date for permanent social revolu1 in the name of Lazaraus, we will it into a now social entity; doing pels them. Yet we fear that such pity, but the primacy of conscience tion. In her rationalist period Si­ soon enough find that we have no the intellectual work-anthropo­ responses, apart from princiiile and the necessity-for intellectual mone Weil, a post-modern saint, place in our bourceois society. We logically and theologically~that and a firmly positive position, are and moral integrity-of acting on was impelled to work for a fun­ will find that we are personally will so liber~ man that the be­ not ground enough to withstand principle. Holding the principles damental transformation of so­ responsible for the hunger of the loved community will be realiz... years in jail. We are as concerned I do--that love, not power fulfills ciety in the name of reason. Only world. And we will not rest, not able. In case anyone is in the least about non-cooperators as we are man and quenches his thirst for that society would -be toleraole in ever again. bit doubtful where to start, I sug­ which each man was helped to - about -noncooperation. And we meaning in his existence; that • In a surprisingly real sense, gest that he or l!lhe begin with the think as fully as possible. Because know that of all the doors to hu­ conscience, nGt law, is binding on the Christian Church is the extra­ movement to end the genocidal we pray "Come" to the Lord of man experience, the prison door man; that harmonious cooperation ordinary means of salvation. The war in Vietnam. love, in a society so tragically Is the least likely to find a man among men, not competition, is ordinary means of salvation, :ind • Finally, of course, the might­ the same when he leaves as when the most natural way to live--1 fl.awed by the economic prnstitu­ here the ideas must be carefully iest revolution that someday we lie entered. Prison changes men; cannot support this, our govern­ tion of work, a bartering. of man's balanced, is" the authentic social will win shall be seen _for a !bat­ It can, and · often does, destroy ment, nor, for that matter, any own capacity for incarnation, the and individual participation in the tered fragment of the Absolute. them. government; for governments and Christian leavening must search historical unfolding of the one We simply do not know what Nie "Sing, O Goddess, of the wrath the politicians who seek to control out the viable forms of personal­ human project. The one human Lord has prepared for us. But of Achilles." So begins Homer's them, do not to my knowledge act ist socialism. Culture and politics, concern is ultimately comprehen­ here and now, passionately, we go Immortal epic The Iliad. A modern on principle, nor-being in the the working-out of a society, mesh sible only as it is e:itpresSed in the about preparing for the Kingdom. poet, writing of the great man of first instance myths and in the in constant, synergic dialectic with Christian vocabulary. Yet what Here and now it is enough that cur age, might say "Sing, 0 God­ second mythlcal monsters - can liturgy. Because our liturgy pro­ "happens" to the Christian hap­ when we use up our lives, men dess, of the wisdom of Gandhi." they act in a fulJy human manner, jects us into an egalitarian, free pens equally to the whole of man­ give to us--"yes, good measure, And both poets-ancient and mod­ i.e. out of love and respect for all community, the Christian yeast kind. God is incarnated among us pressed down, shaken together and ern-would be celebrating and af­ me·n. must be in the_ fl.our itself to all, to redeem us all. We au ex- running over." Maranatha. deepen the democratization of the firming Man, in the face of man's perience one history of salvation. ED. NOTE: James Hanink In saying "No" to Selective Ser­ structures of society. Because we violence, oppression, deceit, and For the Christian the event is, by is an Aiiswnptionist seminarian vice, then, I do so not because it is are what we are, because the Lord slavery. For despite the violence unconstitutional. I care not a whit faith, illuminated. Yet the same in San Antonio. He writes: loved and chose us as first fruits, and bloodshed· in The Iliad, de­ whether it be constitutional or un­ process occupies us all. We as "If there are some among we ought to dare all these things. spite Simone Weil's interpretation constitutional. It certainly is the Christians have nothing "extra," us who feel that there ia a cf it, the love and pity which Achil­ latter, but it matters not. If I find • We owe to a spindly Asian, but ratber we grow in the "good way to peace other than peace les feels for the mourning Priam, the present government (as well perhaps the only political realist news" of all that is to be. The itself, that one can, indeed, whose many sons are not, that love as all its predecessors) an oppres­ of contemporary experience, the Kingdom of God, which the good kill for peace, let them test and pity puts an end to AchHles' sive and coercive one: if I fin~ data accrued from certain "experi­ news is all about, can bappen to all once more the dead law ~ ef terrible wrath. That, jn my opin­ disgraceful the grotesque . trap­ ,ments In truth." It was Mohandas men. So, too, each of the sacra- the talion. Let the rest clearly ion,' is the essential affirmation of pings of this Great Society, which Gandhi whn gave us s:ityagraha, ments. So, too,. the whole event follow the living- call of Jesus, that stormy work. Love and pity, nonetheless cannot disguise its the power of truth, as a tool of of being made into Christ. And for the call to love all humaa too, are at the root of Gandhi's militaristic - industrial - scientific social change. Today the Christian most men all these things happen beings indiscriminately, unto passive resistence, nonviolence, or muscle and power, leading us re­ community is most terribly charged in different words. We are richer death. soul-force. In a world far more lentlessly toward world-wide anni­ with the advance, from crisis to than they. in that we are awake "I have made clear to my violent and bloody than the Greeks hilation; then bow can I object on crisis, of the Mahatma's experi­ to the promise. But even here, in draft board that I peacefully ever dreamed of, Gandhi dared to grounds of unconstitutionality? In ments. Theologically, Christian the last analysis, the words of our and conscientiously resist this affirm that the way to oppose that doing so I must affirm the Consti­ nonviolence grows out of our' par­ theology are- explicable and there- war in Vietnam and all other violence and end that bloodshed tution-the skeleton of this mon­ ticlpation in the life of the Lord. fore meaningful only in anthropol- wars. I ask for your support. wa~ the way of nonviolence, born ster with which we, like Beowulf The cyclical violence of the whole ogical terms. Thus ~e are in some Tog-ether we will be able to out of love and pity for all man­ of old, must now contend. human e'l(olution is in the pas­ sense humanists before we are 'CO beyond this first, tentat.ive kind. I object to Selective Service be­ sion and resurrection of Jesus Christians. God first chose us, but step. So, too, love and pity are at the cause it js an unjust law. Becaµse Christ once and for all reconciled. in choosing us he so constituted "So it is that I wish to pub- - root of my act of noncooperation. it is, in fact, not a law at all. Be­ But this once and for all stands us that we must choose him. licly dissociate myself from A love and pity that know no na­ fore a law can be said to be a precisely in that we Christians This t~ of analysis, oversim- my own ministerial exemption tional boundaries. I believe with law, it must be just, reasonable, complete the nonviolent sufferings plified though it is, dissolves any and my student deferment Auden that "There is no such and for the co_mmon good. Con­ of the Lord in our own bodies. This dichotomy between the affairs of - and very publicly encourage thing as the state/ And no one scription fuJfills none of these re­ is the very center of the vocation the Church and the -affairs of the the conscientious civil dis- exists alone." And I affirm with quirements. To my mind, any law of the peacemaker. The Lord Jesus World. It may even be said to obedience that is almost daily Don Lorenzo Milani* that if boun- that makes men murderers against would acknowledge no barriers dissolve any sort of a hierarchy of offered in op11osition to the ··See "A Priest-Teacher on Trial," their will or even wi.th the consent b.etween men, no division of priorities. The Church is for the war in Vietnam and military Catholic Worker, January 1966. (Continued on page 8), , ene!J!Y. , or 1 foreign~r oi; ,stranger. World.· The Church ia the cataly,st conscription itself.' ~ · '' J•naary, 1961 THE CATHOLIC WORKER

Tommy Hughes; Mary Hughes; Ed and Johanna Turner with their Tivoli son Tommy; Preston Lewis; Carla Joe Hill House De Sola and Joy Bergman; Mr. and Mrs. Grant Bishop and chil­ By AMMON HENNACY A Farm Witl1 a View dren; Mrs. Rachel Willis; Tamar equipped than Joe Hill House BJ' DEANE MARY MOWRER Hennessey; Be.tty Bennett; Beth Each of the eight students who Rogers and Frances Bittner, who sat in at the recruiting station on could ever claim to be. John It is January. Two days after they must return to their duties. came bearing gifts of cookies October 20th.received a fifty-dollar asked me if I allow drunks at my Epiphany. Our part of th& Hudson Nevertheless we are deeply grate­ can d le s, Jewish pumpernickei fine and a ten-day jail sentence place. I told him that we have a River Valley, like all of the North­ ful; - and o~ hope that other bread, e•ti;. (suspended). One of them, Henry sign, No Drinking, but that I am east, lies chilled under an arctic priests may also want to come and Digging Out A:-- Huey, has had his student de- not a very efficient detective in ail· mass. Snow, drifted by the .spend vacation periods with us. Snow and cold weather often forment revoked. The local Ameri­ finding liquor and that I have gales that brought the arctic air, mean more work.. After the storm can Civil Liberties Union lawyer compassion on men trying to sober Although our Christmas season is defending him and making a up again. masks our rural landscape with has been a lituigical banquet, it most of the able-bodied men were t t f 't 0 1 its own contours. a- wintry map bas not been wanting in a more out shoveling paths through the es case · When I lived at the CW in New of hills and valleys, a study in material kind of feasting. Eliza· drifts· and at least one woman - When I came to Salt Lake City York City in the fifties and had whiteness. The ice-'breaker pro­ beth Duran outdid herself baking Kay Lrnch, whl> loves snow, went s~ years ago, a very. tall and books taken from me by the "in­ ceeds with difficulty up the ice­ Christmas c o o k i e s, Christmas out to take her turn with the skinny reformed drunkard who tellectuals" and clothing by bha bound Hudson. Yet the winter sun bread, and Christmas pies. Ron shoveling. Since Father Richard called himself "Brother John" had regular "ambassadors of Christ," is warm at my southern window. Gessner and Kay Lynch made Roger-s sold his snow plow there a house across the tracks, where Dorothy used to kid me by calling - And a chickadee calls cheerfully, Christmas candy. Hans Tunnesen, is more work of this ki~d for he tried to encourage drunks to me "Private Property" Hennacy. summoning his fellow birds to Ron and Elizabeth shared the everyone. George Burke has con- sober _up. Later he acquired a Although I would never report join him in the feast at the feeder. cooking. Joan Welch has COJl­ ..structed a home-made snow plow, h_ouse m a. more respectable ;;ec­ these things to the police, the tele­ Mysteriously the January land­ tinued cooking suppers that are which however will not work in t1on near Liberty Park, but ne1gh­ vision set here has been stolen scape evokes the mood of Epiph­ not only nourishing but attractive more 'deeply Wted areas. Snow bors complained,. s~ he moved to three times and men have picked any. Across mY mind the Magi and palatable. Alice Lawrence and cold weather also mean more a condemned bu!ldmg downtown, up what they could fj.nd loose to move like star-led figures on a was quite ill at Christmas time, work for Mike Sullivan. The other :-vhere_ he had a sm.al~ storef.ront peddle for booze. I must admit golden tapestry. I ponder frank­ but is better now and back in the day, when a thaw set in, four leaks m which he sold relig10us_ articles that I have never really looked incense and myrrh. kitchen, where, as always, she h developed in · our living room. and br~ad from the_ Trapp1Sts near upon these thefts with joy and givmg an outstanding culinary Plumbing and furnace fixtures al- Hunt~ville. La~t winter he would have never given the thieves the Then the hard beauty, the harsh ways seem in need of repair. All o~caslOnally brmg half a dozen ?f and awesome truth of Epiphany, performance, which is fortunate, cloak after they stole the coat. since Ron and Elizabeth bad to this is work for Mike. After Eliza- his worst drunk~ out to .Joe Hill The landlord's taxes have been in the lines of T. S. Eliot's great beth left us, Arthur Sullivan, who House, and ~rov1de us wit~ pota­ poem "The Journey of the Magi," leave shortly after Christmas. increased; from three hundred to Aside from the carol singing of is with us again, decided to under- toes and onions. This spring . be eight hundred and fifty dollars, so which Father Marion Casey took take the bread baking. The re- ~oved from the condemned bui~d­ Joe and ·Audrey, the dominant I'll have to pay more rent. I hard­ as the text of one of his beautiful sults have been quite edible, mg to a. former res.t hom_e. While note of our Christmas day was that ly make it as it is. Last night, when Christmas season sel.'mons, comes though Arthur h·as had to share he was m the hospital with heart to dispel the pageantry. Medita­ of children's voices. Johnny the electric power was off for a few Hughes, Dorothy; Maggie, and the baking with Father Casey, who trouble, a young former book tively I repeat the lines: "A cold is ·an old hand at baking and a salesman from Tulsa to_ok t~e hours, the men realized how fortu­ coming. we ha;l of it. Just the Sally Corbin, the three Freeman nate they were to be able to sit in boys and the two Bishop boys, true believer in the nutritional place. over an.d . renamed it Samt worst time of year for a journey. merits of homemade whole wheat Marys. We VlSlted him recently. front of the glowing fireplace. I And such a long journey. The gave every evidence of satisfac­ b d No drunks are allowed on the have recently been wor!Cing at the ways deep and the weather sharp. tion with Christmas goodies and rea · . . . premises and ilie place is run lowest-paid job I ever had in my 1'he very dead o:t winter." The toys. Although .Jtegmald H1ghhill went with an iron hand. This young life: cleaning bricks. I get a hall logic of the poem, the memory of Bleak December was further to some pams to protect his bees man (whose name ls also John) a cent a brick, which averages out Father's sermon. caused' me to enlivened for us by two Sunday against the cold, all of the bees says that it is self-supporting .since to about fifty-five cents an hour. question with the MagL Had we ilterl)oon discussions. On Decem­ in one hive per{shed. Reginald he contracts the men out td work Very few people will work at it; been led all that way for birth ber 10th Jacques Travers, who brought the_hive in and set it on and charges them ten dollars a as the saying goes, it does not re­ or death? I knew the answer, teaches Frendh at Brooklyn Col­ one of the tables in the dining week to stay there. Catholics must quire much brains. I have a sign at knew that only through death of lege, spoke to us about Simone room. Those who wanted honey go to Mass. He claims that he the Joe Hill House quoting Debs: self could I be truly reborn in Weil. Since 'Jacques ill doing his went to the hive and helped them- feeds more men than the Salva­ "While there is a lower class I am Christ. share the new life He came doctoral dissertation on Simone selves right out of the comb. tion Army does. The Cathedral in it." So !'feel at home-and it to bring that Christmas Day, that Weil, be had a fund of information Many, including Father Casey and and another parish help to support helps to ~ay the utility bills. first Epiphany. I prayed that, like to draw upon. He gave a most in­ (Continued on page Bl his place, which a much better Radical Honor Roll the Magi in Eliot's _poem, I might teresting account of the life of Someone asked me to name the "be glad of another death." this remarkable woman, and re­ m6st important people in Ameri­ counted a number of anecdotes can nistory from the viewpoint of Thi wlwle- Christmas season which illuminated her ·work and has been, I think, a kind of a radical pacifist. Here is my list her remarkable dedication to that Chicag0--House (others can make their own): John spiritual gift of the Magi. To begin work. Simone Weil was an intel­ Woolman, pioneer Quaker who with, Father Leandre Plante, an BJ' KARL MEYER lectual and a philosopher, with a walked or rode on horseback to all old friend of the CW and a nephew true dedication to hard work and After ten years of one-man rev­ is that we have been too safe for Quaker meetings in the country of Father Pacifique Roy, about the working class, with a true love olution from the beainnlng of St. too long; now we are tryina to be before the Revolutionary War and whom Dorothy Day has written of poverty and the poor,· whose Stephen's House in 1958, a Catho­ not so safe any mo.re. We recently protested their owning or trading' in her book The Lon&" Loneliness, work and poverty she insisted on lic Worker group is strivina for a jumped out of the wage system and in slaves. Thomas Paine, Thomas came to spend a long overdue sharing. Although she was Jewish, new birth as an active, cooperative started working full time in the Jefferson. Henry David Thoreau. vacation period with us. Father she came to have a true personal effort. We are meeting every Sun­ peace movement, working with William Lloyd Garrison, the first Plante is a Jesuit of the Canadian relationship with Christ, which day at 2:30 at St. Stephen's House, priests and seminarians as well as Christian anarchist of note in the province, who is stationed with she expressed both in her work 1339 North Mohawk St., Chicago, with tbe Catholic Worker group country. Cochise, Apache leader in a mission on an Indian reserva­ and her writing. to make plans for action and to and other lay-action organizations Arizona. Alexander Berkman, who tion near Montreal. He is cheer­ On Sunday afternoon, Decem­ discuss the basic ideas of the Cath­ to make peace a live issue among shot Henry Clay Frick at the time ful, good humored, a linguist and ber 17, Dorothy Day spoke to us olic Worker movement. You can Catholics in Chicago. We organized of fue Homestead strike in 1892. student of languages, and a priest about her visits with Danilo Dolcl call 664-7877 to get the specific meetings for priests and semina­ Albert Parsons, hanged with three whose presence in the house has and Ignazio Silone in Italy. Al­ schedule of topics. rians to talk with Thich Nhat others in the celebrated Haymarket brought warmth and comfort to though neither Dolci nor Silone is Since the initiative comes from Hanh, the Buddhist activist and case on November 11, 1887. Gov­ us all. It was particularly wonder­ a practicing Catholic, both have us to climb out of the rut that we scholar, who helped us in Saigon ernor John Peter Altgeld, of Illi­ ful to have the beautiful Masses much in common with the Catholic have been-in for ten years, we may in 1966 when we demonstrated at nois, who pardoned three anarch­ of Advent in preparation for the Worker. Silooe's novels-Fonta­ well wonder whether we can trans­ the United States Embassy. Nhat ists imprisoned in the Haymarket great Feast of the Nativity. mara, Bread and Wine, etc. - cend the innate tendencies impli­ Hanh told us: "The National Lib­ case. Eugene V. Debs. Clarence Then on Christmas Eve Father dramatize tJhe lives and problems cit in our individualistic past and eration Front is trying to save us Darrow, Robert LaFollette, Sr. Jude Mill came to say Midnight of poor!talian peasants or mem­ provide leadership for enlarging from colonialism and from eco­ Bartolomeo Vanzetti. D9rothy Day. Mass for us. With Joe and Au­ bers of the working ~lass. Silone the heart of the Catholic Worker nomic inequality and underdevel­ Jeanette Rankin, the only• person drey Monroe and their guitar, in Chica.go. Certainly it will be. opment, and the anti-Communists in Congress to vote against both and everyone joining in the carol­ writes, however, with such com­ passion, such humanity, such re­ painful for us to change our habits are trying te save us from Com­ World Wars. Peace Pilgrim. singing, Mass was joyful and and grow. Likewise, if our readers munism. But we are not being For friends passing through, the beautiful. The next morning spect for the human being, that the final impaqt of bis books is in Chicago have for all these years saved; we are being destroyed. address of Joe Hill Hou-se is: 3462 Father Plante said the Mass of allowed our miserable efforts to What we need is to be saved from S. 4 W, two blocks south of the Christmas morning. What holy almost religious. Like that of preempt the field of Catholic Work­ salvation." huge Vitro ~mokestack. Post Of­ luxury! Two Masses for Christ· Peter Maurin, in whom Silone is er activity here, we may also won­ In this country, we need to be fice address is: P. 0. Box ~5, Salt mas in our own chapel. much interested, Silone's radical­ ism stems in part from Le Silloil. der about them: Are you there? saved from safety. Lake City, utah, 84101. Two Masses a Day Dolci., too, emphasizes personalism If. you are out there, ·we need I was up at.the diocesan semi­ Mid-Christmas week our first and the small local group. He has, every kind of persistent moral and nary preparing the way for Nhat real snowstorm arrived. And on it seems to ine, something in com­ mate;ial help in forming an active Hanh's talk. Bishop Grady was vis­ LIVING ROOM that day, blown in on that snowy mon with Saul Alinsky and Cesar center, but particularly the infu­ iting there and celebrating a Mass . gale, came Father Casey, who has sion of some dynamism into our SEMINARS Chavez. It is good to know that for the community. One of the pro­ given us so many retreats and community, people with ideas of men of such remarkable vision and fessors asked me to read the epis­ on Nonviolenee who gave conferences during our their. own tba t c.an be carried out tle for the Mass. At the Prayer of are being held Summer School period last July. dedication hold the Catholic by the community of concern we Worker in such high regard. the Faithful, the seminarians of­ ~broughoul New Jersey With Father Casey's arrival, our are building. fered many prayers for peaceful spiritual fare became even more Such Sunday afternoon discus­ People do not want to come into Sponsored by the Catholic sions, plus our regular inflow of intentions, and one cried out, "Let luxurious. Except for two con­ our neighbomo-od because it is not us pray for the Catholic Workers. Peace Fellowship, these discus­ visitors, do much to alleviate Win­ celebrations, we have continued to safe. I don't think they mean physi­ who find the Kingdom of God in sions allow lay people, -i>riests, have two Masses every day in our ter doldrums. The afternoon of cal safety. I think they mean the jail." With students from another nuns, seminarians, and th._ose of chapel. On one occasion w he n Doro.thy's talk brought out several safety of old values and old com­ seminary, we are planning for an draft age to explore the intel­ - Father John Hugo and· Father priests, some of our friends from mitments. Easter pilgrimage all over the Chi­ lectual and sp.iritual dimensions Francis Ott came for an over­ the Marist Fathers and the Ohris­ In a poem on the fruits of Resur­ cago diocese in search of the of peacemaking- and to clarify night visit, we actually bad three tian Brothers, a nub, some mem­ rection, Daniel Berrigan wrote of Prince of Peace in the temple of their own thinking. In · most Mas es. With so many Masses bers of an Episcopalian order, and ~isciples, men's hearts. groups, Non-Violence and the and so many priests, Arthur Lacey, several of our lay friends in this Christian Conscience by Father us At the same time that we are our sacri ta n ..and altar boy, has area. Now and then on weekends, Whether we turned locks on Regamey (Herder & Herder) ill in a remote alley agitating for peace in Vietnam, we really been kept busy. He could, we have so many overnight guests being followed loosely. or pushed off into seas and stars: must share more with more peo­ however. hardly regret the extra that not only all beds are full, but ple through the house of hospitali­ If you wish to join a group . work, since he has included, for the couches in the living room as the dawn rose to him, evening breathed him. ty, to build up the idea of equali­ (or start one), write . or tele­ the past several years, a most in­ well. Among our guests of recent tarian distribution · of wealth phone: sistent petition for a chaplain, in weeks are: Jonas Dumchius, who It was always Never a&"ain to be safe, summed throughout society, but we can do JEAN KEELAN, %3 Oakwood qur community rosary. Unfor­ came for Christmas loaded down up our lives. all these ~hings only through foe Place, Eliubeth, N.J. - 0'7208 tunately, our priest friends will with the ingredients for making tup il').volxemen~ of strong new EL 2-3H8. not be with us much longer, since his famou11 unbaked fruit cake; We see that the trouble with ~ people.· · THE CATHOLIC WORKER J.111u1ry, 196e / THE SAC B7 THO The Valley of Oaxaca is one of a dominant part.* In a word, Thus we have some two millennia includes various degrees of Pre­ that the Central American Indian the poorest and least productive when we think of the first cities and more of neoUthic village life Classic and late Classic). This is a remained in extremely close re­ we instinctively' think also of before the appe41rance of a city in convenient and clear division be­ lationship with the divinity that areas of Mexico today. It was once "war", "power", "wealth", "autoc­ Mexico. cause about 900 A.D. Monte Alban ruled the day of his birth and aave one of the richest and most fer­ racy", "empire", and so on. Pos­ How does the Mesoamerican city was abandoned and so were the him one of his names. What we tile. It was also the center not sible exceptio11s (such as Jerusa­ develop? It is not primarily the "Classic" Maya cities like Peten, have here ii in fact not a matter only of a great culture, but of lem, the "city of peace") are am­ result of a population explosion. Uaxactun and other centers in of alienation but of Identity. But what was probably the first real bivalent enough to be no excep­ The first city develops as a cult Guatemala. After this time, the it is obviously a conception of city in America: Monte Alban. tions. But the first cities in Amer­ center, and about the year 1000 we Mayan culture spread out in Yuca­ identity which Is quite different What was this city? What kind of ica were not like Niniveh, Baby­ find evidence of such centers tan in a Post-Classical civilization from our .subjective and psycholo- culture ftourished there? What lon, Ur or Thebes-or Rome. The among the Olmecs in the jungle under Toltec domination, and In gical one, centered on the em- kind of people lived there? Western "ideal" city bas always of lowlands of Vera Cruz. Many of the the Oaxaca Valley the old Zapotec pirical ego regarded as distinct Archeological studies* have now course · been Athens the independ­ Mayan citif's were merely centers society yielded to Mixtec conquer­ and separate from the rest of reality. brought to light some very rich ent, the democratic, the sophisti­ for worship, sometimes uninha­ ors, who occupied fortified towns and detailed material concerning cated. Could Monte Alban or bited except by a small population of the region like Mitla and Yagul. This "objective" ider_tity seems the "early urban" and "pre-clas­ Tikal be compared with Athens? of priests and scholars occupied The six-hundred-year period be­ to have been fully integrated into sic" Zapotecan culture of the Not really, except in so far as they with the important social task of tween 900 A.D. and the Spanish a cosmic system which was at once Oaxaca valley and its central city. were hjghJy esthetic cultures and determining the proper dates for conquest can be called "Post-Clas­ perfec\lY sacred and perfectly We are finally in a position to fit seem to have been in a certain clearing, planting, etc. 'as well as sical" or "Late". Note that by the worldly. There is no ' question that Monte Alban into the general pic­ sense "democratic", though per­ fortunate· and unfortunate days for time the Spaniards arrived, even the Indian in the "sacred city" felt ture of Mesoamerican civilization haps not in a way that fits our own various activities. For the authen­ the last, post-classic Mayan cities himself completely at home in his of the "classic" age, before the familiar humanist, rationalistic and tic urban center, what is required of Yucatan had been abandoned. world and perfectly understood his rise of the Mixtecs, Toltecs and Western concept of democracy. is a moderate concentration of Mayan urban civilization was at an right place in it. And this is what population and of economic activ­ Aztecs, whose culture was essen­ end. But the Aztecs had a ftourish­ we are to understand, apparently, The most recent studies of ity, a development of science that tially decadent. ing city of three hundred thou­ by the splendor and symbolism Mesoamerican culture enable us includes the knowledge of writing of an art which signified that the Before we even begin to speak to reconstruct a general picture sand at Tenochtitlan (on the site of and of chronology-and of course Mexico City). gods were present not in idols or of Monte Alban and of the ancient of man and civilization on our astronomy and mathematics. And sanctuaries so much as in the Mayan cities which had much in continent, and in order to situate one also seeks evidence of plan­ The great difference between worshipper, his community and his common with it, we must put out Monte A.lban correctly, it might ning, as well as of permanent the two cultures and the two pe­ world. The individual found him­ of our minds the generalired idea be well to look first at the general monumental public buildings: evi­ riods is this: In the early or Clas­ self, by his "objective" identity, of ancient citie·s which we have picture. This will help correct the dence in other words of a relative~ sical cultures there is almost no at the intersection of culture and a sociated with Egypt and Meso- foreshortening of perspectives in evidence of militarism, of war, or nature, crossroads established hy . potamia, or with our sketchy the popular view of Mexico. of human sacrifice until very late. the gods, points of communication knowledge Of post-classic Mexi­ We now know that hunters of The late, Post-Classical civiliza­ not only between the visible and can (Toltec and Aztec) culture in mammoth were established in the tion results from the radical the invisible, the obvious and the the five centuries preceding the Valley of Mexico as far back as change from a peaceful to a war­ unexplained, the higher and lower, Spanish conquest. In these ancient 12,000 B.C.-when the continental like and militaristic way of life the strong and the helpless: but cultures, which are more familiar ice sheet came as far south as the brought in by conquering and rel­ above all between complementary to us, the city stands out as the Ohio River and Mexico had a cool, atively barbarous tribes from the opposites which balanced and ful­ stronghold of a monarch or tyrant, rainy climate. With the eitinc­ north. The Mixtecs conquered the liUed each other (fire-water heat­ a potential empire-builder, with tion of the big game a new kind of Zapotecs who had abandoned cold, rain-earth, li~t-dark : life· an army and a culture based upon culture developed. Agriculture Morite Alban (though still sporadi­ death). "Self-realization" in such slavery. The City, in other words, seems to have been introduced cally worshipping there). The Tol­ a context implied not so much the comes into being with kingship or after 7000 B.C. with the rudimen­ tecs overcame the Mayas and pro­ ego-consciousness of the isolated at least with militaristic autocracy, tary cultivation of squash and then duced a hybrid Toltec-Mayan cul­ subject in the face of a multitude and urban culture is a culture not eventually of maize. It is, of ture in Yucatan, centered especi­ of objects, but the awareness o( only of commerce but above all,of course, on maize culture that the ally in Chichen Itza. It is with the a network of relationships in which war and conquest. True, the less whole Mesoamerican Indian civili­ "late" period that history really one had a place in the mesh. One's well known archaic cultures of the zation is built. begins. The history of the Oaxaca identity was the intersection of cords where one "belonged." The Cretans and Etruscans seem to Where wa's maize first grown? Valley begins with important Mix­ have been less warlike, but they tec codices-such as the famous intersection waS' to 1le sOUgh1 in For a long time the highlands of terms of a kind of musical or were also more isolated. Guatemala were thought to be Bodley Codex 14-IV-V which tells The popular estimate of Mexi­ the story of the Cacique called esthetic and scientific synchrony­ the place where corn was origin­ one fell in step with the dance of can and Mayan culture, based pri­ ally cult1vated. Recently, discover­ "Eight Deer Tiger Claw" who ends up being sacrificed. Alfonso the universe, the liturgy of the marily on the reports of the Span­ ies in a dry area of northern Oax­ stars. ish conquerors and on their ob­ aca have given us a complete se­ Caso's study in Paddock (op. cit.) What kind of life was led in the servations at the time of the con­ quence of ancient remains of shows that the value of these Mix­ "Classic" cities of Guatemala or quest, gives us an idea· of a very maize in its evolution from a wild tec codices is greatly enhanced by Oaxaca? We can say that lor colorful but also bloodthirsty and to a domesticated plant. This do­ recent discoveries in tombs of the necrophi!ic city life, in which war, Oaxaca valley. roughly two thousand years the mestication certainly goes back Zapotecan and Mayan Indians slavery and human sacrifice play beyond 4000 B.C. At any rate, for ly advanced culture, prosperous But in the Classic period there and creative, which at the same are no chronicles. Even though maintained an entirely peaceful, a thousand years or more there prosperous civilization that was es­ •This essay is essentially an apprecia­ time stimulates and satisfies the there are many dated atelae in tion ot a new collection of studies- re­ ftourished a neolithic, maire grow-. sentially esthetic and religious. ports on "Discoveries in Mexican Arche­ higher esthetic and intellectual classic Mayan architecture and at ing, semi-nomad, pre-ceramic cul­ This civilization was focussed in ology and History" edited by John needs of the community. This Monte Alban, the "dates" are at Paddock under the title Ancient Oaxaca, ture in Mexico. Ceramics began urban cult-centers, but it was not and published by the Stanford University to be made around_ 3000 B.C. and appears for the first time in Monte first non-historical. They refer to Press (1966). It contairs two very im­ what we would call a truly urban portant surveys: "Mesoamerica befare of course the ceramic art became Alban, several hundred years be- cosmic cycles, to the stars, and to culture. the Toltecs" by Wigberto Jimenez Mor­ one of the most highly developed fore the construction of the Maya events that may be called "div1ne" Although it has been maintained eno and "Oaxaca in Ancient Mesoamer­ cities of Guatemala. rather than historical. In other lca" by John Pad~ock . Eight other and sophisticated of the Indian that Tikal once had a population shorter papers by archeologists !ike Al­ civilization. Metal tools were The city of Monte Alban was words, the Classic chronologists fonso Caso, Ignacio Bernal, and other of a hundred thousand, the Maya scholars, are mainly concerned with the known about 1000 B.C. but never built somewhere between 1000 were more concerned with cosmic cities were usually quite small­ relations of the Zapotec and Mixtec cul­ entirely supplanted stone imple­ and 500 B.C. by Zapotecan Indians happenings than with the rise and and indeed had few permanent tures after the "Cla§sic" period. The two who knew writing, had a calendar, fall of kings and empires, with longer studies are es~ential for a con­ ments, which continued in use residents apart from the priests temporary evaluation of Zapotec culture down to the Spanish conquest. were astronomers and were prob- gods rather than with kings. Not and scholars who served the tem­ In its relation ta--the other civilizations of Middle America. ' ably the first city dwellers in that this concern with the gods ples and observatories.. Most of We also refer to the new edition of *This view of American · Indian civiliza­ America. Pottery finds at onte excluded care for human exis­ the population was more or less the standard work of Sylvanus Morley, tion is typically repeated in the Time­ Alban have brought to light an tence: for by liturgy and celebra­ The Ancient Maya, revised by George W. life Book on Ancient America by Jona­ rural, living outside amid the corn­ Brainerd, 3d edition, Stanford, 1956 (re­ than Norton Leonard, "Great Ages of archaic style, examples of which tion, the lives of men, cultivators fields (milpas or con which were print 1963). Man," New York (196n. go back to about 800 B.C. But of maire, were integrated in the periodically cleared from the jun­ with the paving of the Great Plaza cosmic movements of the stars, gle and then allowed to run wild after 300 B.C. we definitely enter the planets, the skies, the winds again. Since there was no war at upon the great period of urban _and weather; the comings and go­ least on any scale larger than per­ culture at Monte Alban. There is ings of the gods. That this society haps family or tribal feuding, there An Ideal Society a certain amount of complexity in was not dominated by what Marx was no need to concentrate the the terms used by scholars, due to called religious alienation is evi­ The Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, wr_iting at the time when the first population within fortified towns-­ the fact that the word Classic has dent from the fact that its art did temples were being built on the hilltops at Monte Alban, until, of course, the Post-Classical become ambiguous. Morley used it not represent the gods until very described his ideal state in these terms: period. It was perfectly safe for A small country with a small population to designate the Mayan culture of late: the early art represents the families, clans and other small Where the supply of &"oods 11 ten or a hundred times more the 4th to 10th centuries A.D. It people themselves, the celebrants groups to live in jungle villages as than they can use. was until recently assumed that the officiating in liturgical rites and they had done from time immemo­ Let people value their live1 and not travel far Mexican and Mayan urban cultures feasts, vested in the splendid and rial. The city was where they Thou&"h there be boat. and earria&"el were all roughly contemporaneous symbolic emblems of their totem. came together for special celebra­ No one there to- ride in them and "Classic" was used loosely of We are only just beginning to tion, for the worship which in­ Thou&"h there be arms and weapons any urban culture. Attempts to realize the extraordinary sophis­ cluded the games and dances in No need to brandish them. find a more accurate classification tication of totemic thought (as in­ which they fook intense satisfaction Let them count with a knotted 1trln~ have resulted in complex charts terpreted by Glaude Levi-Strauss). and gained a heightened awareness Enjoy their food and correlations, with Pre-Classic, Living records left by such North of themselves as individuals and \Vear beautiful clothe. Classic and Post-Classic or Epiclas- American Indians as Black Elk as a society. This worship was also Be satisfied with their houses sic, broken up into numerous sub- and T\YO Leggings• suggest that completely integrated in their sea­ Deli&"ht in their customs. divisions, and reaching out to in- the elaborate symbolic association sonal round of clearing the milpa, You can see from one town to the other elude the widely different cultures of the human person with cosmic burning brush, planting, cultivat­ You can hear the do&"s barkinc and cocks crowin&" of Guatemala, Yucatan, Vera Cruz, an i ma 1 s represents something ing and harvesting the maize. This In the other villa&"e Mexico, Oaxaca, etc. These charts much more intimate than an work did not take up an exorbitant And you can live your whole life without goin&" 'over from may be very illuminating to the "alienated" subjection to external amount of tirpe, and in the great one to the other. experts, but to the general reader forces. We know something of the periods of enthusiasm and prosper­ Lao Tzu might have been describing the life-tempo and the they are not much help. profoundly interior relationship ity the people gave their surplus prevailing attitudes in the Oaxaca valley, among people whose To put it in the simplest terms, of the North American hunter with time and energy to the common we can lump together everything his "vision person," .and we know construction projects which some remote ancestors had come, thousands of years before, from Asia. 1 from 1000 B.C. to 900 A.D. as of the modern· scholars still find T.M. * See my "War and Vision," Catholic ' . " Cla~sic" or "Early" (though H Worker, December 1967. · hard to understand. The example

/ TB.E C.ATHOLIC WORKER Page Fi11e ~ED CITY I MERTON \ of Eg~pt and Assyria would suggest Jn purely. economfo terms, lack of history, and the almost to permit the development of steam places to plant corn In the terri­ slave labor, yet all the evidence In fact, the whole accomplish­ total neglect of the arts of war. engines. The _industrial revolution tory of others--0r to fight others seems tO indicate that the Mayans ment seems fantastic. But if 'Fhe three things go together, and migb.,t hav!' taken place in 200 A.DI. who came looking for more room and Zapotecans built their classic we attempt to comprehend it are rooted in an entirely different ·But it didn't. So might the dis­ in Oaxaca. citie•· spontaneously, freely, as a In economic terms alone we conception of man and of life. That -covery of America, for that matter, By this time, of course, the communal e:xipression of solidarity, .are neg-lectin&' the crucial fac­ conception, of which we have al­ as th e Ale:/[andrian geographers long centuries of higb classic civili­ self-awareness, and esthetic and re­ tors. For over a century W4' ready spoken as a network of liv­ were aware that the earth was zation were coming to an end ligious creativity. There is no have been living in a world ing interrelationships, can be round! everywhere in Mexico and Yuca­ evidence of slavery· u~til the Post­ where tt!chnolocy has been called synthetic and synchronic, What is most perplexing to us is tan. Already in the seventh cen­ Classical period. the creat hope, solvin&' one instead of analytic and diachronic, that, as a matter of fact, economic tury A.D. the metropolis of the In plain .and colloquial terms it Sacred Vision problem after another. Per­ conditions called for this kind of Valley of Mexico, Teotibuacan, had haps we may be forg"iven it we is a difference between a peaceful, development. To our way of think­ been sacked or burned. In the The success of these two thous­ have come to demand ma­ timeless life lived in the stability ing, the Zapotecs needed wheels tenth century, Monte Alban was and years of peaceful, creative ex­ terial-mechanieal e x p la n a­ of a continually renewed present, and machinery, and the economy deserted. But it was n,ever con­ istence demanded a well-developed tions for everything", overlook­ and a dynamic, aggressive life of the late Roman empire de­ quered, never even attacked. aimed at the future. We are more sense of coordination, a division of lnc the possl·bllity that they manded a technological revolution. There were never any fortifica­ and more acutely conscious of tasks under the direction of spe­ may often be insufficient • • • Just as ·the Mesoamerican Indians tions-and indeed there was never travellin&', of going somewhere, of cialists, a relatively high proportien To ask these questions only In used wheels only for toys, so the a need for any. There is no evi­ of "Skilled labor, and above all a heading for some ultimate goal. Romans also used hydraulic power, dence of violent, revolutionary economic, technolocical o r They were conscious of havlnc ar­ completely unanimous acceptance political terms will produce but only for shifting heavy scenery destruction-the city was not of a common vision and attitude rived, of being at the heart of in the Circus! harmed. It just came to an end. only some of the needed things. Mircea Eliade speaks of the toward life. One must of course a.nswers. Questions about A few IIWdern scholars have the enterprise of sacred culture archaic concept of the sanctuary closed down. Its creativity was avoid the temptation to idealize religion and art must be In­ tried to grapple with this enigma, what was still in many respects a or the sacred place as the axis exhausted. cluded, and they may be in and Hanns Sachs, a psychoanalyst, 1 Stone Age culture, but one cannot mundi, the center or navel of the contends tbat the urge for tech­ There is no satisfactory explana­ this case the most basic ones. earth, for those whose lives revolve evade the conviction that these (Paddock) nological progress was suppressed tion as yet of why the clas.sic must have been very happy people. in the cycles of Its liturgy. in the ancient world because of the sacred cities of the Mayans and The Mayan scholar, Morley, quotes The chief economic factor in the Peaceable Kincdom radically different disposition of Zapotecs were simply abandoneo. an English statesman who said that success of the Zapotec civilizatfon Perhaps the Inhabitants of these narcissism and libiao in ancient Presumably the ancient civilization "the measure of civilization is the was that in the fertile, isolated first American cities, who remained man. Tools and machines replace finally grew too rigid and died of extent of man's obedience to the Oaxaca valley, a relatively small content in large measpre with the body a·nd absorb or alienate sclerosis. Its creative and self­ unenforceable" and comments that population, which remained stable, libido energy, which is frankly renewing power finally gave out. by this standard the Mayans must had a highly effective system for cathected by sensuous man. Sometimes it is assumed that the lET IT STAND THIS rtAll~ have measured high. John Pad­ exploiting the natural advantages Once again we ccime upon the people became disillusioned with dock, writing of the Zapotecs of of their region. They could pro­ $0THAT IMAYHAVE-TlMETO the ruling caste of priests and re­ 01<; £.' l'UT OUN~ AROUND l1i curious question of archaic man's Monte Alban, and remarking that duce the. food -they needed - sense of Identity. His sense of his volted against them. But we slso there is no evidence of slavery plenty of corn, squash, tomatoes, fERHAP5 rr own reality and ac.tuality was hear of a migration of priests and peppers, avocados, red and black MAY&EAP.. scholars into the soutb, under there, says: fRUll . much more frankly bound up with No whip-cracking slave driver beans, cacao, along with tobacco sensual experience and body nar­ pressure of,,.. invasion from the was needed. The satisfaction of and cotton. They engaged in some cissism, whereas we have been north. In any case, the cities were helping to create something commerce with the so-called split up and tend to project our abandoned. simultaneously Imposing, reas­ "Olmec" civilization in the jungle libido outward into works, pos­ The Zapotecs~ were conquered suring and beautiful is enough lowlands <>f what is now the state sessions, implements, ·money, etc. by their neighbors the Mixtecs to mobilize endless amounts of of Vera Cruz, and later with the In the lovely sculptured "dan- after Monte Alban was abandoned, human effort. people in the Valley of Mexico to 1zantes" (dancers) of Monte Alban but they continued to live under their conquerors, maintaining, it He goes on to argue from the the north. But their surplus time with their frank and sensuously is said, a "government in exile" persistence of pilgrimage and gen­ and energy went into art, archi­ flowering male nakedness we ap­ somewhere else. Today, the Zapo­ erosity in the Mexican Indian of tecture and worship. The result prehend a bodily awareness that substantiates what Sachs says: "To tecs persist. Their language is still today: was a city and a culture of great majesty and refinement, integrated tbese men of .antiquity the body, spoken, and in their ancestral ter­ It ls common for tens of thous­ into a natural setting of extra­ which they could cathect with a ritory they have outlasted the Mix­ ands of men, women and chil­ ordinary beauty, dominating the libido still undeviated, was their tecs, who remain in a minority. dren to walk 50 or more miles real 'being . . . Animistic man The Spanish conquered Meso­ to a shrine. They are not slaves: fertile valley surrounded by· high mountains. The people who col­ vitalized the inanimate world witb america in the sixteenth century. they would revolt if denied the laborated in the work and worship such narcissism as he could find no The blood-thirsty Aztec empire, right to make their pilgrimage other use for." built on military power, ruled ••• Mexico's shrines of today are of the sacred city must have en­ The "reality" and "identity" of Mexico. But it was hated and In most cases f1tr less beautiful joyed a most unusual sense of archaic man was then centered in decadent. It was willingly betrayed and the worshipper's participa­ communal identity and achieve­ sensuous self-awareness and iden­ by the other Indians and collapsed tion (with money) is far less sat­ ment. Wherever they looked, they tification with a clo.se, ever-present before the guns of Christian Spain. isfyingly direct; but they still found nothing to equal their creative success, which antedated and keenly sensed world of nature: Much of the ancient Indian culture come by the thousands volun­ was destroyed, above all, anything that of the Classic Mayan culture for us, our "self" tends to be tarily. that had to do with religion. But by more than five hundred years, "realized" in a much more What Paddock is trying to ex­ we must remember that the finest and was not outshone by the lat­ shadowy, abstract, mental world, plain here is not merely the fact Mesoamerican civilizations had al­ ter when it finally dawned. or indeed in a very abstract and that a religious center, a "sacred spiritualized world of "soul." We ready disappeared seven or eight city" like Monte Alban existed, but The archeology of the Oaxllca are disembodied minds seeking to hundred years before the arrival that it was in fact built on a moun­ Valley is still only in Its first bridge the gap between mind and of the Europeans. tain ridge, without the use of stages and further discoveries will body and return to · ourselves Indirect Genocide bring to light-much more that has Stone Age technics, who had no wheels for transport and without sense of history (and certainly no through the mediation of things, After the conquest, the Oaxaca draft animals-as also without been barely guessed at so far. But commodities, products and imple­ valley, once rich and fertile, grad­ we know enough to accurately foresight into what was to come slave labor. The fantastically dif­ after their time!) simply accepted ments. We reinforce our sense of ually became a near-desert as the surmise what it was all about. ficult work was carried out with themselves as having more or less reality by acting on the external ancient agricultural practices were immense patience and love by peo­ Paddock says: . linconsciously achieved the kind of world to get ever new results. forgotten and the soil of the de­ ple whose motives cannot even be Monte Alban was a place elec- successful balance that humanity More sensuous, primitive man does forested mountains washed out. guessed. if we try to analyze t~em tric with the presen.ce of. the had been striving for, slowly and not understand this and recoils Contact with the Europeans was in solely in economic or technological &'Ods. These gods were the very organically, over ten thousand and from it, striving to influence ex­ many ways a human disaster for terms. forces of ·nature with which more years. Their material needs ternal reality by magic and sen­ the Mexicans. The Indian popula­ Here was a major religious capi­ peasants a.re respectfully in- were satisfied and their life could suous sell-identification. tion of Mesoamerica was probably tal, an urban complex which at timatt! · • • expand in creative self-expression. The primitive, like the cpild, twenty million in 1519. In 1532 it the height of its prosperity "oc­ Every temple stood over a half This was the final perfection of remains in direct sensuous contact was already tinder seventeen mil­ cupied not· only the top of a large a dozen temples of centuries be- the long, relatively peaceful agra­ with what is outside him, and is lion, in 1550 it was down to six mountain but the tops and sides fore. Buried in the &Teat temples rian society that had grown out most happy when this contact is million and in 1600 there were of a whole range of high hills ad­ were ancient high priests· of of the neolithic age. - celebrated in an esthetic and ritual only a million Indians left. The joining, a total of some fifteen legendary powers, now semi- According' to our way of think­ joy. He relates to things and population dropped nineteen mil­ square· miles of urban construc­ deified; centuries of accumulated ing. the Zapotecs were crazy not persons around him with narcissis­ lion in eighty years! This was not wealth In offerings, centuries of to make use of the wheel when due to systematic genocide but to tion" (Paddock). The maintenan~e tic play. Our narcissism has been of the city "would necessarily .re­ mana in ceremonies, centuries of they knew of its exi.stence. The increasingly invested, through in­ diseases which the Indians could quire the services· of thousands of power and success, lay deep in': curious thin·g is that they had tellectual operations, in the not resist. The impact of Spain on specialists: priests, artists, archi­ side that masonry. But with their wheels, but only for toys. And they money, the machines, the weap­ Mexico was in effect gen1>cidaJ. own humble hands, or those of did use rollers to move heavy Fortunately, a slow recovery began · tects, the apprentices of all these onry, which, .are the extensions of their rememberecJ ancestors, the blocks of stone. They were, in a in the mid~seventeenth century. and many kinds of workmen, in­ ourselves and which we venerate common people had made the word, perfectly capable of "invent­ To summarize: the extraordinary cluding servants for the dignitaries ~n our rituals of work, war, pro­ blilldin&'S ... They were parti- ing the wheel" but for some reason duction, domination and brute thing about the Zapotec civilization and their families." The peace~l cipatin&' in the life of the met- (wlhich must remain to us pro­ po wer. of the Oaxaca Valley is that, like and continuous growth of this city ropolis; they could see that· they foundly mysterious) they never Obviously the Zapotecs of Monte the Classic urban civilization of and its cultnre-with continued were mak;ng it possible. They bothered with it. They were not Alban knew what violence was. the Mayas and the so called ... renewal of buildings and art work could stand dazzled before those interested in going places. They knew what it meant to fight "Olmec" or Tenocelome culture, it century after century---can only be michty temples, stroll halt an The Indian cultures of Meso­ and kill: they were not a "pacifist maintained itself without war and ' explained by the fact that the hour to circle the Immense ·open america are typical archaic so­ society" (which would imply a con­ without military power for many people like it that way. They plaza, watch the stunnin~ pa- cieties in which the creative en­ scious and programmatic refusal centuries. We can say that Monte wa nted to build new temples and geantry of· the ceremonies, stare regy of the people found e ~pres­ of war). They just had no use for Alban, in its pre-urban as well as to dance in the Great Plaza dressed as fascinated as .we at the valley si.on in artistic and religious forms war, as a community. It was point­ in its urban development, repre­ in their fantasticauy beautiful cos­ spread out mile after mile below. rather th an in ·applied science. less. They were not threatened, sents a peaceful and prosperous tumes. Nor were they_ particularly They knew that no other such This is, to us, one of the most and it evidently did not enter their culture extending over two mil­ anxious to find quicker and more center existed for hundreds of baffling of problems. Greco-Roman heads to threaten. others-until the lennia without a full-scale war and efficient methods of doing their miles-and even then their city civilization-which was much more far end of the Classic period when without any need of fortifications work. They were in- no hurry. An had only rivals, not superiors ..• -pragmatic and ' pratical than that a growi,ng population .had ex­ or of a defense establishment. artist wa s' content to grind for Three things above all distin- of the Indians--also presents this hausted the reserves of land, when In the present state of our know­ months on a jade pebble to carve guish this "sacred cjty" from our problem. The science of the the deforested. mountains were ledge . of Zapotec culture, we can out a gJ,yph. And he was not even own culture today: the indiffer- Alexanqrian scholars in the· Roman eroded and · the hungry, restless say that for two thousand . ye.ars qaid for it! ence to teciinological progress; the empire w.~JJ sufficient~y · advan!!ed community began · to look fo1· ligh th mortgages and debts, 10 they have death by the Fascists. His mo er to hire themselves out as day th:d of its aria and Its creative with nostalgia for a soeiety that was once so obviously tranquil and achievement. Indeed, the only lo9t her life in a terrible earth- laborers. Each day they have to secure. Yet there is aome advant­ quake when he was fifteen. He walk ten miles to their work and, chronology we have ls determined age in remembering that ll-fter all went to school first in the village in the evening when they return by different atyles In ceramics, peace, tranquillity and security and then later in a seminary, home they feel as "exhausted and architecture and aculpture. We were once not only possible but may hope that further archeologi­ real. It is above all salutarr for where he received a classical ed- degraded as beasts." cal finds and a better understand­ Berardo Viola has lost his land us to realize that they were pos­ ucation. Don Orlione was a priest because of the treaOhery of the ing of hieroglyphic writing may sible only on terms quite other who had the greatest infuence on local lawyer and at the end goes give us an idea of the development than those which we take for ot scientific, philosophical and re­ his life and I ima2ine the wonder- away to Rome to aearoh for work granted as normal. napalm and the anti-personnel ligious thought in Monte. Alban. In other words, it is important ful priest portrayed in Bread and in order to marry Elvira, who has bombs (and the personel in these But we have here an almost unique Wine was like him. He continued accepted him, penniless and land- example of a city-state whose his­ that we fit the two thousand war­ cases are mostly women and chil­ less years of Monte Alban into . less though he is. So far he has dren, the old and the feeble). tory is entirely creative, totally his education under the Jesuits ID been the o.ne in the village to our world-view. It may heip to When I first mentioned the book centered in artistic work, in Rome. On one occasion he left preach revolt, but now he thinks thought, in majestic ritual cele­ ton\! down a little of our aggres­ Bread and Wine in my column sive, self-complacent superiority, school and wandered around Rome only of himself, and refuses to bration. We may add that it is fo r three days; that a~d his Soc_i al- join the other peasants in any of years ago, one of our Bishops, a and puncture some o! our more good friend, wrote to me ~~at he intensely and warmly human and ist leanings led to his expulsion. their plans, which they had begun often marked with a very special disastrous myths. The greatest of was sorry to see me pra1SIDg a these is doubtless that we are the Later on, in the Mussolini era, to make under his inspiration. He charm, humor, and taste. Even ~n he became a Communist and had has converted them all and now writer who spoke of the Holy first civilization that has appeared Father (Pius XIJ as Pope Pontius its baroque stage, Zapotec Classic to flee Italy and take refuge in he himself had changed. He has art is Jess bizarre than Mayan, and on the face of the earth (Greece Pilate. Bread and Wine is the was all right in so far as it fore­ Switzerland. . to take care of his own affairs, he story of the return of an exile, oI course it never approaches the Fonlamara was written in 1930 says, and will not 9tay with the necrophilic bad taste of the Aztecs. shadowed the U.S.A.) . And the who hides· out in the mountains of corollary to this: that all other when Silone was in exile, and he others or work with them any the Abruzzi, distinguished as a A more detailed knowledge of said that writing was his only longer. Elvira pledges herself to civilizations, and particularly those priest. When war is declar~d the religious thought and develop­ defense against despair. He was go on a pilgrimage to save his of "colored" races, were always against Ethiopa he goes out m ment of the people at Monte Alban quaintly inferior, mere curious ill with tuberculosis, "Since it did soul. She has fallen in love with the night and chalks up his oppo­ may perhaps show us a gradual forms of barbarism. We are far not appear that I had long to live;• him as he was before, a landless sition on the public buildings of change, with an archaic, totemistic, too ·convinced of many other myths be writes in the introduction, peasant and a leader of the others the village in which he is staying ancestor-plus-fertility religion and about peace and war, about time "I wrote with unspeakable afflic- who had kept some spark of hope in the form of a large and repeat­ a few "high gods," giving place and history, about the inherent tion and anxiety, to set up as best and faith in themselves alive. ed "NO!" When he is asked eventually to a more and more purpose of civilization, of science, I could that village into which It is in Rome that after hunger what good such a_ puny dissent hierarchical religious establish­ of technology and of social life I put the quintessence of myself and thirst in his attempt to cut does and why he is risking his ment, an increasingly complex itself, and these illusions do us no and my native heath, so that 1 through the bureaucracy and find life,' which is. so precious to theogony and a whole elaborate good. They might be partly cor­ could at least die among my own work, he meets the Solitary others, by such a futile gesture, pantheon of deified nature forces rected by a sober view of the un­ and culture heroes to be bought people." Stranger. When they are arrested he replies that as long as on~ doubted success achieved by the But he recovered his health and for vagrancy and share a cell to­ man says "NO!" the unanimity of off by sacrifice. Zapotec Indians. writing became the "secret dwel- ge!her, he is brought back to his consent is broken. At that time it In other words, it may be that The "sacred cities" of Monte Al­ ling place for the rest of a long former way of thinking. He has certainly seemed that the hier­ at Monte Alban and in the ancient ban and of Guatemala, as we see exile." He writes that there is no gone through what can only be archy and the clergy (all but .Don Maya cities we tnay witness. t~e them, looked back rather than definite break between the stories called a conversion. Elvira has on Luigi Sturzo, that great Christian gradual transition from neolithic forward. They were the fulfillment of Solitary Strangr in Fontamara, her pilgrimage begged the Virgin sociolo'gist) were blessing that war. village-agrarian culture to the war­ of a long development of a certain like imperial metropolis, through Pietro Spina in Bread and Wine, for his 931avatlon, offering G<>d As far as I know, Silone is not type of culture which was agrarian Rocco in A Handful of Black- her own life for him, and her what is generally called a prac­ the theocratic establishment of ur­ and which flourished in small berries, and Andrea in The Secret offering had been accepted. Dur­ ticing Catholk, I certainly did ban power in the hands of priest­ populations. With the growth of of Luca. The hero in The Seed ing his absence she returns home not presume to question him on kings. But it appears from the re­ populous societies, the accumula­ Beneath the Snow is still Pietro to die of fever. Inspired by the the subject. But I do know that cent studies that life in the Classic tion of wealth, the development of era for M o n t e Alban was still Spina. Solitary Stranger, Berardo himself his writings bring to us the complex political and religious "democratic,". not in the sophis­ establishments and above all with "If it were in my power to offers his life for the others and Christian message and my heart ticated sense of the Greek polis change the mercantile laws of is killed by the Fascists. is warm with gratitude. I know the expansion of invention and re­ literary society:' he writes, "I but in the archaic sense of the sources for war, human life oil could easily spin out my existence The entire story, told by one or neolithic village. It was a life of earth was revolutionized. That re­ writing and rewriting the same another of the peasants them­ creative common participation in volution began with what we call story in the hope that I might selves, is not primarily a story of the general enterprise of running "history" and has reached its cli­ end up understanding it and mak­ incipient violent revolution, though the sacred city as a permanent max now in another and far greater ing it clear to others, just as in the peasants do plan to burn up celebration. revolution whic-h may, in one way the middle ages there were monks the Trader's holdings. It is This was made possible by spe-. or other, bring us to the end of whose entire lives were devoted rather the story of failure, the clal circumstances: a fertile and history. Will we reach that end in to painting the face of Christ over story of redemption, the folly of productive region, not too thickly cataclysmic destruction or-as and over again." the Cross which leads to the Resur­ populated, which allowed all the others affably promise-in a "new rection. The same theme runs material needs of the people to tribalism," a submersion of history When he returned after his be satisfied with a small amount of exile and reread the teiet of those through Silone's work. The Seed in the vast unified complex of Beneath the Snow. "Unless the field work, and liberated the sur­ mass-mediated relationships which fir t two books for Italian pub­ plus energies for common urban lication, he began rewriting them grain of wheat fill into the ground will make the entire world one and dies, itself i:emaineth alone. 'Projects in art, and architecture, homogeneous city? Will this be both because of the continued But if it dies it brings forth much as well as for religious celebration. the purely secular, technological deveiopment in himself "during fruit." . . . "Anyone who would The energy and wealth that other city, in which all relationships will all those years in which I had save his life must lose it." cultures put into wars of conquest, be cultural and nature will have continued to live in them." In one of his critical essays in the Zapotecs simply put into been absorbed in technics? Will For one thing, the emphasis Politics and the Novel, Irving beautifying and ennobling their this usher in the millennium? Or was no longer on urging peasant Howe says that ip. the novels of common agrarian and city life. But will it be nothing more than the uprising-he had long since lost Malraux and Silone, lhe true of course they did this entirely laborj ous institution of a new kind his faith in Communism or in any hero is. the author himself. I without sell-consciousness, and of jungle, the electronic labyrinth, other rev<>lutio!l directed by a felt pni.vileged indeed in meeting their art, unlike ours, was spon­ in which tribes will hunt heads too that he is interested in and bunch of bureaucrats. The em­ Silone, a moral hero of our time, taneously and completely integ­ among the aerials and fi re escapes follows all that is happening in the rated in their everyday lives. They phasis is now on the individual, committed to the poor and the until someho>w an eschatological -- who conveys the message, one man Church, not only In the ancient did not take courses in art ap­ culture of peace emerges spme­ landless, the agricultural worker order of the Trappists, the monks preciation or go dutifully to the to another, of man's dignity and whom we have encountered in where in the turbulent stru4 1,1 re of capacity for greatness. And great­ of the desert, but al.so in "The opera, or seek out good paintings artifice, abstraction and v \o \enc~ our own country in the novels of Seeds of the ·Desert," (not the in a museum. ness means the overcoming of Steinbe_ck, Grapes of Wrath and which has become man's ses:ond temptation and the laying down book of Father Rene Voillaume by Since this kind of life was im­ nature? , In Dubious Battle. Certainly the that name, though it is a great 1 of one's life for one's fellows, in poorest people in our own coun· possible except in a small and Inevitably, such a culture , .will one), but the seed scattered by other words, the victory of love try are not the industrial workers, isolated population, it flourished have to recover at least something over hatred and mistrust. the solitary, Charles de Foucauld, under conditions which have be­ of the values and attitudes that who have won their battle for which bloomed in a new order, the Fontamara is the name of a the eight-hour day and the five­ come practically unthinkable in our were characteristic of Monte south Italian village where the Little Brothers of Jesus, who go present day world. We have to Alban. day week, and for some share in out. into all the poverty-stricken villagers are constantly being de­ the prosperity of our urban civil­ look for some other formula. places in the world and work for ED. NOTE:· New Direetiom ceived by the Trader, who came i za tion, only through bloody de­ Nevertheless, it will not hurt- us their daily bread and Jive the has Just published a new pa­ like lln ordinary travelling sales­ feats - during half a century and to remember that this kind of life - of the contemplative in the perback edition of Thomas man and began by buying up the more of struggle. The struggle thing was once possible, indeed world. Let us all pray ' for each Merton'• Selected Poems. apples on the trees when the on the land goes on for the r ight normal, and not a mere matter of peasants needed cash, and went on to organize agricultural work, to other, that we may learn this idealistic fantasy. to buy up everything: onions, profound truth, the way of the Lookin&' Backwa.rd bargain collectively, to build up Cross which leads to joy and ful­ In our heterogenous world the bean , lentils, pigs, hens, rabbits, community by way of coopera­ fillment and eventually to victory. By way of summary and conclu­ Chrl tian must at all costs main­ bees, animal skins, road construc­ tives and social-service centers, sion: the purpose of this study is tain the desire to dialogue with all tion, land, and so on. The story where Masses are offered up for not merely to draw an unfavorable persons of good faith in treatini­ begins with his diverting a small the workers, and campesino play­ contrast between the peaceful, contemporary problems. Let us stream which takes all the water ers can put on their acts and stable, aesthetic existence of the never forget it: dialogue is one of from the peasants' small fields. their songs. On Pilgrimage "sacred . ci ty,'' and the turbulent, the forms or our culture. Western He ga ins control of the old-time I am grateful indeed for the A touch of the flu has re-_ unstable and vulgar affluence of civilization is. a civilization of dia­ landowners and works with a writings of Ignazio Silone. In a sulted in the postponement until the warfare state-the "secular logue. For centuries it has con­ bank, which gives him all the meeting in Switzerland not long next month of my On Pilgrim­ city." To say that Monte Alban si ted of a constant confrontation money he needs. He finally be­ after the second World War, he age column, 1''ith Its continued was nice ari.d that New York is of Ideas and a constant effort at comes mayor of the nearby town. said that tho e writers who sold story of Archbishop Roberts' ghastly would be an irrelevant ex­ mutual comprehension. Who can­ With the priest on the side of the their words to governments in picketing in London, the meet­ ercise, especially since the writer not or will not dialogue ri ks be­ T1·ader, the peasant in despair, the prosecution of a war were as ing with the Taena community, likes New York well enough and coming the unwitting prey of fan­ each one looks to his own weUare guilty of profiting by war a the and turiher incidents of my re­ does not think of it as ghastly­ atic! m. To destroy dialogue ls not at the expense of the others, each men who remained at home to cent trip to Rome, .Sicily and only as a place where. he is well­ only to destroy others; It Is to de­ stro;v oneself. tries to get the best of what little work on the instruments of death England. , · D.D. con tent to be no longer a resident. water ia left. The bits of land the th~ It Is too easy for people who -the bombers and the Bomb, '-~~~.....-~~~~~~---~ ~ all PAUL-EMILE CARDINAL LEGE&· >- J-ry, 19611 " -.. TBE CATHOLIC: WORKER + + + + + +

DOSTOEVSKY1 Bis Life and Work work. He quotes abundantly from pressed in the major novels, in man so long ignored by his con­ pages of excellent considerations By Komtantin MoehuJakJ"; Trans­ letters, notebooks, memoirs which which belief and unbelief are en­ temporaries, then suddenly loved (pp. 74·76) about Christ's virginal Jat.ed by Michael A. Minihan; throw light upon Dostoevsky's in­ gaged in a continuous struggle. and admired by Russian youth conception, without any plain as­ Princeton University Press; tentions and conceptions. A great The arena of this struggle is man's because of his Pushkin speech. sertion of the fact, and certainly $Ii.so; Reviewed by BEL-ENE nmount of new source material was innermost heart, where faith is Now a rebel, then fearful of so­ also without any denial of it. The ISWOLSKY. discovered in Russia after the rev­ lost, and lost again, and finally re­ cialism, as he understood it (as ' a idea evidently is that the reader ' This is an exhaustive cr.itical in­ olution in various archives previ­ gained through "terrible torment" false utopian formula), then again should feel he is not being bull­ vestigation and a most needed key ously closed to the public. Most or ,not at all. rebelling with Ivan Karamazov and dozed into the faith but is drawn to Dostoevsky studies. It is a com­ interesting .among them was Stav­ Mochulsky tells us that long be­ calling on men to be responsible to commit himself to it. Anyhow, panion to the great novelist's rogin's "confession"· which had fore DostoevskY's own change of for all human misery. Building if the Ci!rdinals suggest a clarifica­ " Summa," provided it is read been previously omitted from The heart, he was made aware ot through all these _various phases, tion, three or four words, like no slowly, in a spirit of contemplation, Possessed; the sketch of a novel things unseen, of things entirely stone by stone, the immortav edi­ father on earth, would be all that as Konstantin Mochulsky wrote it. The Life of a Great Sinner (wft:tich beyond what we call "reality." fice of . the "fi'le-act tragedy"; is needed. ·For the book covers a broad hori­ Dostoevsky never wrote), and the One day in winter, he stood as marked by strenuous labor, nerve­ Most of this ultra-scholarly bend­ zon, both in the fields of scholar­ notebooks which he kept in prep­ a very young man, on the banks racking search, poverty and ex- ing-over-backwards it not so much shi l>' and of religious thought. aration for his major novels. These of the frozen river Neva in Peters­ haustion. . for the benefit of humanists or too are "laboratories," showing burg; he had the vision of the Konstantin Mochulsky Ji.as drawn scientists and suchlike, but to con­ In 'l'llost works devoted to the this vast panorama of a man and euthor of the Brothers Karamazov dozens of different variants, dis­ city vanishing in the mist, while, ciliate the Lutheran mentality, and carded projects and bluepr ints as he later wrote, he saw "clearly his work, because he himself ac­ this comes out especially Jn the only one aspect at a time is em­ companied Dostoevsky in spirit phamed and even overemphasized. which finally led to the birth of as it were into something new, a references to popular beliefs and the masterpieces. Some of this through his hell and his heaven. This aspeet can be literary, psy­ -Completely new world." His heart devotions in the Church. "Until material has -already been trans­ was flooded "with a hot jet of This is why his contribution to chological, biographical, philosoph­ Dostoevsky studies is not merely quite recently it was the custom ical or religious, leaving Dostoev­ lated, other documents appear in blood, which suddenly boiled up that of a scholar. It comes ·from . . . " or "in former times .. . " the sky's complex world mostly in the Michael Minihan's version for the from a mighty sensation." And he first time. But even when all of the heart. reader lelirns to recognize such shadows. What remai::J.ed to be concluded his account by saying: them are available in English, they "I think in these precise minutes Let us conclude by paying trib­ phrases as the beginning of some done was to put all these separate rather patronizing sentence about will still require the help of Mo­ my real existence ~gan." ute to a young American scholar pieces together in order to achieve who teaches Russian culture and some practice which might seem synthesis. . chulsky's minute and crystal-clear The "vision on the Neva" is de­ a analysis. has fulfilled his difficult task with unhelpful for ecumenical relations. Mochulsky was a man well fi tted scribed in one of Dostoevsky's al­ Mochulsky points out that Dos­ great precision and understand­ A brief review cannot possibly to perform _tthis task. Born in Rus­ most unknown and half-forgotten toevsky's novels are all "in a pro­ ing but also with great love. He evaluate every topic in this book sia in 1892, he studied at the articles. Here again we see found sense autobiographical." too is captured by a "new dimen­ and it would be an impertinence to U niversity of Petersburg at a time something like the faint projec­ This does not mean, of course, that sion." when his country was in a tate tion of some future great reli­ do so. (On birth control, by the way, the characters and events featured of intense political, social and gious exiperience, that of Alyosha I would think its I"emarks are the in his novels are exact replicas of A NEW CATHECIDSM: CATHO­ spiritual ferment. When, after the Karamazov on the. night of crisfs. mek is based oil a seties of sentenced to hard labor. ,A.fter nes ~ of modern man in its tragic and sociology, and it is. addressed to avoid using the word soul and remar k'a'ble lectures he gave at his liberation .from prison he isolation and dichotomy." It is a quite definitely not to the ordin­ its implications. I suppose they .are th-e Sorbonne; he observed the wrote to Mrs. Vonvizin, the wom­ search for freedom at all costs and ary faithful but to the academic in reaction against too much sav­ bi'ghest standards of erudition. He an who .had ..given him the book a passionate denial of all utopian intellectual minority. It avoids the ing-my-own-soul talk, or else do­ analyzed every detail of Dostoev­ of the ,gospels when he was on his formulas which ·would lead to technical terms of scholastic the­ ing a spot of de--hellenizing in sky's1 li~e, every line of his writ­ way to the prison of Omsk, and slavery. c.logy (an exception, oddly enough, favor of the supposedly Jewish ings. . In order to devote full time which he kept till the day of his This crucial examination of is the word reprobation, p. 480) and scriptural mentality; or may­ t o th ~s work and to others that death: conscience in relation to freedom but its on vocabulary is highly 1it­ be they want to l~ave room for followed, he gave up a comfortable is one of DostoevskY's main erary. On any page phrases occur a completely evolutionary origin life, a successful career. Having "I will tell you regarding myself that I am a child of the themes.- It goes through all the like disaspora situation, iconogra­ of man. It is probably for the first suffered great privations during five acts and culminates in the pity, salvific event, distinct pro­ and second reasons, rather than the NaZi occupation of Paris; and age, a child of unbelief and doubt up till now and even (I "Legend of the G.rand Inquisitor" prieties (in the Trinity) ~ anthropo­ the third, that this book follows severely rationed, he died of mal­ and in Alyosha's faith in true free- logical (of the real presence after the prevailing fashion so meekly, nutrition soon after the liberation know it) until my coffin closes. What terrible torment does this dom, which i-s in Christ. But communion! p. 345). You can call so that there seems no mention of France. this theme cannot be understood it one of those What Is Catholi­ thirst to believe cost me • • • of soul in the ini:lex or anywhere The twenty-four chapters of hls without diving into Dostoevsky's cism? books, aimed at college stu­ And yet sometimes God sends else, except on p. 473, to discour­ monumental work discuss each "laboratory." This means ac- dents at lowest, and at non-Cath­ me moments in which I am ut­ age the old phraseology. Cries of period of D

Friday Night Meetings BOOK REVIEWS In accordance with P et e r Chrystie Street Maurin'• desire for clarlflcation w to save. tion. Of course, we must never it is this unfailing scriptural il­ between Houston and Delancey most of the early winter on Under the direction of Polish think of the soul as if temporar­ lumination which makes the per­ Streets. benches at South Ferry)-enter- Walter and Tom Hoey, the second­ ily imprisoned in the body. But I manent value of this book. I After the di!llcusslons, we con­ tained us all with a barber shop floor crew of Italian Mike, Mary venture to think that the new imagine it has never been done tinue the talk ovet hot sassafras session that was sheer delight. Gallagan, Barbara,· Brother John, theologians ·are mistaken in jet­ better. Liturgical and artistic com­ tea. Everyone is welcome. First the girls and then the men Jim Douglas, and many others, got tisoning ltle old clear distinction mentary is always on hand too at would sing; then all together un- the December issue out before between body and soul, which the right moments. der the direction of Dennis. Christmas so that our readers makes man, and the God-man, a So to sum up our impressions, The Youthsmiths On Christmas Eve we had our might get it during the holidays. junction - point Ca convergent let us say that this Dutch "catech­ traditional Christmas party with Before their work could begin, omega-point if you like!) between ism" is primarily" an exercise in 3712 Ripley St. gifts and fruit, pie, jellies, and that of Preston and Gordon on the two worlds of creation, spirit and communicati<>n, a gallant attempt, Sacramento, Calif. singing. Some seldom seen faces third floor had to be completed. matter. The new fashion of speak­ at a time of unprecedented theolog­ 95838 appeared (the lovely Kathy Nack- Smokey Joe has lost his glasses ing, or not speaking, about the ical cond'usion, to present the Faith Dear Friend: owski from Salt Lake City among again, but still struggles on, until immortal soul of man strikes me to the modern mind, both Catholic We are a loosely knit commu­ them) and some regular ones were they can. be replaced, with an old as intellectually defeatist and and Protestant, at university level. nity organized to work with socially missing, for other forms of cheer pair of Dorothy's. philosophically retrograde, but 'J:he "leaning over backward" is disenfranchised, rejected, ne­ were being offered elseW.here on Walter Kerell is enthused about that does not mean it is neces­ par-t of the treatment. Once the glected and despised kids, especial­ the Bowery. A sad time was had the possibility of offering classes sarily heretical. academic mind is comi:lg to Mass~ ly those in the sixteen- to nine­ by all. Then a group of us left at bhe CW in French (by himself), One great asset of this book is community osmosis will presum-' teen-year-old range. Presently we for the Women's House of Deten- Spanish (by Tom Hoey and Tony), th grand historical sweep of ably complete the instruction. No operate one hostel for our parent tion, where we traditionally sing Russian (by Tony), and whatever God' redemptive action- the doubt the clergy in every country group, Artisans for Youth, Inc., carols to the. women behind the I can come up with, to whomever people of God-from Moses until do the same in their own more which was organized to provide darkened, barred windows. The is interested. Much of our pro:. now. (Our poor Father Abraham private and fact-to-face fashion. residential socio-educational cen­ cop on the beat silently nodded jected school depends on who is is dismissed as "this semi-barba­ But the Church is for mankind, ters for youthful offenders. his approval, but the captain in in or out of jail. Prospects, it rian nomad," which seems rather who are mostly not academics, any We are interested In letting d:v­ charge of the prison sent out a would appear from r~cent F.B.I. a slur on the ancient city of Ur of more than Our Lord was. I would namic, lean aned, for the girls were singing Mike Herniak's first remark of history, 130 are occupied with could evolve a less cerebra-tional, Some may be interested enough to and shouting from the windows; blasted the morning mood of Our Lord's · life and teaching, less bookish, eve:i less "ultra- correspond with u~-or even join some waved handkerchiefs, others Christmas. We were not at all pre­ done in a way which should scriptural" style of religion teach- with us eventually. Others of your began songs and we joined thelll- pared for his next one: as Darwin please everybody, though as usual ing, more simple and workaday and readers may be moved to help us After we had circled the building, Pritchett, our epileptic file clerk in such surveys no sufficient ex­ unpretentious, more immediately financially wi th the hostel. singing to each side, the captain and Ranger fan, approached with herself emerged, assured us she planation emerges of why He got person-to-person, than anything In the near future we hope to proffered hand to innocently ex­ the continental renewalists seem have a s!'parate community house was a good Catholic and went to crucified. The resurrection is in Mass every Sunday and told us tend the season's greetings to him, to have though up so far. for ot1r group, where thi inter- Mike swerved again and in his no way demythologized; due place again to leave, for all the girls is given to the empty tomb and ED. NOTE: Canon Drink- faith effort can have a distinct identity. It is a pioneer affair­ were crying hysterically and it raucous base voice bellowed, ' the appearanceS' are treated as ob­ water's review appeared, in was all our fault. By this time, we "Don't shake hands with me! I jective, including those in the slightly ditterent form in the truly in poverty-where most of our members will have to work had attracted not only those who remember Hiroshima!" fourth gospel; an argument is November 1967 issue of Search, the serious and highly read- whi>re they can in ordPI' to sup- sympathize with us, but assorted built for instance more than once eccentrics, a few holiday drunks, on the fact bhat Christ breathed able monthly newsletter ·pub- port the work of the group. Please help us reach guys who and, as always, natural born lead­ A Farm With on his apostles. Moreover, "Peter lished by Michael de la have the guts we si>ek and the ers, who, seeing two or three gath­ and the apostles passed on their Bedoyere, which ought to be people who may be able to help us. ered together, feel called upon to A View office as rulers to the bishops, in much more widely circulated Sincerel:v. assert themselves. At this point, i tl1 fullness, and to priests and among American Catholics. A Gary Allen the " personalist" in me, to use (Continued from Page 3) deacons in part" (p. 211). All year's subscription is five dot- the Worker's expression, rebels Father Plante considered this ,. lars, post free, from P.O. Box through the gospel story, and also and I think (to put it poorly but honey from the hive a great deli­ later about the sacraments, etc., 102, Garden City, Michigan. alliteratively) that any group more cacy. Resistance than me is a mob. Helene Iswolsky not only con­ (Continued from page 2 l We received a long Christmas tinues to play a leading role in of their will, and further, makes letter from Bob Gilliam that was entertaining our many guests but others the moral accomplices of so full of good things it was un­ also continues to stimulate i~ter­ military actions-those murders­ printable. Both he and Jim Wil­ est in all things Russian. She per­ lll:Ji:f;)IC•J~I · by their silent acceptance of such son as well as the many others in suaded Joe and Audrey to learn a a law, I say that that law is un­ jail: were much on everyo_ne's Russian Christmas carol. Then just; it deserves not the name of mind during Christmas time. one night in Christmas week, Joe law. "Unjust laws exist," as Thor­ Mike Herniak speaks for all of and Audrey, Helene, and a few others sang the Russian song as A eau said, but centuries before, St. us· "How is Bob Gilliam? and the recessional to the Mass. It was Thomas said, "Unjust laws are Ji~y Wilson?" he aslced me. "I really beautiful. Helene also con­ acts of violence." They are not would rather be dead. That is a living death. But they'll adjust to tinues her writing, both on her laws at all. Let conscription then it. And those who put them there, book and her articles. PRIMER be called t>Y its proper name: an their time will come. The mill of As always, there are many who act of terror, an act of violence. the gods grinds slowly, but to a cope with the necessary work of I find such a law repugnant to fine point." A'lld his face could office, kitchen, dining room, shop­ FOR my conscience. I there.fore choose not contain his emotion. ping, errand-running, correspon­ to oppose it, as I believe Gandhi On Christmas Day tbe Puerto dence. Among others we thank: would have, by non-violent re­ Rican kids from arpund the corner Marty and Rita Corbin, John Filli­ sistance. To do otherwise-to re­ put on a skit for us on our second gar, Hans Tunnesen, George RESISTANCE spond in any other fashio1_1 not .floor. Based on the Charlie Brown Burke, Mike Sullivan, Arthur Sul­ consistent with principle and CDn­ livan, Fred Lindsey, Jim Canavan, The recent Mobilization and Resistance actions were comic strip, it was actually a play science-would acknowledge the within a play within a larger Alice Lawrence, Kay Lynch, Joan a turning point for the antiwar movement. They also right of governments and law­ play-the last being · a beautiful Welch, Stanley Vishnewski, Arthur raised many questions: about direction, about tactics, makers to do likewise. As Camus hustle. Their skit, so the author J. Lacey, Bob Stewart, Marge - about overall strategy. taught us about rebellion and vio­ and director Ca vivacious and Hughes, and Placid Decker. lence, if the slave-rebel kills his talented girl named Lily) told us, Partly because of · the wintry Master, he depopulates the earth; The editors of Liberation-Dave Dellinger, Barbara ~ould need access to the ·women's weather, several of .our community Deming, Paul _Goodman, Sidney Lens and Staughton for, in killing even a Hitler, · one clothing room as a point of exit have been ailing: Alice Lawrence. _, Lynd-bave put together a special issue on The Ameri• negates the principles upon which for Charlie Brown. We innocently Mrs. Carmen Ham, Hans Tunne­ can Resistance that seeks to answer many of these the rebellion was found,ed. assented. Once the skit was over, sen, Bob Stewart, with several I conclude, then, that my -"No" to the delight of all there others suffering from bouts ,of cold questions. -and I hope your "No"-is a joy­ gathered, Lily commandeered the or 'flu: Fortunately, no onP. seem.s ful one, for it affirms and cele­ Besides the contributions of the editors, there are clothing room and proceeded to to stay down ·too long, and there articles and analyses by Geo·rge Dehnison, Martin brates Man at a time when man is give out children's clothes to all is always someone to keep the most in need of being affirmed; at her cast, one by one. One can only work going and car-e for ~he sick. Jezer, Keith Lampe, Walter Schnair, Arthur Waskow, a time when the majority of our applaud that performance. One day during Christmas week, David Zimmerman of The Resistance and an inteJ"view counterparts stand, like some mod­ the day before the storm came, with John Wilson of SNCC. Ed Forand helped put up the ern Achilles, armed and ready to Christmas Day meal for the house, snow fell, softly, gently. There kill. May every modern Achilles was no wind; it was not really so that Mary Kae Josh and Paul, cold. Kay. and I, Father Plante SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER I meet, not his Agamemnon, who, who share the evening chores, and Mary O'Neil went for ,a walk To acquaint you with Liberation and to place this like Johnson, lures him to battle might have a day of rest. California Fred and one year ( $5) subscription to Liberation. challenges his humanity: his ca­ my cheek gently, moistly. Wesley, Charlie the Hot Dog Man wait on pacity for love and pity, for con­ our part Husky dog, rolled in the .••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••r• the soup line frequently, although science and principle. snow, bounded with joy. we've been helped also by two The snow fell softly, gently, like LIBERATION 5 Beekman St. New York, N.Y. 10038 students from Colgate, Owen ' a benediction of peace. But I O Enclosed is $5 for a one year subscripti~n to Liberation. · "As one reads history, one is Rogar and Russ Wilkinson, who thought of the defoliated jungles Please send me my FREE issue on the American absolutely sickened. not by the are with us for the month of of Vietnam, the napalm-burned crimes the wicked have committed, January. Whiskers functions as Resistance,.. children, the slaughter-strewn vil­ but by the punishment that the both nightwatchman and care­ lages of peasants, the noisome Name ...... • .... c-ood have inflicted; and a com- taker of the men's clothing room. streets of our own ghettos. munity is infinitely more brutalized Dan Kelly, George Amreihn and I thought again of Epiphany, of Addess by the habitual employment of myself share the making of soup Eliot's poem. "A cold corning we punishment than It is by the occa- and lunch. Perhaps, as Mike had of it." We move toward Sep­ City ...... , . .. State ...... : .... Zip ...... 11ional qccurre0ce of crime." Her.niak says, if we learn how to tuagesima. Shall I be glad of an· OSCAll \flLl)E... ,serve (hei:e Mike would. inter~pt other death? ·····················································-~---~-~ ,