1 Th e Hartford Catholic St. Martin De Porres House Worker St. Brigid House “You cannot serve both God and money.” -Jesus The children of this earth take refuge in the shadow of your wings. -Psalm 36 Brian Kavanagh S um m er 2015 2 The Hartford Catholic Worker Established November 3, 1993 Volume 23 Number 2 The Hartford Catholic Worker is published by the St. Martin De Porres Catholic Worker community four or five times a year. We are a lay community of Catholics and like minded friends, living in the north end of Hartford, working and praying for an end to violence and poverty. We are a 501c3 tax exempt organization. We do not seek or accept state or federal funding. Our ability to house the homeless, feed the hungry, and work with the children depends on contributions from our readers. We can be reached at: 18 Clark St., Hartford CT 06120; (860) 724-7066, [email protected] and www.hartfordcatholicworker.org We are: Brian Kavanagh, Baby Beth and Cullen Donovan, Jacqueline, Christopher, Micah and Ammon Allen-Doucot. We are In Time of Silver Rain looking for a full In time of silver rain size bed The earth frame, box Puts forth new life again, spring and Green grasses grow mattress, a And flowers lift their heads, second full size mattress and And over all the plain a twin mattress. If you can The wonder spreads donate any of these things Of life, please give us a call at (860) Of life, 724-7066. Thanks. Of life! In time of silver rain The butterflies Lift silken wings Jacqueline Allen-DoucotJacqueline To catch a rainbow cry, And trees put forth New leaves to sing In joy beneath the sky As down the roadway Passing boys and girls Go singing, too, In time of silver rain When spring And life Are new. -Langston Hughes W We celebrate liturgy, usually a Catholic Mass, on the first Tuesday of every month exceptJuly or August. We gather at 18 Clark St. at 7:30 PM. Please join us on Sep- tember 1 for our next gathering. Bishop John Selders of Amistad U.C.C. will be our celebrant. W Please join Brian in his vigil for an end to war and torture. You can find him every Friday standing outside the Federal Building on Main St. in Hartford. Bring an appropriate sign and an appropriate spirit. 3 Christopher J. Doucot Onduring War four different and wars Memory to sup- from olfactory memory and sounds It is Memorial Day and the port the British war efforts before that echo forever. neighborhood is relatively quiet; he fully developed his nonviolent The first Memorial Day did not some grackles are chirping over the consciousness and methods; and my include a glorification of weapons. gentle pulse of the Reggae Gospel late mother in law Mickey Allen was Rather it was a gathering of freed music emanating from a neighbor’s an Army nurse in Italy and north slaves on May 1, 1865 in Charleston, window. When I was weeding the Africa during WWII. Mickey, like South Carolina to commemorate the garden this morning this tranquility most of the veterans I know was death of Union soldiers and the end was momentarily overcome by some transformed by what she witnessed of the American Civil War. “Three obnoxious sonic litter as the years later, General John Logan thunderous shrill spewing from issued a special order that May four military jets flying in for- 30, 1868 be observed as Deco- mation dominated the sound- ration Day, the first Memorial scape across the region. These Day — a day set aside ‘for the warbirds were no doubt flying purpose of strewing with flow- about to commemorate the day. ers or otherwise decorating the I suppose the sight and sound graves of comrades who died in of warplanes is meant to force defense of their country during us to look up from our grills the late rebellion, and whose and gardens and remember that bodies now lie in almost every Memorial Day is meant for us city, village, and hamlet church- to remember our countrymen yard in the land.’”… and women who sacrificed their I wonder what would happen lives through military service. if the pomp of Honor Guards I admit that I looked up at the in shiny uniforms singing the jets despite knowing exactly national anthem at the Red Sox what I was hearing but the sight game as the Blue Angels swoop and sound didn’t fill my mind over Fenway was done away with thoughts of noble sacri- with. What if Memorial Day fice; rather I imagined what my was instead commemorated young Iraqi friend Mostafa was by those of us who have never thinking and feeling when he experienced war by listening to and his brother Haider heard the the stories of those who have? same roar on January 25th 1999. We need to hear veterans share They were little kids at the time, their stories of courage and less than ten years old, when an valor and also of their trauma American warplane deployed and regret. We also need to hear an AGM-130 missile that killed Desert Shield the testimony of the civilian Eleanor Mill Haider and blew off Mostafa’s survivors of war. Since the Civil hand. War is the last war to be fought I don’t intend disrespect here. in war. The destruction and suffer- on American soil we are sometimes Frankly, I have a whole lot of re- ing of war, known to the vast major- cavalier in our support for military spect for veterans. I admire their ity of Americans in only an abstract action and so we need to hear from willingness to sacrifice for a cause intellectual sense, is something that Mostafa, now in his early twenties, larger than themselves and wish that most veterans know viscerally. They about what life has been like grow- sentiment was more present in our have heard the roar of the jet and ing up in a war zone. We need to populace. Some of the most influ- then felt the concussion of the shock hear the stories of the young Af- ential people in my life have been wave when the bombs landed. The ghans from the Afghan Youth Peace veterans: Philip Berrigan was an burning of flesh and the spilling of Volunteers who have lived their infantryman in WWII before being blood, the autonomic moan of the entire lives during a time of war. ordained a Catholic priest who dedi- dying and the haunting keening of We can’t remember them if we don’t cated his life to resisting violence; the survivors are sights that can’t be Gandhi formed ambulance corps unseen, smells that can’t be purged (Please see: Memory ,p4) didn’t like to talk about himself. The ered letters between Franz 4 On Memory cont. paper place mats before us noted Jagerstatter and his bishop. that it was the year of the rat and so Franz was a lay Catholic, a farmer, know their stories. And if we don’t Gordon spent a good portion of the remember them our collective mem- husband, and father. He was the sex- dinner recounting how he loved hor- ton of his parish and had little for- ory of the wars we’ve participated ror movies that involved rats. Gor- in is a false memory that clouds our mal education but he did know that don was a devout Catholic who was Jesus told his followers in unambig- thinking and contributes to zeal for imprisoned in New Hampshire dur- the next war- a zeal not typically uous terms to love our enemies and ing WWII because he refused to be to not kill. When the Nazis drafted shared by those who have already drafted believing that his participa- been to war. Recall, it was a retired Jagerstatter he refused to cooperate. tion in killing would fundamentally Jagerstatter refused to abandon his American general who warned us violate the tenets of his Catholic about “the acquisition of unwar- faith despite his priest and bishop faith. We corresponded for several telling him it was him moral duty to ranted influence, whether sought or years when I was in my twenties. unsought, by the military-industrial serve the state. Franz solemnly took In his letters he would counsel me Jesus at his word when Jesus told a complex. The potential for the disas- on the spirituality of nonviolence, trous rise of misplaced power exists, potential disciple who wanted to first inform me on the militarization of say good bye to his family before he and will persist.” Catholic schools, and introduce me Another American general from would follow Jesus: “No one who to the idea of “the crystallization of puts a hand to the plow and looks a previous generation said more conscience”- that is how something plainly: “WAR is a racket. It always back is fit for service in the king- we might enthusiastically support at dom of God.” (Luke 9:62). On August has been. It is possibly the oldest, 18 can become something we find easily the most profitable, surely the 9, 1943 Jagerstatter was beheaded. morally reprehensible at 25. In 1964 Zahn published In Solitary most vicious. It is the only one inter- Gordon was a sociologist by national in scope. It is the only one Witness: The Life and Death of Franz training who studied the complicity Jagerstatter . In 1964 the American in which the profits are reckoned in of the Catholic Bishops of Germany dollars and the losses in lives.” phase of the war on Vietnam was set with the Nazi regime.