1 Th e Hartford Catholic St. Martin De Porres House Worker St. Brigid House To act in Hope is to Resist the tyranny of Fear. ...The skies speed up to meet you, and the seas Swim you the silver of their crests. If you delay to come, we’ll see the meteors buy night, Skimming before your way, Lighting the time of death’s dismay In lights as lithe as animals. And God will blaze your pathway with the incandescent stars. Canticle for the Blessed Virgin Thomas Merton Canticle for the Blessed Virgin Brian Kavanagh Fa l l 2017 2 The Hartford Catholic Worker Established November 3, 1993 Volume 25 Number 3 The Hartford Catholic Worker is published quarterly by the St. Martin De Porres Catholic Worker community. 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, purplehousecw@gmail. com and www.hartfordcatholicworker.org We are: Brian Kavanagh, Baby Beth Donovan, Dwight Teal Jr., Erin Bergen, Jacqueline, Christopher, and Ammon Allen-Douçot. ear friends, readers, and (hopefully) supporters, OurD work of planting seeds of justice while also performing works of mercy is not possible without your support. If you want to support our efforts to work and pray for peace with justice, justice with mercy, and life with dignity for all of God’s children please share your blessings with us by giving of your time, talent or treasure. Join us as we try to “do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8) • Donations can be sent to 18 Clark St. Hartford, CT 06120. • If you are interested in helping to cook for our Saturday program send an email to: [email protected] • If you want to receive weekly email updates please contact us by email. • If you want to pray with us join us on the First Tuesday of each month (except January, July and August) at 7:30 PM at 18 Clark St. • If you happen to drop extra fresh fruit in your shopping cart you can bring it by and it will be devoured by some grateful children! No Innocent Bystanders: Becoming an Ally in the Struggle for Justice by Shannon Craigo-Snell, Ph.D and Christopher J. Doucot Available October 13 from Westminster John Knox Press. The struggle for justice is ongoing. In answering the biblical call to act justly and love mercifully, can Christians cross lines of privilege to walk humbly not only with God but with their marginalized neighbors as well? No Innocent Bystanders looks at the role of allies in social justice movements and asks what works, what doesn’t, and why. It explains what allies legitimately can accomplish, what they can’t, and what kind of humility and clarity is required to tell the difference. This book is a start-up guide for spiritual or religious people who are interested in working for social justice but don’t know how or where to begin, drawing on the lessons of history, the Nick has grown about a foot since framework of Christian ideas, and the insights of contemporary he’s left us! He visited us for mass activists. It offers practical guidance on how to meaningfully in September rocking his new 80’s and mindfully advocate alongside all who struggle for a more retro suit. We wish him well as he just society. begins high school. 3 Beware of the Snakes in the Grass Christopher J. Douçot the three R’s of Sunday School: Rec- America to justify owning people In one of the Raiders of the Lost onciliation, Redemption and Resur- in a society that had declared all Ark films, Indiana Jones declares: rection. However, before we can men to be equal. This ideology has “Nazis. I hate those guys.” In the af- consider these R’s we need to first persisted; (misin)forming our imagi- termath of the “Unite the Right”, aka consider three other R’s: Racism, nations, laws, theology, medical sci- white supremacy, rally in Charlottes- Remembering and Reparations. ence, practices, and, even, our sub- ville millions of Americans could be Racism: we, more precisely a we conscious biases. The malignant idea heard saying they hate Nazis, Klans- that is white, run from this word. that people of African ancestry are men and other race hate mongers. Some of us believe we are blame- not fully human was not adequately, This sentiment is problematic, and less, and not responsible, for rac- or forcefully, renounced when not because of the Christian ideal of ism because we are good people, slavery officially ended, and so it has “hating the sin while loving persisted, evolved and in- the sinner”. fected our laws, our schools, While a part of me rejoices our homes, our society, our about 30,000 people show- psyche and our souls like ing up in Boston to denounce an untreated strain of Spirit the rantings of 30 white eating bacteria. And like the supremacists gathered for a drug resistant bacteria that “Free Speech Rally” (sic), a larger survive an incomplete round part of me cringes at the way of antibiotics, the racism the systemic problem of white of today has become more supremacy has been reduced pernicious, and resistant, to to visibly vile actions of explicit our incomplete efforts to hate groups, and racist individ- eradicate it. uals. This inadequate defini- The inevitable result tion of white supremacy leaves of declaring Black people unexamined how centuries of inferior was the assertion racist laws, theology, customs that white people are su- and threats have shaped present day or because our families came here perior. Racism infects more than fears, prejudices, and inequalities. long after slavery ended, or because overtly racist individuals- it sickens Misidentifying white supremacy we’re from the North. Or maybe we our entire society. White supremacy as solely the sin of Klansmen and believe that America is now post-Ra- is the default, if now unspoken, Nazis prevents us from understand- cial, and so racism is a thing of the foundation of America our society. ing how all white Americans (in past. Perhaps we run from a frank America is white dominated (govt. varying degrees, depending upon consideration of racism because we economy, education), white identi- class, gender, and sexual orientation) have been told that it is impolite fied (whites are the “we”, nonwhites benefit from this original Ameri- to talk about race. Regardless, an are the “other”, Uncle Sam is white), can sin. White supremacy is much underlying assumption nearly all and white centered (whites are most more than fools marching with tiki of us make about racism is that it is often the center of attention). This is torches. Or, to paraphrase my late something that operates largely at the definition of a racist society, but friend Mr. George, a granchild of the level of the individual. That is, since individualism runs so deeply enslaved African-Americans, when racism exists because racist people in our cultural imagination it is we focus on the “snake in the road”, do bad things. While this is cer- difficult for us to accept a systemic we ignore the “snake in the grass”. tainly true on one level, this under- analysis of racism. Despite my best intentions, I am a standing of racism works to hide its For a moment consider our trans- snake in the grass. true extent in our land. It also works portation system which is largely car The following is a modified to absolve those of us who consider dominated, car identified and car version of a sermon I shared with ourselves to be good, antiracist folks centered. If you own a car this can the St. James Episcopal community for accepting our responsibility for be hard to see, but if you ride a bike back in May. creating a more just and equitable to work, take the bus to do grocery ------------------ society. This morning I want to consider Race was created in colonial (Please see: Snakes, p4) take more than individuals renounc- opposite and had issued a 4 Snakes, cont. ing racist individuals to bring about general amnesty, the society racial justice. would not have been able to move shopping, or walk in a suburb that Our second R is reconciliation. forward. The survivors would be left lacks sidewalks, the car centered, We hear a lot of calls for reconcilia- with their grief dismissed and their dominated, identified nature of our tion. When it comes to racial recon- loved ones forgotten. Instead, Rwan- transportation system is a daily real- ciliation the loudest voices are white. da intentionally chose our third ity that you need to cope with. So I think it is a mistake for white R, remembering. Rwanda chose to what if you decide that our trans- people to appeal for racial reconcili- remember what happened. Victims portation system is unfair because it ation. Reconciliation is not the prod- confronted attackers, attackers spoke gives advantages to people with cars, uct of time, but of process. In this truthfully and publicly about what and since you don’t want to be a sense reconciliation is often paired they did. The dead, who had been “car- ist” you decide to give up your with truth, as in a Truth and Recon- dismembered, were re-membered.