June 2005

A group of Catholic Workers will be fasting August 1-4 and vigiling each day from 9 am-5 pm at the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C., and in South Bend, Indiana, for an end to genocide in Darfur.

All are welcome to join the vigil at any time for any length of time regardless of whether or not they are fasting with the core group. The embassy is at 2210 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.

For more information on the Washington, DC event, please contact Scott Schaeffer-Duffy at 508.753.3588 or pieandcoffee@gmail.com.

For more information on the South Bend, Indiana event, please contact Brenna Cussen at 781.588.4216 or brennacussen@yahoo.com .

Two of the participants, Scott and Brenna, visited Darfur in December of 2004.

File under “coffee-related civil disobedience.”

At the NYC Trial for Cash Register Exorcisms on “Buy Nothing Day 2004″

A young crew-cut attorney from the DA’s office made a gratuitous statement — obviously written by Starbucks executives — addressed to the judge and the court:

‘William Claire Talen must understand that he is banned from all Starbucks establishments world-wide and that if he were to come onto property of the Starbucks Corporation anywhere in the world — this is illegal and warrants prosecution.’

–Reverend Billy (June 21)

Also check out Bill Talen’s mayoral campaign.

Worcester City Councillor Barbara Haller says that her “Main South” neighborhood is “supersaturated” with residential programs, most notoriously the PIP shelter, a “wet” shelter that allows high and drunk people to sleep there. Others say that the shelters have been unfairly blamed for the neighborhood’s troubles. For example, Dave McMahon of the Worcester Homeless Action Committee wrote in this week’s InCity Times: “Poverty came first–it saturated neighborhoods with its terrible effects after industry moved from Main South–fact. Social service agencies came next to remedy the arrival of the ‘ghetto.’”

Monsignor Francis Scollen, of Main South’s St. Peter’s Church, spoke out on the controversy from the pulpit this week, and put the following note in the church bulletin:

The readings talk also about hospitality. We are asked to welcome people into our homes, to give a cup of cold water to the thirsty, to shelter those who are in trouble.

This happens to us as individuals, as family, as a Church, and as a neighborhood. There has been quite a debate these last several weeks about not giving people in trouble hospitality in certain neighborhoods. Well, here in Main South we show hospitality to everyone. And we are better for it.

It’s so amazing to witness politicians trying to come down firmly on both sides of the problem. Real political leadership?

Someone of our esteemed leaders came to St. John’s once and when he finished speaking an older parishioner said to Fr. Lebeau, “I don’t understand a word he said.” Fr. Lebeau replied, “Then his mission was accomplished.”

Sometimes we can understand what they are saying–and avoiding. It’s called integrity and principles.

Weekly items, old and new:

• As the South Bend Catholic Worker expands, it’s getting some static from the city for housing too many unrelated people in the same house, a zoning violation:
  

  But Catholic Worker does not seem interested in moving. Instead, it is hinting at a threat of its own: a lawsuit in federal court.

  [A similar case], still pending, involves the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, which bars a government from implementing a land use regulation in a manner that imposes a “substantial burden” on one’s “religious exercise” — unless the government can prove a compelling governmental interest in doing so.

  “I’ve come to think that this configuration of events is interfering with our ability to practice our religion,” Pfeil said. “If I as a private resident want to practice works of mercy by sharing my home with people who are homeless, I ought to be able to do that.”

  (South Bend Tribune)
  Tribune update

• After a New York state jury refused to convict four activists on charges stemming from civil disobedience at a military recruiting station, the federal government has indicted them on federal charges stemming from the same protest. (National Catholic Reporter)
• A Christian Peacemaker team is visiting a stretch of Arizona border to head off any violence instigated by the anti-illegal-immigrant vigilantes The Minutemen. (CPT newsletter)
• In the LA Catholic Worker’s recent issue of The Catholic Agitator is an interview with Catherine Morris and Jeff Dietrich. Jeff’s take on the works of mercy:
  

  . . . as they spoke it just occurred to me that this is what Christianity is about. They were feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, and burning draft files.

by Jesse Lenney, with a lot of help from Judy Thorslund and Mike Lopez

The following is an example of what can be done by helping guys on the street who need a caring community to get back on their feet and out of homeless shelters and subway beds.

It’s been five years since I lived and worked at St. Joe’s [Rochester Catholic Worker house]. My good friend George McVey has asked me to share with you the promising new little community of which I am now a part.

Currently, there are 14 of us residing in two houses in the Market View Heights neighborhood of Rochester, all of whom were formerly homeless, and once a part of St. Joe’s community. Most work low wage service jobs. The low rent each person contributes allows the essential bills to be paid, and for our community to be self-sufficient. We do not rely on grants or other sources of income. We live on a shoestring budget and cannot afford extras, but the advantages of living in community are immense.
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