One Year Anniversary of the Jericho Walk in Milwaukee

9:00 a.m. Thursday, April 25th

310 East Knapp Street

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

In April of 2018, then Sanctuary Coordinator, Shana Harvey, introduced the idea of a weekly Jericho Walk, patterned on the New York City Sanctuary Coalition’s weekly protest outside the detention center in New York City.

Members of diverse faith groups joined the weekly silent protests in front of the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  They brought their banners and their walking shoes to stand against the separation of families on the border as well as in our communities in Wisconsin.

To celebrate the anniversary of one year of weekly protests, the New Sanctuary Movement and its coalition of faith groups will invite all faith

groups to join in the Jericho Walk on Thursday, April 25th at 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.  

We will extend our walk as needed.  These past months the walk has extended from about the southern  end of the ICE building to the northern end. 

There will be free hot and cold drinks provided by food trucks from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.  Let’s make this the most robust Jericho Walk of the year.

The address of the ICE building, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is 310 East Knapp Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Jericho Walks take place every Thursday morning, 9:00 a.m. at the ICE building.

The Working Catholic: Moralizing Bill Droel

     Name any social policy and there is sure to be a religious leader who has an opinion. The religious leader states his or her position in absolutes. For the religionist, the issue is a matter of high morality; no alternative position is acceptable. These religious leaders and the general public routinely fault the daily give-and-take in partisan politics for putting opportunism, gridlock, grandstanding, obstinacy and hypocrisy above moral principle.

The legislative process is a moral endeavor, says President John Kennedy (1917-1963) in Profiles in Courage (Harper Collins, 1956). An impatient public does not appreciate “the art of politics, the nature and necessity for compromise and balance,” he writes. The public is “too hasty in condemning all compromise as bad morals [when in fact] politics and legislation are not matters for inflexible principles or unattainable ideals.” Democracy is maintained by flawed people who are “engaged in the fine art of conciliating, balancing and interpreting the forces and factions of public opinion.”

Are principles then irrelevant to public life? Hardly. Though abiding principles do not come with specifics on each detailed proposal nor do they yield strategy or timing, principles give essential guidance. For an effective legislator, politics is a vocation about “compromises of issues, not of principles,” says Kennedy. A politician who “begins to compromise his [or her] principles on one issue after another,” he concludes, “has lost the very freedom of conscience which justifies his [or her] continuance in office.”

Profiles in Courage goes on to detail eight U.S. Senators who at a crucial moment put principles ahead of party loyalty and popularity. Yet even in those moments, Kennedy says, an assertion of high principle comes with calculation. Several examples in the book are about race relations, before and after the Civil War. An antebellum Southern senator decides that the principle of a United States is of higher value than the expectations of his constituents and his loyalty to his party. Introducing a pro-abolition bill, however, will be ineffective. Instead, he supports a mechanism that will delay war. He calculates that a decade’s worth of uneasy peace is worth the loss of his reputation. His principled stand, as it turns out, did not prevent the war but it bought time during which the North became stronger and the institution of slavery weaker. In other words a principled stand does not guarantee perfect outcomes; compromise is always in the mix.

There are many issues deserving attention from faith-inspired citizens: abortion, ecology, immigration, national defense, labor relations and more. With rare exception, religious leaders are advised not to take the shortcut of moralizing on these and other issues. Instead, here are alternative strategies:

1.)  Support conscientious legislators. Host a support group or forum in one’s parish where politicians can explore the meaning of their work. Send along compliments when matters are resolved in an acceptable way.

2.) Be a strong, persistent voice in the public square. Over and over explain one’s religious position, using as much natural law or common good language as possible. Never stop asserting the whys and hows of pro-life or pro-planet or pro-civil rights. No matter how basic the explanation may be, there are many, many citizens and politicians who simply do not know why a religious person might oppose abortion or support unions or oppose pollution.

3.) Organize votes. Moralizing (like throwing around the threat of excommunication) likely hardens the position of politicians. Putting voting-blocks together gets attention. Bishops and other Church employees should not endorse candidates nor wade too deeply into the specifics of a piece of legislation. But lay members of any denomination can do retail organizing. Supporting an alternative Democrat in a blue district is better than hollow preaching. Supporting an alternative Republican in a red district will shake things up.

There are grifters in politics for sure. Here in Illinois some go to jail. But there are thousands of moral politicians in municipal, state and federal bodies that approach their work as a vocation. Do they ever hear their job framed in spiritual terms in their congregation, their synagogue, their mosque? There are hundreds of politicians who are capable of putting a moral principle ahead of a special interest, ahead of a party leader’s expectation, ahead of expediency. Not at every hour, on every issue. Not in big moralizing, grandstanding circumstances. But within the deliberative process of democracy, many politicians know how to frame a principle in reasonable terms and at times come away with a moral victory.

Droel edits a newsletter on faith and work, INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629)

The Working Catholic: Economic Ideologies by Bill Droel

The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (www.kul.pl/21.html) just published The Catholic Social Ethic by St. John Paul II (1920-2005). This two-volume text of 500+ pages dates from the 1950s, when Fr. Karol Wojtyla was a young parish priest/teacher. Scholars have long known about the text. In fact, about 300 copies were circulated among students and others in the 1950s. Jonathan Luxmoore, an expert on Catholicism in Eastern Europe, reported on the text a dozen years ago. He recently summarized the new book for Catholic News Service (1/19/19) and for The Tablet of London (2/2/19).

Just as there are Biblical fundamentalists who selectively invoke one or another Scripture verse to support their preconceived opinion, so too there are some papal fundamentalists among Catholics. For example, a small but influential number of Catholics in the U.S. and elsewhere pull a phrase from John Paul II or from Pope Benedict XVI to claim that Catholicism is in harmony with unrestricted capitalism (also called neoliberalism). Similarly, a few Catholics pull out one another phrase to say that Catholicism gives unqualified approval to Marxism. This new book by John Paul II got caught up in this pick-and-choose controversy, causing the long delay in publication.

The Catholic Social Ethic, along with John Paul II’s other writing and talks, shows that he never was a big fan of free market capitalism. He repeatedly rejected “individualistic liberalism.” Nor of course did John Paul II ever mount a defense of communism. Yet through study and experience of the communist regime in Poland, he was well-versed in Marxist themes.

John Paul II, Luxmoore says, recognized that Marxism appealed to young workers because of injustices in their situations. To connect with young adults, Catholicism must have a sophisticated alternative to Marxism. It cannot merely condemn a mistaken ideology. Catholicism must furnish an approach to social justice and peace that fits the daily comings-and-goings of young adults. John Paul II, along with several other Polish theologians including Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski (1901-1981), set about crafting an accessible theology of work.

In contrast to materialistic capitalism, John Paul II popularized the principle of the priority of labor over capital. That is, the worker is the subject of work; not the investment of money. Yes, investments are part of production and service delivery. But the purpose of the enterprise is the worker. According to John Paul II, the word worker is inclusive--managers, owners on the scene, shop hands, janitors, truck drivers, clerks, all those who in some way fashion and distribute the service or the product.

In contrast to materialistic communism, John Paul II outlined a spirituality of work which integrates business, family life, civic involvement and more with fidelity to Jesus’ gospel.

Young adults are familiar with today’s materialisms and other empty ideologies: careerism, cost-benefit analysis, consumerism, conspiracy theories, extreme individualism in economics and culture, relativism (or what the White House calls alternative facts), and more.

Some Catholic leaders say they are interested in young adults. Maybe so. But does a young adult ever come upon ideas and experiences within Catholicism that suggest an alternative to the harshness of work, to the arbitrariness in society or to our vacuous culture? Would a young adult ever hear themes about work expressed in spiritual terms? John Paul II’s theology of work project is suggestive, but not enough. Other theologians and particularly interested young Catholics have to take the matter a few steps further: More sources, more reflections, more conversations and for sure more focused action for justice and peace within the workaday world.

At the moment, The Catholic Social Ethic is available in Polish. Perhaps a condensed English version can be published soon. Perhaps it could include a few pastoral comments and top out at let’s say 200 pages.

Droel is editor of John Paul II’s Gospel of Work (National Center for the Laity, PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629; $7)

MAY 1ST AND PREDICADORES DE JUSTICIA, WISCONSIN - 2019

   “Predicadores de Justicia” is an off-shoot of a program originated in Chicago by Ms. Kim Bobo founder of the Interfaith Community for Worker Justice.  The program is called – Labor in the Pulpits and is successfully used throughout the country as part of the U.S. Labor Day celebration.  Workers present homilies on labor justice on the week before Labor Day. The purpose was to give workers a voice for justice in the churches.  Milwaukee participated in the program for many years.

The New Sanctuary Movement of Voces de la Frontera, has been using the program, calling it Predicadores de Justicia for International Labor Day, May 1^st. 

Voces members preach homilies to explain the meaning of International Labor Day and relate it to the current struggle for justice.  Preachers connect the scripture readings of the day to the Labor Day message as a guide and inspiration for their preaching of justice. A sample homily follows.

Readings: Second Sunday of Easter – April 28, 2019

1.    Acts 5:27-32, Focus: “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”  (Psalm 118, Focus: “With Yahweh on my side, best help of all, I can triumph over my enemies.”  14-24 or Psalm 150, Focus:  “Let everything that breathes praise Yahweh ),

2.    Revelation 1:4-8, Focus: “Christ … ruler of the kings of the earth.”

3.    John 20: 19-31, Focus: Jesus said to Thomas, “peace be with you.” “These are written so that you will come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

     

Sample Homily – ideas from the readings are underlined

Good Morning I’m …… Thank you for allowing me to speak to you today about the May 1^st March.  This year we will gather at (time & place) and parade to … We will be advocating for drivers licenses for immigrants and low income people.

Today’s readings inspire our work for justice and peace.

The Evangelium or ‘good news’ of the Emperor gods of Rome was Peace through military might. But Jesus message was Peace through non violent action. In John’s Gospel, Jesus greets Thomas with what has become a usual Christian salutation even used in the liturgy, peace be with you. Jesus appeared not as a ghost or figment of the imagination but as the living Jesus who had suffered and been executed by the Roman Empire.

Peter and the Apostles did not accept the authority of Rome as the word of God even when insisted by religious authorities under Roman control.  The reading from Revelation states that Jesus is ‘the ruler of the kings of the earth.’   

I know from experience in the country where I was born violence causes only death and destruction.  In believing in Jesus Good News of non violent action we have life in his name, as written in the Gospel of John.

This is why I ask you to support justice as the road to peace.  On May 1^st we will again march for Justice.  This year we will advocate for driver licenses for immigrants and low wage people. Driver licenses are essential for getting to a job, caring for kids and the safety of the community.  

Be there as a followers of Jesus’ message in the struggle for Justice and peace.

The Working Catholic: Economic Ideologies by Bill Droel

The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (www.kul.pl/21.html) just published The Catholic Social Ethic by St. John Paul II (1920-2005). This two-volume text of 500+ pages dates from the 1950s, when Fr. Karol Wojtyla was a young parish priest/teacher. Scholars have long known about the text. In fact, about 300 copies were circulated among students and others in the 1950s. Jonathan Luxmoore, an expert on Catholicism in Eastern Europe, reported on the text a dozen years ago. He recently summarized the new book for Catholic News Service (1/19/19) and for The Tablet of London (2/2/19).

Just as there are Biblical fundamentalists who selectively invoke one or another Scripture verse to support their preconceived opinion, so too there are some papal fundamentalists among Catholics. For example, a small but influential number of Catholics in the U.S. and elsewhere pull a phrase from John Paul II or from Pope Benedict XVI to claim that Catholicism is in harmony with unrestricted capitalism (also called neoliberalism). Similarly, a few Catholics pull out one another phrase to say that Catholicism gives unqualified approval to Marxism. This new book by John Paul II got caught up in this pick-and-choose controversy, causing the long delay in publication.

The Catholic Social Ethic, along with John Paul II’s other writing and talks, shows that he never was a big fan of free market capitalism. He repeatedly rejected “individualistic liberalism.” Nor of course did John Paul II ever mount a defense of communism. Yet through study and experience of the communist regime in Poland, he was well-versed in Marxist themes.

John Paul II, Luxmoore says, recognized that Marxism appealed to young workers because of injustices in their situations. To connect with young adults, Catholicism must have a sophisticated alternative to Marxism. It cannot merely condemn a mistaken ideology. Catholicism must furnish an approach to social justice and peace that fits the daily comings-and-goings of young adults. John Paul II, along with several other Polish theologians including Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski (1901-1981), set about crafting an accessible theology of work.

In contrast to materialistic capitalism, John Paul II popularized the principle of the priority of labor over capital. That is, the worker is the subject of work; not the investment of money. Yes, investments are part of production and service delivery. But the purpose of the enterprise is the worker. According to John Paul II, the word worker is inclusive--managers, owners on the scene, shop hands, janitors, truck drivers, clerks, all those who in some way fashion and distribute the service or the product.

In contrast to materialistic communism, John Paul II outlined a spirituality of work which integrates business, family life, civic involvement and more with fidelity to Jesus’ gospel.

Young adults are familiar with today’s materialisms and other empty ideologies: careerism, cost-benefit analysis, consumerism, conspiracy theories, extreme individualism in economics and culture, relativism (or what the White House calls alternative facts), and more.

Some Catholic leaders say they are interested in young adults. Maybe so. But does a young adult ever come upon ideas and experiences within Catholicism that suggest an alternative to the harshness of work, to the arbitrariness in society or to our vacuous culture? Would a young adult ever hear themes about work expressed in spiritual terms? John Paul II’s theology of work project is suggestive, but not enough. Other theologians and particularly interested young Catholics have to take the matter a few steps further: More sources, more reflections, more conversations and for sure more focused action for justice and peace within the workaday world.

At the moment, The Catholic Social Ethic is available in Polish. Perhaps a condensed English version can be published soon. Perhaps it could include a few pastoral comments and top out at let’s say 200 pages.

Droel is editor of John Paul II’s Gospel of Work (National Center for the Laity, PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629; $7)

SEEDS FOR A SPIRITUAL MONARCHY SOWN IN FIRST CENTURY

The formation of the Spiritual Monarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has a long history.  Its roots go back to the first century after the execution of Jesus of Nazareth, the itinerant preacher who refused to accept the Roman emperor as God. 

The Monarchy serves well as a guardian of its ‘infallible’ interpretation of faith.  However, a serious problem is evident with the exposure of the pedophile scandal.  The isolated and insolated male celebat monarchical structure of the Church is suited for the crimes of pedophilia as well as other crimes against society. Is it time to separate the wheat from the chaff? (Q Gospel-Mt.3:12)

A Divided Legacy
When and where did it begin? After Jesus’ execution two traditions emerged among his followers.  J.D. Crossan in his book, The Birth of Christianity, explains: 

The Life Tradition, with its emphasis on the sayings of Jesus on living within the kingdom of God, is centered in Galilee and goes out from Galilee.  The Death Tradition with its emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus and on lives lived in expectation of his return, is centered in Jerusalem and goes out from Jerusalem.  (1. Crossan, p. xxxiv)

The Life Tradition
The Life Tradition is the older tradition and is based on sayings of Jesus found in the Gospels of Mathew and Luke.  Both Mathew and Luke depend on the Gospel of Mark as a source but differ in that they incorporate sayings of Jesus not found in Mark.  As a body of material these sayings are called the ‘Q Gospel.’  The sayings represent the wisdom and life of Jesus.  An example would be Jesus’ preaching on the Beatitudes - Lk. 6:20-49, Mt. 5:3-12. (H. C. Kee, p. 466).  

Attached to the Life tradition are the sections of the Gnostic Gospels which are outside of the official cannon of Gospels recognized by main line Christian Churches – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  One of these, the Gospel of Thomas, is cited by J.D. Crossan.  He notes that 37% of the Q Gospel has parallels in the Gospel of Thomas. (1, J.D.C. p.248)  The Life Tradition was not interested in a monarchy and emphasized equality.

Elaine Pagels notes that:  “Orthodox Christians believe that Jesus is Lord and Son of God in a unique way: he remains forever distinct from the rest of humanity.”(Pagels, p. xx)  

‘Jesus is Lord’ is the basic preaching or kerygma of main line Christians. Pagels points to the differing opinion of the Thomas Gospel:  “Jesus said ‘I am not your master. …He who will drink from my mouth will become as I am: I myself shall become he.’“  (Pagels p. xx)

The Gnostic Gospel of Faith Wisdom reports Jesus as saying:  “…whoever the Spirit inspires is divinely ordained to speak, whether man or woman.” (Pagels p. 65) 

   The Life tradition generated a realized and actualized ethical eschatology.  The Sermon on the Mount from Matthew and the Sermon on the Plain from Luke are the ‘Guide to Living’ in the kingdom of God.  Ethical activists differ from the advocates of an apocalyptic approach who wait for the second coming of Jesus.  


The Death Tradition
   The death tradition was based in Jerusalem and focuses on the passion death and resurrection of Jesus.  The tradition is best exemplified in the Gospel of Mark which is bereft of the sayings of the Q Gospel. Mark emphasizes Jesus’ authority even of the cosmos.  ‘Jesus is Lord’ is the basis for kerygmatic preaching. The Monarchical Church is based on this theology with the pope as Christ’s Vicar on earth.  The Death Tradition awaits the second coming of the Lord to triumphantly establish the Kingdom of God.

   The need for absolute authority was considered of supreme importance with the threat of the Gnostics with Gospels such as the Gospel of Thomas.  Bishop – Saint Irenaeus (130 - 202) of Lyons along with the Church of Rome and others declared the Gnostics to be heretics. The Death tradition then became dominant in Christian practice and theology.  Emperor Constantine in the fourth century enforced a unity in theology or world view with military support. 


A Mixed Orthodoxy of Two Traditions
   John Dominic Crossan, after a review of some of the literature on the “divided tradition”, explains:   

“In my own understanding, I rephrase those twin traditions of the sayings and of the passion –resurrection as twin traditions of Jesus’ life and Jesus’ death.  They are for me two sides of the same coin.” (1 J.D.C. p. xxxiv) 

 Look at Paul as an example.  He surely did not succumb to the authority of Peter, John, or James the Just, Jesus brother in Jerusalem.  Paul writes to the Galatians with a message that is similar to the Gospel of Thomas that claims equality:   

 “As a result these people who are acknowledged as leaders – not that their importance matters to me, since God has no favorites – these leaders as I say, had nothing to add to the Good News as I preach it.” (Gal. 2:6-7)

Paul won the debate and the uncircumcised were allowed membership in the Christian movement - a practical decision by the Jerusalem leaders – John, Peter, and James the Just. (J. Murphy O’Connor, p.141)   

   Were Paul’s ethics determined by his apocalyptic belief in the imminent second coming of Jesus?  Slavery was to be tolerated, (Letter to Philemon), and the government to be obeyed (Romans.)  Paul’s basic preaching - kerygma was ‘Jesus Christ as Lord,’ but did not cite John, Peter, or James the Just as Christ’s Vicar on earth. (Phil. 2:11)


Freedom from the Monarchy
   John Dominic Crossan writes:  “Here is the heart of the original Jesus movement, a shared egalitarianism of spiritual (healing) and material (eating) resources.” (2 J.D.C., p. 107)

  The pedophile scandal has shocked Roman Catholics into recognizing that the religion of the Monarchy is false.  The message of the itinerant preacher, without a place to lay his head, is being heard outside of the Cathedrals and Basilicas once filled with faithful worshipers.  Now only tourists grace these beautiful buildings.


References:

1.J.D. Crossan, The Birth of Christianity, Harper, San Francisco, 1998.

2.J.D. Crossan, Jesus a Revolutionary, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Jerome Murphy O’ Connor, O.P. Paul a Critical Life, Oxford University Press, 1966

H. C. Kee, F.W. Young. K. Froehlich, Understanding the New Testament, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1965.

Elaine Pagels, Gnostic Christianity, Random House,

The Working Catholic: 'King Day' by Bill Droel

          This month’s celebration of Rev. Martin L. King (1929-1968) is of course about more than King. The civil rights era is about more than the Montgomery boycott that began in December 1955. It certainly includes Rosa Parks (1913-2005), who courageously refused to give up her seat on a bus. And, Parks’ disobedience was not a momentary reaction, but was the outcome of much preparation.

In recent times several scholars have drawn attention to “the longer civil rights movement.” Karen Johnson of Wheaton College is one of those scholars. Her book, One in Christ: Chicago Catholics and the Quest for Interracial Justice (Oxford University Press, 2018), details significant civil rights activity as early as 1930—not in the South but in Chicago. Her examples, perhaps surprisingly, are Catholic organizations.

Johnson’s thorough account in eight more-or-less chronological chapters plus 49 pages of valuable footnotes is “primarily a story about laypeople” who in addition to highlighting aspects of Catholic doctrine also challenged the notion that priests are above laypeople, that urban Catholicism is synonymous with intra-parish ministries and that Catholics acting as Catholics should keep their efforts separate from Protestants and Jews.

Arthur Falls (1901-2000), a pioneering black physician involved with Federated Colored Catholics and then with Catholic Worker movement, is prominent in the first four chapters and appears throughout the book. The fifth and sixth chapters feature Friendship House with Catherine de Hueck Doherty (1896-1985), Ellen Tarry (1906-2008) and Ann Harrigan Makletzoff (1910-1984); the seventh and eighth feature the Catholic Interracial Council with John McDermott (1926-1996) among others. Msgr. Dan Cantwell (1915-1996) and Ed Marciniak (1917-2004) appear in nearly all the chapters.

These Chicago Catholics were successful to a degree. They “helped enlarge America’s moral imagination,” Johnson explains. They showed that racial justice is more than a political matter. Due to these Chicago activists and also to many religious leaders in the South and around the nation, civil rights became a significant aspect of faith, both for blacks and for whites. Further, the Chicago Catholics—years before Vatican II (1962-1965)—taught others that individual salvation and personal transformation are not enough. They communicated, in words and more so by way of example, that full-time Christians must seek “the common good by reforming the institutions shaping the public sphere.”

A contagious esprit surrounded these dedicated Catholics. They nourished one another in several institutional spaces, Johnson emphasizes. They all knew that liturgical grace was essential to their efforts. They believed that the liturgy of the word continued out the church door as each of them did their part in the Mystical Body of Christ to live a liturgy of the world.

Johnson includes enough detail to dispel any suggestion of hyper-romanticism about these civil rights pioneers. These people were street savvy. They knew how to agitate and at the right moment what to compromise. They avoided getting personally bent out of shape as they necessarily engaged in sharp disagreements with one another over strategy: How to include Chicago’s bishop—if at all. Whether or not to include anti-poverty measures in efforts against racism. Whether or not to maneuver inside the Democratic Party, which in Chicago was the Daley Machine. Are discussion groups a waste of time? Can Catholics be militant?

Remarkably, most of these Catholic civil rights leaders remained Catholic their entire lives. It is remarkable because, as Johnson details in parts of two chapters, more than one bishop, some influential pastors and the Catholic system itself reinforced racial distinctions. For example, Falls once told me that the segregation that hurt him the most was on Saturday afternoons when he went to confession. Blacks had to stand in one line and wait until each person in the white line had received absolution.

Johnson writes a comprehensible story. This is an achievement because all her subjects died before she began. She thus scoured multiple libraries for newspapers, magazine articles, minutes of meetings and more. Johnson, by the way, is not Catholic. Yet the book flawlessly covers Chancery politics and points of theology. 

A powerful 2% of young Catholics are once again interested in the social question--in race relations, in living wage campaigns, in the dignity of all life, in socially responsible business, in green technology, in mental health delivery, in criminal justice reform and immigration topics. One In Christ is an inspiring account of visionary Catholics who navigated the push-and-pull of public life, and had some fun along the way. As we rightly celebrate King Day, we can continue to learn from all the efforts in our country toward "liberty and justice for all.”   

Droel of Chicago is a board member of National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629).