BACK TO THE OLDE SOD: A Tale of May Day in England & Ireland

THE RECOVERY OF MEMORY: “They want to erase our history because to forget history is to negate our claim for justice.” p.177.   “How can you honor the bloody sacrifice of those who were murdered for justice, who gave us our voice and our future. May I speak of these dead in this fiesta? After all they made it possible.  Can we say that we are here because of them?”  p. 221   (LA REVUELTA DE LA MEMORIA, Textos del S.C. Marcos y del EZLN sobre la Historia, Centro de Informacion y Analisis, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, 1999)

   We first visited London to be with our son and daughter-in-law and then went with them to Ireland.  While in England and Ireland, I asked people about labor unions and the first of May as International Labor Day.  Although awareness of May lst as Labor Day has been suppressed in the U.S. by a McCarthyesq mentality, I expected that most in the U.K. and Ireland, especially the working class people, would be aware of May Day as Labor Day.  During the Haymarket trial, George Bernard Shaw spoke at a protest meeting in London, and in the intervening years there have been massive labor inspired May Day demonstrations in London.

   The Roman Catholic Church in 1955 established the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1st as an alternative to International May Day celebrations which the Church considered Communist.  A reading for the mass of the day is from a letter to the Colossians purported to be from St. Paul, but scripture scholars have their doubts.

    Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord

    and not from men, knowing that you will receive

    from the Lord due payment of the inheritance; be

    slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Is this the “opiate of the people”? Let us pray that most are free of such a drug. 

  

   It surprised me that most in the U.K. connected the holiday at the beginning of May as a bank holiday and couldn’t relate it to labor.  The T.U.C. (AFL-CIO equivalent in the U.K.) representative responded by e-mail. 

   l May is indeed our equivalent of Labor Day.  The best short                       

   summary I’ve read is on wikipedia, although I’m sure there   

   are more scholarly texts.  To be honest in most countries in   

   Western Europe, Mayday is celebrated as a generic workers’

   day (and the original pagan roots of the celebrations on that

   day),  rather than a commemoration of the Haymarket Riot –    

   few people I suspect know of that connection, even in   

   organising groups.

   On the cheap Ryan Air flight to Ireland, as a first question, I asked the young stewardess if she was a member of a labor union; she responded, “What’s a labor union?”  She was a recent immigrant from Poland so I tried to relate labor unions to Lech Walesa but without success.  On a boat trip on the Irish fiord of Killary, I asked the Irish sailors about May Day and labor unions.  They had no knowledge of May Day as a labor holiday and said that they were not union members because their company was not big enough.

   On a recent trip to the Dominican Republic we discovered that May 1^st is celebrated in the Dominican Republic as a national holiday in honor of workers.  Everyone we questioned was aware that May 1st is a workers’ holiday.

MANCHESTER – THE CRADLE OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Tales of Wealth & Poverty  

 

   We returned to London from Ireland and then made plans to visit the small town of Todmorden, the birth place of Haymarket Martyr Sam Fielden.  We were advised to take the bus to Manchester then the train to Todmorden.  Helen Toft, Catherine’s sister who went to the University in Manchester, suggested that we spend some time in the city.  She claimed Manchester was the birth place of the industrial revolution and noted that Marx and Engles had been there. 

   We traveled by bus to Manchester, and at the Manchester bus depot, I asked a security guard about Labor Day and labor unions.  He said he didn’t know about Labor Day and he didn’t like unions.  He immediately went to talk to the man he said was his boss.  They looked over at me and the boss laughed.  I guess the boss didn’t consider me much of a threat.  More conversations led me to believe that Margaret Thatcher did a better job of suppressing labor in the U.K. than Ronald Reagan in the U.S.  Tops, of course is Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

   We didn’t have much time to tour Manchester, but we did visit the Church of England Cathedral and discovered some unexpected treasures.  At the back of the church is a statue of the pioneer Manchester capitalist Humphrey Chetham (Would you buy a used car from someone with such a name?) who in 1653 left money for the purchase of buildings just north of the church for the founding of a school and library.  This library is the oldest free library in the English speaking world.  Chetham’s library is where Marx and Engels met and researched the economics of Capitalism in the 1840’s.  Where else you might ask. While in Manchester Engels worked in the textile firm of Ermen and Engels in which his father was a large shareholder.  Engels described the slum condition of this area in his book, The Condition of the Working Classes in England in 1844.

   Among the other Cathedral surprises was a statue of Mary, Jesus the carpenter’s mother.  The Cathedral is dedicated to St. Mary, St. Denys and St. George.  Usually statues of the Blessed Virgin show her as a member of the royalty – a queen.  However, outside the Cathedral stands a statue called the Lancashire Madonna wearing the traditional shawl of a local mill worker. Obviously the product of a new theology, the statue was part of the post-war reconstruction of 1958.

  

  The next stop will be Todmorden, the birth place of Samuel Fielden.

  

TODMORDEN TALES - SAM FIELDEN THE IMMIGRANT WORKER – A Keystone for American Working Class Identity

    The Beginning of a May Day Pilgrimage – The Worker’s Tale

PROLOGUE

   A trip to England and Ireland six years ago to visit our son Joel and our daughter-in-law Catherine plunged Joanne and me into a living history, and we became more conscious of what it means to be working class Americans.  We would like to share with you the account of our pilgrimage as it appears in our journal with some editing.  The focus is the history of the May 1^st Labor Day memorial marches.

  

   As part of our trip we planned to visit Todmorden, the hometown of Samuel Fielden, one of the Haymarket Martyrs.  In the town of Todmorden we not only discovered the roots of Samuel Fielden but also the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, Capitalism, and the Labor Movement.  We became aware of the influence of religion on the radical economic changes of the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

   The Chicago’s Haymarket Riot has always been a fascinating story for me.  I was born and grew up in Chicago, but Joanne and I have lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for over thirty years and have been active in the labor movement.  Milwaukee workers remember the events in the 1886 struggle for the eight-hour day with an annual first week of May ritual at the monument to those killed in the Bayview Massacre.  We also have a large May 1^st march with a focus on rights for immigrant workers. 

   Several demonstrators were gunned down by the Wisconsin National Guard in Bayview, a lakefront suburb just south of downtown Milwaukee.  Polish workers, the latest immigrants to the city, met at St. Stanislaus Church, then marched to the Bayview Rolling Mill in support of the eight-hour day.  At the Rolling Mill they were met with a rain of gunfire from the Polish immigrant manned Kosciuzko Guard.   The Bayview Massacre took place the day after the May 4^th 1886 Haymarket Riot in Chicago where many more were killed by contagious police fire.

   Remembering the Bayview Massacre is made easier by looking at the buildings around the Voces de la Frontera office where we volunteer.  The buildings were constructed around the time of the Bayview tragedy.  St. Stanislaus Church, where it all began, is only a few blocks away.

  The police at the Chicago Haymarket were reacting to a bomb that was thrown and killed a policeman.  Six more policemen died from wounds received in the melee that followed.  It is not known how many bystanders and labor activists were killed.  Samuel Fielden was shot in the leg trying to escape the unintended confrontation.

   Chicago police, prompted by Chicago retail mogul Marshall Field and others, arrested hundreds after the Haymarket killings.  Eight labor leaders were selected to be scapegoats for the Chicago blood bath.   One of them was Samuel Fielden.  Seven of the eight were migrant workers and the other, Albert Parsons, was born in Montgomery Alabama and was a member of the Confederate Army during the Civil War.  Parsons had ancestors who fought in the U.S. War of Independence.  

   Albert Parsons has a Milwaukee connection; Parsons, his wife Lucy, and their two children fled to the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha immediately after the Haymarket incident.  They stayed with the Hoan family. One of the Hoan children, Daniel, became the second of three Socialist mayors in Milwaukee.  He was Milwaukee mayor from 1916 to 1940.

   When the trial in Chicago began, Parsons turned himself in.  When he arrived at the court he stated, “I present myself for trial with my comrades, your honor.”  Without Parsons the trial would have been simply a judgment of migrant workers, and perhaps it would have been easier to gain sympathy for the trial and its verdict from the public.

   Those brought to trial were called anarchists because of their association with a group called the “International Working People’s Association.” One of them was Samuel Fielden of Todmorden, England.  Fielden, born in 1847, emigrated to the U.S. as a young man of 21 and became a labor activist.

   The eight were convicted of murder in a notorious trial that failed to connect any of them with the killings.  One was given a fifteen year prison sentence; the others were condemned to death including Samuel Fielden.  Of the seven condemned to death, four were hanged, one committed suicide or perhaps was murdered, and the sentences of Fielden and one other condemned to death were commuted to life in prison.  The commutation decision was delivered the day before the hangings. The three that remained in prison were eventually pardoned in 1893, Samuel Fielden being one of those pardoned. Governor Altgeld, when he issued his pardon, said, “These men are not being pardoned because they have suffered enough, but because they are innocent.”

   The violence to repress the eight-hour movement, the subsequent Haymarket trial and hangings, indicated a serious flaw in the capitalist system which has never been resolved.

Anarchists point out that the legal system is often used as the enemy of the working class. A current example would be the Milwaukee Palermo Pizza strike.

   Joanne and I found Samuel Fielden a fascinating labor icon to study because he was a man of Faith, a family man and a labor activist.  We both are volunteers at an immigrant workers center called Voces de la Frontera.  Voces includes The New Sanctuary Movement which works with families and others on the cusp of deportation.  Our volunteer work is mostly with the New Sanctuary section.  Sam fits well for us as a role model.   Both of us are descendants of Irish-German immigrants and we are active in the Latino Labor Community.  We found the struggle of 19^th century migrant workers instructive and inspiring,

 

   The 1886 struggle for the eight-hour day and the Haymarket Riot prompted the celebration of May Day as the International Day of Solidarity for labor.  I remember as high school teachers in Bolivia, Joanne and I were required to march in the annual May Day parade.  We heard speeches commemorating “Los Martires de Chicago.”  I often wondered how many working class people in Chicago knew about the ‘Chicago Martyrs?’

   Years later we saw murals in Mexico City depicting the Haymarket Martyrs.  One was by Diego Rivera in the Palace of Justice and the other appears in a union hall.

   In my next edition I will take you to Ireland and to Killary, the Irish fiord, then on to the charming town of Todmordon, the birthplace of Samuel Fielden, a town nestled in a valley, surrounded by the famous moors of Central England.

May 1st March, an Historical Perspective

   Voces de la Frontera’s annual May 1^st March is for worker rights and focuses on immigration reform while referencing itself to the historic May 1^st marches in the past.

   The story begins in 1886 when the Knights of Labor – a national labor union – campaigned for the eight-hour day.  In Chicago two demonstrations resulted in police violence.  A demonstration of workers, mostly immigrants from Germany, at Chicago’s Haymarket, between Desplaines and Halsted Streets, resulted in several being killed.  Although the workers had a permit for the public meeting, those thought to have organized the meeting were indicted and convicted of murder.  Four were executed by the state of Illinois. Those indicted and convicted are called the Haymarket Martyrs and have been memorialized in May 1^st marches since the 1890’s mostly in Europe and Latin America.

   A few days after the ‘Haymarket,’ a group of Polish workers in Milwaukee gathered at St. Stanislaus Church to march to the Bay View Rolling Mills to demand an eight-hour day.  The marchers were met with gunfire from the Wisconsin National Guard and several workers were killed. This event in labor history is chronicled as the Bay View Massacre.  The Milwaukee confrontation is not well known, but Milwaukee workers remember and so do the immigrant workers of Voces de la Frontera remember as they march on May 1^st for immigration reform and the rights of all workers.

   The above is a brief review of the events that are memorialized in the May 1^st Marches since the 1890’s.  The next postings will provide a more detailed account of the “Haymarket Riot” and the “Bay View Massacre,” starting Tuesday, April 16th and for successive Tuesdays.

  The story is related from the point of view of a trip to England to learn more about Samuel Fielden, an Immigrant from England and one of the “Haymarket Martyrs.” Again, a new posting will be made every Tuesday starting on April 16th .

LINCOLN’S ANSWER TO HIS LABOR PROBLEM

A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF ‘COMMON SENSE’ AS THE MORAL – POLITICAL GUIDE TO DO THE RIGHT THING

For starters let’s register some opinions and facts -

The U.S. Declaration of Independence states:

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights Governments are instituted among Men, deriving there just powers from the consent of the governed.

The U.S. Constitution:

We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish the Constitution for the United States of America.

Nature, (synderesis): The human person naturally seeks the ‘Good.’   Evil is chosen because it is perceived as ‘good’ – common sense choices tend to be correct and are morally good.

Human dignity: The human being is specifically different from the rest of nature in that a person can know and know that she/he knows.  The person has the natural right to freely choose - to pursue happiness in community as a fulfillment of the reason for existence.

If the mind cannot know the essence of a being and can only rely on knowledge, that is, a collection of similar individuals, then a statement about the collection is a statement that, at best, is more or less true.  “All men are created equal” can simply mean white male property owners living in the U.S.A.  This limited concept of equality can change if we expand the meaning through new legislation, or the concept is broadened by a court battle.  The ‘dignity of man,’ the right to a labor union,  a voice in the workplace and civil society would be unheard of without well defined power legislation and contentious court battles. “What about the squirrels?”  This is not ‘humanity’ as understood by Julian of Norwich.  The movement of ‘individualism’ dictates the role of government in protecting these human rights; it emphasizes the individual, not the community.   

Common sense: looks to a guide for moral decisions, then makes a judgment.  This guide, the circumstances and the situation are all factors to consider.  Courage and faith to choose the best solution and then to act is key, especially since often there is no certainty that the apparent best solution will work.  (Abraham Lincoln had faith – see John Burt, A Tragic Pragmatism, Harvard Press, 2013)

Common Good: “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or individuals to reach their fulfillment more easily.” (Gaudium et Spes, para. 26.)

Natural Law: Rational by nature, the human person should choose to do that which is reasonable. (From the Epicureans, Stoics, Thomas Aquinas.)

LINCOLN’S LABOR PROBLEM - SLAVERY

   President Lincoln faced the dilemma of the Declaration of Independence stating that “all men are created equal” with a right to the fruits of their labor, yet the Constitution supported slavery.  Slavery, of course, is a labor problem and is still relevant.  For some this was not a dilemma; it was just a fact of life.  Some, because of their situation were not to be considered as persons with rights to be protected.  “All are created equal” is similar to Catholic Social Teaching’s “Dignity of Man” therefore workers have a right to a voice in the workplace – a union.  Lincoln’s understanding of “All are created equal” was different than that of Jefferson or that of John Locke (1632-1704), the Oxford ‘enlightenment’ promoter of common sense. Locke and Jefferson were empiricists, whereas Lincoln was an ‘essentialist’ who understood      humanity in terms of essence as the ancient Greeks, Romans and the realist scholastics of the Middle Ages.  Common sense for Lincoln meant that “All are created equal” and he referred to ‘humanity’ not just as white, male, property owners.  Gary Wills says that Lincoln in the Gettysburg address refers to the Declaration of Independence and presents a new understanding of the phrase “all are created equal.”  Lincoln’s words go beyond Jefferson and they redefine the Republic.  At the funeral oratory of Gettysburg, Lincoln announced a “new birth of freedom.”

   Wills traces Lincoln’s ‘essentialism’ back to the Lincoln/Douglas debates.  Lincoln opposed the Kansas – Nebraska Act which would have allowed the people of these new territories to vote on slavery.  For Lincoln this was not an issue that could be decided by a vote.  For Lincoln slavery was wrong, against the American principle of equality and couldn’t be sanctioned by a positive vote.  Such is the voice of common sense.

    Lincoln’s reasons are those of the Transcendentalists.  As Unitarians with a developed philosophy and theology, they proposed that justice transcends law. Let’s consider one Transcendentalist, George Bancroft.  He wrote the following concerning the Declaration of Independence:  “The bill of rights which it promulgates is of rights that are older than human institutions, and spring from the eternal justice.” (Gary Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, Simon & Schuster, 1992, p. 104.)

   Consider the words of Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nature, is the incarnation of thought … the world is mind precipitated.”  (ibid. p. 103)  These comments reflect Lincoln’s realism; he went beyond the empiricism of Jefferson and Locke.

   Epistemological realism also influenced Lincoln’s position on secession.  Lincoln admitted in his first inaugural address that some states have spoken for disunion but not the people, “my rightful masters.”  “Otherwise, ‘The United States (would) be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of a contract (or pact) merely.’” (Ibid. p. 130)  There is opposition to Lincoln’s view to this day, as President Reagan liked to put it, “the federal government hadn’t created the states; the states created the federal government.” But the Constitution states: We the people – not we the states.

Notre Dame professor of law Vincent Rougeau writes: 

Catholicism in particular has long instructed that true individual flourishing can occur only the within the context of a web of human relationships. This culturally, heterogeneous situated understanding of human well being is an accepted part of political philosophies around the world but it has been rejected in the United States in favor of a contractarian understanding of rights…

(Vincent Rougeau, Christians in the American Empire, Oxford, 2008, p. 17.)   

   Lincoln’s realism went beyond that of Aristotle, the Stoics and Thomas Aquinas who supported natural slavery.  It was not the realism of Karl Marx who infused his doctrine of historical materialism into Hegel’s spiritual thrust of history.   It was a realism comparable to that of Bartolomé de las Casas, who eventually opposed slavery in Latin America.  Lincoln added the dimension of democracy as a right and a necessity for humanity. Marx saw the “spirit of history” in matter and came up with historical materialism.  Lincoln saw the “spirit of history” as a creative destiny in the people and in democracy.  People and politics are difficult at best to predict.  Lincoln’s democracy did not have Marx’s certitude of historical materialism or the Calvanist confidence of  Manifest Destiny.   

   Manifest Destiny is an idealistic philosophy and a theology that fueled support for the war with Mexico (1846-1848).  It was a doctrine of expansionism and racism that Lincoln as a U.S congressman opposed.  Michael Hogan cites Mexican scholar Bergoña Arteta as documenting clearly:   “the connection between the invasion of Mexico in 1846 and the doctrines of Calvinism, Manifest Destiny, expansionism, coupled with Anglo Saxon belief in racial superiority …”  (Hogan, Michael, The Irish Soldiers of Mexico, Custom Book Tique, Quebec, Canada, 2011, p.107.)

Such is the Civil War climate that Lincoln faced and that we continue to experience.  For example, the neo-cons ironically are born out of classical thought like Lincoln.  They follow Professor Leo Straus and classical philosophy, but it should be  remembered that Aristotle and St. Thomas supported natural slavery.      

                                                                     

   The common sense meaning of “all men are created equal” is a philosophical problem for epistemology.  John Courtney Murray, S.J. wrote:

   

Every proposition, if it is to be argued, supposes an epistemology of some sort.  The epistemology of the American Proposition was, I think by the Declaration of Independence by the famous phrase, ‘We hold these truths …’ (p. viii)

… What cannot be questioned, however, is that the American Proposition rests on the forthright assertion of a realist epistemology.” (p. viii) 

…In this matter philosophical reflection does not augment the data of common sense.  It merely analyzes, penetrates, and organizes them in their full abstractness; this does not, however, remove them from vital contact with their primitive source in experience. (p.329)

         (John Courtney Murray, We Hold These Truths, Sheed & Ward, New York, 1960)   

  

    John Burt’s book, Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatism, promises to give a thorough review of Lincoln’s philosophical understanding of common sense.  ‘Tragic Pragmatism’…what is that?  Book reviewer, Steven B. Smith, explains: “Burt argues that Lincoln’s decision to pursue a politics of principle over deal making was an act of faith.”  But where will this mystical destiny take us? (Steven B. Smith, “Book Review – N.Y. Times,” Feb. 17, 2013)

   Could emancipation of the slaves move the nation anywhere but a new freedom?   Samuel Fielden reflected on the results of the U.S. Civil War in his death row autobiography.  Fielden was an immigrant from Todmorden, England who became a labor movement leader in Chicago.  He was caught up in Chicago’s Haymarket Riot in 1886 and sentenced to death. In his reflections he wrote about working in the southern United States after the Civil War and the Negro.

    I worked before my return to the north in the states of Louisiana,         Mississippi and Arkansas, and I took every opportunity I could to learn about the condition of the Negro, and I learned he was as much a bondsman as ever he was, and in many cases worse. 

(Philip S. Forner, end, Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs,  Monad Press, New York, 1969, p.151)

Fielden was pardoned by Illinois Governor John Altged in 1893.

   The story continued and continues, “American democracy remains a work in progress.” (Ibid. p. 14)  Faith in the destiny of democracy and humanity is key.

A COMMENT ON THE ELECTION OF POPE FRANCIS I

    I’m not an anti-clerical Argentinean, but if Newt Gingrich is excited about the new Pope Francis there must be more than something wrong.

   The color, the pageantry, the smoke, the screaming crowds – but – we end up with an old white man carrying the baggage of horrible murders in Argentina as Pope – how depressing. Is this something more to cover-up?   Faith too easily slips into the denial of reality and belief in staged fantasy. But there is the possibility that there is something more.

THE DIGNITY OF MAN – A WORKING CONCEPT FOR WORKERS

   

My dogmatic slumber

  I really thought common sense was sufficient to explain why workers have a basic right to organize into unions. The papal encyclicals point to the “dignity of man” as the core reason.  During a discussion group I mentioned this and expected the usual silent glassy eyed response, but I was immediately and strongly challenged by a university professor of anthropology.   He shouted, “what about the squirrels – don’t they have dignity?”  He went on, “one of those encyclicals says that a living wage means that a worker should have money to get a beer after his shift.”  “Thank God we don’t get that crap at our Church.”  I was stunned; I couldn’t respond except to say, “Let’s get back to common sense.”   Was it simply an upper class academic dismissal of those beneath their status?  But then again, what about women, “dignity of man” is an evolving concept even in the social encyclicals.

   Class conflict is just there, but preaching without using common sense has a long varied history.  A serious challenge to common sense is highlighted by the troubles of Peterless Peter Abelard (1079 - 1142) in the 12^th century. 

   Abelard’s fame in history is mostly related to an illicit affair with his student Eloise.  Pete paid the price for the affair since in the middle ages a simple cover up was not sufficient.  However, Peterless Pete’s important question: was not, as the romantics think, “Eloise what are you doing tonight?” but, as logicians think, “How can we use universals?”  If universals are just of the mind and not reality, they can mean whatever we want them to mean.  Peterless Pete thought he solved the problem, but St. Bernard (1090 - 1153) thought Pete’s logic misinterpreted the Trinity, declared Pete a heretic, and refused to rescue him.   

   Common sense made a comeback in 13^th century with Adequate Tom Aquino (St. Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274).   With help from Jewish and Muslim philosophers (Averoes, 1126 - 1198, Maimonedes, 1135 – 1204), Adequate Tom referred back to the ancient Greeks and restored confidence in human reason.  But in the 14^th century, Wild Bill Ockham (William of Ockham, 1288 - 1347) took his razor to Aristotelian Adequate Tom and severed the “possible” and “agent” faculties from the intellect making it impossible to produce certain conclusions.   Again, is the razor a better answer than the cover up?  But obviously mistakes can be made.

   The “dignity of man,” does the concept have a basis in reality?  Does the concept imply that workers have the right to organize?  President Lincoln faced a similar problem.  The Declaration of Independence states that all are equal yet the institution of slavery was sanctioned by the Constitution.  In the next posting we will consider Lincoln’s reasoning.  Comments and suggestions are appreciated.  Email

wjlange@sbcglobal.net

A DISTANT MIRROR

(A book by Barbara Tuchman comparing the 14^th century to the present time.  Note the last Pope to resign was Gregory XII – 1415.)

   History of philosophy scholar Etienne Gilson, in a series of lectures at Harvard in 1937, claimed the collapse of philosophy in the 14^th century should be attributed to Franciscan Friar William of Ockham.  Ockham’s epistemology led to skepticism - the end to certain knowledge through causes and therefore philosophy itself.  For Gilson, modern philosophy has the same problem.  David Hume is the modern Ockham for Gilson, and philosophy from Gilson’s 1937 Thomistic perspective, once again had reached a low point.  It is implied by Gilson that with philosophy in such a weak state it would be difficult to respond to the arguments presented by Fascism and its founding author G. Gentile.

   Gilson claimed the when philosophy collapses, the only options are mysticism and moralism.  Of course if philosophers believe that reason must be surrendered when mystics, moralists, and pre-modern analysts are evaluated, then philosophy is indeed lost.  Thus Gilson’s tunnel vision missed the restorative work of Julian of Norwich as well as the immense value to humanity of Ockham’s work for politics and science.

(Gilson, Etienne, The Unity of Philosophical Experience, Charles Scribbner’s Sons, New York, 1950, Copyright 1937)

   Might we look into the distant mirror and see ourselves with tunnel vision missing significant work because of the absurd politics of the Roman Catholic Church attempting to impose Church rules on society at large? The 14^th century Avignon Catholic Church may have been more corrupt and hypocritical than the Roman Catholic Church of the present age, but we can’t be far behind. 

   For example, the cover-up of pedophile priests is shocking.   One of the most notable and long time cover-up artists, Cardinal Roger Mahony is allowed to continue to function as a priest and as a Cardinal (He can vote for the next Pope).    Yet 92 year old Jesuit Bill Brennan of Milwaukee is immediately censured for concelebrating a Mass with a woman priest.  He is no longer allowed to publically celebrate Mass or appear in public wearing a Roman collar.  Brennan has served as a missionary in Central America, a high school theology professor, a Catholic Worker chaplain and a parish priest.  The attack on the dignity of a 92 year old priest makes it seem fruitless to look for actions promoting compassion and justice in the Church.

VOCES DE LA FRONTERA

   But wherever we go I accompany Joanne to Sunday Mass.  In San Francisco I picked up a copy of the Archdiocesan newspaper in Spanish – “San Francisco Católico,” 1-27-13.  A headline on page seven caught my attention: “Obispo: Mexico ha cambiado pero quizas no para bein.” (Mexico has changed perhaps not for the better)

   The Bishop was Dominican Raul Vera Lopez, O.P. whom I had met in San Cristobal de las Casas in 1998.  Three of us from Milwaukee went to San Cristobal to accompany a delegation from Michigan to join a pilgrimage planned by Bishop Samuel Ruiz to Mexico City and to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  The purpose was to inform the nation and the world of the atrocities committed in Chiapas (eg. the massacre at Acteal) against the indigenous people by para-militaries and ignored by the Mexican government.  Forty bus loads of campesinos visited four cities and culminated in a symposium and prayer vigil in Mexico City.  Bishop Ruiz led the pilgrimage, and the Michigan and Milwaukee people lent an international presence.  Auxiliary Bishop Vera Lopez prepared us for the trip.  I remember his comments were inspiring and his humor relieved tension.

   Raul Vera Lopez is now Bishop of Saltillo, Mexico.  Saltillo is 190 kilometers south of the U.S. border. The headline in the San Francisco paper referred to comments he made at a celebration of his 25^th anniversary as a Bishop.  The article states that government officials and wealthy business leaders did not attend, but the faithful of the diocese were there.  Also attending was Vera Lopez’ Dominican compatriot, Gustavo Gutierrez, O.P. founder of Liberation Theology.

   Lopez’ comments at his anniversary indicated the rightist government (P.A.N.) was no better than the leftist government that it replaced.  The leftist government (P.R.I.} was in power in ‘98.  The P.R.I. in recent elections returned to power but Don Raul accuses them of buying votes.  Both parties are, “equally rotten, corrupt and inept,” he said.  The Bishop lashed out at the 1994 trade agreement N.A.F.T.A. as a cause of Mexican poverty.  (On New Year’s Day in 1994 the Zapatistas took over several cities in Chiapas in response.) Bishop Vera Lopez stated, “N.A.F.T.A. accelerated income inequality; it made some large business owners wealthy, but it hurt the general population.”

   A companion article notes that Bishop Vera Lopez’ diocese aids people from Central America who are travelling to the U.S.-Mexican border to enter the U.S. illegally.  Most of the travelers are “evangelicos” – Non-Catholic - but Father Pantejo the priest in charge said, “we give them bread freely, the origin of this is love and a social commitment; It is not a debate about faith.”

   A December article in the Huffington Post (HUFFPOST – 12/25/12) states that Bishop Vera Lopez supports a law in his Provence of Coahuila which legitimizes gay unions.  With Don Raul Vera Lopez we have a Bishop who advocates for the basic human rights of people not irrelevant Church law.  Bartolomé de las Casas did the same in the 16 century as he challenged the Church and the Spanish aristocracy. Despite being out of sync with most of the current hierarchy Vera Lopez is part of a strong proud tradition.

THE TRIP TO ENGLAND FOR JACOB’S BAPTISM AND A SEARCH FOR THE LEGACY OF JULIAN OF NORWICH

   “When he broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth animal shout, ‘Come’.  Immediately another horse appeared, deathly pale, and its rider was called Plague, and Hades followed at his heals.” (The New Testament, John, Rev. C. 6, v. 8)  But Julian of Norwich saw that all was created with love and said that all, in all manner is well and will be well. (Julian of Norwich, The Revelations of Divine Love. Showing 13, C. 32)

   Joanne & I traveled to England leaving Christmas Day 2012 to celebrate the baptism of our new grandson Jacob.  The day of the baptism was cloudy and cold.  Television commentators in the U.K. that morning commented on U.S. issues such as gun control and the immanence of going over the financial fiscal cliff.

   The ceremony was brief but meaningful.  Father McCarthy, the lead celebrant, welcomed the radiant and beautiful Jacob Alan Lange into the community and reminded us of our responsibilities in love to Jacob.  Father McCarthy prayed for the support of the ever present “Communion of Saints” including Saints Jacob, Joel, and David.  In my own prayer I added Julian of Norwich.

NORWICH

 

   We arrived in London a week before the ceremony and had time to visit Norwich a city to the east and north of London and close to the North Sea.  The purpose was to discover more about Julian of Norwich, a 14^th century  anchoress.  An anchoress is a female hermit who withdraws from secular life to a sealed room connected to a church for religious reasons. 

   Norwich was second to London in population and commercial importance in 14^th century England.  It was a century of dramatic change similar to our own times.  Increased finished cloth production brought in skilled workers to Norwich from Flanders.  Many foreign workers in Norwich were murdered during the Peasants Revolt in 1381.  (Whittock, Martyn, Life in the Middle Ages, London, 2009, p. 68)  Climate change, constant war with France, the Black Death, a corrupt Catholic Church, which had moved its headquarters from Rome to Avignon, and strong theological dissent, responded to by the inquisition, set the background for the writings of mystic Julian of Norwich.  (see - Tuchman, Barbara W. A Distant Mirror, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1978.)  

      A visit to Norwich can bring history alive.  Several stops during rainy cold days gave us a greater awareness of anchoress Julian.  Let us consider three: the Cathedral, St. Andrew and Black Friar’s Halls and St. Julian’s Church.

THE NORMAN CATHEDRAL AND ABBY

  

    The Norwich Cathedral, Church of the Holy Trinity, which, since Henry VIII, (1491-1541) has been under the control of the English government and the Anglican Church.   The Cathedral was established by Norman Bishop Herbert Losinga and the Benedictines in 1096, and construction was completed in 1499.  The Cathedral has differing architecture since its construction continued during centuries of time.  For example, the lower part is Romanesque and the upper vault is Gothic.

   At least three references to Julian can be found in the Cathedral.  Various chapels line the inside of the Cathedral.  Priests were required to say Mass every day and the BenedictIne Community had many priests and needed many chapels to accommodate.  It was believed the Masses provided the ground of existence for mankind.  One of the chapels, dedicated to the 9^th Army Regiment of Norfolk, has a painted window of “St. Juliana.” It is not known what her real name was, but  she is called Julian because she was an anchoress at St. Julian’s Church. She appears in Benedictine habit with a cat at her feet.  There are doubts as to whether she was really a Benedictine nun, and those who think she was a nun call her – Dame Julian.  She was never officially declared a saint, but her writings cut out the legs supporting Christian theology so official canonization to sainthood would very surprising.  The cat, the only animal allowed to be with an anchoress, was useful in catching mice and rats that might enter the cell.  Also the founder of Christianity in the region of East Anglia was St. Felix, a name often associated with cats.

   Another chapel has a painted glass window depicting notable Benedictine monks.  Julian is at the base of the window wearing a Benedictine habit.   An inscription in Latin, “Ut in omnibus glorificatur Deus” (hence in all God is glorified. - a Benedictine saying, but arguably a summation of Julian’s theology,)  The tour guide called her Mother Julian.  

   An entrance to the Cathedral is flanked by contemporary statues of St. Benedict and Julian.  We had the good fortune to meet the sculptor, David Holgate, at a tea shop, and he told us he did many months of research for the statues.  Julian is carved wearing the typical dress of a 14^th century towns-woman.  She is appropriately holding a book since she was the first woman to write a book in English, Revelations in Divine Love, and to this day she is a teacher.  Julian wrote in a form of English similar to that of Chaucer – a contemporary.  St. Benedict, the founder of monasticism, is shown in his habit with his index finger over his lips to show the importance of silence.  (“Be still and confess that I am God!  I am exalted among the nations – exalted on the earth.  The Lord of Hosts is with us, our stronghold is the God of Jacob.”  Psalm 46, vs. 11 -12.  “Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness.” Meister Eckhart, Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1983, p. 133.)

BLACKFRIARS & ST. ANDREW’S HALLS

   We visited the St. Andrew’s and Black Friars Halls to get further insights into Julian’s 14^th century.  The Dominicans, Black Friars, arrived in Norwich in 1226.  They took over the priory of St. Andrew’s in 1307, and began constructing the Black Friars Hall in 1345.  The Friars (White Friars – Carmelites, Grey Friars – Franciscans, Black Friars – Dominicans) of Norwich differed from the Benedictine Monks in that the Benedictines would establish an Abby that attracted people to form a productive community with its center at the Abby.  The Benedictine motto is:  laborare est orare (to work is to pray.)  The Abbot or Abbess would be the ultimate community authority.   The friars differed in that they would go out to the people preaching in parishes, establishing community centers. 

   The family of Thomas Erpingham, hero of Agincourt, 1415 - a major victory for the English in the 100 years war with France, donated money for the construction of the Black Friars Hall.  Erpingham’s son was a Dominican; the Erpingham coat of arms is evident in the hall.    Some believe Julian was of the wealthy aristocratic Erpingham family, hence the use of the title – Lady Julian.  The reasoning is that Julian was an educated woman, even though she claimed not to be, and someone had to support her as an anchoress; it could have been the bishop, but this is unlikely.  The Bishop, Henry Despenser, and Thomas Erpingham were enemies.

   A plaque at the Black Friars Hall commemorates two anchoresses that were attached to the hall – Katherine Foster and Katherine Mann.  Did the Dominican charism, “contemplata aliis trader” (giving the fruits of contemplation to others) influence Julian?  The first Dominicans were cloistered nuns.

St. JULIAN  CHURCH

 

   Of course the most important place we went to on our pilgrimage was St. Julian’s Church.  Even in the cold and rain we recognized it as Holy Ground.  This is where Julian lived as an anchoress for probably over 40 years in a room attached to the church.  The room was sealed but she had a window looking into the church so that she might participate in the liturgy and a window to the street so she could be available to console,  council and encourage others. 

   It is a small stone church still in use for prayer.  It is estimated that there has been a church on this site since 950.  The name is probably from Bishop Julian of Le Mans (4^th century).  In 1135 King Stephen gave the Church to the care of the nearby Benedictine Nuns of Carrow.  The Church is close to the river Wensum which connects to the North Sea and facilitated Norwich to be a port of entry for the Normans and people from the low countries.  Julian the anchoress gets her name from the Church.  A replica of the Church was re-constructed in 1953 because of bombing damage suffered during W.W. II.  

   Among the interesting features of the Church is a medieval baptismal front which dates from about 1420.   Several well known saints are carved on the font, but at the base are saints that a Church brochure notes with a question mark.  One is William of Norwich, a boy whose murder was blamed on the Jews.  

   “Unwanted children were often sent into the forest to die, as the

   story of Hansel and Gretel recalls; parents could easily explain their

   disappearance by blaming it on the Jews.  In Norwich Cathedral in

   England, one can see a very apologetic plaque commemorating the

   boy William of Norwich who in the twelfth century was said to have

   been stolen by the Jews and crucified.”  (We did not see the plaque.)      

   “In compensation he was made a saint.”  (Middle Ages, Editors of

   “Horizon Magazine,” American Heritage Publishing Co. Inc. New York,

   1968.  p. 131.)

 The Jews were expelled from England in 1290 by Edward I.

     Not far from the Church was “Lollards Pit” where followers of dissident Oxford Priest and scholar John Wyclif were dumped after execution.  Julian’s showings supported Wyclif; which raises the question – who was Julian’s protector?

THE MARRIAGE OF THE MYSTICAL AND THE ACTIVE

    The profundity of Julian’s book goes much deeper than we are capable considering, but look at the following.  Julian wrote at a time of rampant fear and hatred, but she pointed to all pervasive love as the response.  She saw the “passion” not just as her suffering or Jesus’ suffering but as the suffering of humanity which elicits love – compassion – and justice.  Julian uses the term “humanity” in the “realistic” sense of Benedictine Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury (1033-1109).  Ironically, I believe that 14^th century (c1290 -1349) polar opposite Franciscan “nominalist” William of Ockham would have had no objections to Julian’s work.  

   For Julian, God was the mother of all.    She did not preach a crusade against the Muslims as did 14 century mystic Catherine of Sienna, nor did she march with the flagellants preaching apocalyptic fear and denouncing Jews, as did the defender of Avignon, St. Vincent Ferrer. 

   Julian agreed with Wyclif  as to the equality of the people of God.  Her term was “even Christians.”  Her God was a God of motherly love, not one of wrath that required mediators.

   The connection – the unity of heaven and earth was clear to her.  Humanity was in partnership with the Creator to restore all.  Jacob’s ladder is an appropriate symbol.  Fourteenth century German Dominican theologian Meister Eckhart has an explanation: “down is up and up is down.”  (Fox, Matthew, A Spirituality Named Compassion, Harper, San Francisco, 1979,  p. 40.)