THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS FOR A CHURCH IN CRISIS

SOURCES FOR THE FOLLOWING REFLECTIONS:


Leonardo Boff, Sacraments of Life-Life of the Sacraments,  Pastoral Press, Washington D.C. 1975

John Dominic Crossan, The Birth of Christianity, Harper San Francisco, 1999

William Droel, Patty Crowley–Lay Pioneer, Loyola, Chicago, 2016

Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1983 & A Spirituality Named Compassion, 1979

Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, Orbis Books, New York, 1973 &  The Power of the Poor in History, Orbis Books, New York, 1983

Roger Haight, Christian Community in History, Vols. I&2, Continuum, New York, 2004

Hans Kung, The Church, Sheed and Ward, New York, 1967

Frederic Martel, In the Closet of the Vatican, Bloomberg Continuum, London etc. 2019

Matthew’s Gospel

J.M. O’Conner, O.P. Paul – A Critical Life, Oxford, 1997

T.F. O’Meara, O.P. & Paul Philibert, O.P.  Scanning the Signs of the Times, ATF Theology, 2013

Paul’s Epistles to the Thessalonians and the Hebrews

E. Schillebeeckx, O.P. The Eucharist, Sheed & Ward, New York, 1968

                                    The Church with a Human Face, Crossroad, N.Y. 1985

                                    Understanding of Faith, Seabury Press, New York, 1974



INTRODUCTION


In his Commonweal article, “When Bishops Meet,” by J. O’Malley, S.J., O’Malley notes that Vatican II “Proponents of change defended their position by making use of ‘ressourcement,’” back to the sources.

Vatican II brought about changes, but defended the priestly hierarchical structure of the Church.  Some Council bishops and theologians saw a problem, and looked to the Jesus community in Galilee and the early Church as a ‘ressourcement’ guide for the future.  Such a guide is important in the wake of current events.  It is so needed because of the pedophile crisis and the recognition by many of the faithful that the hierarchical structure is a catalyst and a cause of this crisis. James Carroll wrote in the Atlantic Monthly, “A power structure that is accountable only to itself will always end up abusing the powerless.” Changes that reaffirm the clerical structure assure the destruction of the Church as we know it.  Perhaps this would be for the best.

Please consider the following post-Vatican II reflections from the books listed above and a pre-Vatican II reflection by Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges, O.P. who understood the historical nature of dogma in the early twentieth century and was part of the run-up to Vatican II:

Leonardo Boff, O.F.M.

“The sacraments are not the private property of the sacred hierarchy.” Boff, p. 7

John Dominic Crossan

 “Across twenty-five years of publications Koestler has emphasized, concerning such texts as the Q Gospel and the Gospel of Thomas, that, for example, faith is understood as belief in Jesus words, a belief which makes what Jesus proclaimed present and real for the believer”… Faith is not just in words but in the God who through words demands deeds. Crossan, p. 406 

John Dominic Crossan, in a chapter on Gender and Communal Equality quotes theologian Deborah Rose-Gaier from her paper on the Didache an early Church document: “there are no prohibitions recorded against women as trainers, baptizers, eucharistizers, apostles, prophets, or teachers so it must be assumed that those functioning roles within the community were open to women.” Crossan, p. 371

Crossan summarizes his section on Meal and Community: “…it is in food and drink offered equally to everyone that the presence of God and Jesus is found.  But food and drink are the material bases of life, so the Lord’s Supper is a political and economic challenge as well as a sacred rite and liturgical worship.” Crossan, p. 444 

Acts and Pastoral letters etc. used to support hierarchical vs. Charismatic structure of church.  Kung, p. 180, Crossan, Life Death Split

William Droel 

Patty Crowley Lay Pioneer, Loyola University, Chicago, 2016

Chicago St. Mary of the Lake Seminary Professor and CFM advisor Msgr. Reynold Hillenbrand repeatedly insisted that, “the basic theology of CFM and similar movements was centered in the correct understanding of the Mass as a corporate act.” Droel, p. 31

Matthew Fox

“The key  to understanding compassion is to enter into a consciousness of interdependence which is a consciousness of equality of being.”  Original Blessing, p. 279  “Compassion is about feelings of togetherness suspended egos or the feeling of  kinship with all fellow creatures.   This kinship in turn urges us to celebrate our kinship.”  Spirituality Named Compassion, p. 14

 Gustavo Gutierrez, O.P.

“…theology of liberation offers not so much a new theme for reflection but an new way to do theology.  Theology as a critical reflection on historical praxis is a liberating theology, a theology of liberating transformation of the history of mankind…” A Theology of Liberation, p. 15

“He (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) had moved toward a theological outlook whose point of departure is in a faith lived by exploited classes, condemned ethnic groups and marginalized cultures.” The Power of the Poor in History p. 233

Roger Haight, S.J.

 Christian Community in History, Vols. I & 2, Continuum, New York, 2004

“On becoming the religion of the empire (Roman) the church began to be conceived in legal political terms; it was the legitimate religion of the empire.  Its political privileges urged it toward institutional totality and regimentation.  Increasingly church life became more passive and centered in liturgical cult and devotional practices. p. 247, Vol. 1                                                       

Reference to Schillebeeckx,  The Church with a Human Face, p. 142-43 

“When the formulations of the central doctrines of Christianity are recognized as examples of inculturation, they no longer appear as absolute or a-historical propositions, but as classic and paradigmatic examples of the principle of inculturation which cannot be bypassed because of the role they play in defining the church’s beliefs.”  p. 258, Vol. 1

“He (theologian Cameron, European Reformation, p. 148) describes the terminus a quo in terms of the priesthood that emerged out of the Gregorian reform (Pope Gregory VII, 1073-1085):  the priesthood was set apart from and above other Christians, by the indelible character or sacramental ordination, its legal privileges, ritual celibacy, clerical dress and tonsure, and above all by the sacrificial and miraculous ritual of the mass.” p. 75, Vol. 2

“Liberation theology, of course, is theology, that is an understanding of faith and of reality in the light of faith.” p. 411, Vol. 2 

“The discipline of theology attempts to mediate the understanding of the object of the Christian communities faith. As such it engages reflecting and thinking people.  p. viii, Vol. 1

Hans Kung

The Church, Sheed and Ward, New York, 1967

(Forward gives thanks to Tubingen colleague Joseph Ratzinger. Joe is referenced 5 times.  As Pope he took the name Benedict XVl.  The book is stamped, ‘Nihil Obstat” – no doctrinal error- Patrick Casey, Vicar General, Westminster, 1967)

“…the later Church cannot simply and totally exclude the Pauline constitution.  While it is unlikely to become a norm for the Church, this view might, even today, be of importance for certain missionary situations.  We cannot suppose that the Church of the present time would wish or would be able to prevent a recurrence of what happened in Corinth and other Pauline communities – the sudden outpouring of a charism of leadership through the freedom of the Spirit of God-given  particular and possible situations, for instance: a concentration camp, a remote prison from which there is no possibility of escape, or an extreme missionary situation, say communist China – Japanese Christians after all lived for centuries without any ordained pastors.  … What happens, for example, if a Christian finds himself in an extreme missionary situation, and then, under inspiration of the Spirit and on the basis of his priesthood as a believer, gathers together a small group, a little community, through the impact of his Christian witness,  baptizes them and celebrates with them the Lord’s Supper?  Can such a man, even though he has received no special commission from men, not be a charismatic pastor after the Pauline communities?”    Kung, p. 443      

“Faith in an ultimate and radical sense cannot properly be distinguished from love.  It is a personal activity directed towards a personal recipient.  Faith is never, in the final analysis, a matter of adherence to objects, rules or dogmas, but is the sacrifice and self giving of one person to another.  ‘What seems to be decisive in any act of faith is the the person to whose words approval is given.’ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II, q. 11, a. 1. 


“But radical personal self-giving, something in each and every case will be unconditional and irrevocable, can only be made to God; only God can be believed, in the fullest and most radical sense of the word.  To believe in a man in this absolute and completely unconditional sense would be to make him into an idol, only God can be believed, in the fullest and radical sense of the word.”  Kung, p. 31

“There appears to be no monarchical episcopate in the Pauline communities… There appears to be no ordination in the Pauline communities…” Kung, p. 402

“…the later Church cannot simply and totally exclude the Pauline constitution.  While it is unlikely to become a norm for the Church, this view might, even today, be of importance for certain missionary situations.  We cannot suppose that the Church of the present time would wish or would be able to prevent a recurrence of what happened in Corinth and other Pauline communities – the sudden outpouring of a charism of leadership through the freedom of the Spirit of God-given  particular and possible situations, for instance: a concentration camp, a remote prison from which there is no possibility of escape, or an extreme missionary situation, say communist China – Japanese Christians after all lived for centuries without any ordained pastors.  … What happens, for example, if a Christian finds himself in an extreme missionary situation, and then, under inspiration of the Spirit and on the basis of his priesthood as a believer, gathers together a small group, a little community, through the impact of his Christian witness,  baptizes them and celebrates with them the Lord’s Supper?  Can such a man, even though he has received no special commission from men, not be a charismatic pastor after the Pauline communities?”  Kung, p. 443       

“According to Acts, Chapter 2, the spirit has been poured out ‘on all flesh.”

“In a Church or community where only ecclesiastical officials rather than all the members of the community are active, ether is grave reason to wonder whether the Spirit has not been sacrificed along with spiritual gifts.”  Kung, 187 

“The fundamental error of ecclesiologies … was that they failed to realize that all who hold office are primarily not dignitaries but believers, members of the fellowship of believers; and that compared with this fundamental Christian fact any office they may hold is of secondary if not tertiary importance. … Does this mean that community precedes ecclesiastical office, or that the community rather than the office is the higher authority?  There is no question of having to make a choice in the new testament, where we find both community and office represented as equal authorities … “ Kung, p. 363   

“The charisms of leadership in the Pauline Churches did not at all events produce a ‘ruling class’, an aristocracy of those endowed with the Spirit who separated themselves from the community and rose above it in order to rule over it.” Kung, p. 187

“In more precise terms: on the one hand, faith as man’s act of radical self-offering and trusting acceptance of grace, is a condition of baptism.” Kung, p. 207                                                           

“According to Acts, chapter 2, the spirit has been poured out ‘on all flesh,.”  “In a Church or community where only ecclesiastical officials rather than all the members of the community are active, ether is grave reason to wonder whether the Spirit has not been sacrificed along with spiritual gifts.”  Kung, p. 187

“All the faithful belong to the people of God; there must be no clericalization of the Church.”  Kung, p. 125

“The charisms of leadership in the Pauline Churches did not at all events produce a ‘ruling class’, an aristocracy of those endowed with the Spirit who separated themselves from the community and rose above it in order to rule over it.”  Kung, p. 187


“Acts and Pastoral letters etc. used to support hierarchical vs. Charismatic structure of church.”  Kung, p. 180 


“In more precise terms: on the one hand, faith as man’s act of radical self-offering and trusting acceptance of grace, is a condition of baptism.” Kung, p. 207


Frederic Martel                                                                                                                                 In the Closet of the Vatican, Bloomberg Continuum, London, 2019

“The Pope is a monarch.  He can protect the people he likes in all circumstances, without anyone being able to stop him.” Martel, p. 58

Pope Francis – “We are not a tyrant, but a Christian King, and our anger is subject to leniency.”  Martel, p. 97

Matthew’s Gospel

And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your father, which is in heaven. Mt. 23:9

Jesus speaks about ‘Hypocrites’ – see vs. 13,14,15.

Jerome Murphy-O’Conner, O.P.  

“I Corinthians 11: 11-12 is the first and only explicit defence of the complete equality of women in the New Testament.”  “Paul overturned the traditional argument from the chronological priority of the male in the creation narrative by pointing out that the chronological priority of women in the birth of a male is just as much a part of God’s plan for creation.” J.M.O., p. 29             

 E. Schillebeeckx, O.P.

 The Eucharist, Sheed & Ward, New York, 1968.

“The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) used the term transubstantiation.”  p. 50 

“Both Bonaventure and Thomas, for example, presented it in the same way.  “…because a presence of this kind cannot come about unless it does so by means of a change of the reality of the  bread into Christ’s body, we must accept transubstantiation.” pp. 48, 49

The Church with a Human Face, Crossroad, New York, 1985.

“Furthermore, in the ancient church the whole of the community of believers concelebrated, albeit under the leadership of one who presided over the community; the Eucharist is a celebration by the community.” p. 145

Synod of Bishops on the Priesthood 1971

“…Bishops (aware) that their priests were caught up in a crisis of identity.” 

 “It is against this background of two powerful extremes, supernaturalism (and fideism) on the one hand and ‘horizontalism’ on the other, that we need to see the second ordinary synod.” p. 212

“This synod did not propose any kind of solution, because it still thought ecclesiologically in a dualistic way and therefore could not provide any meaningful correction on the one hand to supernaturalist conceptions and on the other to conceptions which saw ministry simply as a profession and which did not express its real religious depth, or passed it over.” p.212 

“The general result of this was a return to the one sided approach of the Council of Trent, understandable at that time, which ultimately associates the distinctive character of the official priesthood almost exclusively with the Eucharist and the hearing of confession.”     p. 219 

The Understanding of Faith, Seabury Press, New York, 1974

“Today faith insists that the believer pass through the ordeal of a new interpretation of his faith if he wishes to be faithful to the message of the of the gospel.” p. 3

“…the Christian message or kerygma can only be geared to what is common to all – an increasing resistance to the inhumane and a permanent search for the humane, a search that man himself tries to solve in the praxis of his life (even t

“As soon as we realize that the truth of revelation has not simply come to us out of the blue but that it is expressed as man’s interpretation of faith, with the result that revelation is fundamentally God’s word in human words;”  p. 36

“The significance of the acceptance of a new interpretation of faith by a local church should not be underestimated. Lumen Gentium 28, Ad Gentes 20.” p.71

“Theology is the critical theory of the critical praxis which has this intention (transcendence must be won again and again in the face of historical alienation) and therefore does not hesitate to use meaning and nonsense that have been discovered in man and society by the human analytical and hermeneutic sciences.”  pp. 154-5

Paul’s Epistles

“Ahora bien: es la fe la garantía (hypostasis) de lo que espera, la prueba de cosas que no se ven, pues por ella adquirieron gran nombre los antiguos.” Heb. 11:1

(Faith is the guarantee (unification) of that which is hoped for, the proof of things not seen.  It was for Faith that our fathers were praised.)

If the charisms of individual Christians were discovered and furthered and developed, what dynamic power, what life and movement there would be in such a community, such a Church.  ‘Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying.’ I Thes. 5:19 

Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges, O.P.

“The action of the Holy Spirit is not exclusively to be found in our chiefs, although in this case they are promised a special assistance … (It) is diffused through the whole church, giving life to the faithful and breathing truth into them affording them grace and useful impulses, listening as well as speaking.”  (The church is not a solitary monarchy influenced by no one.)  “Is it an autocracy in the full and exclusive sense of the word?  Such a being would be a monster or a maniac.  Every regime of persons is modified by various collaborations without which it would become the most unsupportable tyranny.” Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges, O.P.  The Church, 1917.  Scanning Signs of the Times. p. 14   

“The fundamental idea in Sertillanges is that all knowledge and every activity are permeated with religion.” Scanning Signs of the Times, p. 16

A STORY ABOUT HOW THE CHRISTMAS TALE WAS CONCIEIVED

   About 30 years after Pilate had Jesus of Nazareth crucified a group of Jesus’ friends gathered at a synagogue meal commemorating his life.  Several had changed careers since the time they knew Jesus.  Most were itinerant workers and belonged to the Galilee Laborer’s Union 777.  They found that as itinerant workers they could preach the Gospel of Jesus throughout the area.

   One of the younger members, named Luke who at one time was a Roman official, said that a written story of Jesus’ life would be useful to the preachers and the communities.  All agreed and there was a consensus that Jesus’ story would have to connect to the law and the prophets that Jesus knew so well and often quoted.  For example, he said the law insisted on loving God and neighbors including those that are strangers or enemies. Mary, the wife of Cleophas, interjected:  “Will it tell about how you guys ran from the crucifixion and we three women stayed?”  Matthew, Mark, and Luke said, “Ok, you were in the area.” And John said, “No, they were at the cross.  I was there also.”  James, Jesus’ brother responded, “Let’s not argue over details.”  Peter’s eyes moistened and he turned away.

   Then they all asked, where to begin?  Luke and Matthew said the story should be a contrast with Caesar Augustus, Rome’s first Emperor, whom Jesus refused to accept as divine.  Cornelius, a former Roman Army Officer, agreed.  “It’s at the core of Jesus’ message.”

   The Roman author Suetonius wrote that Caesar Augustus was born as the son of the divine with wealth and the inheritance of military power. Matthew and Luke insisted the story should begin with Jesus’ birth.  Two disagreed.  Mark thought the story should begin with the revolutionary, John the Baptist.  Mark wanted to distinguish John the Baptist from Jesus by showing Jesus to be the more radical.  John the Baptist preached the coming of the Lord while Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God was here and demanded action to bring the Kingdom to completion.  John the Apostle thought the story should begin with a vision of the transcendent.  The two that wanted to write a Christmas story also differed; Luke wanted to emphasize the contrast with Rome; Matthew wanted to emphasize the relation of Jesus to the Law and the Prophets.  James the Just suggested that each write their own narrative.

   The Christmas stories that we celebrate are from Mathew and Luke.  Both say Jesus’ birth, like that of Caesar, was God’s miracle.  Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary.  To relate it to the Prophets, Matthew changes the wording from a passage from the prophet Isaiah to say that the Savior would be born of a Virgin.  Jesus was probably born in Nazareth but both Luke and Mathew have Jesus born in Bethlehem to fulfill the Prophet Micah’s vision.

In order to get Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem for Jesus’ birth, Luke has them comply with a census ordered by the Emperor.  Matthew inserts the Magi, the massacre of the Holy Innocents, and the flight into Egypt… all with a reference to the Prophets.

   Luke gets to the heart of the matter – the power of the poor.  The Roman Gospel or ‘good news’ was Peace through military conquest.  Luke’s angel proclaims the Gospel developed from the Law and Prophets, Peace through justice and non-violence.  At the top of the Christmas tree the angel proclaims, ‘Peace on Earth to all.’

   The challenge to all is to recognize the mythical nature of the Christmas stories and not lose the meaning intended.

The Working Catholic: Christmas Shopping Part II by Bill Droel

Clothes were once made in the U.S. Yes, labor abuses occurred in our domestic production--in cotton plantations, mills and factories. Conditions greatly improved, however, with the labor laws and reforms introduced by President Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945) and his Labor Secretary Frances Perkins (1880-1965).

Through the post-World War II years, New York City’s Garment District “had more apparel factories than anywhere else in the world,” Dana Thomas, a fashion expert based in Paris, writes in Fashionapolis (Penguin, 2019). From there production expanded to Bronx, Brooklyn, Rochester and Chicago; and in the 1970s to NYC’s Chinatown and to Los Angeles.

Starting in about 1980 two trends converged to create the apparel industry as we have it today. First, President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) encouraged free trade deals. It soon became more profitable for clothing companies to import from countries where wages are low and building standards are nearly nonexistent. Second, fast fashion became the new concept. U.S. consumers, even those with money, crave cheap clothes—everything from socks to formal wear. Consumers shop “off-the-rack” or expect “next day delivery” from retail outlets where wages are relatively low.

  How many clothing items per U.S. shopper? Jessica Iredale writes about blue jeans for Wall St. Journal (12/1/19). “Staying on trend can be an exhausting, not to mention expensive exercise in denim acrobatics,” she says. She has 18 pairs in her closet and a few more in storage bins under her bed. Of these, Iredale has three “in regular rotation.” The others are mostly out of fashion. By one estimate, the average number per U.S. adult (women plus men) is seven pairs in the closet. That adult regularly goes to the alley or resale shop because that adult buys four new pairs per year.  Each shopper (including those shopping for their children) buys 68 garments per year.

There are varying degrees of exploitation involved in the overseas production of each garment. The most harrowing production is in Bangladesh, Thomas details. There are thousands of apparel factories there, employing 40million workers. The doors are locked at many of those plants in order to keep workers from leaving during the day. The world learned of this inhumane practice in April 2013 when the Rana Plaza collapsed, killing 1,134 workers and injuring another 2,500. The Rana Plaza tragedy “is the impetus” for every subsequent improvement in Bangladesh manufacturing, says Thomas.

Thomas summarizes the reforms that occurred and didn’t occur after the Rana Plaza collapse. IndustriAll Global (54 bio Route des Acacias, Geneva, Switzerland; www.industriall-union.org) developed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety (www.bangladeshaccord.org). About 200 fashion lines and retail outlets signed up. Teams of engineers, including leaders from Canada, made the rounds of Bangladesh factories. The Accord participants were mostly European firms. The U.S. firms, spearheaded by Walmart, started the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, similar to the Accord. However, the U.S. Alliance is voluntary and uses in-house inspectors. Human rights activists believe it is deficient.  

President Donald Trump is interested in the U.S. trade deficit. The apparel industry which thrives on free trade and on consumers’ desire for fast fashion annually accounts for $77billion of the trade deficit, according to Thomas. Might Trump find ways to bring clothing manufacturing back to the U.S.?

His original MAGA hat was “assembled in the U.S.A.” (The hats could not say “made in the U.S.A.”) The MAGA hat is now a knockoff, selling for $6.99 from 16 importers. All the other items in Trump’s failed clothing line were foreign made, including in some sweatshops. White House advisor Ivanka Kushner’s apparel items, a line which went under in July 2018, were imported from China, Indonesia and Bangladesh. The Kushner subcontractors employed women toiling in sweatshops. Thomas begins her book with details about Melania Trump’s cynical jacket, worn on a 2018 visit to a detention center. It cost $39 from a Spanish manufacturer (unless our government overpaid for the item).

On short notice it will be difficult to buy completely clean clothes during this holy season. A donation to a human rights group is appropriate. I recommend International Labor Rights Forum (1634 I St. NW #1000, Washington, DC 20006; www.laborrights.org) and Worker Rights Consortium (5 Thomas Cr. NW #500, Washington, DC 20005; www.workersrights.org).

Social justice is a relatively new virtue in that it once was not possible to do anything about wrongdoing that occurred in remote locations or in complex systems. Today social justice, though difficult, is possible. Action on behalf of justly-made clothes is possible and, thanks to conscientious students, many consumers and a few sophisticated groups, there is momentum behind justice in the clothing industry.

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

The Working Catholic: Christmas Shopping by Bill Droel

     Will your shopping for gifts this holy season include buying apparel? Be warned: It will be difficult to find clean clothes. Some are hopelessly stained with child labor, even slavery. Most have flaws like sweatshop wages, dangerous working conditions, wage theft, harassment and more.

     In recent years some consumers have shown interest in healthier food. The slow food movement has even reached the menus within the biggest fast food chains. Now a slow fashion movement is budding. For example, you can purchase clean jeans from Blue Delta in Oxford, Mississippi. There is an Ivy League educated woman in Tennessee who is doing well growing and selling indigo domestically. About 700 cotton farms in South Carolina practice re-shoring; that is, growing stateside and supplying manufacturers here. Even a few well-known apparel brands are gradually turning away from sweatshops.

It is likely too late to get into slow fashion purchasing before Wednesday, December 25, 2019. However, Advent (also called the Journey Outward) is an appropriate time for solid reading on the topic of clothing. In Beaten Down, Worked Up (Alfred Knopf, 2019) Steven Greenhouse gives two thorough chapters to the history of U.S. apparel manufacturing. 

In the early 1900s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a premier manufacturer of affordable women’s blouses. It occupied the top three floors of New York City’s Asch Building (now known as Brown Building and owned by N.Y. University). In November 1909 the women there and in other factories staged a strike. Aided by Women’s Trade Union League and by International Ladies Garment Worker Union and for a time by a few wealthy women called Mink Coat Brigade, the Triangle workers held out for over two months. Their demands were modest: Managers must stop “yelling at them, threatening them or harassing them” plus a change in the pay system--from a set amount per day, no matter the number of hours to an hourly wage. When they settled, the Triangle workers got a small raise and a 52-hour week. They did not get the first goal of every worker action: sole and exclusive bargaining rights. Nor was workplace safety part of the outcome.

Beaten Down, Worked Up profiles Clara Lemlich Shavelson (1886-1982). She was 23-years old in those last weeks of 1909. She emerged as a leader of the garment workers. At a crowded union meeting held in Cooper Union she pushed her way to the front and shouted: “I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in general terms. I move that we go on a general strike.” Her activism continued through her life. She pioneered the tactic of consumer boycott and started tenants’ groups in her neighborhood. In her 80s Lemlich Shavelson lived in a senior facility. Sure enough, she organized the nurses and aides. With these working conditions “you’d be crazy not to join a union,” she told the workers.

Beaten Down, Worked Up goes on to detail a devastating fire at Triangle Company that occurred in March 1911. After just 18 minutes, 144 people were dead.

Before 1900, it might be noted, there was no such thing as fashion in our country; except among the elites in Virginia and elsewhere along the Atlantic coast who took cues from Europe. There was no “off the rack” shopping for working women and men (only standard issue uniforms or homemade clothes). Only with mass production of apparel and other products in the 20th century could working-class people have an interest in and be able to afford fashion. The Triangle Company, like many other shops, cut and assembled stylish shirts; the beginning of what today is called fast fashion. Of course, the main ingredient in the early 1900s as with nearly all garments today was cheap labor. An exploitative wage system was and is justified.  

Beaten Down, Worked Up then profiles a witness to the Triangle Company tragedy: Frances Perkins (1880-1965), an Episcopalian. She was in a nearby café, on break from her position with National Consumers League (www.nclnet.org). Her friend was Florence Kelley (1859-1932), a Quaker and the first general secretary of Co

If you have ever drawn overtime pay, ever collected an unemployment check, ever benefited from Social Security, ever been thankful for safety features at your job site, it is because of the tireless efforts of Perkins. After her time with the Consumers League, she worked for New York State and then became the first woman cabinet member, serving through all of President Franklin Roosevelt’s terms. She was compelled to improve conditions for working families by the imprint of the horrible Triangle Company tragedy.  

How is it that all our clothes come from Asia or Latin America? Might President Donald Trump revive apparel manufacturing in the U.S.? Is there something we can do about dirty clothing even during these short days before Christmas? To be continued with information drawn from Fashionapolis by Dana Thomas (Penguin, 2019).

Droel edits a print newsletter of faith and work for National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629).

From Colonialism to Benevolent Racism - a Re-interpretation of an Interpretation of Faith

St. Benedict the Moor Artwork & Architecture

Modern history and theology on display

What is said by artwork and architecture?  Churches indicate an understanding of Faith and history through art.  Questions prompted by the art work and history of St. Benedict the Moor Church suggest answers that may be troubling but help us look to the future.

   St. Benedict the Moor Church is located just west of downtown Milwaukee.  It is what is left of the St. Benedict the Moor Colored Mission founded in 1908 by Charles Lincoln Valle, an African American, and Spanish–American War veteran.  The Mission was named after St. Benedict the Moor (the Black) a 16^th century Franciscan Friar, son of Ethiopian slaves who worked for a wealthy Sicilian.

Charles Lincoln Valle

   Blacks were not welcome in Milwaukee Catholic Parishes so Valle set out to create a center of Faith for Black Catholics.  Eventually the Mission included the Church, a Hospital and Saint Benedict the Moor Boarding School.  Famous students include Red Fox, Lionel Hampton, and former Mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington.  The Church and the mission were served officially by the Capuchin order of Franciscans since 1911.  Archbishop Messmer was pressured by the Socialist Mayor Hoan not to allow the Mission to be located in the area so he shifted the responsibility to the Capuchin Franciscans.  Messmer’s brother was a Capuchin.  Was Hoan concerned about the movement of the African American community west?  Years later the area was known as ‘Bronzeville.’  Blacks were restricted to Bronzeville including well known celebrities.

Trinity Lutheran Church on 10th and Highland

       The Church is surrounded by other significant landmarks.  To the east is Trinity Lutheran Church built in 1878.  Funds for the landmark German Gothic church were provided by Pritzlaff Hardware baron John Pritzlaff. The inscription high up over the entrance is  DREIEINIGKEITS – Trinity; it was a German neighborhood.  Trinity Lutheran protested the location of the Mission across the street from their church.  

Pabst Brewery Bottling House

To the north is the Pabst Brewery built in 1880.  The buildings appear as medieval Rhineland castles with battlemented parapets.  South is the Milwaukee County Courthouse (built 1929 -1931) described by Frank Lloyd Wright as a million dollar rock pile.  His design for the building was rejected. On the west side is the freeway which took away the school and the neighborhood in the 1960’s.  The freeway was promoted by Socialist Mayor Frank Ziedler.  St. Benedict the Moor School closed in 1967.

Saint Benedict the Moor Church with Saint Stephen Eckert, OFMCap

   The Church:  excavation began June 1, 1923, cornerstone laid October 7, 1923.  The architect was Edward Brielmeier & Sons; the general contractor was H. Schmitt & Son.  The architectural style is Lombard Romanesque similar to the Capuchin Church St. Francis built in 1876.  It’s a small church sometimes called a chapel.  Dimensions are 50’ x 114’ with a seating capacity at that time of 400.  The entire cost was $63,000 donated by Ernest G. Miller, president of Miller Brewing.  Miller also provided funds in 1924 to purchase the adjoining property and buildings of Marquette College and Academy.  The College and Academy moved their schools to the south and west of the Mission.

The Artwork Restored by David Ingvoldstad in 2002

   The original artwork was covered over with a bronzed brown paint but was restored to the original colors in 2002 by David Ingvolstad with advice and direction of Capuchin Pastor John Celichowski. 

   Above the altar is a 10x12 foot carving that represents 22 Christian martyrs of Uganda (1885-1887) with St. Benedict the Moor in their midst wearing a Franciscan habit.  Above them is a goddess-like representation of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States.  Originally Mary had a very white face but the restoration has her looking more like the Virgin of Guadalupe.  The martyrs bear palms of martyrdom; angels bear lilies, a sign of purity.   The massacre is part of the sad story of the European colonization of Africa.  Christian missionaries played a role in the colonization process.

   The panel was carved from a block of pine by a noted Tyrolean artist, Signor Ermano Moroder.  It was done in his studio in the Italian sector of Tyrol.  Moroder’s brother, Alphonse, a wood sculptor, had studios at 910 3^rd Street in Milwaukee.  Suggestions from the Capuchin Provincial were relayed through Alphonse.  Between the altar table and the base are the four Fathers of the western church:   St. Augustine of Hippo, Africa whose face was darkened in the restoration to recognize his African ancestry (354-430),

 St. Gregory the Great with a triple crown (540-604), St. Jerome (347-420) and St. Ambrose of Milan (340-397).

   Emperor Constantine (272-337) called for the first Ecumenical Council to be held in Nicaea in 325.  The Council declared Jesus Christ to be divine – ‘co-substantial’ with the Father.  Would this be a surprise to Jesus the handy man from Galilee?  What would Jesus think of the re-interpretation of Faith by Augustine whose theology accommodated the Roman Empire and of Jerome who latinized Scripture?  What about Ambrose and Gregory who moved the Church to claim political authority?

   At the base of the altar are three reliefs carved by Moroder.  In deliberate reference to the Eucharist, at the left is the ancient priest Melchisedech offering bread and wine; in the center are deer at a fountain to symbolize our yearning for spiritual nourishment and to the right, Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac.  Christian theology teaches that God the Father sacrificed his Son for the sins of all, yet Abraham was stopped from sacrificing his son.   At the center is a tabernacle with a golden cross displaying a risen Christ; unusual in Roman Catholic art.

Other artwork:    There are two plaques on the wall to the left side of the altar:  St. Anthony of Padua with the Child Jesus and Saint Therese of Avila.  The adjoining hospital was named Saint Anthony of Padua.  Bronzeville resident and baseball great Henry Aaron’s first children were born there.  Saint Therese of Avila is alongside St. Anthony.  To the right of the altar are St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare who is depicting a famous legend.  St. Clare, special friend of Francis, holds a monstrance with the sacred host to frighten away Muslims who attacked her convent.

       At the right of the altar is a statue of the Peruvian mulatto, St. Martin de Porres, O.P.  The statue was salvaged from the Blessed Martin de Porres Church located a few blocks away that was torn down because of the freeway.  St. Benedict the Moor school gym was called the Blessed Martin de Porres gymnasium.  At the left of the altar is a statue of St. Conrad of Parzham, OFM Cap with an oversized key.  He was a porter in charge of the door, providing welcome and hospitality at the Priory.  He is said to have been eager to receive and help strangers.  St. Benedict the Moor Parish provided sanctuary in the 80’s for refugees from Central America.  During the current immigration crisis the Parish supported the New Sanctuary Movement but declined to offer sanctuary on the church grounds.

 Windows:  Painted glass windows filter a blue – green light into the Church.  The left side, the west wall, features women saints except for Aloysius Gonzaga S.J. who is the patron saint of students. He is at the front, closest to the altar.  Also are seen Native American, St. Catherine  Tekakwitha (or Kateri) and St. Rose of Lima, the first American saint (1586-1617) and neighbor in Lima of Martin de Porres (1579-1639).  In most Roman Catholic churches art work depicting male saints dominates.  But at St. Benedict the Moor, women saints are given close to equal attention in the Church.  Current parishioners pray to God – ‘our mother and father.’

Church window of Saint Alphonsus Ligouri

   The male saints in the windows on the right side or east wall of the church feature Franciscan, Jesuit and Dominican saints.  Most notable is Bishop and congregation founder Alphonsus Ligouri (1690-1787) who is seen giving a blessing with his left hand.  This may have set the tone for the politics of the congregation. Medallions above the windows are of the twelve apostles.

 Other Carved reliefs:   Also featured in the church are hand-carved Stations of the Cross along with other bas relief carvings that look like stations.  The stations depict Jesus’ path to his crucifixion.  The ninth station shows a Jewish man happy about Jesus’ torturous path.  This is an example of the anti-Semitism found in Roman Catholic churches that led to the holocaust.  The Capuchin Chronicles printed an anti-Semitic comment about the Mission attempting to buy property in 1911.  They were outwitted by a ‘Jewess.’

    On the right side, the east wall in the front, are two bas relief carvings:  St. Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8), and one of the Magi (Melchior?) visiting the Christ Child.  Also on the right side wall in the back of the church, St. Peter Claver, S.J. (1580 – 1654) is shown ministering to slaves brought in from Africa to Cartagena, Columbia about 1610.  

Saint Peter Claver administering to slaves in Cartegena, Columbia

The parish has a history of strongly supporting civil rights and immigrant rights.  On the west wall at the back of the church is a carved relief of the three branches of the Franciscan Order: St. Francis, First order, St. Clare, Second order, St. Louis of France (Louis IX), Third order.  At the front on the west wall is a carving of St. Benedict the Moor with his Franciscan brothers and a carving picturing Jesus with African children.   

The stations and other ‘bronzed’ bas relief pieces were not restored to the original coloring.

 Outside the church:  Over the entrance to the Church is a statue of St. Benedict the Moor and to the right is an overwhelmingly brilliant white statue of Stephen Eckert, OFM Cap., pastor from 1913 to 1921 – a monument to clericalism that has infected the Church since the Middle Ages.  

   No image, photo, painting, or statue of the African American layman, Spanish American War veteran, Lincoln Charles Valle, can be found at the Church.  Valle was dismissed from the mission in 1913 accused of improper drinking and misappropriation of funds, but the complaints were unsubstantiated.  Valle and his wife Julia moved back to Chicago to continue the work of evangelization.   He was appointed to a committee preparing for the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln.  Director of the Mission Stephen Eckert, OFM Cap, in 1914 wrote to the chancellor of the Archdiocese that Valle was “unworthy to represent Catholics.”

  As he saw it, Stephen Eckert focused on the best interests of the African American community in Milwaukee.  Eckert wrote, “They do not seek social equality in companionship with the white race but simply a square deal, equal rights as to life, liberty and protection and a fair chance to livelihood.”  However he was subject to the prejudice of the time and did promote the notion that African American families were incapable of taking care of their children hence the need for St. Benedict the Moor boarding school.  Dolores Williams, a former boarding school student, comments, “…immorality as defined by Catholic decision makers is subjective moralizing.”  

   At the request of the alumni, the Church of St. Benedict the Moor was designated as an historical landmark in 1998. This was opposed by the Capuchins.

Books Consulted

 St. Benedict the Moor, A Legacy Revisited, by Dolores A. Foster Williams, M.Ed.  Heritage Press, Racine2009

 The Heritage Guidebook, by Russell Zimmermann, Heritage Banks, Milwaukee, 1978

The Last Hero The Life of Henry Aaron, by Howard Bryant, Pantheon Books, New York, 2010               

The Working Catholic: Disabling Help by William Droel

Good intentions are not enough. 

Indeed, good intentions can be harmful.

Tarence Ray provides a case study of wasteful, ineffective and disabling social improvement programs in “Hollowed Out: Against the Sham Revitalization of Appalachia” for The Baffler (https://thebaffler.com/; 10/19). He assessed 15 organizations in his region that received money from Appalachian Regional Commission plus he looked at other economic development projects. ARC is a federal agency with state cooperation. It began in 1965 and is targeted to West Virginia and parts of a dozen other states. The particular funding arm that concerns Ray began during the administration of Barack Obama to create employment that would offset job loss from the coal industry.

“Wading into the bureaucratic refuse of these [15] organizations was exhausting,” Ray says. He was bounced from one employee’s phone extension to another; several groups didn’t respond to him at all. Only one located in southwest Pennsylvania supplied information.

The organizations are strong on narrative-building (i.e. verbiage) but never really do much, Ray discovered. It could be that leaders of these groups are sincere. They presume that enough high-sounding talk and writing will trickle down to Appalachian culture, will change mindsets and will somehow create prosperity. Some of their goals are simply impractical. For example, proposing a Silicon Holler or tech utopia in rural areas that lack adequate broadband infrastructure. Or in one of a handful of other examples, a program suggests that a former miner train as an elevator operator in a region that has only a few four-story buildings.

Ray’s essay is not a critique of government bungling, though that occurs. These same organizations get foundation grants, which encourages the government to renew funding, which attracts more grants. His target is the crucial fallacy of these and other Helping Interventions: The priority is never to help the underemployed help themselves. It is not a bottom-up agenda. It is top-down assistance always packaged with an “enduring faith in technology.” Developers and investors will acquire property, build facilities, install hardware and garner consulting contracts. College-educated planners, supervisors, technocrats, lawyers and others will oversee the project. Some of whom will be located on the scene but many of whom, after an initial visit, remain in an office with a high-grade computer in Boston or Washington. If a rationale is needed, the government and foundation leaders invoke “trickle-down.” And again, maybe they are sincere in their incorrect belief.

How can a responsible citizen, an ordinary worker avoid a government-sponsored, foundation-funded merry-go-round to nowhere? Run away from jargon. Ray supplies several terms associated with “sham” programs: entrepreneurship, business incubation, targeted, deployed, innovation ecosystem, business coach, sustainable infrastructure, feasibility study, cultural heritage assets, elevating awareness, opportunity zone and the like.

One word that doesn’t appear in all this is organize. The alternative to neoliberal paternalism or maternalism is organized citizens who through their church, their union, their precinct and their self-funded community organization tell big tech and big government what they want in their schools, their communities and their environment. And they say, “Let’s negotiate.”

On this topic of disabling help I recommend Listen, Liberal by Thomas Frank (Picador, 2016). He is particularly good on the use of jargon to avoid genuine social change. Also read Winners Take All: the Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas (Knopf, 2018). And we would benefit from once again considering any of the books by Ivan Illich (1926-2002)

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Droel’s booklet, Public Friendship, is available from National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629; $6)