Vatican II Pioneers

Pat and Patty Crowley

Hope and anticipation for Vatican II was fostered by the Christian Family Movement which was founded by a Chicago couple, Pat and Patty Crowley.  Essentially a lay movement within the Roman Catholic Church it fostered ecumenism, status for the laity, liturgical reform, and Catholic action with the goal of a better world.  Vatican II was encouraging but Pope Paul VI's Encyclical, Humanae Vitae, prohibiting artificial birth control, restricted progress.  This disappointed the Crowleys, but they continued in their efforts for church reform.  I am confident you will find the following story about the Crowleys moving and insightful.  It is  written by their oldest daughter - Patricia Anne Crowley, O.S.B.                                Bill Lange


Our 103 year old Sister, Vivian Ivantic, has been urging me to write about my parents for a couple of years now.   However, until William Lange invited me to write about my parents for his blog, I kept procrastinating saying to myself,  I am just too close to this topic…..I will try to write next week…I just don’t have time right now, etc.

So let me at least begin.   My father, Patrick F. Crowley, the son of Irish Catholic parents, was a fascinating combination of traditional religious practices and creative avant-garde spirituality.  His lifelong friendships from his early years at St. Mary of the Lake grammar school and Loyola Academy persisted even though those men were of various political persuasions and religious practices. He adored my mother and with her and those friends, formed what was known as “The Poker Club” or, at one point as “The Stork Club”.   He used his professional career as a lawyer to serve both sides of the family as their corporate counsel as well as to provide for his immediate growing family and to help all who came to him for legal advice and / or financial support.   He was a learner par excellence and reached out to emerging voices in our world to come and share with the hundreds of couples who gathered each year at Notre Dame for the annual conventions of the Christian Family Movement.  My impression always was that no one could bring themselves to dislike him and hardly anyone could say “no” to him!  What I suspect that people seldom saw in him was a soul that felt great anguish at other people’s suffering.  His disappointment was particularly evident to me when the encyclical on birth control, Humanae Vitae, was published.  He took that turn of events to heart and felt keenly the pain of couples around the world at that time.

Patty Caron Crowley, my mother, was the daughter of a Jansenist French-Canadian father and a Baptist mother, who converted to Catholicism when Patty was young.  She was often misunderstood by her mother, when as a student of the late Father John A. Ryan at Trinity College in D.C., she learned of Catholic social teaching and began to make decisions based on what she had learned.    Her social and political views were even more radicalized when she connected with the handsome Pat Crowley, who had been formed to think broadly in his years at Notre Dame University.  When they met, Pat was smitten immediately.   Patty, probably to please her mother who did not think a poor Irish law student was good enough for any daughter of hers, went off to Paris for a year and there dated several continental guys.  She apparently always remembered those times and never ever regretted her acceptance of Pat’s proposal for marriage upon her return home.

Pat and Patty were soul mates. Their personalities could not have been more different!  Their relational complementarity was their gift to all of us.  Their roles fit their personalities – he the visionary and she the organizational and practical one.  Together they graciously welcomed people of all faiths and origins into our home.

 In the 31 years between their deaths, I came to know and appreciate my mother’s strength and determination.  She, too, suffered greatly from the Church’s decision to go against the majority opinion of the Birth Control Commission.  It took her 25 years after Humanae Vitae was published, to speak out publicly about their “conversion” experience. They, along with the vast majority of that group, were convinced by letters from couples around the world, by scientists and theologians on the Commission that birth control was not intrinsically evil.  The official Church chose not to follow that advice and, as a drastic result, lost much of its authority among many of its members.

That is the context in which I grew into adulthood.  The family I knew in the first decade of my life was pretty typical of the times – as many children as possible, parochial school for the kids, daily mass at 6:30 a.m., family rosary after the evening meal, regular visits to grandparents, nightly family dinners, summer camp experiences and so much more.  That all changed during the next decade of my life.

Martin Luther King; A Letter from the Birmingham JAIL, April 16, 1963

How does King's letter relate to the current immigration debate?

   Despite the evidence of violence and devastating poverty in Latin American countries and the inadequate and unfair immigration law of the U.S., many U.S. citizens condemn undocumented immigrants for one reason:  immigrants are breaking the law.

   Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., in his letter from the Birmingham Jail, noted that both St. Augustine (Father of the Church, 354-430) and St. Thomas Aquinas (Church Doctor, 1225-1274) stated that a bad law was no law and did not require obedience. Dr. King was referring to the ‘Jim Crow’ laws of the South as bad law, but historically, there are many other examples, such as slavery itself.

Aquinas and Augustine on law

St. Augustine of Hippo, North Africa

    
In his letter from the Birmingham jail, King quotes St. Augustine: 

“That which is not just seems to be no law at all.”  

Aquinas quoted the above statement by Augustine and added:  

“But if in any point it (human law) departs from the law of nature (reason), it is no longer a law but a perversion. (1.)

Aquinas and Augustine knew that civil law was crucial.  Augustine wrote no matter what government (even the Roman Empire), man must obey the law, 

“…so long as he is not compelled to act against God or his conscience…” (2.)

Augustine and Aquinas represent differing philosophical and theological points of view but agreed that human law must serve all people – the common good.

St. Thomas defined law as:

 “… nothing else than an ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by him who has care of the community.” (3.)

   A law can be a ‘bad law’ on two grounds:  if it is unreasonable and if it does not serve all in the community; it is a matter of forging a proper, peaceful society. 

  

   Law cannot rule out all possible or perceived evil.  Such a law may cause more harm than good.  In a pluralist society such as the U.S., religious mandates cannot be inflicted on the general public that would damage the common good.  An example would be a law to deny the right of some to health care.    An example is the Roman Catholic hierarchy attempting to impose the unreasonable prohibition of abortion in all circumstances, prohibition of contraceptives, and denial of gay rights.  St. Thomas states:

“…human law cannot punish or forbid all evil deeds, since, while aiming at doing away with all evils, it would do away with many good things, and would hinder the advance of the common good…” (4.)

The debate in forming the U.S. Constitution resulted in accepting slavery as the only possibility of forming the Republic.  The Constitution legalized slavery, but the horrible Civil War resulted in a change of the Constitution and a modicum of freedom for slaves.

Human Solidarity

   John Courtney Murray, S.J., a key advisor of Vatican II on freedom of conscience quotes English Dominican Thomas Gilby, O.P.:

“Civilization is formed by men locked together in argument.  From this dialogue the community becomes a political community.” (5.)

The dialogue is of existential importance. Timing is a factor.  When do practical politics move the Creator’s ‘self evident truths,’ expressed in the Declaration of Independence, to become the written law of the Nation?  The Letter from the Birmingham Jail gives a resounding cry of – Now!  In a book published in 1968 Doctor King explained:

“We still have a choice today: nonviolent co-existence or violent co-annihilation, this may be mankind’s last chance to choose between chaos and community.” (6.)

Dr. King used the term ‘mankind.’  Classic theology and philosophy attempted to be universal and not nationalistic.  St. Augustine wrote:

“The simple truth is that the bond of a common human nature makes all human beings one.” (7.)

Undocumented Immigrants

   U.S. immigration law is flawed, but there is a human bond with immigrants and is recognized by the U.S. Constitution and America’s basic proclamation, the Declaration of Independence.  Paul Rougeau emphasizes the need for International Solidarity advocated by John Paul II in his encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis.   Rougeau calls for a ‘cosmopolitan’ community. John Paul II writes Solidarity is:  

“…a fundamental concept that all humankind and Christians should agree upon and put into practice.  Solidarity should influence the lives of persons, nations and the world in general.” (8. R 78)

 In reference to the U.S. immigration crisis Rougeau states:

“Christians are called in solidarity with these migrants to promote meaningful dialogue about changing this system. (immigration)   “… we must confront the reality that respect for human dignity, human rights and liberal democratic principles excludes the possibility of massive deportations of undocumented immigrants. (8. R152)

Civil disobedience, a part of political dialogue

  Dr. Martin Luther King, a 20^th century Baptist minister, in explaining why he broke the law, referred to classic theology and philosophy that predates the Protestant Reformation, capitalism and nationalism. Classic philosophical thought corresponds to the basic proposition of the U.S. founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence.  King quotes Lincoln’s 1858 ‘House Divided Speech,’ “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.”  

How do you solve the problem?  Like Lincoln at Gettysburg King refers to the U.S. Declaration of Independence – and the basic American political proposition, ‘All are created equal.’  For the community to survive, “the bond of mankind” - Augustine’s words, must be recognized – “all are created equal” means everyone.  King understood America as did Lincoln at Gettysburg. (9.)  King goes further and re-established an important part of civil dialogue in forming community, non-violent civil disobedience, to overturn unjust law.  The American tradition goes back to writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau.

   Dr. Martin Luther King is rightly considered an American patriot and a model to follow.

Notes

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Benziger Brothers, 1947, I – II

(1. Q. 95 – A. 2, p.1014)  (3. Q. 90 – A. 4, p. 995)  (4, Q. 91 – A. 4, p. 998)

St.Augustine, Image Books, City of God, 1958, (2. P.113)  (7, p. 302)

John Courtney Murray, We Hold These Truths, Sheed & Ward, 1960, (5. p. 6)

The Declaration of Independence.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter From a Birmingham Jail.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Where do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, Bantam Books, 1968, (6, p. 223)

Vincent D. Rougeau, Christians in the American Empire, 2008, (8, p. 152)

Gary Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, Simon & Schuster, (9.)

May 1st Labor Day March in Milwaukee

PREDICATORES DE JUSTICIA

  The annual May 1, Labor Day March is preceded by a program called, “PREDICATORES DE JUSTICIA.” (Preachers of Justice)

  In April preachers will be sent to various congregations in Milwaukee, Racine, Beloit, and Sheboygan to advocate for immigrant rights. There will be homilies, discussions, announcements or simply a distribution of flyers regarding the May 1^st March at various faith communities.  

  

   Common sense demands immigration reform and immigrant rights; for example, an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel states: “Programs that foster integration (of immigrants) are crucial in the industrial Midwest … to fill vacancies as waves of baby boomers retire. (M.J.S. 3-30-17)  But there is more to it than that.  Some look for more illumination and inspiration from a fundamental understanding of their Faith.  A basic text for “People of the Book” is - all are created in the image and likeness of God. (Gen. 1)

The special dignity of the person is clear – all are created in the image of God – none are left out such as the stranger: – “If a stranger lives in your land, do not molest him.  You must count him as one of your own countrymen and love him as yourself.” (Lev 19: 33-34).   Jesus explained that if you have neglected the stranger you have neglected Jesus himself. (Matt. 24). The Koran states, “Do good to parents, kinfolk orphans, those in need, neighbors who are near, neighbors who are strangers, the Companion by your side, the wayfarer you meet …” (4;36)

   If your congregation is interested in participating in Predicatores de Justicia or you would like to be a messenger – a Preacher of Justice contact Nayeli Rondin-Valle at Voces de la Frontera.  (nayeli@vdlf.org; 414-643-1620)  The voice of Faith needs to be heard.

The Working Catholic: Lent Reading by Bill Droel

      St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Friday this year. Thus, several Illinois bishops (though not all) and other bishops elsewhere “granted a dispensation” so that the faithful could thereby have corned beef on the feast. (Is there any evidence that workaday Catholics are incapable of making such decisions on their own? I met no such person during my evening out.)

      By way of two bishops, here is an alternative to fretting about shamrocks and dispensations. Pope Francis suggests we read On Naboth by St. Ambrose (340-397), bishop of Milan. It is a 32-page commentary on a parable recounted in First Kings 21. St. Ambrose invites us to consider fasting in a more substantial manner than foregoing meat on seven days each spring—only six days if St. Patrick or St. Joseph intercedes. 

     St. Ambrose does not have to search far in Scripture to conclude that God is not interested in superficial fasting. “The fast that I have chosen,” as St. Ambrose paraphrases God, is to “undo every tie of injustice, loose the bonds of contracts made under duress, set free the broken and break every unjust obligation. Break your bread for the hungry and bring the needy and homeless into your house.”

St. Ambrose continues with a saying that is often reprinted: “Nature, then, knows no distinction when we are born, and it knows none when we die. It creates all alike, and all alike it encloses in the bowels of the tomb.” Go to any cemetery. “Open up the earth and [see] if you are able [to] discern who is rich. Then clear away the rubbish and [see] if you [can] recognize the poor person.”

As for the Old Testament story in First Kings, St. Ambrose cuts no slack for King Ahab, who perhaps had an advance copy of The Art of the Deal. Ahab seems to offer Naboth a deal for his vineyard. I’ll give you either a different vineyard or cash, says Ahab.

St. Ambrose is not fooled. It is arrogance, writes St. Ambrose. Give me, Ahab says. For what purpose? “All this madness, all this uproar, then, was in order to find space for paltry herbs. It is not, therefore, that you [Ahab] desire to possess something useful for yourself so much as it is that you want to exclude others... The rich man cries out that he does not have.” 

The First Kings story, St. Ambrose concludes, “is repeated everyday” as we in our dissatisfaction covet other people’s goods.

 It is not too late to adopt a Lent discipline. We can try to fast from envy and greed. We can try to be rich in contentment; not only between now and April 16, 2017. But we can practice contentment every day until that day when our last mortal possession is taken to a cemetery to join all the other look-a-likes.  

It wouldn’t hurt these Lent days and in the coming months to also give something away. Here St. Ambrose has a final piece of advice. “You are commonly in the habit of saying: We ought not to give to someone whom God has cursed by desiring him to be poor.” Or as this is expressed in the United States: We should refrain from helping the undeserving poor. There are no cursed poor, St. Ambrose concludes. There is no divine distinction between the deserving and undeserving. Read the Scripture: “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Droel edits INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629), a printed newsletter.

  

PAUL ROBESON: MILWAUKEE, COMMUNISM and THE MILWAUKEE CONNECTION

Paul Robeson artist, scholar and human rights activist lived in Milwaukee in 1922.  He played football for the Milwaukee Badgers and studied law with a Marquette University law professor. The Badgers were one of the early NFL teams but folded in 1926.  Robeson was working on a law degree at Columbia in New York and played football to help meet expenses. Robeson graduate from the Columbia Law School in 1923. (1)

   Robeson was one of the most famous African Americans of the twentieth century.  He was an all American football player at Rutgers in 1917 & 1918; it could be argued that no one has ever performed a better Othello, and also he was an outstanding film actor.  However, most of his fame came from his advocating with passion for working people especially blacks through his rendition of Labor Songs and African American spirituals. 

“My purpose in life was to fight for my people, that they shall walk this earth as free as any man.” (2, p. x)

Robeson’s struggle generated fierce opposition from those defending the ‘status quo.’

TRAVEL BAN AS A POLITICAL TOOL – UNCONSTITUTIONAL

MARQUETTE GRADUATE JOE MCCARTHY AND THE ANTI-COMMUNIST SCOURGE.

Tailgunner Joe McCarthy, 
Photo from the 
Department of Special Collections and University Archives 
Marquette University Libraries 
Marquette Hilltop 1934 Yearbook

  In 1951 the U.S. government issued a travel ban against Robeson because of his relentless rhetoric abroad denouncing ‘Jim Crow’ laws in the U.S. and his positive estimate of Soviet Russia. The anti-communist movement that persecuted Robeson was led by Wisconsin Senator ‘Tail-gunner Joe’ McCarthy, a graduate of Marquette’s law school.  The anti-communist movement distorted Robeson’s legacy which can be refocused with a clear and realistic view of history.  Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois wrote:

“The persecution of Paul Robeson by the government …has been one of the most contemptible happenings in modern history.”  (3, p. xxx)

The travel ban was rescinded by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1958.  The Court stated:

“The right to travel, the court concluded, ‘is a part of the liberty of which a citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the 5^th Amendment.’” (4, p. 255)

Paul Robeson said he believed in the principles of scientific socialism, but testified under oath that he was not a member of the communist party or part of any organized conspiracy. (5, p. 38-39)

THE FORMATION OF A CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER AND SOCIALIST

   In 1922 Milwaukee was headed by a Socialist Mayor Daniel Hoan, and it hosted the National Socialist Convention.  Did Milwaukee have a role in Robeson’s formation as a socialist intellectual and activist?  Perhaps, but Milwaukee socialists were adamantly opposed to communism.  There was no sympathy for Soviet Russia.  Socialist congressman Victor Berger from Milwaukee wrote:

“The Milwaukee Socialists are not Communists and never were. And from the first day of the Bolshevist revolution we looked upon communism as a dubious experiment.” (6. p. 211)

Berger, who was of Jewish decent and an immigrant from Austria, was Milwaukee’s Congressman from 1910 –12, 1919-21, and 1923-1929.  He died in 1929, and his widow Meta Berger switched to the communist party in 1934.

   Robeson’s formation as an intellectual and political activist is explained in his book, Here I Stand.  At his base – in his heart – Paul Robeson was a man of faith.  His father was a runaway slave and became a Presbyterian minister with a classic education. His mother was a woman of mixed races and a Quaker from Philadelphia. The Robeson family had an ecumenical world view which was expressed in Paul’s gifted voice and spirit.  Milwaukee Socialist Carl Sandberg stated:

“When Paul Robeson sings spirituals… ‘That is the real thing - he has kept the best of himself and not allowed the schools to take it away from him!’ (7. P.5)    

              

   Time in England expanded Robeson’s understanding of faith.  Love of neighbor meant love of stranger. (Lev. 19)  He identified with Welsh miners. He learned to sing the songs of the oppressed workers in their own languages including Yiddish.

A TASTE OF U.S. HISTORY ON IMMIGRATION

In testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee Robeson exposed the racism of interrogator congressman Francis Walter. Robeson stated that Walter’s  immigration law, the Walter – McCarron Act of 1952  restricting people of color from entering the U.S., indicated  that Walter did not want any people of color in the U.S. Walter admitted as much.  (8. p. 238) The law also restricted eastern and southern Europeans. 

Robeson wrote:

“Under the Walter – McCarron law, with all its provisions to reduce ‘non-Nordic’ immigration the number of Negroes who can come from the Caribbean or anywhere else has been drastically cut down.” (9. p. 83)

WHERE I STAND

   As the son of a former slave and activist minister, Robeson knew that faith was not enough; action was needed.  He praised the work of African American Churches.

…the Negro church is still the strongest base of our power of organization. (10. p. 96)

He saw labor as an important ally, both black and white “to battle for the liberation of our people.”  (11, p. 97)

   Paul Robeson was well aware before his death in 1976 that we had not yet reached the ‘promised land.’ Racial equality was still in the dream stage. He was fearful of nuclear war and promoted the politics of peace.  At a 67^th birthday party in 1965 he expressed the desire for peace between socialism and communism.  Robeson said understanding among people was possible through art especially through music.  However instead of singing to finish his talk he read a translated version of a Yiddish resistance song from the Warsaw ghetto.  

Never say that you have reached the very end,

When leaden skies a bitter end portend:

For surely the hour for which we yearn for will yet arrive

And our marching steps will thunder ‘We survive!’” (12, p.290)

Bibliography:  Marquette Law Faculty Blog, Paul Robeson and the Marquette Law School, J. Gordon Hylton, 2010/06/04 (note 1)

Here I Stand, Paul Robeson, 1958, Preface L.L. Brown 1971 (notes 3, 5, 9, 10, 11).  Paul Robeson a Watched Man, Jordan Goodman, 2013 (notes 2, 4, 7, 8, 12)  The Sewer Socialists, Elmer A. Beck, 1982 (

The Working Catholic: Stop Trafficking by Bill Droel

Our office of county sheriff has an animal welfare unit. It received a tip about dog fighting as promoted by a small betting ring. The police rescued nearly all of the animals. Sheriff Tom Dart then held a press conference, warning the public about this illegal activity. The department’s website was immediately flooded with praise from rightly appalled animal lovers and responsible citizens.

Later that week the department got a tip about a motel where prostitution was suspected. The police went there and caught several people. Again, Dart held a press conference. This time the website received only a few reactions, most of which were against the police. This is a matter of free will between consenting adults, people told the police.

“No it isn’t,” Dart explained at a meeting on “Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation,” held at Sacred Heart Church in Palos Hills, Illinois. First, “one of the girls was 14, another 15.” Second, it is “not consensual.” Girls and women are systematically lured into prostitution with psychological and physical coercion, Dart said.

The contrast between the reactions to the two police raids says to Dart that, in a sense, “society allows trafficking.” The public, Dart continued, has to be more aware that trafficking “is wrong.” It is not confined to Thailand. It can gain hold within a local high school, it can grow within a nearby mall and it is routinely facilitated through the internet.

The two-year old Sacred Heart Domestic Violence Outreach committee sponsored the January 2017 meeting with the sheriff. (As an aside, one of the young committee leaders happens to have the same unusual last name as your blogger: Elizabeth Droel.) The anti-trafficking movement will likely spread because representatives from a half-dozen nearby churches joined Sacred Heart parishioners for this January 2017 meeting.

The challenge is difficult and because of the internet it has become more so. In particular Dart faulted Craig’s List (which recently changed its policies) and Backpage (which has not). Dart also admitted that with happy exceptions the legal system can further demean girls and women. And, as Dart sadly learned, not all so-called safe houses are perfectly safe. He did, however, express approval for one recovery house not far from Sacred Heart.

Dart thinks “it is ridiculous” for responsible parents to accede when children assert a so-called right to privacy about their use of the internet. All children deserve wise care from good parents, he concluded.

The Sacred Heart committee distributed a prayer to St. Josephine Bakhita, FDCC (1869-1947). She was abducted into slavery and toiled in rich people’s homes until, with help from women religious and others, she escaped in Italy. “O St. Josephine, assist all those who are trapped [and] help all survivors find healing. Those whom people enslave, let God set free… We ask for your prayer through Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

 Next month this blog will report on an anti-trafficking awareness campaign among hotel workers, spearheaded by women religious.

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