Wednesday, April 29, 2020

The Working Catholic: St. Joseph Day by Bill Droel


Some years ago I was part of a lobby group to change the feast of St. Joseph the Worker from May 1st to the first Monday in September. The change would apply only to dioceses in the United States; the country that has Labor Day in September. The proposal got a respectable hearing from some bishops but the liturgy police (smile) at the bishops’ conference said no.
        In 1889 communist and other pro-worker groups in Europe designated May 1st as International Workers’ Day. It is today celebrated as such by many people in Europe, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. To counter the communists, the Vatican designated May 1st as St. Joseph the Worker Day. Ironically, the May 1st designation is not directly related to a communist event from Europe. It commemorates an event in the U.S., specifically here in Chicago. The issue was an eight-hour workday.
Karl Marx (1818-1883) was interested in an eight hour day. When he wrote about it in 1867 he referred to the situation in the U.S. A stateside group, National Labor Union, championed the cause. Move ahead to 1886. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions obtained a City of Chicago permit dated May 1st for a rally in support of the enforcement of eight-hour-per-day laws. This event, writes William Adelman in Haymarket Revisited (Illinois Historical Society, 1986), has uniquely “influenced the history of labor in the U.S. and even the world.” What happened?
Late in the evening of the rally someone threw dynamite. Police fired their guns wildly. Soon seven officers and four workers were dead. Eight labor activists were rounded up and arrested. Those apprehended included a lay minister, a printer and others. Within about three months seven of the activists were found guilty. One was sentenced to 15 years; two others got life sentences; one was killed in jail. The remaining four were hanged in November.
The issue didn’t totally disappear. Beginning in the last months of the 19th century various unions were able to include an eight-hour provision in contracts: the United Mine Workers, a Building Trades Council in California, the Typographical Union and more. Only in 1937 with the Fair Labor Standards Act did the restriction on working hours become a national standard. Even then, however, its application was only gradually extended to various sectors.
In recent times the Illinois Labor History Society (www.illinoislaborhistory.org) has refurbished the graves of the Haymarket workers who are buried in Forest Home Cemetery, located in Forest Park, Ill.  The Society has several resources related to the Haymarket event and to the meaning of May 1st.
 Haymarket Square itself, located just west of Chicago’s Loop, is today home to several trendy restaurants and relatively new condos. Tourists who go there would have to know some history to understand Adelman’s contention that an event occurred there that “influenced the history of labor in the U.S. and even the world.”
Parishes in the U.S. routinely include symbols and prayers about the dignity of work during the Labor Day weekend. It would be an enhancement, in my opinion, to also have a feast day that weekend honoring that long ago tradesman, St. Joseph.
“O God, Creator of all things… by the example of St. Joseph and under his patronage may we complete the works you set us to do and attain the rewards you promise.” – Collect from Mass of May 1st
Droel edits INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629), a news

Sunday, April 26, 2020

The Working Catholic: Cities by Bill Droel



In the latter half of the 1960s many U.S. cities experienced race riots. Plus, the exodus to suburbs that began in the 1950s accelerated in the 1960s and into the 1970s. Plus, industry left our Atlantic coast and Great Lakes cities, moving to the South or overseas. All of this made for the first urban crisis. Demographer Richard Florida details a second one in The New Urban Crisis (Basic Books, 2017). The new crisis is inequality. It is “the concentration of talent and economic activity in fewer and fewer places,” he writes. This “not only divides the world’s cities into winners and losers, but ensures that the winner cities become unaffordable for all but the most advantaged… Inequality in cities is on the rise…and in the long run urban inequality threatens economic growth.”
            Florida’s list of “superstar cities” in the U.S. includes, in order, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Washington and San Francisco. There are some tech hubs and second-tier cities (Austin, Seattle, Portland, greater Miami etc.) that have similar characteristics (positive and negative) to the superstars, but to less degree. It is important to note that the divide between prosperous cities and the rest goes along with a divide within a superstar area. “The superstar [quality] of cities turns on a relatively small number of superstar areas within them,” Florida says.
This brings us to gentrification. This phenomenon is routinely decried for causing displacement and directly accelerating wealth inequality. It’s true, but simply denouncing gentrification is insufficient. In fact, as Florida argues, a rigid NIMBY posture makes matters worse.
Gentrification, in today’s worrisome sense, is only about 20-years old. Prior to this century downtown areas were mostly rundown. By the late 1970s young urban pioneers—artists, musicians and others—were rehabbing warehouses and lofts around the outer ring of downtown areas in select cities. This activity was not causing massive displacement. Today the trend is more visible and it is driven more by developers than by artists. It drives up property prices in neighborhoods. For example, Florida calculates that the price of one apartment in NYC’s SoHo could buy 38 houses in Memphis, 30 in Cleveland and 26 in Cincinnati. In the 1970s I lived for a time in NYC’s Lower East Side in a walkup flat with the bathtub in the kitchen. Today, on that same block…well, “you can’t touch this.”
The “underlying motor” of this real estate trend, Florida regularly emphasizes, is “the clustering force.” A winner-take-all knowledge economy grows because of educated, talented, ambitious, networked people. They thrive when they cluster. Therefore, not all places can be superstar. It will not do to build a sports stadium in a place that is currently in the doldrums. It takes more than that; namely, anchor institutions like universities and research hospitals. It takes amenities like parks, river walkways, galleries, interesting bars and breweries, museums, concert venues and more. Plus to retain talented workers, it takes shopping districts, including groceries and good schools, often private or charter.
And now to the problem of inequality: Gentrifying neighborhoods in the superstar cities are often located right next door to non-gentrifying ones, Florida details. That is, the prosperity of Chicago or Seattle applies only to sections of town. The front yard looks great; the backyard is neglected. More to the problem, developers or even urban pioneers are not interested in the land occupied by the poor. Chicago’s south side and west side is about the same as it was in 1970, except that residents of those neighborhoods are relatively worse off because Chicago prospers. It’s called concentrated poverty and it is getting worse. Concentrated urban prosperity contributes to “chronic, concentrated urban poverty…which remains the most troubling issue facing our cities.”
The talented few need increasing numbers of service workers—bar tenders, grocery clerks, transport workers, grammar school teachers, janitors, women and men in the trades, clerks, nurses and more. It is in the interest of the prospering to retain good quality service workers. Though the wage gap between the creative class and the service class is wide, that gap at the moment still gives service workers more discretionary income in Boston or New York than in second-tier cities like Orlando or Norfolk. The same is true, Florida shows, for working class families. But the superstars will fall sooner or later unless they close the wage gap, retain or create some manufacturing and stimulate moderate-income housing.
To be continued with some positive examples…
Droel edits INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629), a newsletter about faith and work.


Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Una Perspectiva de la Biblia



La Biblia está compuesta de muchos libros de cuentos históricos y poesías ancianas creados por teólogos para entender la fe. Los creyentes y algunos teólogos dicen que los libros o cuentos son inspirados por Dios o son revelaciones de Dios.  Los autores de los diferentes libros son condicionados por su situación particular, la situación política o de guerra que se vivía en su tiempo, su visión de la religión y el poder, el mensaje  que el autor quiere comunicar y la época histórica.  Entonces hay diferencias y contradicciones.

La Biblia Judía originalmente fue escrita en el idioma Hebreo y algo en Araméo. Hay diferentes teologías: Deuteronomista, Sacerdotal, Yahwist, Elohist, y por supuesto, los profetas; tuvieron perspectivas diferentes. El enfoque del Testamento Judío esta en dos conceptos: que Los Judíos son los escogidos de Dios y que los fieles deben reconocer el mandato de la ley universal, ‘ama Dios y su prójimo.’  Entonces deben respetar la ley de Dios y sus profetas. Los libros de los varios profetas son críticas de la observación  de la ley y ofrecen su visión sobre la manera en que se debe actuar según la luz de Dios.


  La Biblia Cristiana originalmente fue escrita en el idioma Griego, pero Jesús y sus discípulos hablaron Arameo.En el Nuevo Testamento todos los autores tienen su perspectiva especial pero dirigen su teología para abogar que Jesús es el Cristo, el Ungido.  También el Antiguo Testamento cristiano dirige su organización y traducción del Testamento Nuevo para apoyar la idea que Jesús es el Cristo, el Ungido.


Quien ha decidido cuales son los libros que están incluidos
Los que han decido los libros de La Biblia atrás los siglos decidieron en contexto de la política corriente y la necesidad de establecer una identidad del grupo como comunidad.

La Biblia Judía: La Torá fue promulgada por Esdras como fundación de la comunidad después del Exilio (397 B.C.).  Los 70 escolares de Alexandria en el siglo 3 BCE tradujeron la Biblia Judía en Griego.   Pero el Concilio en 90 C.E., el Concilio de Jamnia en Palestina,  estableció el Canon (la lista oficial de los libros de la Biblia) aceptado hoy día.  No tiene los libros del Segundo Canon porque el concilio dice el espirito de la profecía se fue después los post exilio profetas judíos.  La Biblia Judea tiene una historia oral y escrita de más de mil años C.E.


La Biblia Cristiana:   Los Obispos hicieron sus mandatos sobre los libros del Canon.  Un ejemplo es Iranaeus de Lyon (130 – 202 C.E.); el rechazó los Evangelios Gnósticos. (Cuentos sobre Jesús con perspectiva sobrenatural, e.g. Jesús nunca sufrió, solamente su imagen fue crucificado.) Los Papas y los Sínodos como los de Hippo, (393 C.E.) y Cartago (397 C.E.) también establecieron un Canon. Los Sínodos son conferencias de los obispos o lideres  de una región.  No son concilios ecuménicos ni para todo el mundo Cristiano.   Para los Católicos Romanos el Concilio Ecuménico de Trento (1545 - 1563) determinó el Canon de la Biblia hasta hoy día.


Para los Protestantes Cristianos, hay 39 libros en el Testamento Antiguo y 27 en el Testamento Nuevo, 66 libros en total.  Para los Católicos Romanos hay 46 libros en el Testamento Antiguo Cristiano y 27 libros en el Testamento Nuevo, 73 libros en total.


Los libros escogidos para los cristianos...


El Testamento Antiguo Cristiano

Los 39 libros están incluidos en los 24 libros del Testamento Judío.  En la Biblia Católica hay 7 libros más que el Testamento Judío y ellos forman el Segundo Canon determinado por el Concilio Católico Romano de Trento (1545 -1563).  El Testamento Antiguo Cristiano es de la Biblia Judía, traducido en el idioma Griego para la gente judía que habló el idioma Griego.  En esta traducción encontramos los 7 libros del Segundo Canon.

Los 39 son los:

-Cinco que cubren la ley (Génesis, Éxodo, Levítico, Números, Deuteronomio)
-Veinte y uno que cubren los profetas, incluyendo  
6 libros históricos (Josué, Jueces, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Reyes, II Reyes)
3 Profetas mayores  (Los tres Isaías, Jeremías, Ezequiel)
12 Profetas menores (Oseas, Joel, Amos, Abadías, Jonás, Miqueas, Nahúm, Habacuc, Sofonías, Ageo, Zacarías, Malaquías)
-Trece libros cubren Los Escritos (Salmos, Proverbios, Job, Daniel, Esdras, Nehemías, I Crónicas, II Crónicas, Cantar de los Cantares, Rut, Lamentaciones, Eclesiastés, Ester)
-Los siete libros del Segundo Canon están en el Testamento Antiguo de los Cristianos por la insistencia del Obispo San Augustine de Hippo.  Para los Catolicos Romanos, siete libros del Segundo Canon (Tobías, Judit, Sabiduría de Salomón, Sirac, Baruc, I Macabeos, II Macabeos) y  adiciones a Daniel … y Esther)

El Nuevo Testamento

Los 27 libros son:
-Cuatro libros, se llaman Evangelios, incluyendo el evangelio 'Q,' lo  que es adentro de Mateo y Lucas.Los primeros tres evangelios, Mateo, Marcos, y Lucas, se llaman sinópticos porque son muy similar.  Marcos es el más viejo y prototípico.  Mateo y Lucas duplicaron mucho de su texto.
-Un libro de los Hechos de los Apóstoles
-Trece libros de Epístolas o Cartas de Paulo. Siete son auténticos de Paulo (Romanos, I Corintios, II Corintios, Gálatas, Filipenses, I Tesalonicenses, Filemón) y 6 son autores usando el nombre de Paulo (Efesios, Colosenses, II Tesalonicenses, I Timoteo, II Timoteo, Tito). 
Ocho otras Epístolas o Cartas de Discípulos de Jesús (Hebreos, Santiago, I Pedro, II Pedro, tres de San Juan, Judas).
El libro Apocalíptico - Revelación de Juan.

La Biblia Judia es diferente que la Biblia de los Cristianos o el Testamento Antiguo en el sentido del orden de los libros, la traducción de los libros, y la meta de cada uno. La Biblia Cristiana Antigua demuestra la necesidad de Jesús como Mesías. La Biblia Judea establece los judíos como los escogidos de Dios.  La ley y los profetas  guían la gente en la fe.  Los escritos de Paul son los más viejos en el Testamento Nuevo. 

La Biblia Judía
Los 24 libros son:
-La Torá:5 libros sobre la ley - o instrucción.  Incluya poesía y cuentos históricos.
-Los Profetas:
4 Profetas anteriores (Josué, Jueves, I & II Sanuel, I & II Rey)

3 Profetas Posteriores (Los tres Isaías, Jeremías, Ezequiel)

1 Profetas Menores (Ósea, Joel, Amos, Abdías, Jonás, Miqueas, Nahúm, Habacuc, Sofonías, Ageo, Zacarías, Malaquías)

-Los Escritos:
11 cuentos sobre la historia de los Israelitas, las poesías, y las consideraciones de la ley (Salmos, Job, Proverbios, Rut, Cantar de los Cantares, Eclesiastés, Lamentaciones, Daniel, Esdras/Nehemías, Ester, I & II Crónicas)

Para identificarse como judío fiel, deben seguir la ley y respetar los profetas que critican la gente en su maner de seguir la Ley.  Es necesario entender la visión de las profetas.  También para identificarse como judío necesita saber la historia de Israel y el papel de Dios en colaboración con la gente en la salvación de la nación judía.

Recursos:
How To Read the Bible, Marc Zvi Brettler, The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 2005.
Understanding the Old Testament, Bernhard W. Anderson, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1966.
Understanding the New Testament, Howard Clark Kee, Franklin W. Young, Karlfried Froehlich, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1965.
Sagrada Biblia, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, Madrid, 1967.
"La Biblia y Usted," channing Bete Company, Inc., 2018.
In Search of Paul, John Dominic Crossan & Jonathan L. Reed, HarperSanFrancisco, 2003.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Es el tiempo de oracion y accion...

La oración, Padre Nuestro, para nosotros hoy día es un poema sobre la colaboración entre nosotros y el Padre/Madre  celestial con el fin de ayudar a todos, especialmente los pobres en la lucha contra el coronavirus. 

Una Reflección basada en el libro, The Greatest Prayer, por John Dominic Crossan, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2010. Por Joanne & Bill Lange

Padre/Madre nuestro’ que estás en los cielos,
            ‘santificado sea tu nombre.’
Venga tu reino                                                                                                                          Hágase tu voluntadasí en la tierra como en el cielo.
Danos hoy el pan nuestro de cada día 
Y perdónanos nuestras como también nosotros hemos perdonado a nuestros deudores.
Y no nos metas en, más líbranos del mal.  Amén.

Introducción:
Todos pueden hacer esta oración.  Es una manifestación radical de esperanza de todos los humanos.  Es un poema con palabras metafóricas y con una estructura poética que se encuentra en toda la Biblia.
Hay dos partes en este poema:

-En la primera parte el enfoque es ‘Padre, reino, y voluntad;’  es parte afuera del tiempo. También la primera parte es sobre el cielo o sobre lo que puede ser o lo que pedimos para el futuro. Es lo ideal. 
-La segunda parte es sobre la tierra: pan, deuda y tentación. Es sobre lo que necesitamos ahora.  Es sobre lo que es esencial para la vida.

Primera Parte

‘Padre nuestro’ que estás en los cielos,‘santificado sea tu nombre.

‘Padre NUESTRO’  no es solamente mi padre, pero padre de la comunidad‘Padre nuestro’ quiere decir, ‘amo de casa,’ pero es casa de la familia, entonces se puede usar la palabra araméa, la idioma de Jesús, Abba, ‘Papi’ (Ga 4)  En la oración, Padre Nuestro, la palabra ‘padre’ no indica solamente hombres pero también podría incluir mujeres como habían mujeres encargadas de las casas en Israel. (I Re 17:17 La señora en la historia del profeta Elías – “dueña de la casa”.)  En una sociedad patriarca no es raro usar palabras así. Entonces estamos saludando al Padre/Madre Nuestro. El papel bien importante de la mujer es notado en el libro del Antiguo Testamento Cristiano, Sabiduría.  Por ejemplo, Sabiduría (7:22-25) dice que “pues en ella hay un espíritu inteligente, santo, ...inmaculado, ..único, y múltiple.  Porque hay un hálito de poder divino.”

También Sabiduría 10:15, 18: “[Ella-Sabiduría] libró de la nación opresora al pueblo santo.” “[Ella] les hizo atravesar el mar rojo y los condujo a través de los muchos aguas.”  Debemos considerar lo que dice en Proverbios 31:15-16 de la Biblia Judea: “[Ella] todavía de noche se levanta y distribuya a su familia la pitanza y las órdenes a sus criadas.”  “Cavila sobre un campo y lo compra, y con fruto de sus manos, planta una viña.”  Es claro que ella es la ama de casa.

Dios nos dice en Levítico 19, “Dios dijo a Moisés, ustedes deben ser santificados porque Yo, el Señor-tu Dios, soy Santificado.”  Claro es imposible definir Dios con metáforas o analogías; Dios es más que podemos comprender.  Los teólogos como Moisés Maimonides  usan la Via Negativa diciendo que no podemos usar ninguna palabra incluyendo la superlativa para describir Dios.  Pero en la Biblia Dios dice, “Soy santificado.”

¿Que quiere decir ‘santificado?’  Según la Biblia Judea podemos describir Dios como Santificado porque nos ama y la prueba de su amor es la liberación de su pueblo Israel, sacándoles de la esclavitud.  Dios nos da este ejemplo de amor y nos pide a vivir una vida dedicada al amor al prójimo, la viuda, los pobres, los extranjeros.

Venga tu reino

En el libro de Daniel de la Biblia Judea, Daniel está de acuerdo con Aemelius Sura que hay reinos del mundo muy importantes como los Sirianos, Babilonios, Persianos, Macedonios.  El último, según Sura, sería el Imperio Romano.  En cuanto al Imperio Romano, Daniel no estaba de acuerdo con Sura.  El predicó el reino de Dios iniciado por el medio del Hijo de Dios.  El reino de Dios es diferente; traiga paz sin violencia.  Es un reino de justicia, como ha dicho Isaías. Con justicia el Santificado va a juzgar los pobres y va a decidir con igualdad para los humildes de la tierra.  (Is 11:4-5)  Según Daniel, los Santificados del Dios van a recibir el reino y tener el reino por siempre.  (Dn 7:18-27)

En esta oración, Padre Nuestro,  el reino de Dios es un reino familiar, de un amo/a de casa.  Con Jesús la analogía de Daniel no sirve.  Entonces debemos usar la palabra ‘Familia de Dios’ en vez de ‘Reino de Dios.’  El creador del reino de Dios es Dios Santificado en colaboración con su gente 

¿Cuando viene el reino de Dios?  Hay por lo menos dos posibilidades.  Para Juan el Bautista el reino está en el futuro pero también inminente cuando hay una intervención fuerte de Dios cambiando el mundo de injusticia, el mundo del Imperio Romano.  Juan bautizó la gente en el desierto para limpiarlos de sus pecados y prepararlos para el Reino de Dios.  Como los ancianos, la gente cruzaría el rio Jordán para entrar en la tierra santa.  Ellos, Juan y Jesús, esperaban lo que Dios iba a crear,  el Reino de Dios en vez del Reino de Roma

Pero Jesús dijo, el reino de Dios está ahora; tenemos que colaborar constantemente con Dios para mejorar el reino de Dios.  Los profetas pre-exilios nos han dicho que acción para hacer justicia para los pobres es más importante que oraciones o ritos.  El profeta pre-exilo Amós dijo:  “Así habla Yavé: … ‘por haber vendido al justo por dinero, y al pobre por un par de sandalias.’”  “Yo odio y aborrezco tus solemnidades y no me complazco en tus congregaciones.  Si me ofreces holocaustos y me presentes tus dones, no me complaceré en ellos ni pondré mis ojos en los pacíficos de tus cebadas victimas.”  (Am 2:6, 5:22)    Pero sabemos que oraciones son muy importantes para conectarnos con lo que es el santificado y para darnos poder de actuar para la  justicia.  “Tres veces cada año celebres fiesta solemne en mi honor.”  (Ex 23:14)

Después de la arresta de Juan, Jesús salió del desierto y viajó a Galilea. En la boda de Caná Jesús estaba presente e hizo un milagro fabricando mas vino.  (Jn 2:9)  En contrasto “llevaba Juan un vestido de pelos y camello y un cinturón de cuero ceñía sus lomos y se alentaba de langostas y miel silvestre.” (Mk 1:6)  Jesús estaba consciente de la diferencia entre Juan y si mismo y el dijo el siguiente cuando Juan era preso de Herodes:

“Porque ha venido Juan el Bautista, que no comía pan ni bebía vino, y decían: ‘Demonio tiene.’"    (Lk 7: 33-34.)  “Ha venido el Hijo del hombre, [Jesús] que come y bebe, y decían: ‘Ahí tienen un comilón y un borracho, amigo de publicanos y pecadores.’"  Juan y Jesús, tuvieron fe que Dios va a traer justicia in el mundo pero para Juan sería un golpe del estado hizo por Dios – para Jesús un evolución dependiente de la concientización de la gente y su colaboración con Dios.

Hágase tu voluntad

La voluntad de Dios esta expresado en el Evangelio de Juan 1:1-5  -  “En el principio era el Verbo, y el Verbo era con Dios, y el Verbo era Dios.  El era en el principio con Dios.  Todas las cosas fueron hechas por medio de El,  y sin El no fue hecho nada de lo que ha sido hecho.  En El estaba la vida, y la vida era la luz de los hombres.  La luz en las tinieb Hágase tu voluntad las resplandece, y las tinieblas no prevalecieron contra ella.”  La palabra verbo del autor original en lengua griega es logos.  En español significa sabiduría.

Recordamos lo que dijo Dios en Génesis sobre su creación: “Y vio Dios ser bueno.”  (Gn 1:6-31.)  La colaboración en la formación del reino de Dios incluye no solamente humanidad pero la naturaleza.  “Pues sabemos que la creación entera hasta ahora gime y siente dolores de parto y no solo ella, sino también nosotros que tenemos las primicias del espíritu, gemimos dentro de nosotros mismos suspirando por la adopción por la redención de nuestro cuerpo.”  (Rm 8:22-23)  Eso es un versículo muy importante para el teólogo Teilhard de Chardin.

¿Pero, porque hay mal en el mundo?  ¿Es la voluntad de Dios?  Realmente, no.  Lo que no es perfecto es el tinieblas - el desafío a nosotros es crear con Dios el mejor.  Maldad es la consecuencia de decisiones en error de las personas y no de la voluntad de Dios. Por ejemplo, la crisis con el clima.  Pero, claro, la libertad personal que tenemos es la voluntad de Dios.  Dios nos creó a imagen suya. (Gn 1:27)  Tenemos la responsabilidad de decisiones nuestras.
  
Segunda Parte

Danos hoy el pan nuestro de cada 

Dios creó la tierra para toda la gente, no para ciertos grupos ni ciertos individuos.La tierra y lo que produce la tierra es para todos.  “Las tierras no se venderán a perpetuidad, porque la tierra es mía y ustedes son en lo mío peregrinos y extranjeros.” (Lv 25:23.)

“Cuando haces la recolección de tu tierra, no segarás hasta el límite extremo de tu campo, ni recogerás las espigas caídas, ni harás el rebusco de tus viñas y olivares, ni recogerás la fruta caída de los frutales; lo dejarás para el pobre y el extranjero.” (Lv 19:9-10)

Jesús no hizo distinción cuando repartió los panes y peces a las 5000 personas en el campo.“Y comieron todos y se saciaron, y recogieron de los fragmentos sobrantes doce cestos llenos,…” (Mt 14:20)

Mira como los aves del cielo no siembran, ni siegan, ni encierran graneros, y tu Padre celestial las alimenta.” (Mt 6:26)  Es claro el amo/ama de casa nos cuida y necesitamos compartir los bienes con todos.

perdónanos nuestras deudas, como también nosotros hemos perdonado a nuestros 

La Biblia es sobre justicia distributiva, entonces usamos la palabra ‘deudas’ en vez de ‘ofensas’ para enfocar en la igualdad especialmente económica.  La deuda pone una persona en esclavitud.   Deudas no deben ser para siempre, solamente para facilitar la economía.  Consideramos, por ejemplo, lo siguiente, “Todo acreedor que haya prestado condonará al deudor lo prestado; no lo exigirá y más a su prójimo,…” (Dt 15:2)

no nos metas en tentación y líbranos del mal

Debemos pedir que Dios no nos meta en tentación. Claro, enfrentamos desafíos en la vida que requieren transformación al mejor.  Es posible perder nuestro valor y aceptar la situación como es o mantenernos en las tinieblas.  Pedimos de Dios, entonces, el valor de crear el reino de Dios  ahora en este mundo.

En cuanto estamos sin valor, estamos abrumados con el mal.  “Líbranos del mal.”  La tentación de librarnos del mal es de ser violente.  Jesús negó acciones violentes que nos pone más en la esclavitud del mal.

Jesús hizo un dicho en una situación muy difícil durante su arresto: “Uno de los que estaban con Jesús extendió la mano y sacando la espada, hirió a un siervo del pontífice, cortándole  una oreja.  Jesús entonces dijo, ‘Vuelve tu espada a su lugar, pues quien toma la espada, a espada morirá…¿O crees que no puedo rogar a mi Padre, quien podría a mi disposición al punto más de doce legiones de ángeles?’” (Mt 26:51- 52)

Esta poema o oración para hoy día es una promesa de colaboración de nosotros, hermanas y hermanos, con nuestro Padre/Madre, encargo de la casa mundial, de ayudar todos especialmente los pobres en la lucha contra el coronavirus.
*La Biblia usada para este artículo es Sagrada Biblia, por Eloíno Nácar Fuster y Alberto Colunga, O.P., Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, Madrid, 1967.

Sunday, April 5, 2020

What About Trying Just Five Commandments? by George Gerharz


Things today are pretty upsetting. A pandemic is in full force. World-wide and in America polarization extends from the national level, to local communities, and into families. Many of our religious and political leaders call upon the ten commandments to guide us in these troubled times.

But ten commandments may be too many.  Maybe we could agree on five. Here is a possible list.
  1.   Do not make humans, either you or others, God.
  2.   Do not kill, injure, or hurt others in your group.  
  3.   Do not take things from other group member.   
  4.   Do not lie about big things to group member.   
  5.   Do not neglect to raise your children.

 Man should not make gods of other men or women in their group. The deification of a person or group of persons is fraught with problems. All humans make mistakes; human fallibility is a given. Some higher authority is required.  This authority can be an inaccessible being. It can be grand ideals such as life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. A god outside of the group provides it a framework and identity. God or ideals are needed to serve as a higher standard to guide behavior.

A society’s members should not arbitrarily kill, injure or harm others in their group. No society can exist when members live in constant fear that those around them will cause them harm. Some members may break rules and they will need to be punished for their transgressions; those who obey the rules are fine but need to be protected from those who violate the rules. There are groups that have inflicted or intend to inflict harm on us, our group. When required, we need to take actions to protect us. We need to feel safe.

Group members should not arbitrarily take things from another.  Societies differ in what is identified as belonging to an individual.  It may be pots, spears, land, or stocks. Once a determination as to what is the individuals, we need to make sure that an individual’s property is protected.  A sense of control and a security regarding individual belongings is essential to a group's survival and the ability its members to live with one another.

We cannot lie. We need to tell each other the truth about big things. Humans need to communicate honestly about both the basics of life and a variety of other core societal issues.  Humans need to be able to trust what others say both to live in the present and to prepare for the future.  
We cannot neglect all of our society’s children. Adults need to assure that children learn to abide by the rules of their society, acceptable behaviors, and consequences for unacceptable behaviors. Children, imbued with the rules of society, are needed to continue and perhaps grow and improve the society into which they are born.
Maybe we can agree to live by five commandments.

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

The Working Catholic: Exhibit about Workers by Bill Droel



Museum of the City of New York (1220 Fifth St., New York, NY 10029) just ended an exhibit about the history of workers in its city. It’s not too late, however, to enjoy the exhibit. It is the basis for City of Workers, City of Struggle edited by Joshua Freeman (Museum of City of NY, 2019; $40). Our Chicago Public Library has a copy, as do other libraries.
The book’s introduction notes that working people help define politics, culture and the public sphere. In struggles between employees and employers, in struggles among groups of workers and in struggles within unions, people determine “what makes a good and livable city.” The book is about labor movements (plural), the introduction explains. That’s because the marketplace is fluid with new labor sectors replacing the old, with new immigrant groups arriving with new skills, with new wage arrangements and more. The book’s contributors devote chapters to colonial New York, slave labor, housework, sailors and dockhands, garment workers, labor relations and race, Puerto Rican contributions, civil servants and others. The book is richly illustrated with old pictures, news articles, posters and the like. A recurring theme is the rise, fall and renewal of several unions. There are more union workers in New York City, by the way, than anywhere else in our country.
Any story about New York City, particularly a story about workers, must treat the fire of March 1911 in the Asch Building (now known as Brown Building, owned by N.Y. University). Within 18 minutes, 144 workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory were dead and two more died subsequently. It happened that Frances Perkins (1880-1965) was in a nearby café. She witnessed the horror. 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—first with the Consumers League, then as a New York State official and finally as the first woman cabinet member, serving as Secretary of Labor through all of President Franklin Roosevelt’s (1882-1945) terms. She often said that the imprint of the Triangle Company tragedy compelled her to improve conditions for working families. 
City of Workers, City of Struggle details how the CIO grew during the late 1930s in New York City, borrowing the sit down tactic from John L Lewis (1880-1969). The tactic was effective at a public transportation powerhouse, at Woolworths and other dry goods stores and more. Although the CIO is associated with steel in Pittsburgh and automobiles in Detroit, many CIO unions had their national headquarters in New York City.
The book’s chapter on health care features Local 1199, a union for which I briefly worked in the early 1970s. Led by Leon Davis (1905-1992), this union began among pharmacists and other drugstore workers. Davis hired Elliott Godoff (1905-1975) to organize hospital workers. For 40 years after the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (aka the Wagner Act) voluntary hospitals remained outside of labor relations jurisdiction. Also many nurses felt that as professionals they did not need a union. And, concerns about public safety limit a union’s tactics in a hospital setting. Nonetheless in December 1958 a Bronx hospital recognized Local 1199 as “sole and exclusive bargaining agent” for its workers. There were lots of ups and downs for Local 1199 and other health care unions for several years. At critical moments, Cardinal John O’Connor (1920-2000) assisted the union with dramatic testimony and action. In 1995 an on-again-off-again merger between Local 1199 and Service Employees International was ratified.
 Near its conclusion, City of Workers, City of Struggle considers the new worker centers. These centers do not engage in collective bargaining. They are a combination of social service and successful advocacy for workers.
Domestic workers have since 1938 been excluded from federal labor standards, though recently some federal policies have been extended to “direct care workers.” The remarkable Ai-Jen Poo is U.S. born of Taiwanese heritage. As a college student, Poo volunteered with an Asian-American service agency. Still in her 20s, she began systematic visits to many New York City playgrounds where she built relationships with nannies and other care workers who frequented the parks. She organized small meetings and by 2002 her groups were pressuring city entities for improved oversight of their occupation. In 2007 she launched National Domestic Workers Alliance (www.domesticworkers.org). NDWA successfully lobbied for labor standards that exceed federal minimums in nine states and in Seattle. NDWA is now pushing for a National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights to include paid overtime, safe working conditions, meal and rest breaks, earned sick time and fair scheduling.
Bhairavi Desal is another remarkable woman who has spent years visiting garages and airport lots talking with taxi drivers. Her Taxi Workers Alliance (www.nytwa.org) lobbies for precarious workers. Fekkak Mamdouh, a leader with Restaurant Opportunities Center (www.rocunited.org), does the same with food service workers. In particular, ROC campaigns to end harassment, to improve scheduling and to establish a fair wage structure. These centers must rely on public attention gained through rallies, education materials, and individual meetings with decision makers.
City of Workers, City of Struggle is a history book. But it is inspiring. It reminds the reader that although there are setbacks, social improvement is possible. The essential ingredients are always dedicated people and focused action over many years.

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

Monday, March 9, 2020

Presidents – The Law, and the Critique of the Social Democrats


The Declaration of Independence states the reasons and the goals for the formation of the United States of America.  The Constitution dictates the legal structure for the U.S. and is subject to amendment.  The founding fathers chose to form a democratic society of citizens as opposed to a society of subjects to a King.

Karl Marx in his essay ‘On the Jewish Question’ pointed out that the rights designated in the Constitution established property rights for individuals, but not the basic rights of all as equal citizens in political discussion.(Rupert)  Lincoln dramatically changed the structure of the country with his Gettysburg Address and passage of the 13th Amendment eliminating slavery.

Abraham Lincoln
  The 14th Amendment passed after Lincoln’s assassination established that all born in the U.S. were citizens.  This meant the potential for political involvement of those not permitted previously.

In the name of ‘We the People’ Lincoln did expand executive power by suspending the rule of habeus corpus to prevent Confederate sympathizers the right of a trial.  Other Presidents also expanded executive power but not in the name of ‘We the People’ but in the name of ‘some of the people.’  An example would be Theodore Roosevelt in his battle with labor and Democratic Socialist Eugene Debs.  Roosevelt was considered a progressive for attempting to reign in large corporations so as to protect the property rights of others, but he was reluctant to give labor an equal footing in law and politics. Eugene Debs saw politics and society differently.  Debs was a Socialist.  His conversion to the party was largely because of Victor Berger of Milwaukee, the first Socialist elected to Congress.  Frank Zeidler the last Socialist Mayor of Milwaukee defined Socialism with the following comment in an introduction to a two volume work on Wisconsin Socialism:

“The socialist movement was inspired by the hope of a brotherhood of workers, the Cooperative Commonwealth; by a fierce opposition to war; by a belief in the rights of people; by a passion for orderly government ; and a contempt for graft and boodling.” (Beck) 

(Boodling is a term used by Lincoln Steffens of McClure’s Magazine in an article published in 1902 exposing corruption in municipal governments.   He defined ‘boodling’ as a form of corruption that ‘involves not thieves, gamblers, and common women, but influential citizens, capitalists and great corporations.  The stock in trade of the boodler is the rights, privileges, franchises, and real property of the city… (Beck) 

Frank Zeidler
Zeidler used the appellation ‘social democrat’ in his essay.  A Socialist Party pamphlet offers an explanation:
“The Socialist Party strives to establish a radical democracy that places people’s lives under their own control …The economy is democratically managed for the benefit of all humanity, not for the profit of the few.” (Socialist Party USA)

Eugene Debs was nominated as the Social Democrat candidate for president in 1900 along with Job Harriman of the Socialist Labor Party for vice president.  Debs received 100,000 votes in the year 1900, 402,283 in 1904, and 420,713 in 1908. 
   
Trial of Labor Leaders:  Theodore Roosevelt vs. Eugene Debs

Three leaders of the Western Federation of Miners were spirited out of Colorado without a warrant to face murder charges in Idaho.  The three were Secretary-Treasurer, William Haywood, President Charles H. Moyer, and former union activist and business man, George Pettibone.

The former governor of Idaho Frank Steunenberg was murdered by Harry Orchard in 1905.  Orchard claimed that the defendants paid him to kill the governor. Orchard testified that the Union officials had paid him to murder Steunenberg as a payback for the governor’s active and illegal opposition to them in a mine strike at Coeur d’Alene in Northern Idaho in 1899.  The strike became violent and Steunenberg asked President McKinley for Federal troops.  Every union man in the area was arrested.  The men were herded into a bull pen with poor sanitary conditions.  Steunenberg dictated that all members of the union were guilty and no man could work in an Idaho mine unless he renounced his allegiance to the Western Federation of Miners.

Theodore Roosevelt

Roosevelt was adamant in his defense of Capitalist property rights.  In a speech during a ceremony laying a cornerstone, Roosevelt implied that Haywood, Moyer and Pettibone were guilty of murder.  Democratic Socialist Eugene Debs responded in an open letter.

“Permit me to ask you, Mr. President, how you know that these men are implicated in murder?  Have they been tried and found guilty by due process of law? (Debs)

Eugene Debs
Roosevelt made public a letter he wrote to a congressman in which he describes Debs, Moyer and Haywood as ‘undesirables.’  Thousands marched in the 1907 New York City May Day parade with buttons inscribed ‘I am an undesirable.’(Lukas)   Roosevelt had a personal issue with the Western Federation of Miners because a fellow Rough-rider, Sherman Bell, was named General of the Colorado National Guard by Governor Peabody.  General Bell was involved in the violent and illegal suppression of a strike in Cripple Creek Colorado.  Bell was Roosevelt’s body guard in his campaign for vice president in 1900.  J. Anthony Lukas quotes General Bell in his book Big Trouble:

“When asked how he planned to proceed against the Western Federation of Miners, he said, ‘I came to do up this damned anarchistic federation.’  ‘My orders were to wipe ‘em off the face of the earth.’”

In the summer of 1907 Haywood, Moyer and Pettibone were found not guilty; Clarence Darrow was their lawyer.

The Sewer Socialists

Lincoln recognized that the time for slavery was over but he also knew that the equality expressed in the Declaration of Independence was in the future.  At Gettysburg he said, “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”  His interference with the law was based on the ‘We the People’ phrase of the Constitution.  He saw his duty to protect the Union as established by the people of the United States.  The renunciation of some States was not a legitimate Constitutional right.  
The Democratic Socialists mirror Lincoln’s view on the tension between the practical and the ideal.  Milwaukee Democratic Socialist Mayor Frank Zeidler wrote:

“The application of political theory to the practical problems of government always presents problems for both party theoreticians and party practitioners.  The socialist movement in Wisconsin did not escape the anguish of trying to participate in government and yet to reconcile political necessity with democratic socialist theory.” (Beck)

Zeidler continues by noting the Milwaukee Socialists did not mind being called Sewer Socialists by the theoreticians because they achieved many benefits for the city and state such as labor laws which eventually became national policies with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.  During a shortage of moderate priced housing Socialist Mayor Hoan started the first low income housing project in the nation; it was called Garden Homes and completed in 1923.  

Emil Seidel

The houses still exist, however, the neighborhood has experienced years of disinvestment.  In recent times the neighborhood association has been working to restore this historic district.  Former and first Socialist mayor of Milwaukee, Emil Seidel (1910 - 1912 ), was one of the occupants of the housing project.


Milwaukee 2020

The Democratic Convention in Milwaukee in 2020 couldn’t be more important.  A candidate must be chosen who can win against an autocratic president who has proven to be an effective demagogue.   Also the immediate existential threats of climate change and nuclear war must be addressed without hesitation.  Related problems of refugees and migration need to be looked at with a perspective that - all are created equal.  Concerning the economy, have workers once again become expendable in a new technological society?  Are workers expendable as consumers in a society split into the ‘haves’ and the ‘have not’s’?  Isn’t the need for single payer health care more obvious with the coronavirus looming?  What about gun control?  Should the power of the Presidency be used to help solve these problems?

References

Elmer A. Beck, The Sewer Socialists, (Vols I&II) Westberg Associates Publishers, Fennimore, Wisconsin, 1982
Eugene V. Debs Speaks, edited by Jean Y. Tussey, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1970
John Gurda, The Making of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County Historical Society, Milwaukee, 1999
J. Anthony Lukas, Big Trouble, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1997
Mark Rupert, Producing Hegemony, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 1995.
Irving Stone, Clarence Darrow For the Defense, Doubleday Duran & Co. 1941
Socialist Party USA, “Socialism As Radical Democracy,” New York City, N.Y.
Gary Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1992