Columbus Catholic Worker

Anti-Death Penalty Legislation for Ohio

2011-02-17T21:33:00.008-05:00

We are on the cusp of some exciting developments in the case against the death penalty in Ohio. Please see the message below from our friend Kevin at OTSE!
--Frank

Support for Ohio's death penalty is crumbling. Over the past month, we've witnessed remarkable activity by high profile individuals who are questioning whether Ohio is being well served by the death penalty. The most recent round of criticism came from Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul E. Pfeifer on January 19th when he said, "I think the best thing is for the governor to commute them all...and say we don't need the death penalty in Ohio any longer."

On January 25th, Terry Collins, retired director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, who witnessed 33 executions during his career, wrote an opinion editorial in the Columbus Dispatch, saying, "The reasonable course of action for state officials is to begin to have serious and thoughtful conversations about whether Ohio's death penalty remains necessary, fair and effective. My experience tells me that our justice system can be even more effective and fair without death rows and the death penalty."

A flurry of newspaper editorial boards across the state has echoed the sentiments of Justice Pfeifer and Terry Collins. The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote on January 30th, "Ohio corrections officials are still having the wrong discussion about the death penalty." The Board went on to write that commuting all death sentences would, "bring closure to the families of victims who now must endure endless appeals...and it would guard against the chance of an innocent person being put to death."

The Toledo Blade Editorial Board said on January 31st, "It is reasonable to ask whether Ohio has applied the ultimate penalty fairly and enforced it humanely. If the answer is no, as it appears to be, then the time to debate how to improve the system is now, before anyone else is executed."

Matthew Mangino, a former district attorney, wrote an editorial in the Youngstown Vindicator on February 6, 2011, saying, "After years of reviewing death penalty verdicts rendered through a statute he helped write, Justice Pfeifer wrote, 'I have come to the conclusion that we are not well served by our ongoing attachment to capital punishment.'"

One of the most telling statements came from John Murphy, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association in an op-ed to the Cleveland Plain Dealer when he said, "If we are to seriously discuss the death penalty and related issues, perhaps we could first be clear about what the process is now and what is happening under current law." Mr. Murphys comments suggest there is a lack of understanding by, presumably, the individuals for whom he speaks (county prosecutors), as to how the current death penalty is being administered or applied.

This is eye-raising stuff.

All of the statements, opinions and editorials support the notion that momentum for change to Ohio's death penalty is building like never before. We are in the beginning stages of a statewide discussion or debate about the usefulness of Ohio's death penalty. In the coming weeks we will see legislation introduced by Representatives Ted Celeste (D) and Terry Blair (R) that will repeal the death penalty. When we know more about the proposed bill, we will send you more specifics.

OTSE's staff is digging in and preparing to turn the tide in Ohio. We invite you to join us in this work because we need all hands on deck. We need you to let us know what you're willing to do to help us repeal Ohio's death penalty. Some of the areas we need your help are the following:

• contact your state representative and senator and ask for a meeting (we can help).
• volunteer to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper (we can help with this one, too).
• invite our staff and a speaker to your community group, faith community, school, etc.
• add your name to our sign-on letter complimenting the repeal bill.
• make your contribution to our repeal campaign.

If you're ready to join us in the campaign to abolish Ohio's death penalty, get in touch with our office today at 513-543-1585 or 216-688-1180!

We need your support now more than ever. Can we count on you?

I look forward to sharing more news with you in the coming weeks about our campaign to repeal the death penalty.

Regards,

Kevin Werner
Executive Director

P.S. If you're ready to make a contribution to support our campaign to repeal Ohio's death penalty, send your check made payable to "OTSE" to 215 E. 14th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202 today. You can also make a donation through the PayPal feature on our website by clicking on this link. Thank you!

Defense Spending

2011-02-16T09:32:00.002-05:00

‎"Does the number of warships we have, and are building, really put America at risk, when the U.S. battle fleet is larger than the next 13 navies combined — 11 of which are our partners and allies? Is it a dire threat that by 2020, the United States will have only 20 times more advanced stealth fighters than China?"

--Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense

Foot Washing

2011-02-07T16:34:00.006-05:00

Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."

John 13:8-9.

Before the twelve were sent out to wash the feet of others, Jesus made a point of washing their feet, first. This is a great model of servant-leadership--for the twelve, not just for Jesus.

All too often, leaders forget they are servants. In outreach work, a reverse problem exists: all too often leaders forget to be served. We can be too proud, too independent, too self-assured. Some of us have accepted help in the past but have forgotten the lessons for the present. If we do not let our feet be washed, too--and let them be continually washed--we could be at risk of falling into co-dependent patterns or fostering a subtle arrogance.

We want to help "those people," and there is a distancing in those words. It is important to believe--and truly believe--that there but for the grace of God go I.

Before any of us goes into the business of doing Christian outreach work "for the poor," it may be a fine idea if we cultivate an intentional aspect of our lives where we allow ourselves to be served. Even if have already been there before, it is important to be in the present with this.

The intentional poverty of the Catholic Worker movement goes a long way toward this end. However, since the poverty is intentional, what often happens in practice is that a true solidarity with the poor is hard to achieve. Intentional poverty is not the only way to achieve this, though.

If/when the Columbus Catholic Worker is revitalized, I would like to suggest that all who participate maintain as aspect of foot washing in their lives--both the giving and receiving.

Microlending Through Kiva

2011-01-17T11:48:00.008-05:00

Kiva.org is one of the best ideas I have come across in a long time.

A monumental problem facing would-be entrepreneurs in impoverished nations is the lack of access to funds and others resources. Whether you want to be a goat herder in Kazakhstan or open a family restaurant in America, one universal fact is true: Businesses need investment and capital. However, folks from villages in Mongolia, Uganda, El Salvador and the Philippines have difficulty securing loans.

A downside of capitalism is that the best way to get a traditional loan is to have the ability to pay it back! Banks try to avoid risk by lending to people with a good credit history and other factors. This becomes a barrier for folks who are trying to enter into the system. The poor stay poor while the rich have the opportunity to get richer. It can be frustrating and disappointing to appeal to larger banks and nations to reverse trends and make funds available to these people.

Something needs to be done to level the playing field. Microlending is one of the leading ways to do this. "Microlending" is a general term for any lending done to folks who generally would not have access to traditional loans due to credit history, location or other circumstances. Many are simply living in a "pre-banking" society. Microlenders often use infrastructures and modes of traditional cultures to build networks of accountability, communication and support.

The genius of Kiva.com is that it makes use of the magic of the internet to take the case directly to the world's citizens. For example, you, as a citizen of the USA, can make a loan directly to a citizen of Azerbaijan. There are few intermediaries and gatekeepers in the way.

What are these loans for?

A farmer in Mongolia to purchase 2 animals to start a cattle breeding business.
A courier in Uganda to buy a motorcycle.
A hairstylist in Bolivia for the purchase of equipment to expand her business

In other words, these are the sensible needs of any entrepreneur trying to make a living for themselves and take their business to the next level.

Field partners of Kiva identify people who are good candidates for microlending. You can view their profiles and loan requests on the Kiva website. You, as a lender, can pick which person you want to lend to. As the person pays the loan back, you are paid back as well. You would then have the option to withdraw your money, apply it to another loan, or donate it to Kiva to cover operating expenses.

Just for fun, you can link your contribution to any number of groups for some healthy competition. Groups are organized around national identify, religion or other interests, such "Australians," "Kiva Christians" or "GLBT," just to name a few. It should be pointed out that the group "Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious" lead the way by far. Their combined achievement is nearly double the next largest group, "Kiva Christians."

A one-time investment in Kiva can end up helping dozens and dozens of people make a better life for themselves. For each loan paid back, you can simply keep your money in the system and apply it to the next person. It is a gift that just keeps on giving. You can loan as an individual or gather your friends together to form a group. You can contribute as little as $25.

As with anything, be sure to do your homework. Microlending has been abused in some cases, where it can resemble loansharking if not handled appropriately. The poor are vulnerable and are often exploited the easiest by the wolf who comes in sheep's clothing. Also, microlending is not the only way to alleviate poverty, but it is a good first step. Nations with entrenched, systemic poverty and political injustice may not be brought out of that by the success of a few entrepreneurs. However, to those few entrepreneurs, it may make all the difference in the world.

Check the links above for more information on microlending and Kiva in particular.

Christian Anarchy

2011-01-12T13:21:00.008-05:00

Out of all the concepts and charisms of the Catholic Worker movement, perhaps there is none more misunderstood than that of "Christian anarchy."

Saying the word "anarchy" in a conversation usually sets off a variety of triggers in the listeners. Whether people yay or nay it, one thing I have noticed is that there usually isn't a lot of follow-up conversation on the topic. People already have a set idea of what they think it means.

Many people coming to the Catholic Worker expect the value of anarchy to mean that there would be no structure, rules or authority at all. This simply isn't true. Christian anarchy is not what we commonly think of as political or social anarchy, which would be some kind of lawless, random condition where nobody has any rules or agreements with each other.

Christian anarchy is the furthest thing from simple rebelliousness or disdain for authority. Christian anarchy is the response from a person who has gotten to a point in their faith and social justice awareness where they are willing to make a deep commitment--the commitment is to Christ--and to take responsibility for the consequences of that commitment. The commitment is to put the commandments of Christ over the law of the Land. When those two sets of obligations are in conflict, a Christian anarchist may make the decision to break a law in order to give witness to their true allegiance to God. They also most likely do so knowing they may pay some hefty consequences, such as jail time, violence or even perhaps martyrdom. We should render unto Caesar what is Caesar's--but we should always be aware that much of what Caesar thinks is his is really none of his business, and some of it might really be the Lord's.

Those who ran the underground railroad a 150 years ago were true Christian anarchists. Through their faith and by examining their conscience, they decided that they could not support the laws of the land which bound people into slavery. They helped and supported runaway slaves in direct violation of the law. They took risks, and I would imagine that some paid some serious consequences. Many folks today see a parallel with supporting undocumented citizens against an unjust and unfair immigration system in America.

Keep in mind that a general frustration with authority can certainly be the seed of a true Christian anarchy. It is encouraging to see people who don't just accept authority without questioning it. And sometimes you need to thumb your nose at authority! However, that can get tiring, too. It is also wonderful to see people who are willing to put on a yoke--if it is the right yoke. A true rebel must have a cause, and a cause requires commitment.

People can be surprised to find that houses of hospitality often have many pages of rules and expectations for members. The goal of those rules is to find a way to avoid stepping on each others' toes. If we share the same space, we are bound to cause hurt feelings or worse if we are all approaching our life and our work with different assumptions or sets of criteria--so let's agree on what the criteria will be. Rules may be as reasonable as saying that if you use the hammer, put it back. That is not an attempt to oppress people who use hammers, it is more of a courtesy to the next person who wants to use it so they don't have to spend wasted hours looking for it, or so we don't have hammers laying around in random locations. Yet, it may crimp the style of people who don't like to put things back, but in the end is is better than crimping the style of folks who never can find a hammer when they need it.

To give a simple example, one person's desire to be messy may conflict with someone else's desire to be tidy, and left to a purely random anarchy the messy person would always win. Sometimes it is important to make decisions collectively because if all decisions were random acts of individuals we would not be left with a very fair system, we would simply aways tend toward the lowest common denominator. One person's right to smoke comes into direct conflict with someone else's right to breathe clean air. If one smoker lived in a home with ten non-smokers, anarchy would hold that the smoker could smoke and the rest would simply have to deal with it. Having no limits on individual behavior can end up limiting others. There's no way around that, because our lives are always inter-connected. With that in mind, the best we can do is find the fairest rules possible for everyone.

Good rules should function like traffic laws. They should make life easier, not harder. When I drive around a blind curve, I am reassured to know that if there are any cars coming in the opposite direction, they are most likely going to keep to their side of the road. It would be unfathomable if there were no traffic laws. Just imagine if every trip to the grocery store involved life or death consequences! Accidents do happen and mistakes can be made, but overall people do follow traffic laws and we are the better for it.

Sometimes that means there are silly instances such as stopping at a red light at 3 am on a dark country road when it is clear there is no one going to cross the intersection. Still, we stop, and it is better to do so than to start on a slippery slope of picking and choosing which law to follow and when--even though that's exactly what Christian anarchy is! How can this be? Christian anarchy should involve a time of prayerful discernment AND most importantly the opportunity to discuss a decision with the larger community before deciding to break a law. An individual may decide to act even if the larger community advises against it, if their conscience compels them to do so, but the important thing is that they go through a process of soliciting feedback before simply making a private decision in isolation. It can lead to unwise or even dangerous behavior if people simply act as if "they know best" without checking that assumption with others. Therefore, the paradox is that Christian anarchy must be lived out in community!

To live in a society that is purely random where people simply do as they do and expect that somehow it's all going to come together beautifully with no intentional coordination is unrealistic. The Holy Spirit sometimes enables a sort of "holy chaos" like that, but let me tell you from experience that that doesn't always happen. The larger Catholic intellectual tradition supports an organized society with rules and structure. In America, we are often saturated with a worldview that comes from the Founders through the Enlightenment and Protestant Reformations. They would have it that "the government that governs least is that which governs best" and "government is evil, but a necessary evil." They have the very valid point that there must be checks and balances on power and bureaucracy. However, the Catholic tradition has a more favorable view of government. Government is simply necessary. When it functions well, we are better off than without. Humans cannot live together without some open and acknowledged conversation about how we are to live and work together. As Aristotle says, "to be human is to be in community." There's no opting out of the difficult conversation of coordinating our lives with those around us. Instead of calling it an evil-but-necessary process, let's just call it a necessary process.

What makes Catholic Worker house rules different than many other organizations and businesses is this:

1. The rules are determined by the people who are most directly affected--the people who live there or work there. They are not imposed by a management team 3,000 miles away.
2. The rules are changeable. If circumstances change or if individuals have special needs or exceptions, we can always re-gather together to amend things.

If folks don't like the word "rules," there are other ways of looking at it. It is an agreement by people who live and work together to honor each others' needs and requests while also giving breadth to be who they need to be. Good rules should not be about control. They are actually about freedom--putting some structure in place so that people can be more. It is hard to move forward if we are always stepping on each others' toes or un-doing what each other has done. It would be impossible to drive to the grocery store if the roads were a total lawless state.

Many CW houses try to function by a near-total consensus model. Now, I think everyone should have an experience of true consensus in their lives. It can be a wonderful exercise to learn how to talk, how to listen and how to be sensitive to each other's needs while advocating for your own, how to hang in there until true resolution is reached. However, it also can be very tedious. It can be hard to function if house meetings start at 7 pm and continue until 3 am until consensus is reached. As Pat used to say, let's just delegate so we can get some sleep.

We must also remember too that delegation is also a form of respect and responsibility and can be perfectly appropriate for Christian anarchists. It is about honoring the fact that someone can simply take on a particular job and we can respect their ability to manage that sphere of influence. Catholic Worker houses should be careful not to overstep the Catholic value of subsidiarity--which means that no outside authority should come in to manage something that local people can do for themselves. Some decisions in CW houses do not need to be group decisions but can instead be delegated to individuals. We don't need consensus on whether the trash is taken out at night or in the morning. As long as the appointed people do it when it is necessary, let them figure out the nuts & bolts so the rest of us can do other things with our time. We should respect their ability to take care of it without babysitting--unless their action affects others, in which case those needs need to be heard.

At the Columbus Catholic Worker, we have reserved consensus for "important decisions." What determines an important decision? We don't have set criteria. If a decision seems important enough, if it affects others, then we chime in. If not, we don't need to.

Many use the concept of "anarchy" to thumb their nose at rules and responsibilities in general. In truth, Christian anarchy is the pinnacle of commitment and responsibility.

Can a commitment to Christian anarchy lead some to advocate for a more general political anarchy the way the word is most commonly understood? It can and does for some individuals and communities, but it does not have to. Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin both advocated for a "strong Abbott" model of leadership in Catholic Worker houses of hospitality.

I have never really liked rules much. I have always been the first one to break them, especially if I sense that people are enforcing them just for the sake of control. But the older I get, the more I realize that part of being a healthy, holistic human being is setting the parameters for how we live and work with others. There is a time to break boundaries, but there is also a time to set them, too. That can and should be an exercise is respect--both for myself and for others. Let's always hope that our experience of community and structure is one about respect and compassion and not about oppression. By keeping the conversation always open, as we do in Catholic Worker communities, there is always hope for making a better and better community, and for correcting ourselves if we do get off track.

Moving On

2011-01-02T20:15:00.000-05:00

We have been in the process of moving recently.

A couple months ago, St. James the Less Church told us they plan to reacquire the building to use for parish functions. We discerned that we didn't have the time, resources or direction to make a seamless transfer of our ministries from one location to another in the allotted time. We were given four months to move--longer than what our lease required but not quite long enough under the circumstances. We decided that Christmas would be a natural time to wind down and take a short--or long--hiatus.

Our Free Store has been distributed to other Free Stores in the city and state. We are currently looking at plans to relocate ESL and Pax Christi elsewhere. The Community Garden will hopefully remain on site under the direction of the gardeners from the parish and neighborhood. We'll still make Fair Trade Haitian Coffee available. Other ministries may or may not remain, that will be under the discretion of the parish. It would be wonderful if what began with us could still continue after our departure.

The St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry will still occupy the basement and they will not be directly affected by our move.

It's hard to count the blessings of our time at the "old convent"--just a little over 2 years exactly. I think it's fair to say that you just had to have been there to experience it. If you were, you know what it was like.

We had a final potluck and prayer time just the day before moving out. We recounted our ministries and memories. It was clear that ultimately it was about people and it was about community. Folks shared experiences of warmth and hospitality. Friendships were formed, connections were made, ministries began and spun off, and hopefully, to paraphrase Entertaining Angels, maybe life was made just a little bit easier for a few folks who really needed it. We'll never know the extent of our reach, but we sowed in faith and in that faith we have hope.

Yet, even as we try to wind things down, the ministry life of our community just seems to sprout up in all sorts of ways. Requests and opportunities to distribute fair trade coffee have been growing. There is quite a bit of excitement to start up that house of hospitality for refugees and immigrants--something we wanted to do years ago, and it is an idea that just seems to stay with us. Donations and inquiries into our community are increasing. Still, it is time to rest, gather strength and discern our next steps.

A Portrait of Peace

2010-09-30T12:19:00.000-04:00

The Peaceable Kingdom by Fritz Eichenberg.

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.

The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox.

The baby shall play by the cobra's den, and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair.

There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea."

New American Bible, Isaiah 11:6-9

Unsung Hero

2010-09-11T22:34:00.002-04:00

There is absolutely no question that the wind beneath the wings of the Columbus Catholic Worker has been Erin W. (formerly S). She has been with the group almost since the very first days. I dragged her to the St. Therese Retreat Center as our fledgling group put our heads and hearts together to discern our future. In fact, I dragged her to lots of things, at the beginning.

She kept her distance at first. She didn't join the core group for a long time. But if there was a problem or work to be done, guess who was there? That's right. There were times when I felt abandoned, and she would step in--in fact, that's how she joined the core leadership team in the first place. In the last four years, she is the one person I could call on who would be there, even if it pertained to a ministry she wasn't actively a part of. Even when she was an "unofficial" Catholic Worker, she perhaps best embodied the spirit out of any of us.

However, her reluctance was short lived. She soon became a regular part of our community life.

She was the one rubbing Glenda's feet at night (literally) as the stress and strain of providing overnight hospitality was wearing on folks. In fact, it was Erin who actually referred Al and Pandora to Emmanuel House in the first place (the guests who stayed the longest), and she played a key role in helping them move on. She was there when I had guests in my apartment.

Her direct ministry contributions are a long list. She steered the ESL group for the last 10 months, including single-handedly rescuing it from the brink. The beautiful, warm and inviting atmosphere of our ESL program owes a large debt of gratitude to her. Erin loves teaching: She often had the class dancing and singing, as she pulled out ideas from her nearly endless array of camp songs and games. Students love her. She led a book study this summer and last summer. She organized the Swap Parties. She provided key leadership to get a number of ministries off the ground, ministries that were the fruit of the whole community but which might never have happened without her--the Garage Sale, Canning Classes, etc.

She's been a mentor and friend to just about everyone who has come through the door here at 1614.

However, her contributions perhaps are best thought of as qualitative more than quantitative. She has been a huge support behind just about everything. She has always been there to lend a hand when emotions bubble over, when there would be a need for conflict resolution (which you can imagine happens in community). She has provided endless advice and insight into our administrative processes, finances, community building, lease negotiations, you name it. Few of our ministries have not been impacted by her superb strategic planning skills, either through her direct facilitation or as a sounding board for others. Her fingerprints are everywhere. I almost never have walked into a difficult meeting without first consulting her, and the few times I did I regretted it. She's been there to help people move boxes, paint a wall, jump down to the food pantry to help in a pinch or just rap on the phone for a couple of hours. She's also been one of our best tour guides and can throw one heck of a party!

For better or for worse, the CCW decided on a somewhat hierarchical structure with a director, core leadership group, leaders of specific ministries, and volunteers. [It is also my hope that we can eventually morph back into a more communitarian structure, but that is a story for another day.] The director role is fulfilling and wonderful, but it can be a very lonely place to be. It is also an illusion, as no one can do that job without a near-constant lifeline of support from somebody. That person to me has been Erin. Personally, Erin's been on my emotional speed dial the last few years. When times get tough, when the world is bearing down on us, when circumstances have been dark (and there have been some really dark times), she is the one who takes the call. She's been my paramedic, my nurse, my psychotherapist as well as my general care practitioner. It is hard to imagine how much whinning and ranting she has listened to from me!

Hopefully, folks in the larger community know of her and are aware of her contributions, but I think all too often she has managed to stay enough on the sidelines not to get noticed. I apologize for this. Certainly anyone who has walked through the door here knows her well. She has been there in all the big-little things that never make the headlines, but if you have been around, you know how important they are and what a presence she has been.

Erin's moving on a bit. She's still our friendly neighbor, and I hope she'll never be a stranger here, but she has decided to put energy elsewhere for a while. It is a rest well-deserved for a job well done. Whether we see her again tomorrow, next month, or next year, regardless, it is long overdue to give a proper shout-out to her!

And most of all, Erin, thank you!

Coffee Growers

2010-08-31T14:16:00.010-04:00

Snapshot of some of the coffee growers in Haiti.

Kim from Just Haiti keeps a blog about her peace & justice journey and covers many topics such as Columbia, Palestine and, of course, Haiti (see below for link).

The above picture is from her blog and shows some of the folks who make the coffee we enjoy so much here in Columbus. They are celebrating receiving one of their first checks for the profits from their coffee and decided to crack open some beer and have lobster on the beach!

Keep in mind that "beer and lobster" is not standard fare in Haiti. It is a strong symbol that even in the tumult, turmoil and outrageous poverty in Haiti, at least a few people are able to breathe a sign of relief and take more steps forward in life than back. Your purchase of their fairly priced and fairly traded coffee just gave these folks a chance at a better life.

You may be amazed to discover what other kinds of tremendous changes your coffee dollars are supporting in Haiti, and they go far beyond a celebratory dinner among friends. Here is the full story from Kim:

And now on to my favorite topic: coffee! I had some great meetings with the coffee growers' association (called KDB) and feel optimistic about what is happening there. I brought them their first check of profits from coffee sales. The way the project works is that they get a fair trade price for their coffee, and then after taking out expenses from the sale of it, they also receive the profits. The profit they made was higher than the original price we paid for the coffee, and the original price was much higher than market price. It just goes to show that somebody is making a lot of money in the coffee business, and it is not the growers.

I went with them to open their bank account, where they decided that three people should be signatories, and at least two have to sign before money could be removed. They were so proud...it is the first time for any of them that they have money to open an account!

The growers are working to expand the association to include more people. During a meeting, one of the growers said to the people that we are not only just growing coffee in this project: we are regenerating the coffee business in Baraderes. Until the mid-1980s, coffee was the main industry in Baraderes. It was destroyed when the coffee market crashed all over the world. It is a long story about why it collapsed, but basically it was because of an ill-conceived USAID project that funded large plantations of poor quality coffee in Vietnam and Brazil, thereby lowering the prices all over the world and thus putting small farmers out of business and exacerbating poverty in some of the poorest places in the world, including Haiti. We are regenerating the coffee industry in Baraderes, but in a way that benefits small producers, and not plantation owners or large multinational coffee companies.

Another person talked about how the association was not just about coffee: it is also about forming community and becoming like family for each other. With their profits, one thing they have done is to create a fund that will provide money for health care if people get sick, and they are also talking about ways to provide an advance to growers on their coffee sales so that they can pay their children's' school fees. They are also using part of their money to provide food to needy families after the earthquake (Just Haiti is also helping with that). I am proud to be a part of this, and I know that many of you are supporters in one way or another, and you should all be proud, too.

Before folks start thinking that Haiti is all "beer and lobster" on the beach, here is a snapshot of Baraderes, the region where the coffee is produced:

Check out her blog for the full story on the coffee growers juxtaposed against the tremendous poverty in Haiti:

http://muchapaz.blogspot.com/

How to Do Activism

2010-08-19T15:44:00.004-04:00

There are a lot of different things happening on behalf of social justice. Certainly, it is not ever quite enough, but there is a lot going on. Right here in Columbus, you can book your calendar quite solid attending one justice-related event after another each day of the week.

There is so much going on, but so much that needs to be done. It is quite easy to get lost in the confusion. What do you do? How can you make a difference?

I recommend the following two-part strategy: First, pick an issue that is near and dear your heart. The Good Lord will guide you in this. It may even be something that surprises you, perhaps an issue you never expected. A chance encounter with a stranger may open up a whole new world for you (as a side note, there is no such thing as "chance").

But I would suggest not stopping there. The second part is this: There is a time to leave our picks and our shovels in the fields, drop everything and run to help our brothers and sisters on a particular cause. Sometimes the timing is just right and the momentum is such that it makes a difference to pull together now. In case you are wondering, all signs seems to be saying that this issue is Immigration Reform right here in the USA.

So work on a particular cause and leave some room to jump in when many hands are needed. As you reach the depths of that one cause you may find that it is fundamentally related to most other (if not all) causes for justice. For example, I may work against the death penalty, but to me what the death penalty really underscores is the extent of the radical love of Christ--even the most heinous criminal is not outside of that love. Certainly this love is not contained within the issue of the death penalty but rather spills out into everything else. The death penalty becomes a lens through which to see the whole. If this love of Christ even includes them, then that mus radically alter how we treat everybody.

This isn't the only way to do activism. I also have quite a bit of regard for groups that work on a multiplicity of issues. A smorgasbord of social justice is a very important witness to the holistic reality of life here on earth--you can't subdivide justice into this cause or that cause, but rather all justice is related, and it all matters. It makes no sense to be thoroughly against abortion but offer not even a nod to work against war or the death penalty. The very ideology under the right to life is just that--the fact that all life matters.

Reflections on Refugees and a Farewell!

2010-07-29T08:48:00.004-04:00

by Kaitlyn

Well, it’s my second to last week as a volunteer resident at the Worker, and I’m finally writing! My name is Kaitlyn and I will be a senior in college, majoring in Theology and International Peace Studies. Over Christmas break this past year, while exploring and discerning what the summer might hold for me, I stumbled upon two wonderful opportunities in Columbus: Community Refugee Immigration Services (CRIS) -a non-profit Refugee Resettlement Organization - and The Columbus Catholic Worker at St. James the Less.

During fall semester I had volunteered at the South Bend Catholic Worker with their Weather Amnesty program, spending the night with 10 homeless men once a month when the temperature was below freezing. It is an incredible community, focused on hospitality to the homeless, and I was touched so deeply every time I volunteered. When two people from home mentioned that they had heard of a Catholic Worker recently begun in Columbus, my heart leaped! I found this blog the night before I returned to school in January, stopped by to help sort clothes for the free store the next day, and emailed Frank shortly after with the daring proposal of living here this summer. He was enthused! I was welcome :) In the Spring I interviewed for an unpaid 8-week internship with CRIS, and embarked on both adventures on the 1st of June.

The past month and a half has surely been blessed, filled to the brim with lively, eclectic souls who have inspired and touched me in many ways. Growing up in the suburbs, I had never spent time in the part of Columbus where the Worker is located, surrounded by many immigrants, refugees, and low-income families. It has been eye-opening to be immersed in such cultural and social diversity, to see so much poverty and need in my home town, and to expend my energies doing such meaningful work.

The refugees I have worked with this summer at CRIS have truly been Christ in disguise. I have felt so intimate with Christ serving some of the poorest and most vulnerable members of our community. On days when I spend a lot of time doing paperwork, or behind a computer screen, simple moments of client contact give me so much joy and life. Some of my favorite moments…

A Muslim man from Sudan taking our Job Readiness class gently explaining the 5 pillars of Islam to me, and then pouring me a huge glass of juice, emptying the carton he had brought for his breakfast...

A Somali woman inviting me into her home, serving me a hot cup of milky tea, and spending 30 minutes communicating with hand gestures and teaching me words in her language...

Spending an afternoon with a Bhutanese family with 3 kids, enrolling them in school, and then taking them to the library to sign up for summer reading; the older boy singing Nepali pop songs with abandon in the car, and little 5 year old Sriza holding my hand and talking my ear off, though I didn’t understand a single word…

The refugee families often arrive directly from refugee camps where they have spent 2, 5, or even 17 years waiting for their case to be processed. They often arrive with nothing: no English, no home, no money, no job. We pick them up from the airport, find them an apartment… and my job is to prepare the apartment by getting them furniture, food, and a welcome basket. We also enroll the kids in school, teach a Job Readiness course and ESL, apply for social security and welfare benefits for the families, and help in any other ways we can.

Though they have little to nothing, the refugees have shown me more hospitality and generosity than I have ever encountered before. One day, my co-intern and I were on our way out of an apartment complex where many refugees live. An Eritrean woman wrapped in colorful cloth, with a gentle face worn by the sun and etched with wisdom and life, came outside and began speaking to my co-intern and I in Italian! She spent 2 years in Italy before coming to the US. My co-intern attempted to communicate in Spanish. Next thing I knew, she was inside the apartment, and I was being ushered in too, by the woman’s 28 year old daughter, Marta, who speaks some English. They placed a piping hot plate of Injera (a crepe-like flat bread) and a red, tomato-ey dipping sauce in front of us, then offered us coffee. The mother brewed Eritrean coffee in a beautiful Eritrean metal flask on the stove, plugged it with a piece of sponge to filter it, and, after scooping 2 giant spoonfuls of sugar into our little cups, poured us the most delicious coffee I’ve had since traveling in Italy! We drank it on a beautiful little wooden table, carved by Marta’s brother back in Eritrea. Before we left, we helped Marta understand and explain to her elderly neighbor the instructions for a hair-dying kit.

Marta and her mother have little possessions, struggle to get by, and yet shared so many beautiful gifts with us: the gift of their culture, their food, their home, their kindness. I couldn’t believe their hospitality, given to two complete strangers! It reminds me of Abraham in the 1st reading from this weekend, who runs out to greet the three visitors and bows to the ground in respect to invite them to stay and wash and eat. I wonder, “What if we all opened our doors to each other? What if we shared our food, our possessions, our homes, our cultures, with open hands, without fear? What if I approached each new person I met, each stranger that came to my door, with love and warmth in my eyes, as if I were greeting Christ himself?” Perhaps we would see more clearly that we belong to each other, that we are one human family… and that there is enough to go around.

My time at the Worker has also taught me about the gift of hospitality. It is amazing to live in a place where the door is always open; where people are always coming in and out, to drop off clothes or fresh vegetables, to volunteer, to hold a meeting, to receive food or clothing, to learn English or receive legal services…

I’ve been reading Dorothy Day’s autobiography, The Long Loneliness, throughout the summer. Dorothy says something profound about Peter Maurin that I have been meditating on: "He made you feel that you and all men had great and generous hearts with which to love God. If you once recognized this fact in yourself you would expect to find it in others... It was seeing Christ in others, loving the Christ you saw in others. Greater than this, it was having faith in the Christ in others without being able to see Him. Blessed is he that believes without seeing."

The wonderful, unique people who form the foundation of this Catholic Worker community live believing in the Christ in others. Whoever happens to come to the door, whether a bubbly young college student, a family of Congolese refugees, or a woman suffering from abuse who lives down the street, I have seen them greeted with warmth and energy, given whatever food or drink or service they need, treated with a dignity and love they may not receive elsewhere. I am quietly challenged every day by my fellow Catholic workers to have faith in Christ in others, no matter how hidden He is, no matter how intimidating or different their outer appearance might be. If I approach each person with love and peace, rather than fear or defensiveness… that might bring out Christ in them, bring out their goodness that is hidden behind a tough exterior!

The days and weeks have flown by so quickly – I can hardly believe this brief and beautiful 2-month visitation will soon be over! Each day has gifted me with a new neighbor, a new friend, a deeper understanding of the experience of the poor and vulnerable, and a stronger sense of my identity and responsibility as a member of both a local and global community. Not to mention a stomach full of Somali bread or fresh-baked beets from the community garden! I am so incredibly grateful to the Catholic Worker community for welcoming me, teaching me, being patient with my busy schedule, loving me, and inviting me to offer my gifts to the community. Your openness and encouragement has really helped me to thrive and to make home these past few months.

As I reflect upon the joy of this journey, yet feel the winds of change coming, I am reminded of this quote, which I will leave you with:

Ours is the pain of constantly pitching our tent and folding it up again, of befriending strangers and bidding them goodbye, of loving the world but never being truly satisfied with it, of pouring our heart and soul into a project others have begun and still others will finish. If we would not be torn by the tension of this truth, we must learn to live provisionally- to measure the road well. We need to make the most of the occasions when we can gather by the roadside to break bread and compare directions. Joy must be discovered in the going as we never really arrive, not even in a lifetime.

-Kristine Malins, medical missionary

Immigration Rally: An Ecumenical Moment

2010-07-22T09:31:00.027-04:00

We all have our causes. We have to pick what we are involved in and leave the rest. There is simply no time in the day to do it all. We'll burn ourselves out and be ineffective if we continually move from issue to issue.

Yet, there comes a time when momentum is gathering and the timing is right to leave our picks and shovels in the fields and rush to join with our neighbors in solidarity on a single issue. The time is now and the cause is immigration reform.

Last night was a proud moment, as leaders from many churches and faith-based groups gathered together to call for a reform of our immigration system.

It is time to take a stand so that Ohio does not fall victim to the mentality that is making Arizona start to resemble a police state--with citizens needing to carry their papers as if it were the Soviet Union. Folks live in fear of vigilante groups intimidating the population, even terrorizing people who are here legally.

As people of faith, we have heard the cry of the poor. Our immigrant sisters and brothers have been abused and exploited by the immigration policy of the United States:

* Our businesses take advantage of immigrants for cheap labor and by putting them in hazardous work conditions. The threat of deportation prevents people from complaining.

* Our immigration officers split up families, often leaving children behind to fall prey to gangs, drugs and violence.

* Our current immigration policy is unfair and unfairly enforced. It is easy to become a citizen if you are a professional basketball player, but odds go down considerably if you are a poor farmer. Also, few in the USA seem worried about undocumented immigrants from places such as Canada or Ireland. The real concern seems to be Latinos and others with different skin color.

* Our own so-called "fair trade" policies have impoverished much of the developing world, virtually forcing people to leave their homes for a shot at a better future. For an example, look at corn subsidies which pay our US farmers so that they can sell their corn below market rates--they have almost destroyed the local agriculture markets in Mexico, impoverishing people who once made a good living as farmers.

* US-trained military have terrorized the populations of Latin America for decades in a systematic policy of war, torture and rape, leaving many risking all they have to flee to the north. These military actions interrupt development and put down movements of people struggling for better standards of living.

It has long since been time to reform our immigration policy.

* * *

This is a humanitarian issue. What would compel someone to leave their family and their homeland behind, to risk life and death to cross the border illegally, to work for less than minimum wage in hazardous conditions in the USA? The only logical answer: The alternative is worse.

Most red-blooded Americans would cross hell and high water to do the same for their own families. This is a family issue.

What does this mean? These people should be classified as refugees fleeing for their very lives and need to be harbored and given asylum as such. At the very least, if people come to America to work there should be a way to naturalize into this country and remain here if they have built a life here. Families should be kept together.

* * *

I have to admit I’m a sucker for sentimental moments. One of the reasons I love being in peace & justice movements is that there is no better place to see people of different faiths working together, genuinely respecting each other and respecting the differences they bring to the table. Yesterday, I saw some of my heroes from different faiths standing—literally—hand in hand on the stage in front of us.

People brought their unique perspectives and flavor, such as the Jewish rabbi who sounded the ram’s horn which reverberated both throughout downtown and deep within our bones. The ministers, priests and pastors showed—either directly or indirectly—their reverence for each other and they fact that they have learned from each other.

People say there are moments when you get a taste of heaven, and for me this was one—when the whole body of God’s people stand as one. Nobody was trying to make a name for themselves or steal the spotlight or refuse to give ground—yet they all stole the spotlight and they all gained ground!

This is how it is supposed to work. When differences are things that enhance rather than detract, when humility does not make us smaller but rather makes us bigger. This is a group of people practicing what they preach, reminding us of who we are as a people.

* * *

The above picture will serve as a reminder to always carry a camera to have a chance for a do-over! Still, everyone else looks great, so in all humility here is our little Catholic Worker group and some friends: Kaitlyn, Frank, Nancy (from Justice for Immigrants), Erin K and Erin W.

* * *

Of particular interest were the counter-demonstrators. They were staged along High Street, hoping to distract our rally with the honking of detractors. I didn't hear much honking, but there was some.

Some of their signs read:

What part of illegal don't you understand?

Slavery was once legal, too. In fact, folks who harbored escaped slaves in the Underground Railroad could have faced the harshest of penalties. Now, we call them heroes.

Another sign simply read: John 10:1

Woe to anyone who tries to reduce the Gospel of John, which its sophisticated interplay of themes and symbols, into a one-liner. But I just had to look it up. It reads:

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.

It is quite a stretch to think that the "sheepfold" here implies citizenship in a political state such as the USA, but I'll play along for a moment. Let's read a little more of the passage. Here's the very next verse:

But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

So wait a minute... those who do not enter through the gate are like undocumented people in the USA, but whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd. So does that mean the rest of us citizens of the USA are shepherds? What does THAT means? Let's look at more verses:

Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them. [seems to be a common problem]. So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

In other words, the gate is not the border crossing station, as the detractors seem to be implying--Jesus is the gate. All who enter through him are saved. And Jesus seems to be okay with people coming and going to find pasture, if they need to feed themselves. The end result is that through Jesus, they are to have life and have it more abundantly.

And that's all we are doing with immigration reform: Through Jesus, we want people to have abundant life. The border crossing station is not the same thing as the gate of Jesus, so we need to make the border crossing station resemble Jesus a little more so that people can come and go to find greener pastures and to have life more abundantly.

* * *

The grim reality is that the USA accounts for only 5% of the world's population. We consume nearly 50% of the earth's resources. What else can we do but share?

A great reference is the US bishops website: www.justiceforimmigrants.org

A Young Congolese Family

2010-07-16T10:41:00.012-04:00

We have been hanging out with a young family from the Democratic Republic of Congo lately--a mother and three children. They recently arrived to America, and we have been helping out with a few things—they got clothes from our free store, produce from our garden, and they just came last night for ESL. The two young men got interested in the soccer playing outside, and Vielka went out there and strongly told the Latino guys to welcome them--which they did without any hesitation.

Kaitlyn and Joan have been communicating with one of the sons in French, and he then translates to his mother and siblings who don’t know any European languages. There is a refugee placement agency helping them, but we are trying to be an extra support as a family like this needs so much. Kaitlyn is tracking down further ways to help out.

Minerals are right at the center of much of the fighting all over Africa. Diamonds are a major culprit, but in the case of the Congo it is rare minerals used in cell phones, laptops and digital camera. Some of the fighting is just for sheer profit--legal or otherwise--and other times it is to fund military actions of one kind of another.

I saw an excellent documentary on the History Channel recently called Blood Diamonds: Beyond the Bloodshed (click the link to watch it). I was horrified to learn what has been going on in Sierra Leone and Angola—militia groups terrorize the countryside using gruesome methods of torture, amputations and rape intentionally to displace the population away from diamond mining deposits. They put many people into slave labor mining camps to finance their military actions.

There is a movement now to market “conflict free diamonds.” This is to give some assurance that the diamonds you buy do not come with this kind of history. I applaud the efforts but right now the “conflict free” tag is not very reliable since there is not yet sufficient third party monitoring, but it is a step in the right direction.

What has been going on in the Congo is not much different. Due to widespread sexual violence, eastern Congo right now is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or a girl. Disputes over mineral rights have fueled a war in which over 5 million people have died and 1 million have been displaced.

Coincidentally, I’ve been gettin action alerts about the Congo from Catholic Relief Services. Right now, there is major legislation pending to address this very issue. The bishops in the Congo themselves and other human rights groups recommend more accountability—to bring a reliable “conflict free” label to all minerals through the entire supply chain.

I got a text message this morning from CRS saying that the provision below to include “Congo conflict minerals and other transparency provisions” got approved by the US Congress and will make its way to the desk of the President soon!

I would recommend keeping a watch on this issue. This bill does not solve all problems, but it takes a giant leap forward to begin an accountability process.

We have heard many gruesome stories about genocide in Africa in recent years: Rwanda. Darfur. Zimbabwe. Sierra Leone. The list goes on and on. It may be hard to believe that a situation could ever be any worse than those, but reports are showing that the war in the Congo right now is considered the deadliest since World War II.

One way to make a difference is to urge companies that make electronics to use conflict-free materials. Click this link to learn how.

In the meantime, one young family from the Congo is trying to resettle in Columbus, OH.

Community Garden Dividends

2010-07-07T09:25:00.006-04:00

When we first moved to this neighborhood, all we heard was the bad news: The plethora of break-in's, the danger of walking around at night, the wandering kids up to no good, the "unknown" element of the immigrants, you name it. Lock your doors, lock your windows, don't be out at night. This is what life is like here. Try as I might, I couldn't shake that image because that was just about all I heard.

Those negative elements--both real and exaggerated--were the image and voice of the neighborhood.

Something like a community garden does not remove all those elements, at least, not at first. But it shifts the focus. The amazing and wonderful people who participate in the community garden were already there in the neighborhood. The neighborhood just needed a forum through which the positive elements of the community could be nurtured and given a place to shine.

When I walk around the neighborhood now, here is what I see: The house of our friends from the Vineyard and the neighborhood kids nearby they watch over . . . There are some St. James the Less parishioners who have been leaders in the effort . . . there's the woman who is a canning expert walking her dog . . . and others who have been gardening mentors always willing to share advice and a helping hand. I see friends and many safe havens.

In times of fear, people often choose to close themselves off. Instead of sharing our gifts widely with the world, we can choose to keep them contained behind closed doors or only share them at some far off site on weekends. This is very understandable--why do something if it is going to be trashed, unappreciated or if you are threatened in some way? However, this creates a domino effect as the negative elements in a neighborhood start to dominate the landscape more and more.

What we learned through the community garden is that there are many wonderful people with amazing talents right here, right now. People garden for fun. They garden to give produce to the needy. They garden to get to know their neighbors. It is time for them to set the tone for the neighborhood. Their talents and enthusiasm, caring and love, need to be placed on a hill where all can see. We're writing a new story about this neighbood, and what a tale to tell!

One of the main problems in modern American culture is the isolation. It seems like the bumper sticker of America is that Nobody knows their neighbors. But that's only part of the story: Street gangs know their neighbors and so do drug users. Kids know their neighbors, but kids being kids need parental guidance to turn that into a positive association. People have many wonderful things to share, not only their talents but also the gift of themselves. They just need a forum through which to do that.

Some neighborhoods have been trying to fight isolation. They may have a yearly barbecue or some other activity. However, there's nothing quite like a neighborhood project that we can all get involved with: Let's build something, let's grow something, let's help somebody.

Perhaps this is what Peter Maurin meant when he envisioned to "create a society where it is easier to be good." The garden is built by the community. It was simply the infrastructure that was needed. Someone needed to get the ball rolling and do the logistics to open the possibility. The neighborhood transforms itself through the grace of God, the best we can do is loosen up the log jams that have accumulated.

A community garden reaps so many other benefits: We grow food for the needy. We share ideas about gardening and growing healthy, organic produce. We're all eating more fresh produce than before, and more cheaply, too. Many friendships have developed. When people talk about this neighborhood, they now talk about the garden. What about all the negative elements? Those are still there, but maybe, just maybe, they are losing their hold on the spotlight and may perhaps even lose some of their bite, too. Only time will tell.

In the meantime, we can celebrate the bounty that is the community garden: The friendships, the enthusiasm, the gift to the poor, the building up of the neighborhood, the showcase of the skills and talents of neighbors, a positive impact on the enviornment, and a rather beautiful little garden right here, right now.

Two-For-One Deal and Father Smith's Homily

2010-06-26T12:58:00.022-04:00

You could have heard my heart drop to my stomach when Erin brought to my attention that I had accidentally scheduled the Open House for Ohioans to Stop Executions (OTSE) for the same evening as our first celebration of Mass in our chapel.

Some people claim that there are no such things as accidents. In this case, there couldn't have been anything more appropriate than celebrating the Eucharist as a community while steeped in work for social justice. Ours is a two-for-one deal: You come for one and you get the other. The life of prayer and the work for justice are inseparable. We should have planned it this way in the first place!

The fact that this was the Feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist--himself a victim of capital punishment in a most twisted, political climate of envy and power--was not lost on us.

A couple of events at our house have moved me to tears, and this was one of them. Folks gathered in quiet prayer in the chapel before Mass. The room lifted in song, strong voices. Fr. Jim Smith speaking the words of the Eucharistic Prayer like a poet savoring each morsel that falls from his lips.

The only downside was that the A/C made it difficult to hear during the first part of Mass, until we switched it off. Fortunately, Fr. Smith left us a printed copy of his homily to post online, so that it can be shared widely, including to those of us who didn't catch it all the first time!

Many, many thanks to Kaitlyn, our summer resident, for taking the lead in planning this Mass. Our hope is to host Mass at least once per month with a rotation of priests. She is busy working on that schedule as we speak.

Fr. Jim Smith's profound homily is as follows:

As you know, after such an auspicious Beginning, John Ended in jail. And from his prison he sent messengers to ask Jesus if he were the One. Jesus replied: "Look at the signs of God's Kingdom: the deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk and the Poor hear the Good News."

Those may have been sufficient signs for John but you and I need more assurance. For us, signs of God's presence are health, wealth & success. Marginal people may evoke our pity; or arouse our anxiety about how vulnerable we Also are. But they do not remind us of God. For us, power & glory stir up inklings of God. So, where IS God?

Liberation Theology thinks that God became human so God could become Poor. Maybe so She could relate to them. Because poverty is un-fake-able. Even God cannot get away with being merely 'poor in spirit' - real poverty has to be experienced. So God became a poor, vulnerable baby human. And that was the Fault Line of human history: the radical, irreducible difference between a Rich God & a Poor God.

But history is written by the Victors: exploits of Kings, cleverness of cardinals. That history values strength, power & success. But what if history were written by Victims? What a different set of values that would extol! Destitute people don't need a million - a dollar will do. Starving people don't demand a banquet - a little rice is fine. Homeless people don't long for a castle - just being out of the cold is a blessing.

And Those are precisely the values which drive you & me back to our basic humanity. That is how poor people force God's presence into a rich world. Because God cannot find a foothold in a Velveeta culture; God cannot leap out of a whipped-cream society. Which means that any time we buy into secular values, whenever we move beyond basic food, shelter & clothing, just then, we pass into the world of the Un-necessary, the Super World. That is when we require Underworld people to shame us back to the basics, the simple necessities.

We must be innocent of Gandhi's Seven Modern Sins: Wealth without work, Business without morality, Pleasure without conscience, Politics without principle, Knowledge without character, Worship without sacrifice. As both ancient John and modern Bonhoeffer learned in prison: "It is not by some religious act that we become Christian, but by participating in the sufferings of God in his world."

We do not have to romanticize poverty - it has an irrefutable power all its own. Nor should we read Scripture in a simplistic, naive way. God does not have to like the Poor - but She is responsible for them. God does not help them because they Deserve it but because they Need it. Someone said that God takes care of the Poor by Default - because no one else does. So, the Kingdom is finally not about rich & poor or good & bad. God's kingdom is about the indigence of us All. In light of which differences of wealth & status are immaterial. Literally, Im-material.

Maybe you have read Flanner O'Connor's vision of the Kingdom: "A vast horde was rumbling toward heaven. White trash clean for the first time, black people in white robes, freaks & lunatics shouting & clapping & leaping like frogs. And bringing up the rear was the tribe of Our Kind of people: who always had a little of everything and the wit to use it right. They were marching with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. They alone were singing on key. Yet, one could see by their shocked & altered faces that even their Virtues were being burned away."

Of such as these is the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.

Two Exciting Events! Mass and OTSE Open House

2010-06-19T14:20:00.002-04:00

The voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord!”
(John 1:23)

Mass

The Holy Mass will be celebrated at the Columbus Catholic Worker chapel next week! Fr. Smith from St. Matthias will be presiding. Please join us on Thursday, June 24th at 5:30 pm.

Join us to celebrate the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist. As a community rooted in faith, we know that we will shrivel up and blow away like “dust in the wind” if this branch is not connected to the True Vine. So we come to the well to drink.

If you haven’t had a chance to visit in a while, this is a perfect time to drop in and pray together with us.

Our summer resident Kaitlyn, who is on break from Notre Dame University, is planning this and other events. Stay tuned for more details as others unfold!

OTSE

Immediately following the Mass, we are hosting an Open House for the group OTSE (Ohioans to Stop Executions). They are working hard to lay the groundwork for possibly a new regional chapter in the Columbus area, and the Columbus Catholic Worker would like to support this effort in any way we can.

From their announcement:

Regional groups across the state are crucial in OTSE's efforts of activating members and potential supporters at the local level. For this reason, we are hosting an open house gathering on June 24th for those interested in meeting our staff and other community members while learning more about Ohio's death penalty and simple ways to help the movement. This is the perfect way for Columbus area supporters to get more involved in the work to stop executions in Ohio.

This will be at 6:30 - 8:00 p.m., with a short presentation at 7:00 p.m. about Ohio's death penalty and recent developments. Please R.S.V.P. by email to otse.org@gmail.com or by phone to (614) 560-0654. All are welcome, so please consider bringing a friend.

Folks can attend either the Mass or the OSTE Open House, or both. However, maybe it is not a coincidence that St. John the Baptist was himself a victim of the death penalty, so it is not hard to find a common thread between the two gatherings.

Bread & soup and refreshments will be on hand to share.

Clemency Petition

2010-06-14T23:44:00.006-04:00

The following is from Kevin Werner of Ohioans to Stop Executions:

Earlier today, supporters of Ohio death row inmate Kevin Keith (pictured at left), who faces execution on September 15 despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, posted a petition online urging the Ohio Parole Board and Governor Ted Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin.

Kevin Keith has been on death row since 1994. Now, newly discovered evidence points to his innocence of the crime for which he stands to be executed. This evidence has never been presented to a jury.

Kevin's case is so compelling that many prominent groups have filed supporting briefs on his behalf, including the National Innocence Network, an affiliation of over 50 innocence projects and legal organizations around the country, the Ohio Innocence Project, an organization that typically only works on non-death penalty cases involving DNA evidence, and a group of leading eyewitness and memory experts.

More information about his case can be found at: www.kevinkeith.org. Please be sure to take a moment and sign the petition below.

Click here to sign the petition and to learn more about this case.

A Day in the Life

2010-06-07T17:21:00.005-04:00

People often ask what we do at the Columbus Catholic Worker. In particular, volunteers and new live-in community members can walk around a big, empty house and wonder what all the fuss is about. People may not know how to plug in.

At the risk of coming across as self-indulgent, I decided to document my activities this Monday morning to give a snapshot of what life is like at 1614. This is not a comprehensive list, as other community members are doing other projects as well, but it is just a little slice of what one person is doing on one morning.

* * *

The day begins with morning prayer at 6 am. This is no small feat for a night owl like me, but things seem to fall apart when we aren’t praying consistently, and 6 am is the only time when we are all reliably at the house on a consistent basis. Jeremiah does a nice job leading us in the Liturgy of the Hours in the chapel, albeit with the lights on a little too brightly, I might add. I go back to sleep afterwards.

Coffee comes next. It is reassuring to say that coffee does not come first but rather second to prayer!

You never know what tasks are waiting for us on voicemail. Perhaps there is a Spanish-speaker looking for immigration advice, a parish question about grounds keeping or a person inquiring about living in our community. Today, it is a total of three calls from donors looking to drop off clothing for the Free Store. I return the calls and schedule a drop-off time later this afternoon.

I then place a call to a local organizer against the death penalty. Momentum is building against the death penalty, and we are ready and willing to help Central Ohio organize to that end. This Saturday, there is a gathering of Murder Victims Families at our place. Anyone out there who has ever planned anything from a high school graduation party to a social justice action knows all the work that goes into making an event happen—phone calls, transportation, refreshments, materials on hand, audio/visuals, scheduling kitchen duties, clean-up, you name it.

The next phone call is to the Diocese. Our summer resident Kaitlyn is working hard to develop the prayer life of the community. I won’t give away any secrets as to what plans are in the works, she’ll unveil those when the time comes! For now it is enough to say we have scheduled a time to meet folks from the downtown office to share ideas and coordinate activities.

Compost has been building up, so I consolidate our containers of food waste into one 5-gallon bucket, ready for a trip out to the garden later this afternoon. Recyclables are also gathered and put on the stoop, to be loaded into a car and taken to a local dumping station (Columbus has dozens all over the city, mostly at schools and fire departments).

The rains have interrupted our community garden workdays recently, especially the monsoon that hit last Wednesday evening. Our radishes are a bit past their prime and spinach and lettuce are quickly growing and need to be picked right away. If I get my act together, I can have some packets of salad ready to be given out at the Food Pantry tonight.

Speaking of the Food Pantry, an unexpected visitor came to the door. A young man said his neighborhood just had their yearly barbecue, and this time they added an extra twist: Attendees were to bring non-perishable food items to be donated. He brought several wonderful bags of items to give away. Pat was downstairs stocking shelves, so she and I gave him a tour of the Pantry.

We just got a new phone plan, as our previous provider jacked up our rates. Our old computer is not recognizing the new internet connection, so some troubleshooting is required. Like any business or home, there is no shortage of the day-to-day business concerns, such as working with utilities providers, plumbing problems, lawn care, shrubbery trimming, computers, etc.

The next conversation is with the maintenance man at the parish. We had some flooding in the basement last week. While the Food Pantry generously had the entire basement reconfigured to handle water drainage, there was so much rain last week that the windows themselves were holding back (unsuccessfully) literally gallons of water. I sought advice on how to best clean out the catch basins, as small trees have been sprouting out of them lately. I’ll be dredging them out this afternoon.

Creative juices seems to flow best somewhere between coffee and breakfast, so I am writing this blog post as well as another this morning. The blog is a great way to share reflections and to be a tool to promote issues and advertise events.

Later in the day I’ll do some light cleaning and make coffee for the ESL class & planning group tonight. Erin and Kaitlyn have been recording educational songs for ESL, and Linda, Vielka and Fran has been gathering real-world documents such as job applications to use for classes.

* * *

Admittedly, much of the daytime work above is administrative blah-blah and probably not too exciting. However, the nuts & bolts of the operation make it possible for the other things happen. The community really comes alive in the evenings and weekends as folks gather to directly do the ministries themselves. During the day, it can be quiet but with still lots of planning and preparing, and it is easy to be too busy.

Where else can you spend your days in such a rich environment of service? Picking fresh produce for the Food Pantry, gathering clothing for the poor, planning a social justice event against the death penalty and sharing theological reflections on the blog in the span of just a few hours! I also should mention how good it feels to begin the day in community prayer.

Every day is different. Just to give an example of how different, we had a Fair Trade coffee event after Mass at St. Anthony parish yesterday followed by a community meal & meeting in the evening. On Saturday we organized a new Reading Room and reconfigured the Office at the house. Erin’s group is working on the ESL curriculum and Joan has plans for the Garden and Free Store. Each of them has a story to tell as well.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring!

Bearing Fruit: National Pax Christi Gathering

2010-05-25T12:02:00.010-04:00

Consider going to Pax Christi's annual National Catholic Conference on Peacemaking in Chicago this summer! Pat and I went last year, and it was a very good experience that has continued to reap benefits throughout this past year:

It was there that we met the folks from Just Haiti, and we have since begun a lovely relationship distributing fair trade coffee from Haiti.

It was there that we met the folks from the Michigan Peace Team. We invited them to our place in December for an all-day nonviolence training workshop.

It wast here that I first heard John Dear in person and have been transformed by his and Pax Christi's message of nonviolence: Never has violence solved a problem in any sort of long-term way. Only by breaking our absolute addiction to violence do we have any chance of solving the problems of injustice. I decided to take the Vow of Nonviolence and felt transformed.

Bishop Leroy Matthiesen won the 2009 Teacher of Peace award, and we heard him speak about his daring work in opposition to nuclear weapons.

We also picked up a number of hard-to-find books, DVD's and other materials on peacemaking. There were speakers on many issues and justice groups of all types representated.

Last but certainly not least, it was there that we made good contacts with the folks from the national office and have since begun our own chapter of Pax Christi right here in Columbus!

An added bonus is that Pat and I were the guests of Su Casa Catholic Worker and got a chance to tour their facility while we stayed there.

While Pax Christi is the international Catholic peace movement, there were representatives from many denominations, such as the Soujourners community, Mennonites, to name a couple. The peace movement is one of the most truly ecumenical experiences you may have.

With all that in mind, consider going to the conference this year! I'm sure there will be quite a bit of attention on Immigration Reform in light of the recent Arizona law, as well as our too-easily-forgotten international wars. Eric LeCompte (one of the speakers) is the former national organizer for the School of Americas Watch (SOAW), so I anticipate quite a bit of attention on SOA this year.

Click here for detailed information on the conference. You can register though that link, as well.

Maybe we can get a few of us to carpool . . . ?

* * *

From the Pax Christi facebook page:

This year's theme: Know Justice, Know Peace: Ending War at Home and Abroad and includes speakers Rev. Bryan Massingale, Jeremy Scahill, Elena Segura, Jack Jezreel, Sr. Dianna Ortiz, Dr. Megan McKenna, Rev. Joseph Brown, Eric LeCompte, Brigitte Gynther, Adrienne Alexander, Joe Grant, members of the Pax Christi Anti-Racism Team, and more. Special award recognition for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).

Start Time: Friday, July 16, 2010 at 3:00pm
End Time: Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 1:00pm
Location: Rosemont Hotel O'Hare, Chicago

* * *

I left the conference last year impressed with the speakers but unsure whether the event had any long-term impact on me. Reflecting on the past year, it is clear that going to that conference really bore quite a bit of fruit! Like all things that are substantial, it just needed time to incubate and percolate before it could reciprocate.

Haitian Mass and Coffee

2010-05-19T20:11:00.006-04:00

by Joan

We are all invited to a Haitian Mass and reception at St. Matthias Church this coming Sunday, May 22 hosted by Fr. Fritz Valcin who ministers to the Haitian community in Columbus. The Mass starts at 1:30. St. Matthias Church is located on the northeast corner of Karl and Ferris Rd.; the address is 1582 Ferris Road. Fr. Valcin suggested that people wear red for Pentecost along with some blue, blue and red being the colors of the Haitian flag.

As you probably know, the Columbus Catholic Worker has been providing fair trade Haitian coffee to Columbus in exchange for donations since shortly after the devastating earthquake hit that country. We've had great success with it - people really seem to like it. And we feel good about helping to support the co-op in Haiti that produces it and provides its worker-owners with a decent living.

We'll be setting up a table laden with our Cafe Lespwa coffee at the reception after the Mass. The reception will start at about 2:30. So please join us either at the Mass or the reception or both this coming Sunday. There should be some very friendly people, good food and music to enjoy and you can help us help some of the people of Haiti in a very tangible way. We need to set up the table at 1:00 so if you're coming for the Mass perhaps you could come a little early and help out with that.

Death Row and the Catholic Church

2010-04-22T08:30:00.024-04:00

The State of Ohio put to death Darryl Durr just this past Tuesday. Attempts were made to stop this process, citing that Durr was allergic to the anesthesia. The circus continues in Ohio's saga of executions. Another execution is scheduled every month in Ohio through November (it was originally September when this post was written).

Some argue that justice was done. Yet a crime creates obligations, according to Howard Zehr. Victims and their families may need pastoral care. They may need financial support or help managing daily life. Society may need education to prevent further crimes. Yet, our justice system focuses almost exclusively on inflicting a penalty to the offender while leaving the rest wholly unaddressed.

Where is the Catholic Church on the death penalty?

The US Bishops have been working against the death penalty for decades, along with bishops from numerous other nations as well as the Vatican.

Pope John Paul II led the way by clarifying 2,000 years of magisterial tradition. He put strong limits on any Church support for the death penalty.

A key document is his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, the famed "Gospel of Life. It issues some of the strongest and most definitive statements on capital punishment to ever come out of the magisterium.

It speaks of the absolute respect for life and the indispensable nature of the fifth commandment. The Gospel of Life includes all life: Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity. In several places, the pope affirms that it is only God who is the absolute Lord of the life of man.

Evangelium Vitae was released to the world on the Feast of the Annunciation, fifteen years ago. This Feast Day announces the Good News of the Incarnation of Christ on earth. The very real, and not merely symbolic presence of Christ, is in everyone.

In the introductory paragraph, John Paul II writes that Christmas also reveals the full meaning of every human birth, and the joy which accompanies the Birth of the Messiah is thus seen to be the foundation and fulfilment of joy at every child born into the world.

Christ of the Breadline, by Fritz Eichenberg

Jesus was not speaking metaphorically when he said in the Gospel Matthew, For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt 25:35), as theologian Thomas R. Rourke points out. This presence of Christ is in each human person, and all humans share this common solidarity. As a result, John Paul II states that all killing, like the story of Cain and Abel, is fratricide--bother against brother.

Not only were all humans created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27), but the Mystery of the Incarnation of Christ brings that to fulfillment.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has adopted much of John Paul II's language and reads: The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

Adding: such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.

The Catholic Church's position is nuanced, and as a result it has been the source of a lot of confusion. The rather liberal way the Church has supported the death penalty in previous centuries has not helped in this matter, either.

The bottom line is this: The Catholic Church is basically saying it is not absolutely pacifist. The Church has not, and probably will not, ever 100% rule out the possibility of support for the death penalty. However, this is the furthest thing from a blank check of endorsement.

The overall moral obligation to value and protect all life--including the guilty--must be held alongside not just the right but the duty to protect oneself and the common good of society. If there is an immediate threat, the Church has declared that it will not rule out the death penalty as a possible response.

However, instances of this in the modern world are more in the realm of theoretical possibility rather than something that actually happens. Let's not forget the important clause that shows the scope of Church teaching: Such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.

When describing the "consistent ethic of life," Cardinal Bernardin summarized Church teaching by stating that there should always be a presumption against taking human life.

So then what can justify taking a life? Only a clear and present threat to other lives.

The focus of Catholic morality is living in the mercy of Jesus, taking Gospel risks to "be not afraid" and fostering not just life but well-being. Those should take preeminence over an emergency, last-ditch effort to treat violence with violence. That should only happen after all else has been tried and tried again and there is simply no other option.

In other words, the death penalty is not an acceptable means of punishment in a purely retributive sense. It is only considered a possibility when collective defense is factored in. When you consider modern prisons and research showing the ineffectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent, it is an extremely unlikely possibility.

Perhaps it would be easier if the Catholic Church could just say it was against the death penalty in an absolute sense and be done with it. That would be simpler. There are many who would like to see the Church embrace a wholly pacifist stance. Some say the Church is already saying that, since the death penalty is not a punishment per se but only a self defense of last resort.

To the average Catholic on the street, the intense theological debates over specific vocabulary do not change the reality that the Church is, for all practical purposes, thoroughly against the death penalty. The gap between absolute pacifism and where the Church stands is extremely narrow if not practically non-existent, to borrow a quote.

In Short: Wow!

2010-04-10T14:55:00.036-04:00

It is hard to believe how many projects were begun and completed at the community garden this morning. People brought a lot of skills and enthusiasm, and there were many hands to do the work. What a great way to spend a Saturday morning!

The best is to let the pictures tell the story:

A team installed the rainwater catchment system off of the old baseball backstop. Last year's system was taken down for the winter, and a modified version was put up today. Frank H. and Brian (above), with Perry looking on from below, are hard at work attaching the panels and gutters.

Perry & son are working to connect the downspouts to the large, 250-gallon drums that were donated by Coca-Cola.

Erin S. is posing next to a thorn less blackberry she just planted.

Earlier this week, Fr. John dropped off a box of thorn less blackberries that he dug up from his family's farm. Erin S., Erin W. and I planted them this morning in a rich mixture of last year's compost. Orchlene brought some stakes and a mighty sledgehammer to mark the location of the little shoots.

Paul and Jim (above) along with Kirk spent the morning sawing and hammering to fashion the new bulletin board. This will be a great way to post announcements, so that gardeners and visitors alike will have a sense of what is going on at the garden.

Suzanne "Queen of the Compost" and Jeff took the lead on building a sophisticated compost management system, using pallets donated by Lars.

Fresh compost will be placed in the bin on the left. As it breaks down, it will be moved to the middle bin. Ready-to-use compost will be in the final bin on the right.

Tim is busy above moving last year's stalks and vines into the new compost bins.

Erin K. and some neighborhood kids painted this colorful community garden sign last year. Joan is busy weather-sealing it, and it will soon be on display!

Zulma, Kirk and Erin K. are in the forefront above, with the bulletin board crew in the back.

The amazing thing is that this is truly a community effort, and no one person made this all happen. Contributions came from all over, and people made their presence felt.

That being said, a special shout out goes to Kirk, for doing so much of the coordinating and behind-the-scenes work to make sure people and supplies were ready this morning!

And the best part of all: There is always plenty of time for neighbors and friends to talk, eat donuts, and just have a good time!

In short: Wow!

Greening the CCW

2010-04-06T12:00:00.007-04:00

The Great Catholic Worker Light Bulb Swap is underway! Believe it or not, there are around 200 light bulbs in the Catholic Worker house! So far, we have replaced about 75 with fluorescent bulbs. We've strategically targeted high-traffic areas and high-wattage bulbs, and we'll get around to the rest eventually. The good news is that the kitchen and most of the basement (where the food pantry is located) is already outfitted with long, tubular fluorescent lights, but that has still left quite a few more to swap out.

Used light bulbs can go to the Free Store and to a friend who donated dozens of fluorescent bulbs to us but who himself prefers incandescents (some people are very sensitive to the glare). At first, we waited for them to burn out before replacing, but now we have a way to make sure they won't get wasted, so we decided to swap them out now.

A new Energy-Star refrigerator also graces the kitchen, replacing a model from 1985. Funds were low, but there were some tremendous savings and rebates this past weekend, part of them through the federal government. Even though we didn't have time to properly raise funds, we decided to seize the moment and ended up saving 35% off the price of a new fridge. A generous donor took the risk and purchased it, hoping to split the cost with someone else if anyone out there feels called to help.

Our clothes dryer and washing machine are also at the end of their usable life, and we hope to raise money to replace those, soon. Not only does the live-in community use those items, but we also offer them to some struggling neighbors. While I prefer to air-dry as much as possible, a dryer is useful for bedding and for guests.

We can't wait to replace the 4 gallons-per-flush toilets with newer, 1.5 gallon units. Just do the math: Imagine a workshop with about 40 participants, each flushing 3-4 times over the course of a 2-day retreat. That's around 650 gallons for a single weekend, and that might be a conservative estimate! We already bought 3 new units, now we just have to raise money to get them installed and then move on to the other units (there are a total of 10 plus another in the food pantry).

Like a lot of poor families, it is hard to allocate meager funds in order to be environmentally efficient. It is heartbreaking to scrape together $700 for a new refrigerator only to see about $8-10 in monthly savings. It does add up and it does pay for itself over the course of about 5 years, but when you're broke it is hard to make long-term plans like that. However, the environmental savings makes the decision a lot easier.

There are also plans to research how the boiler system works in this building, as most of our energy costs go to heat the place. It can be expensive to bring in a boiler expert to do this research, but there is quite a bit of potential savings. The boiler itself may be fine, but the complicated valve and pipe system can dramatically affect efficiency if it is not set properly, we have recently learned.

* * *

Our core group member Erin just made some improvements on her house, and it is worth pointing those out as it can be useful for others to know about these things.

First off, she qualified for a free comprehensive home weatherization program! She did this by meeting certain income requirements. There was a team that came over to stuff the walls full of insulation, seal the duct work, and perform numerous other weatherization tasks. She also got a new furnace.

Check out this link for more information on this federally-funded program, and pass this information on to others. A local group called IMPACT did the work. The best way to start the process is to call IMPACT directly.

Replacing appliances and light bulbs are wonderful things, but the real hippopotamus in the living room is the energy savings that comes from a properly insulated home.

Last but most certainly not least, long-time Catholic Worker friend Jonathan through his company Rainbrothers will be out today installing two new rain barrels at Erin's house. The fresh water that runs off her roof will now be used to water her vegetable garden and flowers.

It took me a while to understand how rain barrels could be an environmental benefit, but it works like this: Instead of pumping city water that has been treated with chlorine and other chemicals, she can instead harvest the fresh rainwater from her roof. Significant amounts of water are overflowing the city sewers as they run off rooftops, roads and sidewalks. That water would normally be used to build up the local water table, but instead it is being flushed out in the drains. It makes no sense to drain away the water that is naturally falling onto her property only to pump it back up again, treated with chemicals.

* * *

There is still nothing better than plain old fashioned conservation. Despite all the advances in energy efficiency, nothing save quite as much energy as simply not using it in the first place!

Death Penalty Witness

2010-03-29T11:08:00.011-04:00

L to R: Dave and Frank downtown on Fridays.

The death penalty is no laughing matter, but it is easy to trade a few smiles while holding a sign on the witness line.

I often struggle with the effectiveness of such a vigil. However, we are standing right outside of the State Capitol building as well as the offices of the Governor and numerous other government personnel. Lawyers, street vendors, judges, beggars, senators & representatives, students, bus riders, office workers of all types, tourists and others walk and drive past us every Friday. It is important that they realize there are people out there who are opposed to the death penalty. We are a visual reminder to them that folks care about this. We are a support to others who want to take a similar stand. We are a healthy challenge to those who don't.

As Daniel Berrigan and numerous other peacemakers have said, we are called to be faithful, not effective. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't take reasonable steps to be effective, either. Some folks scatter seeds in the wind, but a wise farmer will cultivate organized rows. The important thing is not to get too hung up on the results of our action, because we may never see them.

Standing the heart of downtown as folks mill around on their lunch hour is a good time and place to be doing this. I'd love to see the vigils expanded. Wouldn't it be great if folks were holding a sign at that very place five days each week? What if a rotation of people were doing this all day long? What if we had people all up and down the street in multiple locations? Folks would really take notice.

Grapes, Raspberries, Seed Starting and Final Introductory Meeting

2010-03-25T10:29:00.023-04:00

Above, Fr. John discussing the finer points of grapes with Bob on Friday.

Our community garden was given a wonderful treat this past week. Fr. John, a local grape enthusiast and expert, offered us grape starters from his family's farm in southern Ohio. He also offered to give a public tutorial about planting and pruning grapes. We did this on two separate afternoons, this past Friday and Saturday.

There is a lot more to proper grape planting than I ever could have imagined! Fr. John showed us the nuances and tricks he has learned over his years tending grapes. We first dug large holes around the fencepoints. A special root hormone and beneficial fungi were placed around the roots. We used last year's compost, which is rich and ready to use, mixed with some topsoil and peat moss to put in the holes. The grapes were then planted, thoroughly watered, and covered up. They were also snipped to no more than two buds per plant.

Midge (the dog), Jean, Paul, Perry, Zeila and Joan look on during Saturday's planting tutorial.

After the planting, the group traveled a couple blocks to the home of one of our garden leaders, Orchlene. She had some unruly grapes in her backyard, so we got a chance to learn how to prune grapes and get them ready for the new year. I probably need to witness this a couple more times before I feel comfortable, but all of us did learn a lot. While doing that, we dug up 7 red raspberry plants that had spread like wildfired and were interfering with her grapes. Later in the day, we planted all 7 at the St. James community garden.

One of Orchlene's freshly-pruned grapes, pictured on the left.

We had plans to start a perennial garden this year, and the offer of grapes came serendipitously right after that. Also, the raspberries that Orchele would have just thrown away were like gold to us--buying 7 raspberry bushes would have set us back quite a bit if we were to buy them at a nursery. It is amazing how these pieces come together. The sad part is that we won't see any fruit from these this year and quite possibly not even the next, but when it comes we'll be so glad we did this!

The prior Saturday, Joan and Orchele led a seed starting session at the Catholic Worker house. Over a half dozen folks come out to plant several trays of seeds for the community garden as well as for themselves. There are over 15 trays of seeds perched in windows throughout the Catholic Worker house. They are sprouting nicely. We have several trays of marigolds (perfect as an organic repellent to garden pests), tomatoes, peppers, Brussels sprouts, cabbage--you name it.

A tray of new sprouts upstairs in the Catholic Worker house.

Planting our own seeds saves a great deal of money, and it brings us one step closer to the whole life cycle of our garden. We have been blessed with quite a bit of seeds still left over from last year as well as donations from folks this year. Fr. John also gave us a large zip lock back full of dried hot peppers--each full of seeds!

Zeila worked hard to save seeds last year, especially from marigolds. This year, we are going to focus on saving more seeds so that we can be a totally self-sufficient garden!

We had our third and final Garden Tutorial meeting last night. Suzanne "Queen of the Compost" led us in a presentation about the finer points of composting. Kirk followed that up with a round of "Garden 101" principles. We were happy to see a nice representation from the Latino and Vietnamese communities. Zulma gave a presentation at the Spanish language Masses last weekend, and we also got some participants from our ESL classes.

Romero

2010-03-24T12:52:00.005-04:00

Today, March 24, 2010, marks the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador:

A prayer on the 30th anniversary of Romero's martyrdom

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that. This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.

Amen.

(Prayer written by Bishop Ken Untener, attributed to the words of Archbishop Romero.)

From Pax Christi:

Oscar Romero is often called the "Martyr of the Americas of the 20th Century." He served as the Archbishop of San Salvador for three years. The murder of one of his dear friends, Father Rutilio Grande, caused him great pain and set him on a journey toward becoming one of the greatest prophets Catholic social justice activists have ever known. He spoke out against the government repression in El Salvador and against the poverty, hunger and helplessness of the majority of the Salvadoran people, during a time when those who spoke out and publicly opposed the situation were killed or "disappeared."

And Justice For All Immigrants

2010-03-16T12:03:00.014-04:00

See below for current actions of our community, our neighbors and our Church for the cause of Immigration Reform, including some events coming up this weekend:

Let's hear it for Rich Nathan, senior pastor of the Vineyard Church of Columbus for his excellent opinion piece on the need for immigration reform which ran in the Columbus Dispatch yesterday.

He cites the impracticality of deporting 12 million contributing members of society. The whole issue of immigration encompasses a broad range of problems, such as employers willing to exploit cheap labor, a nation running rampant with myths about the reality of illegal immigration and the sheer life-or-death desperation that compels these people to cross the border in the first place. He also explains that there are real, practical solutions available.

He writes:

Furthermore, enforcement-only policies are no solution. Deporting 12 million illegal immigrants is utterly impracticable. Not only would it cost hundreds of billions of dollars ($206 billion over five years, according to the chamber), it would destroy families and communities across the country.

The way forward is clear. We need to secure our borders, crack down on dishonest employers and require illegal immigrants to register with the government and meet certain requirements, including learning English, working and paying taxes before they earn the chance to become citizens. Such practical reforms would strengthen our economy, serve the interests and honor the ideals of our nation, and provide immigrants with the opportunity to fully join our society.

The full text is here of Rich Nathan's piece.

The vision is very similar to the recommendations of the US Catholic Bishops.

As a friend of mine says, "immigration is a reality." How do we deal with this reality? Putting up a wall from Tijuana to Brownsville is juvenile and infeasible. It also doesn't address the massive amount of illegal immigrants from Canada, Europe and elsewhere.

Keeping families together and allowing a temporary worker program so that folks can work in America and take steps toward long-term residency is needed.

As Van Morrison sings, you don't pull no punches, but you don't push the river. This river is flowing. It needs to flow. I believe it flows with the blessing of the Holy Spirit. The river of immigration flows with the Biblical thirst for justice, the hope for safe refuge, the faith in the Promise of the Promised Land, and the love these people have for their families which compels them to risk life and limb for a better tomorrow. If you get in the water and try to push this river, you will find yourself flailing and making a fool out of yourself as the water rushes past you.

Getting caught up in legalities is not how to look at it. The system is broke and people cannot wait until it is fixed. A crying baby needs milk today. Unjust laws need not be followed, especially when the sheer weight of the humanity of 12 million people is pressing against them.

* * *
Our Pax Christi group hosted Angela Johnston, diocesan Director of Latino Ministry last week. She showed the video Dying To Live. From the link: "Dying to Live" is a profound look at the human face of the immigrant. It explores who these people are, why they leave their homes and what they face in their journey.

Indeed, the human story can dispel many myths. The one fact that has stuck with me the most is the sheer desperation of these immigrants. These people love their families, their country and their culture. They are not sneaking into America on some "get rich quick" scheme or to rob us of free health benefits. Just consider the facts: Why would anyone risk their lives, live in long-term separation from their families and risk all sorts of other horrors to sneak into America? A person would only do that because their other options are worse.

To them, it is a sheer matter of survival. Economic and political conditions are so bad in their native land that they are forced to try. The ironic part is that those conditions are so bad in large part through the policies of the American government and international businesses.

* * *
From the Bishops' Justice for Immigrants website:

On Sunday, March 21st, JFI will host a Mass in support of immigrants with celebrants Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Wester at 11:00am at St. Aloysius Church (19 I Street N.W., Washington DC 20001). Afterward, please join thousands of people on the National Mall to urge our members of Congress to introduce and pass immigration reform legislation. With the expectation that comprehensive immigration reform could soon be considered by Congress, it is crucial that supporters of reform make their voices heard on Capitol Hill. Anyone that cannot attend the March 21st events can still take action in support of reform by sending electronic postcards to your members of Congress postcard.

From a Justice For Immigrants flyer:

Show your solidarity with comprehensive immigration reform

On Sunday March 21, thousands of people from across America—including some 25 buses from Ohio--will travel to Washington DC to call on Congress and the Administration to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

If you want to travel to DC, there are still spaces on a bus from Columbus. Contact Ruben at 614-571-1759, as soon as possible.

If you can’t travel to DC, join Columbus supporters on Saturday, March 20:

9 AM Parish Mass
10:30 AM Welcome & Prayer for Cross-Country Bus Riders
Christ the King Catholic Church
2777 E. Livingston Ave., Columbus 43209 (4 blks west of S. James Rd.)
Come out to welcome and support over 50 Californians from the faith-based community organization, PICO-National Network. They are stopping at Christ the King Church for a brief respite on their cross-country journey to DC. There will be brief witnesses to the need for comprehensive reform. Then we’ll send the bus riders off on their last leg of the journey with prayer & support.

Questions: Nancy Powers, Justice for Immigrants Campaign, Ohio co-coordinator
614-284-3692 or nancy.r.powers@gmail.com.

You can also go here:
1 PM
Rally for Reform
Ohio State House (as the buses leave for D.C.)

For more information about the need for comprehensive immigration reform, go to http://www.justiceforimmigrants.org/

Full House!

2010-02-25T11:34:00.004-05:00

The house was positively throbbing with activity the past several days, with two very different events on the weekend and another one last night:

Swap Party

Just so you don't think we're serious all the time, Erin threw a very wonderful Swap Party! Folks brought items to trade in for items that other people brought. People received a poker chip for each item they brought which they could then redeem for other items.

The living room was filled with tables of household goods, purses & shoes, knick-knacks and toys. I never thought my 2006 commemorative Burger King Bobble Head would find a home, but it was one of the first items to go. Erin warned me not to bring junk, so I almost decided against showcasing that one! The old adage is true that one person's junk is another's treasure.

While it was a fun, social time, it also served a purpose: In our modern society, we are trained to be independent. We often take for granted that the only way to get something is to buy it ourselves. Erin's swap party showed another way: People can simply share what they have. You may find something unexpected or perhaps you may find exactly what you've been looking for.

Ginger shares details of her recent trip to the Holy Land with Charla above.

Folks were thrilled to get rid of stuff they had around the house they no longer wanted. They were also equally thrilled to take home "new" items from others--and not a single cent was involved in the transaction! Leftover items were shuttled to the Catholic Worker Free Store, and perhaps kept until the next Swap Party. The main question that folks were asking was--When is the next Swap Party? The answer: Pretty soon! Stay posted for details as they unfold.

Erin was reunited with longtime friend Edna.

H1N1 Inoculations

We have long since wanted to offer health-related services through the Catholic Worker house. Columbus Public Health and Mt. Carmel Church Partnerships asked us if they could set up a clinic for free H1N1 inoculations, and we gladly accepted.

The event was a success with 142 people inoculated! There were folks from the parish and neighborhood. The majority of the clientele were from the 12:30 Spanish-language Mass at St. James the Less.

The building was packed, but the line moved quickly. Snacks of fruit, granola and donuts were moving quickly. Joan and I spent much time constantly mixing up new containers of frozen juice. The medical teams were 100% professional and did a classy job registering folks, shepherding the line and giving the inoculations themselves.

Clinics such as this one are often in uncomfortable or cramped quarters, based on where they are at. We were glad to help provide a homey atmosphere for everyone involved. Children in particular thoroughly enjoyed playing with the Thomas train set that Erin recently donated to us!

Nurses and administration personnel are setting up for inoculations in the picture above.

Children will need follow-up shots after a month, so we are looking into options to providing that clinic here, as well. Clinics like these are important, as the population is still not adequately immunized to offset the next wave of the "swine flu" which is expected to hit soon. Latinos in particular are high-risk for developing life-threatening complications from it.

Click here for a listing of upcoming vaccination clinics through Columbus Public Health.

Community Gardening

The garden steering committee decided to host three informational tutorials in the months of January, February and March. Last night was the second one. Both events so far were a wonderful time of community and friendliness. Jean is becoming famous for her creations out of the "Monastery Soups" book. Yesterday was cabbage, potato and chicken soup, last month was--believe it or not--Brussels sprout soup. Others brought fruit and desserts. At the January meeting, James and Etta brought the largest chocolate cake we've ever seen, and Debbie has baked a cake for both events, as well. We cracked open one of our few remaining jars of homemade salsa, too.

Last night, we were treated to a talk by Lisa, who is an inspector for The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA). She is a prolific organic gardener both at home and work. She gave a wealth of practical information about how to grow and maintain an organic garden, including everything from maintaining the soil with compost, choosing organic fertilizers and pesticides, and managing pests.

This year's gardeners promises to be a stellar group. They are a mix of neighborhood folks, parishioners and others who have come through the Catholic Worker network. We are quite pleased at how it is turning out!

Jean also decided to brew a batch of our recently-arrived Just Haiti coffee. Folks were quite pleased at the flavor. When we announced at the end of the meeting that we have bags of it we can offer for a donation, two people quickly took us up on the offer. We certainly do not profit on this at all (in fact there is a small loss until we are able to buy in bulk quantities), but we are happy to distribute it for a very worthy cause. See the post below for more information.

Join us on Saturday, March 13th from 1pm - 3pm for a Seed Starting Party! Joan and Orchlene will be leading the session. Bring you containers, pots, seeds or anything else you can think of, or just come to learn. We should have some materials to share, as well. In some cases, one package of seeds can grow dozens of plants, which can yield a tremendous cost savings.

Just Haiti Coffee

2010-02-22T13:24:00.006-05:00

We are proud to have on hand a large quantity of fresh coffee from the organization Just Haiti!

Pat and I discovered them while attending the recent Pax Christi National Conference in Chicago last summer. The coffee is grown in small cooperatives and fairly traded. In addition, it is organic and sustainably shade grown.

From their website: Just Haiti works to alleviate poverty, hunger, violence, illiteracy and disease in Haiti by fostering small-business development, education programs, employment opportunity, infrastructure improvement and environmental quality.

The coffee is quite good. We have on hand a regular gourmet roast as well as a darker, Haitian-style roast. We would be glad to distribute it to you for a reasonable donation. Our expenses are $9.95 for each 12 oz package plus shipping--well within a normal price range for gourmet, Fair Trade products. If we are able to move a large quantity, then we will be able to make bulk purchases to cut costs a bit, but for right now we are experimenting with smaller quantities to see how it goes.

I was impressed to discover how well established the Fair Trade market is in Columbus after doing some market research. Many churches and vendors sell quite a bit of Fair Trade coffee and other products. However, I was also surprised to discover no signs of Haitian coffee anywhere in town. That is a gap we intend to fill!

Just Haiti invests in sustainable development in Haiti--the kind of development that may have prevented many of the recent earthquake deaths through better infrastructure and a population more spread out in rural areas. While Just Haiti mostly supports communities near Baradères on the southwestern "arm" of the island (about 100 miles from the earthquake epicenter), they are taking in a surge of refugees from Port-au-Prince. In addition, some buildings have been damaged directly by the earthquakes in that area.

The organization Just Haiti not only distributes coffee, but it also takes donations directly through its website to support sustainable development and earthquake relief in rural areas. Check out the links above for more information!

Stop by the Catholic worker house to try out some Haitian coffee. We will be glad to brew you a pot! You are welcome to take home a bag.

Reflections on the Death Penalty Vigil Line

2010-02-19T13:18:00.009-05:00

I finally got my clothing right.

There is something of a science when it comes to dressing appropriately to be outside for an hour holding a sign and standing in place. I've been getting frostbitten fingers and numb legs standing with Dave downtown the last couple of weeks. Today, I made sure to have long johns, thick gloves and my trusty mountain vest underneath my jacket. It also helped that the weather has broken for the better recently.

It has been hard to eat after these vigils, but on previous weeks that would have required a discipline that I don't have. Not having much more than morning coffee in my belly, I have been going home and eating ravenous portions of bacon and eggs or a fat sub afterwards. It is understandable after standing in freezing temperatures on an empty stomach, but it has never sat right. With the onset of Lent, I'm eating a sensible meatless breakfast and then fasting for lunch afterwards. There is something about standing in the reality of the death penalty that makes fasting seem necessary.

It is good to share time on the vigil line. Sometimes I feel I'm doing more to lift the spirits of long-time vigiler Dave, who usually stands alone on these Friday afternoons. I hope our conversations are not a distraction to the work we are doing, but good company probably keeps the movement going more than anything. In the spirit of Catholic Worker hospitality, being a friendly face to share the work fits right into our charism.

So we stand for an hour holding signs. I try to make eye contact with passers by and smile--I'm not sure what else to do. A couple of people approach us in an hour to express support, sign a petition or ask what we're doing. It is easy to imagine if these vigils could be on every day of the week and on multiple corners of the streets--if the movement to stop the death penalty could be a constant presence. There is a lot of traffic as people mill about to and from lunch. Do they want to be reminded of the death penalty on their lunch break? I wouldn't blame them if they didn't--the two don't mix well for me, either.

Buttons and Beads Have Changed the World

2010-02-14T10:37:00.005-05:00

Remember those Christian hippie chicks back in the 1980s?

I can almost visualize a booth at an Earth Day festival or some peace rally: There would be a young woman peddling beads and trinkets from across the world. She'd be wearing fair trade buttons and have an array of pamphlets documenting the importance of fairly traded goods and the injustice of the current system. She was insistent and passionate about the cause.

I first remember learning about Fair Trade products at those peace & justice events in the 1980s, as I was coming of age. I was immediately sympathetic to the cause. However, I must also admit that I was almost embarrassed by those efforts. These were the Reagan-Bush years, when social justice was a terribly unpopular thing. Considering the unbelievable size of the world's markets, what would a few fairly traded beads, crafts and soap do? It was such a minuscule amount, the tiniest fraction of a drop in the bucket.

This feeling of futility has always hung like a shadow anytime I would think about social justice activities, including vigils against the death penalty, civil disobedience to close the School of the Americas or any number of other important causes. In college, I became involved in direct service to the hungry and homeless, and the immediate benefits to all involved were captivating. I put my attention there.

Fast forward to today: Our Catholic Worker community has been looking into ways of serving the Haitian people. The sheer devastation of the recent earthquakes have made it impossible not to take action, as we've all been in agony over the issues it raises. It seems every church and community group has been active in this cause, and much assistance has been raised for emergency efforts. In light of that, we've been looking at options to support long-term, sustainable development in Haiti--the kind of development that might have prevented a lot of those earthquake deaths.

Pat reminded me of the group Just Haiti, who were selling fairly traded coffee at the recent Pax Christi gathering in Chicago. He bought a package and brewed it this past summer, and it was good. Ideas started circulating about distributing this coffee locally--perhaps we could be a vendor of some kind.

I started researching the local market by visiting numerous churches and shops like Global Gallery and the Clintonville Community Market. I was amazed at the well-established infrastructure that churches already have with fair trade vendors. One church with 600 members moves 50 lbs of coffee each month! These efforts are strong across denominational lines, as I visited Unitarian, Methodist, Mennonite and Catholic churches and I saw the same wonderful activity.

It is hard to get accurate statistics on the market share of fairly traded coffee. Much depends on how the terms are defined and who regulates and certifies it. Just to get a broad sketch, though, one report shows the market share of fair trade coffee in the US to be about 0.2% in the year 2000, growing to 1.8% by the year 2004. By anyone's calculation, that is a significant rate of growth in such a short time! This other report picks up where the other leaves off and show the market share rising to 3.1% by the year 2006. Now, national supermarket and coffee shop chains have begun selling fair trade, as well.

I had to admit: Those Christian hippies in the 1980s changed the world!

When virtually no one else was talking about it, when it was almost laughable, those brave folks, in the thickest point of the Rush Limbaugh years, setting up those fair trade tables 20 years ago started a new conversation. They first convinced the churches, who have since been educating their congregations. People kept talking about it, urging their churches, local shops and big chains to take on fair trade products. Those buttons started a groundswell and created pressure so that today fair trade is a significant--and still growing--market force.

I'm reminded of the famous Margaret Meade quote: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

We have heard it before and know it to be true. Still, it is hard to believe it when we feel like such a small David versus such a large Goliath. Like many others out there, I have been sympathetic to social justice causes by paralyzed by the sense of futility. In researching fair trade coffee, I came face to face with the reality that IT WORKS! A few people brave enough (or perhaps silly enough) to pick up a sign and talk the truth about injustice really can and do make a difference.

Those fair trade tables remind me how much we should never discount our efforts for justice, no matter how small they may seem at the time. Dorothy Day talked about how monks offering hospitality in the so-called Dark Ages had a lasting impact on society--they changed society without violent revolution or total acquiescence to negative circumstances.

Back to the coffee: I could not find anyone else in Columbus distributing coffee from Haiti, so there is room to grow for sure. The good and bad news of the market in Columbus is that it is so well-established. Asking churches and co-ops to temporarily halt their orders in order to try out Haitian coffee seems counterproductive. It can be argued that the circumstances in Haiti can demand such an action, but those Peruvian, Salvadoran and Ethiopian farmers have also come to depend on our market and to break relationship with them in order to help Haiti is a tough item to discern. It might be best to break new ground in the market.

We'll keep you posted on how this develops, and please don't hesitate to share ideas with us if you see a direction this could go. Perhaps the next time you visit the Columbus Catholic Worker, you may see a table of fair trade beads, buttons, coffee and chocolate on display.

There Again, This Time With The Columbus Catholic Worker

2010-02-06T10:30:00.001-05:00

The following post is written by Jean, our newest community member:

Almost 25 years ago, my brother David and I stayed at the Catholic Worker house on First Street in NYC, camping in the container garden on its roof and, with our Village-ite sister Joan, joining us to help in the kitchen.

For the greater part of the last decade, the Ithaca, NY Catholic Worker community - out of which the "St. Patrick's Four" action against the second Iraq War grew - were my neighbors and my fellows among the people gathered for the sumptuous community meals at Loaves and Fishes. I remember clearly the first time I ran into Danny Burns at our neighborhood coffee shop and, later, Clare Grady when each came home after being released from prison: my chest fills even now with the realization of the love and gratitude I felt for them, for their willingness to speak and act so powerfully and simply what was in my heart.

For most of my adult life, whenever I moved to a new city, I would look around for a CW, and the idea of living in community and of "doing my work" (I have been a social worker for 20 years) in community would tug at me. Then, I would get distracted and that desire would go underground again . . .

Pictured to the left is Jean and friend Trooper, who is mentioned below.

And then, in 2005, in the days immediately after the levees broke in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, I travelled to south Louisiana to run a shelter for the Red Cross (I was the social worker at its homeless shelter in Ithaca). A Catholic community, the Cursillo Center in Prairie Ronde, had opened its doors to the Red Cross and, at any given time, 150 to 250 evacuees from New Orleans and St Bernard Parish. I described my experience in this September 16, 2005 e-mail:

I am just now getting to e-mail for the first time since the levees broke in New Orleans. I am in Prairie Ronde, just outside the town of Opelousas, north of Lafayette. Joanne – my co-worker at the Red Cross in Ithaca - and I are co-managing a shelter with a team of men from the Cursillo Center, a Catholic retreat center here.

I know everyone is exhausted, but the anxious, frightened energy is finally dissipating - in our shelter, at least - and families are beginning to look to the future. Many of the older black women from New Orleans have told us that now their babies - their beautiful black children - might survive because the rest of the world may finally pay attention to what it has ignored for so long.

We are awakened each morning to be welcomed by people who are rebuilding community and hope right before our eyes. It is hard to be tired in the middle of that. The experience of working as a team with the Cursillo community has been extraordinary: we meet nightly to review what is working, what is not, and to collectively coordinate and strengthen our work together and with the evacuees. For the last week, we have held our meetings at bonfire, Jupiter and the moon rising above us. And, then, last night, I sat in the dormitory with Trooper (our real mainstay in the partnership between the Red Cross and the Cursillo Center), my hands held tight in the lap of Miss Juanita, an eighty year old blind woman who is living away from New Orleans for the first time in her life. She and Trooper sang 'That Old Rugged Cross' . . .

Six years ago at this time, I had just returned to Portland from Romania, having seen a total eclipse of the sun from a rooftop in the very center of Bucharest. That afternoon, I went to Vespers at a small Eastern Orthodox Church (Biserica Stravropoleos) and then to hear Placido Domingo sing in an open air concert in the horrifically beautiful and deeply hated People's Palace, built "by" Ceausescu. I have saved a note from that time: 'Having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world, I cannot be the same'.

Trooper says that 'Hurricane Katrina' means 'healing wind' (how he got there I do not remember). And, this morning, I see: Having been sung to by Ms. Juanita on the other side of tragedy, I am grateful . . . and I am changed forever."

Trooper (he and his family now my dear friends) and I call that experience my first Cursillo: a three week "walk with Christ", rather than the usual three-day "short walk with Christ". And I fell in love with that walk. I went home to Ithaca and, when my dog Rocky died at 14, I packed up and moved to Louisiana, the first step on my way to discerning a life lived in community, a life lived with those simple, challenging and life-losing-and-finding ways I learned after Katrina.

Four years later, I am unspeakably grateful to be here with the Columbus Catholic Worker community, and to be discerning with the Dominican Sisters of Peace, a warm, loving group of Catholic religious women I met while rebuilding houses in St Bernard Parish just weeks before the 4th anniversary of Katrina.

So grateful to be living the life I had glimpsed at the First Street Catholic Worker 25 years ago; the life I fell in love with during those three life-changing weeks with the loving, hopeful people of south Louisiana as they welcomed me, as we worked together, ate together, lived together.

Server and served increasingly indistinguishable. Hospitality offered and received, received and offered. Community.

I am so glad to be "there" again, here, with you all.

This Morning

2010-02-04T13:02:00.009-05:00

At approximately 10:20 this morning, the State of Ohio executed Mark Brown.

It was business as usual for most people downtown this morning. I walked by a couple of guys in suits talking about their cell phone plans. A cashier of a local soup shop came out to scold me for using the restroom without patronizing. In fact, I saw no awareness of the execution at all until I came upon the small, huddled group of sign-holders, gathered to witness and pray, who I came to join.

Like most Ohioans, I don't know much about Mark Brown, either. It is amazing how insulated we all are from an execution being sponsored in our name. I do hope that he rests in peace. While I am always surprised how God can bring peace to the most impossible situations, I imagine that Mark Brown had many moments without peace. Guilty or not, his life was one of tragedy. I'm told his case has all the usual trappings of death penalty cases--inconsistent witnesses, lack of credible eye witnesses, you name it.

I felt awkward picking up a sign. I consider myself more suited to working for justice over a cup of coffee and conversation, but there is a time and a place for this. When the group circled up to pray, I knew I was where I needed to be.

It was hard to eat after the vigil, but I forced down a sandwich. I'm glad Ginger invited me to noon Mass at the Cathedral.

I pray for the Governor and those directly involved in this execution. I can't imagine all the walls they must have built inside of themselves to go forward with something like this. I say this not with anger but with compassion and sadness for what I believe they are doing to themselves. The terrorists really do win when the killers turn us into killers. I hope that no act of violence in my life can take away my respect for all life.

I also really hope I'm never tested on this.

New Laws Affecting the Immigrant Community

2010-02-01T16:52:00.001-05:00

It has suddenly become a lot harder to be an immigrant in Columbus, OH.

Franklin County just enacted a law where every time the police take fingerprints, they immediately compare them with the national immigration database. This is called the Secure Communities initiative. This is a new program that just started in two counties in Ohio, but it will probably become statewide soon. It is already in effect in several states, most of them on the border with Mexico. Prospective citizens are fingerprinted as part of the application process--so if someone is picked up who either is--or isn't--in the immigration database, it could alert authorities to further investigation.

On top of that, there is also another law recently passed where a person has to be a legal resident in order to register their vehicle in the state of Ohio. So far, the LULAC has tried to fight it, but "public safety" won out. Apparently, the case was argued that there is no good reason to own a vehicle if one is not going to drive it, so the only people who can own a vehicle should be the people who can legally drive and hold a drivers license. Others feels that this is an indirect way to enforce immigration laws.

I recently attended a session hosted by the newly-formed chapter of the ACLU in Columbus as well as LULAC (a Hispanic advocacy group). The meeting was held at St. James the Less.

The first speaker was a Latino police officer and he did a tutorial about what to do if stopped by the police. Next up were two ACLU lawyers. Some of what they said was very ivory tower--It is good to know that all people in America have constitutional rights, including the right to a safe workplace and minimum wage, but it presents few real-world applications to someone who is here undocumented. However, they also gave good advice to folks to learn how to live in America given the immigration policy we have--be upstanding members of society, keep a low profile, etc.

This is good advice, because if immigration reform does happen, the people most likely to stay are those who have a clean criminal record as well as some skills in English. All these presenters spent a lot of time telling people what to say and what not to say if Immigration knocks on their door or if the police stop them.

The Director of Latino Ministry got up and urged people to get power of attorney so that if they are deported, someone will have legal custody of their children and their home, car, business, etc.
The good news is that since the earthquakes, any people from Haiti who are here in America illegally will be granted a form of temporary asylum. However, that is poor consolation for the many other people who are also here fleeing impoverished countries and politically oppressive regimes.

As a friend of mine put it, immigration is a reality. Whether Americans like it or not won't change the fact of the matter: Many immigrants have arrived without documents and they are here to stay. They are contributing members of society, and our culture is much richer for their presence here. As members of Christ's body, it makes sense to welcome the stranger and provide save harbor for the refugee.

As a people of hope, let us hope for a safe, sane, humanitarian immigration policy in this nation. As people of work, let us put our feet to the pavement and use our hands and mouths to phone, email, petitions and urge anyone and everyone to consider this issue. Change happens when people get motivated enough to talk to their friends, family and coworkers about it. If everyone talk to people in their circle of acquaintances, we can build pressure and momentum for change.

Latino Rights Talk Tonight

2010-01-28T12:02:00.002-05:00

Members of the ACLU and Lu Lac (Hispanic advocacy group) will be speaking in the cafeteria of the St. James the Less school tonight at 7:00 pm (which is the building adjacent to the CW house) (Thursday, January 28th).

There is urgency in the Latino community now. Recently, Ohio passed a law requiring all people to show proof of residency in order to register a vehicle. As many as 47,000 people in Ohio may be affected. Many Latino families face the possibility of having to leave the state or live in even more fear.

The topic is "Know Your Rights." It is an informational session for members of the Latino community helping them to know what to say and do if members of their family are deported, if they are pulled over by the police or involved in an accident. Anyone who has ever had to learn a second language can tell you that a situation like that can be terrifying, even if you have done nothing wrong.

The main presenter is an ACLU lawyer who will be speaking in English with an interpreter, so even if you don't speak Spanish you can benefit from this talk.

If you are interested in immigration reform or issues which face the Latino community, this would be a good event to attend. It is not sponsored by the CCW, but some of us will be attending. Call or email with any questions!

Texas of the North

2010-01-24T12:34:00.015-05:00

As hard as it may be to believe, Ohio ranks third only behind Texas and Alabama for the most executions of any state in 2009.

While there has been an overall drop in the number of executions nationally since 2000, Ohio seems to be running counter to this trend by increasing since that time. There was a brief time in 2007-2008 where the number was decreasing in Ohio, but in 2009 it rose dramatically and shows no signs of stopping, based on the list of scheduled executions for 2010--there is one scheduled each month in Ohio through June. Last year, Ohio had a total of 5--this year, we'll have 6 only halfway through the year.

This trend has remained consistent even with different people from different political parties occupying the governor’s mansion.

I will admit that sometimes I find it hard to be passionate about this topic. Even though I am against the death penalty, there are times when it seems it is more urgent to advocate for other causes which involve justice for thousands or even millions of people. However, the death penalty sets the tone for how our entire nature operates. The effects reach far beyond simply the lives of certain incarcerated individuals.

For me, it boils down to this:

If we as a society can't figure out how to solve our problems other than by killing someone, then why are we so surprised that criminals are not able to figure out a better way, either?

Our society sees violence as a way to dealing with problems. When we are born and bred into this culture, this mindset permeates how we conduct ourselves in our interpersonal relationships as well as how our nation behaves politically. A lot of people simply do not know of any alternative other than dealing a problem violently--they have rarely seen anything different.

However, the evidence is quite substantial that violence of this sort does not solve problems, that the death penalty is an ineffective deterrent to crime, and that our criminal system is messed up at best and corrupt or unfair at worst. We make only token attempts at working toward rehabilitation of criminals and true reconciliation.

The movement against the death penalty is not just a crusade to save the lives of certain incarcerated individuals--it is a quest to save the soul of our nation.

What can be done?

Hearing Sr. Helen Prejean speak on this topic is one of the best ways to be introduced to the subject. If you are undecided or simply need inspiration, I would recommend hearing what she has to say. Her story formed the basis for the movie Dead Man Walking. She will be appearing at Ohio Wesleyan University on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 7 pm. The cost is free. The event will be at the Gray Chapel, 61 South Sandusky Street, Delaware, OH 43015.

Vigils:

Folks gather for a peaceful vigil every Friday night from 6-7 pm at the Governor’s Mansion, Parkview and Maryland.
I’ll be joining St. James the Less parishioner Dave at noon on Fridays at the corner of State and High downtown, in front of the governor’s offices.
On the day of any scheduled execution, there is a vigil at 10 am in front of the State House. The next one is February 4, 2010, on behalf of Mark Brown.

Send letters to:

The Honorable Ted Strickland
Riffe Center
77 S. High St. 30th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6117

Call the Governor:

614-466-3555

Send emails:

Go to http://www.ohio.gov/, click on governor’s picture, then click on “Contact the Governor.”
If you are not sure what to say, ask for commutation of sentence to life without parole.

1614

2010-01-21T00:56:00.003-05:00

In our extended saga to discover the name of our Catholic Worker house, we tried just about everything under the sun. We prayed about it, talked about it and came close to settling on a name a couple of times. We wanted to recognize the Dominican tradition or perhaps the Precious Blood order. We thought about Latino-oriented names. We pondered saints, themes, places.

Erin even facilitated a naming discernment session where we had large poster paper sheets taped to the walls of the living room with ideas all over them in an attempt to brainstorm and zero in on something. Still, nothing.

We've been quite simply the Columbus Catholic Worker House and I suppose that is just fine.

Among the naming methods tried, we toyed with using our address. We are at 1614 Oakland Park Avenue. What does the Good Book have to say about 1614? A few books in the Bible have a chapter 16, verse 14, and I almost fell off my chair when I read a couple of them. Whether they can be adapted into good names or not, they really capture our values:

Deuteronomy 16:14, New American Bible/Jerusalem Bible

You shall make merry at your feast, together with your son and daughter, your serving men and women, and also the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow who belong to your community.

I Corinthians 16:14, New American Bible

Your every act should be done with love.

Immigration Reform

2010-01-15T21:45:00.001-05:00

The mural above is called "Sueños." Artist information and background is here.

The time is right to work for immigration reform. The Catholic Church has launched a nationwide campaign to make our voices heard. Even if you are not Catholic, I ask you to consider joining in as the principles advocated for by the Catholic bishops are sensible, just and apply across religious lines.

The US Catholic bishops have always been a strong voice for immigrants, and their stance on this issue has always been a great source of Catholic pride for me.

Postcards will be distributed at Masses all across the country. Ask for them at your local parish. If you don't have access, you can find electronic copies online here.

The Columbus Pax Christi chapter as well as the Catholic Worker have joined in the efforts. We will be distributing these postcards and advocating to whomever we can find.

The website sponsored by the US Bishops on this issue is excellent and summarizes the terms of the proposal and provides responses to some of the most common myths about immigrants. It is a great one-stop-shop for questions and answers on immigration reform.

The immigration reform proposed by the bishops includes the following:

The right for families to stay intact. Right here in our Catholic Worker programs, we meet families who have been torn apart by deportations and unfair immigration policies. Children are left without parents and are easy prey for the drug culture and gangs.

The right to due process--many immigrants are detained for months and even years without a proper trial.

The creation of a reasonable and fair temporary worker program, which keeps families intact and allows workers to eventually move toward naturalization and citizenship.

Legalization of people who have been living here for a while who can show a record of upstanding behavior.

The truth is that many of the immigrants in this country--especially from Latin America--should truly be classified as refugees rather than immigrants. They do not come here as some sort of "get rich quick" scheme. They risk life and death because conditions are so bad in their homeland.

On a deeper level, it is easy to see how conditions in their homeland are made so unfavorable by direct US intervention and exploitation. Conditions in much of Latin America can be called neocolonial, as foreign businesses and governments support the exploitation of the local people. When people struggle for better living and working conditions, they are often suppressed violently, as seen through the lens of the School of the Americas. Yes, our economic and military policies actually create the waves of immigrants in the first place! The US bishops urge that people should have a "right not to migrate" in the first place by having the option for a living wage and safe, sane conditions in which to live.

Redistribution of Wealth and Personalism

2009-12-25T13:49:00.021-05:00

A Linear Way

One of the primary tasks of the Catholic Worker is the redistribution of wealth. One way of looking at it is actually very simple: We take offerings from those who have in order to make it available to those who have not. We have the great joy and privilege of being the ones in the middle of this transfer--what a blessed place to be! I still believe that if people knew just how blessed it was, they would be knocking down our doors trying to steal our jobs from us.

The clothing "free store" is a great example: Folks have excess clothing and household supplies they are glad to give. Most of what we have received so far is in very good condition and given with great love and care--you can tell. Other folks are struggling so being able to clothe their families frugally is a big deal. We make it available to them. Goods travel from areas where there is a surplus to where there is a deficit. It doesn't sound like communism--it rather sounds like a natural, healthy equilibrium for all parties. Folks who need have the opportunity to be blessed by receiving, and folks with a surplus have the opportunity to be blessed by giving.

I am often shocked at how simple it is.

To paraphrase St. John Chrysostom, our possessions are the Lord's, however we may have obtained them. It is pretty much an audacious idea to think we actually own any part of God's creation. Sure, creation is a gift to us, but since we are all equal in God's eyes, wouldn't it be appropriate to share creation equally among each other? It is God's gift to all of us. If a greater amount of wealth and property falls into our sphere of influence, that just means we have more to distribute to correct the imbalance.

If God came to the door and delivered Christmas dinner for the whole neighborhood, it would be terrible for a small group of us to hog more than our fair share while others did not get any at all--some folks taking seconds and thirds and squirreling away extras in freezer bags with others not even having a single plate. Rather, you would distribute the food so that everyone had some and it would probably be based on their need--the family with the growing teenager would get more than the elderly couple, but each would get their fair share.

On a small scale, the right thing to do is simple common sense, as the above example shows. But this is exactly how we squander the resources of the earth! Americans make up 5% of the world's population but consume almost 50% of the world's resources--an imbalance that is hard to justify when 1 billion people are literally starving to death at any given moment in time.

A Personalist Way

This isn't to say that all possessions are bad. When people oppose a system of injustice that they are embedded in, sometimes they still think in those terms. As good capitalists, we have been trained to accumulate. This accumulation is a form of power and protection. We have more stuff so that we can leverage more safety and pleasure for ourselves than others. When we see the injustice in this, all too often we assume that the answer to accumulation is to de-accumulate. And when you consider environmental strain and the fact that there is so much wealth concentrated among so few people, there is a pretty easy argument to simply have less stuff.

Live simply, so that others may simply live . . . Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Those are good mottoes--up to a point. However, they are also the words of capitalists trying to reform while still using the tools and mindset of capitalism. I think one of the reasons that Americans have difficulty with following these mottoes is that they sense that the only way to be good is to have less of themselves in the world. That doesn't settle well.

When we've been trained all our lives to accumulate more stuff, then the idea of de-accumulation is almost a form of suicide. We rarely think of it consciously, but when we have spent so much time seeing our very worth in terms of what stuff we have, then to have less stuff might equate to trying to erase ourselves from the world.

This comes to bear particularly strong with the carbon footprint. When you sit down and do the math, it is hard to justify being alive at all! While any good plan for sustainability is going to have to address overpopulation at some point, we must be careful not to devalue life in the process. This is the danger of secular liberal philosophy--it seems to argue that the world would be a better place if you weren't here. That is simply not true.

The personalist philosophy which is at the foundation of the Catholic Worker movement reminds us to take a second look at this. Our personal possessions are truly that--something personal. The material items in our lives can be there to expand our person--our whole person. They are not just items in our possession, but can truly be a tool for the extension of ourselves.

A personalist might recreate those mottoes this way: Have more so you can give more. Or maybe: Instead of spending your life to have more, use what you have to live more life.

Accumulating a big house with a hefty security system is merely an accumulation for your body--it is a power move designed to keep the outside world out and to live a lavish lifestyle. On the other hand, accumulating a big house so that you have more room to share and invite the whole world in is an expansion of your whole person, not just pleasure and safety for your body but your heart and soul, as well. In the latter, you leverage the resources at your disposal to expose yourself to the world for service and the possibility of growth.

That can't be done with a mathematical formula but rather a personal change of heart.

It is not always about having less. It is about doing more with what you have--doing the kinds of things that expand your sphere of influence in the world not in terms of simply accumulating more power and territory, but an expansion of your whole being which involves service, risk, and growth. A certain amount of attention on safety is necessary to stay alive. But with too much obsession on safety you can spend you time and resources in a self-imposed prison, not really living fully.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is an extension of Michelangelo's whole person. The paint and brushes allowed him to be more and to give more to the world. For others, having that 3rd house on the beach or a closet full of clothes that are never worn probably do not measure up the same way. Do the possessions at your disposal make you bigger or smaller as a whole person?

This is where the witness of the Catholic Worker movement is not limited to the official houses of hospitality. This is something we can all participate in. The Catholic Worker shows us how to turn our very homes and lifestyles into acts of service, a theme I have written about before here and here. We all have possessions. Are we using them to insulate ourselves from the world at someone else's expense? Are we puffing ourselves up with stuff we don't need while others are hungry out on the streets? Or we using the resources at our disposal for more opportunities for service and growth for ourselves, expanding our whole person?

There are no strict guidelines for this--it is a personal decision based on personal circumstances. how to translate this into addressing systemic injustice is hard. It is based on personal conversion, as one person may accumulate for power while another may accumulate for love. While the Catholic Worker tends to eschew institutionalization, many communities have found that it can be possible to come to a point where having a security system or an insurance policy makes sense given their circumstances. However, that has to be a lived decision that you come to by being embedded in your environment. From a personalist perspective, you have to ask: Does that insurance policy make it more possible to be available to the community or does it close ourselves off? Is it a good stepping stone to further openness or is it a step back?

Summation

I look at the redistribution of wealth in a linear way and also in a personalist way. Hopefully this shows how the philosophies at the core of the Catholic Worker movement (in line with Catholic Social Teaching) do not jive with either modern liberal or conservative ideologies, but are truly a third way.

The redistribution of wealth sounds like Marxism. Taking personal responsibility for ourselves and the world aorund us sounds like a Libertarian principle. Yet neither of these left of right wing ideologies fully captures what we are about.

Check pages 106-107 of The Catholic Worker Movement: Intellectual and Spiritual Origins for what I'm talking about. In this reflection, I draw heavily and directly from the French personalist philosophers Mounier and Cantin. You can peruse those pages online here.

Nonviolence Training Workshop

2009-12-15T17:37:00.042-05:00

Jasiu instructs while Ruthmary, Jonathan, Mary and Bob look on.

The Catholic Worker house was filled to the brim last Saturday, as 35 participants and 3 facilitators engaged in an 8-hour nonviolence training. The event was sponsored by the new Columbus chapter of Pax Christi. We were pleased to host Jasiu, Sherri and Mary of the Michigan Peace Team who drove through Lansing blizzards and ice to make this happen!

Pictured above are Sherri, Tom, Jasiu and Frank

As Pax Christi and so many other groups have shown us, nonviolence is the best and probably the only way to bring about true, long-term peace. However, just as I surely would not want to go into armed combat without adequate training, I certainly would not recommend attempting to resolve a conflict nonviolently without training, either! This is what groups like the MPT teach.

The morning session was an introduction to nonviolent communication skills--how to talk in a non-aggressive way and healthy, productive ways to respond to aggression.

A good portion of the afternoon was spent in role plays, working out ways that people could react in various situations to be a presence of peace. What would you do if you saw the police beating up a guy? What if you were part of a demonstration that went awry? Jasiu told a story about how he and his wife intervened when they ran across a man beating up a woman in public. Spouses and friends can become "affinity teams" and work out ahead of time how they might react as a team to situations like that.

As the pictures can attest, we took the roles of police, demonstrators, antagonizers, peace team members and bystanders. We put ourselves in the shoes of these people to see things from their perspective. Much of the work of the MPT involves being a peaceful presence at gatherings and demonstrations. They also send international teams to be observers and peacekeepers in troubled areas such as Palestine and, more recently, Mexico.

Jonathan, Kelly, Jonathan and Heather are deep in concentration above.

At our gathering were members of many different justice groups, different religious affiliations and folks ages 18-80. It was a wonderful opportunity to network. While the event was originally conceived as a chance for the new Pax Christi group to gel together, it ended up being a service we provided to the larger Columbus peace community. We are quite pleased with how it turned out, and we saw a snapshot of possibilities for the future--How wonderful it would be if the CW house could be gathering spot for the larger Columbus peace & justice community!

It is my belief that Columbus is ripe for this type of organization. We are a new and large city with many progressive elements, but we don't have the deep structures and our grassroots groups don't have the same long-term history like I saw in Cleveland and Akron. As prior generations have shown us, the key to any effective, nonviolent social change is to organize, organize, organize. Today, a larger percentage of the population want social change but there is overall less organization and, as a result, less effectiveness.

Fred, Joseph, Ruthmary, Mike and Jason gather around as an affinity team to work out how to handle a difficult situation ,with Bob looking on in the background.

Jasiu instructs the new team of "police officers" for the upcoming role play. Bob, Irene and Julia are ready for action!

* * *

In related news, one of the founders of the Michigan Peace Team, Fr. Peter Daughterty, was recently honored in India with the International Gandhi Award. He also has the distinction of being named the 2002 Teacher of Peace for Pax Christi USA (Dorothy Day was the first Teacher of Peace, named in 1978--some great names on that list!) I had the great privilege of meeting Fr. Peter at the recent Pax Christi gathering in Chicago, he said Mass and I later talked to him about the MPT.

Blessing

2009-12-07T00:19:00.002-05:00

We often thank God
for all the material wealth in our lives.
We call it a blessing.

Indeed, it is true that the more God has given to us
really is a great blessing to us.

But the reason it is a blessing is not because we have more--
The reason it is a blessing is because we have the opportunity to give more.

By giving more we have the opportunity to be more
like God
and what truer blessing is there than that?
and what more wealth is there than that?
and what more reason is there to be thankful to God than that?

The Untold Story: ESL

2009-12-01T17:51:00.013-05:00

There is a story that needs to be told.

There was an amazing experience of grace at the Columbus Catholic Worker recently, at a much needed time. Bev, our trusty core member who started and led so many wonderful initiatives with us—English as a second language (ESL) classes, the free clothing store, and a co-founder of Pax Christi—decided to move on without us. We wish her well and offer prayers of gratitude for her many contributions.

I assumed we would have to let ESL go, as it was hard to figure out where we would find the time or energy to continue the program. It would have been very sad, as we are only teaching a small fraction of the people at this parish alone who hunger and crave ESL instruction (we teach approx 20, but there are 120 who signed an interest list with Fr. Pat!)

Our Catholic Worker community member Erin S would not let that happen. She freely admits to having absolutely no previous ESL experience, but her many years in non-profit administration show that she knows how to form a team to meet a challenge. She put a dream team together—Vielka, our long-time friend from Kairos who had already started teaching ESL the last couple of months, Erin K, one of our garden leaders who had spent a year in Costa Rica and loves learning about other cultures, and Ginger, expert host of hospitality.

They sat down one afternoon and worked out a plan. Magic happened. Ideas were shared. Someone had a spark and another could see where it could go. Let’s try this, let’s try that. They put a wonderful patchwork quilt together. Some folks have ESL experience, some have experience learning a language of their own, some just have all the gusto in the world. ESL was back on track! Not long after this new team took over, some more amazing volunteers appeared—Mike, who keeps showing up with trunkloads of ESL materials, Ginger has been recruiting tutors, Joan, Steve and Gilda all take their turn, and I keep the coffee brewing. Vielka is unbelievable, she is the anchor who is here night after night.

It is a FUN, dynamic environment and the sweetest sharing of hospitality. The building is alive with robust laughter and friendly cheer. Many of these students have been in America for 5, 10, sometimes 25 years without knowing the language here. ESL programs are in short supply and often cost too much. The ministry of welcoming them into our home and helping isolated people have the tools to do something as basic and essential as simply talking to the people they come across in their daily lives is immense. It is hard and intimidating to learn a new language, but folks feel safe here. They can take risks.

Along with mostly Latino students, we have also started drawing folks with a Vietnamese and Cambodian background—they are learning some Spanish as well as English!

The initial plan is to keep the classes running until Dec 15th for the holiday break. At that time, the group will evaluate their methods and schedules and put something in place to start up again hopefully in January. We’ll have a pot luck party on December 15th at 6:00 pm, feel free to stop by!

Numerous others have expressed interest, so we are looking forward to a dynamic team in the new year. If you have ever wanted to do it, you may be surprised how much you can do, even if you have never tutored English before!

I am in total awe of this team--in their teaching, in their enthusiasm, and, most especially, in the way they have each responded to God’s call in this. What a spiritual boost this has been!

Prayerful Discernment

2009-11-22T21:24:00.007-05:00

The Columbus Catholic Worker is in a period of deep discernment right now. At our last open community meeting, we felt great relief in the decision to throw ourselves into prayer. It was the one light in what has been otherwise a sea of grey murkiness. We couldn’t see the path, but we knew our next step.

In light of this:

Please join us at 9 am on Saturday morning this week (Nov 28) for a time of community prayer.

We are quite pleased to welcome our friend Tom, who will be leading us in a meditation on the Lord's Prayer. Tom is a beloved member of St. Joseph's Catholic Worker House in Rochester, NY (the Rochester CW began in 1935 and was one of the first branches of the movement).

The main theme of this prayer is discernment. Before we can negotiate with the Church the new terms of our lease, we must first come to a decision as a community about who we are and what we are all about. What are the non-negotiables? Must we do overnight hospitality or can we fulfill our mission by providing the many and varied programs that we currently have? Are we willing to become a 501C3 nonprofit in order to do this?

The Catholic Worker movement is known for its adaptability to circumstances. This has been a building year for the community, and we were willing to try new things as we stretched out and formed ourselves as a community. Now that we have a foundation, we can reach for the stars. But what stars do we want to reach for?

We plan to hold our own prayer times, put together a prayer schedule, as well as encourage everyone to participate in the ongoing prayer life of the Church at Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, or any other Church service. We welcome everyone to join us in this! At Saturday's prayer, we hope to develop a schedule and ask people to join us at various times of the day for prayer--you could join us in person or from your own home.

Our group began with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and we hope and trust that we will continue to see where the hand of God may be leading us.

ALSO: The next Open Community Meeting will be Sunday, December 13th at 4:00 pm. We will continue our discussion of our present and future discernment. In particular, we will be looking at whether becoming a 501C3 non-profit makes sense.

We are reserving the 2nd Sunday of each month for the meetings. Your presence, prayer and presents are very much needed!

Panhandling

2009-11-19T14:41:00.017-05:00

Many people often find themselves in heated discussions over panhandling. Some give, others refuse. Some give food, but never money. Some recommend giving out cards with contact info for the nearest social services instead of cash. Many don't know what to do. Each stance can be very principled.

There are no easy answers to panhandling. This is why the Catholic Worker movement has always stressed the importance of personal involvement with the poor. You just can't know what the "right thing" to do is unless you walk a few miles with the people you are helping, and even then the decisions are often difficult. Your spare change could buy someone a crack fix. Your spare change could also save someone's life with emergency food or medicine. There is no way to know for sure. There is no blanket solution that serves every person equally, as much as we might like one.

I tend not to support panhandling. I rarely carry cash, so that makes the decision easy. I would rather address poverty systematically rather than in some random way, but I don't pretend to know if that's the right decision or not.

An interpretation of "Lazarus and the Rich Man" from Luke's gospel.

However, I have to admit that in some ways I like panhandling, even though I would never wish that anyone had to do it. It does get people talking. It forces us to think about an issue that we'd all rather forget about. It is poverty getting right up in your face. If the panhandlers would keep to themselves and only ask for their needs at established agencies and shelters, most of the general public would never have to engage with them or ask themselves these tough questions.

The truth is that there are poor people out there every day, even if they do not make an effort to approach anyone. Yet, it seems much more real when it is up close and personal. We feel guilty if we turn away a panhandler--and it can really ruin a night out on the town. But the truth is that we turn away poor people every single day. The fact that there are some days when people do not ask us directly face-to-face does not change the fact that we know they are out there and that they need help.

Why should be wait until someone randomly finds us on the street and asks us for help? That's not a very strategic way of addressing poverty.

It is interesting that we feel a moral obligation to do something when asked directly, but often don't feel it otherwise. It seems to be part of the human condition. It is the same condition that allows us to be mortified at the picture of a single wounded person but take little interest in lists of bombing casualties of war victims we never see. We must always strive to stay personally involved because of this inherent tendency in the human condition--out of sight very often makes something out of mind, and, apparently, out of reach of our heart, too.

I've ever heard some people say they would like to see the soup kitchens and shelters closed down, bringing masses of people out into the streets begging from anyone they could find. This would force society as a whole to do some serious thinking about poverty. While I can understand the logic, I would never advocate for the poor to be used as pawns like that.

The Catholic Worker has always advocated for giving direct food, clothing and shelter to those who need it, even if that means we run the risk of being a "band aid" by cleaning up the mess that our unjust society has created. Out of mercy for the poor, we must help them--a hungry person needs food right away, and he can't wait for society to change to get it.

But we also work for long term, systemic change. We must ask the question, "Why are they poor in the first place?" Being approached by a panhandler on the street can be a big wake-up call, but we don't need to wait for panhandlers to approach us. For every panhandler there are dozens more who suffer in silence, never asking for help. Or maybe they just aren't able to find you. What are we doing about poverty every day?

SOA Talk at Pax Christi Tonight

2009-11-18T11:21:00.005-05:00

Don't forget to join us tonight at the Pax Christi meeting at 7pm. Jim Hodge and Linda Cooper will be speaking on their ongoing work on the School of the Americas (SOA). This is a timely topic, as this weekend marks the annual protest at the gates of Fr. Benning, GA. For those who can't be there in person, this is a way to still be in solidarity. Recent political upheaval in Honduras is also linked to the School of the Americas.

Jim and Linda are the authors of Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas. They have written prolifically about this topic in the National Catholic Reporter, as well.

This is also a very important topic as the new Pax Christi group discerns its own areas of focus. The SOA relates to injustice not only in Latin America, but it is also a lens through which we can see how America uses its political and military power in other parts of the world.

The talk will be at the Catholic Worker House, 1614 Oakland Park Avenue. See contact info on the right for more info.

Blessed are the Peacemakers--Nonviolence Training Retreat

2009-11-08T23:57:00.019-05:00

For the Lord says, "Blessed are the peacemakers." Now a peacemaker is one who gives peace to another. But we cannot give another what we do not possess ourselves. Thus the Lord wants you first to be yourself filled with the blessings of peace, and then to communicate it to those in need of peace.

-St. Gregory of Nyssa, Sermon 7 on the Beatitudes

With this in mind, the Columbus Catholic Worker--in partnership with the newly formed chapter of Pax Christi--are hosting an all-day Nonviolence Training workshop. In order to be peacemakers, we must first cultivate peace on all levels of our being.

Facilitators from the Michigan Pe ace Team will be leading us from 9am until 5pm on Saturday, December 12th. Please RSVP to the contact info on the right hand side if you would like to attend! Lunch will be served. There is no cost, but donations are always welcome.

The training itself will cover a lot of ground, including these topics, taken from their website:

Experience the transforming power of nonviolence for oneself and society;

Learn about and practice skills for nonviolent peacemaking;

Learn of domestic & international violence reduction peacemaking efforts and opportunities for volunteering on projects;

Experience working together with others as a peace team.

They train groups from everything from nonviolent communication and consensus-building strategies for families and neighborhoods all the way to preparing groups for protests, acts of civil disobedience and for people who go off into war-torn parts of the world to be peacemakers.

Topics include working with hate groups, racial injustice, mechanisms for social change, nonviolent communication, etc. This training that we are having will not have a specific focus, so any and all topics can be covered. It is a great training for any people working for social change.

Please check the link above for other exciting components of the training, too numerous to mention here!

The Holy Trinity is peace itself. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three persons who are together as one Triune God. They are the living example of peace since they are diversity of persons united in perfect harmony. So indeed, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. And why is this? As this website says: "By imitating God's love of man, the peacemakers become children of God."

Take it away, St. Gregory of Nyssa:

Those who imitate God's love for human beings show forth in their own life the characteristics of the Divine Life. The Lord and Giver of good things completely annihilates anything that is foreign to goodness. This work He ordains also for you: to cast out hatred and abolish war, to exterminate envy and banish strife, to take away hypocrisy and extinguish from within the resentment of injuries smoldering in the heart.

Instead, you ought to introduce whatever is contrary to the things that have been removed. For as light follows the departure of darkness, these evil things are replaced by the fruits of the Spirit, by charity, joy, peace, goodness, generosity, and all the good things enumerated by Paul.

How, then, should we not be blessed, when we act as dispensers of the Divine gifts, since we imitate the gifts of God and model our own good deeds on the Divine munificence?

Wealth, Poverty and St. John Chrysostom

2009-11-01T16:20:00.012-05:00

A hard truth for us to realize--especially Americans--is that wealth for one person generally comes at the expense of someone else.

I find it particularly hard to justify doing much of anything when 1 billion people are starving to death at any given moment in time. There is a real cost to living in a continual state of accumulating and consuming--excess resources are coming my way for some small luxuries when they could--and should--be going to someone else to keep them alive. I think of this with every decadent hot chocolate with whipped cream I indulge myself in at the local coffee shop, while typing this on my laptop.

However, intentional poverty is a tough go, and I have barely taken steps in that direction. I am choosing not to burden myself with guilt over it, but to slowly relax my way out of the entanglement with materialism and my inevitable complicity in the violence of the world that comes with it. I've been immersed in this system all my life, it will take a while to wind my way out of it.

Intentional poverty is beautiful as a means of spiritual solidarity with the poor. It also has a very practical side of simply breaking the cycle of consumerism and exploitation. There comes a time when a person simply cannot stand to participate in the madness any longer.

I lean on the words of St. John Chrysostom, bishop and doctor of the Church. It is easier to see these dynamics of wealth and poverty with our modern knowledge about the socio-economic systems in which we live, but in the latter half of the fourth century, St. John saw this just as clearly:

"In order that you may wear one pearl drop, countless poor people are suffering from hunger. What excuse do you make for this?"

"Do you wish to adorn your face? Do so not with pearls, but with modesty, and dignity."

"Take off all ornament and place it in the hands of Christ through the poor."

The idea that our possessions are on loan from God is a strong theme in St. John Chrysostom, as well as in other Early Church Fathers. We are merely stewards of Creation, and it is our job to make sure it gets to those who need it. Many people look to Native American spirituality for these ideas, but there is also a strong tradition right in the theology of the Early Church Fathers:

"Our money is the Lord's, however we may have gathered it . . . this is why God has allowed you to have more: not to waste on prostitutes, drink, fancy food, expensive clothes, and all the other kinds of indolence, but for you to distribute to those in need."

"Not to share our wealth is to steal from the poor, and to deprive them of their means of life. We do not possess our own wealth but theirs."

Two Gifts: Of Paint and Through Paint

2009-10-21T10:48:00.003-04:00

It has become a tradition for many groups to memorialize September 11th by participating in acts of good works. This is in keeping with the spirit of togetherness that overtook America in the wake of 9/11/01.

The Columbus Catholic Worker was a site for over 70 AmeriCorps members and supervisors to be the beneficiary of their generous gift this year. Two groups of approximately 35 people each worked about 4 hours that day.

The focus was on the upstairs: Bedrooms were painted creatively and tastefully. Most now have two-tone color schemes and lively touches. Some of the rooms previously had a potential health hazard with large cracks and chunks of paint falling off--this is especially a concern as this 50 year old building no doubt has leaded paint on the bottom layers.. These were scraped and sealed under a layer of new paint.

Pictured above is the famous purple room.

A lot more than paint got put onto the structure of the Catholic Worker that day. With so many AmeriCorps members and supervisors working with us, we were asked if we would like to host an AmeriCorps*VISTA member of our own! A VISTA member is one who fulfills a 1 or 2 year commitment, working on a stipend, to help local agencies like ours develop our capacity for service. Developing new programs and building infrastructure so that our group can grow is the mission of a VISTA member.

We gladly accepted this generous offer and it took all of 5 minutes to discern a candidate: Joan, our master painter and Catholic Worker member who has given so much to the community so far: Organizing the canning classes, gardening, coordinating the Free Store with Bev, and numerous other projects. She had just remarked earlier that day that she may have to limit her involvement at the Catholic Worker due to getting an outside job--not so fast!

Smiling above is Joan, Master Painter and soon-to-be AmeriCorps*VISTA member!

Here is a group shot of the morning crew.

Pictures by VISTA member Miles.

On The Asparagus and the Catholic Worker

2009-10-19T13:00:00.003-04:00

Gardeners will tell you that growing asparagus takes time. It must be heavily fertilized, and the roots need to grow deep. You will see beautiful, tender shoots the first year, but no fruit. Even with all that attention, you won't really see a harvest for 3-4 years. It sprouts and looks promising, but then goes away only to come back next year.

I always think of this when I consider the Columbus Catholic Worker. Our group started over 3 years ago. Cheryl and her children came up with the audacious idea of forming a community here in Columbus. After several months of meetings, a book study, dialogue with the Diocese and lots of heavy discernment, we tentatively began some ministries.

Pat & Glenda generously opened up their home as Emmanuel House and promptly began offering hospitality to homeless persons in Columbus. Their home was a true community house in every sense of the word. The door was always open and you could just drop in anytime and make yourself at home. Many great discussions happened there and friendships developed.

After many long months of trial & error and tough learning experiences, it was decided to stop offering hospitality at their home. Our other ministries subsided as well, and our group went into hibernation, not sure of our future.

But like the asparagus, we came back the next year, a little bit weathered but a little bit wiser.

While some of the ministries we began did not continue, it must always be remembered that we draw upon those experiences every day. We learned a lot about what we can and cannot do. In the midst of all that, I believe our group managed to make the world just a little bit nicer for some folks who really needed it, to paraphrase a line from Entertaining Angels. Not bad, indeed.

It is time for a well-deserved shout out to Pat & Glenda for creating a space for our community when it really mattered. You stuck your necks out on the line and took a big chance. You took a few on the chin, as well. There is little chance we would be doing what we're doing now if you hadn't done what you did before.

As our community faces an uncertain future at our current location, it is good to take a look back at where we've been. The only downside about naming people is that we are sure to leave out quite a few. Taking that risk, we'd like to mention that the initial incarnation wouldn't have been possible without Bill, Kathy H, Mary Ellen and all the other Mary's, Grace and Mark. Numerous others provided just the right help at just the right time, right on cue from the Holy Spirit.

We are always sowing in faith, never sure of the harvest. Please know that all of those efforts right from the beginning are continuing to reap a rich harvest, even if the location, the mission and even some of the people have changed. Every contribution of every type has left a ripple effect that stays present in our community long afterwards.

Free Clothing Store

2009-10-14T11:11:00.012-04:00

Bev has been on quite a roll lately. Besides running the ESL program, helping start Pax Christi with Grace, and taking a share in the overall administrative tasks, she also has taken the initiative to start a Free Clothing Store. Joan has joined her in this project, as well.

We gave out our first items just this week. Representatives from CRIS (Community Refugee and Immigration Services) stopped by to pick up about two dozen winter coats. They are working with some newly arrived refugees from places such as Iraq, Somalia, Eritrea and Bhutan, and most of those folks are not accustomed to the quickly approaching Ohio winters!

This picture of a corner of the store does not do it justice, especially after many of our items have recently been cleaned out!

We also made the store available to students of our ESL classes this week. One woman was thrilled to walk home with a nice winter coat, having lived in Ohio for some time but never having a proper winter coat at all. She was beaming from ear to ear. Those moments of grace really help lift our spirits and reassure us that what we are doing matters.

As our stock builds up, we are looking at ways to make the store available to patrons of the food pantry or other groups in town. We may be open once a week, or on an referral basis, or maybe even daily in conjunction with pantry hours--it just depends on staffing and how much stock we have. We are starting slowly.

Next week, we are getting a delivery from the Cub Scouts of St. Matthew's in Gahanna. We are looking for help unloading the truck on Monday morning, Oct 19th at 10:00 am--call if you can help and park on the street, as school will be in session and there won't be room. We also need people to stop by in the days afterwards to help sort items. The house # is 614-267-3322.

We will take any clean clothing, shoes, and other household items. Right now, we are focusing on winter items, such as coats, hats, boots and scarfs. We are also on the lookout for children's clothing, as that is often a much-needed as children outgrow outfits so quickly.

When the representatives from CRIS were here, they had a couple boxes of items in their car they asked if we wanted--an assortment of paper plates and cups, which Joan can use for the Labre ministry feeding the homeless in Columbus, as well as some bottles of chocolate syrup and sprinkles, which are always welcome to augment our ice cream bar. It is wonderful to be part of "God's economy" this way--people giving and sharing what they have, and God making sure that it all works out.

Fr. John Dear and Grace

2009-09-30T22:49:00.008-04:00

Fr. John Dear gave the Ohio Dominican University crowd a very wonderful presentation tonight! He talked about his conversion into a peacemaker while on pilgrimage in the Holy Land. He described Jesus as the Incarnation of the God of Peace and asked us to consider the implications this has for our lives. He repeatedly mentioned the great peacemakers of our time: Martin Luther King Jr, Dorothy Day, and the father of modern peacemaking: Mahatmas Gandhi.

There was a brief session of questions and comments at the end. Time was limited, but Fr. John seemed willing to push it and entertain a few more questions than the allotted time. Just before he was about to call it quits, he allowed one more comment. Our friend Grace stood up and announced to the whole room the formation of the local Pax Christi chapter and our initial meeting coming up at 7pm on October 21st, here at the Catholic Worker house. She also invited John to attend!

Fr. John was glad to hear this and announced that membership in Pax Christi is a "no brainer." He said that it should be the first step any Catholic makes on the road to peacemaking, being a worldwide organization that bears the official support of the institutional Catholic Church. He encouraged us all to join Pax Christi and we were thrilled to hear his support.

It was then that the light bulb went off in my head, and I could have kicked myself. We were sitting on probably the most sympathetic assembly for peacemaking in Central Ohio and didn't even think to have a stack of fliers handy--a nearly blown opportunity, if it weren't for Grace. It is a good thing we do this in community and can cover each other!

I realized then that I have been spending way too much time in administrative muck and mire. My days have been a stream of phone calls and emails--insurance concerns, house cleaning rigmarole, negotiating with plumbers and arranging an almost endless run of meetings on this and that. I've taken my eye off the mission.

Peter Maurin assured Dorothy Day that if you look at the lives of the saints, you will see that when they did the work of the Lord, that the finances and everything else followed. Perhaps it is time to trust the Lord and put my energies back to direct ministry and let the Lord handle the bookkeeping.

Thank God for Grace--ha!

I encourage everyone to check out Fr. John's blog on the National Catholic Reporter or his website, which contains many of his writings and speeches.

One Billion

2009-09-29T12:46:00.006-04:00

You may have heard that one billion people are literally starving to death right at this moment. That is one in six people on the planet. The U.N. announced this statistic recently. The link is to an article by Fr. John Dear, who is coming to speak at ODU tomorrow.

We have all known for decades the enormity of global poverty, disease and hunger. As theologian Sallie McFague points out, that knowledge practically defines our modern era. Never before have people lived their entire lives knowing that an enormous amount of people are not just suffering, but actually starving to death. Even if you don't actively think about it, it is always there in the back of your consciousness.

People growing up in isolated villages in the Middle Ages, for example, knew their own suffering but had no idea what it was like on a global scale. If all was well in their village, they could rest knowing that had done their share. We never get that rest. Their saints were theologians. Our saints are humanitarians.

One of the things I remember the most from my childhood are those statistics that relief agencies spout out about how many tens of thousands of people die each minute, each second, each day. They haunted me then, they haunt me now.

We live in the Age of Information, and the information is grim. We don't talk about it much, but to think that it doesn't somehow affect us, that this information doesn't eat away at us and keep us awake at night, that is doesn't sit in our cells and cause cancers in our bodies, is probably mistaken. Jesus reminds us that we are one family on earth. If you stub your toe, the whole body aches, no matter how good your distractions are.

I see one billion people starving everywhere. It is changing the way I look at everything:

When I see people spending thousands of dollars redecorating their home and buying antiques, all I see are one billion people starving.

When I see people playing basketball in the park, I see one billion starving.

And yes, even when many beautiful things happen through the ministries of The Catholic Worker, I see one billion people starving. While there is no way to know exactly how God works, there are many times when I lie awake at night and realize that no one's going to live or die based on our ministries. God does work in mysterious ways, and it is possible that someone we help nurture through a retreat, or give food to through our pantry or teach in our ESL will somehow take that seed and sprout it into all sorts of good humanitarian work. But why must we hope for the Hail Mary pass, so to speak?

How can any of us justify doing any of the above activities knowing that one billion people are literally starving to death? I'm not trying to lay down a guilt trip on anyone, this is just a purely matter of fact, logical question. I don't understand why everyone on earth doesn't just stop what we are doing and attend to this like NOW. Maybe the collective shock of this information hasn't really hit home, yet.

If your mother were literally starving to death, you wouldn't go on retreat to "discern" whether you were "called" to help her. You wouldn't sip coffee with your pinky in the air and talk about it over polite banter with your friends. You would move hell and earth to get to her. You would break every speed limit to get to her in time. Jesus tells us to think of all human beings in the same way we regard our own flesh and blood family members and to have that same instinctive response to intervene when they are suffering.

I'm not suggesting that we give up all entertainment. I'm not saying we should give up helping others in our locale. I'm not suggesting we give up school or work or anything. I am not suggest we curl up in a ball immobilized by the enormity of the problem. But I am suggesting that maybe those one billion people ought to be the axis around which we orient our lives. We should make our decisions in light of them. What would life look like if we did that?

Peace Wednesdays

2009-09-19T10:54:00.004-04:00

The efforts are underway to organize a new chapter of Pax Christi right here in Columbus, OH! Our second planning meeting is in the books and we have scheduled--and would like to draw attention to--some events around peace & justice coming up in the near future. Events will be here at the Catholic Worker House unless otherwise specified (address on the right).

Check out these Wednesday evening activities here or around town:

September 30, 7:30 pm: Come and hear Fr. John Dear give a presentation at Ohio Domincian University (see post below for details)

October 7, 6:30 pm: The Columbus Catholic Worker is holding an informal discussion on peace and justice on the 5th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan (and also just a few days after Gandhi's birthday: International Day of Nonviolence).

October 14, 7:00 pm: The third planning meeting for the local Pax Christi chapter will be held at the Columbus Catholic Worker, 1614 Oakland Park Avenue. All are welcome, or you can wait for the following week for....

October 21, 7:00 pm: This will be the first ever meeting of the local Pax Christi chapter! All are invited! We will be discerning the direction of our future ministries, getting to know one another, and just generally kicking it off. Plans are also in the works for a full-day nonviolence training retreat, held by the Michigan Peace Team. Updates will be given as they develop!

Hope to see you on these Peace Wednesdays!

Lifestyle

2009-09-13T12:41:00.008-04:00

The Catholic Worker movement has been a witness to the world in many ways since its founding way back in the depths of the Great Depression, over 80 years ago. One major way it has done this is by showing how to turn your lifestyle into an act of service.

Most good-intentioned Americans find themselves busy and their money spent. Just keeping a roof over their head and feeding their family takes most of their resources. They are lucky to spare a few hours or a few extra dollars at the end of the month towards a charitable cause.

But wouldn't it be amazing if all the time, talent and treasure spent doing these basic life necessities could somehow also be an expression of the Christian vocation to service?

Let's look at it financially. People who live with us in community pay a small rent. For example, a single person who works a full-time job may pay a monthly rent of $300 (we have different rates for single people, married couples and those with children, and we also negotiate based on how much someone works outside of the house). Anyone who has ever had to rent their own apartment, furnish it and pay utilities would know this is a really good deal. We wanted to set the amount high enough so that our bills would be paid and that members would take this commitment seriously, but also low enough to consider the extra hours spent doing ministry work by living here.

Still, even though this is for all practical purposes a very low rent, it adds up to a whopping $3,600 a year! Now, I am not one to begrudge the contributions of anyone, and God knows how much each nickels counts, but only the most generous and wealthy people could imagine handing over that much money to us in a single year. I couldn't have imagined donating that much with my expenses and salary, either, back when I maintained my own apartment just a few short months ago.

By no means am I trying to minimize the contributions of others, as we would not be in operation if it weren't for the dozens of folks who contribute who don't live with us in community. There is always that "invisible" person who also lives here--the combined contributions of outside folks who help us out. Your presence is truly felt and we would have to fold up shop without you.

I'm not suggesting that everyone out there should live in a Catholic Worker house. I do support Dorothy Day's original vision that each parish should have one, which means we need a whole lot more communities like this, but that is neither here nor there. What I am asking is this: Are there ways that you can turn your most basic living tasks and expenses into acts of service?

By living in a center of Christian outreach, we have more resources available to contribute because we simply live here. We'd have to mop and vacuum the floors anyway, why not do it at a center of Christian outreach rather than a private apartment? We'd have to write a check to a landlord or mortgage company anyway, why not write a check to a center of Christian outreach instead? But by no means are these the only ways to turn your lifestyle into service. You all are creative, hard-working people. What are some other options?

Many folks have gardens and fruit trees in your yard. You know how it gets toward the end of the summer when you have more than you can use and there is produce literally rotting on the vines. You already take the time and energy to grow it. One option is to pick it and give it to your local food pantry--or call someone like me who would be happy to do it for you! All the unpicked produce in backyard gardens in this town would probably exceed the storage capacity at the Mid-Ohio Food Bank!

You walk your dog anyway... it probably wouldn't be that much harder to also walk the dog of the little old lady who lives next door to you, and the dogs might love the extra companionship.

You drive your kids to school anyway. Would it be possible to carpool with the struggling single mom whose house you drive by everyday on the way to school?

Most of us have attics and basements full of junk--but your junk could be a treasure to a poor family who could use it.

The possibilities are endless! I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't go out of their way to help others--please do! But we all know how tired and busy we are and what the limitations are. The better strategy would be to find a way to integrate service into what you normally do anyway. Perhaps with a nickel's worth of extra effort you can double your service.

You can set up your lifestyle so that service is easy to do because it falls within the normal infrastructure of your day. This is one of the things that has most impressed me about the Catholic Worker movement. It makes ya think . . .

Some people choose a more dramatic adjustment by changing their occupation or living situation. I would never tell someone not to do that, but keep in mind it is the job of the laity to be a witness to the secular world, according to Vatican II--at work, in your neighborhoods and recreation activities.

Anyone who has ever held a secular job can tell you that the Holy Spirit needs willing hands, feet and hearts in those places more than anywhere! Be a peacemaker among all the petty squabbles and serious backstabbing that you see every day. If you are really passionate about recycling, for example, you might have a bigger impact starting a recycling program at your current job than quitting and working for a small environmental non-profit that is already doing a lot of recycling.

Suggest, coach and teach your business to be mindful of humanitarian causes and the impact of your business on the world and others. Sometimes a quiet voice on the inside of a business can do more than a screaming protest in the streets.

These are all important acts of service, and they can be done within the flow of your current lifestyle!

Pictured above are Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day, respectively.

Cornucopia

2009-09-06T10:57:00.011-04:00

What are we doing with a mountain of rice, beans, corn tortillas and adobe spice seasoning? It looks like we are getting ready for a Latino party! In a sense, that is true.

Tuesday, September 8th is the first day that our St. Vincent de Paul food pantry will start its bilingual operation. They have asked Firstlink to send around 4 Spanish-speaking families for starters, to see how it goes.

There was a very positive response from the Latino community here at St. James the Less. Fr. Pat got a significant number of volunteers and they are all scheduled to help out each Tuesday evening. There was no hesitation from the Latino community to help.

One goal is to serve the Latino community without reducing the meals served to the English-speaking community. In other words, we are growing and serving more families!

Beverly and I recently visited the food pantry of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the southwest corner of Columbus. In many ways, they are very much like the pantry in our building and it runs pretty much the same. However, we did learn some great tips which made the trip well worth it.

Latinos will certainly eat American food, but there is no reason not to find items that are particularly appealing to them. People often know how to stretch their food dollars better if they eat foods that are familiar to them. However, the Mid-Ohio Food Bank (which is the primary supplier of the food pantries) often does not stock large amounts of dry rice, beans, corn flour, etc. Pantries have to buy them.

The Guadalupe pantry is actually right across the street from a Restaurant Depot--a immense warehouse that supplies food to restaurants. They can get an outrageous deal on bulk items there, such as 50 lbs of rice for $15! What they do is buy the bulk items them repackage them into smaller quantities for individual families. They even have a vacuum sealer that can melt the plastic to fit each package. Is there anyone out here who has one they are willing to part with to a good cause?

Beverly made a generous donation to get us started with the above items. Along with other items that the pantry stocks, we'll be sure that these Latino families also take some some rice, beans, tortillas and the adobe seasoning (the stuff that makes rice turn red that you often get at Mexican restaurants). We'll also make sure we have a generous supply of hot peppers right from the garden! We are also looking for an inexpensive way to get masa corn flour.

Hasta Luego, Maestra Naomi!

2009-09-02T00:01:00.006-04:00

It is with both sadness as well as glad tidings for her future that we say goodbye to Naomi, our Tuesday English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher.

I remember the first day of our ESL program, way back in early April (it seems so long ago now!) Bev and I were getting ready for the assessment sessions, and the mother-daughter team of Ruth and Naomi came to help out. I was nervous when the students first arrived, not sure how this would all work. There was an awkward silence as students walked in, and there was a moment when I worried if this would come together at all! Ruth and Naomi jumped in and starting talking and laughing with the students and got the ball rolling, and it has been rolling ever since.

A lot has happened in the last few months. Naomi started off helping out as a tutor. Bev would teach for the first 20-40 minutes of class, and then the class would break up as students paired up with tutors to drill what they had just learned.

It wasn't long before Naomi started researching more about ESL. She attended training sessions at the Dominican Learning Center. She started scheduling time with students for private, one-on-one sessions. Eventually, she began teaching segments of classes, and it certainly wasn't long before she was teaching the Tuesday night beginner's ESL class faithfully.

It has been a true joy to watch her grow in her love for ESL. It is quite clear that she really cares for the students, and she also has a lot of talent for ESL. So then why is she leaving, you may ask?

As a matter of fact, she is leaving in order to study ESL more formally at a school in Oaxaca, Mexico. She'll be there for a month, and then she will look for opportunities to teach ESL in Mexico for a longer period of time. That would be a great chance not only to develop as an ESL teacher, but also to grow in her Spanish skills, which are already quite good.

We are sorry to see her go but glad that she is pursuing this. We are honored that she was able to discover this passion and was willing to nurture and share it while working with us.

We celebrated with cake as well as some recently-made salsa (which, by the way, got some thumbs up from the Latino students!)

Pictured above is Naomi on her last day, Bev is in the background.

We wish you the best, Naomi! Good luck in your studies and upcoming adventures!

Salsa Picante!

2009-09-01T10:42:00.000-04:00

Erin is proudly showing off a batch of just-finished jars of salsa!

Suzanne and Joan (L to R) are busy peeling tomatoes!

It is with no small joy to report the progress of the canning session at the house this past Sunday.

We had hauled out of the garden three boxes of tomatoes, a plethora of green peppers (many donated by my parents), and an assortment of hot peppers. It was time to make SALSA! Melissa came over to instruct a bunch of us how to make homemade salsa and then preserve it in jars for the upcoming months.

We worked hard all afternoon, each person assigned to a different vegetable: Joan and Suzanne cut and peeled tomatoes. Quinn was in charge of garlic. Kye worked on onions until it became tearfully apparent that Erin needed to take over. Alea chopped up green peppers; Pat chopped up cilantro. Melissa coached and mixed. We all taste tested.

Yours truly got assigned to cutting up hot peppers. I did so without gloves and paid the price three hours later when my fingers started to burn painfully (NOTE: Making a paste out of baking soda and water and leaving it on my fingers took the pain away--washing it off and repeating a few times helped as well).

Melissa shows Alea the finer points of chopping peppers.

The flavor was outstanding. All the work was worth it just to be a taste tester! We finished with a couple dozen jars of salsa. Folks took some home but the majority is here at the house. If you visit the house for an event in the months to come, you just might share in this delight.

Food preservation is an important ministry: It is a natural extension of our garden. It is an aspect of environmental sustainability to foster locally grown foods. It builds community. It preserves traditional ways of life that have been so quickly lost in the modern area--neighbors talking the kitchen while canning vegetables is something that would have been common just a generation ago. It is good and natural and right.

Quinn is deep in thought while peeling garlic. No risk of vampires or ghosts today!

Even more apropos is that these classes by themselves are already evidence of the fruit of community building--we met the teacher Melissa as folks from the neighborhood formed friendships in an around the community garden!

Now that we know we "can" preserve vegetables, we will keep that in mind as we select crops to plant in the garden and adjust the timing of their planting so they are ready at appropriate times. Filling our pantry full of jars of homemade salsa, sauerkraut, pickles and just plain ole tomatoes is something to look forward to!

Many thanks to Joan, who worked for several days organizing and cleaning the jars, to Erin, who provided the extra ingredients and helped with organization, and of course, to Melissa, whose unbelievable talent as a teacher as well as her knowledge of food preservation and willingness to share have really astounded us all.

Thanks also to the folks from St. James the Less, the Newman Center and other individuals who donated their old jars and canning supplies!

Now one burning question remains: Will the Latinos think our salsa is hot enough?

Kye asks, "Want an onion?"

Michigan Peace Team

2009-08-25T17:00:00.001-04:00

This was forwarded by community member Mary S., who knows one of the participants. This can give a profound snapshot of the kinds of things peacemakers do in the world! Most Americans probably do not even realize that people do such things.

It may seem like we are advertising for a lot of events that are not directly related to the Columbus Catholic Worker, lately. This is true. As we discern the direction for our justice ministry, we've selected a few noteworthy events that seem to resonate and relate to discussions we've had. When we sit in bewilderment in the face of injustice and wonder, "what in the world can we do about it?" something like the following can give some ideas:

Dear family and friends,

We may have told you (or you may have heard) that we are going to the West Bank in Palestine for a month with the Michigan Peace Team (MPT). We thought you might be interested in hearing more about this endeavor.

MPT is an international organization based in Lansing, MI that supports teams of 4-6 people to work to end the occupation of the West Bank and to advocate for a just peace for all Israelis and Palestinians.

We will be living in Palestine from approximately Sept. 10 to Oct. 10. Our goal will be to help prevent violence in simple ways: for example, walking kids to school to avoid harassment by illegal settlers or Israeli occupying forces, staying in Palestinian homes that are targeted for demolition, participating in nonviolent demonstrations near the wall that has been built to protect illegal settlers.

We will also use the new camera we have just purchased to document human rights abuses and other forms of harassment that take place in this area. To see the work that we are doing as members of the Fall Team, you can go to http://www.michiganpeaceteam.org/ and click on Teams. Reports will be posted there during the time we are there. We hope that, when we return, we will have an opportunity to share with you in person what we did and how we view the problems in that troubled country.

There will be six persons on our Team. Martha, Tom and Mary will arrive first and be followed by Lois, Fred, and Abby. We will live in a house rented by MPT. We know there will be a certain amount of tension, and perhaps even some element of danger--but we are not expected to be (nor intend to be) heroes, so we feel we will have a good experience and hopefully make a small contribution to the peace process.

If you would like to learn more about the Michigan Peace Team or would like to support their efforts for nonviolent peace in Israel/Palestine, please go to the above web-site. Your prayers will also be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Tom and Mary

* * *

Note: Another member of the Michigan Peace Team is Fr. Peter Dougherty, who we had the privilege to meet at the Pax Christi Conference last month. We hope to invite him for our opening retreat to kick-off the Pax Christi chapter here.

Fr. John Dear

2009-08-25T10:00:00.002-04:00

I remember wandering into one of the workshops at the National Pax Christi Conference in Chicago, when I was there with Pat a few weeks ago. It was probably a fine workshop, but I felt a strong sense of restlessness--I had an impulse to leave and go elsewhere. Before the session began, I shot up and walked down the hallway.

I ended up at the workshop led by Fr. John Dear. It was entitled, "Put Away Your Sword: The Last Words of Jesus to the Church." I was periodically in tears and very powerfully moved during his talk.

So you can imagine I was very excited to find out that Fr. John Dear is making an appearance in town in just a few short weeks:

The Center for Dominican Studies Presents Special Event on September 30: “Living Peace: Spirituality of Contemplation and Action”

Ohio Dominican University’s Center for Dominican Studies is proud to present a special program about living peace on September 30, 2009 in the Matesich Theatre (2nd Floor of Erskine Hall at the ODU’s main campus-1216 Sunbury Road, Columbus OH 43219) at 7:00 p.m. The program’s speaker is John Dear, S.J. who is an internationally known voice for peace and nonviolence. He is a Jesuit priest, lecturer, organizer and retreat leader, and author of 25 books. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. To register for this event, email Sr. Catherine Colby, Director for the Center of Dominican Studies and Vice President for Mission & Identity at colbyc@ohiodominican.edu or call, (614) 251-4722.

* * *

As we lay the groundwork for starting a Pax Christi chapter in Columbus, there are few living individuals who can speak to the radical gospel message of Jesus' nonviolence as effortlessly as Fr. John Dear. While some may debate over these issues, Fr. John Dear makes it all sound as simple as breathing.

I absolutely encourage everyone who can make it to attend this conference.

The Catholic Times

2009-08-24T19:56:00.004-04:00

Brushing all humility aside, it is probably worth mentioning that yours truly was interviewed in the latest issue of The Catholic Times! The Columbus Catholic Worker is featured in the article. Follow the link above to see!

Many thanks to the diocesan Office of Ministry Formation for supporting and showcasing lay ecclesial ministers in the Church!

Salsa and Pickles, Oh My!

2009-08-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

written by Erin

Two Upcoming Events

We are having a Canning Party for the Catholic Worker cupboard on August 30th. Your donated time and energy will help us host many folks over the winter with fresh produce from the garden. We will give it out as gifts to our ESL students and use it when preparing food for our other programs or other forms of hospitality. We will gather at 2:30 and go until about 6:00 pm. While this one is not a formal class, it is still an ideal opportunity to learn.

Also, after an overwhelming response, Melissa has graciously offered to have another Canning Class focused on Salsa and Pickles. We have selected September 9th from 6-9 pm. Please bring $3 to participate -- we will have pizza on hand to munch on and maybe even make a salad! Thanks to you all for participating in the previous class.

Please send an email if you can come to either event, so we can make plans. The class has a size limit of 12 people, and the last time it filled up.

Looking forward to some fun!

Lay Ecclesial Ministry

2009-08-19T09:00:00.005-04:00

The Office of Ministry Formation of the Columbus Diocese will be hosting a program called Foundations in Lay Ecclesial Ministry. It will take place over the course of four separate sessions at the Catholic Worker House.

This program is not affiliated in any way with the Columbus Catholic Worker except by simply sharing space. However, the Catholic Worker movement has been--throughout the last 80 years--one of the best snapshots of what lay ministry can be. We are delighted to host this program and welcome others who are interested and involved in lay ministry.

This program is a great introduction for people in all aspects of lay ministry, such as liturgical musicians, prison ministers, RCIA coordinators, youth ministers, marriage and family life ministry, or any number of other ways that the laity serves within the Church.

Please click this link for the program brochure, application form, as well as information on other workshops offered through this office.

Session 1: Vocation of the Christian Faithful
Sunday, September 27

Session 2: The Lay Ecclesial Minister
Sunday, October 25

Session 3: Spirituality of Servant
Sunday, November 22

Session 4: Introduction to Civil and Canon Law for Ministers
Sunday, December 20

Time: 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Cost: $100 (all four session taken together)
Applications due: September 1, 2009

From the brochure:

Foundations in Lay Ecclesial Ministry is a stand alone series of 4 sessions for current or aspiring Church ministers. It serves as a prerequisite for subsequent formation in the Lay Ecclesial Ministry Program in various areas of ministry specialization or the diocesan Diaconate Formation Program. The sessions are geared to assisting participants explore their sense of call to service in the Catholic community as well as developing their identity and gifts as ministerial leaders.

Yes, We Can!

2009-08-16T13:01:00.044-04:00

Written by Joan

The Catholic worker house was filled with the sounds, sights and smells of people learning to can vegetables and fruits last Wednesday, August 12. Our canning class was a resounding sucesss thanks mostly to our new friend, Melissa Welch.

Melissa's expertise in food preservation, gained from a lifetime of personal experience, and her awesome talent as a teacher provided all of us students with the skills we needed to go home and start canning our produce with confidence.

Melissa arranged the class in such a way that every student got hands-on experience in every step of the process. With her clear and formidable voice she was able to instruct us as we worked and answer every question asked. No time was wasted as we peeled, cut, stuffed our produce into jars and cooked it in the canning kettle. It was mad and merry and lots of fun.

Our students were an enthusiastic group of men and women, including some whom we'd not known before as well as some folks who we did know, such as Suzanne, one of our gardeners; Peggy, our world-traveled visitor from the east coast who's had many interesting tales to tell; cool-headed Erin who handled a lot of the logistics and publicizing of the class; and me [Joan] and the raffish young man who is my beloved son. And at the end we all went home with the fruits of our labor--a jar of canned tomatoes and one of chunky applesauce, the memory of a delightful evening spent with new-found friends and the knowledge that, yes, we can do this!

Melissa generously offered to provide another class in early September, probably covering dill pickles and salsa, so we are all looking forward to that. She also offered private tutoring in her own kitchen to anyone who was interested!

I think it was interesting the way this class came to be. About a month ago, I was working in our community garden alongside a neighbor, one of the Erin's. I said to her, "You know, before too long we're going to have more veggies here than than we'll be able to eat. Wouldn't it be good if we could have a canning class so we could learn how to put some of it up for future use?"

She agreed, but neither of us knew anyone who knew how to can food. Not five minutes later a woman wandered into the garden accompanied by her little doggie. I went over to her to say Hi and it turned out that she lived nearby and came to visit the garden every day while she walked her dog.

As we strolled around she commented on the growing veggies: "That'll be ripe in a couple of weeks. These need to be picked now. Oh, those are very nice beets." And so forth. "Hmm, "I thought, "this is a woman who really knows about gardening."

So I asked her, "By any chance, do you know how to can food?" She laughed and said she'd grown up on a farm and had been doing it since she was a child. And that's how we met Melissa, our wonderful canning coach.

Isn't serendipity a delightful thing? And isn't working convivially with other people, doing something useful and good, a holy thing even if it may not seem particularly holy at the time (as your tomato skins pile up on the counter and the juice starts dripping onto the floor)? I think so. It reminds me of this:

"Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the dance said He!"

If you don't know this song, here are some suggestions: A rather gentle version with Donovan, clear, lively version with Barley Bree, a robust, audience-assisted version with Jim McCann, the Dubliners or Tommy Makem.

Please do join us in the next dance at the Catholic Worker House. We'll be having canning day on August 30 from 2:30 till however long you can stay. No experience necessary; you can learn as you work. This food will be used for hospitality at the House and as gifts for our Spanish ESL friends. Another canning class is planned for early September which will probably cover dill pickles and salsa; the exact day has not yet been determined.

And after that - who knows?

"True love is delicate and kind, full of gentle perception and understanding, full of beauty and grace, full of joy unutterable. There should be some flavor of this in all our love for others. We are all one."
---- Dorothy Day - co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement

Latino Food Pantry

2009-08-10T10:12:00.010-04:00

We have been looking for ways to partner with the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, since we share a building together. We have dabbled in a few tasks, such as giving out groceries on occasion, unloading the truck and taking in donations. More recently, we have been able to contribute by picking and packing vegetables and even managing what we hope will be a regular milk delivery.

Their presence in the house has been a real blessing for us, as well. It is nice having people coming and going on a regular basis. They have helped fix up the basement, and their members have gotten involved in our activities. They have given us snack foods for some of our events.

Still, we have not found our niche yet.

We are continually reminded that the Latino community includes some of the more under served people in our city. We come in contact with them regularly through ESL and the Legal Clinic.

It turns out there is only one Latino-oriented food pantry in central Ohio! Our Lady of Guadalupe carries the weight, and they are in the southwest corner of Columbus. [See comment below, we have since discovered there are two others!]

There is no reason why Latinos could not come to our food pantry as it is now. However, the language barrier is quite substantial, so the referral agencies such as Firstlink and J.O.I.N. simply don't send them to us. It also helps to have foods that make sense culturally, as people know how to stretch a dollar better with their native foods. Advertising should also be done in Spanish.

We have been talking about making this pantry more accessible to the Latino community. We would have to add a rotation of bilingual support and then make some adjustments in terms of food ordering and translating documents. It may sound easy, but it will take a lot of work to integrate a new program into an existing operation.

The amazing thing is that we are so well positioned to do this, as if the Holy Spirit just lined it all up perfectly: The St. James the Less food pantry has been handing out groceries since 1954, and they know the food pantry business like the back of their hands! Our parish has a large Latino congregation who can assist with the workload. There is also a large population in the area who can benefit directly from the pantry. Our geographic location is just right, being on the opposite end of town as the other Latino-oriented pantry. The Catholic Worker is willing to manage this new operation.

Our plan is to offer bilingual support at the pantry one day each week, and then see how it unfolds. Initially, we wanted to open the pantry to Latinos on a separate day but decided to integrate it on a day when the English speaking pantry is also working. That may be a blessing as members of both the English and Spanish speaking communities will have the opportunity to mix and mingle. The two communities are not well integrated right now, mostly due to the language barrier.

The Holy Spirit seems to be moving us in this direction, and we are grateful for the exciting opportunities to serve folks in the near future! I am excited that we could be able to develop only the second Spanish-speaking food pantry in the city!

The two top pictures above are of St. Vincent de Paul. The bottom picture is Blessed Frederic Ozanam, who founded the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and whose writings on social justice helped pave the wave for modern Catholic Social Teaching.

ADDED LATER: Many apologies to other local groups! We have sinced discovered that there is a Latino-oriented food pantry at the Smoky Row Brethren Chruch Saturdays from 8-10 am as well as Christ the King Catholic Church Wednesdays 9-noon and daysThurs 3-6 pm, both in Columbus.

Beds and More Beds and VISTA Hospitality

2009-08-06T11:00:00.002-04:00

The Dominican sisters come through, again.

We are all aware of the generosity of the Dominican Sisters of Peace leaving the convent so lovingly cared for and well furnished. We reap the benefits daily and so do the guests of our activities.

We continually find that the house has many hidden blessings: Just the other day, we put out a blurb looking for donations of jars and supplies for our upcoming Canning Class. A generous parishioner donated a number of quart-sized jars, and to finish it off we were still looking for some pint sized ones. We were told there was a stash in the basement--we went down and discovered a whole assortment of pint-sized jars!

The only thing missing was that we had a number of unfurnished bedrooms--the beds had been distributed years ago. The Dominican sisters left us about 10 beds, and our group added a few, as well. We were still looking for a half-dozen beds to fill out the 21 bedrooms so we could host larger retreat groups.

We got a call from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Lancaster, OH. Their beautiful convent had also closed, and they offered us first dibs on the furniture. We accepted the offer and took home six beds. They not only offered us the beds but also helped us take them apart, too.

The timing could not have been better: Just two days later, we hosted a large group of Ohio Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA members who were in town for trainings and workshops (they gave us permission to mention them). In this day and age of severe budget cuts and financial recession, outreach groups need to help each other and come up with creative ways of sharing resources. We were glad to provide hospitality for them and trade ideas.

These VISTA members are placed at colleges and universities across the state setting up service-learning programs, coordinating volunteers and developing service-oriented infrastructure between their institution and their communities.

We talked about the Catholic Worker, toured the garden and Erin gave a presentation on the Ohio Benefit Bank.

Every available bed was taken! Thanks to St. Mary's in Lancaster and to the Dominican Sisters of Peace (again)!

Dressing Up the Windowsill

2009-08-06T09:23:00.004-04:00

Canning Class!

2009-07-30T11:57:00.000-04:00

by Erin

We have the fortunate circumstance of having a local expert on canning (Melissa) in our midst, and we are offering a class to share her knowledge. Only 12 participants will be accepted due to limited kitchen space. We currently have 4 reservations-- so sign up quick!

We will be canning apple sauce and tomatoes (two different processes). The class takes place on August 12th at the Catholic Worker House in the kitchen from 6-9 pm. A donation of $3 each person will be accepted to pay for jars, fruit and supplies. Tomatoes will be supplied from the Catholic Worker garden. Scholarships are available to those who need them. If you bring your own jars (2 quart size) a dollar donation will cover other supplies.

Feel free to invite a friend.

If interested, please an email to this address indicating your interest and whether you have jars. Happy canning!

New Developments--Food, Justice

2009-07-29T13:49:00.003-04:00

We are on a regular rotation with Justice Gardens. We are scheduled to receive a shipment of produce from them every other Saturday (for the duration of the farm market season). With a regular schedule, we can make sure the produce gets to where it needs to go smoothly and quickly. We are also talking to some other local community gardens, because we are more than happy to take their excess produce.

We also got a shipment from Snowville Creamery, thanks also to a tip from Justice Gardens! This is absolutely beautiful milk from cows raised without artificial hormones. It is also non-homogenized, so the fat content is in a form much better for human consumption. People who are lactose intolerant often respond well to this kind of milk. This is top-of-the-line stuff! Snowville says that they can make a delivery just about every Saturday afternoon. Fresh milk is an unusual luxury for most food pantries, so we are happy to give this a try!

* * *

At the second installment of our book discussion on Disturbing the Peace on Sunday, we heard from a local organizer who takes people to the annual protest at WHINSEC (formerly known as the School of the Americas) in Ft. Benning, GA. Some participants in the book study expressed a desire to make the trip this year. We will be sending out more information as we get closer to the date. We would love to send a large group from Columbus down this year!

I was there in 1999 with about 10,000 people. There were speakers, musicians, booths with information on justice activities. At the close of the weekend, a large portion of the attendees chose to commit civil disobedience and trespass onto the military grounds and face arrest. It is a powerful event, as each participant walks onto the grounds carrying a cross with the name of a person who has died at the hands of US trained graduates of the SOA.

Pax Christi

2009-07-22T14:00:00.003-04:00

Pat and I had the pleasure to attend the National Peacemakers Conference held by Pax Christi USA. It was a last minute decision. We literally found out about the conference, and within a couple of days we were in a car headed toward Chicago!

Pax Christi is the Catholic peace movement, with great support by Catholic bishops. As their international website says: "Pax Christi International was started in 1945 as an organisation of Catholics in Europe who wanted to promote reconciliation at the end of the Second World War. " The national website says: "Pax Christi USA rejects war, preparations for war, and every form of violence and domination. It advocates primacy of conscience, economic and social justice, and respect for creation. "

A great synopsis of the weekend is here. Fr. John Dear, who wrote the article, was also one of the presenters. His talk was powerful: "Put down your sword" are the last words of Jesus to the Church.

Bishop Matthiesen from Amarillo, TX, was recognized with the annual Teacher of Peace award. He made a courageous stand against nuclear proliferation, and his efforts helped gather momentum which eventually led to the US Catholic Bishops issuing a statement against nuclear weapons in the mid-80s.

One of the featured speakers--Miguel D'escoto, who is the President of the United Nations General Assembly--was not able to attend due to the continued crisis in Honduras. Participants were more-than-understanding.

We were treated to overnight accommodations at Su Casa Catholic Worker. This very large building is a former friary for German Franciscan brothers. It now houses an intentional community of about 9 members and offers hospitality to Latino families.

It was a great weekend. It gave a jump start to my own justice awareness. Pat saw some old friends he knew at the Catholic Worker in D.C. The presenters were great, and there were numerous vendors and other groups that were distributing information about their work.

We are currently discerning whether or not to start a chapter of Pax Christi through our community. It seems like it would be smart if we tied our justice efforts to the larger peace movements going on nationally and internationally. It is certainly nice to randomly scatter seeds of justice and goodness in the world--it is even better to take those seeds and plant fields in the vineyard of the Lord. Good justice work is organized and strategic. Being connect to Pax Christi would certainly help with that. Please see us if you would like to be involved!

Perpetual Sundae Bar

2009-07-20T18:47:00.008-04:00

I don't remember who it was, but I remember the moment exactly. We had a meeting to try to figure out a way to thank the Dominican sisters for leaving us their convent so well furnished and loved. A statue? A speech? Some other gift? Some visionary soul shouted out: ICE CREAM PARTY!

Those words echoed through the Catholic Worker and set in motion a chain of events that has steered the course of our community ever since.

Cheryl got the ball rolling by dropping off tubs of ice cream, bottles of syrup, nuts, sprinkles, cherries and whipped cream. In other words: A recipe for success.

The ice cream party at the Dominican Mother House was not a one-time event (I'll be blogging about that event in more detail soon). The perpetual ice cream bar has been a mainstay of Catholic Worker life ever since. It is a balm for many ailments.

Every so often we break out the sundae bar during ESL class, and the students are overjoyed. Some chop up whatever fruit we have on hand to make a banana split or some other concoction.

Erin comes over frequently to help out at various events, and she often brings her kids. While her kids generally love the house (there is nothing like playing hide-and-go see here!) sometimes the kids just want to be at home doing their own thing. They patiently wait for her. The cure? Sundae bar! Suddenly those frowns are upside down!

Weary travelers? Long day? Need an excuse to hang out? All roads lead to ice cream around here. Some scoop in peanut butter. One ESL student spoons on at least a half-dozen Maraschino cherries. And still others just like a plain bowl of ice cream. The style may be different, but the core reality is the same: This is how we do business.

Whether the crowd is Dominican nuns, Latino immigrants or fidgety children, ice cream is a common thread that runs through our lives. We owe so much to the genius out there who suggested it! Whoever you are, please come forward to collect your reward, which is--you guessed--it: A sundae!

Innovation

2009-07-15T19:41:00.033-04:00

Some patrons of the food pantry are truly overjoyed at gifts of fresh vegetables. However, you may be surprised that sometimes these fresh vegetables are not a welcome addition! It is not that people don't like them or appreciate them. The problem is that they require a lot of time and usually other ingredients to make them work.

Just imagine coming home with a bundle of radishes or basil. These are nearly always a component in larger dishes which require at least a half a dozen other ingredients. Even a simple squash requires cooking oil and at least a little seasoning. People in poverty often don't have the time, energy or other resources needed to make a meal like that. They are busy just trying to survive and often prefer ready-to-eat meals such as cans of soup or stew.

Many thanks to Grace, who volunteers at a couple of local pantries as well as the Catholic Worker, for pointing this out.

One idea is to package up combinations of produce that complement each other.

Salad works well in this regard. Within the bags of lettuce, we are now including items such as a garden fresh radish, green pepper, carrot or cherry tomatoes--whatever is available. We top it off with some single-serve packets of salad dressing. People can simply open the bag and help themselves to a complete salad without needing any other ingredients.

Erin suggested putting simple recipes with a bundle of items. Perhaps tomatoes and basil leaves with a little note showing how they work well on a grilled cheese sandwich or chopped up together in a cold salad with some cheese.

* * *

In other news, we have had some theft at the garden. The real trajedy is that we would have been more than happy to give space for anyone to grow all the fresh vegetables they could ever need. We would also have been happy to give them produce from the community sections of the garden. Unfortunately, the theft occurred in a gardener's private plot.

We are thinking of ways to address this in the future. Perhaps we could put up signs inviting people to pick, but in certain areas only.

Theft is probably part of the reality of a community garden, but it is still sad. So far we have been blessed that the garden has been virtually untouched by theft or vandalism all year. All we can do is have faith that the people who took it must have really needed it, perhaps a young kid wanting to provide for his ailing grandmother.

* * *

On the brighter side, the jalapeño and chile pepper plants are starting to produce in abundance. We'll be handing them out to our Latino friends at our ESL class tonight!

* * *

In still other news, let me direct you to a picture of the beautiful okra flower:

Peter Would Have Been Proud

2009-07-13T14:05:00.009-04:00

Our first book study session of Disturbing the Peace took place last night. We started shortly after 7:00 pm. While the session "officially" ended at 8:30, folks continued talking until nearly 10:30. It was a wonderful night of conversation, education and--as Bill pointed out--clarification of thought, in the Catholic Worker tradition.

Even if you didn't attend the first session, please come for the second. It will be in two weeks on July 26th at 7:00 pm. We have copies of the book for borrowing or for a donation. Read through Chapter 9 before session 2.

This is not something to miss!

Check out Erin's comments here about the book study and other thoughts about social justice.

You can also read her other post which talks about a concert we attended at the North Columbus Friends Meeting (Quakers). While distributing flyers for the book study, we were invited to this show, and it was quite good! The performer was Tom Neilson and he was wearing and anti-SOA T-shirt! How about that!

Room to Grow

2009-07-10T10:23:00.002-04:00

Kirk built a wooden box so that gardeners can drop off their vegetables to donate (see picture). You may have seen it outside the back door of the Catholic Worker. It has holes on the side so the veggies can breathe.

We have been able to provide a nice selection to the food pantry lately. We've been stocking the fridge with bags of salad, green beans, squash, turnips and collards. However, we could easily provide 3-4 times more produce without being excessive.

When the time comes, there will certainly be enough tomatoes, but some of the other crops could have been planted more densely. With that in mind, there has been some major planting going on so that we'll be strong by the end of the season. We can certainly ramp it up for next year.

While it may look like all the space in the garden has been taken up, there are spots all over that are available for planting. There are some sections where nothing has really sprouted, and there comes a time to admit that it's not happening there and re-till it. Tim & Frank H. found room in some of those areas to put more beans. There are piles of what used to be sod all around the no-till corn section that are already perfectly mounded up for squash. There is a 3-foot wide perimeter that goes around the whole garden where we have been storing our supplies and mulch. There is quite a bit of room in there for more crops. I've been squeezing in squash and bean seeds all over. Just when you think there is no more room, you find there is a bounty.

There has already been talk about how we might organize this for next year. Some folks who did not get on board want to participate next year, including members of the Latino community. The current gardeners gobbled up the space and quickly expanded to other sections. It is fun to watch the enthusiasm and to see what plans the Holy Spirit has for this!

Unexpected Bounty

2009-07-06T08:17:00.025-04:00

It is not everyday that someone pulls up to the house with a pick-up truck full of fresh produce to donate, but that's exactly what happened on Saturday!

A group called Justice Gardens works hard to distribute the bounty of local gardens to folks in need. Our very own gardeners James & Erin K. referred us to them as a delivery site. The group gets donations from vendors at the Clintonville Community Market as well as Panera Bread and makes a point of delivering them to local shelters and free pantries.

We sorted through it and got it ready--there were bushels and bushels of mostly organic zucchini and heads of lettuce. There was also an assortment of cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, kale and swiss chard. Having available refrigerator space made a difference, as Justice Gardens otherwise would have to deliver everything immediately. We added some yellow squash, jalapeños and kohlrabi from our own garden.

We distributed it in two places: We took a load down to Faith Mission. The majority we shared with the Latino community. We set up a table and gave it away after one of the Spanish Masses this weekend.

This gave us a good opportunity to connect with the Latino community. They are hard working, and we usually need to insist before they take gifts of any kind. We shared in a friendly spirit and talked about our ESL classes and the legal clinic. Bev was helpful speaking Spanish (shown in the picture above) and Erin S. distributed flyers and produce. Many have not experienced much hospitality from the non-Latino community, so this was a good chance just to radiate some good feelings.

Fresh, organic produce is always a good thing to share. Some folks live in apartments and don't have access to a garden of their own. We are certainly hoping to involve more members of the Latino community with our garden next year!

That's me peeling a kohlrabi in the bottom picture--many of the Latinos had never tasted that vegetable before. We handed out some slices and some were impressed!

Many thanks to Justice Gardens for bringing an unexpected twist to our weekend--they are a new group, but their ministry is an important one and we'll be looking for ways to work with them in the future. Thanks also to James & Erin K. for the referral!

Hospitality News

2009-07-02T09:50:00.011-04:00

People sometimes come to the door of the Catholic Worker asking for help. On a couple of occasions, we've been able to offer them food and refer them to shelters in town.

A woman came to the Catholic Worker asking for help, yesterday afternoon. She said she had been evicted and had nowhere to stay. A volunteer helped her to some food and a blanket. Erin was called in and discussed options for shelters. Not being able to find anything, Erin took the woman back to her house to stay the night (since we are currently not set up to provide emergency shelter at the Catholic Worker). Plans were made to get the woman prepared for one of the local family shelters, but after breakfast she disappeared.

Please keep this woman Cynthia in your thoughts and prayers! She was friendly and well-mannered, but we certainly don't know her whole story.

The Catholic Worker does not recommend that people take strangers into their own homes without first being part of a supportive community that can share the burden and provide the proper preparation. For example, we were careful to make sure there were at least two Catholic Workers around whenever possible. It is also crucial to go through some serious spiritual discernment before taking on a ministry (and the potential risks) like this. Erin was not acting alone.

Part of the vision of the entire Catholic Worker movement is to foster a greater sense of hospitality in our society. This sense of hospitality has been sorely missing in the last few decades as Americans are positively terrified of strangers. We live in isolation from the people around us. However, prudence is in order. The Catholic Worker movement has traditionally done hospitality in community, not as individuals acting alone.

Hospitality can be a very beautiful witness. When a group manages it well, it can a relatively safe, nurturing atmosphere. It is an amazing thing to realize that somewhere in town there is an open door, a place where you can go if you are in need! For advice on doing this, contact a local Catholic Worker community!

Woodcut above by Ade Bethune.

SOA: Past and Present

2009-07-01T11:00:00.002-04:00

We are going to have a showing of the movie Romero on Monday, July 6th at 7:30 pm. I saw the movie several years ago and loved it. I've been meaning to watch it again so it's fresh in my mind for the upcoming book study on the School of the Americas.

Please drop on by and join me, we'll have refreshments and snacks, of course! Whether you attend the book study or not, you are certainly welcome.

* * *

There is also something going on right now in the world that also relates directly to what our book study will be about. You may have noticed in the news that there was recently a military takeover of the government in Honduras.

At first, the story may seem rather ordinary: Another third world government has been overthrown. That's hardly even news, right? Well, it bears looking a bit further: The government that was overthrown was democratically elected. That's sad, but again, is that really news in that part of the world? Going even further, the man who led the uprising was trained in the USA by the US military.

While this is tragic, certainly the US can't be blamed if someone they train is a bad egg and goes off and does something terrible, right? Our government professes to support democratically-elected governments around the world. That was supposedly part of our rationale for entering Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, among other places.

Honduras is not an isolated incident, though. This article brings the story into a larger context. Literally dozens and dozens of US-trained and supported personnel have been involved in all sorts of takeovers, wars, abuses and atrocities all over Latin America for decades. Even worse, the constant state of chaos that is the result of all these atrocities keeps this part of the world dangerously impoverished and suffering.

So what is our government doing supporting people who are doing the opposite of what Americans value? Is our government simply mismanaging this, or is this intentional? Neither seems excusable, in my opinion. I don't know about you, but I think those are very good questions!

We'll be exploring these topics in the coming weeks, please join us!

Charity & Justice

2009-06-30T07:26:00.000-04:00

Charity grounds our justice work,

Justice work gives vision to our charity.

The marriage between justice work and charity has always struck me as being a defining characteristic of the Catholic Worker movement. There is something about doing both that enhances the community and the mission. It brings a synergy with such a diverse group of people working together. The result is both balance and vision.

You may be campaigning for housing justice in one room with a homeless man sleeping on the couch in the next room. Another community may be working to bring emergency relief to Somalia or Darfur in the afternoon while spending the morning handing out food to their neighbors at a soup kitchen. There is involvement in the local as well as global community. There is dialogue between the rich and the poor. Poverty has a face, and charity has a direction.

We have seen this dynamic right in our own ministries here in Columbus. We are starting a book study on the School of Americas. We will soon be discussing some big issues of imperialism and military spending and how they are tied to atrocities in Latin America. In our ESL classes, there are people who have direct memory of those same atrocities on a very personal level. Some have lost family members and had to flee their homeland. They now struggling to learn English and survive in a new land.

When you hear that, you might pause. I certainly did. Suddenly, the book study is no longer coffee and polite banter. There is a seriousness and a reality that becomes present. We come out of the clouds and our feet start to feel the ground. We need this. We human beings can get lost in the abstract world of ideas and have difficulty connecting those ideas to real flesh and blood. People rattle off facts and figures about tens of thousands of people dying in wars and disasters, but can we really appreciate the scope of the problem that way? Just meeting one person who has been personally affected can do more than hearing all the statistics in the world.

In a likewise manner, if we don't work for justice we can easily burn ourselves out helping individuals. It would be worth everyone's time to find out if there is something we can do to address why they are suffering in the first place. Random acts of charity can be beautiful, but without focus one has to wonder if it is effort well spent. I wouldn't plant a field by randomly throwing seeds in the air. Why would I practice the Works of Mercy in the same way? And why would I do justice work without knowing what it is like at the street level?

A Taste (and Thirst) of Heaven

2009-06-29T07:07:00.008-04:00

Picture of me from a couple of weeks ago--the garden has grown significantly since then!

Gardening has been a taste of heaven. It is not just the work that is being done, although that is lovely. It is not just the fresh produce we are eating and sharing with the poor, which is also wonderful. It is the fact that it is such a great experience of community.

A typical Wednesday night could involve a handful of people working in the garden. People work not just on their own plots but are often found watering and weeding their neighbor's, as well. Children of the gardeners as well as some neighborhood kids may be climbing the nearby mullberry tree, coming back with fingers and shirts stained purple from the ripe berries. People passing by express delight. Conversations happen, the work is shared, the harvest is on its way! It is gentle and simple and right.

* * *

Our friend Jonathan from the Rainbrothers recently stopped by to help us with the water situation. What is the water situation, you may ask? Well, we have none. Gardeners have been dutifully bringing buckets and tubs they have filled at home. We were thirsty for a water supply on site.

The baseball backstop has provided the answer. Jonathan installed some metal sheets on the top to form a makeshift roof. He attached some gutters as well. All that is left is to funnel the rainwater into some downspouts and into rain barrels at the bottom.

You can see the whole project here. Joan and Tim are hard at work in the foreground, with Jonathan in the back

Here is Jonathan attaching the metal sheets.

If you stop by to visit the garden, be sure to help yourself to some sugar snap peas! They are growing up the fence on the east side of the garden.

* * *

In other news, it has now become a lot easier to prepare the lettuce for the food pantry. Thanks to a donation of a new salad spinner from Erin, we can now bag up light and fluffy lettuce!

Book Study: Disturbing the Peace

2009-06-26T10:28:00.008-04:00

Please join us as we kick off this justice ministry (by Erin and Bev):

The Columbus Catholic Worker is sponsoring a book study with authors Jim Hodge and Linda Cooper sharing their book Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas. The study begins July 12 and will meet for 4 sessions--every other week at 7:00-8:30 pm at the Catholic Worker House located at 1614 Oakland Park Avenue. Participants are asked to purchase their own book online or at a local bookstore and to read the first 4 chapters before the first meeting. We also have some copies of the book on site, so contact us to make arrangements.

Please RSVP to Frank here before July 9.

The following synopsis is a description from the authors who will be leading the study with us:

Examine the life of a once gung-ho Navy Lt. who, after working with war orphans in Vietnam, abandoned his military career to become a missionary among the poor in Latin America where he saw grave human rights abuses. After learning that the United States Army had trained the killers of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and four US churchwomen, two of whom were his friends, he set out to close the US Army School of the Americas that has trained hundreds of assassins and dictators.

The larger story details how the SOA peace movement grew, drawing thousands of people from every faith and walk of life, including students, veterans, religious leaders, film stars like Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon, death penalty foe Helen Prejean, and legendary musician Pete Seeger as well as the Indigo Girls. It’s a movement that has challenged religious and government leaders much in the tradition of Dorothy Day. The movement prompted the Pentagon to close the school, only to find it re-opened under a new name.

Two Upcoming Events--Please Join Us!

2009-06-18T18:56:00.007-04:00

Please join us on Saturday, June 20th, at 6:00 pm for a Dinner and House Discussion. We will be hosting a couple of people who are considering moving into our community as live-in volunteers. It will be a great time to meet them and see if we are a good match. It will also be a good time for our community to talk about where we are and where we'd like to be. Your input and your presence would be greatly appreciated! We want to talk about some upcoming justice-related ministry events as well as our overall vision for being a house of hospitality, so please join us!

* * *

Please also join us on Monday, June 22nd at 7:00 pm for an Ice Cream Social & Country Gospel event to show appreciation for the Dominican sisters. This will be held at the Motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters of Peace, right behind Ohio Dominican University.

They left us a fully furnished and well-loved convent which is now our new Catholic Worker House. In particular, we want to thank Sr. Barbara, who has done so much to welcome us to our new place and facilitate this whole transition.

We will be serving ice cream and spending time talking with the sisters. The musicians include members of St. Francis parish who are generously donating their time and talents.

Whether you are new to the Catholic Worker community or a veteran, we would love to see you there to share this with us! We can use helpers to scoop ice cream, talk about the Catholic Worker with the sisters and just to socialize.

St. Mary of the Springs (motherhouse)
2320 Airport Drive
Columbus, OH 43219

Any questions, contact Frank. We apologize for the short notice for these events, but these were the best times we could come up with considering all the logistics and different schedules we had to coordinate. We hope to see you there!

Decked out in Green

2009-06-16T09:46:00.007-04:00

Much of what you can do for the environment revolves on how you manage your clothing!

Buy fewer clothes. Remember, they all come from either agricultural sources (cotton, linen, wool) or oil-based ones (polyester, rayon), so a savings in either category has a tremendous ecological benefit. Buying less means less land scoured with conventional farming practices, less oil consumed and fewer toxins released. Shop instead at thrift stores and deck yourself out in retro style.

Since agricultural items grown for clothing are not eaten, there are much fewer restrictions on pesticide use. Cotton uses approximately 25% of the world's insecticides and more than 10% of the pesticides.

I feel spoiled that I now have 2 pairs of jeans. A few shirts and a few pants are all you need. I am sympathetic if clothing is your passion, but get creative with accessories and be honest about the fact that much of your wardrobe sits unused in your closet. Donate what you don't need to thrift stores.

Appliances account for 17% of household energy use, and aside from your refrigerator, your washer and dryer are the biggest consumers!

Wash your clothes less often. A day at the office does not require a thorough wash in heavy-duty laundry detergents! Hang them up to wear again (socks and undergarments excluded, of course). Each time you wash clothes, you use water, put detergents into the environment, increase the demand for plastics (containers) and use energy to power the machines and heat water. The best way to save on your laundry footprint is simply to not do laundry! You will also enjoy the added bonus of having more free time as you spend less in the laundry room.

Avoid clothes dryers! Just hang them up to dry. I have a large drying rack which takes care of business, and most items are ready within 24 hours. If time is an issue, I have found that running a regular fan pointed toward the hanging clothes speeds up the process with minimal energy use. If you are really ambitious, put them on a clothesline outside. The sun is a natural bleaching agent, so it can help you avoid the chemical variety of bleach. I only use the dryer when I am in a true hurry or occasionally as some items need to be fluffed and de-linted.

While we're at it: Avoid bleach. Unless you're washing hospital garments, it is just unnecessary and harmful to you and the environment.

Use energy efficient appliances. They conserve water and use a more concentrated detergent (reducing the amount of plastic container waste). Some dryers don't even use much heat at all, so they are a much better option than traditional varieties.

Wash in cold water. You will save on your hot water heater by using less energy and probably save your clothes from the stress of getting washed in hot water.

Use natural laundry detergents. They all seem to work just fine for me, and many smell great. You'll be saving on oil and phosphates from the environment, decrease your carbon footprint, and keep those toxins off your skin. In addition, consider using a smaller amount of soap. A lot of people use way too much!

Taken together, these steps are not very hard. Too often, we don't think about our clothing choices when we consider environmental stewardship. But everything from making clothes to maintaining them produces a significant strain on the environment. Keeping a simple wardrobe, washing it minimally and using natural cleaners can have a substantial environmental impact and help simply your life, too!

First Harvest

2009-06-08T22:36:00.024-04:00

After some recent rainfall (as well as much careful watering by gardeners), this beautiful patch of leaf lettuce has sprung up nicely. It was time to go out there with a bag and some scissors!

Brought it home, washed and drip dried on the counter.

A deposit was made into the refrigerator of the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry downstairs . . .

. . . with a note.

I can't quite express what it was like tonight to bring that first batch of fresh produce from our community garden back to the Catholic Worker house.

Perhaps a few bags of lettuce in the fridge don't seem like a whole lot to get excited about! But when you consider the struggle, the anticipation and the hard work that has taken place for months and months to form our community and establish ourselves . . . to see this tangible, real life fruit of our labor is quite something. Just knowing that this organic, hand-picked lettuce, fresh from the garden behind the church and grown with tender care by parishioners, neighbors and Catholic Workers, will be on the dinner tables of some hungry families tomorrow is really something to behold and certainly gives me pause.

What we are doing is very simple. What we are doing is very serious. What we are doing is very joyful!

Potluck & Prayer Schedule

2009-05-21T15:07:00.005-04:00

Potluck and Prayer is cancelled for tomorrow, Friday May 22nd.

Currently, we have Potluck & Prayer scheduled for every Friday evening. We have had wonderful times of prayer, roundtable discussion and fellowship on Fridays since we began this ministry 4 months ago. There have been meditative Taize services, regular Evening Prayer, discussions on the School of the Americas, Right-to-Life and other topics in between. However, it is difficult to maintain a regular weekly commitment. In addition, some people who have not been able to attend have suggested that another day of the week would be better. There are also anti-death penalty vigils on Fridays that we currently cannot attend.

We are open to suggestions--maybe having this once or twice a month rather than weekly is more feasible? We definitely would like others who don't live at the Catholic Worker house to lead either the prayer or discussions. While we have had guests drop in on virtually every Friday, we do not have a large enough group to feel comfortable having some of us live-in members sit out if our schedules demand it. We thought that the regularity of a weekly event would build momentum and familiarity, but maybe we should just schedule these as we can and make an announcement rather than have a set date/time.

Please bear with us as we try to find a schedule that works well. Even more importantly, please join us in discerning as we would love to have the involvement of a larger group of people in this. If you would like to lead prayer and/or a roundtable discussion, please come forward! In addition, if there is another day or time that works better than Friday evenings, please let us know! Prayer and roundtable discussion are very important to our community life and mission.

Hosting Guests and Being Guests

2009-05-15T10:22:00.001-04:00

This has been an incredibly busy time for us getting ready for the Dedication and with lots of other events going on. Just a few highlights:

We have offered hospitality to people who are attending a conference on racism this weekend, and some members of the Cleveland Catholic Worker have decided to take us up on it. Schedules are still in flux, but the plan is to share breakfast with them early Sunday morning before they leave, between 7-8:00. Drop by if you'd like to meet them! The Conference is on Saturday, May 19th from 9 am to 7 pm at The Ohio State University. Details are here, please check it out.

Pat, Austin and I were invited to the Josephinum Seminary at the end of April. We participated in evening prayer and then shared dinner and much discussion with their justice and human life group. We then got a tour of the Seminary. Their hospitality is top-notch and we were treated to a very warm reception. We are looking forward to finding ways for our communities to be involved and support one another in ministry work. It is a very beautiful campus. I was particularly moved by visiting the nun's chapel. In fact, I was stopped in my tracks and left speechless when I entered there, and I can't explain why (still speechless, I guess!) I wanted to stay in that chapel, it felt like my thirsty soul was drinking.

We recently hosted a group from Ohio Weslyan University! There are on a "pilgrimage" visiting different ministry sites in the area and stayed overnight with us earlier this week. We wish them well in their journey! They left us some delicious carrot bread which they baked right at our place!

Stove and Refrigerator

2009-05-13T13:12:00.006-04:00

We have been approached by an organization called Birthright of Columbus asking if we know anyone who has a refrigerator or an electric stove they are willing to donate to a very appreciative home.

There is a single mother with an 18-month of child who is moving into our neighborhood. A couple years ago, she was pregnant and found herself pressured to have an abortion. She sought out the help of Birthright to carry the child to term and raise the child properly (Birthright offers support in a no-pressure environment to women who have an unplanned pregnancy). The child's father is incarcerated. This woman is very determined and is making great strides. She is raising the child and has worked her way out of Section-8 housing and is just about to move into a new place for herself.

We can also take monetary donations as the St. Vincent de Paul society has connections to purchase these items at extremely reasonable rates. Jake estimates he can buy both of these items for $400 total. However, it would be best to use items that someone already has and does not need.

The home also has a gas hookup for a stove, but an inspector told the woman it would require bringing in a professional to properly hook it up and make it ready for use, so that is why they are asking for electric.

We never needed to ask for these items before since our home was so very fully furnished and well-maintained through the generosity of the Dominican sisters! So if you had these items that you were just waiting to give to the Catholic Worker, now is the chance!

Call Frank or the CW house at 614-267-3322. For a limited time, Frank has access to a truck to make a pick up!

No-Till Farming Demonstration

2009-05-09T15:34:00.027-04:00

Portions of this piece were written by our neighbor and fellow community gardener, Erin K.

Stop by to see the No-Till Gardening Demonstration on May 13th at 6:00 pm!

One of our neighbors has done missionary work in Zimbabwe. Megan has helped farmers learn a method of no-till farming. This is a hot topic in sustainable agriculture, as it saves the land from erosion and avoids fossil fuels normally spent when digging up the land.

This coming Wednesday at the community garden (at the corner of Huy and Oaklawn), Megan will be demonstrating a no-till method of farming that she learned during a year-long agricultural internship at ECHO (Educational Concerns Hunger Organization). The method, also known as Farming God's Way (FGW), originated in Zimbabwe and is based on the two principles found in creation of: a) no deep inversion (tilling) of the soil; and b) utilizing a natural blanket of mulch to keep the soil covered. FGW is used throughout Africa to train and equip rural farmers to increase their yield potential.

For more information about the two organizations, click on the links above.

Feel free to wear old/gardening clothes and shoes if you would like to help dig the planting stations. Looking forward to seeing you there!

The basic idea of no-till agriculture is that the land already has a balanced ecosystem of plants, animals and insects living above and below the surface. By tilling it up, the land becomes vulnerable to erosion and disease. Yields are often significantly higher for no-till methods. It is also a good method for farmers in developing countries as it can be done without expensive machinery.

Megan is going back to Zimbabwe in just a few short weeks, but before she goes she will leave us with a large section of corn planted for us to share.

* * *

The entire group of gardeners who are working with us is quite an impressive group. Each member has shown a tremendous level of enthusiasm and initiative. Besides the no-till section, neighbors have had large quantities of mulch delivered, they have staked off the plots, assisted with tilling and have already put in walkways. It is a dream come true when the community takes ownership of a project, and that is certainly happening with the garden!

Check out the picture above of the freshly mulched pathways between the plots in our new garden! Pictures from the left are Frank, Cheryl, Zeila and Tim. Photo by Kevin (you can double click the picture for a more detailed view).

The regular times for working in the garden are Wednesday evenings starting at 6:00 pm and Saturday mornings starting around 9:00 am. We'll be in and out at other times, but those are the best times to catch the group there and to share tools and ideas!

Catholic Worker School, Friday Nights

2009-05-07T14:32:00.014-04:00

Among the fondest memories of my time at Catholic Worker communities in Akron and Worcester, MA, were the great discussions. You just never knew who was going to drop in. You may find yourself in the midst of learning about the great social justice encyclicals of the modern popes, or you may hear a new perspective on American foreign policy that you just never would have heard elsewhere. People who had traveled to war zones such as Serbia or Iraq would describe what they saw and heard. You learned about other Christian communities like the Bruderhof and L'Arche. People would talk about the gospel in a different way, but it felt like home.

You met people who told firstand stories of risking their lives to immigrate to America via "coyote" or who endured tortures at the hands of American-trained operatives in Latin America.

When I think about how we are living into our mission as a Catholic Worker community, I always hope we can foster a place where these discussions can happen. A Catholic Worker house should be a place where you can go to get educated.

During our Friday potluck last week, we were treated to visitors Jim, Linda and Bo who have been very active in the world of social justice. We talked for hours around the dinner table. Bo is very much involved in working against the death penalty right here in Columbus and is working on a novel about a death row inmate. Jim and Linda are also writers who have just finished a book on the School of the Americas, entitled Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of Americas. They are a treasure trove of information on the peace and justice movement and know Fr. Roy Bourgeois and Sr. Helen Prejean very well. I'll be talking about their book more in the future.

At our Friday Potluck tomorrow (May 8th), we are going to host a local Respect Life organization. They are interested in starting a house of hospitality for women as an alternative to abortion. They would love to talk to us about how we got started, how we are funded and if there are ways we can partner together. When we met with Bishop Campbell last fall, he was extremely supportive of us moving in this direction.

One of the biggest criticisms of the pro-life movement is that there is a lot of talk against abortion but not enough support and resources to help people in difficult situations. This is one of the ways to address that. We will probably need women live-in community members before moving in this direction, but it is an important ministry that we would love to support. If nothing else, we can share our experiences and hopefully learn what the pro-life movement is doing.

Dedication and House Blessing!

2009-05-06T11:04:00.040-04:00

Our community was blessed in multiple ways last Friday.

Despite the torrential downpour and wailing tornado sirens, Mass was held as scheduled on the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.

The opening hymn could have been written by Dorothy Day herself:

Here in this place, new light is streaming,
now is the darkness vanished away.
See, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,
brought here to you in the light of this day.

Gather us in - the lost and forsaken
gather us in - the blind and the lame.
Call to us now, and we shall awaken,
we shall arise at the sound of our name.

Pastor Scott Kramer of St. James the Less led the celebration and contributed a story about the "old convent" and reflections on the Holy Family.

Dave shared a reading from Genesis: God the Worker creates the world. In the Old Testament, God is often described as a Craftsman and Artisan. This gives new meaning to the notion of Jesus as the Carpenter's Son! God not only creates the cosmos, but he is intimately involved with it in every detail. He is lovingly concerned for it, for he hears the cry of the poor. The Carpenter is always at work.

Fr. Larry Rice (from the Newman Center) opened the Homily with reflections on the wonder of Creation juxtaposed against the Gospel reading which shows the cynicism directed against Jesus in his own time. The Catholic Worker, in his view, thumbs its nose at cynicism and points toward a New Creation. Bill gave an extended reflection on God's Workers--Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day--along with the history of the movement.

Sr. Barbara, without whom we never would have moved into our new location, led us with Petitions. Pat, Cheryl and our friend Vielka from Kairos Outside brought the Offertory gifts, which included items to be placed at the foot of the altar to remind us of who we are and where we come from: A box of food from the pantry, the Catholic Worker sign, a painting of Dominican Saints & friends and a book of the Precious Blood priests.

Daniel and Stephanie from Ohio Dominican University filled the church with beautiful voices, drums and guitar, while I accompanied them on guitar and mandolin. George from The Josephinum was the server during Mass. Erin gave the closing reflection. She expressed appreciation for all the people who have been contributing and described the ongoing work of the Columbus Catholic Worker.

We call upon Joseph the Worker and Jesus the Carpenter to help us build the City of God, where our tears will turn into dancing.

After Mass, we dashed through the rain in the courtyard and gathered in the chapel of the Catholic Worker house. Fr. Scott opened with a house blessing prayer and Pat led us in a Litany to St. Joseph. Fr. Scott then gave Sr. Barbara first dibs on sprinkling Holy Water, who then passed it on to our founder, Cheryl. After that, the group dispersed, going through the whole house blessing rooms, including the food pantry downstairs, and passing the Holy Water around. Jake and Pat from the St. Vincent de Paul Society joined in, as well.

We concluded the evening with gregarious laughter, discussion and by sharing some wonderful food and cake. Friends new and old were there to kick off this event. There were also many Dominican sisters (former residents) watching over us, and quite possibly Dorothy, Peter and all the other saints, too.

It was a full house, in more ways than one.

Banner

2009-05-06T09:08:00.003-04:00

You may have noticed the new banner at the top of this site. It is a contemplative glance along the stained glass windows of the chapel. The picture gives me the feeling you get when you walk into an old church and you can feel the prayerful drama there in the atmosphere. I think it speaks to something deeper about who we are and our mission, something that can't be defined but sort of pointed toward--something to meditate upon. It tells more about where we are coming from than lists of activities.

The picture was taken by my close friend Scott, who also overlaid the text on top. Scott is an excellent photographer, check out his pictures here, arranged in two sets entitled "Nature/Rural" and "City." You can also see a panorama on his blog with descriptions of the editing and selecting process. For locals, he has some good shots of Columbus and the Short North area. Check them out!

Thanks, Scott!

May 1st

2009-04-29T22:31:00.001-04:00

We hope to see everyone for our House Blessing and and celebration of the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1st! Mass is at 7:00 pm with the blessing, snacks & refreshments to follow.

You are welcome to drop off desserts or snacks at 6:30 pm before the event! We'll also need help afterwards, as the place needs to get in tip-top shop in preparation for a retreat being held immediately the next morning!

Call us at 614-267-3322 with questions!

Open House for the Latino Community

2009-04-27T07:35:00.007-04:00

We were able to formally greet the Latino community yesterday with an Open House after both of the Spanish language Masses.

We had a very nice turnout. A few families came after the 12:30 Mass and we had a larger crowd after the 6:00. Folks were very friendly and curious to know what we are up to. Bev and our friend Vielka from Kairos Outside both did a wonderful job interpreting and giving tours in Spanish.

We were reminded recently that the Latino community often feels like second-class citizens. They often get the leftovers. Sometimes even well-intentioned people from the English-speaking community can give this impression, as people keep their distance due to awkwardness over the language barrier. We really wanted folks to feel special and welcomed in our home, so we decided to splurge with an array of desserts, lots and lots of fruit (a favorite for Latinos), a shrimp ring and a cheese tray. We worked hard to greet people in Spanish and they worked hard to use English, and between the two we were able to communicate very well.

Our guests thanked us warmly for both the food and the time and attention. It might be very surprising how isolated people from the Latino community can feel here. Just having someone from the English-speaking community who is willing to talk to them and share the time of day can be huge and a long overdue welcome for them. To share with people that they are more-than-worthy of the best we have to offer--that is the spirit of Personalism of the Catholic Worker, and we were glad to indulge.

The Latino community has quite a few ideas for how they can use our space and asked about everything from hosting meetings to temporary housing for families in need. A number of people inquired about ESL classes and the legal clinic. The community garden also seemed to generate interest. One gentleman even wondered about using the kitchen for preparing for a wedding reception.

It turned out the timing for this event was just right, and we have learned to trust in the Holy Spirit on things like this. We now have more people who could interpret and more activities to share with the Spanish-speaking community than we did back when we started. We were much more prepared to give a warm welcome.

Top Hat

2009-04-23T12:40:00.007-04:00

Please join us in congratulating Jake as the recipient of this year's Top Hat Award! This is an award given to an outstanding participant in the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

Jake has done an outstanding job as leader of the group at St. James the Less. He has helped them move the pantry to a new location, raised a lot of funds and other resources and has just been a marvelous leader with boundless enthusiasm. He's all heart and certainly deserves the recognition.

There will be a mass and celebration at De Sales High School at 4:30 pm this Saturday, April 25th. Please attend and congratulate Jake!

Kairos Outside

2009-04-20T13:10:00.001-04:00

The Catholic Worker is starting to hum with a schedule of retreats and workshops.

We have a policy of not advertising the names of the groups or individuals who spend time at our place. We respect their privacy. The following group, however, would love us to share their story. This is a good thing, because it is such a wonderful story to share.

We have been hosting the Kairos Outside prison ministry group on two weekends this spring. Check out the link, they are a very impressive group!

This is a group of women who have loved ones in prison. They support each other and prepare to eventually spend a weekend at the prison itself in solidarity with their loved ones. Marion Correctional is the only place where people can currently do this. These women are often ostracized from their families, community and churches. They often blame themselves and others lay blame at their feet for the crimes of their relative. This support group is a true gift from God to these women, as well as to their loved ones in prison.

This is exciting for the Columbus Catholic Worker. The Works of Mercy are basically our mission, but we currently do not have any direct outreach to prisoners. Supporting Kairos Outside helps us to contribute to this part of our mission by extension! It has been an honor serving them.

When they go to Marion on the weekend of May 16-17, they would like some volunteer help. Male volunteers are needed for kitchen duties and also as escorts for the women to the formal dinner. Women volunteers can help out on the 17th in the closing ceremony. Contact us if you are interested in helping!

Woodcut is from a series on the Works of Mercy by Ade Bethune.