Art Laffin: Closing Statement at Sept. 28 Trial

Following is the statement made by Art Laffin at the September 28, 2011, trial for those arrested last May for resisting the building of a new nuclear weapons plant in Kansas City.

Art Laffin's Closing Statement

We come before you, Judge Brand, as Catholic Workers who serve the    poor and work for peace. Our May 2 action at the site of the new Bomb  complex is rooted in a long tradition of nonviolent dissent and resistance, dating back to biblical times and up through our own American history, including the abolitionist movement, the suffragist movement, the union movement, the civil rights movements, anti-Vietnam war movement, and multiple other social justice movements. We act in the nonviolent tradition of people like Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Caesar Chavez and Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker of which I and many of us on trial today are members.

The evidence you have heard in our case is compelling. The city prosecutor has failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

 --No city witness testified that they told us we were on private property.

 --We did not trespass but rather went on the road near the locked gate of the construction site to pray and sing. None of the three city witnesses ordered us to leave the property.

 --There were no signs where we were saying "No Trespassing", or whose property we are supposedly trespassed on. There were only signs on the fence which we did not enter.

Judge Brand, you have heard evidence that we acted to stop the construction of the new Kansas City Plant. We acted on May 2 because we believe that there is a causal connection between the action we took and and the immediate effect it would have on creating political change, namely that the US government stop making weapons of mass destruction.

We live with the daily constant threat that nuclear weapons could be used. The stated Pentagon policy is that we must be prepared to use whatever military means is necessary, including the use of nuclear weapons, to protect our national security interests and to make sure another rival superpower does not emerge to challenge US interests.

The Obama Administration's new Nuclear Posture Review, released last April, asserts that the U.S. defense system requires nuclear weapons as a deterrent to a nuclear attack on the United States or its allies.

The Kansas City is a key part of the US nuclear weapons complex which also includes new facilities at Los Alamos Nuclear Labs, and the Y-12 nuclear weapons facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Kansas City will continue making 85 percent of the non-nuclear components for the bomb: plant produces such as high-energy laser ignition systems, microwave hybrid microcircuit production, and miniature electromechanical devices.

 We acted on May 2 to also address am imminent harm posed by the Kansas City Plant. You heard testimony from Josh regarding the 150 people who died at the old plant from toxic chemicals and how the site has been contaminated. Health concerns at the current complex were highlighted this past April when the administrator of the General Services Administration confirmed that detectable levels of an unidentified carcinogen were found at that site. We are deeply concerned that more workers will be exposed to health hazards at the new plant.

How is it possible that in this time of massive national deficits and debt, when so many cities, including my city of Washington, D.C., and Kansas City, are experiencing a major economic crisis, when the Census Bureau reports that one out of six Americans live below the poverty line, that nearly 40 % of African American children live in poverty, that a new weapons facility, which is being built on 180 acres that used to grow soybeans, is being built for over $600 million and which will cost $1.2 billion over the next two decades? We believe the new KC Plant should be converted to make products that serve life. We call for transformation not annihilation.

Our action on May 2 was in accordance with our God's law and International  law.

With respect to God's law, we sought to uphold God's commands: Thou Shalt not kill, renounce all idolatry and do worship gods of metal, beat swords into plowshares, love your enemies.

We also call your attention to the words of Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, Apostolic Nuncio to the United Nations who came to Kansas City on July 1st and declared the following statement: "Viewed from a legal, political, security and most of all - moral - perspective, there is no justification today for the continued maintenance of nuclear weapons."

The Nuncio went on to condemn the current efforts to modernize the nuclear weapons infrastructures here in the U.S. as well as the other nuclear weapons states saying that, "With development needs across the globe far outpacing the resources being devoted to address them, the thought of pouring hundreds of billions of additional dollars into the world's nuclear arsenals is nothing short of sinful. It is the grossest misplacement of priorities and truly constitutes the very 'theft from the poor' which the Second Vatican Council condemned so long ago."

We submit it's a sin to build a nuclear weapon!

You also heard testimony from Dan and Jerica about International law. We sought to call attention to the fact that the new KC plant is in direct violation of the treaties and UN resolutions binding on the US. We submit that treaties which the U.S. has signed, have been, and continue to be blatantly violated. The Nuremberg Principles, which the United States helped write, state that individuals have a duty to prevent crimes against humanity from occurring and that if people don't act to prevent such crimes; they are actually complicit in them. We, who are on trial today, along with many friends, refuse to be complicit in these crimes, namely the possession and intention to use nuclear weapons.

Specifically we want call your attention to the fact that the U.S. is in violation of the UN Resolution 1653. It reads in part:

"Recalling that the use of weapons of mass destruction, causing unnecessary human suffering, was in the past prohibited, as being contrary to the laws of humanity and to the principles of international law, by international declarations and binding agreements, such as the Declaration of St. Petersburg of 1868, the Declaration of Brussels Conference of 1874, the Conventions of the Hague Peace Conferences of 1888 and 1907, and the Geneva Protocol of 1925, to which the majority of nations are still parties.

Considering that the use of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons would bring about indiscriminate suffering and destruction to humankind and civilization to an even greater extent than the use of those weapons declared by the aforementioned international declarations and agreements to be contrary to the laws of humanity and a crime under international law.

 Believing that the use of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear and weapons, is a direct negation of the high ideals and objectives which the United Nations has been established to achieve through the protection of succeeding generations from the scourge of war and through the preservation and promotion of their cultures,

I. Declares that:

a. The use of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons is contrary to the spirit, letter, and aims of the United Nations and, as such, a direct violation of the Charter of the United Nations."

 Therefore, if it's illegal to use nuclear weapons it's also illegal to make them!

We acted lawfully, in accordance with International law's and treaties that are binding on the US government and every U.S. court, including this one. International law is an integral part of U.S. constitutional & domestic law. Treaties and international executive agreements that the U.S. is party to, such as the UN Charter & Nuremberg Charter, are “the supreme law of the land” under Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. When the U.S. government clearly violates U.S. Constitution, when it develop and built the bomb in secrecy, when it used the Bomb twice in secrecy, when, now, a new weapons plant is being built without the consent of its citizens, we, as citizens, have no choice but to engage in nonviolent acts of resistance, such as we have.

We emphasize that our intent was not to commit a crime but to prevent a crime, to keep the law not break the law. Our action was in fact, an act of crime prevention.

The ultimate violence in our time is the existence and intent to use nuclear weapons which can destroy all life on earth. And Dr. King said that in a nuclear age the choice before us is not between violence and nonviolence, but nonviolence and nonexistence. We ask: Where is the judicial system when it comes to confronting the criminal acts of our government? We urge all judges and those involved in the legal profession to follow the example of Judge Ulf Panzer and 21other German Judges who were arrested in 1987 for doing a nonviolence blockade at the US military base in Mutlangen to stop the deployment of Pershing nuclear missiles.

This is an historic moment. If real disarmament is to occur, it will happen because judges like you spoke out, and people from across the political spectrum took nonviolent action to petition our government to make this a reality.

William Penn stated: "Always put justice above the law." And St. Paul writes: "Love is the fulfillment of the law." As you determine the outcome of this case, we appeal to your conscience to act in a spirit of justice that is rooted in love and find us innocent.

Judge Brand, you have legal ground to stand on in finding us not guilty. We appeal to you to exercise your moral and legal responsibility and to uphold international law and work together with other judges to issue an injunction barring further construction of the new Kansas City plant. Please join us!

________

Art Laffin <artlaffin@hotmail.com>

Dorothy Day CW House

503 Rock Creek Church Road, NW

Washington, D.C. 20010

Phone: 202.882.9649 or 202.829.7625

http://dccatholicworker.wordpress.com/

Carol Gilbert: Sentencing Statement for Y-12 Action

Judge Guyton, before I begin my prepared statement I want to apologize for how I look and hope my mind is operating because the last 31 hours have been hectic.  We were awakened at 2 am and left Ocilla at 4:30 am with the officer driving 80 -90 miles an hour plus about half of the trip texting.  I don’t know what the law is in TN or GA but in MD and in MI that is illegal. You might not think I am a very law and order person but my friends would tell you I am. We arrived about 11:30 am and were given a very nice lunch by the marshals. We then sat in the holding cell for most of the afternoon and then taken for processing.  We arrived in our cells at 10:30 pm and were taken out again at 5 am for court.  The jail also ran out of combs to give us. So, I apologize to you.

One of the charisms of my Dominican religious order is “to give to others the fruits of your contemplation.”

These past 131 days I have contemplated what if anything I would say to this court.

Four clarifications need to be made:

We do not choose jail. Anyone who has ever been in jail, prison, or even a lock-up would never choose it.  We do choose non-violent direct action. We do choose civil resistance enough to risk arrest and incarceration.  We do choose to try and uphold Article 6 of the United States Constitution (the supremacy clause) which was not allowed in this courtroom. We do choose life over death.  But, we do not choose jail.

I chose not to testify at trial because of your order which would silence my truth.  Your order spoke of lack of “imminence”. I believe that every human being and all species are my brothers and sisters.  These last 131 days have only strengthened for me how imminent our action was.

The United States cannot at one, refurbish and upgrade nuclear warheads at Y-12 Oak Ridge for deployment, threat or use and abide in good-faith by promises to adhere to humanitarian law, the laws of war limiting the use of force and our obligation in accordance with the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Criminal Code and I understand the U.S. Military Code.

We met women both in Blount County Detention Center, Maryville, TN and Irwin County Detention Center, Ocilla, GA who had friends, relatives, spouses or themselves that worked or lived near Y-12.  We heard stories of cancers, deaths, class action suits, loss of jobs due to contamination, money awards, environmental contamination and radiated deer.  We heard from peacemakers where on 279 out of 365 days last year, the water leaving the Y-12 facility was contaminated beyond safe drinking water levels.  This speaks to me of imminence!

This court has no understanding of the difference between civil disobedience and civil resistance.  Civil disobedience means breaking a specific law.  One example from our history is the African-American population who broke the racist Jim Crow municipal ordinances by sitting at lunch counters legally prohibited from serving them.  Civil resistance is upholding the laws.  The necessity defense and Nuremburg principals say that citizens have a responsibility and a duty to resist illegal government crimes.

In many countries around the world and sometimes in this country people are acquitted for these non-violent actions.  Our Y-12 action on July 5, 2010 was an act of civil resistance.

I want to explain why Sister Ardeth Platte and I chose not to comply with supervised release after trial.  We had been on ten months of strict supervised release which we followed to the letter of the law.

When we appeared here in July of 2010 you gave us permission to go to our motherhouse in MI for meetings.  Usually, we have been on unsupervised release where we just signed a paper promising to return to court and not break any laws. So, when we got to Baltimore the papers did not read we could travel outside of MD.  We did finally get approval after many phone calls. Then in October we had a college student group and we wanted to take them to a trial in VA for a Pentagon peace action. When I called the probation department the officer said he would need to call TN.  He called back a few hours later and said if it was up to him he would give permission but after talking to TN he could not say yes. We could not participate in any demonstrations, vigils, rallies, prayer services, even our local death penalty vigil all of which were legal and First Amendment rights. Another hardship was parking when we had to visit the probation office as the costs were at least $8 and sometimes as high as $18 which were prohibitive for us. We could not work with the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Community on Faith and Resistance Retreats held three times a year in D.C. We also knew that after the guilty verdict we would need to return to TN for PSI reports and sentencing and it seemed better to begin serving the time.

These 131 days most of which were spent in a “for profit, private jail” (and that is a whole other story) taught me again how we treat the poorest in this country-the throw aways:  pain clinics, addictions, trauma, conspiracy laws, no trials, plea bargains, mandatory minimums, over-crowded federal and state  prisons and lack of medical care – you know what happened to our Sister Jackie, may she rest in peace, and hers is one of many stories I could share.

I want to close with a story about our Sister Jackie Hudson.  When Jackie was giving a presentation she always ended by asking people “to take one step outside of their comfort zone.

 Each of the warheads prepared or refurbished at Y-12 is known and intended to threaten or inflict vast, indiscriminate and uncontrollable heat, blast and radiation.   Life as we know it would cease.

After ten months of strict supervised release and 131 days in jails we come before this court as drops of water...drops of water that over time can wear away the stone.

And so Judge Guyton, prosecutors, U.S. Marshalls, court workers and friends, I stand before you today, in the memory of our Sister Jackie, who was to be sentenced in this courtroom on Monday, September 19th and say, “Let’s all take one step outside of our comfort zone.” 

Jackie Hudson, Order of Preachers, PRESENTE!

Sentencing Statement

September 16, 2011 –Knoxville TN

Carol Gilbert, OP

(Y-12 Action July 5, 2010)

For information about sending letters to Y-12 protesters still imprisoned, click here:

http://orepa.org/supporting-jailed-y12-resisters/

Steve Baggarly: Sentencing Statement, September 19, 2011

The Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge enriched the uranium that is contained in every nuclear warhead in the United States’ arsenal. It first produced weapons-grade uranium for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Kozo Itagaki was one mile from ground zero on that day:

Victims of the blast seemed like ghosts, without a vestige of clothing on their sore and burned bodies and it was hard to distinguish their sex if you didn’t take a close look. They were tottering toward the park, avoiding people who had sunk to the ground. They were asking for help and water in a faint voice, with their arms held out, with their skin peeled and hung down like potato skins. Supposedly they thought there must be some remedy if they could reach the top of the hill. But the next morning those who finally reached the top were dead, falling one upon another without being able to get medical treatment.

Together with some relatively healthy soldiers I spent days relieving injured people in the city, collecting corpses, burying and incinerating them, putting ashes in order, and so on. At around noon four days after the incident, when we were at rest, a boy (he looked like a third grader) came up with tottering steps and said, “Soldier, please give me water.” I looked at him and saw that the boy had a sign of jaundice. He also showed signs of dehydration. His hair had partly fallen out. Everyone there agreed that if he drank water he would die. I said I would bring him some a little later, and told him to lie down under the tree for a while. And we proceeded with our conversation. Suddenly I noticed the boy drinking sewage with his head down deep in the gutter nearby. He soon died.

Now I am a parent of a child and whenever I recall the happenings I imagine how hard the boy was crying for Father and Mother in his heart, or if the parents had been on the spot how much they would have felt frantic; and I regret that I didn’t let him drink water there and then.

In Hiroshima, 100,000 people were killed instantly and another 100,000 died painful deaths within the next few months. Just the US nuclear weapons ready for launching right now have over 55,000 times the explosive power of that first bomb, and there are more in reserve. As it is, the government is building three new nuclear bomb plants, including one at Oak Ridge, and is in the process of rehabbing and upgrading every weapon in its stockpile to make them even more powerful and to ensure they last into the next century. Through Y-12 nuclear weapons complex the Department of Energy, the US military, Congress, the Federal Courts, the White House and the American people conspire daily in preparation and rehearsal for the end of the world.

If the nation doesn’t repent of its nuclear idolatry, we won’t even have the luxury of feeling regret should anything like the following words of Jimmy Carter come to be:

In an all-out nuclear war, more destructive power than all of World War II would be unleashed every second during the long afternoon it would take for the missiles and bombs to fall. A World War II every second—more people killed in the first hours than all the wars in history put together. The survivors, if any, would live in despair amid the ruins of a civilization that had committed suicide.

That such a possibility exists in a world filled with children is unspeakable evil. The United States, as inventor of nuclear weapons, the only nation ever to use them on human beings, and as perpetual leader in the nuclear arms race, bears the greatest responsibility to ensure such mass suicide never happens. At this critical time in history, if there is to be any hope for stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons and moving toward a nuclear weapons-free world, the United States must make good on international commitments to disarm. It must act in spite of fear. With Manhattan Project-like relentlessness, we must lead the world in a nuclear DIS-armament race.

If we as a people stop putting our faith in gods of metal, our trust in superior firepower, seeking salvation in the DEATH OF EVERYTHING… If we depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it, I believe we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

For information about sending letters to Y-12 protesters still imprisoned, click here:

http://orepa.org/supporting-jailed-y12-resisters/

Patrick O'Neill: Y-12 protestors' sentences too harsh for the charges

Photo by John P. Kernodle

by Patrick O'Neill

There's a saying among lawbreakers: "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime." There's also another saying for law-keepers: "Make the punishment fit the crime."

The latter was not the case recently in Knoxville as U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton handed down several severely punitive sentences of up to eight months in federal prison with no chance of parole for defendants found guilty in U.S. District Court of misdemeanor trespass at the Oak Ridge Y-12 nuclear weapons facility on July 5, 2010.

On that sweltering summer day more than 14 months ago, I watched 13 people, among them four Catholic nuns and a Catholic priest, step onto a patch of grass — moving from state to federal property — in broad daylight and in full view of more than 100 uniformed police officers from several Tennessee and federal jurisdictions.

Acting in the nonviolent tradition of Indian pacifist leader Mohandas Gandhi, the group, which stood opposed to the production, testing and possible use of nuclear weapons, engaged in open resistance to Y-12's nuclear weapons program. After a few minutes the friendly group (several police officers kindly gave water to some of the elderly folks who were wilting in the heat) was rounded up by police in what was a gentle, largely symbolic and moving act of civil disobedience. Those of us on the other side of the fence cheered our friends as they were handcuffed and taken to jail.

The folks arrested at Y-12 that day were among a cadre of some of the nation's best-known anti-war and anti-nuclear activists who had come together at nearby Maryville College for "Resistance for a Nuclear-Free Future," a weekend conference about ways our nation and the world can move out from under the ominous cloud of nuclearism. Locally, the conference was sponsored by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance.

The 13 defendants (now 12 after the untimely death of Sister Jackie Hudson) followed a noble U.S. abolitionist tradition in which people of conscience take a stand, risk personal freedom and subject themselves to arrest in order to challenge unjust government policies.  In past eras, civil disobedience has been successfully employed to oppose British tyranny (the Boston Tea Party); to stop slavery and segregation, to gain suffrage for women and in opposition to the Vietnam War.

Those of us who are nuclear abolitionists believe nuclear weapons represent the preeminent threat to human survival. Preventing nuclear war requires abolishing those weapons of mass destruction. There has never been a weapon developed that was not eventually used in war. Any use of nuclear weapons would be horrific beyond imagination. Untold millions could die. Preventing nuclear war is the life's work of many of those arrested at Y-12. These are good people who devote their lives to warning the rest of us about the moral imperative of nuclear disarmament.

While most readers likely believe some form of punishment was in order for the 12, it is also critical that said punishment be reasonable in light of the offense. The response of the federal government in Knoxville was unreasonable. Guyton imposed overly punitive sentences on most of these activists for what was a minor transgression of the law. Three of my friends — Bonnie Urfer, Michael Walli and Steve Baggarly — will miss Christmas with their families this year because of their harsh sentences.

Throughout their sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Kirby stressed to Guyton the importance of imposing stiff sentences as a deterrent. Rather than concern themselves with deterrence, Guyton and Kirby would have better served society if they had recognized the important role those defendants play in keeping a check on the U.S. military-industrial complex. Our democracy needs people like those 13 brave folks, who stood on principle and took a risk for peace. Why deter them? Their punishment surely did not fit the crime, but those good people of conscience are doing the time for the rest of us.

For information about sending letters to Y-12 protesters still imprisoned, click here:

http://orepa.org/supporting-jailed-y12-resisters/

Patrick O'Neill pmtoneill@aol.com 

is cofounder of the Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House in Garner, N.C.

Story Source:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/sep/24/y-12-protestors-sentences-too-harsh-for-the/

Tom Cornell: Valuing Labor

by Tom Cornell

It’s been a year since I’ve been able to speak to you from this spot.  It was shingles, a severe case of shingles.  And after the shingles cleared up, neuralgia set in, nerve pain where the shingles had been. The pain is enough to leave anyone limp.  It’s still there, but not as bad.  There’s a vaccine now to prevent shingles.  It costs a couple of hundred dollars.  Medicare will pick up much of the cost.  You don’t want to go through this.  I shouldn’t complain, really.  I was young for a long time, 76 years.  Now, all of a sudden, I’m old.  At 77 I suppose it’s time.  Get that shot!  Now let’s take a look at today’s readings.

Today’s Gospel reading is not a recommendation for the reform of labor law.  (By the way, have you noticed that politicians use the word “reform” when they actually mean “weaken” or “destroy” in talking about Social Security or Medicare?  But that’s another matter.)  Here in today’s Gospel we have a parable of Jesus about the kingdom of heaven. 

The owner of the vineyard stands for God.  The laborers are all of us.  God keeps looking for more laborers all through the day.  Some of us came to the vineyard early.  Or rather, we were brought to baptism as infants and grew up and were confirmed in the Faith and never abandoned it.  Others, though baptized, never really appropriated the Faith until later in life.  They were baptized but not evangelized.  Still others sought baptism as adults or even as old folks at the verge of death, coming to belief literally only at the last.  I think of an old uncle of mine, long gone, Uncle Lawrence, Zio Laurienz’.  He went to church three times in his life, and twice they had to carry him in, for his baptism and his funeral.  He made it on his own for his wedding, at age 14!  He was a skeptic and a cynic; he mocked the Church and the priests and all of us faithful who supported them.  But at the last I pray that he held his hand out to Jesus, as Peter did when he was sinking, and asked for mercy.  Did he get it?  Let us hope so.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found,” Isaiah warns.   While he may be found!  We must not presume.

“He is near to all who call upon him,” sings our Psalm.  “He is kind and merciful… compassionate to all his works… near to all who call upon him.”

Paul was touched by God mightily on the Road to Damascus, thrown from his horse.  Then he was so filled with energy and enthusiasm for the Faith that he, more than any of the other Apostles, spread the Faith throughout the Mediterranean world.  And yet he so yearned for the kingdom that he could write, “I long to be freed from this life and to be with Christ… . Yet it is more important that I live for your sakes.  Conduct yourselves, then, in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” 

In today’s parable all the workers get the same wage no matter how long they worked.  This is a metaphor for entrance into God’s kingdom.  Is that fair?  In God’s economy it is!  Where would any of us be if God treated us as we deserve?  Would any of us be jealous or complain if we, who have born the heat of the day, faithful all our lives, were to find Uncle Lawrence at the Lord’s banquet table in heaven?  I’d be overjoyed to see the old rascal!  So we pray for our dead, that at the last they held out their hand to the Lord.  We can pray now for them then because with God there is no time. 

There is one startling sentence in this reading that deserves a closer look.  “I am free to do as I please with my money, am I not?” says the master of the vineyard.  No, my friends, he is not.  Remember this is a parable, a metaphorical teaching device.  Jesus was not giving a lesson in social justice in this story but a lesson in the infinite mercy of God.  But it poses an important question.  I have heard it said many times, “It’s my money.   I earned it by my own hard work.  I can do with it what I please!  Can’t I?”

You can, brother, yes you certainly can, but you may not!  Not if you wish to conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.  Catholic Social Teaching for over one hundred and ten years has been strong and clear on this.  On the one hand, all God’s creation is meant for the benefit of all God’s children.  On the other hand, the Church defends the right to private property.  That seems like a contradiction.  How are these principles to be harmonized?  By the principle of the common good.  We have a right to own property, not just our toothbrushes but productive property as well, our farms and factories and shops, most definitely, and we have a right to the fruits of our labor.  “Property is proper to man” (Peter Maurin).  But that right is not absolute.  It is limited by the requirements of the common good (cf. Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII, 1891).  As individuals we deal with balancing our rights and our needs with the rights and needs of others in the privacy of our own consciences.  As a community we determine tax law and regulations democratically, whether to have them and how much. 

One of the functions of government is the redistribution of wealth (cf. Mater et Magistra, Pope Paul John XXIII, 1961).  We’ve all played the board game Monopoly.  How many winners are there at the end?  One!  Unregulated capitalism results in money and power funneling up into fewer and fewer hands.  The game Monopoly was invented by a pious Quaker lady to teach that very lesson.  The problem with unregulated capitalism is that “ it doesn’t get enough capital to enough people” (G.K. Chesterton).  

A just, not to say a Christian society will not allow the defenseless to fend for themselves.  Twenty-five years ago, our bishops declared that all economic and social policy initiatives should take into account first their effect upon the most vulnerable among us, the poor, the young, the sick, the elderly and the unborn.  Not as an after-thought, but first and above all (cf. Economic Justice for All, USCC, 1986). 

God will not be outdone in generosity, and man will not be outdone in greed and selfishness, or so it would seem.  But then we see acts of self-sacrificing generosity as at the Twin Towers ten years ago and our hope is renewed in the Spirit, for still “the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods, with warm breast and with ah, bright wings.” (God’s Grandeur, Gerard Manley Hopkins).  He is near to all who call upon him.

It’s so good to be back.  Twenty-three years ago, when I was ordained a deacon, I didn’t realize how much it would mean to me to proclaim the Gospel and to break open the word of God with you.  It is a great privilege, one I don’t deserve.  But neither does anyone else.  There are others in this congregation who might hear the call to diaconate or to priesthood, or to the religious life as a sister or brother.  Pray for them.  None of us is worthy.  But God’s grace and mercy are infinite.  We don’t get what we deserve.  Thanks be to God! 

Deacon Tom Cornell is a veteran of the Catholic Worker Movement, former national secretary of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, and a founder of Pax Christi, U.S.A. This sermon was originally given at St. Mary’s Church, Marlboro, N.Y., on September 18, 2011.

25 Sunday A  #133

Is 55, 6-9

Ps 145

Phil 1, 20c-24. 27a

Mt 20, 1-16

Art Laffin on Upcoming Trial for Kansas City Witness, May 2011

by Art Laffin

I'm writing to let you know that I, along with other Catholic Workers, will go on trial in Kansas City on Wednesday, September 28th for the May 2nd nonviolent peace witness at the new nuclear weapons facility that is being constructed in Kansas City. Below is a link to an article by NCR reporter Joshua McElwee about the witness and the new Bomb plant.

As I/we go to trial I am mindful of the following realities:

• The ultimate violence in our time is the existence and intent to use nuclear weapons which can destroy our sacred earth.
• The stated Pentagon policy is that the U.S. must be prepared to use whatever military means are necessary, including the use of nuclear weapons, to protect its national security interests and to make sure another rival superpower does not emerge to challenge U.S. interests.
• U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons are still on high alert and are on "launch on warning" status.
• Even though the U.S. and Russia plan on reducing the # of nuclear warheads from roughly 10,000 apiece to 1,555 over the next seven years, the U.S. plans to spend $65 billion over the next ten years to upgrade the existing nuclear arsenal.
• The Kansas City Nuclear Weapons plant is expected to cost over $670 million to construct and some $1.2 billion over the next two decades. This plant will make 85 percent of all non-nuclear components for the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
• The new Census Bureau reports that one out of six Americans is living below the poverty line, including nearly 40 percent of African American children. Also nearly 50 million Americans are without health insurance.

Other friends arrested for this action who pleaded guilty back in July were given fines and community service.  It is my sincere hope that in our trial, I/we will be able to continue the court witness conveying that nuclear weapons are immoral and illegal, and that the primary intent of our action was to uphold God's law and International law and not to commit a crime. We will again assert that nuclear weapons endangers God's holy creation, that they constitute a direct theft from the poor, and that these weapons must be abolished now! And that we were, in fact, engaging in an act of "crime prevention."

In the face of all the efforts by the local political and economic powers, in conjunction with the D.O.E. and Honeywell, to do whatever it takes to build this new Bomb plant, I am so deeply grateful to the Cherith Brook and Holy Family Catholic Worker communities and Peace Planters group for continuing their nonviolent campaign to close this new Bomb plant. They are a great light in the darkness!!!

Please pray for us, the judge and the prosecutor as we seek to bear witness to the truth. And please pray for friends imprisoned for the Disarm Now Plowshares action and the nonviolent resistance action last year at the Y-12 nuclear weapons facility at Oak Ridge, TN.

We keep our eyes on the prize and hold on!!!

With gratitude, Art

Art Laffin

artlaffin@hotmail.com

Dorothy Day Catholic Worker

503 Rock Creek Church Road, NW

Washington, D.C. 20010

Phone: 202.882.9649 or 202.829.7625

http://dccatholicworker.wordpress.com/

FIFTY ARRESTED PROTEST NUCLEAR WEAPONS PLANT

http://ncronline.org/news/peace/over-50-arrested-protesting-nuclear-weapons-plant

Sue Frankel-Streit: Rain of Justice

by Sue Frankel-Streit

Steady rain all day today—the earth mourns Troy Davis, a symbol of so many people, creatures, plants and streams killed by oppressive institutions. Seems many in my circle of women took this one pretty hard; perhaps because it was so premeditated, so contested, and could have so easily been prevented.  Even my 13 year-old daughter was up last night reading Democracy Now’s reports on the case.

Troy Davis

And while part of me was proud of her for caring, another part was even sadder that despite so much work by so many, her young heart must also hold the pain of our failure to save the innocent.

What do you do when righteous anger just doesn’t touch the grief? Rain, I suppose.

Last week our community hosted some North Carolina activist elders who were presenting at the “Military Industrial Complex at 50” conference in Charlottesville. One night as we sat talking about the state of the world one of them stopped mid-sentence and turned to a young woman in the room. “I’m so sorry,” she said with tears in her eyes. ”I want you to know we really tried.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about that apology lately. And about how, when I told another sister that our friend Steve had gotten 8 months for trespassing at the nuclear weapons production plant in Tennessee, her eyes filled up, and she just looked at me through that mist of anger and grief, the same apology in her eyes.

We have tried; we are trying. And it is not enough. So we feel guilty, paralyzed, exhausted, depressed, anxious…and most of all, sad. Some days, like this rainy day-after another unjust state-sponsored execution, it all seems too much.

But the one thing I know won’t help is giving up. So I helped the kids put their boots on and we went outside to jump in puddles and look for a rainbow. No rainbow today, but by the time our boots were soaked through, the sun was out. Wherever Troy Davis is now, I hope it feels like that moment when the world suddenly brightens after a long rain, and everything is washed clean and shining in the sun and everything feels possible again for a moment.

Sue Frankel-Streit littleflowercw@cvalink.com

is a member of the Little Flower Catholic Worker Farm in Louisa, VA

Ardeth Platte: I Refuse to Be Silent!

Sister Jackie Hudson, Order of Preachers, was the next peacemaker scheduled for sentencing, next Monday morning at 9:30. Her life was given on August 3rd, 2011, her testimony complete, and it resounds loudly and clearly, remaining with us and we are grateful.  Jackie, presente!

Magistrate Guyton, we have been taught, have learned and believe that:

In these courts, justice should be rendered.

In these courts, prosecution for broken laws and policies regarding cancer-causing radioactivity that     poisons soil, water, animal and human life should be enforced.

In these courts, killing and threats to kill should be on trial.

In these courts “Deterrence” – intentional threats to kill massively (i.e. triggers cocked at targeted nations) should be listed on trial dockets as criminal.

In these state and federal courts Y 12 (along with Los Alamos and Kansas City Nuclear Complexes) producing and processing uranium, plutonium, materials and parts for nuclear weapons should be prosecuted as crimes.

Prosecutors, you have chosen instead to prosecute the Y 12 thirteen.  Your “in limine” motion to silence us at trial about applicable Constitutional, Humanitarian, Customary, International laws and treaties substantiating our action and motivation stripped us of our defense.

The probation officers chose to list for you some of my nonviolent, symbolic, direct actions of civil resistance that were designated points because of arbitrary arrests and incarcerations.  However, they too have eliminated the moral and legal ways and means of my teaching and preaching truth about war and weapons, nor have they recorded the reasons why I refuse to be silent.

So before sentencing I want to tell you more of my story.  Note that it is violence, injustice and killing that move me to actions.  I believe that nuclear weapons are the taproot of all violence and must be abolished. Poverty and deprivation kill too.  Domestic and foreign violence, injury to air, soil and water kills, massive killing in war with conventional bombs and threats of actual use of nuclear weapons – all are immoral, illegal and criminal.

So I refuse to be silent. 

My stance is the same as my religious community of Dominican Sisters, my intentional community of Jonah House and my Roman Catholic Church.  It is the same position taken by international law professors and lawyers (like Charles Moxley who testified before you), the World Court, Global Zero, Nobel Peace Laureates, many Admirals and Generals, political leaders, scientists, organizations and millions of people throughout the world.

We each in our own way refuse to be silent!

At four years of age, I/We in kindergarten were ordered to duck and cover.  Our families were ordered to extinguish all lights for blackouts in the entire city.  In those early years we were all incorporated under the cloak of fear to participate in war.

At nine years of age my country obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as you know, killing hundreds of thousands of people – innocent women, men and children with “Little Boy” and “Fat Man”.  (Years later I have had the privilege of being with and speaking at forums with the Hibakusha who plead for a nuclear-free world also.)  The pictures of their land and burnt dead make me weep.

At thirteen years of age my brother was accidently shot while deer hunting.  What I recall was the sight of the open leg wound and its difficult healing process.  It stirred in me images and awareness of the maiming and killing in warfare.

In the early 50’s I entered college and then the Dominican Sisters Community, preparing for a vowed life and teaching ministry.  Scripture, theology, social documents of the Church, secular studies, the life and charism of Dominic, our founder – an itinerant preacher of truth, along with many Dominican saints formed me and deepened my conscience.

Affected by and study of a nonviolent/loving God, a nonviolent Jesus, giving his life rather than taking another’s life, all people made to the image of God, one family of sisters and brothers in the world, to become a Beatitude people, love God and neighbor as self, do good to those who persecute you, forgive seventy times seven, hammer swords into plowshares –all of these words/concepts took root in me. I would never be the same because sacred life and creation became most meaningful.

I found my voice, must speak out, must speak truth!

In the 60’s and 70’s, during the years of my educational ministries, the “isms” became evident, focused and clearer to me. Racism was prevalent so it was right and good to be part of the nonviolent civil rights movement. Farmworkers were oppressed, so many of us joined boycotts and marches with Cesar Chavez and workers. Sexism and classism reflected the subjugation of women and the poorest and my heart and eyes were opened to the need for education, empowerment and organized efforts. For in each of these movements for justice, I saw democracy in action and had to join it; it was the way to bring about systemic change through legal, political and direct action.

I refused to be silent then and now!

Assigned to an Upward Bound program at our college as an administrative assistant and to an inner city high school as principal brought me face to face with killing. It was the time of turmoil, riots and sniping in the streets of the cities. At the same time war was escalating and raging in Vietnam. Militarism had a devastating effect on domestic budgetary needs: education, food, shelter, health care. African Americans, Hispanics, and people made poor challenged me to walk by faith’s talk about preferential option with the poorest. Some of our grads were coming back in body bags and some of our students and family members were killed on the city’s war-zoned streets.

We opened an Educational Center to drop outs, expellees and adults to offer some hope and self-determination sessions during a dark time. I participated in moratorium marches within the city and also in Washington DC. My own conversion kept deepening.

My voice was not silent!

War is not peace. Basic human necessities are intended as a right for all of God’s people. Hundreds of thousands of us were part of the demonstrations…and the Vietnam War ended. But nuclear weapons continued to be built. Each President, except Ford, threatened to use them, from Truman to the present as weapons of mass destruction have become more and more powerful.

We continued organizing – teaching conscientious objection, joining thousands at the UN Disarmament Conference in New York City in 1978 and a million of us in 1982. Nearly 1800 were arrested at the five nuclear weapon nation’s Embassies. In 1979 I was invited to the White House with other religious leaders to examine the SALT treaty. As a City Councilwoman I attended “Women for the Prevention of Nuclear War” with Rosalyn Carter, Ellen Goodman, Coretta Scott King, Joanne Woodward and numerous women leaders from every walk of life. As Mayor Pro Tem of the city I voted at our California Conference with Mayors for Peace for a Nuclear Freeze. Upon return from these urgent events our Michigan Coalition developed, gained signatures, and placed on the November 1982 ballot an Initiative banning nuclear weapons from our state. It passed by a 56% vote of the people.

However, the federal government and Dept of Defense defied the will of the people of Michigan by deploying and storing hundreds of nuclear cruise missiles for B52’s at two  Strategic Air Command (SAC) Bases in 1983 and 1984. For the next twelve years, we prayed, studied, organized, marched, demonstrated, lobbied and did legal, political, and direct actions until every nuclear weapon was removed (1995) from our state, which is a wonderland with fresh water lakes surrounding it. At the same time we did all we could do to gain funds and commitment to cleanup the serious contamination which we believe caused cancer rates to escalate in the area.

I and others refused to be silent!

{As an interesting sideline, all of my arrests at these bases were for trespass. In the city I served for years, the police were facing a hostage situation – a veteran had collected a stash of guns and was holding his wife hostage. The police requested me to come to defuse the situation, so the man could be seized and given the mental health care that he needed. There was no question about my trespassing to stop a possible killing. I did so and it was successful. It is exactly what we attempt to do each time we enter a nuclear site – to save lives and stop the hostage-taking of other nations.}

During the 1980’s and 1990’s under the tutelage of lawyers, we learned the laws of the United States applicable to nuclear weapons, war and our own nonviolent actions. These experts: Francis Boyle, Kary Love, Bill Durand, Richard Faulk, Bill Quigley, Peter Weiss, Bob Aldridge, Ved Nanda, Lawyers for Prevention of Nuclear War, Anabel Dwyer, etc. by their writings and testifying through the years substantiate the illegality and crimes of governments and corporations and our duty and responsibility to stop them.

A Coalition of Michigan peacemakers and lawyers led by Anabel Dwyer developed the Nuremberg Campaign. Atty. Dwyer attended the sessions at the Hague regarding the International Court of Justice report and opinion of nuclear weapons being illegal in threatening to use or ever using them. The Campaign included depositions, laws, procedures to be taken to stop the SAC Base from illegal action. The briefs were submitted to the Attorney General, two federal District Attorneys and two county prosecutors. Day by day we offered leaflets at the SAC Base to teach Air Force personnel that they must disobey any command (according to their Field Manuals) to threaten use or to launch nuclear weapons.

I refuse to be silent!

Lawyers who are experts in Law continue to teach us the pertinence of the Constitution, Geneva, Hague, UN  Charter, Nuremberg Principles, Poison Earth Treaty, World Court Decision, the Non Proliferation Treaty – “with its obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects, under strict and effective international control.”

Nuclear weapons inflict indiscriminate and uncontrollable mass destruction, violate fundamental rules and principles of humanitarian law and threaten the existence of life itself.

I/We were informed that the replacement upgrades in targeting capability of Trident D-5 missiles, W76 and W88 series are breaches of Article VI of the NPT and signed agreements, therefore, the ongoing production at Y12 Oak Ridge must be halted and total disarmament take place.

I refuse to be silent and joined

in issuing the proclamation on July 5, 2010.

So I ask you now:

Is it or is it not the duty to stop crimes?

Is it legal to defy treaties?

Is it legal to kill civilians?

Is it legal to bomb counties at which no war has been declared? to torture?

Is it legal to threaten with nuclear weapons?

Is it legal to occupy countries and establish 1000 military bases on ¾ of the world’s countries?

Is it legal for the U.S. to divide the world into Command Centers, controlling independent

   Continents?

Is it legal to allow or cause people to starve and be malnourished here and abroad?

Is it legal to sign treaties to total nuclear disarmament and not fulfill them?  If it is legal, it is certainly not moral. My commitment has been and is to put my mind, body, spirit and voice on lines to stop war, weapons, and killing. I oppose all killing – by the pen, by guns, by conventional and nuclear weapons. I refuse to be silent about personal, societal, state and national murder. I refuse to be silent regarding the lies told, the resources stolen, the crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The universe, Earth, creation and creatures are sacred, too magnificent to be destroyed.

You may wonder why I’m taking time to add the above material to the record and my rap sheet. No doubt you have probably decided my sentence before I spoke. I wanted you to know my convictions and passion and what has led me to do what I do…not only civil resistance and the promise to give my life for justice and peace.  I want to invite you to be agents of change.

My question is – where are the courts and judges. Will any of you be agents for change as were the courts in abolishing slavery, child labor, gaining civil rights, women’s voting, unionization, and other laws galore that had to be upheld and interpreted.  It is an urgent time, a kairos moment, a key time in history – wherein abolition of nuclear weapons is law. Let all of us go home to feed the poor and serve God’s people! Never again bring to court nonviolent civil resisters at Y12. Cases dismissed. Join the movement to stop weapons, war and killing! Prosecutors – bring forth the cases of contamination and radiation. Stop nuclear weapons and prosecute those breaking the law. As Jackie would say, “Let’s all take another step outside our comfort zone.” I trust and hope you will be the persons that will someday do it.

Sentencing Statement by

Sister Ardeth Platte, O.P.

September 16, 2011 for Y12 Action

Bonnie Urfer's Statement to the Court: “So Many Crimes, So Little Time"

So Many Crimes, So Little Time

“To the Court: 

"One of the most unpleasant things in life is to go to jail. But because they are places with some of the worst human rights violations in one of the most unjust systems, it is important that people know what happens in them. We need people in jails who have a voice, and people who know to tell the truth.

“In the past 126 days I have been booked into three different jails. The hardest part of the experience is being just one person in the midst of so much systematic crime.

“I have a decision to make.

“Do I refocus and put my energy into exposing the on-going crime of medical negligence in these jails? Do I begin a campaign to highlight the illegal starvation diet in the Blount County jail, for which no one has been arrested? Do I join the effort to condemn the practice of overcharging mostly dirt-poor inmates for phone calls, and commissary, so that corporations and counties receive greater kickbacks? Should I add my voice to those in this courthouse who show up protesting unjust sentences for nonviolent conspiracy charges? Or should I spend all of my time researching how many prosecutors, judges, attorneys, court clerks and law enforcement personnel who hold stock in the private prison industry, commissary companies, phone providers or medical contractors in these human warehouses? I see so many literal and moral crimes, and I’m just one person.

“My final answer is none of the above. I will continue to resist the ultimate crime of nuclear weapons and their production here and around the world.

“I heartily disagree with this court that Y12’s production of nuclear bombs does not equate to imminent nuclear war. I can tell you about the women I met in the jails who lost family members from cancer after exposure to radiation while working at Y12. The government pays $150,000 to those with cancer or to their family after a death, if they can prove Y12’s liability. Thousands of people are dead or dying from weapons production. How many deaths does it take to convince the courts that Y12 is killing its own in a nuclear war? How many does it take to name it a crime? In my mind — just one.

“I have just one life and there is so much to do.

“It doesn’t matter what my sentence is. If I am returned to jail, I’ll expose more crimes. If I am set free, I’ll expose more crimes.

“Now, it is your decision.”

— Bonnie Urfer, Ocilla

Bonnie Urfer, of Luck, Wis., is being sentenced in federal court in Knoxville, Tenn., Sept. 14, even though she’s been in federal custody ever since her May 11 trespassing conviction. A long-time nuclear weapons resister and nonviolence trainer, she’s spent most of the last four months in a private, for-profit jail in southeast Georgia.

After working for Nukewatch for 25 years, Bonnie’s learned something about nuclear weapons and she’s done more than four years in jail for peacefully resisting them. She joined 12 others in walking onto the property of the Y12 nuclear weapons fabrication complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., in 2010. Convicted of the federal misdemeanor with the others, she could get a year in prison.

Source:

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/article_d33daa2b-84ba-50bd-9dea-dfdf5d3b72e3.html#ixzz1XwVofaLu

John Dear: ROTC at Loyola University

by John Dear

A few weeks ago, I came across the latest issue of the alumni magazine of Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland. On the cover we see the back of a young ROTC student cadet wearing her military fatigues, and the title, “‘Til the Battle’s Over.”  The lead article features some of the many young Catholics that this Jesuit school trains for war. This issue of the magazine is a disgrace. But so is the presence of the U.S. military at any so-called Christian institution.

What else is new?  Most Catholic, Jesuit, Christian universities in the U.S. take millions of dollars from the Pentagon to train students for war--and then call ROTC a “student” organization. In doing so, they serve the U.S. war machine and betray the Gospel of peace. They present fine rationale about having intellectual soldiers who will wage “better” wars--but they can never quite claim that they are doing God’s will, obeying the Gospel, or following the nonviolent Jesus.

What caught my particular attention this time was the news that each May at Loyola, the ROTC cadets profess their oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution (if necessary by killing all our enemies), not in an auditorium, but in the university’s Alumni Memorial Chapel in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I consider this plain, old fashioned blasphemy. Here’s an excerpt:

It’s the day before commencement. Thirteen ROTC cadets march into Alumni Memorial Chapel as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” plays. Flanked by family and friends, each member of the ROTC reflects a deep pride. Standing on the altar, the newly commissioned officers take an oath to the Constitution of the United States. “This oath is an ideal and unlike any others,” Lieutenant Colonel Steven Carroll, chair of Loyola’s military science department, tells them.

With more than 90 cadets, ROTC is one of the largest student organizations on campus. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the students wear their uniforms as they go to classes and participate in daily student life. In recent years, at Commencement, the longest applause has been given when the newly commissioned ROTC cadets are introduced.

“St. Ignatius was a soldier,” one student, Christel Sacco, says, explaining why she joined ROTC at a Jesuit university. “A lot of people don’t put two and two together.” I thought the whole point of St. Ignatius’ life was his renunciation of militarism. He stayed up in prayer all night in a church, and placed his sword below a statue of Mary to begin his new life of Gospel nonviolence. It was precisely his conversion away from militarism that led to the Society of Jesus, his life of mystical prayer, and his call to service.

“If you think about it, the goal of war is peace,” Sacco continues. “I joined the military to bring peace to the nations we’re at war with, to bring justice and legitimacy to the people who are there now.” “It’s the soldier who above all desires peace,” Carroll explains. I disagree. As Gandhi taught the means are the ends; the only way to peace is through peaceful means, not warfare.

A lot of people don’t put two and two together. Despite the rhetoric, it appears to me that these students are not critical thinkers, that they’re very naïve, and that they have not been taught the Gospel. Here’s an excerpt from the lead editorial by Loyola’s Jesuit president, Brian Linnane:

We hold our ROTC commissioning ceremony each May in our Alumni Memorial Chapel. Some would argue than an ROTC battalion has no place on a Catholic campus, least of all in its chapel. The truth is, however, that the Roman Catholic tradition has never been one of unqualified pacifism. St. Augustine grappled with this issue in the fifth century, finding that there is just too much evil in our world, and that Catholics have an obligation to defend the innocent against aggression.  

Indeed, it is perhaps particularly fitting that we hold this ceremony in a chapel of the Roman Catholic Church, a church whose ideals have been challenged throughout history. The men and women who take their oaths in this ceremony swear to protect an idea—the United States Constitution—that has also faced opposition throughout its existence. But without its existence, without its protection, without the defense provided by our military, the right of Catholics to hold our beliefs dear becomes instantly vulnerable…  

The education we offer at Loyola aims to help these ROTC officers, and all of our students, become leaders with care and concern for society. We help students see themselves as members of a larger community, both locally and globally … We endeavor … to provide our students with an experience that will guide them and inspire them for the rest of their lives. In the officers commissioned through Loyola ROTC, you see the impact of that experience brought to life, ready to change and better the world -- for all of us.

Loyola ROTC was established in 1947

Many people have written elsewhere far better than me about why ROTC does not belong on a Christian campus. I simply submit that Fr. Linnane and his military friends are misguided. The church, for example, was at one time all about unqualified pacifism -- in the first three centuries. Then Constantine and later Augustine led the formal rejection of the Sermon on the Mount and turned to the pagan Cicero to justify mass murder for one’s empire.

Gospel peacemaking, also, is not about passivity, but about actively confronting injustice everywhere through nonviolent means, and digging out the root causes of war. The tired argument of educating elite officers in the Jesuit tradition has been used for more than 60 years, and does not hold up. With the hundreds of thousands of Jesuit educated officers, we still wage war, kill people, and lead the world to the brink. We are not making the world better; we’re making it worse.

And if supporting “the right of Catholics to hold our beliefs dear” is the goal -- what about the Catholics of Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Libya? When we train our young for war, we send them off to kill our brother and sister Catholics. I remember when I met the Cardinal of Baghdad in 1999, how he broke down sobbing over how U.S. Catholics kill Iraqi Catholics. The universality of the church, the global Body of Christ, is reason enough to outlaw ROTC and the U.S. military from any Catholic campus. We do not want one of our students hurting any other Catholic or Christian (or anyone!) anywhere.

Millions of Christians reject the lies of war. They know that war and preparing for war do not make us safer or sow the seeds of peace. It can’t end terrorism because it is terrorism. War certainly, hasn’t helped our economy or the environment or our health. As the world is learning, there are many creative nonviolent ways to solve international conflict.

But I am scandalized that a supposedly Christian institution so blatantly rejects the teachings of the nonviolent Jesus -- “Love one another. Blessed are the peacemakers. Offer no violent resistance to one who does evil. Put down the sword. Love your enemies.” Loyola and other Christian universities can no longer claim to be teaching the Gospel of Jesus.

I consider the ROTC commissioning service held every year in the Alumni Memorial Chapel in front of the Blessed Sacrament to be blasphemous.

In particular, the oath which the cadets take is in direct violation of the Sermon on the Mount. It pledges that if necessary, they will kill any enemies of our nation.

It reads: “I, having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.”

The early church did not allow the profession of any such idolatrous oaths, especially to the Roman military. It taught that one’s baptism meant your faith and allegiance belonged solely to the nonviolent Jesus.

The ROTC oath is a pledge to kill the enemies of the United States; Jesus, on the other hand, commands us to love them. Only then, he announces, will we be “sons and daughters of our heavenly God who makes the sun shine on the good and the bad and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” The ROTC oath, professed in the Loyola chapel, mocks the God of peace.

I urge Loyola University to cancel those ceremonies, close its ROTC program, teach nonviolent conflict resolution and the nonviolence of Jesus, and “study war no more.” In the name of the nonviolent Jesus, I invite every Loyola student in ROTC, and every student in any U.S. ROTC program, to quit immediately and follow the nonviolent Jesus on the road to peace.

And I invite people from around the world to write nonviolent letters to Fr. Linnane, Loyola University and their Alumni magazine, to share thoughts about the way of peace and Loyola’s commissioning ceremony in the university chapel (Office of the President, Loyola University, 4501 North Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21212). If plans continue for the commissioning service to be held May 2012, in the chapel, I invite everyone to join me in a peaceful protest. Perhaps we can profess the Pax Christi vow of nonviolence as a witness. Or nonviolently disrupt their unholy ceremony.

Many have told me that the disarmament of our universities is no longer possible, that the culture of war has infiltrated every aspect of civil society, that it’s not possible to have a Catholic campus for peace.

But I remember my experience in El Salvador in the 1980s at the Jesuit-run University of Central America. The Jesuits turned that campus into a training camp for justice and peace. Every class, every lecture, every program was aimed at ending the war and transforming El Salvador. The steadfast determination of the Jesuits made that university an unparalleled anti-war center. The entire university became such a threat to the culture of war that inevitably, U.S.-backed government death squads killed the president and five other Jesuits.

That university approached the Christian ideal. That’s what every Catholic and Christian university should become--a school for peace, a training camp for Gospel nonviolence, where young people are taught how to love enemies, not how to kill them.

Source:

http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/rotc-loyola-university

From February-April 2012, John Dear will undertake a national book tour for his forthcoming book, Lazarus Come Forth!, which portrays Jesus as the God of life calling humanity (in the symbol of the dead Lazarus) out of the tombs of the culture of war and death. To host John for an evening talk and book-signing at your church, send an e-mail through www.johndear.org .

John's latest book, Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings (Orbis), and other recent books are available from www.amazon.com.

To contribute to Catholic Relief Services' "Fr. John Dear Haiti Fund,"

go to: http://donate.crs.org/goto/fatherjohn.

For further information, or to schedule a lecture or retreat, visit: www.johndear.org .