May the gift of peace that Jesus offers be with us all this morning!
With God all things are possible! Without God we can do nothing! AMEN!
On behalf of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker (DDCW) I want to begin by expressing deep gratitude from the bottom of my heart to the Eighth Day Faith Community for your steadfast support of the DDCW this past year and for so many years!
In Mark's Gospel today (6:1-13) we hear Jesus talk about prophets not being accepted. In our time we think of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Saint Archbishop Oscar Romero from Salvador...Prophets I met who experienced what Jesus did: Archbishop Dom Helder Camera from Brazil, Dan and Phil Berrigan and Dorothy Day... We call them and all the Holy Cloud of Witnesses into our presence today—Presente!
Like the disciples we hear about in the Gospel, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, co-founders of the CW movement, accepted Jesus's call to radical discipleship.
I had the great honor of meeting Dorothy Day several times. I'd like to share a quote from her regarding the vision of the Catholic Worker movement.
The vision is this. We are working for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein justice dwelleth." We are trying to say with action, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We are working for a Christian social order.
Since its founding in 1981, the DDCW has tried to do what Dorothy and Peter Maurin envisioned, offering hospitality, doing the works of mercy, acting for justice, practicing personalism and voluntary poverty and proclaiming Gospel Nonviolence.
Now in its 43rd year, the DDCW, founded by the great Jesuit peacemaker, Fr. Richard McSorley, has offered hospitality to numerous families and others who have experienced homelessness. Also, numerous Catholic Workers and other peace workers have lived at the house. These have included Merwyn and his wife, Kirstin, who lived at the house several years ago. Today, there are four Catholic Workers living at the house, along with a Dominican sister and three formerly homeless Haitian families. I live at the house with my wife and son. We also offer hospitality to several Korean peacemakers. Several days ago, a beautiful thing happened at the house. Dilcia, a former resident who lived with her 1- and 2-year-old at the house, and who now lives in her own house in Silver Spring, brought over a crib for a Mom currently at the house who is expecting a baby next month. In 2003, Dilcia who had her two babies in a stroller was crossing the busy Georgia/New Hampshire Ave. intersection with her babies in the stroller, was hit by a DC water truck driver who made an errant turn. The children who were in intensive care and nearly died, made a miraculous recovery, due in large part to the prayers of so many supporters of the DDCW.
Also, each Wednesday, clothing is given out to our poor neighbors. And each Thursday the Feast on the St. ministry now led by Members of Our Lady Queen of Peace church in Arlington, provides food and clothing to our homeless and poor friends at McPherson Sq.
Regarding peace and justice work, members of the DDCW hold peace vigils every Monday morning from 7-8 AM at the Pentagon and every Friday from Noon-1 PM at the White House. Paul Fitch sometimes joins this vigil. We also hold special commemoration actions at the Pentagon three times a year on Aug. 6, the anniversary of the sinful U.S. nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, (on Aug. 9 at the White House), Dec. 28 to remember the massacre of the Holy Innocents past and present, and on Good Friday. We also organize a prayer/peace vigil at the annual Air Force Association "Arms Bazaar" each September.
We also support and participate in the various nonviolent movements and actions for social justice and peace in D.C. This recently included the Poor People's Campaign Assembly and Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition Assembly (June 29) and the annual 4 day (June 29-July 2) Fast & Vigil outside the unSupreme Court to abolish the death penalty.
After the horrific Hamas attack of Israel on Oct. 7, the DDCW joined with other faith-based justice groups in forming the Christians 4 Ceasefire group to call for a permanent ceasefire in Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, release of all Palestinian and Israeli prisoners, an end to all U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel, an end to the occupation of Palestine, and for a just peace for Palestine and Israel. Over these last eight months we have organized "pray-ins" at the White House and Capitol. Kathy Boylan and I are currently facing trial for the March 21 pray-in for Gaza that was held at the Russell Senate Office Building rotunda.
July 4-5 marked the 42nd anniversary of the Trident Nein plowshares action that I was blessed to be part of. Early on July 5, 1982, as the nation just finished celebrating Independence Day, I was among nine peacemakers that entered General Dynamics-Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, CT to enact the biblical prophecy of beating swords into plowshares and make a “declaration of independence” from the first-strike Trident nuclear submarine and all nuclear weapons. Four of us boarded the Trident USS Florida by canoe, hammered on several missile hatches, poured blood, and with spray paint, renamed the submarine “USS Auschwitz.” They were arrested within half an hour. Meanwhile, five of us entered EB’s south storage yard and hammered and poured blood on two Trident sonar spheres and hung on them a banner that read: “Trident a Holocaust–An Oven Without Walls.” We were apprehended after three hours. During a two-week jury trial in New London Superior Court, we were disallowed a justification defense, and expert witnesses were prohibited from testifying about the danger of Trident. We were convicted of criminal mischief, conspiracy and criminal trespass and ordered to pay $1,386.67 in restitution to the Navy. We were sentenced to jail for up to one year.
The USS Florida Trident submarine that we hammered on, now refitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles, was deployed on November 5, 2023 to the Middle East, in support of Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, and as a "deterrent" to regional adversaries.
In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reset its iconic Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds before midnight. On June 17, 2024, ICAN released a report about global nuclear weapons spending in 2023 totaling over $91 billion. The United States’ share of total spending, $51.5 billion, is more than all the other nuclear-armed countries put together and accounts for 80% of the increase in nuclear weapons spending in 2023. The next biggest spender was China which spent $11.8 billion with Russia spending the third largest amount at $8.3 billion. The Navy has contracted with General Dynamics to build the Columbia class nuclear subs to replace the existing Trident fleet. Ten Columbia class subs will cost over $120 billion and the first of these subs will be named the USS District of Columbia. This is sinful and criminal! As these exorbitant resources are spent on these weapons of mass murder, ninety people died without the dignity of home last year in D.C.
This week the U.S. government is hosting the NATO Summit in D.C. as NATO marks its 75th anniversary. Activists from around the U.S. and Europe are in D.C. and held an all-day conference yesterday. This afternoon there will be a (No to NATO—Yes to Peace) rally in Lafayette Square calling for the disbanding of NATO's warmaking enterprise, and that the over-one trillion dollars the thirty-two NATO countries allocated for its war budget this year be redirected to help end poverty and the climate crisis.
We live in a time when killing, war and genocide is normalized. Now more than ever, we need to heed the Biblical mandate to beat all the swords (including nuclear weapons) of our time into plowshares and abolish war, proclaim the commandment of Gospel nonviolence, and advocate for just peace and restorative-transformative justice in our war-torn world. Deo Gratias for all efforts being undertaken to bring about a nonviolent disarmed and just world! And THANK YOU, Eighth Day Community, for all you are doing to make the Word flesh and make God's reign of justice, love and peace a reality!!!