A Contemporary Gospel of the Second Sunday of Advent

A Reading of the Good News of Jesus to the people of the State of Connecticut

(a paraphrase of Luke 3: 1-8)

In the second year of the presidency of Donald J. Trump, 

in the final days of the governorship of Dannel Malloy

as Ned Lamont was waiting to take office as governor of the state of Connecticut

 and Luke Bronin served was mayor of Hartford 

while Leonard Blair was metropolitan of the church of Connecticut, archbishop of the church of Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties,

with Juan Miguel Betancourt as auxiliary and Peter A Rosazza as auxiliary emeritus and

Frank J. Caggiano was bishop of Fairfield County, Connecticut, and Michael R. Cote was bishop of Middlesex, New London, Tolland and Windham and Fishers Island, NY   

  and various pastors were in their parishes in those churches,

the word of God came to many people—descendants of immigrants—

who heard of thousands of people crossing toward the desert at the southern 

border of the country.

They went throughout the whole region of their land, 

proclaiming a call to be faithful to the baptism of change of heart 

that overcomes that narrow spirit of misguided nationalism and seeks instead 

a spirit of justice and compassion 

as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet:

A voice of one crying out in the desert:

Prepare the compassionate way of our God,

make straight the paths made devious by mis-guided U.S. foreign policy

in Latin America with its considering lands as “our backyard”

where we call the shots, interfering in the affairs of sovereign nations. 

Every valley of prejudice and racism shall be filled

and every mountain and hill of arrogance and misplaced pride shall be made low.

The devious roads of the obfuscation of immigration law shall be made straight,

and the rough ways of obstruction offered the asylum-seeking made smooth,

and all flesh shall see the spirit of justice and compassion of God 

and of a nation that seeks to become great with the generosity of its better angels.

Immigration Reform: Why Do They Come to our Border?

A recent email response by our U.S. Representative to a letter I wrote him in March about U.S. immigration policy occasioned these thoughts.

Unfortunately, while his letter describes ongoing legislative efforts, the representative addresses neither a recognition of U.S. involvement in, nor a solution to, the causes for the numbers of people coming to our border from the Northern Triangle--exported militarism coupled with increased militarization of the U.S. border.
The representative's letter describes his efforts for immigration reform. Yet no matter how comprehensive, such reform will continue to be an on-going necessity as long as U.S. foreign policy considers immigration an enforcement problem rather than an economic-disparity problem. 

Policing the border is not the way to solve the human rights issues faced by people. If you are suffering the politico-socio-economic situations in your native land, you will do anything--even walking 3000 miles in caravan--to find whatever way you can to escape the intolerable conditions you and your  children face from propped-up governments to extortion from gangs created in no small way by U.S.-funded interference in their lands.

REFUGEE POLICY PAST AND PRESENT
Some may remember the refugee resettlement policies of the 1980's when it was recognized that the the U.S. had "resettled more than one-half million Indochinese, as well as thousands of other nationalities. at a cost in FY 1981 of approximately $1.2 billion" [Hearings: Foreign Policy Implications of U.S. Refugee Resettlement Policies and Programs, pg (1)]. When the U.S. gets involved in war, there always seems to be fallout in terms both of costs to finance the fallout and of people seeking refuge from the results of those wars. "Historically, the United States has been a haven for the world's refugees," Rep. Clement Zablocki, chairman of the committee, declared at the start of hearings. And the refugees of today result from the U.S. efforts under the Reagan administration to address the infiltration of leftist influences in Latin American--from financing the civil war in El Salvador to the "Guns for Hostages" fiasco that ally illegally financed the "Contras" in Honduras against the democratically-elected government of Nicaragua. Militarism promotes situations from which people flee to the U.S.

A short bit of history described in an article "Central America's Violent Northern Triangle" from the website of The Council on Foreign Relations may be enlightening:

El Salvador: 1980 - 1992 - The CIA played a fundamental role in the development security agencies from which paramilitary groups in El Salvador emerged. During the Salvadoran Civil War, the U.S. gave financial aid of more than 1 million dollars a day to successive military governments. The war caused 75,000 deaths and 8000 disappeared people. At war’s end, a large pool of demobilized and unemployed men with easy access to weapons morphed into organized criminal groups and gangs.

Honduras: 2009 - Honduras did not have a civil war of its own, but nonetheless felt the effects of nearby conflicts; it served as a staging ground for the U.S.-backed Contras, a right-wing rebel group fighting Nicaragua’s Sandinista government during the 1980s. Soldiers trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas overthrew the democratically-elected government of Manuel Zelaya. While a repressive campaign against the ensuing resistance was unleashed, the U.S. refused to call this overthrow a military coup and undermined efforts to restore democracy. 

Guatemala: 1954 - Coup d’etat organized  by the CIA against the democratically-elected President Jacobo Arbenz, which leads to more than 30 year of dictatorship, violence era repression. Guatemala’s civil war (1960–96) killed as many as two hundred thousand civilians. In Guatemala, groups known as illegal clandestine security apparatuses and clandestine security apparatuses grew out of state intelligence and military forces. In addition, as the post-civil-war El Salvador began, a large pool of demobilized and unemployed men with easy access to weapons morphed into organized criminal groups.

Criminal groups in the Northern Triangle include transnational criminal organizations, many of which are associated with Mexican drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs); domestic organized-crime groups; transnational gangs, or maras, such as Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the Eighteenth Street Gang (M-18); and pandillas, or street gangs. MS-13 and M-18, the region’s largest gangs, are estimated to have as many as eighty-five thousand members [PDF] in total. Both were formed in Los Angeles: M-18 in the 1960s by Mexican youth, and MS-13 in the 1980s by Salvadorans who had fled the civil war.

Even more elucidating is the two-part review in The Atlantic Monthly of United States of Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America: 1977-1992
Though it's a bit lengthy and somewhat dated (published in 1998), Benjamin Schwarz's review summarizes William LeoGrande thesis comprehensively.

And, in a kind of Latin American version of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, Eduardo Galeano's  Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
offers the view from the perspective of a Latin American historian. In this reversal of the Churchill quote,

this work describes the events in Latin American history from a refreshing view of the insiders. Some may remember that  President Obama was presented with this work by the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, as he broke protocol by walking around the table of representatives at the Summit of the Americas, in 2009, patted Obama on the shoulder, giving him this book about Latin America's exploitation by foreign powers.

As we witness the caravan of thousands heading from the Northern Triangle to our border, we do well to resist the rhetoric of fear and prejudice by recognizing there is more to the story than we hear and red in the mainstream media.

5200 TROOPS SENT TO BORDER and CUTS OF U.S. AID
Witness to the militarization of the border is the president's ordering troops to the border because the caravan--still 1000 miles away and diminishing in numbers by the da--is a threatening "invasion of our country." Added to that is the threat to cut off U.S. aid to those countries which are not doing enough to stem the flow of migrants from their countries to the U.S. Even the most novice of political science students recognize such steps as counter productive, as most commentators are indicating, to halting migration from those countries. Such cuts in aid to the countries of the Northern Triangle, with economies already shaky at best, will only make them less likely to keep their citizens at home. Loss of capital would be all the more burdensome and likely to create more imbalance inspiring their populations to leave to survive.
Desperate people longing for safety and hungry for sustenance will not be influenced by threats of troops; they have already faced the U.S.-trained military in their own countries. And countries already suffering the fallout from failed U.S. foreign policy in their lands will find preventing emigration from their countries even more difficult.

SOAW BORDER ENCUENTRO
As I write this, a Border Encuentro is about to take place at the border in Nogales (Mexico and U.S.) organized by the School of the Americas Watch from November 16 to 18. Perhaps thousands will gather there from all over the country to demonstrate against the U.S. militarization both at the border and in the countries of Latin America, especially the Northern Triangle. A delegation from Connecticut will take part in that event from November 16-18, gathering for presentations on both sides of the border and at conference centers on the U.S. and Mexico sides. Most will take part in protesting the gun supplier Milkor USA, Inc. Reviewing that website tells the story.

Suppliers like Milkor "further militarize Mexico and the northern region of Central America respectively, to purportedly confront the so-called Drug War, and contain mass displacement from the region, but instead have led to more human rights violations. The legal and illegal U.S. gun trade is devastating migrants in Mexico who are fleeing U.S.-supported drug wars in Central American and Mexican communities, who are experiencing more gun homicides this year than ever. SOA Watch has partnered with the 'Stop US Arms to Mexico' project of Global Exchange to build a movement to end the US-Mexico Merida Initiative and weapons trade."

In addition, participants will travel to an immigration detention center for a rally against the U.S. immigration policy of detention. Hundreds of activists will gather in that desert rally at Eloy, AZ, about 50 mile north of Tucson—one of the hundreds of such large immigration detention centers in the country operated by CoreCivic--a  for-profit corporation. This facility has a capacity of 1596 people housed there for months at a time with no trial. And this only one of dozens of such facilities spread across the U.S. whose corporate entities are contracted by the federal government to hold refugees claiming political asylum and awaiting, most times for months, their hearings. Some of the tendencies to abuse from for-profit correctional institutions are outlined in an article in Mother Jones.

This background may be helpful in formulating a clearer understanding of some of the issues of immigration reform demanding the attention of lawmakers. To that end, these are the thoughts I'd commend to our representatives in Congress.  

The Progressive Catholic Coalition Reinforces SOA Watch Message at the Border Encuentro

[Pictures of the SOA Watch Border Encuentro can be found on the PCC Facebook page @pcc4churchjustice. Specific pictures to accompany this text will be added shortly]

From November 9^th to 12^th in Nogales, the PCC joined the SOA Watch Border Encuentro on both sides of the border wall that snakes up and down the terrain of Nogales dividing the town into two communities, one in the state of Sonora in Mexico, the other in the State of Arizona in the U.S. This second year of gathering at the Border emphasized, in addition to the long-term cause of closing the SOA (WHINSEC), the larger demand to end the racism, militarism and economic exploitation inherent in U/S/ Foreign Policy. 

Through its history beginning in 2004, the PCC presence at the SOA Watch events is financed through sponsorship contributions by Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, Call to Action-usa, CORPUS, CITI Ministries, Inc., the Federation of Christian Ministries, Roll Away the Stone and Women’s Ordination Conference. The intent has been to bring the message of the reforming church to participants—especially young people—taking part in the SOA Watch. This is a report of the participation of the representatives of each of the seven sponsoring organizations of the PCC during this year’s SOA Watch event. 

Eucharist on Indigenous Land

It was Saturday afternoon. The pungent smoke of the smoldering sage smudge wafted gently over those gathering for Eucharist on lands previously called home by various tribes of the Tohono O’Odham nation. Father Francisco Eusebio Kino, an Italian-born Jesuit and talented cartographer, had first come there in the 1680’s and entered into trade with the people. The people of the settlement of “Las Lagunas” (the ponds) supplied him with water and trade as he traveled north to what would become the mission of San Cajetano de Tacumcácori, established about 25 miles north and now preserved as an historical site of a U.S. National Park Service.

The land near “Las Lagunas” was where the Eucharist planned by the Progressive Catholic Coalition was led during the SOA Watch Border Encuentro—now the parish grounds of St. Andrew Episcopal Church, a sanctuary church serving the border crossers who use trails passing along the parish boundaries.

 As the Eucharist began those gathered requested permission of the ancestral spirits of the native peoples to enter into worship on the lands that were their home. After a moment of respectful silence, those gathered continued by entering into a smudging ceremony accompanied by drumming. The use of sage smudging is a customary purification rite traditionally carried out among the indigenous peoples of the area. The drum beat invites participants into harmony with the heartbeat of the universe. Drums were customarily made from animal skin and hollowed-out tree trunk—gifts of fauna and flora from creation. 

The hospitality of the church of St. Andrew was facilitated by Deacon Rodger A. Babnew, Jr. The availability of the church grounds came about through a contact by Dottie Harrelson, wife of a resident priest of the church, Rev. Ernie Harrelson, on the PCC Facebook page in 2016.

 The gathering accepted as leaders of worship five priests: Jennifer O’Malley, Rosa Manriquez, IHM and WOC representative;   Janice Sevre-Duszynska, Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests; Jane Via, newly ordained bishop for the Western Region of Roman Catholic Women Priests; and Jack Wentland, representing CITI Ministries, CORPUS and FCM. Also in attendance were Barbara Mattus, RCWP, and Nick De Los Reyes, CORPUS.

 In conjunction with the demands formulated by SOA Watch for the weekend, the theme of the Eucharist included seeking: 

• An end to US economic, military and political intervention in Latin America
• A demilitarization and divestment of the borders
• An end to racist systems of oppression that criminalize & kill migrants, refugees & communities of color
• Respect, dignity, justice and the right to self-determination of communities
• An end to Plan Mérida and the Alliance for Prosperity

 As it had done for centuries, the Arizona sunset was tinting the sky as the service ended. Before departing, those who took part spent time to share their impressions of the locale and the Eucharist. Some chose to follow Deacon Rodger Babnew, Jr., to the church meeting room where a glass case displays fragments of shards and reassembled pottery discovered in the late 1960’s during the excavation of the land for the foundation of the church. The original church was established in 1899. The settlement where the indigenous Pima lived was established near the laguna long before the arrival of the Spanish settlers in the 1700’s. More about the church is at www.standrewsaz.org

Rally at the Federal Courthouse

The day before the Eucharist, the weekend kicked off with a summary of why this Encuentro at the Border is so important. Hundreds had gathered in Tucson at the YWCA to take part in this general introduction to the weekend and for workshops. 

Gaspar Sánchez from COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), then described some of the organizing happening in Honduras. He specified that there needed to be not only justice for Berta, but there needed to be reform in Honduras. The first step for that reform to be possible was to stop U.S.-financed intervention in Honduras, which is why Gaspar expressed his enthusiasm about being at the SOA Watch Border Encuentro. The crowd then was given a preview of the remainder of the day’s events, as well as what to do when confronted by police during any of the weekend.

Following the presentations, a community potluck lunch gave everyone a needed break as well as energy to head to the rally a few blocks away. After the lunch, the gathering proceeded to the front of the Federal Courthouse in downtown Tucson located at the intersection of Congress Street and Granada Avenue. Arriving at the courthouse, hundreds of us paraded for about an hour, with placards reading “Tear Down the Walls - Build Up the People,” “No Border Wall,” along with others including one in Arabic, English and Spanish “No Human Being is Illegal.” We marched around the intersection in front of the building to the accompaniment of drumming, songs and chants and the occasional honk of approval from cars.

 Then the gathering came to a halt in a circle in the plaza of the Federal Courthouse for a rally. We listened as speakers told their important truths and experiences. The point of the rally was to protest Operation Streamline: the criminal proceeding that illegally charges migrants en masse and happens daily at the Federal Courthouse.

This proceeding holds hearings which often result in border crossers being placed in detention until their immigration hearing which can be months later. During that time, detainees are held in prison-like conditions, even though some may be eligible for parole or asylum.

 A black banner emblazoned with white crosses proclaimed the reality of the border so far in 2017:  “147 dead - 122 unknown - 25 identified.”

Of the four speakers, the first, who went through Operation Streamline, shared his experiences of being processed along with more than 70 others in a courtroom where “your only option of defense is to admit guilt”, which is in fact “no defense at all”.  His powerful words were followed by a member of the Tohono O’Odham nation, who spoke of the militarization of O’Odham. Another speaker implored the crowd to show up, not just when laws are challenged, and not just for dreamers, but also for their parents, and family.  She spoke of a compañero that had been detained at a Motel 6 in town because the staff had called la migra, and how he should have been standing in the crowd with us. The final speaker of the afternoon, a local organizer, broke down for the crowd just why programs like Operation Streamline exist: simply to funnel money into the deportation machine.

The rally concluded with a reading of the names of the 147 people who have died in the desert in just this year alone, following each name with the proclamation of “Presente”—acknowledging that each is not forgotten and is present in the struggle for justice.

Caravan to the Rally at the Eloy Immigration Detention Center 

Following this rally, a caravan wormed its way 54 miles north on I-10 to a remote location outside the town of Eloy, where the detention center administered for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is located. 

(from the SOAWatch website)

 Hundreds of people gathered for a vigil outside of Eloy Detention Center, an immigration prison that currently detains close to 1,600 migrant and asylum-seeking brothers and sisters. It was an evening to commemorate the souls who have died while crossing the Sonoran Desert, and show our solidarity for the souls who are continuously criminalized and imprisoned for mobilizing—a mobilization that is forced upon them by the detrimental effects of U.S. imperialism and U.S.-inflicted violence in their home countries.

 We asked ourselves: What if this immigration prison behind us were to close and re-open as a free university for folks? For that moment, we were vocal about our hope that we will be last generations to see that repulsive building. As the sun set, these words traveled with the wind: let’s be Eloy’s sunset. Let’s be the people who will witness the shutting down of these prisons. Their disappearance. “Las paredes de Eloy vamos a tumbar, para que las familias se puedan abrazar,” (we’re gonna tear down the walls of Eloy, so families can once again hugs enjoy). The Peace-Poets free-styled as the sky went dark. By then, all we could see were the candles lighting our path closer toward Eloy’s gates. “¡No están solos!” (You are not alone!) we screamed. Our brothers and sisters could hear us through the cement and glass that’s caged them for weeks, months, years. In the distance, we saw their messages. They covered and uncovered the light in their cells, signaling they could hear us. They could see us. No están solos.

 The rally earlier in the day riveted in our memories the toll taken in lives in the process of crossing the Sonoran Desert: 147 lives in 2017. The majority comes from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, where violence and repressive regimes hold sway, and the only Central American countries, interestingly, which send officers for training at the U.S. Army School at Ft. Benning. 

  As the afternoon sun shone on the Sonoran Desert, where surrounding mountains abruptly jutted up from the flat sandy soil here and there like broken giants’ teeth, in the distance we could see the prison-like facility, over a hundred yards away. We listened to presentations by former detainees and about present detainees and the conditions under which detainees are held in this facility, referencing that there are thousands being held in many others facilities like Eloy across the U.S. 

The peaceful demonstration ended with our heading to our vehicles, many heading to the evening concert at Solar Culture in Tucson.

 The Tear Down the Walls, Build Up the People concert at Solar Culture, co-sponsored by SOA Watch and Coalicion de Derechos Humanos featured performances by Teré Fowler-Chapman, Top Nax, Shining Soul, Santa Pachita, Lando Chill, Carlos Arzate, Rattle Ry, Ciphurphace & DJ Grapla, DJ Humble Lianess, and b-boy dancers.

While some headed to enjoy the concert, others returned to their hotels, some in Tucson, others, like us,  heading 117 miles south to Nogales.

 March to Border Wall

The next morning in front of the Hotel Americana in Nogales, a crowd gathered to hear a short orientation about “Know Your Rights before starting the mile-long march at 9:30, joining the Bi-National Veteran-led March to the U.S.-Mexico border. On the Mexico side, a similar group formed to march and proceed to the stage on the Mexico side to the border. The march stretched out the full mile, some marching to a stage on the U.S. side, others to the stage on the Mexico side.  

 Veterans Deported

One of the issues hardly making the main stream media is the deportation of U.S. Veterans. More on the issue can be seen at www.veteranswithoutborders.com. A series of videos on the issue can be seen at www.valenzuelabrothers.com

Berta Caceres - HR 1299

Among the presentations from the stages at the border on Saturday, one of the most important relates to the first-ever legislation to suspend U.S. military aid to Honduras—The Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, HR 1299. This is an important bill, and thanks to the work of numerous organizations and activists around the country, 60 Representatives have co-sponsored the bill.  You can see a listing of those who have co-sponsored the bill by going to the SOAW website www.soaw.org/border/advocacy

If your representative is not yet a co-sponsor, e-mail him or her. You can also set up a meeting with your Representative, write a letter to the editor of your local paper, or organize a public event to educate others about HR 1299.

 You’ll find further background about the case of the Honduran activist is at www.soaw.org/advocacy

Workshops and Forums

The stage presentation ended at 12:30. Those at the wall made their way back to the Americana or to the Museo de Arte in Nogales, Mexico to take part in workshops and forums. The content of these is too extensive to include here. The complete summary of the workshops offered is at www.soaw.org/border/workshops-2/

For some, a social hour ended the day. For others, the Eucharist planned by the Progressive Catholic Coalition described above drew them to prayer.

  

Sunday PRESENTE and Puppetistas

  Most impressive on Sunday was the recognition of the division of the indigenous people created by the border wall. In a ritual common to the Tohono O’Odham peoples of the area, an exchange was carried out between members of the tribe on each side through the wall. Salt was handed to the U.S. side as a pledge of unity in ceremonies held in common, a medicine pouch with eagle feathers was given to the Mexico side as a sign of healing by a people overcoming the divisive wall that separates the nation.  

 By noon, the Sunday program at the wall ended and participants dwindled away, fired up to return to their own areas to continue the struggle to end the racism, militarism and economic exploitation inherent in U.S. Foreign Policy. 

Remembering the Justice Witness of the Life of Jerry Zawada, OFM

The life and work of Franciscan Father Jerry Zawada (April 28, 1937 - July 25, 2017) were celebrated on Monday, November 13^th at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church, Tucson, by a gathering of over a hundred of his friends and co-activists. With music provided by Charlie King and Ted Warmbrand on guitar and banjo, the service included testimony from fellow-activists about their remembrances of Jerry’s spirit in his work.  

 Jerry was special to the Progressive Catholic Coalition because of his stand to serve as co-leader of the Eucharist planned at the 2011 SOA Watch Convergence at Ft. Benning. The PCC was so happy to have him, both as a “prisoner of conscience” at The SOA Watch who served not only a 6-month term in prison for “crossing the line” but also a total of 25 months in prison for his anti-nuclear protests at silo sites in the Southwest. To the PCC he was also a champion for recognition of the call of the Spirit to women to serve as priests in the Church, a conviction that led him to the valiant stand to serve as co-leader of the PCC Eucharist in 2010 and 2011 at the SOA Watch Convergence in Georgia with Association of RomanCathoic Women Priests Janice Sevre-Duszynska. 

This conviction of Jerry led him to be removed from public ministry by the Vatican. 

At the Celebration of Life in Tucson, Jerry’s friends and fellow activists in Tucson remembered him as a humble servant of humanity with a droll sense of humor, a gentle man with a heart large enough for all and incapable of offense. Janice Sevre-Duszynska read a remembrance of Jerry and his conviction about justice extending to the Church, calling for the recognition of woman priests. Janice’s full statement is at:

http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/2017/11/jerry-zawada-celebration-of-life.html

Jerry was a priest who most identified with the down-trodden and dejected. Whether Central American refugees at the U.S. border, those caught amid war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the poor and gang members of Chicago, the imprisoned and others decades-deep in the peace movement, Zawada was a friend to all.

His memorial was a fitting conclusion for this weekend with the PCC present and calling for an end to the racism, militarism and economic exploitation inherent in U.S. Foreign Policy. 

A link to a video of the complete Celebration of Life of Jerry is provided at the Facebook page: @rememberingJerry

___________________

PROFILE INFO

In addition to his marriage ministry, Jack, as he’s known to his friends, was ordained on May 25, 1963 for the diocese of Rockford, Illinois, and continues as a justice and peace advocate who first protested militarism in El Salvador in Chicago in 1982. He has promoted the SOA Watch agenda since 2000 when he received a “ban and bar” letter for crossing the line at Ft. Benning. He has represented CORPUS, FCM and CITI Ministries, Inc. at SOA Watch since 2004, serving as coordinator of the multi-organizational reform group, The Progressive Catholic Coalition. Since 2007, he has resided in Glastonbury, Connecticut with his loving Mary.

Email: jackwentland@gmail.com

The complete version of this article is available on the blog site Jack’s Spats for easier access of the links cited.  http://jacksspat.blogspot.com/

Remembering Ken

Ken died on May 25, 2002, the 39th anniversary of my ordination. He had been a close friend of mine through the three years of philosophy studies at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein. Even after those years we stayed in touch for a while. I visited his home in Maywood during those years, staying for meals with his parents whom I’d met during visiting Sundays at Mundelein. After ordination in 1963, we lost touch.

Ken had played a role at crucial points in my life.

Ken had been my study partner on occasion when I suffered real difficulty trying to grasp the abstract concepts of philosophy in Latin. I knew I had a problem with abstract thinking in Latin when I recognized I was learning more philosophy in the History of Philosophy class with John “Mousey” Walsh, S.J., than I was with Bernard “Silver Fox” McMahon, S.J.  I had no difficulty in Latin or other foreign languages, having studied Latin and German for 5 years and Greek for three. But my brain was not developed at the time to work with the combination of grasping concepts and understanding them in lectures in Latin. I always admired all of my successful classmates who apparently felt so comfortable in responding in class. I wouldn’t volunteer a response because I knew it would come out all garbled. As a study partner, Ken was a big help, perhaps not in aiding me in responding, but at least in improving my test grades.

He also was my cohort in a number of extra-curricular activities calculated to maintain sanity. Assisting with the construction, finishing and outfitting of the iceboat we christened “Snowflake” and tested on the lake in the winter of 1958-59. Providing me with the plan for building a three-transistor radio as small as a pack of cigarettes connected o a Telex earphone—reception not much better than a crystal set because it needed a long antenna to pick up any stations. Building baffled speaker enclosures and laminating them with fine wood finish (I still have those speakers). And Ken, as everyone everyone who knew him probably remembers, was a wiz with anything electronic. His ability in recording events, building his own stereo tape recorder by combining the sound boards of two Wollensak tape recorders. I’ll never forget the stereo rendition of a recording he produced of the Dimitri Tiomkin score for the soundtrack of the film Giant. And we all remember Ken’s ability with lighting, often collaborating with Gerry Walter, Don O’Connor or Jim Tolch, for our productions, as class assignments from John Conrath, S.J. Ken created rheostat-dimmers that gave those productions a professional touch. 

During the summer of 1959, Ken drove with me on a 425-mile trip (before completion of I-80 and I-35) to Conception Abbey, Maryville, Missouri, in my 1931 Ford Model A Coupe with rumble seat, pictured with Ken at Colonial Motel , Kirkwood, Missouri. My parents asked if he’d join me in this trip, concerned that such a long-distance solo trip would be too much for me—or the 28-year-old vehicle.

The reason for this trip was the requirement that I take a summer Latin course as a pre-requisite for entrance to Mt. St. Mary of the West in Norwood (Cincinnati). While I knew I didn’t need extra help with Latin, I knew I wanted to be able to take courses in theology taught in English. The three years of struggling with philosophy lectures in Latin brought me to recognizing I needed to make this decision to switch seminaries. If I was going to understand the theology studies needed in preparation for ordination, I needed to seek a seminary where theology was taught in English. While I knew the texts would still be in Latin, I knew that was not my problem.

Ken returned to Chicago by train from St. Joseph, Missouri, and I continued the summer course assisting Fr. Becker, O.S.B., and tutoring those struggling with Latin. One of my classmates was Stan Rother from Oklahoma City, who had come out of the Navy to enter the seminary and struggled with language learning. Later, I discovered he went on to be ordained—coincidentally the same day I was, May 25, 1963 and 39 years-to-the-day before Ken's death—went to Guatemala and served 13 years in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala (1968 –1981), Diocese of Solola, translating the New Testament into the Tzutuhil language. On July 28, 1981, Stan was murdered by a paramilitary death squad for his work among the indigenous people. Caught between the revolutionary movement for self-determination and the military government in Central America’s longest and bloodiest civil war, Stan refused to preach rebellion, but his pastoral devotion to his people eventually cost him his life.

By his accompanying me on the drive to Conception Abbey Ken was instrumental in exposing me to the Benedictine spirit of liturgical piety where I had the opportunity of translating the hymns of the breviary four years before I was to be praying them. In addition, Ken played a part in my being introduced to a martyr whom the people he served already consider a saint.

When I had approached my bishop, Loras T. Lane, he was amenable to a change of seminary. And saw to it that I was recommended to Mt. St. Mary of the West, Cincinnati, But when I was making arrangements for the transfer, there was a hitch. The rector, Msgr. Joe Schneider, figured I had a Latin deficiency. So I was enrolled for the summer Latin Course at Conception Abbey. After I arrived at the Mount, I completed the required Latin Proficiency test with all those who were coming from "noon-feeder" seminaries to see if they needed further Latin classes. The results of the test showed I did not need Latin classes. However, the full results of that test were not revealed to me until four years later when, prior to ordination, I was called to the office of the rector. As we spoke he began by telling me he had received a letter from my bishop asking "Are you going to ordain this man or not?" He explained that when I came four years earlier, he began to have suspicions that I had some ulterior motive for switching seminaries. What added to that suspicion was what he then revealed to me regarding the full results of that test: “You aced it; you aced it!” For four years he held this suspicion in what the seminarians had dubbed "his amateur-psychologist mind."

The ironic twist was that, by second theology, the Vatican released its Instruction on Latin in the Seminary, and the diocesan priests who were the profs had to scramble to brush up on their Latin abilities, most just gave lip-service to the recommendaiton. Our scripture prof, Father Gene Maly, was the only one who, having received his doctorate at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, knew that “Rome proposes, man disposes” and continued lectures in English, though some of his lectures were given from texts he gave translating on the fly directly from articles in German by such scripture luminaries as Rudolf Bultmann. Best course I could have had. Gene was the co-founder with Passionist Fr. Barnabas Mary Ahern of the scripture periodical, The Bible Today.

Ken also volunteered his excellent photographic skills for my First Mass at St. Peter Church, Rockford, on May 26, 1963.

All this is background about how Ken was instrumental in a very crucial point in my life and as prelude to my discovering as I recently researched information about Ken, finding, quite by accident, the listing of Ken as defendant in the cases of 10 young men who accused him and Bob, another seminarian a year behind us, of sexually abusing them.

 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/il_chicago/#ruge

This revelation left me with a mixed response. I was saddened to read the testimony found at that website.

In 2002, while serving as director of Service Justice and Peace at Holy Family, Inverness, I had occasion to hear a presentation at the parish by Barbara Blaine, co-founder of SNAP. Her account moved me deeply because of the first-hand testimony of her abuse at the hands of a priest. She had made me aware of the research being compiled on that website created by a non-ecclesiastical entity to assure the transparency by the Bishops in those days.

Reading the testimony of those abused by Ken and Bob, I felt a sense of betrayal, but also a sense of wondering how the young men I knew—one a talented and helpfully compassionate friend in early years—could be the same persons I was reading about in the trial testimony by those they abused. And I felt a sense of slight guilt for being so wrapped up in my own life and Hispanic ministry that I was not in touch with or present to Ken in the years 1976 and 1979 when he served at Divine Infant, Westchester and in October 1991 when he was “withdrawn” from ministry and placed on “monitored living.” Added to that, seeing that the abuse took place in part at Woodhaven Lakes in Lee County, located within the my diocese, at a trailer Ken and Bob owned, not far from one of the areas served by our Diocesan Hispanic Ministry, hit my heart heavily.

Ken died in May, 2002. The Archdiocesan death announcement did little to show respect or accept responsibility.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/resources/resource-files/databases/2006_03_20_list.pdf

So good to read the recent kind comment about Ken by my classmate of years ago, Bill O’Shea: “He knew he was dying of cancer, but had found peace and acceptance." May his victims also one day find peace.