Father Simon Harak S.J.
My mind, what with the Archdiocese ignoring the plight of the poor even though having a million dollars at its disposal and, the discrimination against young African Americans at a local country park, has been thinking a lot about discrimination recently.
A few years after we revived the anti-ROTC [military officer training on campus] movement at Marquette University in 2006, Marquette decided to create a Peace Center and hired a Jesuit peace activist to head the Center. I was extremely happy since the Jesuit, Fr. Simon Harak, is a LebaneseMelkite Jesuit trained peace activist like I am.
Before the Peace Center opened, I invited Simon for lunch at my house and cooked for him a Lebanese meal, including stuffed Grape Leaves. We got along well and I gave him some information about the local peace action scene in Milwaukee which he was grateful for. As he was leaving, I told him about our recent activities resurrecting the anti-ROTC movement which had been kept alive by some Catholic Workers here in Milwaukee. It had its modern start in 1969, inspired by theMilwaukee 14 action and by the strong resistance of ROTC on Catholic campuses by Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker. He told me that this was one resistance movement he could not participate in since it was a condition of his hiring not to participate. However, he wished us well and I told him, honestly, that I would keep on trying to get him involved.
Over his years as the Director of the Center for Peacemaking we had our disagreements but also respected each other and had many conversations. He is an excellent speaker on peace issues and brought in at the Center a number of inspiring peace activist. Our last real conversation was last spring when he invited me over for lunch at the Peace Center. He honestly said he had called the meeting since the new President of Marquette University, after meeting with Don Timmerman, Catholic Worker leader of anti ROTC movement and myself asked the Jesuit community at Marquette and asked the Jesuits what they thought of ROTC on campus. Naturally ever one looked at Father Harak, the Director of the Center for Peacemaking for advice.
He told us he had decided to bring up the question of the existence of military training, ROTC, on Catholic campus to the Strategic Planning Committee that was formulating a plan for the future of Marquette. I was pleased but skeptical to hear that he was acknowledging the question, which I knew deep in his heart he knew the answer, in this university wide project.
This year when I attempted to contact him for a continuation of our discussion I was told he was on a “leave of absence” for health reasons. No one would say what the health reasons were but I was happy to see him one day last March entering the building which contained the Peace Center.I was attempting to go in for a book study on Jim Forest’s new book on Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Workers. We exchanged pleasantries and asked that we continue the discussion upstairs in the Peace Center. The assistant director of the Center, now the Director, was at the door with Marquette Security guards blocking my entrance and told him that he could go in but, pointing to me, that I could not go in. He told Father Harak he would explain later the reason why I could not attend the book study that I had been invited to. The assistant director had told me a few days before the book study gathering that I would be banned from entering. I was. Father went in and I went home.
About a month later, while praying with others in the lobby of the Marquette University lobby I received from security a letter that I was being banned from campus for “disruptive behavior on campus”. I was not told what the “disruptive behavior” was and why I was the only person to receive the ban. A week later I attempted to go in the library to continue my research in the Catholic Worker archives. I was told by security I could not enter the library and if I did not leave I would be arrested for trespassing. Not wanting to get arrested for something like going into a library to do research I left.
However, a short time later on the public sidewalk I was arrested for trespassing by the Milwaukee police department. The police were just acting on orders from Marquette officials so I wrote the MU officials, especially the vice president and legal counsel of Marquette to explain why, after 50 years of association with the Jesuits and Jesuit education I was banned. I asked for a review of my banning. They have given four basketball players accused of rape a hearing a few years before and I thought this minor alleged charge certainly deserved a hearing. But I was denied twice a hearing and have a trial on my arrest coming up July 15th.
Yesterday, I received a phone call from the legal counsel of Marquette offering me a ‘deal’ that I could not, in conscience, accept. But he did explain why I was banned. He told me of three incident reports of how I allegedly engaged in disrupting the operations at Marquette. Two of the alleged disruptions occurred a few years back when I was one of a group of persons protesting ROTC at Marquette. He said the ROTC protest had nothing to do with it; that it was my alleged behavior. The third incident was last winter when I met Father Harak and was blocked from entering the building by the assistant director of the Center for Peace Making. I tried to discuss the allegations but he claimed they had nothing to do with my arrest for trespassing, since anyone or any group had the legal right, for any reason whatsoever, to have someone arrested for gong on private property, once they were given a banning order. I will need the support of the community and some legal advice to put Marquette on trial for trespassing on Gospel values and human rights, for teaching war and killing without conscience on this Jesuit Catholic Campus.
Back to Father Harak. Last week I met a close associate of his whom I have known for a few years. This person told me that Father Harak had been ordered by his Jesuit superiors to live in a Jesuit retirement or semi-retirement home in the New England province. The person told me how when Father Harak wrote back he expressed a feeling of being in exile or banned from Marquette and his work at the peace center. His illness, it turns out, was not a major one and this person believed, as I do, that he still had a lot to offer the nonviolent peace movement. I cannot compare myself to Father Harak; but, I know how it feels to be marginalized and banned. We are both Lebanese Melkite Jesuit trained peace activists, virtually and physically banned from our work at Marquette University.
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