“All truths are easy to understand
once they are discovered; the
point is to discover them.”
Galileo Galilei

Today was my oldest son birthday. Remembering his age made me think of my age and how after so many years I am still struggling to find justice and peace in everyday life. It is somewhat depressing to think how we are losing support in our efforts, since 1969, to end the military presence and teaching on campus. It is also discouraging to hear how the Catholic Archdiocese decided to close another church in North Central Milwaukee and, despite many pleas for the poor, to store the resulting money in a bank trust fund for ‘future’ use.

Tonight I heard a talk at Marquette by a moral theologian who I deeply respect. He was talking about racism in our society and I feared he would talk in general. But he did not. He used Milwaukee, and specifically North Central Milwaukee, as example of racism was structurally built in our city. He used diagrams and maps to make his point as I did with M.A.P.S., Maps of Segregation, Poverty, Criminalization of African Americans and the Catholic Churches in North Central Milwaukee.

After his talk I asked a question of what we can do in face of the history and continual racism of the Catholic Church in Milwaukee. He said that for him he was able to keep his faith as long as he was able to keep speaking out, expressing his conscience and speaking truth to power. As long as he could be a ‘truth seeker’ he was not going to get discouraged. This is just what I needed to hear since, as reported in yesterday’s posting, I have been feeling ‘out of place’ and discouraged the last few days.

Tonight a friend from our struggle to stop R.O.T.C., military training on the Marquette University, came over and we talked about our experience of our message being ignored Tuesday night at Marquette University and what do we do next. I do not know what we do next; we will need to sit down and brainstorm some new tactics to communicate our message. However, I do know that perseverance in seeking the ‘truth’ is necessary. “Do you own thing” or “you have your opinion and I have my opinion does not mean much if our struggle for truth. We might never know the whole truth but must struggle to find it and be willing to enter into creative conflict in our journey.

The United Nations report on the priest sexual abuse scandal was released and was strong in saying how the Catholic Church was wrong by keeping secrecy all those years about the abuse and ignoring or hiding the truth. Some defenders of the Church pointed out how the policies of sexual abuse in the Church have changed. But there is still refusal to acknowledge the total past and still a lack of transparency in the Church not only on this matter but many other matters of faith and morals. “Father knows best” is still the sacred foundation of the hierarchical Church, meaning by ‘Father’ in the USA, mainly white, celibate. male, ordained priest.

As with military training on a Catholic University campus, as with sexual abuse by priest, as with woman’s ordination, as with the closing of churches and distributing its assets, the bottom line is still secrecy and hierarchical authority, “Father knows best.’ Only the ‘truth will set us free.”

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