Flower Power Action
A friend called tonight and said he had just completed a social justice program at his Catholic Church. I said that was good and what ‘action’ did he plan to take now. He said the program was not about ‘action’ on justice issues but about information, particularly on immigration. I find that much of what the Catholic Church says about peace and social action is just words and information and seldom leads to action.
Be it teaching on war and military what the Church says about ‘killing’ is not practiced in what Marquette University does. The Catholic Church’s teaching on the ‘preferential option for the poor’ had nothing to do with how the Milwaukee Archdiocese dealt with million dollars plus it received from closing a Catholic Church in area of poverty, segregation and injustice.
In fact what happened to the million plus the Archdiocese received from closing Blessed Trinity Church over two and one half years ago. I know bits of pieces of what happened to the Milwaukee but the disposal of the money has been done in secretly and behind closed doors. I wrote a draft of an open letter today to the Archbishop asking what happened with monies realized from closing this Catholic Church in an area of great need.
As Marquette University ignores our request for Marquette to be faithful to the Gospel and No Longer Host Departments of Military Science on campus so the Archbishop and the Catholic Church will probably ignore our request for full disclosure of the million dollars plus.
All the talk in the world, even by Pope Francis, will not make a difference in the struggle for truth and nonviolence in justice and peace issues. Reasoning does not seem to work. Gandhi says satyagrahi, the nonviolent struggle for truth “strives to reach reason through the heart. The method of reaching the heart is to awaken public opinion.”
Action not information is the way of the heart. In today’s culture and church we have too much information and not enough action, awakening public opinion.
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