We prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries as 70 of us were arrested at the Russell Senate Office Building last Thursday for protesting the detention of immigrant children at the border. The decisions that allow their detention, their being torn from families and left in crowded facilities without access to a shower, are indeed a sorrowful mystery. But what I saw as my hands were locked tightly into wasted-plastic zip-tie handcuffs was a Luminous Mystery.
As I stood in the building’s rotunda with lights streaming from high windows and saw rows of Catholics around me and above on a balcony, I felt the presence of the Communion of Saints. It was not unlike sitting in church, where layers of saints and angels are depicted around us. We stood in a threshold, a liminal space where the demands of the Gospel were felt and where the vast difference between the reign of God and the reign of principalities was clear.
What I saw as my hands were locked tightly into wasted-plastic zip-tie handcuffs was a Luminous Mystery.
Across the rotunda was a young Dominican sister dressed in white. Next to her, an old Franciscan Friar in brown. Connecting us were many others: sisters, laypeople, priests, young and old, black and white. They were praying, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death,” as I was told, “You are under arrest.”
“So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God,” St. Paul wrote the Corinthians.
I caught a glimpse of such ambassadoring as I sat next to Kathy Boylan, from the D.C. Catholic Worker, while we were processed by the U.S. Capitol Police. “We need a contact person,” she was told. “All of my ‘contact people’ are in here with me,” she replied. She lives in a house with other Christians who were called to bring their bodies to the diplomacy table between heaven and earth. They see little room for compromise, think nary of success, but are hellbent on fidelity. They try as they can to implore the world to join them in “putting off the old ways” and “putting on Christ.”
Putting off the old ways and imploring reconciliation does not always require that one be arrested. It does require something dramatically different than what the world offers. The witness of people like Kathy, who lives in voluntary poverty and was quick to tell me all the ways I can fight nuclear proliferation, abortion, white nationalism and war, taught me once again that the Christian life asks a lot.
We are called to stand in the threshold between the church and the world and expose policies for which Christian consent is impossible.
This is why Catholics have always been engaged in such acts of resistance: to illuminate the incompatibility between the Gospel and tragedies like those Kathy encouraged me to oppose. We have also, it should be noted, been guilty of supporting such things.
I am under no illusion that being arrested while praying the rosary in an air-conditioned building in Washington will free immigrant children from detention. It should not receive more attention than the hundreds of Catholics at the border providing direct service to migrants fleeing violence. I am, however, under the illusion—or, rather, illumination—that we are called to stand in the threshold between the church and the world and expose policies for which Christian consent is impossible.
The action we took in Washington was a symbolic one. Nevertheless, it was sincere resistance to a state that enforces such horrific treatment of children. I chose to be arrested because what is being done to children in this country, born and unborn, is suffocating the soul of the Body of Christ. We placed our bodies in the rub between the Gospel and the state to remind ourselves that we will not blend in or be identified with these practices, that something else is demanded from us.
The fantasy that the Gospel is business as usual
I cheat the Gospel everyday. I fail to really love my enemies, fail to give from my poverty and not my surplus, fail to practice hospitality or take the lowest place, fail to love others as myself, fail to love God with my whole heart.
It can be easy for us Americans to live in the fantasy that the Gospel means convenience, business as usual. But where it concerns eternity, the Gospel means conversion, inconvenience; it means business not as usual. It means a new life marked by reckless love; it means mercy.
I chose to be arrested because what is being done to children in this country, born and unborn, is suffocating the soul of the Body of Christ.
Living up to that is hard. It can seem irrational to expect such conversion in ourselves and from our communities. Dorothy Day wrote, “I know it seems foolish to try to be so Christlike—but God says we can.”
Is it foolish to ask the United States to try to be Christlike?
In a letter to young Jesuits written on the feast of St. Ignatius in 1971, Father Daniel Berrigan wrote, “You know too that the old comfortable arrangements between church and state are helpless to generate newness…. The peace of Christ, it goes without saying, is not won by such complicity. That way of peace is something else; necessarily a humiliated via crucis today—no less than in the year of our Lord.”
After one set of handcuffs was removed from my wrists, and every part of me had been patted down by some officer searching for who knows what, I was brought to another line for a new set of handcuffs. Behind me came strolling a short, 80-something Dominican sister in a T-shirt that read, “Be Peace.” She smiled, saying, “Billy, it does give you some small sense of how Jesus was treated, humiliated.” She spoke not with anger or sorrow but with gratitude. She then told me of once reading the Acts of the Apostles all through the night in a jail with feces and bugs covering the floor. She was in the slammer for protesting nuclear weapons.
She told a group of us later that evening: In every age, God sends us opportunities to live the Gospel and to grow in holiness.
The introit to an early morning prayer with her and a few other Dominicans, Franciscans and other holy laypeople before last week’s action was: “We adore you Most Holy Lord Jesus Christ, here and in churches throughout the world, and we praise you because by your cross you have redeemed the world.”
This continues to be my prayer: That Jesus be praised and that in the form of immigrant children at the southern border, he be released from detention into the custody of families or shelters with adequate supplies and conditions suitable to the dignity of sanctity.
Christ gave us a luminous mystery that does not offer security but salvation. It will arrest us in our comfort and complicity. His is a mystery that offers a new framework of reality where power is found in weakness, triumph seen in service and primacy grasped in surrender. As such, he decided to be detained in our bodies as bread.
So Dan Berrigan wrote:
Why do you stand? they were asked, and
Why do you walk?
Because of the children, they said, and
Because of the heart, and
Because of the bread.
Because
The cause
Is the heart’s beat
And the children born
And the risen bread.
Billy, why now? Why did you not do far more when Obama did far worse?
You are calling attention to a specific moment in time (during Trump) but you turned a blind eye for 8 years. Why now?
This can't possibly be new information to you, hence your salt strikes as very flat, nay, partisan. God is neither Democrat nor Republican, Billy. The US government does not have the mandate to evangelize and do good works. We do all year round no matter who is President.
Trump isn't matching Obama deportation numbers
Under the Obama administration, total ICE deportations were above 385,000 each year in fiscal years 2009-2011, and hit a high of 409,849 in fiscal 2012. The numbers dropped to below 250,000 in fiscal years 2015 and 2016.
Under Trump, ICE deportations fell to 226,119 in fiscal 2017, then ticked up to over 250,000 in fiscal 2018 and hit a Trump administration high of 282,242 this fiscal year (as of June).
https://www.axios.com/immigration-ice-deportation-trump-obama-a72a0a44-540d-46bc-a671-cd65cf72f4b1.html
Great point! If the immigrants are so special then so are the vulnerable children in the womb; the frail elderly, the disabled, and the men and women on death row. Did he protest the abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment policies of his state or this nation? Did he stand-up for the Little Sisters of the Poor or the Christian baker who was acting on his presumably informed conscience? Before you sanctimouniously tell us how to be good Catholics, Mr. Critchley-Menor, try looking at all of the issues and what the rest of us are doing.
I wonder if the author understands why the migrants feel they have to come. The irony of these protests is that they are fleeing Catholic countries that have oppressed their populations for centuries.
There is a movie about Dorothy Day which I highly recommend. She was a person of incredible will. However, Dorothy Day had almost zero effect on reducing poverty in the world. But poverty is rapidly disappearing anyway from the world and it has nothing to do with anything Catholics have done as Catholics.
Oh yatta yatta J. The suffering at the border is happening now. Who cares what the irony is, who cares who oppressed who? Would you care that poverty is decreasing in the world overall, but you can't feed your family? Those fine folks in the rotunda are trying to do good. They are raising their voices. It might catch on.
But they are doing harm with their virtue signaling and haven’t a clue what the problems are and if you don’t know what the problem is you cannot solve the problem. Your comments indicate that you don’t care either. And by the way there is enough food. People aren’t starving to death. However, Venezuela has much more serious problems and the Jesuits were part of the problem.
I do agree with Mr. Cosgrove on his point of “ Why are Migrants leaving Central America
” and what is anyone doing about it. This is the heart of the problem that’s not being tackled by Catholic Bishops, Latin American Countries and the US Government. I support Trump’s policy for cutting off Aid to these Countries. This Aid never gets to the people that need it. Instead of using US Aid to create meaningful Manufacturing and Agricultural Jobs, it’s taken by the crooked Politicians and the Military that protects them. What little Aid that reaches the Poor People it’s confiscated by the Street Gangs. But I do understand why Catholic Priests and Bishops are afraid to speak out in these countries because of fear of reprisals. But where is the US Conference of Bishops, the Vatican, and the US Government ? Where are the countless organizations of Latin America and Caribbean States Organizations on solving the problem of Central America Migration. If US holding back Aid helps to open up a dialogue for honest Central America Development to create jobs, I’m for it. Throwing Money at these Countries for the purpose of keeping US friendly Corrupt Politicians in Office will not help correct the Central America Crisis Migration.
I do agree with Mr. Cosgrove on his point of “ Why are Migrants leaving Central America
” and what is anyone doing about it. This is the heart of the problem that’s not being tackled by Catholic Bishops, Latin American Countries and the US Government. I support Trump’s policy for cutting off Aid to these Countries. This Aid never gets to the people that need it. Instead of using US Aid to create meaningful Manufacturing and Agricultural Jobs, it’s taken by the crooked Politicians and the Military that protects them. What little Aid that reaches the Poor People it’s confiscated by the Street Gangs. But I do understand why Catholic Priests and Bishops are afraid to speak out in these countries because of fear of reprisals. But where is the US Conference of Bishops, the Vatican, and the US Government ? Where are the countless organizations of Latin America and Caribbean States Organizations on solving the problem of Central America Migration. If US holding back Aid helps to open up a dialogue for honest Central America Development to create jobs, I’m for it. Throwing Money at these Countries for the purpose of keeping US friendly Corrupt Politicians in Office will not help correct the Central America Crisis Migration.
Where were the lazy, over-fed bishops?
Where is Cardinal Burke in his flowing red dress?
He and his Bishop pals are campaigning and raising money for Trump for 2020! Where else would they be? If Catholics don't like Trump's various torture practices, why ever do they keep voting people like him in? I didn't vote for this moronic president but plenty of white, catholic women did per our self-righteous bishop's pushing them to do so.
Yes that’s true but also true is many are life long bread and raised Republicans and needed no help from the Bishops. Many are strong will Single Issue Pro Life Voters. The real meaning of the Good Samaritan Gospel as it relates in today’s world never reaches the Pews for fear of alienating the Republican Church Parishioners. I have yet to hear a Homily from our Pastor and Priests on the Catholic Church support of Migrants at the Border for asylum in the US.
Nora Bolcon: I didn't vote for this moronic president but plenty of white, catholic women did per our self-righteous bishop's pushing them to do so.
In other words, Nora Bolcon, like Hillary “throw Bill Clinton Rape victims under the bus” Clinton, believes Republican women are too stupid to think for themselves so they depend on the US Bishops to tell them what to do. No wonder Hillary and her Left Wing nut cases lost the election TWICE!!! because they loathe diversity of opinions and they seethe at the thought of Americans thinking differently.
Nora
You can always be trusted to engage in the deprecation of women who do not agree with your views as being toadies, unthinking sheep, or just plain dumb.
You lost me at fighting ""white nationalism.". I'm tired of the Left's obsession over race, particularly that convenient bogeyman, "white people." Why alienate people?
Thank you!!! My heart has been hurting on the deafening silence of too many of my Catholic Brethren. We must do more. One of my agnostic friends shared that she was sure now that there was no God because otherwise those who professed to follow God would be tearing down the gates to free the children (and everyone else). Never Again and you give me hope. I visit weekly at a local detention center (since 2012) and my heart is just breaking.
“The Gospel calls us to do more”.... Yep, and Mary chose the better part!
The problem with the Church today is It runs around trying to be a bunch of Martha’s and it’s not feeding souls.
In the US, when a woman with a small child is arrested for stealing from a shop, do you know what happens to the small child?
Do you think the child should go in the cells with the woman?
Do you think a woman thief should be immune to arrest if she takes a small child with her?
Does every lock-up have a children's room with a sweet social worker to look after the children of people arrested for breaking a law?
What a self-glorifying dreamer you must be; open your eyes to the world of reality packed with sinners, wall to wall.
Before Sinai, the Jews taught that there was a set of laws which all living humans were under following th flood.
Do establish laws.
Don’t curse God.
Do not practice idolatry.
Do not engage in illicit sexuality.
Do not participate in bloodshed.
Do not rob.
Do not eat flesh from a living animal.
The Obligation to Create a System of Laws, the first one!
According to the medieval philosopher and codifier Maimonides,
the legal system which Noahides are required to set up is specifically
to establish punishments for infractions of the other six Noahide laws
(Laws of Kings 9:14).
There is a pretty good non partisan article in this issue of America about Journalism, which I enjoyed reading for it gave me hope for the future. But this article began with a title, like a punch in the nose - the author is clearly partisan, so why should I read further? If we model ourselves as Christians, then surely we should use Christ as our guide. No matter how much Christian zeal anyone possess it is useless unless it is directed in a Christlike fashion. Christ came to save us, but the modus was to remodel our hearts, not our minds. When he entered a room it was to bring peace, not conflict. He was politically misunderstood even after he died, until the hearts of the Apostles and disciples were softened. For all his zeal the first lesson that Paul learned was humility - he never lost his energy, but he channeled it all through love. We often find ourselves chafing at the bit to cure the world, but more often the Holy Spirit reminds us - it is not about me. If you want to cure the world reach out your hand to the neighbor that does not agree with you and before you know it you will find Christ in him or her.
Absent amid so many symbolic protests are tangible solutions? Everyone agrees that conditions at border detention facilities should be better. But, the current conditions are not about willful neglect by the current Administration. The problem is a culmination of politically driven policies that have encouraged mass flows of illegal immigration. The result has been the overwhelming situation that exists today. There are simply too many people crossing the border at the same time, mostly because they are being induced to illegally enter the country. So, what's the solution? Simply opening the border is not the answer, and there is no Christian imperative to do so. The initial priority should be to both stem the flow and increase resources, but Congress has refused to take that action. Unfortunately, Democrats benefit from the scenes of suffering that they have done much to promote. Once those actions are taken, increased border security should be implemented, followed by a compassionate plan for those already residing in this country illegally and finally increased quotas for legal, need-based immigration. Instead of engaging in hysterical protests, the Church should be advocating for these practical solutions that both protect U.S. sovereignty and compassionately address the needs of those on our borders. Unfortunately, it seems as if it's easier and more fulfilling to get yourself arrested in a protest and then pat yourself on the back for doing so.
I was one of the seventy and I was there to demonstrate against the condition of the children being held at the border. I was not there to protest for open borders or against the fact that we have an immigration policy. It was not about the laws, but the ways the law is being enforced. There was a very focused purpose for this event. By the way, I imagine Billy was 10 or 12 years old 8 years ago.
I imagine Billy was 10 or 12 years old 8 years ago
Talk about pride, Steve. Obama was president less than 3 years ago. Where were you then? Or are you going to tell us you were 5 or 6 years old back then? No wonder the Nones and millions of Ex-Catholics have walked away from the Church. With partisans like you who needs enemies? Suddenly you feel the need to get arrested....to save immigrants or because you needed attention? Immigrants have been arriving at the US Shores of Florida for half a century like me. I arrived in Florida with my family as a refugee. Where were Catholic “activists” 10 years ago? 20? 30? 40? Hypocrites.
All of us are called to serve year round, 24/7 no matter who is President. Hillary did nothing for immigrants when she was Secretary of State nor did Obama, other than deport them en droves with the Left not even caring. Now you do? Next you'll be arguing the US Bishops are Shepherds. Forgive my disgust at your attention seeking behavior. Refugees have been dying in the Florida Straits for decades....just like Archbishop Wenski of Miami stated plainly
NEW YORK - Reflecting on Pope Francis’s recent Mass on the 6th anniversary of his visit to Lampedusa - the small Italian island where he remembered the estimated 20,000 migrants who have died crossing the Mediterranean - Miami’s archbishop says “Lampedusa has been happening off the coast of Florida for the past 50 years.”
“It merely ebbs and flows from our consciousness,” he sighed. In an interview with Crux upon his return, Wenski said one of the local Florida papers recently published the numbers of individuals interdicted off the Florida coast where “several thousand” Cubans and Haitians had been picked up on the high seas in recent months. He lamented that this has been an “ongoing crisis” that only gets periodic attention. Wenski recalled the pope’s Mass with recently arrived refugees as “very impressive” and “less formal” than most Vatican liturgies - and he noted that at one point he observed a refugee woman nursing a child during the liturgy, which “was something Pope Francis has encouraged before,” adding that it enhanced the welcoming environment.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2019/07/13/miami-archbishop-says-trump-rhetoric-causing-fear-in-migrant-community/
"Hellbent on fidelity." The whole tenor of this article gives me pause and makes me examine how little I, a sinner, do to reconcile. I loved the story telling and the call to conversion within the same piece. Men like Billy and women like Kathy and the Sisters mentioned disturb me in the best way possible, they interrupt my complacency. Dan Berrigan too was ridculed and attacked for his witness, yet he too was "hellbent on fidelity." I will now ask myself with more urgency, "Why do I stand, why do I walk?" Surrender and service will indeed be our lasting gift. Thanks, Billy.
Wonderful article ,but please don’t put the people in the awful position of protecting the nation’ s capital ( and the people who work and visit) as the bad guys.
The true culprits in this crime are the Congress that refuse to develop a comprehensive plan for control of our borders.While the article itself shows what a true Christian should feel towards those poor people who ( for the most part) only want to lead a better life, we must realize that our country cannot be the salvation of the world.
No matter how you feel, scenes such as a father and daughter drowned together must touch your heart.
We have a legal immigration system. Anything illegal is against the teachings of Jesus. Dishonesty is never right.
The reason for the abysmal condition at the border is the huge influx of migrants. 33% more, just in May https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/05/politics/southern-border-migrants/index.html. No country can sustain this kind of invasion. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/obama-dhs-chief-blasts-dems-open-borders-push-warns-migration-would-explode
Catholics from the beginning, went to the countries of the oppressed to help them there, as the Knights of Columbus are doing in Syria.
The suffering here is caused by those who encourage the immigrants to come here in the first place, despite the danger, and despite the fact that there are consequences to braking the law of any country.
Mr. Clarke published an article yesterday on the increase in border crossing attempts. It was immediately taken down. Maybe it will be reposted soon. It showed the marked increase.
The best response which needs to be posted here is the oldest: "1Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2"Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
The Lord's Prayer
5"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7"And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9Pray then like this:
"Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
14For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Fasting
16"And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
Billy, you are living the mission of the Society of Jesus. Keep it up!
"We recognize, along with many others, that without faith, without the eye of love, the human world seems too evil for God to be good, for a good God to exist. But faith recognizes that God is acting through Christ's love and the power of the Holy Spirit, to destroy the structures of sin which afflict the bodies and hearts of his children. Our Jesuit mission touches something fundamental in the human heart: the desire to find God in a world scarred by sin, and then to live the Gospel in all its implications (General Congregation 34 #36).
This faith in God is inescapably social in its implications, because it is directed towards how people relate to one another and how society should be ordered. ... When a society has no moral and spiritual basis, the result is conflicting ideologies of hatreds which provoke nationalistic, racial, economic and sexual violence. This in turn multiplies the abuses that breed resentments and conflict. ... Society then falls prey to the powerful and manipulative (General Congregation 34 #37).
But a faith that looks to the Kingdom generates communities which counter social conflict and disintegration. From faith comes the justice willed by God. ...religious faith, as the inspiration of the human and social good found in God's Kingdom, that alone can take the human family beyond decline and destructive conflict (GC 34 #37).
Justice can truly flourish only when it involves the transformation of cultures, since the roots of injustice are imbedded in cultural attitudes as well as in economic structures (GC 34 #42).
In Jesus Christ, we can accept the magnitude of this challenge (GC 34 D1, #9)"
Father Malloy
I believe The General Congregation is the governing law of the Society....you and “Billy” chose to join the Society and are so bound by its theories and it’s exegeses. You public lengthy discourse on these pages with Billy seems to be meant to imply and suggests the rest of us are sinners if we do not follow the admonitions of the General Congregation as well.
Hi Stuart. You infer from my "lengthy discourse" that somehow I imply you or others are sinners. The judgment about anyone's sinfulness is way above my pay grade. Your or anyone else's state of grace is not for me to assess or judge (Matt 7:1). All I'm arguing is that Billy's actions are in line with the spirit and guidelines of recent General Congregations of the Society of Jesus. If I could have been in Washington that day, I'd hope to have joined him in the protest.
A little over 200 years ago about 98% of the world lived in abject poverty afraid to protest their bleak life or else it might become shorter. Now the people of Central America live several levels above that state of existence. Are they better off? Yes, but they see a lot of the world several levels above their existence in material terms and in safety. They all cannot attain this level of material goods so what is to be done? That is the question none of these demonstrators will answer. Protesting so a few get better treatment does nothing to help the hundreds of millions left behind. So why protest?
The Gospels say little about how to get people out of poverty. So why invoke it? The Gospels tell people how to get to heaven. Have the protesters lost sight of that.
Preaching the Good News of Liberation is a challenging mission.
Ellis Island was not an open border. Immigrants had to pass through inspections and quite a few were sent back. The threat of drugs and criminals and terrorists were not a problem in those days. The immigrants did register and become legal residents waiting to became citizens. And when the census was taken, immigrants were identified as such, but they had no fear because they entered legally. By the way, it seems that quite a few immigrants are now also coming from areas other than South and Central America, but are also using our southern border to enter illegally.
And now many in Congress who denied funds to secure the border and create better facilities to handle the ever-growing hordes and to increase the number of processing centers to approve legal immigration - these very same people are now blaming the problems on those who were pleading with them for years to pass laws to grant money to help resolve the problem, the Crisis. It is disgraceful to put it mildly.