Nov 1997 v.p Dorothy Day Conmemoración p. 4

Nov 1997 v.p  Dorothy Day Conmemoración p. 4

Cordaro, VP. Vol. 21, No. 4, Dorothy Day Conmemoración, 1997 p. 4

DOROTHY DAY COMMEMORATION: WORKERS, ACADEMICS AND ADMIRERS MEET IN MILWAUKEE

By Frank Cordaro

This year’s most formal and academic gathering in honor of Dorothy Day’s 100th birthday was sponsored by Marquette University and the Catholic Worker Archives.  The event was held on the Marquette University campus in Milwaukee on the weekend of October 9-11.  Well over 500 people were in attendance.

It was a great gathering of past and current Catholic Workers, friends and acquaintances of Dorothy Day and lots of academic types: folks who have never been Catholic Workers and never knew Dorothy Day but who have studied her life and the movement she inspired.

The Des Moines Catholic Worker Community was represented by Ed Bloomer, Norman Searah and me.  Former DMCW members in attendance Included Michael Sprong, Joe DaVia and Jacquee Dickey.   The latter two  are co-founders, along with myself, of the DMCW.  This was the first time that Joe, Jacquee and I have been together in 17 years!  It was great fun seeing both of them again.  A big thank-you to Joe and his family for giving Eddie Bloomer and myself hospitality during the conference.

Many workshops and formal papers were presented, covering a wide range of related issues.  There was a good mix of workshop with the academic types.  The high point of the conference was the formal sit-down dinner on Friday night during which the keynote address, “Dorothy Day as I Knew Her”, was given by Jim Forest, former editor of the Catholic Worker paper and close friend of Dorothy Day.

The Conference itself received mixed reviews from many active Catholic Workers who attended.  Although Peter Maurin often said that the Catholic Worker is where the scholar and the worker must meet, I’m not sure that present day Marquette University is the meeting ground Peter had in mind.  This confusion of place was highlighted most clearly during an unofficial Catholic Workers’ Anti-ROTC vigil and witness on the Marquette campus on Friday afternoon of the conference.

For the past 15 years, the folks from the Milwaukee Casa Maria Catholic Worker Community have demonstrated against the presence of ROTC on Marquette University’s campus.  About 50 Catholic Workers from the conference joined with members of Casa Maria for an hour-long vigil at noon on the corner of 16th and Wisconsin Avenue, a main intersection on Marquette’s campus.

The leaflet used during the vigil gave three main reasons for the demonstration:

• A Christian institution should be training students in nonviolence. ROTC teaches violence toward the enemy while Christian teaching echoes Jesus’ teaching to love your enemies and do good to those who hate you and harm you.
• Marquette University could offer scholarships other than that of ROTC but has continually refused to do so.
• No student in a Christian institution should be put in a position of doing violence to another or having violence done to them for the sake of getting an education. If an institution calls itself a Christian Institution, it should be teaching the Gospel of Christ and not sponsoring an ROTC program that has a philosophy in direct contradiction to the teachings of Jesus.

 

Following the noon hour vigil and leafleting, the demonstrators proceeded to the ROTC building on campus.  Fifteen Catholic Workers entered the building and occupied the main hallway servicing the ROTC offices.  Previous anti-ROTC demonstrations at Marquette had never reached the inside of the ROTC building.  In the past, any demonstrators attempting to enter or block the entrance of the ROTC building were immediately arrested.  There were no arrests this time.

The occupation continued until 5:00pm, when the building usually closes.  The Marquette security people were prepared to wait us out beyond the 5:00pm closing time, but we decided to end the occupation and rejoin the rest of the conference, our message having been clearly sent.  (Silly Jesuits. They should have known better.  You can’t invite a group of Catholic Workers to a Catholic campus and not expect a demonstration against the presence of ROTC).

A big thank you goes to Phil Runkel and the folks at the Catholic Worker Archives, who masterminded the conference and did all the work to bring it about.  Despite the affluent and institutionally flawed setting, Phil and the folks at the Catholic Worker Archives did everything they could to make the conference Catholic-Worker-friendly, lining up hospitality and floor space for folks who needed it.  The conference itself was free, including the meals and Friday night banquet.