2023 Berrigan beg letter

2023 Phil Berrigan CW House beg letter…

20 Year running, begging for the Phil Berrigan P&J CW House

Dear Friends and Supporters

    Twenty years ago I started raising money separately for the Phil Berrigan CW House from what I always did and still do, raise $$$ & beg for the DMCW. The plan was I would live at Berrigan House and invite others to live with me and be both DMCW’s and Peace and Justice Activists in the Spirit of Phil Berrigan and the “Catholic Left”. And we started a Peace and Justice library at Berrigan House.

    Well, that was 20 years ago and the story and mission of the Phil Berrigan CW House has taken many different manifestations, well documented in yearly beg letters I’ve managed to get out.

(See: https://wordpress.com/post/frankcordaro.wordpress.com/6593 )

    And this year’s Berrigan House beg is just one more link in the chain of “who’s who living in” the house now and how the “mission of peace and justice” inspired by Phil Berrigan has played out at the DMCW this past year.

      In the March 2018 Via Pacis I wrote an article, “In DM our Women are our Peace Warriors’ ‘. This is still true today. Top on the list is Julie Brown, Jessica Reznicek and Araceli Benitez Moya, our Women Warriors leading the Way.

      We are all grateful for the safe return of Julie Brown and her husband Mohamed Salah, from their shared mission in Iraqi Kurdistan with the Community Peacemaker Teams. This has been a long time coming. Married for over five years, Mohamed finally got his Green Card to come to the USA.  This is after a very long process that cost thousands. Theirs is a good story and we are excited about what they both bring to our community. They are having a US Wedding at the end of June. Reason to celebrate! More on Julie and Mohamed in the next v.p.

    We continue to be a primary support community for Jessica Reznicek, our DMCW Warrior for water, locked up in the BOP. Jess calls Julie and I often and we are so grateful to hear from her. Currently she is working in the kitchen. The last call I got from Jess she said she was the soft ball coach of the worst team in the joint. From the sound of it, they are made up of the misfits and un-athletic women in the place. Her first base person can’t bend down far enough to pick up a ball from the ground! To hear Jess describe them was sheer delight.  On that day, Jess was thriving in a hard place and having a good time doing it. I am reminded of Jess’s favorite movie hero Cool Hand Luke.

    She is living proof separation and time does not have to diminish love and community bounds. Not so far! Our love for Jess only grows with her separation from us, not without its pain and the hurt in our hearts for the injustice she lives with each and every day. Jessica Reznicek   Presenta!

     Whenever I introduce Araceli Benitez Moya, I often say English is her 3rd language. Her 1st is her Mayan Indian dialect spoken in her home village in Chiapas, 2^nd is Spanish learned in greater Chiapas MX, where she met former DMCW Richard Flamer; the luckiest day his’s life. Soon after they got married. Richard and Aracelis’ work in Chiapas is well known to V.P. readers over the years. 

     Today Araceli is learning English ‘on the run’ in Iowa, getting her Green Card and moving towards citizenship.  Araceli has a paying job working in a DM school cafeteria. She sends money back home to family every month. And she is a full time DMCW.

Last month Richard got in a car wreck in Chiapas. Araceli went to see him and brought him back to Iowa for a full medical checkup at our local Vets. At the same time Araceli’s mother died. Araceli was not able to go back home for the traditional grieving time and funeral.

      Araceli is taking the month of June off for a well-deserved rest, returning home to Chiapas to be with Richard and her family for a long overdue break from Des Moines. Keep her and Richard in your prayers. She truly is an amazing person.

       She is also the reason we are now housing two Hispanic families seeking asylum in the USA. At a low point in finding anybody wanting to move in and join our CW community, space became available in Dingman House. Araceli asked the community if we would be willing to house a family from Columbia, as long as they help us with the hospitality. We affirmed Aracelis’ request, and our Colombian friends moved into Dingman House.

     And when Berrigan House opened up last Dec. Araceli ask if a family from Honduras could find a safe place to live there. They needed to get out their current housing situation. It was over crowed and not a safe situation. We said yes gain, to this family with the same conditions we gave the Columbian family; that they help with the hospitality at Dingman House. Plus, the added task of cleaning Berrigan House, the house they were moving into, from top to bottom. Which was in much need! The community agreed.

     We are now hosing two asylum seeing families. And with them changing who we are as a community.

    Two moments come to mind:

    We had our first community meeting with our two families in Dingman House to go over scheduling and to address any concerns they might have about their stay. Almost everyone spoke Spanish and most of the meeting was entirely spoken in Spanish. Eddie, Julie and I got general overviews of what was being said in English, every few minutes.  Throughout the meeting I was more interested in catch baby Angela’s than wanting to know what was being said. That never happen before.

    On any given Sunday most of the CWers on shift only speak Spanish. That’s never happen before either. The adult family members of both families sign up for shifts, cook meals and help with other house related chores.

   Being in a community giving sanctuary to two asylum seeking families, who join us serving DM homeless and street people is amazing! Who does that?

   Plus we are all trying to help our Hispanic families as best we can as they go through the US Asylum Legal System.

   Thank God for Rev Amy Bruner, our local Catholic Women Priest. She is a God sent to our community. Rev Amy started volunteering right around the time we took in our two families. She’s been helping our families a lot! One thing she is doing is helping me with the Immigration and Legal stuff our Honduran family is up against. I am so grateful for her help.

   As for me? I can’t call myself much of an activist these days. I didn’t even get arrested once last year. I find myself doing more ‘heart’ work, taking on the role of support person for the children and activist in our community, a mentor when needed or not to younger community members. I spend a lot of my day with my fellow elders and house mates Rev Bob Cook (80)  and Eddie Bloomer (76), praying together and sharing everyday life stuff, each day with each other, in a house that includes Annie Paton (65), the youngest in the house.

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With the money we beg, we hope to pay a year of Berrigan House monthly utilities; gas, electric, cable, bug services and property taxes.

   It also pays for the up keep, maintenance, insurance and gas for an old Toyota White Van

    Berrigan House also covering any $$$ needs Jess has while locked up. Currently running at about $400 a month.

    Help pay for any other peace and justice events or trips community members wish to attend.

Plus cover the cost of this mailing..

  

Total amount needed for the year, $20,000!

Write checks out to “Phil Berrigan Catholic Worker House”.

Send to:  Berrigan CW House, 713 Indiana Ave., Des Moines IA 50314