Traditionally this issue of Via Pacis is devoted to Christmas season news. I want to honor that. That means this article will not be my usual focus on Legacy of Light (solar electrification project for small farm family homes in El Salvador), except to say the donations from many of you reading this publication have made it possible for us to install solar electricity in 24 more homes this year, bringing the total since we began the project in 2016 to 175. That means the children of 24 more families were able to study with light by the flip of a switch rather than by the flickering light of a candle or the light of kerosene lamps. Thank you!
For this issue of Via Pacis I am going to write about Frank Cordaro, the founder of the Des Moines Catholic Worker community. I have told you before that Frank Cordaro has been my best friend for 47 years. I witnessed his hair color turn from black to white. I have lived in the same house with him, four years at Berrigan House and now at Manning House since June of 2022 when I retired from the final pastorate of my career.
I would venture to say I know Frank as well or better than anyone reading this Via Pacis, save members of his family. The Cordaro’s are a close-knit family who know each other’s hearts. I am going to write the story I know about Frank from 47 years of friendship and mutual ministry from my heart. I’ll begin with who Frank is not. A woman once said to Frank that in every picture of Frank she saw in the media he had his mouth open screaming at someone or about something. I admit that Frank can be loud-mouthed and opinionated, but that evidence shows me a picture of Frank painted with a broad brush that colors outside the lines, not the real Frank. He is so much more than a loudmouth, he’s a real friend.
An old anecdote may serve to illustrate my point. In 1986, the Des Moines Catholic Worker community celebrated its twentieth anniversary. They invited Phil Berrigan and Liz McAlister to be their keynote speakers. It was a big deal for Frank. The Berrigans were his mentors. I had recently acquired a video recorder and volunteered to be the one to video Phil’s hour-long interview with Frank.
When the event was over and the time came to view the video of the weekend’s main event, I found a blank tape. I was devastated. I don’t have a word to describe the disappointment Frank experienced. I deserved to be on the receiving end of his loud-mouth tirade against the wrongs of the world. I don’t remember his exact words in that shocking revelation of a blank tape. He did not condemn me. He did not call me names. He did not give me the chastisement I deserved. The only response I ever received from Frank for that failure was words of forgiveness. He still calls me his best friend!
The picture painted of Frank as a loudmouth denouncer needs to be reframed as a man of the Prophet Habakkuk’s expression, “The righteous shall live by their faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 ). So much of who Frank is comes from his family. When Frank was a kid, his dad, George, was his hero. A decorated WWII Veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart, George came back from the war with a desire to be a coach and teacher at a Catholic high school. He went to Drake University on the GI Bill, got a teaching degree, and landed a job at Dowling High School, an all-boy Catholic school.
When Frank entered high school at Dowling, he was known for his love for his dad and for football. His father was by then a coach and athletic director at Dowling, and was universally known as a man of integrity. He was Frank’s hero and served well as his role model. The sudden death of his father from a heart attack on Easter Sunday morning of Frank’s senior year at Dowling was a devastating loss for the Cordaro family. It seared that memory of integrity Frank could not ignore.
After graduating from Dowling, Frank got a football scholarship at the University of Northern Iowa where he majored in physical education. His life’s path seemed to lead towards coaching football, perhaps at Dowling High School like his father. But God had other things in store for him. As Frank puts it, “I became a Jesus freak in college, got involved with the Charismatic Movement, found Jesus, and read the New Testament for the first time.”
After college, with his newfound faith, Frank entered the seminary to become a priest. In 1974, he experienced a life-changing summer in the South Bronx at St. Augustin’s Parish, a low-income Black and Puerto Rican community. When he returned to seminary, a question arose with a vengeance: How could his white, male, middle-class life be lived with integrity in the perverse poverty and injustices of the world? Bishop Maurice Dingman seemed to hold a part of the answer, and he became the most important living mentor in Frank’s life. Bishop Dingman was an active participant in the Charismatic Movement. He hosted weekly prayer services in his home.
After Frank came back from the Bronx he read a book about Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement. At that time, he remembers asking Bishop Dingman about Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement. “The Bishop’s eyes lit up, and he had nothing but praise for Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement,” Frank said. Right then and there, he decided to find the closest Catholic Worker and spend time with them. Bishop Dingman gave him permission to spend the summer of 1975 at the Davenport Catholic Worker. The following fall, Frank fell in love with Jacque Dickey The following summer of 1976, Frank dropped out of the seminary and started the Des Moines Catholic Worker with Bishop Dingman’s blessing. The rest is history.
In conclusion, I want to visit the accusation of Frank being a screaming big month all the time. No doubt the people who worked at the STRATCom (formally SAC) have believed him to be this character for the last 45 years. In 1978, Frank and his brother Tom, started a line-crossing campaign at Offutt Air Force Base, south of Omaha. Over the years, hundreds of people crossed the line at Offutt and many got jail time, some serving months to a year or two. Frank crossed the line so many times that the last eight times he crossed (over a 35-year period), he got a six month sentence each time, a total of four years of jail time! Frank’s loudmouth and protest against war did not come cheaply.
When he is not yelling his head off at some protest, Frank and his community are serving the poor of Des Moines. That is a powerful, though incomplete, telling of Frank’s legacy of faith that for me, is an indelible mark of the discipleship for the Kingdom of God.
These days, I am proud to join him and other members of the community each weekday morning at the table of Manning House for Bible study and prayer, as well as a weekly celebration of the Eucharist led by Frank and Reverend Amy Bruner at Dingman House on Saturdays at 9:30 a.m.
Come join our community in our efforts of seeking out what the Prophet Habakkuk calls “The righteous shall live by faith.”
P.S. I am organizing a delegation for the final week of February 2024 to visit the Legacy of Light project in El Salvador. If you are interested in joining that delegation to learn more about the project, please call me at 515-238-3105. Thank you.
Frank Cordaro's Writings and Archives 