Tom Lewis has posted some of his pix of the 2006 National Catholic Worker Gathering.
The Catholic Workers somehow came up with a joint statement to the U.S. bishops.
We call on our Church to be a prophetic voice, a sanctuary, and a source of encouragement to those who want to work together in community towards peace and justice. To this we recommend:
- Prayer, fasting, vigiling, and nonviolent civil resistance to end the military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
- That all soldiers refuse to participate in these wars.
- That the Church actively support and encourage conscientous objectors.
- That all US military and private contractors refuse to engage in torture.
- The closing of Guantanamo and other secret US military prisons.
- The eradication of the Military Commission Act of 2006.
- Redirect our resources from war making and exploitation to meeting human needs and saving our planet.
- An equitable redistribution of resources by simplifying our materialistic lifestyle.
- All people of faith and goodwill join us for a nonviolent action in Washington, D.C. on January 11, 2007, the fifth anniversary of the first prisoners arriving at Guantanamo, to call for its closing.
When Art Laffin stood up and said, “We should adopt a statement!”, I thought, “Wouldn’t that be like herding cats.” I spoke with Brian Terrill of Strangers and Guests a little later that day and he laughed and said, “It will be a thankless task.” So I showed up for the meeting and there were hmmmm maybe 16 people there, and I thought, “How is this going to work.” But Art did an excellent job of shepherding the task, first we went around the room and spoke of what we thought should be in the statement, and then we appointed 6 people (3 male, 3 female) to do the actual drafting. The statement was presented to the group just before the Sunday mass, and was adopted without a motion or discussion, just by acclamation.
The gathering itself was an incredible experience. Who know that Elvis would be there? About that I will have more to say later.
Bob, thanks for explaining the process. The attendees I talked to were a little unclear on the details.
Speaking of Elvis . . .