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| Sr. Karen Burke, Sr. Susan Wilcox, Brooklyn Vetter, and Kristen Whitney Daniels at the Catholic Day of Action in Washington, D.C. on July 18, 2019. |
Last
October, Atlantic writer Adam Serwer wrote an article titled, The Cruelty Is the Point about why there seems to be rejoicing in the suffering of
others by some in our communities. Might we recall Attorney General Jeff Sessions
gleefully announcing the family separation policy and the border agents mocking
the sounds of terrorized children? Mr.
Serwer refers to a history of this phenomenon in the lynching photos of the
past in which white men delight in heinous acts posing for posterity. So, for any
who think that we resolved that level of overt cruelty during the civil rights
movement of the 1960s, clearly, we did not. That impulse to exhibit the holding
of power, privilege, and control of others in a socially justifiable way merely
went covert. Again fully unleashed, we cannot deny that the power of which I am
referring is a structure of internalized white privilege. And our church is not immune.
As a long-time
student of conscious evolution, this cruelty that we see towards humans who are
only doing what we would do if we were in their circumstances (fleeing
violence; protecting our daughters from ownership by a gang; reuniting with
family in the U.S.; etc.) is a resurgence of that latent instinct to preserve
privilege against a paradigm of equality. For Catholics, this equality is not
just written into our federal constitution, but in our religious social
teaching preserving the dignity of every human person. Every human person, no
exceptions.
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| Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood Karen Burke and Susan Wilcox can be seen participating in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Russell Senate Building in Washington, D.C. |
So for this
reason, I chose to participate in the recent Catholic Day of Action at the U.S. Capitol in which Catholics
gathered to demand an end to migrant child detention and inhumane immigration
policies. Christianity is an embodied religion, what better way to hold
authorities to account than by risking our bodies? At our day of action, 70
Catholics were arrested, out of that 23 were participating in nonviolent
civil disobedience for the first time — that’s nearly a third. Nonviolent civil
disobedience became ingrained in Catholic social justice efforts with
leadership from Dorothy Day, César Chávez, Dan and Phil Berrigan, and the work
of Pax Christi, the Catholic peace and justice movement, to name a few. Nonviolent
civil disobedience is about standing up publicly and for the record among those
who say no to injustice and yes to equal dignity. Equal. Dignity. For.
All.
I hope all
who read this will begin a discernment of nonviolent civil disobedience. It’s a personal discernment but a communal
action. You will not be alone. And the world needs you, now. The world needs us
now. The world needs Catholics who are living their faith, publicly and for the
record.
[Sr. Susan Wilcox is a Sister of St. Joseph of Brentwood and the congregation's JPIC Coordinator]
