"The Hope of Nonviolence" -Kathy Kelly Workshop Saturday October 11th, 2003

Spending the day with Kathy Kelly is like opening a book that you can’t put down. Like Jesus, this tiny woman has you wanting to sell everything and follow her - to Baghdad or Haiti or maybe to plant corn on a restricted missile site somewhere in the U.S. Going to jail because of your beliefs or not paying that portion of your taxes that goes to the military all begin to sound like something you might consider.

Kelly spun her web of hope and challenge for about 50 of us at a retreat titled “The Hope of Nonviolence” last Saturday at St. Joan’s. Maybe it’s because she’s Irish and a natural storyteller, or maybe because she’s so authentic, so passionate about her beliefs that you find yourself changing right before your eyes in her presence.

Kelly founded Voices In The Wilderness in 1996, a group dedicated to ending economic and military warfare against the Iraqi people. Her ability to bring people together in peace has been recognized as she has become a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

Kathy Kelly has probably been protesting from the time she was two, but in such a way that all you want to do is hug her and do whatever she asks. She just returned from Baghdad and told stories of her time there with the Iraqi people that you never read about in any major newspaper.

She tells us that we are living in dangerous times right now that call for courage, both personal and political and says that we have to look at the big picture which includes an underlying subtext in the most recent wars : Vietnam, Korea, Nicaragua, Bosnia, Kosovo, the first Gulf War, Afghanistan and now, Iraq. This subtext is (1) our culture against Mother Earth and (2) War against weaker countries we want to control and exploit.

She asserts that our culture is addicted to war and because of that the U.S. is fast approaching empire status. She goes on to say that governments want two things, people’s assent and their money. Once these are in place, they want to evoke fears that keep us from acting for peace.

Besides these actual wars, Kelly tells us that another war is going on that many Americans know little about. It’s the war against the poor. She says that those who go to prison encounter this war first hand. Who better than Kelly, who has been jailed a number of times, to describe this war from the front lines.

What is so compelling about Kelly is that she puts actual faces on the concepts she talks about: war, poverty, exploitation of every kind. She tells about the marines who came roaring in on tanks to the peacemaker’s hotel just as Baghdad was being taken over by our troops. One young soldier in particular, who when he saw that Kelly and her group were harmless, crawled out of his tank, sat on top of it and began to read a book, Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness.

Then there is Gloria, a fellow prisoner in the federal prison at Lexington, Kentucky. Gloria calls to talk to her baby every week and tells her that Mama’s coming to tickle her feet, to love her up, even though that baby will be partly grown by the time Gloria gets out.

She describes Natasha, a tiny seven year old from Haiti, where, Kelly says, she has never experienced such poverty. Kelly and Natasha became friends. It was the time Kelly found the child eating dirt out of desperate hunger that broke Kelly’s heart anew.

There is Carema, which means generosity, Kelly explains, who because of past horrific memories, faints with every loud noise.

Kelly contends that our government is building a large industrial complex to house a growing prison population, and this population is heavily weighted with blacks and latinos, most of whom are poor.

She tells us that the law of love, love of enemy is what we must obey.

This modern day follower of Jesus opens up Scripture for us to explain that the story of the loaves and fishes is to let us know that there’s plenty of everything we need. “God has set quite a table for us, and there’s enough to go around.”

She says that the disciples were afraid because they were breaking the rules, but Jesus told them over and over, “Don’t be afraid.” His message is the same for us today. It involves finding the courage to stand up for what we believe to be wrong. For those of us who think we’re not good enough, or prepared enough, she says “If we wait until we’re perfect, we’ll have to wait a very long time.”

She plays a song that tells us “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in,” and we understand what she’s trying to teach us.

Kelly says she “never wants to be sitting on the sidelines in the face of some unspeakable evil.” She reminds us that with all our privileges we have a great responsibility to raise our voices for those everywhere who don’t have voices of their own. She tells us other stories that demonstrate that there’s always the possibility of solidarity with those who oppose us, so we must stay open to that possibility.

Kelly ties in Catholic social teachings with our lesson. She quickly says that even though the Church hasn’t in the past and doesn’t always in the present live up to those teachings, the words are there as a kind of high conscience calling us to heed them. She goes back to Rerum Navarum, Leo XIII’s encyclical that called for workers’ rights to form unions back in 1891, and which said that the antidote for inordinate wealth is charity.

Then there was Cardinal Bernadine with the idea of “The Seamless Garment,” which means that If you are against abortion, you must be equally against the death penalty, war, and those other social structures that negate life.

Jo Welch-Youngren worked with Harvey Egan in the early days of St. Joan of Arc. At that time she, Cy and Joan Speltz, Nancy Anderson, Darlene Arbuckle, Ferry Deslauriers, and John McGowan made up the staff. We all pitched in and did everything that needed doing and had a ball every day. Jo’s first husband, Jack Welch, was buried from St. Joan’s in 1980. Later she married Dave Youngren, moved to New Mexico, then returned to her roots. Now she and Dave sit on the left side center at the 9:00 o’clock Mass on Sundays and love every minute of it. Jo can be reached at .

Kelly tells us that we are the ones who are hurt if we don’t align ourselves with our deepest beliefs.

She says we are all part of one another; this is what Eucharist and resurrection teach. She admonishes us again not to be afraid. We need wisdom and love, but first we must have courage, she insists. She tells us that we can, through actions and words, build communities where it’s easy to be good.

Lastly she tells us that we’re all on a train that is heading for destruction, but that by speaking out and acting on what we believe to be right, we can change the direction of that train with the possibility of a different future.

“Adult questions are needed,” she asserts, then adds, “There is hope.”

Because Kelly is who she is, and despite everything to the contrary, including our own reticence, we believe her and leave this day with more hope for ourselves and our world than we ever thought possible.