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PAGE 2—The Southern Cross, November 22, 1973
Chavez Explains Philosophy for Confronting Injustices
BY DAN MOTHERSILL
TORONTO, Canada (NC) - Cesar
Chavez, the gentle giant of the farm
labor movement in California, was
almost exhausted as he lay on his bed at
Toronto’s St. Basil’s seminary, staring at
the ceiling.
But despite his weariness and his lack
of sleep, he patiently explained his
philosophy for confronting social in
justices.
“You have to decide where your
battleground is going to be,” he said.
“You either face them honestly, openly
and nonviolently in the streets, or you
can fight them in the gutter. Whatever
approach you take, it is usually met
with a similar response.”
As one of the best-known, nonviolent
leaders in the struggle to organize U.S.
farmworkers, Chavez said he believes
that people generally tend to think and
act nonviolently. He said he has
encouraged this approach among all his
fellow-workers.
Chavez, the 45-year-old son of a
migrant farm laborer and president of
the United Farm Workers of America
(UFWA) was in Toronto recently to
lecture on “The Christian in Action”
and lead a march in support of the
current boycott of non-UFWA grapes
and lettuce from California.
“The most difficult problem in
maintaining a practice of nonviolence in
the strikes and boycotts is showing
people positive progress and educating
them to the fact that a nonviolent
victory takes time,” Chavez said.
“Patience is the key. If you are
patient in the struggle but impatient
with injustice then you will never lose.”
The current boycott is in protest over
the refusal of the California grape and
lettuce growers to recognize the UFWA
as the bargaining agent for the
farmworkers.
Anti-UFWA growers had secretly
negotiated what Chavez regards as
inferior contracts with the Teamsters
union. Those contracts, if recognized by
the farmworkers would have destroyed
the UFWA, Chavez said.
Instead, thousands of workers went
on strike, about 5,000 were jailed,
hundreds were beaten and two strikers
were killed on the picket lines.
“I was about 300 miles away from
the sight of the shootings when I heard
about the deaths,” Chavez said. “I
rushed to the area, fearing the response
of the workers.
“But when I got there, I found that
violence had not even entered their
minds. You see, we have not waited
until a crisis arises before preaching
nonviolence. It’s a continuous process
of discipline and education. ”
After three days of mourning
following the deaths, Chavez suspended
the picketing to prevent further violence
and asked strikers to continue their
nonviolent struggle through a boycott in
North America’s major grape and
lettuce consuming cities.
Chavez said he uses the Sermon on
the Mount, the life of St. Francis of
Assisi and the writings of Mahatma
Gandhi, the late Indian leader, and
Martin Luther King as a pedagogical
CESAR CHAVEZ IN TORONTO - Cesar Chavez
(left) president of the United Farm Workers of
America leads a march through Toronto in support of
the California grape and lettuce boycott. With him is
David Archer, president of the Ontario Federation of
Labor. Chavez said in an interview, “Patience is the
key. If you are patient in the struggle but impatient
with injustice then you will never lose.” (NC Photo by
Dan Mothersill)
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platform for his convictions on
nonviolence.
“I tell those who want to work with
me to read and reflect on these works.
If people want to be good organizers
they’ll say yes’ to all that they teach,”
he said.
In following the philosophy of
nonviolence, Chavez has been able to
accomplish what no other person in the
history of the U.S. labor movement has
done. He has organized farmworkers.
“Our strength comes from the
millions of people who pray for us. Our
real power comes from not caring about
the power most men want. We want to
be farmworkers. We want to stay with
the land and to free other people, but
we want to do it with dignity.
“Prayer provides a tremendous amout
of power for change, but it cannot be
divorced from action. Prayer is not just
meditation. It’s also action affecting
social change. You pray a lot and picket
a lot.”
Since 1944, Chavez, by his own
count, has been arrested and put in jail
about 50 times. “But all of the charges
against me were dismissed by the judges
because there were no justifiable
grounds for conviction,” he said.
“I used to be afraid of being locked
up, but now I find that the time I spend
in jail provides an opportunity for
prayer and meditation.
“I am no longer really afraid for my
life. I’m doing the work I want to do,
and even though I haven’t had a pay
check since 1962 I’m still here and I’m
free.”
The current boycott is the third time
his farmworkers’ union has been forced
to use economic sanctions to bring the
growers to the bargaining table.
“We are receiving more support from
the people and clergy than in the 1970
boycott,” Chavez said. “We are also
better organized and have full and
part-time workers in about 64 North
American cities, including Toronto.
“Our efforts so far have been very
successful and we are going to win.
“For some reason people are
continually asking me what I am. They
ask if I’m a Marxist or a Communist.
And all I can answer is simply that I am
a Christian.”
Vatican Prepares Unity Guides
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican
Secretariat for Christian Unity is
preparing guidelines for ecumenical
action on the local, regional and
national level.
Canon Charles Moeller, the Belgian
secretary of the Unity Secretariat,
reported that the guidelines are
undergoing final editing and should be
ready “in the not too distant future.”
The canon reported on other
ecumenical developments and on the
work of the unity secretariat at annual
plenary meetings of the secretariat
which ended Nov. 14.
American Jesuit Father John Long,
an official of the secretariat, said the
10-day meeting reviewed much of the
work by various joint commissions of
Catholics and other Christian churches
and communities and “laid plans for
future action. ”
Some emphasis was given to a general
review because “9 of the 24 member
cardinals and bishops who took part
were only appointed recently to the
commission,” he said.
American participants in the meetings
included Bishop Charles Helmsing of
Kansas City, Mo., and Bishop Ernest
Primeau of Manchester, N.H.
Canon Moeller said that the new
document on common ecumenical
endeavors, which will contain the
guidelines were examined in the light, not
only of the teachings of Vatican Council
II, but also with the assistance of
observations “coming from many parts
of the world and from various Christian
organizations, including non-Catholic
ones.”
Another area of discussion was the
subject of “ministry in the
Church,”-how the idea of ministry is
conceived by the Catholic Church and
other Christian bodies, its differences,
and similarities. For instance, a joint
document will shortly be issued by
Catholic and Anglican representatives
on ministry as the result of many years
of study, Father Long said.
Canon Moeller noted that it was
stressed during the meetings that “until
the discussions under way have been
deepened sufficiently and competent
church authorities have reached a
decision on them, changes in the
(present) discipline of the Catholic
Church are not permitted. ”
Father Long explained that the canon
was pointing out that “while real
progress has been made in various joint
study efforts, people should not jump
to conclusions and immediately
translate into action the results of
agreements which still need further,
development and the authoritative
judgment by competent church
officials.”
He cited as an example the
substantial agreement reached between
Catholic and Anglican theologians on
the Eucharist, which is technically
known as the Windsor Agreement.
Some people, he explained, have
assumed that the reaching of the
agreement authorizes inter-communion
between members of the two churches.
As a matter of fact, he said, the
agreement is the result of a joint
commission and still has to be acted
upon by competent higher authorities.
He said the same will apply to the new
document on ministry, which will be
called the “Canterbury Agreement.”
Other subjects discussed during the
meetings included Catholic relations
with the World Council of Churches
particularly in light of the WCC General
Assembly to be held in Jakarta in 1975,
WCC and general Protestant interest in
the 1974 Synod of Bishops in Rome,
discussion on evangelization in the
modern world.
Special discussion was devoted also to
relations between the Catholic church
and the Jews. Father Long said the
discussion was a “detailed one” and not
merely mentioned in passing. Part of
this was due, he said, to the fact that
the new unity secretariat official dealing
with Jewish problems, French
Dominican Pierre de Contenson reported
on meetings with Jewish leaders in the
U.S. and Europe.
Bishops’ Annual Meeting
(Continued from Page 1)
The bishops urged that a 1967 United
Nations resolution be used as a “basis
for negotiations” to end the Middle East
conflict and they asked for an
“international guarantee” of access to
Jerusalem.
A statment on prison reform
approved by the bishops condemned
abuses and suggested a long list of
reforms.
“Society has a right to protect itself
against lawbreakers and even to exact
just and measured retribution,” the
statement said, “but the limits of what
is reasonable and just are far exceeded
in too many penal institutions.”
The bishops pastoral on Mary
restated basic teachings concerning her,
called for renewed Marian devotion, and
asked for ecumenical study of doctrines
involving the Blessed Virgin.
The pastoral was written “to set aside
completely the report that Vatican
Council II had deemphasized love and
devotion to Mary,” Cardinal John
Carberry of St. Louis told the bishops at
their Mass in the Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception here.
The Mass was marked by a minor
incident when two women rose and
began reading a leaflet criticizing the
bishops for meeting in The Statler
Hilton Hotel. The women were escorted
from the Shrine by police.
At the hotel itself, police made six
arrests of other members of the protest
group-arrests that the bishops said were
initiated by the hotel, not the bishops.
The protesters contended that the
bishops should have stopped the arrests.
In a separate incident about 30
persons occupied the office of Bishop
James S. Rausch, UCCB/USCC general
secretary, in a protest over the way the
bishops distribute anti-poverty grants.
The protest ended peacefully with a
promise that a committee of bishops
would meet later with the protesters.
The bishops also sent a list of
requests for liturgical changes to the
Vatican for approval. One proposal
would create two new lay ministeries in
the United States-catechist and minister
of music.
The ministries would be open to
women as well as jnen and would
involve the formal installation of certain
persons who are deeply involved in
music and religious education programs.
The bishops heard conflicting reports
on the strike at the Farah
Manufacturing Co. clothing plant in El
Paso, Tex. A statement presented on
behalf of the company claimed its
employes were satisfied and did not
want a union. Bishop Sidney Metzger of
El Paso said working conditions are
poor at the plant, and he challenged the
company to allow an election.
At the end of Bishop Metzger’s
report, a company supporter who had
press credentials from National Review
magazine, shouted an objection but was
quickly escorted from the meeting
room.
In addition, at the meeting the
bishops:
-Heard report that Seminaries
frequently deviated from the bishops’
1971 seminary guidelines.
-Learned that there are now more
than 400 permanent deacons, most of
them married men, in the United States.
-Declared that the United Nations
Declaration on Human Rights was “a
testament of vital importance to the
global family.” Those words were in a
resolution passed marking the 25th
anniversary of the UN declaration.
-Established a committee to develop
a “proposal on morality in the mass
media.”
-Agreed to help fund an international
Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia in
1976—if the Vatican selects that city as
the site of the Congress.
-Elected Cardinals John Krol of
Philadelphia, John Dearden of Detroit,
and John Carberry of St. Louis, and
Archbishop Joseph Bemardin as U.S.
delegates to next fall’s world Synod of
Bishops in Rome.
-Designated days on which plenary
indulgences may be obtained by
Americans during the coming Holy
Year.
-Heard Bishop Mark Hurley of Santa
Rosa, Calif., warn that technological
innovations threatens basic human
rights, including the right to privacy.
-Were praised by observers at the
meeting-lay, religious and clerical-for
most of their actions but chided by the
observers for their rejection of
Communion in the hand.
--Presented comments on
“Evangelization in the World,” the topic
of the 1974 Synod of Bishops. The
comments were responses to a Vatican
study document sent to the bishops in
preparation for the synod.
-Received two reports on priestly life
and ministry - “Priestly Ministry” and
“Research and Scholarship” and voted
to allow their distribution but did not
vote full approval of the contents of the
reports.
Homecoming Queen
Miss Velyna Conner, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. James E. Conner, 1263 Dugas
St. in Augusta, was chosen Homecoming
Queen at Aquinas High School for
1973-74 at festivities on November 3rd.
Nominated by half-back and
co-captain Frank Maddox, Velyna
received the most votes in the annual
competition sponsored by the Boosters’
Club of Aquinas.
Velyna is currently State Treasurer of
the Georgia National Honor Society, a
member of the Choraliers, a highly
specialized singing group at Aquinas,
and manager of the girls’ basketball
team. She lists her favorite subject as
mathematics, and hopes to become a
certified public accountant.
Velyna Conner