A Few Sketches of Roman Catholic Contacts in the 1960s in Chicago

I remember going down to talk to Karl Meyer  in a little house south of North Avenue Karl was part of the Catholic Worker movement I had already demonstrated with Dorothy Day in NYC against fall out shelters That was in the 50s this was in the 60s My leaning has always been pacifist and non-violent Karl had more attitude than anyone I have ever met Knowing him was a confrontation I think he represented the challenge anyone does who genuinely despises owning things I suspect behind that attitude may lie a lust to possess but this is not a shrink piece It is just a way of saying something about a few strands of Roman Catholicism  I encountered during the decade that I called Chicago home
I later had some glancing contact with Daniel Berrigan and by that time I was not enamored with what seemed to me  a conspicuous form of Catholic rectitude I remember suggesting to Dan that one did not need to be a poet to be against war (I was not without attitude) Aside from Quakers and Mennonites and marginal Catholic activists  pacifism was not exactly hopping in the 1960s I distinguish pacifism from the non-violent civil rights movement That movement was based on a challenge to rampant hypocrisy and laws breached Pacifism was and remains a rejection of war
Another very different encounter with "Catholicism"   Ecumenical Monasticism was with the Taize Community in Chicago I remember these men as delightful enjoyable and as human as can be Brother Frank was my main contact and he was a superb ambassador of this global community which remains centered in France
Had Bobby Kennedy lived and become President I might have gotten closer to  the mainline Catholic community by moving to DC As things stand I can only claim the contacts on this page and a few exposures in NYC of late which I categorize under the heading serendipitous  Stephen's Remarkable Kindle Store



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