DOROTHY DAY CATHOLIC WORKER
503 Rock Creek Church Road, NW, Washington, DC 20010 (202) 882-9649
September 3, 2007
Dear Fr. Brown,
I am not sure if I enclosed a copy of the two letters Fr. Clifford has sent to me. Here they are.
As soon as I received the first one, I called Fr. Clifford and requested a meeting. Our meeting a few days later was my first opportunity to introduce myself to him as he had only been in the parish for seven weeks.
Besides what I have already mentioned in my first letter to you, I explained that if I had been a parishioner of St. Al's in 1859, I hope I would have been praying, "Slave owners free your slaves." Slave owners would have been annoyed, among them unfortunately the Jesuits.
Or had I been a member of the parish in the 50's, I would have been praying for an end to the immoral practice of forcing African Americans to sit in the back of the church and receive communion after the whites. I even asked Fr. Clifford if he wouldn't have done the same.
I left the meeting with Fr. Clifford feeling understood. He never threatened me. Since that March meeting I have repeated my prayer very Sunday without a negative reaction from Fr. until his letter of Aug. 28.
During Fr. Bavinger's time as pastor, he invited all parishioners to several meetings after Mass to discuss prayers of the faithful--mine in particular. Thirty-five of us shared over a period of six hours. While many of us had different positions, we did agree that anyone could offer whatever prayer he or she wanted. If we disagrred with a prayer, we sould simply withold, "Lord, hear our prayer."
It seems to me that every time we get a new pastor, folks opposed to that decision, many of whom chose not to attend the meetings, complain to the new pastor, and the problem starts all over again.
I would welcome an opportunity to meet you or anyone else regarding this struggle. Given the reality that so many are being tortured, bombed and killed in Iraq, and given the threats of an attack on them, I will continue to pray, "All soldiers law down you guns." Please join me.
Sincerely,
Kathy Boylan