Cover
story Beating bombers into plowshares
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
NCR Staff
Diocesan priests Frank Cordaro and Larry Morlan think they do some
of their best work in jail. They dont serve as chaplains, however, at
least not formally. They serve time.
Theyre behind bars again, this time awaiting sentencing on a
Sept. 23 conviction for injury to government property. The charge stemmed from
the May 17 Gods of Metal Plowshares action at Andrews Air Force
Base in suburban Washington where the two priests -- along with three women --
set upon a B-52 bomber with hammers and vials of their own blood.
Cordaro and Morlan are unusual figures, even within the tiny yet
tenacious Plowshares movement. When they go to jail, they leave an entire
parish behind. Because they take parish ministry seriously -- both intend to be
back in a parish as soon as their sentence is up -- it makes the decision to
risk prison especially agonizing. Yet both believe theyre better, more
credible priests because of it.
Its the hardest thing you do, to leave. A parish
priest is a priest thats with his people, said Cordaro, 48, a
priest of the Des Moines, Iowa, diocese. To take an action that takes you
away from that role that so much identifies you and is your responsibility,
doesnt come lightly. Its a very hard struggle.
How, therefore, did Cordaro explain his decision to leave his
small parish in Warren County? Ive been involved in this resistance
effort for over 20 years, and its so much a part of who I am as a
Christian that its a benchmark for what it means to be faithful, he
said. That ultimately becomes the question for anybody, a priest
included. If youre not going to be faithful to a gospel thats
claimed you for so many years and has formed you, then youre not going to
be very good as a priest.
Morlan, 38, said, I went back and forth about whether to do
this action or to stay in uninterrupted parish ministry. Morlan is from
the Peoria, Ill., diocese.
In March when it looked like we were going to bomb Iraq
again, I got up in the ambo at all the Masses that weekend and looked out and
saw those young faces. I thought, another generation doesnt have to be up
for grabs, doesnt have to have their future being a time bomb that ticks
away in their present. We have to do a better job of holding up the icon of the
nonviolent Christ, [of communicating] that the gospel does have something to
say about this matter.
Then I thought about how when you get ordained a priest, the
bishop tells you at some point in the liturgy, Model your life on the
Lords cross. So it seems to me that a priest is a good person to
preach the gospel in this way, to act on the gospel in this way, to give an
example of putting the gospel into action. I think its pretty good work
for a priest.
Morlan said leaving St. Patricks Church in Merna, Ill.,
where he had been associate pastor, was one of the hardest things hes
ever done. The goodbyes are very tearful, he said. The last
Mass I celebrated at St. Patricks I actually started crying at the
beginning of the eucharistic prayer and I didnt finish until after
Communion was distributed. Then the pastor came in to say a few words, and I
started again. It was very painful.
Then why do it? Its what the Second Vatican Council
said, the abolition of war has to be the No. 1 agenda item for the human
family, Morlan said. When the blood was poured on [the bomber],
then you saw its history. You saw that it had been active throughout Vietnam,
that it had been active in Asia after Vietnam, that it had led the way in the
Gulf massacre, that it was still threatening to bomb those people in Iraq. It
carries nuclear weapons as well as conventional weapons. Until we put that
blood there, those sisters and brothers who had died in the work of that B-52
were hidden away, they were masked underneath the veneer of the idol, and we
unmasked it, Morlan said.
Thats a great gift, for people to be able to look at
that and say, My God, theres blood on this plane, and its
being spilled in my name. Im paying for it. If my enemy were doing this
same thing, Id be aghast. If the Iraqis had this B-52, wed
see it more clearly. But since its an American B-52, its a good
thing because Americans are good. Thats part of the mask that has to be
pulled away, and its very painful. But it has to be done.
The Gods of Metal five will be in jail for a minimum
of three and a half months. During their two-day trial, Federal Judge Alexander
Williams Jr. allowed the activists to put on some parts of their defense --
roughly, that international law makes nuclear weapons illegal -- but then
convicted them, holding that they acted with what the law considers
criminal intent.
The group recruited four witnesses to testify on their behalf:
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, on the Christian principles
undergirding nonviolence; Michael True, a scholar who would testify to the
social value of civil disobedience; retired Admiral Eugene Carroll of the
Center for Defense Information, on the nuclear capability of the B-52 bomber;
and professor Frances Boyle, an expert who would speak to international law
prohibiting nuclear weapons. Williams allowed only Boyle to testify, and later
ruled most of his comments irrelevant.
The conviction carries the possibility of up to a year in prison,
and Williams set a Jan. 4 sentencing date. The quintet then refused any further
cooperation, leading Williams to lock them up. In January, they could get more
time, have their sentences reduced to time served or be placed on
probation.
The Plowshares effort takes its name from the Book of
Micah, which speaks of swords being beaten into plowshares. Over the years, a
hardy band of self-styled Christian witnesses -- the Berrigan brothers, Daniel
and Philip, are the best known -- have taken what they see as the first steps
toward turning that vision into reality. Acts of defiance as they are, most of
these steps -- such as trespassing at military installations and hammering
missile silos -- usually lead straight to jail.
It was in that spirit that Cordaro and Morlan, along with Kathy
Shields Boylan and Dominican Srs. Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert walked onto
the grounds of Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., May 17 for a big
Department of Defense air show. Two planes down from Air Force One, the group
peered into the bomb bay door of a B-52. Cordaro said, Sisters and
brothers! Let us disarm these gods of metal! Then, with hammers and vials
of blood, the five set upon the bomber. Two minutes later they were in
custody.
Cordaro and Morlan spoke to NCR in the middle of a
low-budget national tour to raise consciousness and funds for their Sept. 22
and 23 trial. The tour ended at the University of Notre Dame where they took
part in a prayer vigil encouraging students to resist the presence of ROTC on
the Notre Dame campus.
Listening to the duo on a mid-August afternoon, it became clear
that they see themselves not fundamentally as peace activists or prophets but
as parish priests -- and their resistance work as a logical extension of that
role. Their audience, they say, is not really the U.S. military or the world at
large, but the church.
I dont think Caesar is going to change his stripes
anytime soon. I just want to see the church get out of Caesars bed,
Cordaro said.
This is the close of the 20th century, the century that has
seen the most blood, killing, murder, war, he said. The tragedy of
all this for us who call ourselves Christians is that were the best
killers. Were the best killers in this century of blood. We kill each
other well and we kill others even better. If we as a church, as a faith
tradition, could recover that nonviolent spirit of Jesus, that could very well
be the greatest gift we could give humanity at this moment.
That isnt to say that everyone in the church, including the
parishes Cordaro and Morlan serve, is thrilled at what the two are up to.
Theres a lot of people who read challenging our nuclear arsenal and
our military policies as equaling immediately an attack on military people, so
youre attacking the boys, youre attacking the soldiers,
Morlan said. And to criticize the military policies of the country is
somehow to demean the country itself. These things are so identified. I also
sense among many people -- with Catholics perhaps leading the way -- an
identification of the United States with the Kingdom of God. To be a good
American is to be a good Christian. There is a lot of passion, and frankly
weve experienced some of it.
Still, the two say most of their people have been positive and
supportive, if not eager to see them leave the parish. If youre a
good priest, it really doesnt matter what your politics are, what your
political or theological point of view is. I believe I do a good job of being a
priest, so you get them in that sense, Cordaro said.
Despite being the younger of the two, Morlan has spent more time
than Cordaro in prison. Cordaro has done a total of 32 months, usually in
six-month increments, while Morlan spent one four-year stretch for another
Plowshares action in 1986. He had been a seminarian in the Peoria diocese but
left to spend a year with the Catholic Worker, not sure ordination was for him.
Bishop John Myers -- who has a reputation as a staunch conservative -- visited
Morlan in prison and encouraged him to think more about the priesthood.
It was really through working with inmates there at Marion
[prison] that I became convinced that I still wanted to be a priest, still felt
like that was what I was supposed to be. I realized what Im doing is
really what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Myers ordained Morlan after he completed his prison time and his
seminary studies.
It was in the federal prison in Marion, Ill., that Morlan met
Cordaro, who was doing six months for another Plowshares action. The two
connected, and out of their friendship theyve developed what they regard
as a model for parish priests who feel drawn to resistance activity: team
ministry.
The rub in doing this resistance work as a parish priest is
that when you go to jail youre locked up, you cant be in the
parish, Cordaro said. This became very clear to me early in my
priestly career as I continued to take risks like this, so I was always looking
for an opportunity to hook up with another guy and do a team ministry-type
thing.
For my model in resistance, I take Phil Berrigan and
Elizabeth McAllister as great examples. These people raised three children and
are raising them. Raising a family is a lot harder than being a country priest,
I can tell you that. The way they do it is they make sure one is always home
while the other one risks jail. If they can do that, we can do that in a parish
setting. That was my thinking.
The trick, in the case of Cordaro and Morlan, is for one of the
priests to arrange to be on loan from his diocese while the other goes behind
bars.
A diocesan priest is usually on his own, Morlan said, unlike a
member of a religious community -- where, at least theoretically, a support
network exists from which others can be called upon to fill in while someone is
away. For that reason, he says, team ministry is extremely
viable.
So why didnt Morlan and Cordaro put their team ministry plan
into effect? Two words: The bishop. While Myers gave a provisional okay to the
plan, Bishop Joseph Charron of Des Moines turned it down.
The parish was open to discussing it, Cordaro said.
Then of course we took it to the bishop and the personnel board, and they
didnt accept the plan.
Why? I dont know. I think these guys were trying to
talk me out of it, Cordaro said. The next thing I did was resign. I
said I would resign effective in the spring when I act up, so the diocese goes
on-line and everybody knows Ill be gone and the folks wont be
without a priest. Theyll assign somebody. Then they refused my
resignation. Then I just had to say, Well, Im going. This is what
is going to happen. Please assure the folks that youre gonna be able to
cover the missing weekends.
Finally, Cordaro said, he and the diocese worked out an
understanding. The short of it is youre neither blessed nor cursed.
The bishop and the personnel board wanted to make it very clear that I was
leaving without permission, and that they felt I was being grossly
irresponsible to my primary responsibilities in the parish, and that in no way
was I getting any kind of blessing for this.
On the other hand, they respect my act of conscience. I was
not going to get any kind of church discipline because of my acting up, and
when Im free to return to the diocese to work Ill be welcomed
back.
Morlans status with Myers is basically the same. I had
told him sometime before that in the spring of 1998 I was pretty sure I would
be doing some kind of resistance witness that would risk jail. We had been
talking about that and we continued talking about it. He never would accept it.
He says he will not approve it, Morlan said.
He says the same thing about conscience as Bishop Charron,
but up to this very point hes been unable to really decide how to deal
with it, how to deal with me and what my status is. Hes been angry.
Hes probably struggling to look at it as an administrator as well as from
a sense of the gospel. ... Yet for a bishop I think those two things are so
wedded together that its hard for him to know what to do with it. But
each time Ive talked to him Ive encouraged him [to] continue the
dialogue and find a way of working with this.
Are either angry that theyre not getting more support from
church authorities?
I think its about the best were going to get
these days, Cordaro said.
Morlan added that, given the nature of todays conspiracy
laws, he understands that church officials have to be very circumspect about
seeming to endorse illegal activity.
Cordaro said Bishop Charrons recent decision to allow him to
preach in the cathedral in Des Moines meant a lot. That was really a
gracious act on the bishops part, because he certainly isnt
sympathetic to the action and publicly has said that he thinks its a bad
idea. We felt real good about that.
Both men claim not to be discouraged that, with the fall of the
Soviet Union, public interest in issues of war and peace has dissipated.
When I started doing this in 1977 there were very few people doing it
then. When I did my first blood-spilling at the Pentagon -- [people saw us as]
a few odd weirdo wackos, and I guess were right back down to odd, weirdo
wackos at this moment, Cordaro said.
Dorothy Day said that the 1960s were some of the worst years
for the peace movement, and thats when the streets were filled with
people. But it wasnt grounded in a vision that was anywhere near the
vision of the kingdom and the cross that Jesus was calling people to,
Cordaro said. It wasnt grounded in much, and where is it? The
80s were similar. Yeah, there were a lot more people interested, but not
the life-changing, putting your life on the line [kind of activity].
Thats critical, I think, risk and personal investment. There just
isnt that price being paid, never was.
What about the argument that, especially in an era of priest
shortages, Cordaro and Morlan have an obligation not to desert their people?
Of course theres a shortage, but Im not
responsible for that, Cordaro said. In fact if given an opportunity
I have some interesting suggestions on how we might be able to address that, as
many in our church do, and those concerns arent allowed to be raised. So
I dont feel any real moral compulsion that I have to be at the parish,
because weve got a shortage thats artificially made.
Moreover, its not like either man stops being priestly while
locked up. Ive been put down and not allowed to celebrate the
Eucharist at different times, Cordaro said. But the guys get to
know it pretty quickly, they know why youre there. They may have varying
opinions about it, but Ive often had opportunities to be a confessor both
to inmates and to jailers. The system doesnt want you to. ... Its
official. You cant be a priest and lawyers cant lawyer and teachers
cant teach. But I am a priest, and you cant stop me from being a
priest.
There you are. Youre an inmate -- youre not a
hack in black. Youre not working for the system. Like anyone else who
ministers to particular groups, [prisoners] appreciate someone who identifies
with them.
Morlan, Cordaro and their three female codefendants now have more
opportunities for such pastoral moments. After being convicted on what they
called a sham, the five refused any further cooperation and were
thrown behind bars.
Morlan predicted to NCR in August that this is how it would
unfold. We want to go right from the courtroom to start that
sentence, Morlan said. Because what were saying is that if
they find us guilty, then theyre ignoring the illegality of those
weapons, which under international law are illegal weapons. Those weapons and
the policies that protect them, the laws that protect them, are where the
criminality lies.
In rehearsing the groups defense, Morlan still sounded like
a pastor and teacher. There was all this yes-saying to these weapons [at
the air show], and here was this clear no, he said. The
audaciousness and the clarity of Plowshares actions is a wonderful thing
to have held up like that. Those kids [at the air show] saw people taking some
risks to say no to these weapons.
During his testimony at the trial, Morlan summed up the Plowshares
position. We have to say no to these weapons in order to say yes to
God.
The Gods of Metal Plowshares may be contacted at Jonah House,
1301 Moreland, Baltimore, Md. 21216.
National Catholic Reporter, October 2,
1998
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