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Tom and I shared the speaker's platform Tom and I shared the speaker's platform on a number of occasions. I always appreciated how well-informed he was, how he could speak without notes, the passion he brought to his subjects, and the patience and kindness toward others he showed in response to all questions, even the hostile or uninformed ones. But what sticks even more firmly in my mind is his behavior at stop signs when he was the driver to these events. He did slow down a bit, but I never recall seeing him come to a full stop, except when a vehicle coming the other way was on top of us. Otherwise, just a little tap on the brakes, a quick look both ways and then a zip through the intersection. I once spoke to him about this, reminding him that Gandhi said that the practitioner of nonviolence and civil disobedience must obey all just laws. My memory is that he just replied in his kindly, low-key way: "Oh, I just never thought it was very important." Tom and I also served together for a number of years on
the Cardinal's Commission on World Peace and Justice. There were some good
people on the Commission, but our person-to-person nonviolence was severely
tested by the super-conservatives and the super-cautionaries who never
seemed to want to take a stand on anything, even if it could be completely
justified by Catholic social teaching. Once, at the height of the
U.S.-sponsored wars in Central America in the mid-1980s, we finally, after
much arguing and persuading, convinced the Commission to let us write a very
strong statement describing the just struggles of the poor for a better life
in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, the brutal opposition they faced
from wealthy and powerful minorities, and the very harmful role of the U.S.
in supporting the status quo. It included a reading list and suggestions for
political action by Catholics in the pews. The statement, "The Crisis
in Central America: A Catholic Perspective," was to be endorsed by the
Commission and sent out in a variety of ways, including through the press
and by the distribution of 5,000 brochures. But could we get Cardinal Krol
to endorse it, given his tremendous influence in Philadelphia, nationally,
and in the world church? Tom said, "Let's go see him." As a
newly-baptized Catholic, I was still in some awe of Cardinals, Bishops and
such, assuming they would be unreachable by ordinary lay people. But Tom was
insistent and persuasive, so I finally agreed, and he made the appointment.
At the meeting, the Cardinal was a "hard sell," but I could see
that our facts and points were having an impact on him. We left the meeting
without getting his commitment to endorse the statement, but he sent a copy
to Fr. Bryan Hehir, one of the Church's top experts on international
affairs, then on the Dick Taylor |