Songs are more than just words and musical notes. They are a reflection of the life and times from when they byth of an IRA volunteer. But if you listen closely you might hear a bit of sly irony in the lyrics that suggests blind patriotism is in fact a terrible thing. Even though it was written with deep sympathies for the IRA and the nationalist cause the song has been taken up by many anti-nationalist for their cause. You might also recognize a similarity between Patriot Game and Bob Dylan's With God on Our Side. Though Dylan denies it, Behan claims his tune and lyrical structure were stolen and altered to fit Dylan’s anti-Vietnam ballad. To this day Dylan refuses to give credit to Behan or the Republican cause.

LILIBURLERO
By Richard Dyer Bennet

When we talk about the Republican cause we are talking about the ambition to make the northern tip of Ireland a separate nation, free from the United Kingdom. But not everyone in Ireland wants that, especially Protestants with Welsh and Scottish roots. They look back to the day the English King William of Orange soundly conquered the Irish Catholics. This song is a parody of the Irish reaction to news that the Irish had won their freedom. Listen for abusive name calling like taige, which referred to native Irish Catholics. Also listen for the refrain and name of the song, Liliburlero, a meaningless word meant to derided the Irish excitement of having a sovereign country.

Some Gaelic Irish find Liliburlero insulting, so with the BBC using it several times a day for years was like rubbing salt in the wound. And still today, The first few bars of Liliburlero precede the 3AM news bulletin.

THE ORANGE LILY-O
by Various Artists

Many Ulster songs refer back to the days when Protestant William of Orange conquered the Irish. The decisive battle took place at Boyne on the Eastern Coast of Ireland in the north. According to lore, King William wore into battle an orange lily which then became the symbol for English Loyalist in Ireland and the title of this song

RISING OF THE MOON
by The Clancy Brothers

After the Williamite War Catholics were made subservient to the English and their Welsh and Scottish stand-ins. The situation resulted in a number of unsuccessful uprising, one in 1641 and then another in 1798. The latter was put to verse and then to song. It's called Rising of the Moon and describes the meeting of the doomed souls carrying out their failed rebellion. It was written by John Keegan Casey.

THE VOLUNTEERS OF ULSTER
by Carol Paris and Cambuslang Britannia

The ballad was a very popular song type to which to write about the conflict. Almost always ballads were written to preserve the memory of events, people, or as in the next case, both. Ulster Volunteers is a simple song sung by Carol Paris that commemorates the 36th Ulster Division from Ireland who volunteered for WWI. They were was a major source of pride for loyalist who believed it was England's laws and armed forces that civilized the world--and Ireland.

A NATION ONCE AGAIN
by The Clancy Brothers

Voted the most popular song in the world in 2002 according to listeners of the BBC. A Nation Once Again was written by Thomas Osborne Davis.

OLD ORANGE FLUTE
By the Dubliners

A cleaver song about Bob Williamson and his flute that can only play the Loyalist song, Protestant Boys. Bob shocks his town and decides to marry a Catholic and is run out of town and moves north, flute in hand. Eventually Bob joins a Catholic choir but his unionist flute doesn't make many friends and is soon burned at the stake to the end playing "protestant boys."

BLACK AND TANS
by The Jolly Beggermen

There were several uprising scattered through the history of Ireland, but it wasn't until the Easter Uprising in 1916 that paramilitary groups became the dominate instrument of force. Chiefly republicans had the IRA and the British used the Royal Irish Constabulary, also know as the Black and Tans. The Black and Tans were a hastily trained reserve force recruited from the rowdy ranks of Englishmen returning from the first world war. They quickly earned a reputation of ruthlessness that was rarely ever disciplined. And by 1920 the Black and Tans actually sacked the city of Cork and burned to the ground nearly 300 buildings. The next song also written by Dominic Behan describes how his irascible and drunk father tried goading the Black and Tans into a fight

BANNA STRAND
by The Jolly Beggermen

Named after the beach where the weapons smuggler Rodger Casement was captured, this song tells the story of his ill-fated attempt to arm the IRA. Casement, who was once a diplomat for the United Kingdom, was eventually hanged for his crimes.

NELL FLARY’S DRAKE
by The Clancy Brothers

For the most part the songs from the Troubles can be taken at face value. But that can’t be said for the song called Nell Flarty's Drake. If we take it literally, the song is about a man wishing ruin on the person who killed his duck. A drake is of course a male duck, but in the 19th century it was also the word for cannon. Manny believe the song is not about a duck but rather code for the loss of a weapon's cache that ultimately foiled the 1803 uprising. The rebellion was orchestrated by Robert Emmet who was later hanged by the British. His final request was that no epitaph be written about him until Ireland became a free country. So instead we have this song about Nell Flarty's drake.

WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARELY
by The Clancy Brothers

The history of Ireland is also the history of many doomed rebellions. once such is remembered here in a song called the Wind that Shakes the Barley. The references to barley in the song derive from the fact that the rebels often carried barley oats in their pockets as provisions for when they were on the march. This gave rise to the post-rebellion phenomenon of barley springing up in the mass unmarked graves dead rebels were buried in.

Major tax preparation companies have rolled out a new holiday product: early tax-refund-anticipation loans. The loans are based solely on pay-stub information, and are being marketed as a way to get cash for holiday shopping. Consumer advocates say these loans are just another way to trap the nation's working poor into debt.

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If you squeeze the Mike Tyson fighting machine into Woody Allen's body, you get a scrawny Jewish man with a rapid-fire jab and glasses that forever slip off his nose. Meet David Lawrence: investment broker, poet and literature teacher turned pro boxer.

I first encounter David as he lounges in the back of the dim office he shares with the other trainers at Gleason’s boxing gym in Brooklyn, New York. Through the window behind him, I can see the Brooklyn Bridge and the East River under a bruised sky. The murky outside backlights David as he leans into the chair and stretches his legs out all the way across the narrow office to the desk on the other side.

He is sweaty, heaving in fact, and wearing a wife-beater undershirt, his two skinny arms dangling toward the dingy floor. His hands are still wrapped in boxers’ tape so that, whenever he pushes his glasses back up his nose, he is forced to use his entire hand, making it look as if he’s punching himself in the face.

Outside David’s office is a din of rattling chains and blunt leather-on-leather thuds. This takes place in a 15,000-square-foot [1,394-square-meter] open room with supporting concrete columns and ancient wooden rafters. In the center is a round clock that buzzes three times every four minutes. There is a thick stench of sweat and not much air circulation. Gleason’s is the iconic boxing gym, gritty and dark, with florescent lights that flicker on and off like the lights in a deserted subway station.

Actually, you’ve probably already seen pictures of Gleason’s in the movies or in a magazine ad because, according to owner Bruce Silverglade, the gym has been in well over 200 films, TV commercials and photo shoots. (Take another look at Midnight Run and Raging Bull.) Silverglade has just co-authored a new boxing workout book for women with a forward by Hilary Swank.

“Most of the people I train now are white-collar boxers,” David says, referring to the urban professionals now flooding Gleason’s.

As a trainer, David has seen a dramatic shift in who comes into the gym everyday. Boxing has long been thought of as a sport for the underclass, in which street fighters could pick themselves up by the bootstraps by hitting it big in the ring. Sports commentator Jimmy Cannon called it the “the red light district of sports.” Now, 75% of the 900 boxers at Gleason’s are considered white-collar, amateur fighters, and about one-fourth of all members are women. Many of them work in Manhattan’s financial district, which is only two subway stops away. They come seeking a grittier, more authentic atmosphere than they might find by taking a boxing class at an upscale gym like New York Sports Club or Bally’s. Because they have brought money as well as enthusiasm into the ring, they have helped change both the image and the economics of Brooklyn boxing.

The trend started around 1990 with a few serious amateurs who wanted to get more authentic ring time but didn’t have time to compete in events like the golden gloves.

“We had the idea to organize these fights which we called white-collar,” David explains. “We had them once a month and we charged admission, and the guys would bring their family and co-workers. It was a way to make money.”

By word of mouth, these fights steadily gained in popularity until a string of movies in the mid ’90s stirred popularity that begat even more movies and books and more white-collar people coming to the gym. They are lawyers, business moguls, dental hygienists, middle managers and even Broadway actresses.

“The business people want to stay in shape, and boxing is a great exercise.” He lets out a geeky yuck and adds, “It’s also cool to say you box. You know, it’s not like a weightlifting gym where you do the same thing and what you do is build stress.”

Last November, New York State government officials put the kibosh on the white-collar matches, calling them dangerous and citing a lack of regulation. Gleason’s employees are hoping the state legislature will pass a law exempting white-collar boxing from the state regulations governing other amateur boxing matches by the end of the year. In the meantime, the white-collar population continues to train and to support the gym.

David says the release from the everyday is a strong draw for the white-collar crowd. “They want this because they don’t have to think. Look, I have a PhD. I have a lot of intellectual baggage. If I bring that into the ring, I’m going to get killed.”

David’s own path from nerdy investment broker to gritty boxer was a meandering one. He earned his PhD in literature from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center in 1976. Early in his career, he struggled to find steady work as a professor, so he started selling obscure insurance policies as investments. By the time he was 39, he was a millionaire riding in a chauffeured Rolls Royce and facing charges of tax evasion that ultimately resulted in two years in jail, where he wrote poetry and started to box. (To this day, David maintains his innocence.) When he got out of jail, David boxed professionally to some success – four wins and two losses with three K.O.’s – but mostly now he trains other fighters.

Gleason’s most famous alums include Jake La Motta (a part-time mobster who came to boxing after his father forced him to street fight for coins in the Bronx slums), Roberto Duran (grew up penniless in the Panamanian streets as the illegitimate son of a U.S. solider), Larry Holmes (entered the ring as an illiterate petty criminal) and Mike Tyson (left a broken home for New York’s juvenile detention centers until he was finally adopted by his trainer).

The gym’s history is just as salty. It was founded in 1937 by Bobby Gleason, who changed his name from Gagliardi in order to fit in with the Irish working class fight fans of the day. The original gym opened in the Bronx in a rundown building with occasional running-water and members who just as occasionally paid membership dues. Gleason subsidized the gym for years by moonlighting as a cabbie. After a series of moves and owners, the gym now resides under the Brooklyn Bridge in Fulton Ferry, a musty neighborhood quickly becoming more expensive.

Looking around, you can see the dichotomy of where white-collar is meeting blue-collar for the first time. Gleason’s is on the second floor of a converted warehouse that used to be part of the rundown waterfront, which is now undergoing a major facelift and attracting upscale stores. There’s a new Starbucks down the street and a gourmet spice shop around the corner. Inside the gym, there are pockets of items that seem out of place: gleaming white posters for a “fantasy boxing camp” decorate dingy concrete walls. There are T-shirts and bottles of Evian water for sale.

David says the spruced up clientèle has helped keep Brooklyn boxing in business. Not only have the matches brought funds to Gleason’s, but individual enthusiasts have helped support the careers of pros they’ve befriended in the gym, volunteering both cash and services.

“They’re good – good for the gym,” David says. “A lot of gyms have closed. Gleason’s would have closed if it weren’t for the white-collar fighters. They bring in a lot of money and they support the boxers.”

Chrissy Beckles, a trainer and manager at Gleason’s, agrees that support is essential to the gym.

“Twenty years ago, there were 150 boxing gyms in New York. Now all but eight have closed. They have been really good to boxing,” she says, indicating the white-collar supporters. Chrissy sits next to the chessboard at the front door, checking people in and out.

“Not only do they support the gyms,” she says while taking memberships dues from a dental hygienist who smells of cigarette smoke, “but they also help the pros who don’t always come from well-off backgrounds. They’re so enamored with the sport that they help out the pro fighters financially if they’ve been injured.”

Running her finger through the list of gym members, Chrissy rattles off the benefits white-collar boxers bring to the pro boxers. “We have doctors who come in and help the ones without insurance. Then there’s the dentist and also a chiropractor who helps. We have lawyers and accountants who give free advice. The list is endless.”

With all the good things white-collar boxers have done for the sport, Chrissy admits their presence did call for one modification. Chrissy says they had to make their white-collar matches so there were no winners or losers in order to keep people from becoming discouraged. After a white-collar fighter checks out, she turns and says: “They aren’t very good losers. How do you tell a Wall Street hotshot they just lost a fight? So we don’t. We let them both win.”

I take a tour of the gym, and it’s apparent that boxing is in the middle of a shift. David’s white-collar fighters are easy to pick out. They are less physically imposing than the pros. They smile easily and are prone to standing around chatting.

Phil Mayor’s story is common. He’s 49 with a well-paying, yet monotonous job as a judge for municipal unions. Trim and good-looking, Phil has soft hands and skinny legs accustomed to running long distances, an exercise he did before boxing and before he got divorced.

“Going through a divorce isn’t very pleasant,” Phil tells me between breaths, as he hits a 200-pound heavy bag. “One day I said, ‘I gotta get out of the house,’ and coming here was a good release. It’s a good way to get anger out by hitting the bag.”

Before the divorce, the most aggressive Phil ever got was basketball. “Now people punch my face,” he says with a grin. “My ex-wife thought it was just a mid-life crisis.”

Phil goes back to hitting the bag. He punches and steps to the side, creating an adept-looking rhythm. He gets the bag swinging back and forth until finally he attempts to hit the bag as it swings back in his direction, which buckles his wrist and knocks him off balance. He looks at me uncomfortably from the corner of his eye, and I move along to save us both an embarrassing moment.

On the other side of the gym under a row of speed bags is Carl Weiner, a garment industry inspector who is also going through a divorce. As he tells it, he was moping through the streets when he saw a sign for a boxing gym. “I came up and said ‘I want to learn how to hit a speed bag.’ I was 65 years old, overweight and never did anything like this before. They said, ‘OK, give us time.’”

Carl is balding with a large belly, a gold watch and two grown children. I ask him about the purpose of hitting the melon-sized punching bag, and he shrugs.

“I haven’t figured out the point of this entire exercise. They just tell me what to do and I do it.” After hitting the bag some more he adds, “I just always wanted to do it. I saw it on T.V. and it look like something I wanted to do, and why not do it here at a world famous gym?”

Bob Jackson is one of the gym’s best-known trainers, a former corrections officer who keeps a loaded pistol clipped to the belt under his bulging stomach.

“You never know when you’ll need it,” he said about the gun. “The one time I took it off and put it in the locker, someone tried to steal it.”

In his office, Bob speaks with a harsh and gravelly voice that he uses to stoke his fighters. Like him, most came to boxing from street fighting. Some are in and out of trouble with the law, and most piece together a living with several part-time jobs.

“These guys are just looking for something productive to do,” Bob says. He looks at four fighters surrounding him with fondness.

“Tell him what you do, Elvis,” Bob says to a young man slouched in the corner.

“I have like four jobs. I work at Babies ‘R’ Us as a furniture salesman. I sell shoes. I’m trying to finish school, and I’m a boxer.” Elvis Cyone is heavily tattooed with gold caps on his visible teeth. He doesn’t romanticize how he came to boxing: “I just like to fight. I don’t know why, I just like it.”

When I ask Bob about the appeal of fighting, his voice turns sweet and the office gets very still. “Boxing is the most pure thing there is. It’s two men, nearly naked, standing in the ring trying to outdo the other.” Bob pauses to look at the boys perched around him, waiting for the words to come out of his mouth. Wagging a slow finger he says, “only one man can win, only the strongest and most disciplined. That’s why you have to be the best.”

When I broach the subject of white-collar boxing, Bob turns gruff and the boys sneer.

“You mean civilians?” Everyone chuckles, “Yeah, I train them too. I didn’t want to at first. But they help keep the gym open and make it so I can train these guys.” He indicates the pros around him.

Sal Musumeci is a boxing promoter who works with Bob. “Boxing has this bad image. Boxers are criminals and illiterate. It’s changing.” Sal says the driving force behind the change are the new white-collar fans.

Among promoters, Sal is a small fish. Most of his shows are local and don’t attract ESPN or HBO, so he relies on support from the community, mainly the business community and working professionals who have extra money and an interest in boxing.

“These people are going to change boxing,” Sal says. “If this sport is going to survive, we need people like them."

NPR's Justice Talking
September 25, 2006
by Charles Lane

Since 1993 more than 6000 landfills in the US were forced to shutdown because of tighter environmental regulations. But to close a landfill the operators have to make sure no contaminates from decomposing garbage can leak into the groundwater. This can be an expensive project involving highly engineered covers and drainage systems. So the town of Riverhead, New York wanted to try another solution: digging up the town dump and selling what’s underneath.. It’s an unusual process called reclamation that turns trash into cash.

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25 years ago 10 prisoners in Northern Ireland went on hunger strike. They all died over a period of four months and the longest went without food for 73 days. To Catholic nationalists, these men died for Irish freedom. But to Protestant loyalist, they were common criminals.

The hunger strike represented the peak of the Troubles in Ireland. As they died one by one, thousands took to the streets worldwide to protest. The conflict in Northern Ireland is a depressing example of unresolved conflict, one we see repeated now as as Israel invades Lebanon and American families learn of dying sons and daughters in Iraq and Afghanistan.



Bobby Sands (5 May, 66 days)
Francis Hughes (12 May, 59 days)
Patsy O’Hara (21 May, 61 days)
Raymond McCreesh (21 May, 61 days)
Joe McDonnell (8 July, 61 days)
Martin Hurson (13 July, 46 days)
Kevin Lynch (1 Aug, 71 days)
Kieran Doherty (2 Aug, 73 days)
Thomas McElwee (8 Aug, 62 days)
Michael Devine (20 Aug, 60 days)

The first person to go on hunger strike was Bobby Sands.

Sands was born in Abbots Cross, though his family moved from town to town because of intimidation by Protestant loyalists. However, it’s not even clear if Sands was a Catholic. His last name was derived from a paternal grandfather who was a Protestant. Regardless, Sands was forced from his job at gunpoint by loyalists and in 1972 he joined the Irish Republican Army.

Many consider the IRA a terrorist group guilty of atrocities almost too graphic for words. Pulling out teeth, plucking fingernails, removing tattoos with a knife, removing genitals and stuffing them in the victim's mouth. Others had concrete blocks dropped on their bodies to break and crush their limbs. In some cases the victims claimed to have been force-fed drugs to keep them conscious in order to prolong the suffering. Bodies were often stripped naked and left on the roadside, some boobytrapped in order to kill other members of the security forces.

These scenes will come to repeat themselves in other parts of the world.

To combat the violence the British government planned Operation Demetrius, or Internment. IRA suspects were seized from their homes in the middle of the night and taken to secret prisons where they were subjected to the so-called “five techniques.” The five techniques were wall-standing, hooding, subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, and deprivation of food and drink. Medical reports later showed that these practices had negative effects on the detainees physical and especially mental health.

The European Court of Human Rights would not call Internment torture but many Irish nationalists did. Both sides of the conflict in Northern Ireland clamored for propriety over the truth. Both sides killed for it while a foreign army tried desperately to keep the peace.

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Musical credits: The Jolly Beggermen, Mark Gunn, Anuna, The Brobdingnogian Barbs, Ray Fisher, and Maire Ni Bhraonain

St. Patrick’s Day is well known for shamrocks, green beer, and even green rivers. But this year the Irish government wanted it to be known as a day of peace. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams came to New York this week to deliver that message. Though his trip has been marked with controversy.

Extended audio on conflict

A State Assembly bill that would have saved Suffolk County taxpayers $92 million was killed, in part, because it lacked support from Suffolk County’s two State Senators. The bill would have forced the State to pay for 40% of all state-mandated renovations, including the $230 million renovations at the Yaphank County Jail set to begin next July.

The Assembly legislation was sponsored by Joel Miller (R, Poughkeepsie) and co-sponsored by Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (R, Sag Harbor) and other Republicans. According to Miller three Senate Republicans told him to kill the bill.

“There was significant opposition to the bill from the Senate and I was asked to hold off this year and we will start again next year,” said Miller

Despite promises from the three senators, whom Miller refuses to identify publicly, he doubts the bill will be supported next year. For a bill to pass the Assembly it requires a sponsor in the Senate. According to Miller he had one sponsor who later backed out, though he would not say who.

“They were pressured not to sponsor my bill. A lot more happens behind the scenes up here than most people think.”

Although Miller would not say publicly whether one of the senators killing the bill came from Suffolk County, both Caesar Trunzo (R-Brentwood) and Owen H. Johnson (R, Babylon) took positions against the bill.

“Clearly, this legislation could have a significant statewide fiscal impact, but to my knowledge the sponsor has not determined what the cost to all taxpayers might be,” wrote Johnson in an email message after refusing to be interviewed. “Perhaps that is why the Assemblyman did not take his bill up for consideration this year. We need more answers and when that information is available, we can make a better informed decision.”

Christopher Mulluso, an Albany aide for Trunzo, was more forthcoming and explained that financially strapped counties upstate could potentially build large prisons at state expense and then house inmates for a profit.

“An open-ended mandate of 40% has major financial implications and we would have to look into something like this very seriously,” he said.

County Legislator Kate Browning (D, Moriches), who sponsored non-binding county legislation in support of the Assembly bill, voiced frustration at the developments because it was the state that forced the county to upgrade its jail.

“The state is saying we have to build new jails but they won’t pay for it. It will effect us because we won’t be able to build other types of facilities like mental health facilities which we need.”

Last week in a decidedly anti-Broadwater setting, local politicians and citizens spoke out harshly against the proposed liquid natural gas facility at a “public information meeting” organized by two environmental groups, the Anti-Broadwater Coalition and the Citizens Campaign for the Environment.

“We don’t need it,” said County Executive Steve Levy, “people keep saying we need it but we have plenty of other sources of energy.”

Levy has taken the lead against Broadwater by proposing legislation that would block the federal government from okaying the plan to build floating storage tanks of liquid natural gas 9 miles out in the Long Island Sound. Levy says there are environmental, economic, and security reasons not to locate the facility in the Sound.

“Imagine what would happen if there was a floating vapor cloud of natural gas over Long Island,” Levy told the audience of 130.

“This is just fear mongering, classic fear mongering,” said Charles Hersh, the sole citizen speaking in favor of Broadwater at the meeting. The crowd erupted in boos when Hersh tried to explain that Broadwater was actually good for the environment. Hersh, an electrical engineer who said he was a member of the environmental group Sierra Club, said later in an interview that natural gas will cut carbon dioxide and will never cause an oil slick, but did acknowledge other environmental risks exist.

“There will always be people who are for this,” said Riverhead councilmen John Dunleavy who readily describes himself as against Broadwater. “But you have to listen to these people and give them a forum.”

The mood quickly returned to its anti-Broadwater sentiment as several politicians used the meeting to speak on the issue, including Senator Kennth Lavalle (R-Selden), Assemblyman Fred Thiele (R-Bridgehampton), Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli (D-Great Neck), Assemblyman Marc Alessi (D-Wading River), and Assemblyman Andrew Raia (R-Northport).

Citizens and members of the community came from as far away as Northport to register their complaints. South shore resident and president of the Moriches Bay Civic Association Keith Romaine called the Broadwater project dangerous for the entire island.

“Even though we’re on the south shore it’s a regional concern because it will industrialize the Sound and it will damage the environment by digging a 22 mile trench on the ocean bottom.”

(Broadwater officials say the trench will cause limited environmental damage and has been rerouted in some instances).

Broadwater’s plan to construct a platform-like barge, while still in New York waters, falls within the jurisdiction of the US Coast Guard. Many politicians and lobbyists are anxiously waiting for the Coast Guard’s Water Way Suitability Report, due at the end of July, because it will ultimately influence how the federal government proceeds with the project. Among other things, the report will examine the security threat posed by storing liquid natural gas so close to Long Island.

Lt. Commander Allan Blume of the US Coast Guard attended the meeting and gave a presentation explaining what will and will not be in the report.

Blume, well aware of the passions involved with the issue, told the crowd “The Coast Guard is not for or against the project. Our role is to asses the safety and security of the project.”

“We can’t reveal our play book before the big game,” Blume said later in an interview when asked about what will in the report will not be public. “It’s like an alarm system. Sometimes you want people to know that there is an alarm but you don’t want them to know when or how that alarm will go off.”

The size of the restricted safety zone around Broadwater and its tanker shipments is one of the most sought part of the report. The size will have a direct impact on local maritime traffic for fishing, recreational boating, and commercial shipping—the larger the size the more of a financial impact Broadwater will have on the regional economy. The size has been estimated anywhere from a few hundred yards to several miles.

Blume would not say what the size of the safety zone will be, but he compared it to a similar facility near Boston that cordoned-off an area two miles in front of and one mile behind a vessel carrying natural gas. Blume added that such a safety zone “may require traffic scheduling” in the heavily used shipping lanes near Block Island called the Race.

Broadwater officials attended the meeting but were not allowed to give a presentation, despite asking permission from the organizers. They were instead offered to give comments as members of the public but declined.

“It’s clear that this was set up to be an anti-Broadwater meeting,” said Broadwater vice president John Hritcko. “It was a good fact free debate.”

The event, held at East Winds Hotel and Spa, cost $750 and was paid for by the Citizens Campaign for the Environment (an environmental lobbying group) and the Anti-Broadwater Coalition (a group closely aligned with the Long Island Pine Barrens Society).

Karen Shenker, a New Jersey resident planning a move to Wading River, started the meeting by questioning the wisdom of locating the facility on water and thought it more suited for land. However, by the end of the meeting she was less sure and found talking to Broadwater officials.

“I expected to get more information here,” she said, “it was politics only.”

Reaching into the history books, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy attempted last week to block Broadwater Energy from building a natural gas facility in the Long Island Sound by introducing legislation derived from an 1881 law giving localities authority over adjoining waterways.

The 1200 foot, $700 billion barge is designed to unload liquefied natural gas from tanker ships, store it, and then distribute it throughout the Northeast. The proposed facility, currently in the beginning stages of a lengthy federal review process, would be located nine miles off Long Island, northeast of Wading River.

“We’re confident we have jurisdiction over the Sound,” said Ed Dumas, spokesperson for the executive. Citing “substantial case law” Dumas said this issue would ultimately be decided in court where similar national debates have hinged on the wording of local laws.

Officials at Broadwater, however, see the county’s plan as unlikely because it is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission who decides such matters.

“You have to take it seriously but the courts have always ruled with the federal government,” said John Hritcko, Senior Vice President of Broadwater Energy, adding that with the cost of energy the county “should be participating in the review process rather than trying to stop it.”

The county scoffs at Broadwater’s interpretation that it is trying to save Suffolk residents money.

“There is no evidence that this facility will lead to more energy and lower costs for Suffolk Country residents,” said Dumas. “The majority of the gas would be shipped elsewhere with Suffolk County to carrying the burden while other communities are getting the benefits.”

Dumas says these burdens would be substantial and compares the Broadwater effort to the failed Shoram nuclear power plant.

“There are similar business and environmental parallels. This is an untested facility in the middle of a densely populated area. It’s in a body of water that generates $5.5 billion to our economy. Plus it could be a prime terrorist target.”

Hritcko sees Braodwater as different from the Shoram nuclear plant. “We’re handling it differently. We’re talking to stake holders and modifying our proposal per our discussions.”

Hritcko is also quick to add that even though it seems like all Long Islanders are against the idea, Broadwater has 37 letters of support from hospitals and schools. “If you talk to people paying the bills their saying ‘bring this facility in because it will lower the cost of energy.’”

Hritcko says the main consumers of their natural gas will be utilities like Keyspan and Connecticut Light and Power who will use it to generate cheaper electricity. Broadwater anticipates selling one billion cubic feet of natural gas a day generating a gross revenue of about $6 million each day.

According to records kept by the US Department of Energy, the six facilities on Long Island operated by Keyspan consumed 27 billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2005. That represents less than 8% of the natural gas that Broadwater hopes to sell, meaning the other 92% would go to other utilities in the region.

Critics of Broadwater have come out in droves citing both environmental and economic concerns. Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment calls the Long Island Sound an important and sensitive environment, “It’s like the stomach because we can’t survive without it.”

Geologically, the Long Island Sound is an estuary, a meeting place between fresh water and the ocean. “These are some of the most productive ecosystems on the globe. It’s a nursery for water fowl, lobster, and shell fish. It helps preserve the larger ecosystem.”

Esposito also points out the dangerous precedent this could set by opening public waters to foreign-owned Broadwater, a partnership between Dutch-owned Shell Oil Co. and TransCanada Pipeline Inc.

“This is the first time in our nation that a foreign corporation will take over our country’s waterway. Once we allow one project to go foreword it will allow more to come.”

Broadwater is currently undergoing a through review process by numerous federal agencies that weigh environmental and security risks. [Last month?] the US Coast Guard returned Broadwater’s proposal citing inaccurate data that did not account for local sea conditions. Broadwater has since modified the proposal and expects an answer from the Coast Guard next month. Further review from other agencies is still ongoing.

Earlier this month the Colorado Legislature became the latest in a series of states to reject bills broadening opportunities for victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue their perpetrator’s employer. The debate in Colorado was vigorously noisome and experienced teary legislative sessions, high-dollar lobbying campaigns, and polarizing accusations of scandal, cover-up, and discrimination. For those wanting to extend statutes of limitation around the country, Colorado was a depressing capstone in a string of losses that has ominous repercussions for future attempts to bring similar legislation to other states.

This year the Catholic church racked up wins in 13 states by taking a more hard-line approach and reversing from the muted defense it took in 2003 when similar legislation went before the California legislature and ultimately led to more than 800 lawsuits. According to church lobbyists, a more vocal stance and lobbying assistance from the insurance industry and school board associations have been key to their victories across the country.

In all but one state legislation was defeated or stalled. The hold-out, Ohio, legislation was gutted to remove a so-called “look back window” that would have allowed for a one-year grace period for civil suits to be brought in cases where the statute of limitations may have run out long ago. Replacing the look back window is a “civil registry” which allows victims to have their abuse proved in court without the possibility to sue for damages. Many see this law as unconstitutional and soon to be thrown out.

David Clohessy, National Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called the defeats “terribly discouraging,” and lashed out against a church that he said “did a masterful job at deception and using hardball tactics like spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect the cover up and put kids at risk.”

Tim Dore, Director of the Colorado Catholic Conference who fought the legislation, disagreed and instead framed the debate as a chance to find an equitable way to help survivors. He also noted the church’s right to protect its coffers from civil lawsuits. “It’s a beauty to see the democratic process in action when people come together to protect their church.”

Dore refused to give specifics on how much it cost to defeat the bill, only that it was less than $100,000, which is half the conference’s annual budget. The conference purchased newspaper ads, automated telemarketers, mass mailings, and outside lobbying consultants.

All this is at the extreme end of a new pattern to defend a church that was pilloried after reports of sexual abuse by Catholic priests dominated the media in 2002. On the heels of stories about priests abusing children and bishops covering up their crimes, the church did little to oppose sweeping legislation in California that allowed victims to sue the church for damages now totaling more the 800 million dollars.

“I think in California the matter was pushed through as the church was going through a crisis,” said Mark Chopko, general counsel at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Chopko, who advises Catholic lobbyists facing legislative efforts in their states, added that Catholics “have looked at California aghast at the damaged it has caused the church.”

California Catholic officials said that there was little time to mount a defense and public opinion of the church availed no political leverage.

“It was like a speeding train when it came and it passed in just six weeks,” said Carol Hogan, communication director for the California Catholic Conference based in Sacramento. “It would have been a more egregious bill if we took up the fight because of our political position. It happened in the middle of a feeding frenzy here.”

The lesson of California translated into a starkly more vocal opposition against the lawyers, lawmakers and survivors pushing for statute of limitation reform. In several states the debate turned bitter with accusation of anti-Catholicism and victim advocates alleging the church is still covering up abuse.

Ultimately the church seized the upper hand by defeating attempts to create a California-style look back window in eight states (Colorado, Maryland, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) and two states (New Jersey and Maryland) that tried to outright eliminate all statute of limitations in sex abuse cases. That said, many of these states already have laws that favor victims of abuse by using discovery language that allow lawsuits to come forward after survivors “discover” the abuse which could be 40 or 50 years after the crime.

Clohessy maintains that Catholics “are winning because they hire tons of lobbyists and high price PR firms.”

However, more potent allies to the church have been found in school districts and insurance companies whose attention is sharpened when bills propose extending statutes of limitation for both public and private institutions, which, according to Catholic lobbyists, is the only way to extend statutes fairly.

“Any time there’s an attempt to extend the statute of limitations we’re against it,” said Julie Rochman, spokeswoman for the American Insurance Association.

Because insurance companies pay a portion of lawsuits against churches the industry dispatched representatives to states where bills looked likely to pass including Colorado, Iowa, and Ohio. In those states, they either helped mollify or completely stalled legislation.

“We really didn’t have to address the issue. It was mainly the insurance industry,” said Sara Edie, director of the Catholic Conference in Iowa where “look back window” legislation was introduced but never made it out of committee.

“It was the school districts working behind the scenes who really helped defeat this,” said Tim Luckhaupt of the Ohio Catholic Conference.

In Colorado, Dore credits school districts for lobbying lawmakers who had little appetite for saddling taxpayers with civil litigation. In speaking about both schools and insurance companies, Dore said “when they stepped in lawmakers couldn’t tolerate it anymore. They saw that it was not just the church having problems with the bill but others as well.”

This year’s legislative season does not bode well for future attempts to pass laws similar to California’s look back window which leaves victim advocates unsure how to proceed. Catholic lobbyists have found a success recipe for victory by framing the debate as unfair in targeting a single private entity. But when language is broadened to be more inclusive it is immediately squashed by multiple groups opposed to opening a litigation free-for-all at tax-payer and industry expense.

In 2002 the Catholic community was shocked with the sober realization that the Church suffers from a deep and festering problem. Over the course of a year stories of clergy sexual abuse and intentional cover-up by bishops steadily marched into the homes of churchgoers who were mystified by the sheer scope and tragedy of the abuse. Something had gone terribly wrong.

Since 2002, more and more victims have come forward to tell their stories, not only about the initial victimization, but also a re-victimization from Church lawyers and review panels set up to evaluate their claims. Survivors often reported that they were met with stonewalling and obfuscation from the Church when they tried to learn more about their perpetrators.

“I don’t care if I get a dollar or a million dollars. I just want to make sure this never happens again,” said Troy Gray, Director of the Colorado chapter of SNAP, the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests.

Part of Gray’s strategy to unlock the secrets kept by the Church is to sue for damages; Gray and many others are seeking compensation by bringing civil lawsuits against dioceses around the country, resulting in billions of dollars in claims. In California and Connecticut, state laws were amended to extend the length of time after an abuse in which a victim can seek monetary compensation. Extending these statute of limitations enables a victim to sue for past abuse, some dating back to as far as the 1930s. Currently, 10 states are in various phases of implementing similar plans. The latest, and most vitriol, is Colorado where the state legislature is considering three such bills.

The Church in Colorado has come out in force against extending the statute of limitations. In an interview with Our Sunday Visitor, Denver’s Archbishop Chaput said, “They claim it's about justice, but it’s very hard to see why it would be ‘just’ for innocent Catholic families today to have their community crippled because of the actions of evil or sick individuals 25 to 60 years ago.”

THE LEGISLATION

Essentially, the bills before the Colorado legislature center on two debates: public entities vs. private entities and criminal charges vs. civil charges.

The Colorado Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm of Colorado’s three dioceses, contends that if the statute of limitations are going to be extended it should include both public and private entities so that public schools will be subject to the same laws and punishments as Catholic schools.

The Church also disagrees that civil lawsuits—those that award victims with high dollar pay-outs—should be granted an extension to the statute of limitations. Bishops in Colorado, however, do agree that criminal charges—which punish abusers with jail time—should be granted an extension so that survivors can reclaim justice even if the crime occurred many years ago.

Currently, the statute of limitations in Colorado states that childhood victims of sexual abuse have until they are 28 to file criminal charges. In order to sue an abuser for emotional or medical damages—a civil suit—charges must be brought before the survivor turns 24.

Of the three bills moving through Colorado’s legislature that extend the statue of limitations, only House Bill 1088 has won the support of the Colorado bishops because it applies equally to both public and private institutions and only allows unlimited statue of limitations in criminal cases.

“Getting abusers off the streets through the criminal process is perfectly fine,” says Tim Dore executive Director of the Colorado Catholic Conference. While Dore will not go so far as to call HB 1088 perfect, he says “there are good public policy reasons to have the unlimited statute of limitations in criminal cases.”

House Bill 1090, however, is “flawed” in Dore’s opinion because it allows lawsuits to be brought against dead abusers and their employers. Dore calls this problematic because once the accused has died, the ability to provide a reasonable defense is diminished. Dore also says that HB 1090 does not include counseling as a reasonable step an organization might take to correct a priest’s abusive behavior. Dore says that counseling is sometimes a reasonable reaction if, for example, a priest is found to be participating in “minor sexual abuse.”

“Let the juries decide what were reasonable steps,” Dore says.

Critics, however, think that the Church’s real opposition to HB 1090 is that it removes the statute of limitation for civil cases, potentially costing the Church millions of dollars—unlike HB 1088 which only allows for criminal cases and applies only to the perpetrators themselves. Tom Doyle, a Washington DC-based Dominican priest and an expert in canon law, testified before the Colorado legislature and shook his head.

"I believe that it is blasphemous to put the financial security of my church or any church above the moral or spiritual well-being of the most vulnerable members of that organization,"

Doyle, also a longtime SNAP supporter, appeared before the Senate State Affairs Committee that was hearing testimony regarding Senate Bill 143, a bill that has drawn the lion’s share of Colorado’s media attention and most of the Church’s ire.

SB 143 creates a single two-year window in which plaintiffs can bring civil claims of sexual abuse involving a child, no matter how old the case is. The alleged perpetrator may be dead or incapacitated, and institutions who oversaw the perpetrator can also be sued. The bill applies only to private organizations and not public organizations because state sovereign immunity laws protect government agencies from being held liable for more than $150,000 per claim.

The degree of attention given to Senate Bill 143 is a result of two related issues. First, the rhetoric surrounding the bill has been either anti-Catholic in sentiment, or at least perceived as anti-Catholic by stakeholders like Archbishop Chaput:

"There’s a new and peculiar kind of anti-Catholicism at work in many of these situations. Some of the worst anti-Catholics are angry, disaffected Catholics. Others are people who don’t like the Church for her witness on abortion or contraception or immigration or the death penalty; the list of grievances is endless. Sexual abuse can become a convenient cover for a lot of unrelated hostility."

This sense of antipathy felt by Colorado Catholics is both due to and further enflamed by the second factor to the overheated debate over SB 143: the collision between the Church and the survivor-advocate alliance, each of which has large, well-organized and well-orchestrated campaigns against each other.

OPPOSING VIEWS

The Colorado Catholic Conference has made its chief defense the issue of equity, saying that private organizations should not be punished by SB 143 while public organizations are exempt.

Dore says that “if you’re going to try and address the issue of child abuse you need to address it as a societal problem and not single out one entity over another.”

Dore points to a study sponsored by the US Department of Education which estimates that 6.7 percent of public school students are subjected to physical sexual misconduct. By those estimates, Dore says, 56,000 public school students are being abused, far more than even the most egregious estimate of victims abused by clergy. He contends that if lawmakers were truly interested in protecting children they should start by creating laws that punish public schools with the same civil penalties as non-profits and religious institutions.

Martin Nessbaum, a lawyer for the Colorado Catholic Conference, underscored Dore’s point by distributing a list of 85 instances of sexual misconduct by Colorado public school employees. He says that it was meant as a “small snapshot to show there are teachers who did this, that sexual abuse is prevalent in our society and we have to be vigilant about stopping it.”

Nessbaum, however, was slow to admit that of the 85 employees 58 were removed from their job and 47 faced criminal charges and were found guilty. The same cannot be said of the Catholic Church.

Moreover, advocates for SB 143 maintain that the Church’s pattern of hiding the truth about abusive priests could not happen in public schools because they are subject to public scrutiny and can be sued under the Federal Civil Rights Act—though doing so is difficult and not profitable enough for trial lawyers to peruse especially for older cases.

All three bills under consideration in Colorado at one point contained sovereign immunity language that exempted public institutions from any extension to the statute of limitations. After a series of amendments both House Bills 1088 and 1090 were changed to reflect consensus among state lawmakers that child sexual abuse should cast a wider net than just private institutions. SB 143, however, because of its far reaching implications, cannot so easily include an open window for lawsuits against the state. The logic of sovereign immunity holds that taxpayer-supported entities need protection from harsh penalties associated with lawsuits.

For victims like Troy Gray, issues over sovereign immunity sidestep the real concern of preventing future abuses. The power of SB 143, he says, is that it forces the Church to release information about abusers.

“It’s about protecting children. It’s about warning communities about serial molester out there—communities are unaware of these guys. My perpetrator worked in a Toys R’ Us. They just let him go and he went right back to working with kids without telling anybody.”

Gray—who gave testimony on behalf of victims in Tucson, is a plaintiff in an ongoing lawsuit in California, and now organizes Colorado’s SNAP chapter—says survivors often seek information about their own perpetrators in order to reach closure and to ensure that the abuse cannot occur again.

“Victims want to know, ‘Did my perpetrator do this to anyone else?’ And they can’t get answers.”

Gray says the success in extending the statute of limitations in California was that the Church was forced to release the names of abusive priests so “advocates could go and inform neighborhoods and communities that they have a predator living in their midst.”

David Clohessy, SNAP’s national director, echoes Gray and adds that offering a window for victims to sue removes a chief roadblock the Church often uses against survivors. “Under our current system,” says Clohessy, “child molesters and their employers have an incentive to destroy evidence and intimate witnesses and eventually run out the clock on these horrific crimes.”

Clohessy sees extending the statute of limitations as forcing Church decision-makers to work harder and be more proactive in preventing future abuse. “It’s not unlike a speeding tickets. If no one gets a speeding ticket you don’t have a great incentive to drive carefully. But if people driving down the highway even see a police car they slow down because they don’t want to endure the financial penalties of a ticket or endure increased insurance rates.”

PROGNOSIS

Neither SNAP nor the dioceses in Colorado can make any predictions on what will happen if these bills become law—or even if they have enough votes to pass (in their current form House Bills 1088 and 1090 have the best chance of moving from Colorado’s lower chamber to the Senate; SB 143, however, does not appear to have enough votes to move on).

In 2003 when California passed its one-year elimination of statute of limitations more than 800 claims were filed resulting in almost a billion dollars in settlements and lawsuits. So far, no Californian dioceses have declared bankruptcy despite often threatening so. However, three dioceses—Spokane, Tucson, and Portland—have declared bankruptcy as a result of settlements paid to survivors and their attorneys.

Gray scoffs at notions of a Church permanently harmed from lawsuits even with the knowledge of dioceses selling land and closing parishes in order to pay for settlements and increased liability insurance. He glosses any negative effects as scare tactics thrown from the pulpit.

“When you think about it, this is actually good for the Church. These aren’t chapter 13 bankruptcies. These are chapter 11. Reorganization. This is the government coming in and helping the Church pay its bills.”

All told, 10 states are seriously considering legislation this year that would extend the statute of limitations for sexual abuse against children: Maryland, Ohio, New York, Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. In most cases SNAP’s success has been limited or only just begun. For example, Maryland and New York have recently introduced bills that have so far failed to win broad support with the media or lawmakers. In other states (New Jersey and Pennsylvania) the effort is considered all but stalled and will not likely be taken up again this year.

Clohessy admits that SNAP’s struggle is an uphill battle and that their main focus is currently in Colorado and Ohio where they seem to have had the most success. This success, though, has not gone unnoticed by Catholics who are ardent in fighting where California and Connecticut did not. Archbishop Chaput told Our Sunday Visitor that it was fear and guilt that kept other bishops from taking a more rigorous stand. But, for Chaput, that sentiment has changed:

"As a bishop, that means I have an obligation—a serious duty I can’t avoid—both to help the victims, and to defend innocent Catholics today from being victimized because of earlier sins in which they played no part."

St. Patrick’s Day is well known for shamrocks, green beer, and even green rivers. But this year the Irish government wanted it to be known as a day of peace. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams came to New York this week to deliver that message. Though his trip has been marked with controversy.

Extended audio on conflict

Noisy cities aren't thought of as places to find refuge from the chaos and materialism of everyday life. But residents of the Washington, D.C., area are finding solace at the Urban Abbey in Arlington, Virginia. Here they join in daily chants and find peace in an alternative church that fits the demands of modern living. It’s part of a growing trend in Protestant Revivalism.

WSHU
January 20, 2006
Charles Lane

Last week was the 3rd annual Long Island’s Fight for Charity, a boxing match pitting white collar professionals against each other in an effort to raise money for local charities. But as Charles Lane explains the event became tangled in controversy.

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This year, approximately 400 priests from foreign countries will come to the US seeking assignments. This equates to half of all new priests received by American parishioners. While adding to the diversity already present in American culture, international priests also contribute to the spiritual richness of Catholicism in the US. However, as with immigration in general, foreign priests present challenges to dioceses in terms of language and cultural skills. Until recently these have been left unexplored and without unified policy recommendations.

“That’s a real problem,” says Monsignor J. Cletus Kiley, director of the
Secretariat for Priestly Life and Ministry at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. His committee is currently investigating the issue of international priests

“Why are they here? How long are they going to stay? What’s the purpose here? Long term? Short term? Is it for a specific community? From my perspective, right now we’re all over the map.”

In September, the USCCB made only minimal recommendations that would rule out the possibility of receiving international priests who may have criminal records or a history of sexual abuse. However, a new study commissioned by the National Federation of Priests’ Councils is now being completed by researchers at Catholic University of America, Dean R. Hoge and Rev. Aniedi Okure.

The study found there are currently 5500 foreign priests in the US, the vast majority of which are diocesan. On average, they make up 16% of the nation’s priests and are concentrated on the east and west coasts. However, individual dioceses do not use international priests the same way. In the New York region, for example, dioceses tend to have more foreign-born priests (sometimes accounting for as much as 30% of total priests) and they tend to be more culturally distinct from local parishioners. Miami, on the other hand, does not monitor the number of international priests because they blend so well with their parishioners and are often indistinguishable from domestic priests.

Rural areas have an entirely different problem. Because the population is more dispersed they receive a very low percentage of international priests, but rely on them entirely to keep parishes open. Additionally, rural parishes have little to attract international priests (in terms of immigrant groups, geography, and education centers) and so they must depend on establishing relationships with trusted bishops abroad in order ensure that international priests will adequately meet their needs.

CULTURAL NORMS AND COMMUNICATION

Normally, the subject of international priests in America would not be noteworthy given that America is an immigrant nation and that priests have always come to the US adding evermore to our diversity. What’s markedly different in the current wave of priestly immigration is that the majority of incoming priests are from Asian and African nations which tend to have a more traditional culture that is distinct from the modern culture in the US.

Culture shock is quite common for both the priests and the parishioners. For an international priest arriving in the US, he must come to terms with a society with fractured family structures, one that does not elevate priests and insists on lay involvement, has many leadership roles for women, and has much looser standards in regards to marriage preparation and homosexuality. For the American parishioner, international priests can sometimes represent misogynistic and patriarchal cultures that can seem standoffish and backward.

“Most of us have been taught that theology is the same regardless of culture. But it is always tinged by culture and here we have a difference between traditional cultures and modern cultures,” says Father Kenneth McGuire, director of the Cultural Orientation Program for International Ministers, an acculturation program attached to Loyola Marymount University.

“In traditional cultures Father always knows the answer and his authority is absolute. But in modern cultures we go to experts and it’s more democratic. We are more open and authority is more spread around.”

Father McGuire fears the differences between the modern and traditional cultures will impact the non-sacramental services churches try to offer. For example, parents, normally inclined to receiving parental guidance from their pastor, may find it difficult to reconcile the demands of modern living with the advice garnered from a more traditional background.

In addition to cultural issues, language barriers might also separate Catholics from their ministers. Even if an international priests does speak English—which is not always the case—the priest’s accent may make him incomprehensible from behind a microphone in acoustically-poor churches. So while churchgoers may receive the Eucharist they go without the word of God.

“Americans are very prejudice for accent,” says Father McGuire. “If we were talking, I can understand the international priest very well, but when he gets up to read the Gospel I can watch and see people just turning him off.”

Father McGuire believes “alienated Catholics” to be a growing group in the US. He worries that in not receiving an engaging commentary on the word of God people will be further alienated and possibly legate the importance of mass to an unpleasant chore. Combined with a widening cultural divide, Father McGuire sees a drop in attendance by already wayward Catholics.

However, Father Robert Silva, president of the NFPC, couldn’t disagree more.

“If that’s why they leave the Church, because of more traditional practices, then they don’t have much of a Catholic faith to begin with. It’s a good smoke screen,” he says, “but that’s just what they tell their parents. One doesn’t leave the faith because the priest is from another culture.”

Father Silva admits there are a great many barriers in using international priests, but he sees a solution in the growing number of acculturation schools around the country.

LEARNING AMERICAN, INTERNATIONAL PRIESTS GO TO SCHOOL

Sister Margaret Kelly, a Daughter of Charity, is the executive director of the Vincentian Center for Society which runs an acculturation program at St. John’s University in Queens, NY. It is an intensive, five day residential program where priests already conversational in English come to learn about the history of the Church in America, the pastoral needs of Americans, and more quotidian things like time management and interpersonal communication skills.

“They need to understand what is considered appropriate,” Sister Kelly says, “For example, using a person’s first name is quite common in the US even when there is a 20- or 30-year age difference. But that’s not true in many of their countries.”

The program’s main focus is to acculturate foreign priests to America’s core values like individualism, multiculturalism, and egalitarianism. Sister Kelly particularly emphasizes multiculturalism because New York has such a diverse population. But sometimes the idiosyncratic cultural traits of Americans can put foreign priests in awkward circumstances.

“Americans are very privacy oriented,” Kelly says explaining the notion of individual personal space, “so in our class we teach the men that there’s a bubble around you when you hold out your arms and not to come into another person’s bubble.”

Professor Dean Hoge, who authored the NFPC study, says acculturation schools are paramount if the Church intends to use more priests from foreign countries.

“To give you an idea of the culture from where most these men came from. Some of them have never had a driver’s license, never had social security cards, never used a computer. They come to the US and people assume you can do all these things and it can be somewhat of an embarrassment to them and they won’t be taken seriously. It can be a depressing situation for them.”

Aside from just offering cultural skills that priests can use, acculturation schools allow the men to interact with other international priests. Hoge says the networking potential is critical for the success of a foreign priest. This is why he recommends dioceses create programs that are residential and recurring: recurring in order reaffirm relationships with other priests; residential in order to remove them from their daily tasks and allow the priests to focus entirely on acculturating themselves. If the programs are held, for example, in a series of afternoons, the temptation for a pastor to reassign an international priest to cover a mass or funeral would be much greater.

This underscores one of the first problems acculturation schools must endure: bishops eager to keep the priest busy from the start. Often, international priests are brought in to serve a desperate need in the diocese. If acculturation is treated lightly the international priest will understandably under-inflate the importance of acculturating himself to American ways. The difference would be between a priest who sees himself as part of the parish and greater community and a priest who sees himself only as a temporary employee with little connection to the people other than doling out sacraments.

The dioceses that have acculturation programs attest to their benefits, but even they admit it might not be enough. The NFPC study revealed that international priests typically only spend 3-5 years in the US. So after the priest has been fully acculturated it is time for him to go home. Professor Hoge suggests the best solution would be to train potential priests here in US seminaries. In doing so the American diocese will incur the cost of educating the priest in exchange for his temporary service after ordination. The ancillary benefit in educating another nation’s priest is that it helps cure one of the social injustices in using international priests.

USING INTERNATIONAL PRIESTS AND ITS SOCIAL INJUSTICE

Monsignor Robert Guglielmone is acutely aware of the benefit in using international priests. He is the Director of Clergy Personnel at the Diocese of Rockville Center on Long Island, NY. Because immigration patterns have transplanted entire towns from Latin America to Long Island, nearly half of all parishes in the Rockville Center diocese have a Spanish mass. In fact, the Spanish speaking population is so great that Rockville Center requires all seminary graduates to speak Spanish before they are ordained.

“You don’t find a lot of international priests wanting to speak Spanish,” Monsignor Guglielmone says. “Most that come here are African and Asian so they won’t speak Spanish. So we do have to do a little recruiting in South America and every time we do find priests who speak Spanish we give them special attention. We need priests who speak Spanish.”

Monsignor Guglielmone’s recruitment of South American priests is to the statistical detriment of South American Catholics. There is currently one priest per 7000 Catholics in South America compared to one priest per 4000 Catholics in the Rockville Center diocese. Looking at international priests in this light questions the notion of a priest shortage in the US. It also suggests that American parishioners are robbing the resources of foreign churches in order to satisfy their own demand for priests.

Father Silva and the NFPC sees using international priests to serve immigrant communities as necessary. But he shrinks away from using them when there is not a clear need to serve an immigrant community.

“Why are we bringing in those priests? Is it a question of once again exploiting those countries? Are we creating a brain drain?”

Monsignor Guglielmone also worries that the US is importing international priests because, as a wealthier nation, it can support a higher priest-to-parishioner ratio. But he points out that some countries cannot afford to support the number of priests that they do have.

“Bishops are sending them to the US to study and they are going to study someplace. The money from our parishes pays for their tuition so we are actually helping priests from Africa and Asia get advanced degrees.”

It is unclear how many international priests come to the US for advanced degrees though it is unlikely that all of them do. It is, in fact, well known that priests from poorer countries come to the US in search of money. Becoming a priest in Asia and Africa is often one of the few means toward an education and elevating one’s station in life. This has created more priests than the local population can support. In that situation a bishop might try to place his “surplus” (i.e., unaffordable) priests with wealthier bishops in the West in hopes that the priest will remit part of his salary.

In some parishes this system has organized itself into an informal symbioses. For instance, a visiting priest from a developing country will serve Americans who might be without a priest. He would win the hearts of the American parishioners he serves and then channel money back to the poorer church by directly soliciting funds from a sympathetic laity.

That is, if the men return. Professor Hoge and Rev. Okure point out in their lecture to the Religious Research Association that not all international priests do return. In the Rockville Center diocese, Monsignor Guglielmone has increased the number of incardinations which means that the poorer diocese abroad incurred the expense of educating and ordaining the priests only to have them leave to serve Americans wealthy enough to support him.

Indeed, the social justice of using international priests is complex and often subjective. While it appears that both sides benefit from the exchange (American parishioners fill rectories while foreign churches can potentially fill coffers), this was never the intention, rather, an unintended consequence driven by self preservation. In other words, the ad hoc system for importing international priests is left in a haphazard balance and does little to remove the possibility of abuse nor does it consider the needs of the future.

BAND-AID SOLUTIONS AND THE FUTURE CHURCH

The obvious mechanism driving the desire for international priests is the dwindling number of Americans joining the priesthood. Given all the inherent problems in using international priests the question of sustainability is raised. Can Americans rely on the world community to support its churches?

The argument has been made that using international priests is only a temporary solution to a long-term problem of encouraging more Americans to become priests. In fact, some suggest that international priests might stymie efforts in recruitment by helping Catholics ignore the looming crisis. Professor Hoge calls this the “Band-Aid solution,” because using international priests as a stopgap does little to heal the long term problems of a priest shortage.

“In the short run they are necessary, but in the long run I question the flow of international priests. There are many arguments against using them. I think we might think of other ways to satisfied our need for priests.”

Monsignor Guglielmone hesitates to guess what the solution is, but questions the long-term implications of relying on international priests. “I can’t see this for the life of the Church in the next 20 to 25 years. I think we have to start to make some changes soon. It’s difficult for the people in the parishes.”

Father Silva, does see a need for increasing the number of domestic priests, he takes literally that the Church is catholic and should not be divided by nationalities. “We are a world community, we can be a richer and more wonderful Church when we open ourselves to the gathering together of all these different cultures and become a new people of God.”

Sister Kelly also has little fear of a more global Church in the US. “The Church needs to understand we are all one family and the Church is in a position to bring nations together.”

Doubting America’s presumption of dominance, She then quotes theologian Carl Rahner: “The greatest contribution of Vatican II is that we moved from a Western Church to a world Church.”