Tito, the great leader of socialist Yugoslavia, once had an animated confrontation with the Roman Catholic Croatian Cardinal Stepinac after the war. Stepinac and sections of the Croatian Roman Catholic hierarchy had actively supported the fascists during the war. Their slogan or aim was to kill one third of the Serbian population, deport one third and force one third to convert to Catholicism. Their policy of genocide extended to Jews and Roma (Gypsies) and they sought to liquidate their opposition. In defeat, as in power, the fascist elements of the Catholic hierarchy were defiant. Stepinac was tried, convicted, held under limited isolation and finally deported.
During their confrontation, Tito lost patience with Stepinac lecturing him and shouted, "As a Catholic I protest!" His outburst was not made public until after he died. How would it have looked at the time for a communist leader to be claiming religious affiliation? And how would such an exclamation be understood in a multi-ethnic country in the early stages of socialist development?
This came to mind last night when I attended Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass in Independence. The presiding priest was an old man who does not speak Spanish. The community of the faithful were working class Mexicans. His hands were made for chalices, not for callouses, while so many of the faithfdul present were obviously coming from hard jobs. The priest took the opportunity to use the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe to lecture us on the evils of abortion and the need for the traditional family values he feels most strongly about. It was a sermon from the early years of the last century.
The children then put on a well-acted play about Juan Diego and the appearance of the Virgin. The girl who took the part of the Virgin was believable and the young man who played Juan Diego did so with real heart. The bishop and the disbelieving friar were played by girls. On some level then, despite the efforts of reactionary clergy, the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe remained a story of people asserting their rights with the help or presence of God--an assertion which confronted, from the standpoint of faith, the Church as part of an occupying power.
The faithful deserve better than lectures from reactionary priests in foreign languages. I say this as a believer. "As a Catholic I protest!" We need a Church which works to liberate the oppressed in the cultural contexts and languages of the faithful, we need catechists with class and national consciousness to lead this struggle and we need a theology of liberation which speaks to the here and now of our oppression as well as to what God requires of us for salvation.
Here is a link to a film section dealing with Stepinac.
I was pushed to think about this after reading an article in the current Call To Action bulletin by Jamie T. Phelps, OP. Please do not only watch the video about Stepinac and Jasenovac. Please also read what this great African-American feminist Catholic theologian has to say. The article is here.
We cannot cede the faithful to the right any more than we can cede the unions, the workplace or the Democrats to the right. However unconsciously or carefully the play done by the children was crafted last night, it told a story of resistance and struggle in subtle ways. That struggle belongs, in some sense, to all of us and it needs to be encouraged and deepened by the people ourselves in the pews.
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A song sung that night by the people (most knew by heart)was called Madre Morena (meaning dark/brunette/brown Mother)-
loosely translated as follows below. If the white priest had watched and listened, he would have seen that he didn't need to lecture the people on knowing the "feasts" of the church....
Brown Mother, listen to our pleas, have compassion; we are your people. From the valleys we go to you. We bring the injustices and pains we suffer - so much suffering! We come with hope and praises of our hearts. You know our suffering, the feelings of our inmost being. Defend our culture, our values. We travel from the south to the north, from east to west, without rest. And we are on the move without rest so our peoples will survive. We cut all the fruits, and cultivate without rest. Defend our people, who constantly must be on the move always just to survive.
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