Louis
Vitale, OFM
Return to Nevada — Coming Full Circle
(Fr
Louis begins serving a 3 month prison term at Nellis AFB Federal Prison
October 16)
Other than a few trips to Las Vegas in my youth for casino visiting
and a layover at Nellis Air Force Base when I was in the Air Force,
my first residence in Las Vegas was in 1968. We Franciscans were invited
by Bishop Joseph Green to assess some of the social problems in Las
Vegas and suggest some remedies. Out of that came a ten-year commitment
to social justice ministry in Southern Nevada. Local concerns included
racial segregation and discrimination, welfare rights issues, homeless
needs, farm worker exploitation and the plight of immigrants.
We soon became more aware of another issue, the militarization of Nevada,
most notably of the activities of the nearby Nevada Test Site. Eventually
the Nevada Desert Experience evolved, bringing thousands to the Test
Site for prayer witness and nonviolent direct action. Lots of folks
from many religious sources received their initiation into the revered
tradition of civil disobedience and their first experiences of arrest
and jail. Finally during the Clinton years a moratorium on testing was
declared. But now, the Bush administration is planning to resume underground
tests.
Thomas Merton noted that the sacred place of the desert, the proverbial
"Holy Ground" of indigenous peoples, hermits, mystics, and pilgrims
has become, in Southern Nevada, the site of nuclear bombs and casinos.
The thrust of the Desert Witness was to reclaim the land as Holy Ground
and eliminate the evil of preparing for nuclear holocaust. In the process
of our presence at the Nuclear Test Site we became aware that this is
the land of the Western Shoshone people. It has been illegally appropriated
by the U.S. Government for such evil purposes. It contains ancient burial
grounds of the Shoshone and is their ancestral heritage. We have developed
very close ties with the Western Shoshone. We have learned to love and
cherish that land and have been awakened to its sacredness by their
spiritual leaders.
In
1979 I was uprooted from the friar residence in Las Vegas to be posted
in Oakland, California for fraternal and administrative service to the
Franciscan province. I returned to Las Vegas in 1988 and joined a group
under Franciscan sponsorship to form Pace e Bene Non-violence
Service. We had become convinced that we not only needed to stop nuclear
annihilation, but to engage in a revolution in non-violence that could
embrace the world.
In 1992 I was asked to fill in for three months at Saint Boniface parish
in San Francisco. I was subsequently appointed pastor and became involved
in a monumental project retrofitting the church, school and friary buildings
for earthquake survival and for new ministries in the Tenderloin area
of the city. I was happy to be able to continue involvement in anti-nuclear
campaigns as well as local issues, most notably about homelessness and
also immigration. Sadly our analysis makes it clear that we are at the
heart of the domination network that exploits many of the poor in the
world today.
Knowing so many victims of the brutalization in Central America, it
has been hard to accept the participation of the U.S. Government in
the persecution. It was particularly shocking to come to understand
the role of the School of the Americas at Fort Benning in Georgia and
the major part it has played in training those who participate in such
oppression. Documents were revealed that demonstrates teaching of torture
techniques as well as infiltration, subversion and disappearance.
In November last year I was invited to attend the assembly of Pax Christi
in Georgia where it was being held in conjunction with the annual witness
at the School of the Americas. My attendance at Pax Christi was recognition
of being a "Teacher of Peace" which I accepted on behalf of the hundreds
I have worked with in N.D.E., Pace e Bene and other promoters
of peace. While participating with ten thousand protesters on the Sundav
of the event I was moved deeply by the mourners. They helped us recall
the thousands of deaths in Latin America and the shocking awareness
that beyond the gates toward which we processed is a training
centre in which those who perpetrated such barbarity are trained. I
was fortunate to find a small procession that was going on around the
fence beyond the closed gates to carry the mourning into Fort Benning
and towards the school itself.
Does all this connect? I feel I am coming full circle. When I first
landed in Las Vegas about 1957 I was part of the military forces of
the U.S. My consciousness at that time was protecting the freedom of
the country and the world. I joined the Franciscans and emerged in the
60s with a new awareness. I became opposed to war and to the exploitation
of poor and marginal people around the world. Martin Luther King and
Gandhi were teachers, Cesar Chavez my mentor. The Berrigans and their
followers were prods to further engagements. Many wonderful colleagues
developed along the way. Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the Bay Area were bases
for engaging in the struggle. Somehow returning to Las Vegas, to a federal
prison camp at Nellis Air Force Base seems a special sign. When I called
St. James parish in Las Vegas to tell them of my "new assignment" I
was told the choir had sung at the camp the previous Sunday. It seemed
a good omen. I can hear them singing, with soul, "We've come this far
by faith, leaning on the Lord, trusting in his Holy Word.... He's never
failed us yet!".
These are indeed dark times. The tragedy of 9/11/01 haunts us. The fall
out is enormously frightening. We are declaring ourselves the only dominating
force in the world. This kind of darkness is only cast out by prayer,
fasting, and nonviolence action. At least the first two should be available
at the Nellis Prison Camp. I attempted some imitation of Jesus' forty-day
fast in the desert ten years ago when we first bombed Iraq. There may
need to be some repeat in my new sojourn in that Holy desert. Where
will she lead me? Pace e Bene to all of you. You accompany me
in my heart as I begin this brief sojourn.
Ref.: Text
from the Author, given by e-mail (November 2002).