Catholic social teachings and my Buddhist brother's book

By WALT CHURA, SFO- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

My Buddhist brother, David, is the author of "I Don't Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine: Tales of Kids in Adult Lockup" (Beacon Press, 2011).

The title quotes one of those kids. In these cautionary stories, social and personal brutality are unveiled by a compassionate heart, resonating not only with the heart of Buddhist dharma (teachings applying an understanding of natural law to the conduct of human life), but also with Catholic social doctrine.

As these are true stories, the dialogue is often crude. Nevertheless, the narratives are gifts to those charged with catechizing Catholic youth about Catholic social teachings.

David taught these high schoolers for 10 years in a downstate adult county penitentiary, after 13 years of teaching "at-risk" youth in alternative schools. Unquestionably, dharma studies and meditation fed his compassion and courage - but David knew at-risk kids well before becoming a teacher or a Buddhist. He absorbed much of the spirit of Catholic social doctrine.

We went to parochial school and Catholic high school, where David discovered Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement. In his mid-teens, he and classmate (now Deacon) Ed Solomon opened Lazarus House, helping younger kids in Troy's inner city. Then David attended Loyola College in Montreal, spending time at Benedict Laboure Catholic Worker House.

He left Loyola after two years, uneasy about his draft deferment while contemporaries were fodder in Vietnam. He became a Catholic conscientious objector, working at a psychiatric hospital to fulfill his alternative service. Eventually, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in education.

David began writing about these "children of disappointment" (his phrase) while teaching in the county penitentiary. The social forces oppressing them from birth leave few with any sense of God-given human dignity - but their stories reveal their gifts and potential.

A few find a spark of human dignity: a cautious display of decency from a correctional officer, recognition from a teacher or a display of generosity on one's birthday from another youthful offender.

Some stories portray the misery of miserable jailers, like the warden about to retire from a correctional facility who bellows that he's "never seen anybody 'corrected,'" labeling the inmates "human garbage."

A line from "Servant of God, Dorothy Day" came to me as I read of the miserable despair of the warden. She wrote that these problems "stem from our acceptance of this filthy rotten system."

Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, wrote, "Our task is to build a society in which it is easier for people to be good." In that, he was anticipating Blessed Pope John XXIII's encyclical, "Peace on Earth."

Day concluded, "the only solution is love and love comes with community." Blessed Pope John Paul II resonates with her sentiment: He insisted that justice must be open to "the new horizon of solidarity and love."

The power of such truths is experienced in stories. Buddha knew it. Jesus knew it. David knows it.

(Mr. Chura is an essayist, teacher and lay Franciscan. He blogs at www.catholicconvergences.wordpress.com. The book can be ordered at www.beacon.org.)[[In-content Ad]]