Remember Fitz

LETTER FROM FITZ - 2012

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During my years in Congress and for the four decades since, I've been labeled a 'bleeding-heart liberal' It was not meant as a compliment, but I gladly accept it. My heart does sometimes bleed for those who are hurting in my own country and abroad. A bleeding-heart liberal. by definition, is someone who shows enormous sympathy towards others, especially the least fortunate. Well. we ought to be stirred. even to tears, by society's ills. And sympathy is the first step toward action. Empathy is born out of the old biblical injunction "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

-   George S. McGovern (1922-2012)

 

December 6, 2012 / St. Nicholas Day

 

My friends, hi! John Donne reminded us that no man is an island and that every death diminishes us. But when George McGovern died in October I felt more than just a loss. He was one of those rare public figures that people (especially of my generation) not only admired, but truly loved. Bobby Kennedy said he was the most decent person in the U.S. Senate. He was a politician whose convictions and commitments weren't born in focus groups and polls but rather in the Gospel. His father was a preacher and he clearly inherited some of his dad's zeal for doing what was right not just what was convenient or popular. His "bleeding-heart liberal" opposition to war and his passion for feeding the world's hungry defined an extraordinary life devoted to serving others.

 

We bleeding-heart liberals were under attack again this year.  I can't remember an election in my long (69 and counting) lifetime when there was such a vivid choice to be made between competing points of view. I gave up any pretense of objectivity a long time ago so perhaps that makes my insights questionable. But I remember what George Bernard Shaw wrote in The Devil's Disciple, that "the worse sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity." That indifference seemed to me to be the real issue in this year's campaign. So I share Rabbi Michael Lerner's post-election relief that the vast majority of Americans still yearn for a world based on generosity, caring for each other, caring for the environment respecting difference, and eliminating poverty and war. As usual the poets and song-writers say it more eloquently than the politicians. Bruce Springsteen summed itup this way: "We take care of our own."

 

There were some mighty strange things going on this year. One of my former campus ministry colleagues at Notre Dame, now a bishop in the Midwest, compared Obama to Attila, Hitler and Stalin and then ordered his priests, under their vow of obedience, to read a letter at all Masses warning his flock that if they voted for him they were jeopardizing their immortal souls. (Some jokester once said that the problem with miters - those pointed ceremonial hats bishops wear - is that their heads can take the shape of the hats.)   And with all the evil-doers

wrecking havoc in the world, who would have imagined that the Vatican would, instead, decide to single out for a "new edition of the Spanish Inquisition" (thank you, Professor Higgins) American nuns? One of the real signs of hope for me this year was the enormous groundswell of outrage and support triggered by that sad and boorish intrusion. Someone described it is a clash between "small-minded bullies and big-hearted visionaries."

 

One of the great joys for me in 2012 has been my deepening involvement in a community of Catholic women and men who are known by either of two names: Sophia and/or Roman Catholic Women Priests. Ten years ago a European Catholic bishop ordained women on a boat in the Danube River. Since then this "underground" movement has spread throughout the world. Bishops have been ordained as well  The local San Francisco group gathers in an Episcopalian church every other Saturday to celebrate our catholic heritage and our solidarity as "people of God" (that Vatican II articulation of who the church is). It is a wonderful gathering of faithful, committed believers who are passionate about "renewing the face of the earth".  I am especially delighted that the woman who first invited me to attend their liturgy, and who will be ordained a priest in the new year, is someone I coached on stage in HELLO, DOLLY forty years ago at Notre Dame High School.

 

The world is alive with ferment and change! As Joel the prophet of ancient Israel imagined so many centuries ago: "Your sons and daughters will speak out. Your old people will dream dreams. Your young folks will see visions." I am so grateful to have lived in the times I have! I am about to complete seven decades on this earth and I am encouraged and inspired by so many of my fellow human beings in whom the divine spark still shines brightly. Among them:

• The men and women, of all ages and faiths and doubts, with whom I regularly volunteer at St. Anthony's Dining Room and at Newman Hall Loaves & Fishes. Their commitment to "taking care of our own" makes my heart swell.

• Sister Simone Campbell and the other "Nuns on the Bus" who took to the road to assert their right to speak out, in spite of hierarchical threats, and to teach the rest of us that the so-called "Ryan budget" was anything but Catholic.

• The artists and musicians, playwrights and film-makers whose poetic idealism continues to grab our hearts and squeeze, and to call out the best in us. (If you haven't yet seen LIFE OF Pl, put it on your "must" list.)

• My friend Daniel who continues his valiant struggle against Alzheimer's with courage and humor and grace.

• Dottie, one of our regular guests at Loaves & Fishes, who was struck by a hit and run driver, breaking both her legs, and has returned, hobbling, with her familiar salty humor intact.

• All those marvelous people I am privileged to know who "walk the walk" and act out their commitment to life by raising and teaching children, by courageously dealing with illness, with aging, with the loss of spouses and loved ones and all those who continue to smile through tears in the face of adversity, from whatever source!

 

May you be blessed with hope and joy in this holy season!