Ready to Walk the Walk?

Paul Kelly used to think of himself as a good Catholic. He dutifully attended Sunday Mass and regularly opened his checkbook to charities. He was a good fit for his Orange County community.

But some of the social teachings of the church, which condemn unfettered capitalism and promote international peace, rubbed Kelly--an engineer who worked in the weapons industry--the wrong way. He simply did not believe in pacifism.

Slowly, through reading and debates with his wife and other parish members, Kelly began to question his point of view.

In February 1997, he enrolled in JustFaith, a nine-month program run through the Sts. Simon and Jude parish in Huntington Beach that combines study, prayer and participation in protest marches to promote social justice.

It turned his world upside down.

“I found out that my heart wasn’t in my work anymore,” Kelly said. “I sensed that what God was asking me to do was to stop working on the military weapons.” A few months later, Kelly retired early at age 59.

Together with a small group of Catholics in Orange County, he now sides with farm workers, immigrants and other disadvantaged groups and tries to follow the social teachings of his church. He and other Catholics who put a premium on social justice often find themselves out of the mainstream in politically conservative Orange County.

Words written almost 2,000 years ago laid the foundation for their views.

“When you become sensitized to biblical justice, you can hardly read anything in the Bible without coming across that,” said Bishop Tod Brown, who became the spiritual leader for Orange County Catholics in July 1998. “It is so amazing to me that so much of that can be found in the Scriptures.”

In an appeal to promote the church’s social teachings last year, Catholic bishops from across the country issued a message quoting the Gospel according to Luke: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor . . . liberty to captives . . . to let the oppressed go free.”

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For more than 100 years papal encyclicals have recognized the need to protect workers, promote economic justice and hold all human life sacred, but many Catholics remain unaware of the church’s social mission, according to some.

In contrast to statements about abortion and contraception, “When the pope speaks on social justice, he does not get heard,” said Dwight Smith, who runs the Orange County Catholic Worker house in Santa Ana with his wife, Leia.

Apart from preparing meals for the homeless and offering them shelter, Smith works on a campaign to revise California’s “three strikes” law, which imposes a mandatory life sentence on third-time felony offenders.

But in a society that worships personal success, the fight for social justice is a difficult one, said those working in the trenches.

“In Orange County we have our own saint [of] individualism,” said Joyce Cottage, a JustFaith graduate, who introduced nine newcomers to this year’s program on Sept. 11. “At the airport, St. John Wayne stands as a beacon to riding in alone, solving whatever problem there might be and riding out alone,” she told the group. “We are told in Orange County that there is not enough for everyone. Give me a break. There is not enough because a few are hoarding it.”

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Veteran activists agreed.

“Social justice is not part of our total lifestyle in Orange County,” said Frank Forbath, who has promoted Catholic social justice for the past 30 years. “There is a lot of money here and with a lot of money, people tend to be more conservative out of fear of losing what is there.”

Others said many believers lack exposure to Catholic social justice teachings.

Many Catholics in the county “haven’t done the reflection and study that is needed,” said Sister Marie Gaillac, who directs the justice center of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange.

But the county’s church leaders are beginning to recognize that education is needed to spread the word.

“You cannot be a believing, practicing Christian and not be sensitive to justice,” said Bishop Brown. “It is integral to the message of the Catholic Church. Something that we need to be more aware of.”

That might happen soon. Diocese officials are planning to establish an Office of Peace and Justice by June.

The question right now is whether the office will focus on activism or education.

“An advocacy office would really be on the cutting edge,” said Msgr. John Urell, the diocese’s vicar general, who oversees the project. It would be “in touch with legislators and putting out legislative alerts to our parishes. The educational component would serve as a resource center to inform about the church’s social teachings.” He added that clerics are still debating the decision.

But promoters of the JustFaith program, now in its fourth year, said education isn’t everything. Catholics have to make the struggle for social justice a part of their faith.

“You will be studying consumerism, feminism, sweatshops,” said Cottage, a former nun who has opened her own business and provides spiritual guidance to people of all faiths. “I don’t know what God is going to do with you. But I might be a little bit nervous. At some point in time, we have to put our bodies on the line. We have to stop talking about justice and do it.”

Urell, who also works as the pastor for the St. Catherine of Siena parish in Laguna Beach, said experience has taught him how difficult it is to promote social justice instead of simply doing nice things for people in need.

“It’s going to have to cause a change of heart in me,” he said, adding that he grew up in a white, middle-class family in Orange County. A few months ago, more than 100 members of his congregation went to Mexico to build a house for poor farm workers. “Do we pat ourselves on the back and say that we did a nice thing or do we reflect and see what it does to us?”

Cottage agreed.

“Even if we go to places like Tijuana, we’re the white people bestowing our gifts,” she said. “It’s kind of arrogant. I need to believe that there is a way of identifying with them instead of bestowing gifts upon them. But I don’t know what it is.”

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Although she said she believes in programs such as JustFaith, Cottage added that she knows the difficulties of turning her words into action.

“When I go home at night, I like the comfort of my home,” she said. “I like to know that there is food in the refrigerator, that I have a TV and a VCR. I’m way too attached to the stuff I have, but I keep hearing the call. God comes into the world with no reputation, no name, no father, with absolutely nothing and then invites us into that. And says that this is the way to true happiness. Thanks, God. It is a call to be poor and I’m not ready to answer that call.”

Paul Kelly took at least a step in that direction, losing thousands of dollars when he pulled investments out of companies he deemed socially irresponsible.

After his retirement from the weapons industry, Kelly bought his first computer. He now spends much of his time surfing the Internet to monitor legislation on issues such as a reduction of funds for the School of the Americas, a military camp in Fort Benning, Ga., that opponents hold responsible for the training of assassins in Latin America.

Together with Cottage, Forbath and others, Kelly is planning a protest march against the school Nov. 19.

“I’m trying to make up for many years of inactivity,” he said.