Friends For The Journey

Just to let you all know, Debbie flew to Ohio this morning. I have not heard if she has arrived yet. She does not complain much, but she was in pain yesterday. They give her steroids with the chemo to reduce the nausea and pain. It lasts for 3 days and then wears off and the pain and discomfort set in for another 3 or 4 days. So please keep her in your prayers while she is in Ohio. She is about the most courageous person I know. PS: I am teaching her what little I know about how to dance Salsa …

I have been in São Paulo, Brazil since last Wednesday, doing research for my dissertation at the Catholic University. The people have been very helpful and the work has gone better than I expected.

My area of research is on Catholic student movements in Brazil and Cuba primarily in the 1950s and early 1960s. I want to understand the interaction and overlap of religious faith with political ideologies and how student movements can influence society. The student movements in Brazil and Cuba existed in the midst of terrible poverty that people from the United States can only barely imagine, and at the same time, in the tension of the Cold War. This tension only increased in 1959 through 1962 with the Cuban Revolution, the Bay of Pigs, and finally in October of 62 with the Cuban missile crisis.

In 1962, the same month as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Pope John XXIII, convened the Second Vatican Council, the most thorough review and reform of the Catholic Church since the Counter Reformation in the sixteenth century.

In 1963, Catholic students in Brazil were talking openly of a “Brazilian Revolution” with “Christian” values and they were making common cause with non-Stalinist communist student organizations to end Brazilian political corruption and to bring about agrarian reform – in the name of Christ. The Brazilian bishops were increasingly uncomfortable with the politicization of their own student organizations. Brazil was fermenting with the possibility of a social revolution.

In 1964, the Brazilian political and economic elites realized that things had spiraled out of their control and appealed to the Brazilian military to intervene, bringing an end not only to the Brazilian social “Revolution” but also an end to Brazilian democracy. The Catholic Church and the affiliated student organizations began to experience repression that became severe by 1968 and continued into the 1980s.

I became involved in the counter-cultural student movements myself in 1970. I spent a night trapped on the campus of Ohio State University by the National Guard at the same time the students were shot at Kent State. This probably accounts for some of my personal interest in this area of study.

In Cuba, the progressive Catholic student organizations supported Castro but were eventually repressed by the Left. In Brazil, the progressive Catholic student organizations also supported social revolution but were repressed by the Right. By the late 1960s, the Catholic Church began to quietly dismantle and de-politicize Catholic Action and the various Catholic Student organizations, even as Liberation Theology arose, in many cases developed by theologians who were earlier participants in the Catholic Student movements.

I have been listening to and transcribing almost 20 hours of audio cassettes of interviews (in Portuguese) with former student “militants” in the Catholic Student organizations. This is called “oral history” and when done properly can allow a greater window into the social or cultural side of history.

Tuesday I fly to Rio de Janeiro where I will attend the Latin American Studies Association Congress (5000 attendees) and I will present my paper on the Church and the Cuban Revolution on Friday afternoon.

I will also be investigating potential archives at the Catholic University in Rio and meeting with a sociologist who has studied the Catholic Student movements. And finally, I will be meeting up with a lot of old friends from language school in Brazil.

On a vulnerable note, it is not easy to keep my mind on my studies and the goal of finishing a PhD when Debbie is going through constant pain and struggle and there is so much uncertainty about our future. Although our faith has been strengthened lately, there is no way I can know if she will still be alive by the time I graduate with my PhD. Sometimes I wonder if I should just give it up, and spend the last period of her life, with her, taking care of her. And yet, she is my biggest encourager.

Medically, it is unlikely that she will live very long. Two or three more years would be a wonderful gift to us. But on the other hand, life is full of wonderful surprises even as it is full of bitter disappointments. I cannot give up on having many wonderful years together with her – miracles DO happen, especially when people have faith.

And so, we continue walking the path, even when we cannot see where it leads. Thanks again for your positive thoughts and prayers.

joseph