Lara Rusch ~ 13
meeting amounted to an unplanned, “action on the priest,” pushing him to become more
invested in organizing and using his position of authority to assist the team.
Organizers can be just as enthused about the involvement of Catholic priests as
Baptists, but they tend to appreciate different qualities of their involvement. In several
interviews, organizers and lay people praised the hands-off approach of clergy who are
publicly supportive of community organizing. Describing the core team at another
Catholic church, an organizer explained,
They have a priest who is not so involved with MOSES but really, really, really
gets urban organizing. And in that church, and I really think it’s because – […]
That church is not so centered around the priest. I mean, I think that – the people
within the church feel empowered enough to go on and do things without his, you
know, approval or whatever.
9
By being supportive but not micromanaging, Catholic clergy can give lay people a space
to take initiative. In his research on the IAF in Texas, Mark Warren observed the same
phenomenon. He argues that because “their position in the parish is relatively secure, and
their authority does not come from their talent as a community leader, they often let lay
parishioners become the IAF leaders in their parish” (197). He found that in the local IAF
affiliates, few Catholic priests were very active in community organizing, though they
supported it and their congregations were active. In fact, “Catholic pastors often find it
relatively easy to commit their parish to join the IAF, because membership does not
necessarily mean extra work for them” (197).
This is an interesting paradox: the tendency of Catholic clergy to involve lay
people less in church affairs, can be either a benefit or an impediment to civic and
political participation. Organizer Juan Escareño provided a very active image of Catholic
lay involvement,
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Interview with Stephanie Hoffman.
Convention