Catholics ‘down on the farm’

A few months ago I told the Cardinal I would write an article on rural life and the church. He smiled and said, quite rightly, “What do you know about rural life?” I know little about farm and rural life, let alone the lives of our sister and brother Catholics on the farm. This awareness of the lack of familiarity with rural life is the point. I also sense that I share this lacuna of knowledge with many of my fellow Catholics.

The vast majority of policy issues that we as Catholics study, reflect on, debate and offer prayers for; are urban, national or international. This is especially true of us here in the extensive urban metropolitan sprawl of Chicagoland. I suspect that many Chicago Catholics would be surprised to know that the archdiocese has a Catholic Rural Life Office staffed by a permanent deacon, Cliff Dienberg.

I have the good fortunate to serve on the Domestic Policy Committee of the United States Catholic Conference. The discussions of the committee and the materials that are reviewed by the participants on behalf of the bishops of the country are extensive and comprehensive, but also timely and challenging. The National Catholic Rural Life Conference is a participant on the committee and reports its concerns to the group. The issues surfaced by this conference have opened my eyes to a part of church life that is not in our usual plane of thinking. A brief look at this area may also interest you.

There obviously is an inherent connection between food and the farm. The efficiency and plentitude that we encounter as we whip up and down the aisles of our supermarkets distances us from the human labor that nurtured the crops and husbanded the animals that have become our food. Colorful packaging and the omnipresent marketing disguise the personal lives as well as the personal energy that was expended to place the food before us.

To deal with this disassociation in the lives of Catholic farming families the National Catholic Rural Life Conference was formed in 1923. The issues of corporate farming, urbanization and globalization of the economy have only become more of a concern for our Catholic farming families from that day until the present. Stating that a sustainable food system is preferred to an industrial model food system has focused the issue. As the movement of rural life continues toward the industrial model, some 300,000 farm families have left the farm since 1979. One bishop told me that the land in six counties of his rural diocese is now virtually owned by corporations.

The discussion around these issues is not just a desire to hold onto a quaint form of living. Cardinal Roger Mahony, chairman of the Domestic Policy Committee, and Bishop Raymond Burke, chairman of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, wrote the members of Congress describing the issue: “A highly diversified system of agriculture is preferable to a concentrated one for a number of reasons. First, it enables many more people to make a living from the land. Second, it better insures diversity in plant and animal life, reducing the possibility of some catastrophic disease or pest destroying herds or acreage. Third, a family farmer generally thinks of passing the farm on to future generations and often has a greater reverence for the land and interest in the community and its economic well-being. A corporation, on the other hand, has profit as its primary motive, has fewer ties to the community and is less likely to make decisions in the long-term interest of the community.”

Why as a church should we be concerned? The social teaching of the church reminds us that we have responsibilities as stewards of God’s creation, that we all have a basic right to food and we have a right and responsibility for labor that is humanizing. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the NCCB pastoral letter, Economic Justice for All, and the bishops’ statement Food Policy in a Hungry World, are a few documents among many that highlight the social teaching of the church.

While we in the urban environment state priorities such as adequate housing, race relations, pollution, we hear different calls from Catholics on the farms. Yet both sets of concerns spring from the same teaching and same tradition. The commonality and the mutuality are even deeper, for many of the decisions about farms and farmers are being made in the urban settings of corporations driven by the massive urban consumer markets.

Deacon Dienberg strives to keep the rural issues in front of us here in an urban setting. He reminds us that what happens on the farm will certainly eventually literally affect our tables, our economy and our lives. In addition to the practical everyday communication tasks of attending meetings, distributing materials and delivering talks, Dienberg has attempted to bring rural life close to us by allowing the city dweller to be active in the process of traditional “farm” activities.

The first activity is called the Heifer Project International (HPI). Simply, an individual, parish group or parish sponsors the purchase of a heifer for a farming family in a developing country. The commitment of the family is to care for the heifer until there are offspring so that gift becomes one of development rather than merely sustenance. Dienberg is a great spokesperson for this unique “sharing program,” serving on the HPI board of directors.

The second activity is closer to home. It is called the Urban Animal Project flowing from HPI. It, too, has as one of its many objects development and growth. The program in Chicago is operated in cooperation with St. Mary’s AME Church. A group of young people call themselves “God’s Gang” and seek to be involved in work that will benefit the community. Currently they are “farming” a high protein fish, tilapia, in barrels within the Robert Taylor Public Housing Project. As the fish mature they are shared with the community pantry serving hungry families. In conjunction with the program, “God’s Gang” has developed a composting system from which marketable worms are produced. They are sold to school laboratories and bait shops. The worm castings are sold to landscaping businesses and farmers or are used in local gardens.

What can you do? Be aware of the life of the Catholic farmer. Dienberg’s office is at 1037 S. Euclid, Oak Park, IL 60304. You can reach the National Catholic Rural Life Conference by fax at (515) 270-9447 or [email protected].

Most importantly you should pray for and with our farm families. The mutuality of our prayer in the common life of the church will continue to open us to Christ who is the font of our traditions and or knowledge. Eventually that prayer will deepen our understanding of God’s gift of creation and the call to accept our responsibilities of stewardship.

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