Portrait by Robert ShetterlyNote: For more of Shetterly's work and an exhibition of his see here, here and here.
Jim Harney was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston in 1968. His passion for social justice and his radical response to the horror of war and the needs of the oppressed eventually drew him away from ministry as a Boston priest to a prophet's ministry in the streets of the world. The CNS Blog reports on his death this past Friday:
Catholic peacemaker Jim Harney, who promoted justice for the world’s poor through photography, lectures and retreats throughout the U.S. and Canada, died Dec. 26 after a protracted bout with cancer.
The 68-year-old former Catholic priest first gained notoriety as one of the Milwaukee 14, a group of priests and faith-based peace activists who burned some 10,000 Selective Service records with homemade napalm in a Sept. 24, 1968, protest against the Vietnam War.My time at the major seminary in Brighton overlapped Jim Harney's by only a year so I did not know him well on a personal level. But I knew something of his story even then and certainly as his commitment drew him deeper and deeper into the fray with powers that oppress.
Beginning in the 1980s, Harney lived and visited much of Latin America, the Caribbean and Iraq to document photographically the impact of economic globalization and war on the world’s poor. He also has led retreats for people seeking to tie together the work for justice and their faith life.
Most recently he was an artist in residence at Posibilidad in Bangor, Maine, a nonprofit center which seeks to engage people in conversation about those excluded from society.
Harney is being remembered by justice advocates as a wise elder whose concern for the struggles of poor people will continue to serve as an inspiration in their work.
For some insight into his work, visit Posibilidad where he spent his last years.
In the portrait above you can barely see some writing at the top. Here's the text:
"I could hear the five hundred pound bombs going off, and see A-37 jets that my country had sent down to El Salvador, and we were in a dirt floor hut and those who could read shared some scripture ..., and one of them a mother breast feeding her baby, and the A-37 jets came in... And then the woman brought me out of the hut, and as the bombs were going off in the valley she pointed to the planes coming in and she said they come from a part of the world where people believe in a God of death. We believe in a God of the living, and when you believe in the God of the living, she said you end up doing things that you never dreamt yourself capable of doing."
May Jim Harney rest in the peace for which he spent his life...
-ConcordPastor
Riposi In Pace Jim
ReplyDeleteJim Harney sounds like my kind of saint; how tragic (humanly speaking) for us to have lost his priesthood!
ReplyDeleteIn the note written on his portrait, where does the woman's quote end?
I have a feeling Jim Harney was already well known in the home to which he has now returned.
ReplyDeletejedesto: Thanks for the question! I went back and checked and saw that in my transposing the quotation I made a couple of errors and one was the placement of the quotation marks. As you can see now, it's a little vague just how much is the woman's word and how much is Jim's. But the truth remains the same, regardless of who spoke it...
ReplyDeleteI struggled with how to write about his leaving the ministry of the active priesthood. The truth is that he pursued another form of priesthood which was very powerful and gave deep witness. Perhaps we lost a priest and gained a prophet.
I'm going to add a link to the post for more of the artist's work - I think you and others will appreciate it.
I am always struck by the courage of people such as Jim Harney to stand with the poor, the marginalized, the victims of injustice. I do not think I have such courage.
ReplyDeleteConcord Pastor, Did he leave his priesthood to marry? Why was writing about this a struggle?
ReplyDeleteI don't believe he left the priesthood to marry. It seems that at the end of his life he has a partner, Nancy, but it doesn't appear that they are married - nor did I ever hear that Jim was married.
ReplyDeleteI struggled with how to phrase the reality that he had left the active diocesan ministry without seeming to say that he left ministry behind him. Indeed, he spent his life serving the Lord and the gospel.