Prophets
Without Honor
"A
book to inspire us all, because it looks beyond the false gods of
our
time,
the ruthless political leaders, the timid intellectuals, the
stars of
People
magazine and tells the story of the bravest people in America ."
- Howard Zinn
By
William Strabala and FedCURE member Mike Palecek The book tells
the story of a group of American men who happen to be priests who
happen to have served decades in American prisons.
Darrell
Rupiper, Larry Rosebaugh and Carl Kabat are Oblate missionary priests.
Frank Cordaro is a diocesan priest from Des Moines . Roy Bourgeois
is a Maryknoll priest. Charlie Liteky is an ex-Trinitarian
priest.
Rupiper
was in the national spotlight during the Iran hostage crisis. He
traveled to Iran as part of team of clerics hoping to gain the release
of the hostages.
Rosebaugh
now lives with the poor in El Salvador . He was a member of the
Milwaukee 14, a group that burned draft records in accord
with the example set by the Berrigan brothers at Catonsville
, Maryland in 1968.
Kabat
has served over 16 years in United States federal and state prisons
since 1980 as a result of his anti-military actions.
Cordaro
has served half a dozen federal prison terms for his anti-nuclear
activities. He has also given sanctuary to a manure spreader
in support of Iowa farmers. During the Carter presidency Cordaro
found himself on the front page of the Washington Post after he
stood in front of Carter during a press conference to tell
the world the truth about the SALT treaty.
Bourgeois,
from the deep south and a former military officer who served in
Vietnam , recently made his own front-page news [NY Times,
Washington Post, others] as leader of the massive protests
at Fort Benning , Georgia calling for the closing of the School
of the Americas . Bourgeois and Rosebaugh also served prison
terms in the 1980s when they sneaked into Fort Benning , climbed
a tree and played a tape outside the Salvadoran soldiers' barracks
of the last sermon given by slain archbishop Oscar Romero.
Liteky
is a former chaplain who served in Vietnam . He received the Congressional
Medal of Honor, and later surrendered it during his protests
at Fort Benning .
With
the exception of Cordaro, all of these men began their clerical
careers as missionaries, in Brazil , the Philippines , Bolivia
and Vietnam , and discovered America in the process. They
discovered that the trail of the poor leads through such countries
directly back to America . It leads directly to Rupiper's home
in Carroll , Iowa ; to Rosebaugh and Kabat's roots in rural Illinois
; to Cordaro's Des Moines Italian household, and to the nation's
capital, where Liteky was born. They also discovered that the America
they grew up in never existed.
They
read history and learned about America 's militarism, its attempts
at global hegemony, and they felt they must resist. They wanted
with all their hearts for their childhood America to be made
real, a just and loving America , even if that meant they must spend
years behind prison walls.
Order
your copy of Prophets Without Honor now through www.amazon.com
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