I spoke with the person answering the phone this morning at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, who refused to provide her name, but said that Pastor Tim De Bruycker had extended the invitation to Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit to speak this morning at their Church; and that the "invitation was rescinded" by the St. Paul Diocese; the Bishop of the Diocese is the very conservative and very reactionary Harry Flynn.
The St. Paul Catholic Diocese is known for its reactionary and conservative views as is its head, Bishop Harry Flynn.
The person who answered the phone at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church told me that she felt the word "prohibited" which has been used by Charles Underwood in his "Peace calendar" was perhaps "too strong a word to use," but, that I could use any word I felt appropriate because in the end Bishop Gumbleton was not permitted the right to speak.
Bishop Gumbleton is one of the foremost champions of peace and social justice in the United States; and a foremost proponent of the rights of equality for the Palestinian people and has criticized the United States policy in Iraq from the day the war began and has been in the forefront of the nuclear weapons disarmament movement in the United states for decades. Bishop Gumbleton best exemplifies those who have the courage to speak out insisting that "swords be turned into plowshares." He is a cleric of unremarkable courage and conviction who has helped to house the homeless and feed the hungry. He has stood and spoken the truth to corporate power.
Those attending mass at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church today were simply told that Bishop Gumbleton would not be present to address them this morning. No explanation was given.
This failure to provide an explanation has fueled speculation that Bishop Harry Flynn bowed to the pressures of the very wealthy, well-heeled, right-wing, anti-Palestinian lobby which supports the warmongering policies of the Israeli government of the corrupt Democratic Party machine of the "Summit Hill Club" and the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce which has a firm, tight grip on the Minnesota DFL, and has maneuvered and manipulated using every conceivable dirty trick in the book to prevent a full and open discussion concerning finding a just solution to the situation in the Middle East.
It is this same corrupt and anti-democratic grouping of "The Summit Hill Club" and the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, that calls itself the "DFL Business Caucus" which has prevented me from participating as a duly elected member of the State Central Committee of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party after I took Walter Mondale to task and urged the DFL State Central Committee to take a stand in opposition to the recent Israeli carnage in Lebanon.
This "Business Caucus" took the lead in derailing the struggle for single-payer, universal health care.
It is this same "Business Caucus" that has refused to allow a thorough debate within the DFL concerning the war in Iraq.
It is this same "Business Caucus" that successfully stymied and blocked legislation in the Minnesota State Senate this past week to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant.
It is this "Business Caucus" made up of members of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce and the "Summit Hill Club" of which Merritt Clapp-Smith is on the Board of Directors and is the past President which now intends to demolish the Ford Plant destroying over 2,000 union jobs in the process; and, in its place put in a riverfront casino and upscale housing which has pressured the Arch Diocese of St. Paul to prohibit the humanist Bishop Thomas Gumbleton from speaking his mind at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church.
It is this same anti-democratic and corrupt group of "business leaders" that is intent on returning the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party to its origins noted for its racist support for the campaign of genocide to drive Native Americans from their homes and their lands, stole their resources, urged the mass hanging in Mankato, Minnesota--- and then continued to support slavery as they organized the most vicious mobs of "citizen committees" to beat-up union organizers; they then collaborated with the Republicans to run the most despicable, red-baiting, anti-Semitic campaign to oust from office Minnesota's most honest and popular Governor--- Elmer Benson.
It is this same group of corrupt DFL politicians that prevented Elmer Benson from continuing to have a voice in the newly formed Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party [the merger of the Democratic Party and the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party] that has today denied Bishop Thomas Gumbleton the right to speak about peace and social justice and the rights of the Palestinian people along with supporting a just solution to the terrible problems and continuing violence in the Middle East.
If Bishop Thomas Gumbleton can be silenced by this band of two-bit, half-assed fascists there isn't a single person in America who enjoys freedom of speech and conscience anymore.
I would encourage everyone to speak out and condemn the anti-democratic actions of the "Summit Hill Club" and the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce along with the "DFL Business Caucus" and the Catholic Arch Diocese of St. Paul led by the conservative Harry Flynn who bowed to the pressure of this corrupt and undemocratic little group.
This is an outrage of the greatest magnitude.
THE WALL MUST FALL.