Pace e Bene

Super Bowl Sunday

Pace e Bene staff member Fr. Louis Vitale, 77, began serving a six-month prison sentence on Monday, January 25 for nonviolent, prayerful protest calling for closure of the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. On February 25 he was transferred from Crisp County Jail in Cordele, Georgia, where he was held for the first month of his sentence, to the US Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia.  You can write to at the following address:

Louis Vitale #25803-048

USP Atlanta

U.S. Penitentiary

P.O. Box 150160

Atlanta, GA 30315

To see updates from and about Fr. Louie, please click here.

Reflections on Super Bowl Sunday

Scene I:

In the 1980s when the liberation struggles were very active in Central America, I made more than one trip to El Salvador as part of delegations to have first-hand experience of the oppression brought by right-wing dictators against progressive groups – labor unions, churches and church workers, social justice groups, teachers, and community organizations.

This was in the face of death squads, disappearances, torture, and assassinations of those trying to uncover the oppression and call for social and political change.  The toll, as w e know, was high, including the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero and four North American church women in 1980, and the massacre of six Jesuits from the University of Central America and their employee and her daughter at the Jesuit residence in San Salvador on November 16, 1989. 

I spent time with the Jesuit mission especially committed to the liberation of the poor and oppressed. 

One Sunday I was invited to a special gathering at the mission house.  This was not to discuss politics but to watch football!  It was Super Bowl Sunday.  Many have noted that Super Bowl Sunday has become a US national holiday – but I did not think that this extended to Central America.  Now, thanks to satellite, it aired in real time.

John Guiliano, one the volunteer organizers with a Jesuit background had an uncle in the US with a connection to a tee-shirt vendor.  He got special tee shirts announcing in Spanish this special super Bowl celebration in El Salvador.  There were the usual snacks and drinks for the occasion and a noisy and relaxed atmosphere.  Even noted Jesuit theologian and activist Jon Sobrino attended. 

We seemed to transcended geographical boundaries and join millions of others sharing the festivities.  It was a relaxed though somewhat contentious crowd with winners and losers.  A good time was had by all.  Tension was released, new energy flowed through the group, and a common bonding prepared all for the struggle ahead.  I never forgot that Sunday.

Scene II

I must admit I do not watch many sporting events on TV – or even much TV at all.  Television is an ever-present reality in most jails and prisons.  Sometimes the access is controlled, requiring hearing devices and moderating the noise.  But other times it seems if you can’t ignore them join them. 

Most of the time I remove myself to my sub-cell (with open door to the common rooms) to write letters, read, sleep, pray, but sometimes the camaraderie calls me to join.  Sometimes it is to watch a good movie which I missed (meaning most of them).  One of these occasions was Super Bowl Sunday, February 7.

I was also intrigued because one of the teams was the New Orleans Saints.  Maybe knowing I would not be able to get to Sunday mass attracted me to “cell Saints.”  Also, in the advance buildup to the game much attention was given to the Hurricane Katrina disaster and the sense of hope, healing and excitement of the New Orleans Saints going to the Super Bowl.  The theme song – “When the Saints Come Marching In” – put together as good a football team as could be imagined with the celestial angels to whom so many had turned in desperation during the flood.

My mother was born in New Orleans.  I enjoyed visiting relatives when I was in the Air Force many years ago and I loved to visits and the city.  One of my cousins spent months making exquisite ball gowns for Mardi Gras.  The two events were seen as rays of hope in 2010 for fuller recovery of the French Quarter and the historic city.

Here in our small jail cell we gathered around our TV.  We were very aware, by the shouts, cheers, noise-makers banging on bars – that almost everyone in the building, including the guards, were in the crowd stretching across the country, and through space/satellite to the world, cheering on our team of choice.

Of course, I favored the Saints.  I even prayed to the heavenly “saints” to help the earthly saints carry the day – and they did!!  It was a great game, exciting to the end.  I noticed euphoria the days following it, as I did in El Salvador.  We are united in many ways as humans.  Even though we choose different teams and events, we trust and marvel in human talent, spirit and teamwork. 

Yes there is a questionable brutality and an enormous money exchange, but it can create a pulling together that can pull New Orleans together and just maybe out country and our world.  Go Saints!