Louie Vitale: In His Own Words
Louie Vitale being arrested for an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in San Francisco, Calif.
Pace e Bene co-founder Fr Louie Vitale OFM died on September 6, 2023. A memorial service in his honor will be held on October 6 at St. Boniface Catholic Church in San Francisco, where he served as pastor for thirteen years. The following text is a letter he sent to Pace e Bene from Nellis Air Force Base Federal Prison north of Las Vegas, Nevada, where he began serving a three-month prison sentence on October 16, 2002 after being convicted for engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. Here he reflects on his experience of “coming full circle”: being jailed in Nevada after spending many years in that state seeking to end nuclear tsting at the nearby Nevada Test Site. Originally published in the Fall 2002 edition of The Wolf, Pace e Bene’s newsletter at the time, this set of reflections is also included in Louie’s book entitled, Love is What Matters: Writings on Peace and Nonviolence, which is available here.
Other than a few trips to Las Vegas in my youth for casino visiting, and a layover at Nellis Air Force Base when I was in the Air Force, my first residence in Las Vegas was in 1968. We Franciscans were invited by Bishop Joseph Green to assess some of the social problems in Las Vegas and suggest some remedies. Out of that came a ten year commitment to social justice ministry in Southern Nevada.
Local concerns included racial segregation and discrimination, welfare rights issues, homeless needs, farm worker exploitation and the plight of immigrants. A community of Franciscans, sisters, and committed lay persons grew around a “Franciscan Center” sponsored by the diocese of Reno.
We soon became more aware of another issue, the militarization of Nevada, most notably of the activities of the nearby Nevada Test Site. Our local response grew to an international effort to stop the testing of nuclear weapons. Eventually the Nevada Desert Experience evolved, bringing thousands to the Test Site for prayer witness and nonviolent direct action. Lots of folks from many religious sources received their initiation into the revered tradition of civil disobedience and their first experiences of arrest and jail. Finally during the Clinton years a moratorium on testing was declared. But now, the Bush administration is planning to resume underground tests.
Louie at a Pace e Bene gathering, c. 2007
Thomas Merton noted that the sacred place of the desert, the proverbial “Holy Ground” of indigenous peoples, hermits, mystics, and pilgrims has become, in Southern Nevada, the site of nuclear bombs and casinos. The thrust of the Desert Witness was to reclaim the land as Holy Ground and eliminate the evil of preparing for nuclear holocaust. In the process of our presence at the Nuclear Test Site we became aware that this is the land of the Western Shoshone people. It has been illegally appropriated by the US government for such evil purposes. It contains ancient burial grounds of the Shoshone and is their ancestral heritage.
We have developed very close ties with the Western Shoshone. We join in their cause to reclaim their land. We have learned to love and cherish that land and have been awakened to its sacredness by their spiritual leaders.
Louie and Col. Ann Wright (ret.).
In 1979 1 was uprooted from the friar residence in Las Vegas to be posted in Oakland, California for fraternal and administrative service to the Franciscan province. I returned to Las Vegas in 1988 and joined a group under Franciscan sponsorship to form Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service. We had become convinced that we not only needed to stop nuclear annihilation, but to engage in a revolution in nonviolence that could embrace the world.
In 1992 I was asked to fill in for three months at Saint Boniface parish in San Francisco. I was subsequently appointed pastor and became involved in a monumental project retrofitting the church, school and friary buildings for earthquake survival and for new ministries in the Tenderloin area of the city.
I was happy to be able to continue involvement in anti-nuclear campaigns as well as local issues, most notably about homelessness and also immigration. As did many others during the past two decades, we became involved in the struggle of Central Americans for survival from repressive regimes sponsored by the U.S. government. We were most awakened by the deaths of the Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, four nuns, seven Jesuits and two female associates, thousands of civilians including children, martyred. Sadly our analysis makes it clear that we are at the heart of the domination network that exploits many of the poor in the world today.
Knowing so many victims of the brutalization in Central America, it has been hard to accept the participation of the U.S. Government in the persecution. It was particularly shocking to come to understand the role of the School of the Americas at Fort Benning in Georgia and the major part it has played in training those who participate in such oppression. Documents were revealed that demonstrate teaching of torture techniques as well as infiltration, subversion and disappearance.
In November last year I was invited to attend the assembly of Pax Christi in Georgia where it was being held in conjunction with the annual witness at the School of the Americas. My attendance at Pax Christi was recognition of being a “Teacher of Peace” which I accepted on behalf of the hundreds I have worked with in the Nevada Desert Experience., Pace e Bene and other promoters of peace.
Louie with David Hartsough in the 1990s.
While participating with ten thousand protesters on the Sunday of the event I was moved deeply by the mourners. They helped us recall the thousands of deaths in Latin America and the shocking awareness that beyond the gates toward which we processed is a training center in which those who perpetrated such barbarity are trained. I was fortunate to find a small procession that was going on around the fence beyond the closed gates to carry the mourning into Fort Benning and towards the school itself. We were arrested, prosecuted, tried and now I am on my way back to Las Vegas to serve 90 days in the Federal Prison Camp at Nellis Air Force Base.
Does all this connect? I feel I am coming full circle. When I first landed in Las Vegas about 1957 I was part of the military forces of the U.S. My consciousness at that time was protecting the freedom of the country and the world.
I joined tile Franciscans and emerged in the 60s with a new awareness. I became opposed to war and to the exploitation of poor and marginal people around the world. Martin Luther King and Gandhi were teachers, Cesar Chavez my mentor. The Berrigans and their followers were prods to further engagements. Many wonderful colleagues developed along the way. Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the Bay Area were bases for engaging in the straggle.
Anne Symens-Bucher, Louie Vitale,, and Fr. John Dear at Louie’s 79th birthday party in San Francisco, Calif.
Visits to Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and other places of human struggle were part of my pilgrimage, so have been jails. Somehow returning to Las Vegas, to a federal prison camp at Nellis Air Force Base seems a special sign. When I called St. James parish in Las Vegas to tell them of my “new assignment” I was told the choir had sung at the camp the previous Sunday.
It seemed a good omen. I can hear them singing, “We’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord, trusting in his Holy Word...He’s never failed us yet!”
These are indeed dark times. The tragedy of 9/11/01 haunts us. The fallout is enormously frightening. The new Bush policy outlines a global domination that stretches the boundaries of empire—even the domination of space. We are declaring ourselves the only dominating force in the world. This kind of darkness is only cast out by prayer, fasting, and nonviolence action. At least the first two should be available at the Nellis Prison Camp. I attempted some imitation of Jesus’ forty day fast in the desert ten years ago when we first bombed Iraq. There may need to be some repeat in my new sojourn in that Holy desert.
Meanwhile it will be a place to pray, reflect and listen to the Spirit. Where will she lead me? Pace e Bene to all of you. You accompany me in my heart as I begin this brief sojourn.
