December 5, 2003 - Tacoma Catholic Worker today announced its endorsement of Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich for President. This is the first time in its 14-year history that this affiliate of the 70-year-old Catholic Worker movement has endorsed a political candidate.

"Normally we don’t endorse candidates at all," said The Rev. William Bichsel, head of Tacoma Catholic Worker. "However Dennis Kucinich has spoken out about 100 percent healthcare, leaving Iraq and working through the United Nations and the international community for peace, repealing the Taft Hartley Act, standing by labor, making education a priority, making full employment possible, rescinding Bush’s giveaway tax cuts to the wealthy, and establishing a department of peace…we decided we needed to stand by him."

The Catholic Worker Movement, founded in 1933 by a journalist named Dorothy Day and a philosopher named Peter Maurin, promotes justice and mercy. Over many decades the movement has protested injustice, war, and violence. Today there are some 130 Catholic Worker communities in the United States and Canada.

Bichsel, a Jesuit priest, has been compared to Catholic activists Daniel and Philip Berrigan. In the late 1990s he spent 19 months in a Federal Penitentiary for writing "Assassins" across a sign at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas in Fort Benning, GA. The then 69-year-old priest said his actions were civil disobedience, not destruction of property. Kucinich has vowed to close the School of the Americas, citing evidence that it has trained more 60,000 Latin American soldiers to wage war against their own people, against union organizers, against religious workers, teachers and student leaders.

Explaining why he and Tacoma Catholic Worker decided to endorse a presidential candidate who supports a woman’s right to choose, Bichsel said: "The things that Dennis Kucinich stands for are actually things that deeply touch me. I know he [Kucinich] had to struggle with that whole issue of a woman’s right to chose, and I’m convinced he supports that right out of great conscience."

WHAT FOLLOWS IS THE TEXT OF THE TACOMA CATHOLIC WORKER ENDORSEMENT:

Tacoma Catholic Worker endorses Dennis Kucinich for President of the United States of America in 2004. This is the first time in its 14-year history that the Tacoma Catholic Worker is endorsing a political candidate. Of the whole field of presidential candidates, Dennis Kucinich, in our view, is the only candidate who has the passion for justice, the vision for peace, and the compassion for all who are victims of unjust social structures. He has the commitment to lead our nation away from the present path of violence to the path of peace and justice at home and abroad!

Dennis Kucinich has demonstrated his life-long commitment to peace and justice. “Freedom bids us to free ourselves from the shackles of violence…when peace becomes innermost, it then becomes outermost in our communities and our nation.” (from Dennis’ presidential candidacy announcement.) Dennis deserves the full support and endorsement from all who desire peace and nonviolence.

Tacoma Catholic Worker, centered around Guadalupe House of Hospitality, strives to build a community of hope. We invite people with no place to stay to live with us in our home. We share chores, have communal dinners, and open our house weekdays 11 to 2 for anyone to come get mail, shower, and use the bathroom or phone. We offer opportunities for the larger community to pray together and to organize for peace & justice. We provide no salaries, committing ourselves to voluntary simplicity, non-violent social activism, and living with the poor. We are entirely supported by individuals and accept no State funds.

Thank you for this opportunity to express our support for Dennis Kucinich’s election to the U.S. Presidency.