Catholic Workers Arrested Defending Seneca Lake

Today members of the Catholic Worker community in Ithaca, NY stood with other defenders of Seneca Lake at the gates of Crestwood Midstream's gas storage facility just north of Watkins Glen, NY. They read from Pope Francis' encyclical, "Laudato Si! On Care For Our Common Home". They brought a seven and a half foot replica of the encyclical with its picture of Francis. As they were arrested, they were told to drop their reading materials and replica and then were transported to the local sheriff's office and processed.

These folks were arrested in the tradition of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, co-founders of the Catholic Worker movement in the 1930's. Over her lifetime, Dorothy stood with the poor, the destitute, the disenfranchised, farm workers, peacemakers, women, the imprisoned and so many more. She spoke of social justice constantly and she got angry with the Church and those in power. She was quoted as saying, "Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system." She sometimes disputed the exact wording of the quote but her meaning was clear. Peter believed in the riches of the environment and what agriculture and hard work could do to pull people together. An environmentalist before the term was even coined.

The tradition of civil disobedience is strong within the Catholic Worker communities around the world. The people arrested today on Seneca Lake continue that tradition helping to bring attention to a plan that calls for the storage of 88 million gallons of LP gas in salt caverns along the shores of Seneca as well as the transport of that gas to areas throughout the northeast.

The following quote from Peter Maurin seems appropriate in relation to Crestwood's plans and today's actions by Catholic Workers and others:  "If we are crazy, then it is because we refuse to be crazy in the same way that the world has gone crazy."

Watch arrest Here. "Get this thing and move it!"