Tom Cornell: nonviolence pioneer

One of my favorite book publishers is Orbis Books, based at the Maryknoll community, a Roman Catholic order, in Ossining, New York. The editor-in-chief at Orbis is Robert Ellsberg, and over many years he and his staff have printed an extraordinary number of titles, many of which have deep, strong social justice themes. For my money, the most significant book in 2008 was an Orbis title: Jim Douglass' extraordinary JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.

Earlier this week, Ellsberg spoke at an event in New York City at which he honored Tom Cornell, a lifelong social justice activist who was a founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship through his work as a dedicated member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. We are pleased to share it here, thanks to Jim Forest, former editor of Fellowship magazine, cofounder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, and leader in the international Orthodox Peace Fellowship.

I have written a couple of books about saints for our time, and as I thought about this occasion today I reflected that if I ever write another one of these books I must certainly reserve an entry for Monica Cornell. She has been married to Tom for almost 45 years, and that certainly merits a special award, if not canonization.

But I am actually here to honor Tom.

Most of us in this room probably take for granted that the message of nonviolence was a central teaching of Jesus. Most of us probably take for granted the right of Catholics to be conscientious objectors to war. Most of us probably take for granted the support of our church in declaring that we will not accept orders from the state to kill another human being.

But there was a time when virtually no Catholics in America believed these things. The exceptions could pretty much be identified as Dorothy Day and those who had fallen under her influence.

Tom Cornell was certainly in that company. His association with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker began when he was a college student in the 1950s and essentially it has never ended. In the early sixties he served as editor of the CW paper. That was where he met and married Monica, who was herself a second generation Catholic Worker. Many years later they started a CW house in Waterbury and for the past 19 years they have been residents of Peter Maurin Farm in Marlboro, New York.

Dorothy Day was of course this country’s great Catholic prophet of nonviolence. But Tom Cornell is one the true pioneers – or perhaps servant, in keeping with his office as deacon – along with a handful of others, who worked diligently and patiently to establish the message of peace in the heart of the American Catholic church.

Many of us easily cite the inspiration of Dorothy Day or Daniel Berrigan or the writings of Thomas Merton that first introduced us to the peace message of Jesus. But in many ways, behind the scenes, Tom Cornell was truly one of the heroes architects of the American Catholic peace movement.

Tom was responsible for organizing what was probably the first demonstration against Vietnam in 1963. Later, he was one of the first young men to be arrested for burning his draft card – for which he served six months in prison. It is hard to remember how isolated and marginalized such witnesses were back then – there were certainly no award ceremonies of this sort.

With Jim Forest, he was a cofounder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, the first project to counsel and educate young Catholics about the Catholic basis for conscientious objection. The work of the CPF continues today. Tom was literally one of the founders of Pax Christi USA.

He certainly has been a friend and mentor throughout my life. I first met him in 1974 when he was working for the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Nyack. I was 18 and having my own struggles with the draft. He was forty – which at the time seemed as old as Abraham. He gave me a copy of the book he had edited with Jim Forest, A Penny a Copy: Readings from the Catholic Worker – which I thought was incredibly cool. I was in awe of anyone who had written a book. But I honestly I didn’t know what to make of him, with his references to Thomas Aquinas and his tendency to lapse into Latin. Why would this old guy show such an interest in me?

Actually, one of his most endearing qualities is his genuine interest in young people—in helping them uncover their gifts and talents, and encouraging them in their vocations, and passing on the torch to a new generation. (I feel myself to be remiss in this duty – probably because I still fool myself, despite my gray hair, that I am the new generation.) But this is a quality, I would discover, that he shared with Dorothy Day. Later I too would make my way to the Catholic Worker and serve as editor of the paper. And many years later, with Tom and Jim Forest, I would even co-edit a new edition of A Penny a Copy.

I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for Tom’s encouragement and friendship over these many years. But it’s fair to say that none of us might be here – there might not be any Pax Christi USA if it hadn’t been for the courage and dedication of Tom Cornell over these many years. I am very privileged today to present him with the Fr. Richard McSorley Peacemaker Award.

As a final note, I am grateful to share personally that my parents not only knew Tom Cornell when I was but a child, but moreover it was the witness that he and other CW/CPF activists offered that kept us in the Catholic church for many years. And it is his legacy that still enfuses the spirit of FOR, decades after he worked on our staff.