Ride Along With Us

I could be facetious and call this event “Biking for God” but that would be an all-encompassing, community building, good thing. Instead, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia called it “Biking for Vocations” and, needless to say, they were not biking for you, ladies – or any gender other than male.

From August 5 through August 9, a group of seminarians and two priests biked through center city and parts of suburban Philadelphia visiting 18 parishes along the way. Their goal was – I can hardly even type out this next quote from CatholicPhilly.com, but here goes – “to raise awareness of vocations and encourage Catholics to pray for seminarians as they see healthy, happy young men hitting the road to meet people in their home parishes.” (Italics mine!)

I am happy to report that my parish was not on their list. Could the prevalence of rainbow banners, Black Life Matters signs, and women and others (including a visiting priest at one point) wearing purple stoles to Mass to signal their support of women’s ordination have deterred them? We would have welcomed them with signs of our own, all right.

In fact, however, we in the local WOC organization missed an opportunity, and I feel bad about that. If we had mobilized ourselves in time, we could have ridden with them – never, ever, behind or following them I might add – and proclaimed our cause at least visually if not verbally. It would have felt “suffragette-like” and what great company that would have put us in!

If we had gone on that bike ride and been allowed to talk to those parishes, I think we might have talked about “dignity.” (What an excellent name some in the LGBTQ community have chosen for their noble work.)  I’m drawn to this term at this time thanks to a New York Times review by James Traub of the book, Economic Dignity by Gene Sperling. The reviewer speculates that Sperling wanted an “orienting principle” for his calls for (in this case economic) justice and settled on “dignity”. Yes, people need work, but they also need “meaningful” work, work in which they feel they actively participate in a wise and just “compact of contribution” between what they and others see as needed and what they see they can give. No assigned roles here: it’s a compact that preserves dignity and justice all around.

If we had gone on that bike ride and talked with parishioners, I would also have wanted us to emphasize what it takes to get to champion dignity and inclusion against great odds. Perhaps they would understand better if we presented a magnificent example from the past that, although in another context, is relevant to all struggles against oppression today.

In that same August 2, 2020 New York Times, John Meacham reviewed a book written by baseball icon, Jackie Robinson, in 1972 called I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography. Meacham describes this incident:

One day in Robinson’s inaugural big-league season in 1947, the Philadelphia Phillies, led by their manager, Ben Chapman, were assaulting the Dodger first baseman with especially virulent racist taunts and epithets. “For one wild and rage-crazed minute I thought, ‘To hell with Mr. Rickey’s noble experiment,’” Robinson recalled. “It’s clear it won’t succeed. … I thought what a glorious, cleansing thing it would be to let go. To hell with the image of the patient Black freak I was supposed to create. I could throw down my bat, stride over to that Phillies dugout, grab one of those white sons of bitches and smash his teeth in with my despised Black fist. Then I could walk away from it all.”

A subsequent photo op with Chapman to show that all was copacetic hit Robinson hard. “There were times, after I had bowed to humiliations like shaking hands with Chapman, when deep depression and speculation as to whether it was all worthwhile would seize me.” He recalled that he carried on, because there were just enough rays of light in the gloom.

Suffragettes and Jackie Robinson: not a shabby group as role models to have riding with us!

Robinson’s book also described some further inspiring acts:

Rumor had it that the St. Louis Cardinals might boycott a game against the Dodgers in what Robinson feared could create “a chain reaction throughout the baseball world — with other players agreeing to unite in a strong bid to keep baseball white.” Ford Frick, the president of the National League, stepped in on Robinson’s side, warning that he’d suspend any boycotters. “I don’t care if it wrecks the National League for five years,” Frick said. “This is the United States of America.”

I would also want us to tell those parishes something similar: We don’t care if ordination of all who are called to ministry upends the hierarchical Catholic organization for years. We are the people; this is our Church, and we demand a compact of mutual contribution from and for all.

(Editor’s note: read more about the role of the bicycle in the Suffragette and Suffragist movements here)