'Let Us Go to Bethlehem'

On Good Friday, April 9, 1982, a group of Christians set out on a pilgrimage. They left from the Trident Nuclear Submarine Base at Bangor, Wash., to walk to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. It is a journey one pilgrim calls "a walk from the place of death to the place of life."

The Bethlehem Peace Pilgrimage arrived in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13, 1982. For seven months the pilgrims had journeyed across the United States. Praying as they walked, they followed the rail tracks that carry the Trident missile motors through Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and then continued eastward. The pilgrimage will spend the winter on the East Coast before walking through Europe to Bethlehem. The 6,500-mile trip will be completed when the pilgrims reach Bethlehem during Christmas, 1983, after 32 months of witnessing for peace and nuclear disarmament.

Father Jack Morris, SJ, founded the pilgrimage and chose its destination: "I wanted to go to Bethlehem for reasons of faith ... I think the spirituality of the the pilgrimage is a forgotten thing which needs to be revived. It's a purifying thing." In a newsletter the pilgrims wrote, "Bethlehem is the breach where divine power breaks into human history to provide us with the way to peace."

When asked why one should make a pilgrimage the pilgrims replied, "To go to peace with the same fervor with which we've gone to war." Morris explained that in the past, "folks left family, wife, children, and jobs for war--and it was taken for granted. We need to go to peace--people need to be willing to leave jobs, families, sweethearts, and dedicate themselves to peace. These pilgrims have given up jobs, privacy, parents, homes to do this."

Morris said that the idea of a pilgrimage to Bethlehem came to him after reading an interview with Father George Zabelka, who was the military chaplain to the bomber group that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. "I just read the interview and got an inspiration: I'm going to Bethlehem!" He then spoke with Zabelka, who is also on the pilgrimage. "At first, naturally, I thought the idea was crazy," said Zabelka. ''But then I saw it as an answer: putting your body into peace work. Before I did talks and that sort of thing, but here was a way of putting my feet where my mouth was. After a while, I thought it was irresistible."

In their travels, the pilgrims encountered a fear among many people they met. Janet Horman, a pilgrim from Florida, noted that there is "a lot of frustration and powerlessness about the arms race, especially in the small towns. The question we most often hear, all across the country, is 'What about the Russians?' "

Yet throughout their trek, the pilgrims met peace people and groups, encouraging those in the same communities to meet one another.

Signs of hope were found in many places, the pilgrims said, and many people were a "quiet witness" to them. They were welcomed by believers of all denominations, but were particularly amazed at the warm welcome they received even from people who disagreed with them.

For Laurie Hasbrook of Wisconsin, the saddest experience occurred after arriving in the nation's capital. The pilgrims stayed at Luther Place Memorial Church, which provides shelter for homeless women. "That night, after being so warmly welcomed into Washington, I looked into the room where the women were staying. The women were shivering and quaking, even in the warm room. Outside there were women my own age who were prostitutes, people drinking on the street, and others selling drugs. So often we had talked about how military spending is robbing the poor, and there it was: the wealth and power, the beauty of the city, yet so many people with no security. It's getting worse, and people just aren't seeing it."

After crossing the Atlantic, the Bethlehem Peace Pilgrimage will regroup in Cork, Ireland, on March 17, 1983. On their way to Bethlehem, they will pass through Dublin, Belfast, London, Paris, Geneva, and Rome. Morris said that while in Europe, he wants to tell people that "we in the United States need them and that we believe in what they [in the European Peace Movement] are doing. The position of the Reagan administration is not at one with the sentiments of the American people."

As the pilgrims recall, years ago, some ordinary shepherds said, "Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."

Joe Lynch was a member of Sojourners Community and worked with the peace ministry when this article appeared.