Unthinkable to Say No

News, Announcements, and Prayer Requests from the Catholic Worker in Keene, NH

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Unthinkable to Say No

By Bethany

When I taught high school U.S. History, I was always eager to introduce students to the journalist and civil rights activist Anne Braden. Anne and her husband, Carl, went against the norm of 1954 Louisville, KY and helped Andrew and Charlotte Wade, a Black family, buy a house in a segregated White neighborhood. In her memoir, The Wall Between, Anne described how the Wades had the money and wanted a new house with a low down payment, but there just weren’t any houses like that in the sections red-lined for Black people. Carl and Anne purchased the house for Andrew and Charlotte because they believed that every person has a right to a decent home regardless of the color of their skin; it would have been unthinkable for them to say no. They lived in a segregated world, but they were part of a community of Black and White people who were opposing it.

This past February, Duncan’s ministry mentor from 20 years ago, the Rev Dr. Rebecca Pugh of First Church in Ipswich, MA, reached out to us about the possibility of doing a weekend retreat at La Sagrada Familia with the youth from her church. Our first thought was, “What will we do as an emerging community with a bunch of young people?” Our next thought was, “It would be unthinkable to say no.” What emerged over the ensuing months in our conversations with Rebecca and Beth, the youth leader, was a weekend centered on the values of the Catholic Worker: prayer, manual labor, nonviolence, and the acts of mercy.

The last weekend in April, seventeen kids and chaperones came to La Sagrada Familia for two nights. They slept in tents in the hay loft of the barn, planted potatoes in the garden, painted the chicken coop, prayed, read scripture, marched to a downtown peace vigil accompanied by fiddle tunes from one of the chaperones, and helped us to clean and decorate the barn for a dance for the wider community of La Sagrada Familia.

People often associate the Catholic Worker with protests and soup kitchens, but Dorothy Day also emphasized “the duty of delight.” The dance was delightful: live music with a stand up bass, two fiddles, a banjo, and a rhythm guitar; our friend Ana calling a contra in both English and Spanish. About 75 people, including the group from Ipswich, came from as far as Boston and as near as next door. The kids played soccer in the yard while friends from Ecuador and Peru grilled chicken on a newly purchased BBQ grill I had rushed to assemble with Ana’s help that afternoon.

Anne Braden wrote a pamphlet in 1964 “HUAC: Bulwark of Segregation” in which she documented how the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) actively worked to destroy the Civil Rights Movement. Anne’s point was that HUAC created a social atmosphere of fear and suspicion that caused people to censor themselves and stay in their own backyards. Anne Braden understood that separation was constructed through policy and practiced through a trained suspicion of those just outside one’s immediate circle. The antidote, she argued, was to abolish government sponsored committees that manufactured fear and to practice concrete entanglement: shared meals, shared work, shared risk.

New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte, herself a Catholic, has strongly supported collaboration between New Hampshire law enforcement and ICE. The police department in a neighboring town has signed on to the federal 287(g) program, which partners state and local officers directly with ICE. Police from that department have crossed town lines to make immigration arrests at the courthouse in Keene. Legislation in the current session of the New Hampshire Congress will deepen practices of criminalization and exclusion for people without documentation.

The dance was our best attempt to start weaving together a holy, knotty, tangle of a community - one that, in the face of the legislated fear in our own community today, can make the type of choices Andrew, Charlotte, Carl, and Anne made. What matters is not that we meet along every cultural line, but that we refuse the habit of keeping so separated along those lines that we can pretend that our fortunes are not already bound together. What matters is that we’re entangled enough that when the moment to act arises, saying no is unthinkable.

“It Takes a Lot of Rich People to Keep the Catholic Worker Poor”

We laughed when an elder in the Catholic Worker movement shared this quote with us, attributed to Dorothy Day. We understand the quote to name a phenomenon we have found to be true: choosing to live by voluntary simplicity, rather than a wage or salaried position, requires the support of many generous laborers. We feel humbled by the many small and large donations that have enabled us to organize our time and energy around La Sagrada Familia’s mission and our family. We hope that as we build beyond these foundational stages of the ministry there will be more ways for others to enter into the work.

The Mission of La Sagrada Familia

Our mission, as it has emerged from our time in El Paso and the last few months in New Hampshire, is to bear witness to the Holy Family–Jesus, Mary, and Joseph - in two ways:

• By helping biological families torn apart by immigration enforcement and incarceration to live in greater dignity.

• By helping families like ours who have benefited from these systems to discover a call beyond the bonds of blood and into the fulfillment of baptismal bonds through migrant accompaniment, jail ministry, nonviolent advocacy and training, and study of Jesus’ teachings around sharing wealth for the sake of our individual and collective salvation.

What We Need Financial Support For

Our goal is to raise $25,000 in 2026. We have begun hosting people at our Catholic Worker house, including young people, youth groups, and local groups. To keep people safe and not run the risk of kids munching on lead paint chips, we need to hire professionals to do some lead paint abatement and repairs to the roof and stairs. Rather than try to do the entire house this year, we want to address the most urgent lead paint issues closest to the entrance to the barn and both apartment units of the house. We need $10,000 for these capital expenses.

We also need help with day-to-day costs. Additional expenses have come with entering a more active stage of ministry, e.g. board insurance, food for events, and chairs and tables for large gatherings. Even living simply requires a few thousand dollars a month to pay for food, diapers, car repairs, and utilities. From now through the end of the year we hope to raise $15,000 for day-to-day costs.

The Specifics

To meet our goals for 2026 we hope to have folks of all different capacities contribute:

• 4 lead donors to make a one-time donation of $5000 or more

• 12 generous donors to make a) a recurring donation of at least $50/month or b) a one-time donation of $300

• 23 loyal donors to make a) a recurring donation of $10/month or b) a one-time donation of $60

The Mechanics of Donating

• Make a one-time or recurring monthly donation online. This method accepts major credit and debit cards, PayPal, Venmo, and digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cash App Pay)

• Mail a check payable to ”La Sagrada Familia” to: 111 Adams St #2, Keene NH 03431

• Contact us to make a bank transfer or stock gift

We have filed for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS and our application is pending. We have every reason to believe it will be approved, at which point any donation would be tax-deductible retroactive to the incorporation date in February; however, deductions are not guaranteed until the final approval letter is received. We promise to send an updated confirmation/receipt upon receiving an IRS approval letter.

Announcements and Prayer Requests

• We have a new website: lasagradafamiliacw.org. There you can find newsletters, listen to our recent live webinar interview with Robert Ellsberg (and other past podcast episodes. See link to the episode and subscribe to the podcast below), or sign up to receive this newsletter as snail mail.

• Help us pray for the healthy and joyful arrival of our daughter, due June 1!

Meet the Board of Directors

Background

Not all Catholic Worker communities choose to become non-profits for myriad reasons. We discerned that it was best for us based on the particulars of New Hampshire laws and our appreciation of the accountability and support that being an official entity brings. We had our inaugural quarterly board meeting over Zoom on April 30th. We’re grateful for the variety of gifts and experiences that each member brings and their willingness to share those with La Sagrada Familia.

Dylan Lazerow

Dylan is a nonprofit executive, fundraiser, and organizer with over 15 years of experience advancing economic justice, immigrant rights, and civil resistance. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Wealth Redistribution Center and previously held leadership roles with Movimiento Cosecha and the American Cancer Society.

Lisa Mahar

Lisa served as administrator of the Monadnock Waldorf School in Keene, New Hampshire for 27 years and now consults with Waldorf schools across North America, supporting organizational health and administration. She co-founded Noonday Farm Catholic Worker in north-central Massachusetts and is active in Project Home, assisting asylum seekers in the Monadnock region. Lisa lives in Warner, New Hampshire with her husband, Reverend Bill Beardslee.

Anabel Marquez

Anabel is Executive Administrative Assistant at Maryknoll Lay Missioners in El Paso, Texas. Along with her work at Maryknoll, Anabel has her own business consulting with small businesses and organizations on social media strategy. Anabel grew up in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico but now calls El Paso home with her parents and daughter Maya.

Eila Shea

Eila grew up along the coast of Maine and New Hampshire and attended schools across Latin America and Asia. A graduate of Skidmore College, she has worked with asylum seekers in Maine and at Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas. She now teaches ESOL in Somersworth, New Hampshire.

Michael Simone, SJ

Fr. Michael is Pastor of the Church of the Gesù in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A Jesuit priest, Scripture scholar, and former professor at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, he also writes for America Magazine as a contributing editor and columnist. In his free time, he enjoys fishing and cheering for Boston sports teams.