Protest in Detroit, MI. On right is Maureen Taylor, Michigan Welfare rights Organization. Photo/Facebook
Editor’s Note: In light of the death of Pope Francis, Maureen Taylor of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization reflects on her invitation to come to the Vatican in 2016 to discuss the Detroit water shut-offs sweeping Detroit and other Michigan cities. She writes of the conversations she and other activists had, which included a special, exclusive audience with the Pope in his Auditorium about poverty, water crisis, hunger and other global issues.
Here are Maureen Taylor’s comments on Facebook about her visit to the Vatican:
Welfare Rights and so many others had been raising the roof about water shutoffs in Detroit and surrounding communities. But it seemed few were paying attention to the problems of poor people whose water was being shut off by the 1,000’s. We wrote everywhere, every country, every corner of the world to ask for help toward stopping this attack on the poor but few responded.
The Catholic Church has a hierarchy in place, so emails sent from Detroit to the Pope were vetted and reviewed, as we all thought would be the case.
Imagine the shock when the Annuncio (a Church administrator in New York) sent an email back, suggesting that the Pope had been reading those wild emails, and that I should come to Rome to discuss these shut off issues.
I got the call on my cell phone to which I said repeatedly, “WHO IS THIS REALLY”? Before I knew it, an email arrived that said two roundtrip tickets were on hold at Metro-Airport for myself and my adult son ’cause I wrote over and over again, “I can’t go that far without him.”
Off we went, where we joined 30+ American organizers who were working in different areas to fight poverty. And there, we stayed in the Papal residence for the next six days, caucusing everyday about steps we might take to impact the growing poverty, including water shutoffs, in an effort to brainstorm about what could we do.
We had a special, exclusive audience with the Pope in his Auditorium (on day #5) where we all talked openly about migrant treatment, water shutoffs, hunger, etc., and he POINTED his finger as he told us not to be afraid to speak up and speak out! Us 30+ were in his Auditorium alone for more than an hour talking about these and other things and his ‘rock-star’ glow filled the room with each word.
Part of this historical event introduced me to a man I thought was a gardener, who helped me get up that Roman hill on a tour that was tiring me out…I was walking too slow for the rest of the group. That man took me to some back door he said was a short-cut, where he told me to go in, and that he enjoyed our conversation.
I went the way he told me, so me and my son were directed into a rear door of the Basilica of St. Paul where we waited with the rest of the crew for the Mass about to be celebrated. Turns out, the gardener was Cardinal Peter Turkson who just listened and laughed as I talked about how typical it was to have a person of color doing yard work. I said so many STUPID American jokes to him and he just smiled. He was the one who celebrated the Mass…he just nodded as he passed by us. So, there you go…
The Pope was grassroots, Cardinal Turkson is grassroots, and a memory was created that will be cherished forever…2016.
Editor’s note: Here’s a few of many posts the People’s Tribune has published over the years about about the fight to stop the water crisis in Michigan!
