Thursday, November 9
7:00 pm
Shaeffer Hall
hosted by
Amnesty International
Sat., November 11
6:30 pm (following a soup
supper)
St. Thomas More (lower
level parish hall)
Tom will be accompanied by Fr.
Hennessey's sisters, Sister
Gwen and Marilyn. Books will be
available for purchase and
signing.
Tom Melville
In 1967, after nearly a decade working with Mayan communities in
Guatemala, Maryknoll priest Thomas Melville was expelled for sympathizing
with the rebel movement against the U.S.-backed military dictatorship. A
year later, he was arrested and imprisoned in the U.S. for nonviolent civil
disobedience protesting U.S. intervention in Vietnam and Guatemala.
Since he has written Through a Glass Darkly: The U.S. Holocaust in
Central America, (2005) a compelling chronicle of resistance and
repression in Guatemala and El Salvador, based on the life and work of his
former colleague, Father Ron Hennessey.
Tom Melville was ordained as a Maryknoll priest and sent to Guatemala in
1957. There he founded co-operatives and worked on economic
development and land distribution programs. He was eventually exiled by
Guatemalan and church authorities for organizing peasants in opposition
to the government. After the expulsion and leaving the order, he married
the former Maryknoll sister Marjorie Bradford and then returned to the
United States to advocate against U.S. government and business practices
in Guatemala.
Melville's religious training -- as a youngster in Boston and later in
Maryknoll -- prompted him to ask why successive U.S. administrations
financed repressive governments in Guatemala and Central America and
why antigovernment guerrillas were labeled "terrorists" while U.S. advisors
and their students were hailed as "freedom fighters."
In 1968 Tom and Marjorie were part of the Catonsville Nine who burned
draft files to protest the war in Vietnam. They were found guilty of
destruction of U.S. property, destruction of Selective Service files, and
interference with the Selective Service Act of 1967. While awaiting
sentencing, Tom and his wife both completed master?s degrees. After
serving his time, Tom earned a PhD in cultural anthropology and has
continued as a scholar and activist in Guatemalan affairs. He is also the
author of Guatemala: Another Vietnam and Guatemala: The Politics of
Land Ownership.
Read a review of
Through a Glass
Darkly: The U.S.
Holocaust in
Central America
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