Bob Bossie, a Catholic priest and antiwar activist, was first awakened to the need for social activism when he witnessed a protest against the B-1 bomber. In this conversation, Bossie discusses with fellow activist Anne Ford how he came to be a social activist and how his spirituality has been impacted by the spirituality of the poor.
This story was produced by StoryCorps.
This story is a part of the American Pilgrimage Project, a conversation series that invites Americans of diverse backgrounds to sit together and talk to each other one-to-one about the role their religious beliefs play at crucial moments in their lives. The interview was recorded and produced by StoryCorps, a national nonprofit whose mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.
Bob Bossie: My mother and dad were having troubles financially, and so their refrigerator broke down, and so I went out with them one day to try and find a used refrigerator. And while I was walking down the street with them, there was this protest where people were marching with signs and banners, and they were protesting against the B-1 Bomber, but I didn't have any social political background or understanding wisdom to put it in context. But nonetheless, it made some sort of a strong impression on me.
I ended up going to Catholic Theological Union, which is a Catholic theology school on the South side of Chicago. And I had already been working in the Englewood area, which is an inner city parish, and I started to become sensitive to social justice concerns. My friends, they were going to make a trip to Latin America, invited me to go along and it had life changing impact on me.
Anne Ford: What did you see on that trip?
Bob Bossie: One of the most remarkable experiences I had there was in Lima, Peru.We ran into three bishops who had left their cathedral and moved out to the countryside to be among hundreds of thousands of poor people there. And we asked them, "Why did you move? Why did you do such a thing?" And they said, "I wanted to allow the poor to convert me." the Bishop said. And I was very touched by that.
Anne Ford: What did he mean by that, do you think?
Bob Bossie: Well, I didn't know at the time, but I learned slowly because I eventually did that. I moved out of my religious community house to uptown Chicago, which was at the time a port of entry for vast variety of different types of immigrants and poor people, street people. And what came to me was that they know God as well as I know God, but they know God out of a different context, God is already there. God was there long before I got there.
So my goal, and I think the goal of the bishops, was to let poor people, street people, become my friends and my companions, and that would be my community. People that might not look and talk like me, but who are deeply spiritual, and loving and caring. Because that was one of my goals, becoming a priest, was to help others find that God. And I don't say that in some evangelistic way that I've got to get everybody to believe in God and therefore they'll be saved. That's not my mentality. It's finding what life is about. That's what I mean.
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