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May
7, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 9Oakland,
CA
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| Several years ago, Father Jayson Landeza began placing
a wooden cross in front of St. Columba Church each time a person was
murdered in Oakland. At the end of the year, he removes the crosses
and begins again. So far this year, he has erected 30 crosses. CHRIS DUFFEY PHOTO |
Father Jayson
Landeza, an Oakland Police chaplain and chair of a violence response task
force at Catholic Charities of the East Bay, has two suggestions for Catholics
who are concerned about the growing number
of homicides in the East Bay.
First, put aside differences, egos, and pride and join with advocacy groups
such as Oakland Community Organizations.
Second, see Christ in others.
OCO, a collaboration of 40 churches and 20 other entities, was instrumental
in passing Measure Y, Oakland’s Violence Prevention and Public Safety
Act of 2004, he said. OCO put pressure on the Oakland City Council to
place the measure on the ballot, then “We walked precincts, held
forums and facilitated discussions.”
The measure passed, giving the city $19 million from parcel taxes over
the next 10 years to fund violence prevention and public safety programs
and services.
Catholic Charities of the East Bay is one of Measure Y’s numerous
local funding recipients. It has received $300,000 to create crisis outreach
teams who will provide help to the families of young murder victims as
they go through the emotional, spiritual, psychological and physical realities
of losing a loved one.
The team approach is the first of its kind in Oakland to offer direct,
immediate, on-the-scene services, said Father Landeza, who serves as pastor
of St. Columba Parish.
As the outreach team members deal with the tragic aftermaths of violence,
however, they need the support of the entire diocese in figuring out how
to stop the carnage in the first place, said the priest. That means looking
at crime, poverty, unemployment, conflict resolution, child development,
lack of parental presence, addictions, depression and domestic violence,
he said.
OCO is concerned with these issues and could use more members, he added..
Of the 18 Catholic parishes in Oakland, only seven are members.
“I have often heard priests in Oakland complain about the level
of crime and violence in Oakland, but these same priests would not get
involved in community-based collaborative interfaith efforts to stem the
violence, nor would they encourage their parishioners to get involved,”
he said.
Father Landeza thinks that Catholics “seem to have lost our sense
of honoring life from womb to tomb. We’ve become so accustomed to
violence that we have become anesthetized to it.”
And while everyone is horrified by the recent homicides at Virginia Tech,
some of the same perceptions which prompted Cho to lash out exist in the
City of Oakland, he pointed out.
“If I look at your typical homicide suspect in Oakland and (in Blacksburg),
both seemed to be violently and inappropriately responding to the level
of disrespect that they perceive to have received from individuals or
from society.”
Father Landeza hopes “people will see the underlying issues contributing
to Cho’s actions and ask questions: How do we treat those who are
isolated and alienated, either by choice or by society? How do we respond
to mental illness in our midst? What does this say about the availability
of guns?”
But violence has other faces as well, he said. “People can be terribly
violent and disrespectful with words.” For example, “a father’s
angry reaction to an umpire’s call at his son’s Little League
team or a mother’s response to the principal over her son’s
suspension from the local Catholic elementary school.”
This is where bringing Christ into every situation has to assume the center
stage of people’s consciousness, said Father Landeza. “Violence
awareness is deeply personal and calls us to reflect the Christian call
for us to be people of love, faith, justice and peace by seeing Christ
in others.”
Father Landeza said that he struggles as a police chaplain “to treat
everyone with respect, including prostitutes, the homies, drug addicts
and street people.”
