It has implications in canon law but more importantly is a final, definitive embracing of the Jesuit life. This vow mass was on a hot, heavy, late-summer Saturday afternoon last September in New York. The bulk of St. Francis Xavier Church on Sixteenth Street dwarfed the community of Dear's family and friends who gathered with him. Industrial-strength fans chugged through the muggy air and dampered the voices of the readers and the celebrants. But no one cared about the heat or the noise.
Final vows are about commitment, and commitment is a strong, clear voice.
Dear spoke about is very much part of his commitment. They picked their way through the dark woods, crossed a deep icy stream, and ducked away from guard patrols until they reached the floodlit fleet of F15 bombers engaged in war games preparing for possible bombing runs in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Guards, guns, arrest, jail, and trial followed in quick order. For Dear, this protest action and arrest grew out of a long commitment to nonviolence. In college at Duke University, he was known as a Catholic pacifist involved in issues of justice.