For Religious (ISSN 0034-639X) Is Published Bi-Monthly at Saint Louis University by the Jesuits of the Missouri Province

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Christian Heritages and Contemporary Living JULY-AUGUST 1992 ¯-VOLUME 51 ¯ NUMBER 4 Review for Religious (ISSN 0034-639X) is published bi-monthly at Saint Louis University by the Jesuits of the Missouri Province. Editorial Office: 3601 Lindell Boulevard ¯ St. Louis, Missouri 63108-3393. Telephone: 314-535-3048 ¯ FAX: 314-535-0601

Manuscripts, books for review, and correspondence with the editor: Review for Religious ¯ 3601 Lindell Boulevard ° St. Louis, Missouri 63108-3393. Correspondence about the Canonical Counsel department: Elizabeth McDonough OP ¯ 5001 Eastern Avenue ¯ P.O. Box 29260 Washington~ D.C. 20017. POSTMASTER Send address changes to Review for Religious ° P.O. Box 6070 ° Duluth, MN 55806. Second-class postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri, and additional offices. SUBSCRIPTION RATES Single copy $5 includes surface mailing costs. One-year subscription $15 plus mailing costs. Two-year subscription $28 plus mailing costs. See inside back cover for more subscription information and mailing costs. ©1992 Review for Religious for religious

Editor David L. Fleming SJ Associate Editors Philip C. Fischer SJ Michael G. Harter SJ Canonical Counsel Editor Elizabeth McDonough OP Assistant Editors Jean Read Mary Ann Foppe Advisory Board Mary Margaret Johanning SSND Iris Ann Ledden SSND Edmundo Rodriguez SJ Se~in Sammon FMS Wendy Wright PhD Suzanne Zuercher OSB

Christian Heritages and Contemporary Living JULY-AUGUST 1992 ¯ VOLUME 51 ¯ NUMBER 4 contents

evangelizing and witnessing ° 486 Church of the Poor Juan Ram6n Moreno sJ reflects on the implications of seeing the poor as central for the identity of the church and religious life. 496 Women Missioners amidst Violence Annmarie Sanders IHM reflects the questions, fears, and challenges facing foreign women missionaries in Peru. 504 School of Terror Roy Bourgeois MM speaks on behalf of the poor as he voices his concern about a particular military training camp called the School of the Americas. inculturating 508 Women Religious and the African Synod M. Gerard Nwagwu offers her thoughts on the evangelization of Africa in an article originally presented as the keynote address at the National Day of Celebration of the Nigerian Conference of Women Religious in January 1992. 519 Rerooting Religious Life in South Africa Jennifer Mary Alt OP reflects on how native African spiritual values might become better integrated into the religious-life vocation. living religiously 527 Religious Life and Religion Albert DiIanni SM calls attention to the religious core of a belief in God and of our relationship with God which cannot be reduced to a personal~ social, or ecological morality. 54O Detachment in Our Psychological Age Eileen P. O’Hea CSJ explains detachment as a way of freeing ourselves from our compulsive behaviors and opening ourselves to God’s healing. 545 An Ache in My Heart Bernard Seif SMC witnesses to the continuing call and direction of God in bringing forth new forms of dedicated life in the " church.

482 Review Jbr Religious focusing religious life 550 Religious Life in Church Documents Patricia F. Walter OP presents some aspects identifying religious life in conciliar and postconciliar documents of the magisterium. 562 The Ignatian Charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph Joan L. Roccasalvo CSJ shows how the Spiritual Exercises permeate Jean-Pierre M~daille’s Maxims of Perfection and so fire an Ignatian spirit for the Sisters of St. Joseph. 575 Envisioning Associate Identity Rose Marie Jasinski CBS reflects on the status of the associate movement in the light of the second national conference held 5-7 May 1991. 581 Musings about Vocations James E. Claffey CM finds vocation ministry a stimulant to a broader understanding of how God breaks into our history. ministering 585 Pastoral Leadership beyond the Managerial (XL*~ Matthias Neuman OSB stresses the role of spiritual leadership in the midst of ministry challenges. 595 Scarcity and Abundance in Parishes Thomas P. Sweetser SJ compares the parish to a desert of scarcities, but at the same time a desert beautiful with hidden wells of life. 600 Marian Community and Ministry Patrick Primeaux SM combines data from both the theological and businessomanage.ment disciplines to distinguish a Petrine and a Marian way of ministering and of living community. 614 Three Images of Priesthood Henry J. Charles proposes the images of priest as collaborator, mystagogue, and holy man for a renewed understanding of priesthood. departments 484 Prisms /~ 625 Canonical Counsel: Involuntary Ex~laustration 632 Book Reviews

.l~uly-Augu.ct 1992 483 History happens. We human beings can write our history books and, by emphasis and omission and sometimes by romanticizing, make as if we are mas- ters of our history. It may take only some seventy years for the rewriting of the Communist history of Russia or it prisms may take five hundred years for the European discovery of the Americas to be reevaluated. But it happens. We say that Pope John XXIII made history when he called the Second Vatican Council. We are well aware that the church experienced, through the actions of the bishops present at the council, something that has been likened to a second Pentecost. For our own availability to the God of history, we need to return again and again to the happening of that first Pentecost and the subsequent events as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. God’s Spirit makes things happen, even when the very persons involved seem so little capable of being the crafters of history. Most recently Pope John Paul II has expressed his own desire to make history by his call for a new evangelization, particularly occasioned by our entering into the third millennium. This call to a new evangelization holds the promise of another moment of this second Pentecost that came with Vatican II. It is history happening, in which none of us is the master or control-artist, but every one of us plays an important role--with the Spirit’s direction. Evangelization--new evangelization--demands much of us all. A paradigm of evangelization and inculturation captures our attention anew as we reflect upon the events in the Acts of the Apostles. It means that no one can hold himself or herself exempt from the call of this second moment of the second Pentecostqthe call to a new hear-

484 Review for Religious ing of good news. This is not the time for new rules or the impo- sition of old ones--the Judaizers tried that two thousand years ago. It is the time for Cornelius, his wife, and household to invite Peter once again to proclaim the gospel so that new conversion on everyone’s part can take place. It is the time for Peter to dream new dreams and hear God telling him that old restrictions do not apply in a new creation moment. One of the deepest meanings of Pentecost lies in the fact that all peoples heard the good news in a way that they could understand and respond to. It goes beyond the language barrier to breakthroughs involving customs, heritages, and rituals. In the Pentecost beginnings, Jesus Christ and the gospel message needed no inculturation. In the new evangelization as in the original one recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, it is not Jesus Christ who needs to be inculturated; he is already a confidant of people’s hearts. It is his church that must be inculturated by being evangelized anew as well as by evangelizing others. The Acts of the Apostles--the story of the first evangelizing time--portrays the exhilarating and somber picture that inculturating a church does not come without cost--a cost which everyone must bear in listening to ~hocking good news, in experiencing a certain amount of turmoil, in suffering the pain of differences expressed vigorously by people who serve or are served. John Paul II has said that "we need an evangelization that is new in its ardor, new in its method, new in its expressions." That ’ is what we--always the disciples--must allow to happen to ourselves first: to be evangelized anew in order to be the new evan- gelizers. We need to rethink how to inculturate a church, not a gospel. If the original Jewish and pagan converts to the new Christian faith seemed to share little common religious heritage and ritual and yet, with struggle, came to form the Body of Christ, can we today not recognize the imperative of a new evangelization demanding the same kind of breakthrough for traditionalists, liberals, feminists, or whatever modern-day version an appeal to the party of Apollos or Paul takes? A new evangelization brings the excitement of discovery into our own lives and so into our church. Let the Spirit lead. It has happened; it will happen again. David L. Fleming SJ

~uly-Augu~t 1992 485 JUAN RAMON MORENO

Church of the Poor

Juan Ram6n Moreno SJ was one of six Jesuits murdered along with an employee and her daughter by Salvadoran military forces at the Jesuit residence of the Central American University, San Salvador, evangelizing on 16 November 1989. He was widely known as a spiritual director, teacher, preacher, and giver of and retreats and conferences and was the founder and editor of the spirituality journal Diakonfa. Besides witnessing holding other responsibilities, at various times he was novice director for the Jesuits of Central America, local superior, university professor, and president of the Panamanian and Nicaraguan conferences of religious. This article was first published in Diakonfa 7 (1978): 17-28 and republished in a collection of Father Moreno’s writings, Evangelio y misidn (San Salvador: UCA Editores, 1990). The translation is by James R. Brockman SJ with the permission of UCA Editores. The footnotes are the translator’s.

The term "church of the poor" is meant to express a new awareness of what it is to be church, an awareness that is growing in force among Christians in Latin America. The following thoughts are proposed as a help toward understanding the foundation and principal traits of this way of viewing the church.

Church of the Poor and Vatican II The schema on the church elaborated by the preconciliar doctrinal commission brought together the ecclesiology traditionally taught in recent centuries, and the

486 Review for Religious

that allow one to recognize in Jesus the hoped-for Messiah are that "the blind see and the lame walk.., and the good news is proclaimed to the poor" (Mt 11:5), what should be the traits that make recognizable Jesus’ church?

Church Born from Below Vatican II has allowed us to pass from a church that becomes conscious of itself and is organized and structured fr0m within, from itself, to a church that seeks to understand and structure itselffr0m without, from the world that it has been sent to in order to make God’s kingdom grow in that world. Nevertheless, the reality that the world is a divided world had not yet made its full impact on the council. Consequently, the challenges to which it more directly proposes to respond are those of a world seen too much from above, from the angle of the learned and the skilled, from the culture and the perspective of the dominant classes. But at Medellfn2 the Latin American bishops began to express in an inspired and probing manner the conflictive reality of our world. The cry of the impoverished majority of the continent found an echo. The church began to become aware of itself and to organize and structure its life and pastoral action not from an abstract world or from just any part of the real, concrete world, but from below, from the world of the poor, and from there to fashion itself as the true church of Christ.

Church of the Poor One must not confuse church of the poor with church3’br the poor. A church for the poo~r would be a church that is constituted in a first step that is logically prior to its encounter with the poor and then, in a second step, seeks out the poor to serve and help them. But the church of the poor is a church that in its very constitution has the poor as its center. There is no doubt that the church, as the historical body of Christ, must place itself in the world to transform it and to make present in it the reign of God. It must be incarnated, that is, take a body, become a visible and acting institution. But the problem is, what are the criteria that are to determine its institutional shape? What body will it take? Faithful to the incarnational logic of Jesus, the church must take the body of the poor, incorporat-

j~uly-.4ugust 1992 489 Moreno ¯ Church of the Poor

ing the poor, making the poor to be those who make up what is characteristic and determinant of its body, which is structured and takes visible form from the cause and the interests of the poor. Let us take a Gospel passage that graphically illustrates this, which is the particular way of acting of Jesus. I choose the short scene with which Mark begins his third chapter. He describes a Jesus situated within a determined sociocultural-religious context. But Jesus is situated in it concretely, and he is situated in a way which is perceived by one of the parties as threatening to its interests--"they wer~ watching him closely" (3:2)--and which provokes a conflict so sharp that "they plotted together to see how to eliminate him" (3:6). What is indicative is the place where Jesus is situated and from which he faces the situation: solidarity with the actual man, the man in his poverty, the man oppressed by his paralyzed hand and forsaken by the institution. He has him step into the middle of the synagogue. And he obliges the others, the representatives of the grand institution, to face up to their own presuppositions: Is it licit or not? What is more important, the institution or the person, maintaining the institution or freeing a man from what concretely oppresses him? What is the criterion to act on? "But they were silent" (3:4). Jesus’ reaction is, "Then looking at them with anger . . ." (3:5). Countless times the Gospels speak of Jesus’ look--always a loving and compassionate look. Now he looks "with anger." At whom? At that group of wise, prudent men who are respectful of the institution. Why? Because they refuse to commit themselves to the man, they refuse to make a decision in regard to a poor person, they refuse to take a stand in a situation that questions their rigid institutional schemes. Jesus says, "Hold out your hand" (3:5). Jesus chooses the poor person, the man in a situation of concrete need. The institution is either at the service of human beings orit does not reflect the true God. The Gospels contain many even more radical expressions about the poor as the fundamental criterion for discerning whether we are following the path to God’s kingdom. Perhaps the most awesome and disquieting is the words contained in Matthew 25:31-46: "Come, blessed ones of my Father, inherit the kingdom . . . for I was hungry and you gave me to eat... depart from me, accursed ones.., for I was naked and you did no~’ clothe me .... " There is not much room here for sociological or

490 Review for Religious theological lucubrations about who are the poor that are spoken of and what is the determinant criterion for measuring God’s nearness.

Crucified Church As we can see in the example of Jesus, taking the side of the poor supposes having the courage to get involved in conflict. The history of the Latin American church since Medellfn confirms what has been true all through its existence: insofar as it empties itself of power and prestige so as to enter the world of the poor and be identified with them and their cause, it has also had to suffer their lot--crucifixion and death--and it has come to understand why it cannot follow Jesus without denying itself and carrying the cross. It is because the immense majority of the poor are not poor simply because of nature, but because of other persons. In reality, the poor are the impoverished. Hence, their mere presence is an accusation, a questioning; it creates conflict. The poor are a cause of division, a division whose theological meaning is apocalyptically described in the eschatological discourse I have mentioned: "He will separate one from the other, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats" (Mt 25:32). Jesus himself, poor and in solidarity with the poor, appears as "a sign of contradiction" (Lk 2:34); and when he takes his place actually at the side of the poor, he provokes conflict and repression, and he suffers death. For this reason the church of the poor is the crucified church, the church of the martyrs. It is so insofar as it is a church of the poor. As long as it preaches universal but abstract love, as long as it is a church from above, the world’s powerful praise and respect it; they consider it their church. But when it begins to translate love into historical terms, when it begins to take the side of the poor and it plans and organizes its pastoral work with them in mind, then it begins also to be the church that is slandered and persecuted. If we look at this fact in the light of the Beatitudes (see Lk 6:22-23, 26) there is no doubt which one is the church of Jesus.

Church in which the Poor are Evangelized The poor are the privileged consignees of the good news of

.~ly-Aug’ust 1992 491 Moreno ¯ Church of the Poor

salvation. That does not mean they are the exclusive consignees. Partiality is not the same as exclusiveness. Jesus comes to bring salvation for all. But he comes to bring it from the poor, and fi’om them he confronts the changes that must come about in the world; he makes specific what it means to be converted, what it means to become brothers and sisters. This is not a matter of mystifying the poor, as if they were the good and the rich were the bad. It is that objectively God’s identification with the poor, the defense of their cause, is precisely where it is revealed what God is, a God who is love that saves, love that creates a brotherhood and sisterhood of sons and daughters, love that makes all things new. And so it is from there that salvation is offered to all. The Beatitudes proclaim, not the goodness of human beings, but the goodness of the God who identifies with the little ones of the earth. The Acts of the Apostles describes for us a church that under, stood this very well and where for that reason the poor find their place in such a way that they cease to be poor: Among them no one was needy, because all those who pos- sessed land or houses sold them and brought the price of the sale.., and distribution was made to all according to their needs (Ac 4:34-35). It is the very gesture of him who "being rich became poor for you in order to enrich you with his poverty (2 Co 8:9).

Church in which the Poor Evangelize Us This is another of the traits that characterize the church of the poor. St. John declares: Everyone who loves . . . knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love (1 Jn 4:7-8). But those who from their objective condition teach the church what true love of God, Christian love, consists in are the poor: If someone has material possessions and sees a brother in need and yet closes his heart to him, how can love of God dwell in him? My children, let us love not just with words, with our lips, but with actions and in truth (1 Jn 3:17-18). The poor reveal to us what the demands are of that love which, because it is Christian, seeks efficacy and a real change in the conditions of suffering and injustice of the poor. They makd us discover who God is: the one who takes the part of the orphan,

492 Review for Religious the widow, the stranger, the one who becomes their goeL They make us understand the Jesus who has compassion, who casts out demons, who looks with anger. They reveal to us the demons that must be cast out today, what the sin is that today stirs up the Lord’s anger, what it is that today negates brotherhood, that kills our brother or sister. It is from the poor we must learn what grace means, grace that is manifested in powerlessness, that From the poor makes possible the impossible, that bursts we must learn in as pure gift. In short, they keep on making us discover the Gospel in a new what grace means, dimension. On the other hand, if the poor are the grace that is manifested privileged consignees of the good news in powerlessness, of the kingdom, that means they must also be privileged in understanding and that makes possible interpreting what that good news signi- the impossible, fies. The Gospel is understood through the lens of the poor and from their per- that bursts in as pure gift. spective. Therefore, it is in them before all else that the Spirit becomes present, and from there the Spirit speaks today to the church. There is a hierarchical magisterium in the church, but it only makes sense if it is rooted in the reality of those poor who make up the church’s rank and file. The good shepherd’s sheep follow him because "they know his voice" and "he knows his own sheep" (Jn 10:4, 14). The hierarchy of the church of the poor is a hierarchy of service, not of domination. It is a hierarchy that knows its sheep in dialogue and solidarity, that is ai~tuned to their concrete needs, their sufferings, their longings. Precisely for this reason, because it can hear and understand the people’s silent cry, it is able to speak with a language that is recognizable, and in the hierarchy’s voice the poor find their life, their cause, their hope, their own voice. The theological reflection of the church of the poor is done from below also, tuning in to ’the awareness and the feelings of the poor. Those poor have had their voice taken away--within the church as well--for so long that they have forgotten how to speak and must learn, to express themselves; but they must increasingly acquire a voice within the church. And that voice must be heard, because in it is revealed the Spirit of Jesus that guides the church. Thus will arise a church where things are considered, struc-

at~dy-./lugust 1992 493 Moreno ¯ Church of tbe Poor

tured, and carried out from the perspective of the poor. It is they who say how the institution should function, what new ministries are required for a better service, what ministries and functions they need so that they themselves may be active participants within the church’s life.

Church on Its Way We must not forget that this church of the poor is also a pilgrim church, a church that must keep forming itself through hardship and conflict. I am not referring now to conflict with the powers of the world; I am talking about the world and the sin that are still found within the church itself, about conflict that arises from the church’s limitations and from different models of church. The church’s unity--that unity for which Jesus died--is eschatological unity, a unity that will come about beyond the church itself as fundamental gift of the kingdom that will burst forth into fullness. The church has a mission to go on building that unity--which is universal brotherhood and sisterhood--by attacking at the root what keeps that unity from being realized. That is not achieved by denying the reality of the conflict, but by facing up to the lack of love and Folidarity that produces it. The mere existence of the poor exposes that lack of love and solidarity-which is why there will be protest, conflict, and division as long as there are poor--and it reminds us that salvation, the fullness of God’s reign, has not yet arrived.

The Religious Life in the Church of the Poor What place do we religious have within this church of the poor that I have just described? The religious life arises as protest against the values and structures of the world. It arises as a search for what is radical in the Gospel, for the "one thing necessary" (Lk 10:42), which tends to be obscured in a church tempted to become worldly, to stop being the distinct event that it ought to be within the world. With its special form of Christian existence, religious life ought to be prophecy that points continually towards the church’s true meaning and calls on it, not to settle down, but to seek ever to go forward. That is the eschatological meaning of the vows, as they show us a beyond that urgesus to transform the present.

494 Review for Religious But what is the natural place for religious life to flourish? Where is the root that makes our life radically evangelical? If what I have said about the church of the poor is true, then there is no doubt that the poor are the place par excellence where the religious life should be located in order to carry out its charism of prophecy. In point of fact, the Spirit is stirring up a notable movement among religious towards a real and concrete insertion among the poor. From there the Spirit provides light for a reinterpreta- tion of religious life itself. The religious vows are seen before all else as ,consecration to the Christ who is poor and identified with the poor, as vows that consecrate by freeing us from fixity and exclusiveness so as to form Christians who are available for all and approachable by all, but with an availability and approachability whose universalness is shown precisely in being dedicated by preference to the poor and effectively committed to their cause. It means being detached in order to go where the institution can scarcely reach because of the difficulty and poverty of the conditions. Jon Sobrino expresses it very well as a going to the desert, the periphery, the frontier: to the desert, where no one is, where no one wants to go; to the periphery, where everything is seen through the lens of the powerless (not to the center, where the powerful are, where things are seen from above); to the frontier, where risks are greater and the task is harder, where there are no trodden paths because no one has trod them and the walkways are made by walking. What better way to fulfill religious life’s prophetic function within the church than to help it read the signs of the times from that insertion into the world and struggle of the poor? What better way than to point out the new paths that the Spirit of Jesus is having us discover through the poor, in whom that Spirit becomes so specially present? The challenge offered us is, how to bring this about? To what conversion does the Lord call us as religious within the church so that we may help it become increasingly a church of the poor?

Notes 1 The Documents of Vatican H (New York: The America Press, 1966), pp. 23-24. 2 The 1968 Latin American bishops’ assembly at Medell~n, Colombia.

July-August 1992 495 ANNMARIE SANDERS

Women Missioners amidst Violence

efforts of two insurgency groups, drug lords, and a military that violates more human rights than the groups it seeks to suppress. Through the country more than sixty percent of the people are living in emergency zones, and a great deal of these areas have been placed under military control. Many of the towns have lost their leaders, doctors, teachers, and development workers and even their police. Often only Catholic church workers remain, the great majority of whom are women religious. The situation has called us who serve here to a new way of living and ministering among the people and to a new spirituality. Following Christ and living Christian values can no longer be done as in the past. The reality in which our spirituality is lived out is now radically different. In speaking with various foreign women missionaries throughout Peru, I see that we struggle with many of the same new challenges, are asking ourselves the same questions, and are recognizing similar patterns in our lives of prayer and relation with God. Our situation is unique because of the state of the country in which we work. The complexity of problems plaguing

Annmarie Sanders IHM, a member of her congregation’s vocation and formation team, has been in Peru since March 1989, She also works as associate editor of Latinamerica Press/Noticias Aliadas. Her address is Apartado 18-0101 ; Lima, Peru.

496 Review for Religious Peru does not follow any pattern in the history of other nations, and thus we have no precedent to follow. To understand our questions, fears, and challenges, one must better understand the context of the violence we face. Peru’s two terrorist groups, the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Move- ment, hold as their primary goals the takeover of the country. So far their efforts since 1980 Although the ¯ have resulted in 23,000 deaths, 5,000 disap- pearances and US$18 billion in economic terrorist problem damage. Sendero has declared its willingness to wade through a "river of blood" to expunge has been present foreign influence in Peru and establish a peas- in the country ant society. It rejects competition from the church, the state, and the private sector. The for over a decade, methods of the two groups include bombings, only recently intimidations, blackmail, torture, and ruth- less murder. The terrorist groups are known has the church been to be linked with narco-traffic rings, and in return for the security which the terrorists directly affected. provide coca traffickers, they receive an esti- mated $40 million a year. Although the current government of President Albert Fujimori attempts to control the drug trafficking and terrorist situations, it also battles cholera, endemic corruption, frequent drought, eighty-percent underemployment, and a deep economic depression leaving 13 million of Peru’s 22 million inhabitants in extreme poverty, a figure which has doubled in three years. The government must also contend with the Peruvian military and police forces, which, according to the Washington Office on Latin America, are among the worst violators of human rights in the hemisphere. The U.S. State Department’s 1990 human-rights report notes "widespread credible reports of summary executions, arbitrary arrests, and torture and rape by the military, as well as less frequent reports of such abuses by the police." The United Nations Commission on Human Rights noted that in 1991, for the fourth consecutive year, Peru had the highest number of disap- pearances of all the countries in the world. Although the terrorist problem has been present in the country for over a decade, only recently has the church been directly affected. Between the church and the terrorists there had existed

.~dy-August 1992 497 Sanders ¯ Women Missioners amidst Violence

an "understanding." Generally, when terrorists entered to take over a village, if church workers complied with terrorist expectations they were left unharmed. The church work often had to be significantly curtailed,.’but the religious could remain as a presence to the people. The recent direct destruction of church projects and property; the deaths of Irene McCormack, an Australian Sister of St. Joseph, in Junin in May 1991 and of Zbigniew Strzalkowski and Michael Tomaszek, Polish Franciscan priests, and Alessandro Dordi Negroni, an Italian priest, in Chimbote in August 1991; and the attempted assassination in July 1991 in Chimbote of Miguel Company, a priest from Spain, changed the scene significantly. More religious encountered terrorist demands that their works--especially food aid and development projects--be stopped, and many received direct threats on their lives. Rather suddenly priests and religious became direct terrorist targets. Sendero Luminoso proclaimed that the church was the enemy of the people and an obstacle to revolutionary triumph. As the Rev. Robert Gloisten, a U.S. missioner and a staff member of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference for Social Action, stated, "We have become a church under fire with no idea of what will happen day to day." For several years, denial of the seriousness of the situation was possible. Life was carried on with a vague knowledge that terrorists were active in a few isolated areas; as long as their activity did not directly touch us, we could continue peacefully. Those days are past. ~ The level of awareness and acceptance of the reality of this situation naturally differs for each person. Much depends on one’s personal experiences. For example, Pittsburgh Sister of Mercy Rita Harasiuk, who works in the diocese of Chimbote, was jolted by the death of her three colleagues into a new view of the situation: Although I began seeing things differently with the attempted assassination of Miguel Company, it was really the deaths of the two Franciscans that affected me the most. The two, along with two mayors from nearby towns who were also killed, were laid out together in coffins--all open-- and one worse than the other. For some of us, it was the first time we had seen what a human body looked like after having been shot in the head with weapons designed to destroy and mutilate .... When Sandro [Alessandro Dordi] was killed two weeks later, we could see that more killing might go on. That’s when we really began to struggle with what our response to this situation should be.

498 Review for Religious For California native Teresa Avalos of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, an incident directly involving her community played a significant role in making the situation more real for her and her sisters. In July 1991 a group of Sendero Luminoso terrorists entered Moho, where five of her community members lived and worked. They dynamited several buildings, executed six people, and ordered the townspeople to break into and ransack the convent. "This brought the fear of violence that is directed toward us much more into An important task the open," Avalos said. Others of us have grown in our most of us have faced acceptance of the seriousness of the has been the admission of situation from our hearing such accounts by our colleagues. We stand our feelings in the midst in solidarity with them, aware that the problem is no longer isolated. An of such turmoil. important task most of us have faced has been the admission of our feelings in the midst of such turmoil. Fear, naturally, is among the most common emotions, and, unfortunately, sometimes very difficult to accept and share with others. "We are all at different stages of being able to accept the reality, and some are still in a stage of denial," said California native Liane Delsuc of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. "This leaves me often feeling alone and sometimes I don’t want to share my fears because others don’t feel them. I start to think--is it only me that feels this way? Does that mean I should leave? That I am not able to handle it? But I do not feel that is the case. So I look for people with whom I can more freely share because in sharing it I feel stronger and as if I can continue living this." The sharing has helped us understand the wide range of emotions we feel. "Reflecting with others enables me to sift through real fears and imaginary ones," said Pauline Maheux, an Edmonton, Canada, native of the Ursuline Sisters of the Chatham Union; "in sharing we help one another admit to our fears and face them." The emotions one feels get mixed up when one watches the sense- less killing and destruction of years of work. Feelings include shock and anger. Often what is hardest for us to accept is the distrust we now feel towards others since we know that we must be aware of terrorist infiltration into our parishes and workplaces.

July-August 1992 499 Sanders ¯ Women Missioners amidst Violence

Harasiuk received a shocking revelation of this after the funeral for the slain Franciscans. At the offertory two gifts were quietly brought in procession to the altar: the rope used to tie the hands of those killed and the blood-covered cardboard left on their bodies with messages from the assassins. "We later discovered that among the young people bringing the gifts to the altar were persons who belonged to Sendero." Our situation naturally causes us to reflect on death--that which we see around us as well as our own. "I think much more about the possibility of my own death," said French native Anna Ingett of the Sisters of Christian Education; "not that I think death will come in the next few days,,but I am more conscious of its nearness." Given this stark reality, we are constantly asking ourselves on personal, communal, local, diocesan, and national levels: How do we deal with this personally and how are we to respond as church workers? One of the greatest challenges we face is receiving accurate information about what is happening in the country. The media in Peru are severely restricted and often rely on third-party sources; great doubts remain. Although organizations such as the Religious Conference of Peru work hard to gather facts, the dis- semination of information is very difficult, given the lack many religious have of telephones and reliable mail service. Many religious, however, felt aided by the Religious Conference’s meetings and workshops on violence and also by programs dealing with situations and problems in the various dioceses. What seems most useful to us are open, honest dialogues with our community members and other religious working in our areas. Many of us have listened to the facts, tried to process our feelings, and then asked ourselves some hard questions: How much more of this can I take? Will I leave if one more religious or priest is killed? Can I live with this tension? Can I remain a sign of hope in what looks like an apparently hopeless situation? Once some sense of peace was reached about our presence here, we began reexamining why we are staying. Many of us, especially those working the emergency zones, began looking at our work with very different eyes. "After the deaths here, most of us slowed down and started thinking, evaluating, praying, and talking together about why we are here and what we should be doing," said Harasiuk, who has been working for ten years as a pastoral team member in Chimbote. She recalls a meeting of priests and

500 Revlew for Religious sisters where someone asked, "Do you think you should continue working as you have been?" Not one person said yes. Many pastoral workers have reduced their work to simple presence in their parishes. They no longer lead groups, distribute food and aid, or attempt to organize the people. They maintain a low profile and lead quiet lives of simple accompaniment. For Delsuc, who is principal in a Lima barrio of a Fe and Alegrfa School, one of forty-three institutes set up by the Jesuits to educate young I wonder if we are people in Lima’s shantytowns and in presenting relevant, the provinces, the questions about work are many: "I wonder if we are peaceful alternatives presenting relevant, peaceful alternatives that will allow the people to that will allow the people respond with Christian values to the to respond with Christian violence around them? I wonder if it would’be better not to be involved in values to the violence a certain work and just live alongside around them ? the people? I wonder if our commitment to the people is valuable even if it brings death?" Many of our questions must be left unanswered. But we recognize that simply by asking them we have allowed our lives to be changed. For many of us, before we could accept the change the situation calls us to, we had to let go of the past. Harasiuk says that this was a common experience for the religious in Chimbote after the deaths. "Our grieving process was not just for persons, but for a whole way of life that is passing. This situation has taken away from us a freedo~n to move day and night without fear, to speak openly without worrying about what we say or to who~n we are talking." For Harasiuk this experience also helped her to evaluate her life and her activity and to decide what really matters. "So many of the things I had been involved in suddenly did not seem so important." Maheux, who has served as a pastoral worker for eight years in Chiclayo, had a similar experience. "The situation has enabled me to sift through what is of essence and what is truly insignifi- cant. Relationships have taken on profound meaning . . . to be nourished and cherished." The change in relationships extends for most of us also to

j~t~-Aug’u~ 1992 501 Sanders ¯ Women Missioners amidst Violence

our relation with God. Many have noted that prayer is more difficult, little ecstasy is experienced, much more anger is expressed, fewer words are used, and often God becomes the scapegoat for all of Peru’s problems. Christ, for many of us, reveals himself in new ways in Scripture. "I experience Christ more in his passion, where he ends up in the midst of violence, mistreatment, and ridicule but stands strong to his values and commitments," said Delsuc. Many seek a sense of consolation in their relation with God--an assurance that they are loved and that God is still in control. Many, feeling lost in the confusion of these times, turn to God as a source of wisdom. For Lia Finnerty, a Canadian Holy Cross sister working in Juli, prayer is now more integrally connected with what is happening in the news and in her village. "My prayer is the time when I can try to integrate our reality with God’s word and see how our community is touched by all that." That need to connect our prayer with the wider community and to pray with others is co,ninon among us. Many note that the desire for communal petitionary prayer is much stronger and that it is a helpful experience to bring to God each day all that we see and experience each day. Ingett, who serves on a pastoral team in Sicuani, notes that her community’s time of petitionary prayer is also a time for asking pardon for all that these women experience in their daily interaction with the people. Living in the midst of so much violence and structural injustice has clearly revealed to many of us the anger and violence present within ourselves. "Sometimes it’s so hard to hear that the police have attacked innocent victims or tortured young people," admitted Finnerty. "My first reaction is often a violent one, even though I want to be nonviolent." We all seem to struggle with the anger we feel and our desire to be compassionate, and we ask ourselves many questions about how we can be more nonviolent people. We are trying different approaches. Massachusetts native Carmen Foley, a Halifax Sister of Charity serving as a spiritual director in Lima, is looking at her interactions with others and her judgments and is trying to be more merciful in her attitudes. Avalos, a pastoral worker in a Lima barrio and formhr.vice-provincial of her congregation, is looking at violence in her speech and her reactions. Finnerty, a pastoral worker among the Aymara people, is returning to the Aymaran value of solidarity and community as a block to violence. Delsuc

502 Review for Religious is practicing communication techniques to become more skilled in conflict resolution. Probably most important for all of us, however, is an openness to learn from the Peruvian people, who seem to know better than any of us just what hope in the midst of crisis is all about. As Maheux concluded, "My greatest source of hope for the future is the women, men, and children with whom I live. Their faithfulness to the daily struggle to just live--to being able to eat, to the one-day-at-a-time facing of tremendous obstacles--teaches me that justice, peace, and life will endure and win out."

Coming Out

one shall know as dawn disentangles morning from night

if one’s desert spell was purgation or vacation was awakening or escape

when one emerges anointed in power or scorched and spent

Andrea Wild OSF

July-August 1992 503 ROY BOURGEOIS

School of Terror

write from the Federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, where am serving a sixteen-month sentence for an act of civil dis- obedience to protest the training of Salvadoran soldiers on United States soil. As I look back, I feel my being here is no accident, but rather the result of God’s grace at work in my life. Growing up in rural Louisiana, I was a Sunday Christian and gave little thought to issues of peace and justice. I studied geology in college with the hope of getting rich in the oil fields of South America. After college I became a naval officer and volunteered for duty in Vietnam, feeling it was. my patriotic duty to fight communism. There I met a missionary who, amid the war, gave me a vision of Jesus as a healer and peacemaker. I left Vietnam wanting to be a missionary and entered Maryknoll, whose work is in twenty-eight countries overseas and in the United States. I was ordained in 1972 and went to serve the poor of Bolivia. A slum on the outskirts of La Paz became my home for six years. In Bolivia, as in Vietnam, the poor became my teachers and challenged me to grow in my faith. I then returned to do educational work in the United States. My involvement with E1 Salvador began in 1980, after Archbishop Oscar Romero was gunned down at the altar and after four church women from the United States were raped and killed by Salvadoran soldiers. Two of the women, Maryknoll sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, were friends of mine. Their death forced me to confront what was happening in this small Central American country. Roy Bourgeois MM writes that prison can be a good place to read Scripture, pray, and do ministry. His address is Register No. 01579-017; PMB 1000; Tallahassee, Florida 32301.

504 Review for Religious After several trips to E1 Salvador, it became clear that the problem was not "communism" or "subversion" but hunger. As is the case almost everywhere in Latin America, the wealth, power, and land of E1 Salvador are in the hands of an elite few. While these live in huge mansions where they are waited on by servants and enjoy frequent vacations and shopping sprees in the United States and Europe, most Salvadorans live in dehumanizing pover.ty and die before their time. The poor, once told that The problem was their suffering was the will of God, now know better as they gather in small groups to read not "communism" and reflect on the word of God. They now real- or "subversion" ize that their poverty and suffering are the result of exploitation, greed, and irresponsible stew- bu t hunger. ardship of God’s creation. In May 1983, five hundred Salvadoran soldiers arrived at Fort Benning, Georgia, to undergo U.S. Army training. At the time, I was speaking at churches and colleges in New Orleans about the injustice of U.S. military aid to E1 Salvador. I felt it was no time for business as usual, so I went to Columbus, Georgia, the home of Fort Benning, and began meeting with local residents. After two months of meetings, talks, and prayer vigils, three of us decided to enter Fort Benning at night, dressed as U.S. Army officers. Armed with a.high-powered cassette player, we climbed a tall pine tree near the barracks that housed the Salvadoran soldiers. At lights out, we tuned the cassette player to its highest volume and played Archbishop Romero’s last homily, given in the cathedral the day before he was assassinated; in it he called on the military to stop the killing and lay down their arms. We were arrested, tried for criminal trespass ~and impersonating military officers, and sen- tenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment. After serving my term I sought a few months of silence and solitude at. a Trappist monastery, then returned to the pulpit and classroom. On 16 November 1989 six Jesuit priests, their coworker, and her fifteen-year-old daughter were brutally murdered in E1 Salvador. According to a U.S. Congressional task force sent to El Salvador to investigate the massacre, five of the nine soldiers arrested for the slayings had been trained at Fort Benning. Today, hundreds of Salvadoran and other Latin American soldiers are being trained at Fort Benning’s School of the Americas. The

.y~dy-August 1992 505 Bourgeois ¯ Scbool of Terror

School of the Americas (SOA) was located in Panama before moving to Benning in 1984. Since 1946 this training ground for Latin American soldiers has quietly readied some 45,000 officers and enlisted men for right-wing Latin American governments. Manuel Noriega is a distinguished alumnus, as is General Hugo Banzer of Bolivia. In 1984, when the SOA was forced out of Panama, then Panamanian president Jorge Illueja described the school as "the biggest base of destabilization in Latin America." The foundation of the course work at the School of the Americas is low-intensity conflict (LIC), which, by military ana- lyst Michael Klare’s definition, is "that amount of murder, muti- lation, torture, rape, and savagery that is sustainable without triggering widespread public disapproval at home." Students of LIC learn that the enemy is not just an opposing armed force; rather, the enemy can include anyone, armed or unarmed, who threatens the stability of the existing order. Hence, priests, teachers, health-care workers, union leaders, cooperative members, and human-rights advocates are among the victims of the School of the Americas. On 3 September 1990, ten of us--Vietnam veterans, Salva- dorans, a teacher, and members of the clergy--began a water- only fast at the entrance of Fort Benning to protest the training of’ Salvadoran soldiers. When our fast ended after thirty-five days, our bodies were weak but our spirits remained strong. Miguel Cruz, a Salvadoran in our group who had been forced to leave his country because of a death threat, said, "We have the option to end our fast. However, the poor in my country do not. For them hunger is an everyday occurrence." On November 16, when we had recovered from the fast, three of us--Charles Liteky, a former army chaplain who had received the Medal of Honor for heroism in Vietnam; his brother Patrick, who had trained at Fort Benning’s Infantry School, and I-- returned to Fort Benning to observe the first anniversary of the killing of the six Jesuits and the two women. After a prayer service, we entered the post, placed a white cross with photos of the eight martyrs at the entrance to the School of the Americas, and poured blood in one of the school’s main halls. We wanted to impress on our country that we cannot wash our hands of the blood of innocent people killed in E1 Salvador by soldiers trained in the United States. We were arrested and tried. A jury found us guilty of dam-

’506 Review for Religious aging government property. The Liteky brothers received six- month sentences, and I received sixteen months because of my previous conviction at Fort Benning in 1983. "Was it worth it?" I am often asked by friends and critics alike. Prison is hard and very lonely at times, even with the support of family and friends, who also suffer. My dad cried when I called home to tell him of my sentenc- ing. Yet I feel I did what my faith and the poor called me to do in the face of As a Christian such violence, death, and suffering. As a Christian I feel I must try to relieve the I feel I must try to relieve suffering of the poor and integrate my the suffering of the poor faith in a loving God with action. It is indeed tragic what our silence and integrate my faith did to the people of E1 Salvador over the in a loving God past twelve years as our po!iticians fun- neled billions of dollars (hard-earned tax with action. money) to a military regime that killed thousands of innocent people. ~ The recent peace accords in E1 Salvador now bring new hope, and it is a time for rebuilding after all the death and destruction. It is also a time for the hundreds of Salvadoran soldiers who continue their training at Fort Benning to go home--along with the troops from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, and other Latin American countries. I am convinced that we can relieve some of the suffering of the poor in Latin America by closing down the School of the Americas. It is a school of terror and should be shut down. While I am in prison, friends in Georgi~ are carrying on the peace-and-justice work. To learn more about our efforts, write to School of the Americas Watch; P.O. Box 3330; Columbus, Georgia 31903. Archbishop Romero said, "We who have a voice must speak for the voiceless." I pray and hope that we will speak clearly and boldly.

j~dy-August 1992 507 M. GERARD NWAGWU

Women Religious and the African Synod

Following the initial enthusiasm with which our people inculturating welcomed Pope John Paul II’s announcement of a special assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops,l an accom- modating attitude of tolerance for whatever might result from the event seems to have settled in. In such a frame of mind, any document coming from the synod will probably be treated like any other Vatican document---it will be gratefully accepted and respectfully mentioned, but little else will follow. If, however, the document were to grow out of our experiences and be developed from our contributions, then its contents would have a better chance of being well received and more fully observed. The introductory chapter to the Lineamenta2 speaks of the period of preparation and celebration of the synod as the "tempus acceptabile," the favorable hour, the hour of Africa. This is the hour we have all waited for. It offers us a unique opportunity to bring about some of the changes and modifications religious life in Africa needs. It is a time for religious women in Africa to state our vision of commitment and involvement. This favorable hour continues until the synod is actually celebrated and concluded, As part of this process it is important for us to raise issues and speak out about the problems that women religious encounter as they try to contribute to the work of evangelization in Africa. Indeed, for Africans this synod truly M. Gerard Nwagwu does much of her teaching at the Catholic Institute of West Africa; P.O. Box 499; Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

508 Review for Religious promises to be a "third Vatican Council" in what it could accomplish for us. Consequently the initial period of intense preparation needs to be followed by a continued interest in the synod that fosters a receptive disposition of willingness to adopt its directives. The next generation of religious is likely to question how we made use of this opportunity, criticizing chances wasted and applauding those utilized. The older generation in their turn will be less critical insofar as they have never experienced such an event during their active days and therefore cannot be blamed for not effecting changes. Our contemporaries themselves could point accusing fingers at us if, for all our ideals and foresight, we achie~ced nothing when the circumstances were most opportune. Accepting facts as they are can be a mark of virtue on occa- sion. However, if we were to do that in the present situation, it would indicate complacency and inertia exactly when the action of working toward objectives that will benefit our people is demanded of us. Accepting the status quo just when the church calls us to make a move could indicate a cowardice and portray a fear of "launching out into the deep waters and laying out the nets for a catch," as Christ challenged the Apostles to do at a point when all hope seemed lost.3 We need an openness among ourselves to help us discover our weaknesses, our duties, and our obligations of evangelization--duties that the Code of Canon Law itself demands of religious in canons 211 and 758. Aware of these challenges, we can begin searching for an effective strategy. The Lineamenta presents a good number and variety of themes for our consideration. In any of these themes, the African religious woman-has a role to play, not simply because she is an African or works in Africa, but because her religious life is directly intertwined with the life of the church. Vatican II witnessed to the fact that at no time in history has the church lacked some form of religious life.4 Religious life, in other words, is a constant and inseparable feature of the church. This universally historic fact is no different on African soil. However, it would take us too far afield to dwell on all of’the proposed themes as they relate to women religious in general. Rather let us consider those that focus strictly on the life of women religious in Africa, their apostolates, and their relationship with the world around them. Presently, most of the countries in Africa have celebrated the centenary of the arrival of the early Catholic missionaries. The few

July-August 1992 509 Nwag-wu ¯ Women Religious and the African Synod

who have not will do so in the near future. Mmost everywhere the native indigenous clergy have assumed the direction of the particular churches, on both the diocesan and parish levels. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for all congregations of religious women in Africa.5 These factors and others highlight the growth of the church in Africa. Specifically, religious institutes are not left behind in the development. The momentous rise in the number of vocations to the religious life, especially in women’s congregations, attests to this growth. Indeed the problem for many religious communities is not so much trying to attract candidates but finding ways of adequately training and forming them in the spiritual and apostolic life. It is no wonder that foreign religious institutes endeavor to recruit girls from Africa to fill up their depleted ranks. Such recruiting, however, has been limited and conditioned by the authorities since it has often left a trail of disillusioned women who believed they were sent abroad for further studies, only to find that they were meant to supply domestic services. Though the road remains open for taking candidates abroad, yet some conditions must be fulfilled.6 The obvious growth of the church in Africa is one of the "signs of the times" that determine the form evangelization should assume in our midst. The evangelization that starts first with interior conversion of hearts, matures to a personal witness of life, and finally develops into external commitments and service is the type that best suits the vocation of religious women. Before evangelizing others we must evangelize ourselves, for only after we have been converted can we support those around us.7 We shall be witnesses, yes, but only after an interior transformation of heart. Through such an authentic witness of the life of the evangelical counsels, we can make our own contribution to the new stage of evangelization required in Africa. With regard to religious life, this first stage of evangelization involVes modeling to our people the values of total dedication and consecration to God with a hope of evoking a corresponding response from young women and men to embrace religious life. The second stage of renewed evangelization which suits our time is that of deepening the faith of those who already believe and are baptized, We are already experiencing an influx of vocations, but how deep is their faith, how reliable is their commitment? Religious women, particularly, must ask probing questions,

510 Review for Religious admit the facts, and make worthwhile proposals. The point at issue is whether we realize that the effective contribution of women religious in the evangelization of Africa depends first on the genuine and generous commitments of our communities and second on the spiritual and apostolic formation we give our younger members. The vitality of religious life in Africa depends on these elements We shall be and on its being a true witness of the presence and love of God among our people. witnesses only Such an objective compels us to examine some of the negative currents that undermine our abil- after an interior ity to evangelize our people in the manner transformation referred to above. Primary among the negative currents is the wind of secularism that has blown of heart. through the world from the 1980s to the present day and has begun to register its presence in Africa. Some see it as materialism, others as atheistic humanism. Secularism, as Pope Paul VI has pointed out, views the world as entirely self-explanatory without any reference to God, who thus becomes unnecessary and is, as it were, an embarrassment. Secularism of this kind seeks to assert the power of humankind and leads to a situation in which God is ignored and denied.8 An allied expression is secularization. Where secularism is a theory and an ideology leading to denial of God, secularization is, instead, the fact and reality of experiencing life with a secularized mentality and attitude--that is, evaluating life from a worldly point of view. This, then, is the new form of atheism by which God is perceived to be less present, less necessary, less capable of providing a valid explanation of personal or social life experiences. In its undiluted form, secularization should not find a stronghold in Africa, given the characteristic spiritual vision of life within an African society wherein the divine permeates all aspects of life. However, what has invaded this sense of the sacred is the aftermath of secularization, revealed in such characteristics as superficiality, the desire for power and domination over others, autonomy and individualism, and a pleasure-loving orientation. Within our religious circles, when we lack an original experience of God and consequently fail to lead others to a similar experience, the evangelical counsels are confused or glossed over in various attempts to describe, them.

j-~uly-August 1992 511 Nwag~u ¯ Women Religious and the African Synod

Poverty is explained away in the tendency to acquire and accu- mulate in the name of the congregation; chastity in the necessity of having the comfort, convenience, and satisfaction of personal fulfillment; obedience in the assertion of autonomy and individuality as marks of our uniqueness and originality. In the maze of such ambiguity, the question for religious women to answer is whether at the present stage of their religious experience they can lay claim to preserving in full the religious sense and character of their consecration. Where secularization has made its mark, it is difficult to be a witness of the Gospel message. Secularism holds out to us the values of the world and urges us to conform; the Gospel offers us the mind and values of Christ. If we examine our situation and find out that our choices are secular in character, it is important for us to admit it, and so be able to discover what strategy to adopt concerning it. The type of choices we make and the attitudes we have clearly show whether we are evangelized at heart or not. On a secondary level the way we treat each other and the interpersonal regard we nurture in our communities would truly show if the Gospel values were operating among us. For when we continue to make discriminatory preferences between persons or congregations, then our witnessing cannot be anything but counterproductive to the task of evangelization. When we are carrying out a common objective, what should matter is the appreciation of a sister as a religious and the virtues she possesses for her to be entrusted with an undertaking which she will accomplish in the name of all, not whether she is a member of one congregation rather than another, or whether she has occupied a position of importance in her institute, or whether she has important connections, and so forth. Evangelizing witness on the community level is likely to be rendered nugatory as ~vell if, instead of the communion and unity which religious life signifies, we have the division and disunity of uncoordinated activity. The difficulties occasioned by lack of cooperation and coordination are most often seen between different congregations rather than between members of the same institute. How often have we witnessed the complaints and disenchantment of institutes whose services are unceremoniously terminated in a place in favor of another institute--especially when the institute that takes up the apostolate in question may be completely ignorant of how the first institute left the scene! Such

512 Review for Religious a practice is exploitive and appears to be based on the availability of women religious. Apart from the circumstance related above in which two congregations of religious women are made to be victims at the same time, division of opinion among institutes is certainly a question that needs to be considered if the challenges of our times are to be adequately addressed. The church regards women religious as experts in communion both because of the communitarian quality of our consecration and because of our secularization natural tendency to bond ourselves closely to others. Our best field of operation, therefore, is to has made its mark, work for unity and communion within our African church in all its various components. it is difficult Women have a great capacity for personal to be a witness adaptation in the face of the varied and often unexpected needs of the real life of societies and of the Gospel churches. We are thus often in a better position message. to ensure not merely the survival but even the development of evangelization.9 A determination to form deeper and stronger bonds of solidarity and sharing between our various institutes is the best way to confront the changing political, economic, and social conditions of our times. Such operative and meaningful solidarity will happen if various congregations are able to evolve while each institute retains its unique identity and character. As Pope Paul VI told us,’° we are missionaries to ourselves at this stage of the evangelization of Africa. We Africans are cat- echizing and witnessing t6 our own people in our home missions. We are also undertaking the evangelization of other African countries outside our homeland--not overlooking, of course, the invaluable assistance offered by our foreign missionaries. Taking into account the greater number of women .religious, these foreign missions are mostly operated by religious sisters. We must ask ourselves, therefore, whether there exists a corresponding missionary cooperation between the various religious congregations whose members labor on these foreign missions, or whether missionaries carry along with them to the missions the lack of cooperation and perhaps rivalry which possibly exists at home. We need to remember the call of John Paul II as he spoke about the problems facing evangelization in Africa:

July-August 1992 513 Nwagcvu ¯ Women Religious and the African Synod

Let all form one unity. Let everything be done to smooth and multiply the ways of mutual esteem, of fraternity, of collaboration. May anything that might be the cause of sufferings or casting aside, for one group or another, be ban- ished! May all be penetrated with sentiments of humility and of mutual service! For Christ! For the witness of the church! For the progress of evangelization!’~ With a unified front, we religious could more easily discover new approaches to problems that arise in the apostolate. These problems include the challenge of Islam and the determination of Muslims to spread the Koran from coast to coast by whatever means available. Carrying arms and matching violence with violence is definitely not what the church expects religious women to accomplish in this regard. Neither is it possible to close our eyes and imagine that the friction and conflict with Muslims will eventually ease off while we do nothing. We must, however, evaluate our strength and discover unobtrusive ways to reduce the threat of Islam for our people. In the face of such an offensive, the church has in the past usually adopted the practice of intensified prayer and a rigorous asceticism lived with generous hearts. Some apostolic religious institutes were founded to labor in countries of Islamic faith. But there are relatively few, if any, contemplative orders founded exclusively for the propagation of faith among Muslims. Such contemplative orders, which by their i~rayers, works of penance, and sacrifices labor to effect the conversion of souls, are crucial for the growth of Christian faith amidst the increased onslaught of Islamic hostility. It would be a welcome endeavor if the tendency our religious folk have to found new religious institutes is allowed to mature into communities that will pitch their tents among the Muslims of our country despite foreseeable opposition and even death. If such an inspiration of the Spirit were to happen, it would certainly respond to the needs of the times. The challenge of Islam requires a radical religious decision. It calls for active institutes to reawaken their consciousness of the value and practice of the contemplative dimension of religious life. The Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes exhorts: The contemplative dimension is the real secret of renewal for every religious life. Being a reality of grace, it preserves in the religious the commitment to bear witness before the world to the primacy of a personal relationship with God. They can thus avoid the constant danger for apostolic work-

514 Review for Religious ers who often become so much involved in their work for the Lord as to forget the Lord ofalI work,~z Another area of concern is the proliferation of sects and evangelical movements. The increase in their adherents means that some other churches--the traditional Christian churches including the Catholic Church--are losing members. The sects usually direct their proselytizing toward those who are already Christians and offer them what they apparently cannot get from their mother churches. Again Paul VI sounded the alarm when he noted: It is well known that in some places the church in Africa runs the risk of the fidelity of its sons and daughters being subjected to dangers and struggles, and to being tempted by false teaching. Indeed, Christian faith must become something interior like a personal possession of each individual.’3 In the face of such phenomena, congregations of women religious can be of immense help to the church if they include this ground among their fields of apostolate for the second stage of evangelizing Africa. By identifying the reasons Christians are attracted to these sects and the group of Catholics that are easily influenced by them, they can develop a strategy for deepening the faith of those most affected. Often a shallow faith, which offers no reply to the vital questions of suffering and pain, poverty and misery, doubts and fears, insecurity and emptiness, sickness and death and so forth, is quickly abandoned for what seems a better way out of problems. Such defections occur where people seek a church that’proffers some human warmth and mutual concern, an experience the larger churches cannot easily provide.’4 Even if religious themselves do not minister directly to the sects and their adherents, they can train the Christian laity to assume their role of searching out and reevangelizing their brethren. Similarly, it is important to examine the variety of means of social communications available in order to determine the ones best suited for evangelization in Africa today. Every institute is able to evaluate the effect of each of the means on individual members and on the community. For while it is necessary to know what the world around us is saying through the media, we must not allow it to monopolize our attention and dictate our conver- sational exchanges. Growth in religious commitment does not follow from an indiscriminate and sometimes imprudent use of the mass media, or with the exaggerated and extroverted activism the

3~uly-August 1992 515 Nwag-wu ¯ Women Religious and the African Synod

media can generate, or with an atmosphere of dissipation which contradicts the deepest expectations of religious life. The search for intimacy with God needs silence, never involving noise and confusion.~s Presently, however, our discussion on the media is not how much we adopt them in our communities, but how well we use them for evangelization. Since the various means are each an effi- cacious tool for communication, the message of faith can be divulged to millions of our people at the same time with their aid. What prevents us, for example, from publishing a magazine that focuses on African religious life? Other Christian groups take the lead in the use of media while Catholics lag behind. Sacred songs and music on the thousands of audiocassettes that flood the market are ahnost always produced by Protestant evangelical groups. In the past there used to be a festival of the arts for Catholic schools. Now the competitions organized for parish choirs do not seem to generate the same interest. When an institute chooses to engage some of its members in apostolates using more contemporary methodologies, the initial difficulty will be lack of trained personnel. Requisite educational competence is important; however, some religious superiors are reluctant to send sisters for further studies that take time to complete and cause financial constraint, especially in the face of past disappointments. All the same, such reservation should give way before the conditions of our times and the needs of the church, which demand specialized training in some fields of study. No field of study can be superfluous if it furthers the mission of the institute. And since evangelization is a common mission for all, then adequate preparation is necessary for its realization. We cannot meet our contemporaries handicapped. For priests and religious to grow in requisite skills and maturity, it is essential for them to receive the type of formation usually done in centers of study at the university level or in institutes of higher studies. Specialized studies undertaken by religious should be prompted not by a misdirected desire for self-fulfillment with a view to achieving personal ends, but with the sole intention of meeting the apostolic commitments of the religious family itself in the context of the needs of the church.16 In view of the renewed call to evangelize, some significant changes may have to be made in the initial stages of formation. This sensitive area touches the autonomy and identity of insti-

516 Review for Religious tutes. Nevertheless, some general criteria may be adopted on the intercongregational level while the exact details can be left to the creativity of each institute. A rereading of the conciliar guide- lines for renewal shows that there is no question of simple adap- tations of certain external forms such as the habit. There is question, rather, of a deep education in attitude and in lifestyle that makes it possible to remain true to oneself even in the new forms of being present--a presence as con- We cannot meet secrated persons who seek the full conversion of our contemporaries people and of society to the ways of the Gospel through personal witness and service.~7 handicapped. The challenges presented to religious women by the forthcoming synod will demand prayer, discipline, and sacrifice. It will not be easy to effect changes because part of the pattern of life and action we have grown used to will have to be renounced. Though renunciation may be spiritually rewarding, it is never gratifying to the ego. All the same, the changes need be made. The "signs of the times" are ripe and they offer us incentives to renew and revise our pattern of life and to give a preferential treatment to the duty of evangelization. The traditional ministries carried out in hospitals, schools, and social centers remain important, but their rel- evance in meeting the people of our times and engaging them in faith encounters has diminished. Women religious who are solidly founded in faith and sufficiently prepared and who can use their feminine qualities of devotion, refinement, faithfulness, and patience and their great capacity to adapt to the unexpected demands of real life can transform situations which would intimidate others who lacked the weapons of faith and culture. In conclusion, let us remember the call of John Paul II and our obligation to respond to his invitation: You have lived a first great stage, an irreversible stage. A new stage is open to you. It is no less an exalted one, even if it necessarily involves new trials, and perhaps the temp- tation of discouragement. It is the stage of perseverance, in which it is necessary to pursue the strengthening of the faith, the conversion in depth of souls and ways of life, so that they will correspond better and better to your sublime Christian vocation.18

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Notes i The exact date for the synod has not been set, but observers do not expect it to take place before 1994 or 1993 at the earliest. ~" Lineamenta, General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, Vatican City, 1990. 3 Luke 5:4. 4 Lumen Gentium §44. s Some congregations of women religious still have nonindigenous administrative personnel. 6 This includes the establishment of a local community in the area, which in turn requires.that a diocesan bishop invite the institute in question to his diocese. 7 Luke 22:32. 8 Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, §55. 9 Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Dans le Cadre, The Role of Women in Evangelization, in Vatican Council H Postconciliar Documents, vol. 2, p. 322. l0 Paul VI, Inaugural Session of SECAM, Kampala, 1969. llJohn Paul II, Address to Zairean Bishops 3 May 1980, in Origins 10, no. 1, p. 6. 12 SCRIS, La Plenaria, The Contemplative Dimension of Religious Life, January 1980, §§ 2, 4, and 30. 13 Paul VI, Address at the 4th Plenary Assembly of SECAM, September 1975. 14 Paul V-I, Evangelii Nuntiandi, §58. is SCRIS, La Plenaria, §14. 16 SCRIS, Mutuae Relationes, §31 and §26. ~7 SCRIS, La Scelte Evangeliche, On Religious and Human Development, January 1981, §32. is John Paul II, Address to Priests and Religious, Zaire, 1980.

518 Review for Religious JENNIFER MARY ALT

Rerooting Religi ous Life in South Africa

the dialogue has been to develop a religious-life spirituality that would be less foreign and more of a special flowering and interpretation of African human and spiritual values. These values encompass all of human life. The spiritual is never seen as apart from the material, and people are seen as depending on other people, and therefore on the Divine, for life and meaning. Outside of their social relationships, individuals are less than nothing. If religious life became better integrated with native African spiritual values, it would witness more clearly and bring greater hope to South Africa’s strife-torn people. Religious life is not foreign to Africa. In fact, its cradle is to be found in North Africa in the early centuries of Christianity. Organized religious life took its conception from the life and work of the Desert Fathers and was rooted in the form of Christianity found among the rural tribal people of North Africa. This rural tribal Christian expression was eventually declared heretical and has since been known as the Donatist heresy.- St. Augustine, the well-known urban African, a man cut off from his

Jennifer Mary Alt OP, a member of the Cabra Dominican Sisters, is director of the Catholic Centre for Spiritual Growth sponsored by the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference. With her doctoral research in cross-cultural personality studies, she has worked with religious in developing an African religious spirituality. She may be addressed at the Catholic Centre for Human and Spiritual Growth; P.O. Box 53 505; Troyeville (JHB); 2139 South Africa.

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cultural roots, was chiefly responsible for the suppression of the Donatists. Early North African Christianity was predominantly rural. These rural Christians had been formed by their own primal religion. This religion revolved around being in harmony with the spiritual in life. The Ancestors--important good people who had died and who then lived on in spirit in the living--were seen as important mediators of the spiritual. Life among humans was seen as essentially social, and people got their meaning and purpose from living and working in harmony with other people. To be in a group was part of life. Over fifteen hundred years separate us from these earlier times, and Africa south of the Sahara is in a different position today. Yet it too moves from a very strong primal religious background. In parts of Africa, for instance South Africa, much of the primal past has disappeared, but the beauty of its spirit remains. Unless one pays attention to it, one will find it difficult to understand the modern movements in religious life in Africa. A primal outlook on life in terms of human values is’a profound way of looking at it. The work of the Divine is easily seen in it. The connectedness between this outlook and the teachings of Jesus is easy to recognize. Unfortunately, modern religious life has been presented in Africa south of the Sahara as something foreign and Western, as something that has nothing to do with African values. In fact, African values had to be somehow discarded as one entered a religious order. Westerners find the intricacies of life in Africa very difficult to understand and, without ill will, have misjudged much of what they saw, dismissing it as primitive and pagan. It is exceedingly important for people entering religious life to realize the continuity between the values they were given in their families and the values outlined in their religious rule. African religious largely see religious life as divorced from their past, as something quite other. They see the rules and regulations of religious living as something totally new which has to be learned. Because of this the rules of religious life remain largely outside of them. The rules have little effect on their feelings and attitudes. The result is that religious life tends to lose its meaning and become more a drudgery than a life-giving program. There is a saying which is practically ubiquitous in Africa. It runs in South Africa: "People are made people through other

520 Review for Religious people." In Swahili a similar saying is: "I am, you are, and because you are, I am." This circular statement sums up the insight which Africans have about people depending on one another and the insight that without people the individual is nothing. This awareness of dependence and interdependence is a far cry from the individualism of the modern. Western outlook. Dependence on God is the source of all spir- ’People ituality and is clearly discernible in the African are made people outlook. Africa has a strong belief in the spiritual life. Death is seen not so much as an ending, through other but as a passing into a spiritual way of being. In people.’ Africa everything material has its spiritual equivalent. In fact, nothing exists without its spirit. It follows that religious life is seen as essentially for the purpose of bringing people into contact with the Divine in a special way. If this does not happen, then religious life for the individual tends to remain on a material and self-centered level. The religious vocation is a call to a special relationship with the spiritual realm. Religious with their vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience are marked as essentially different from others, for they are in a sense outside the primal group of family, clan, and nation. They live in an area of liminality in life and in this area make contact with the Divine. Everywhere in Africa the call to the spiritual is treated with great respect and reverence. The call is seen as mysterious and very important. It is not questioned. Take, for example, persons who discern that they are called to be a sangorna, to be one who understands the relationship between the material and the Divine and who is specially equipped to interpret rifts that occur between the human and the Divine, rifts that are seen as the cause of all mental and physical illness. Such calls will not be dismissed lightly, and people will undergo rigorous training to equip themselves for their special task as a sangoma. The religious call is seen in this context. It also comes from the Ancestors of the family, and therefore no one should interfere with it. The Ancestors will protect the person so called. Africans believe that when outstanding members of the family or the nation die, they join the living dead. They live on in spirit in another member of the family. As a human being casts a shadow, so each human in the flesh represents the spirit of an Ancestor. A parent

3n-uly-Augus~ 1992 521 who first refused to allow a daughter to enter a convent remarked on her behavior: "I was fighting with the Ancestors." In Africa the spiritual revolves around the Ancestors, who mediate the Divine in life. The blessing of the Ancestors needs to be invoked in all circumstances. This ancient method of prayer might seem fundamentalist to a Western person, but it suits many people in the indigenous churches. They invoke God in all circumstances: when getting up in the morning, at the beginning of all jobs--nothing, in fact, is done without prayer to the Ancestors. MI church services center on asking the Ancestors for blessing and healing of any rifts between the living dead and the humans in the flesh. Prayer then centers on the spirit of reverence and respect: through prayer, healing and forgiveness are brought to ordinary human relationships, and rifts with the Ancestors are healed. In this way the negative effects in our lives are resolved, and we become healthy again. Religious in this context are people who are especially moved by the spirit, in a charismatic sense. Prayer then is warm, spontaneous, and real. But if religious life is seen by Africans as a bureaucratic organization in which material advantages follow the keeping of the rules, even though many of the rules may center on saying prayers; then it remains outside the person and will not lead to a true conversion of heart. Young people who enter often see a religious house as a house protected by God. They see religious as being protected by God, and the convent as a place of shelter from the storms of life; God will protect the people whom he has called. Many young people enter to be protected from the violence in the streets. Young girls come to escape being raped. Parents send children to convents in order to prevent .them from joining gangs. As people turn to sangomas (the spiritual healers) to protect themselves from the chaos around them, so they send their young girls to convents for the same protection. They feel that no evil can enter a religious house. They also feel that God protects his religious from economic disaster. Young people and their parents see religious houses as places where people will be educated, fed, and housed; as places where the chaos of grinding poverty and ignorance will be kept at bay. Religious will be protected from thes~ material disasters. It is essential in these circumstances to help young people, through self-reflection, to an acceptance of their African values in

522 Review for Religious the light of the Gospel values. This helps to bring about a conversion of heart in which the person is moved to choose Jesus and break out into the wider world of other people and their needs. Young persons, in answering their call, answer it on behalf of their entire family and the Ancestors whom they embody in their life. Therefore, when young people join a religious order, they do not come as mere individuals with little significance. They come as deserving of great respect. They are not alienated people of no background. They are not nobodies. God calls people God calls people through an entire network of relationships. Young religious who respond are responsible, therefore, through for answering the call of the entire network. an entire network This gives the religious a great sense of support and responsibility. To know that one bears of relationships. the spirit of a beloved grandmother or grandfa- ther in one’s life makes the path less precarious, less lonely, and more meaningful. Second, it gives the religious a great sense of dignity and worth. Religious need to respect their own call, and others must respect it too. Without this sense of reverence and respect, the young religious fails to have any sense of liminality. Religious life then becomes more a question of obeying external laws which do not touch the heart and of obtaining an education. Instead of religious life being a development or an exploration of the spiritual, it can become monotonous and meaningless. When the crises come, as come they must, the religious will not choose Jesus, but will make an easier, more selfish choice. A common saying in Africa expresses this lack of conviction and choice: "That person is a Christian by day and an African by night!" A difficulty inherent in the above outlook arises when a religious wishes to leave the convent. Leaving is looked upon as a disaster: the religious loses her ties with God. Her relationship with him is broken. It is in the light of this broken relationship that all future troubles will be judged. The following example is typical: A young’sister left a religious congregation and then failed to pass her nursing examination. She moved to teaching and was equally unsuccessful. This was seen to be the result of leaving the convent, not the result of lack of sufficient talent. It is important to stress, therefore, that the divine call arises out of our baptismal

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call. It is this call that must be answered, whether it is lived out in the context of religious life or not. In Africa, to be in a group is part of life. The richness of the human exchange in a community enriches the individual. The individual who is not included in this exchange is drained of life, so to speak. Group living is full of all that is human. Contentment, excitement, joy, happiness, and security are part of that living as are tensions, fears, suspicions, and disharmony. But the underlying attitudes of loyalty and respect can keep a group together through major emotional upheavals. In Africa, people truly live community. In the West, people tend to theorize and talk about community, but find it difficult to live it. Both lifestyles have their problems. In Africa, people are meant to live in harmony with one another and with the Ancestors. The individual is meant to enrich the lives of others and to be enriched in return. A religious group thatis not living a life filled With the Spirit will tend to exhibit the spirits of discord and chaos. In such close- knit and complex living together, the individual can feel very vul- nerable. Fear of one another, fear of authority figures, is a natural component of such living. Unless the group is living in the Spirit, fear instead of acceptance and warmth can dominate the group. Community life is held back by fear. Individuals will keep quiet at community meetings, for example. Many opinions which could build up a community are not stated. This can lead to serious mistakes being made. Superiors can go unchallenged and do irresponsible things. Individuals who choose to live a life which is not in accordance with their vows are also left unchallenged because others are afraid to say anything. Those who have this fear feel humiliated and inferior; they grow depressed; in the end, tension shows itself as an illness. Such fear of disharmony, of expressing conflicting opinions, can cause great problems to social and group life in Africa. If disharmony and conflicts arise, the group tends to split and quickly polarize. This process is very evident in the histories of many of the African Independent Churches. African political leaders have generally chosen a one-party style of government in order to avoid disharmony. In so doing they have introduced a totalitarian system which in practice is marked by tribalism and greed. Modern urban societies demand that we learn to live with some disharmony and difference of opinion. In fact, differences of opin-

524 Review.for Religious ion can lead to positive growth, for without differences adaptation to changing times and circumstances cannot take place. In Africa the method of handling differences is for the entire group to°come together and to discuss fully the pros and cons of the different opinions. In these long conversations each person is listened to, and the conversation does not end until consensus is reached. This is like methods of conflict management in the West. The Gospel message of Jesus enhances and brings to fruition the message which The message of Jesus Africa can give our world in terms of the is close to the heart interdependence of humans and their dependence on the Divine. The message of of the African Jesus is close to the heart of the African experience of human living together. The experience of human message of the great religious founders like living together. St. Benedict finds spontaneous resonance in Africa. The message of religious life, which strives to express the values of the Gospel of Jesus, is not much different from African value systems. The message of Jesus helps people choose less selfish values. In Africa, choices are made according to how a person feels. They tend to be made in terms of present time. A person might, therefore, at one time choose some abstract Christian value and at another time choose against the same value. But people who are moved by the Spirit choose more responsibly. For instance, people might not feel like helping when help is needed, but if they are filled with the Spirit, they will go against that feeling and help nevertheless. Or, again, people may feel like getting revenge by not sharing, but if they are filled with the Spirit, they will share. The transcendent message of Jesus helps people to consider beyond this present moment. Christians need to think about the consequences of present actions: Would the future be better, more Christian, as a result of choices we might make now? Often enough, thoughtless pragmatic choices can bring immediate satisfaction in terms of money, goods, or pleasant feelings, but the long-term effects of these choices can be extremly destructive. Africa is full of examples of people who pragmatically and selfishly participated in their own destruction. Africans took part in the slave trade. African leaders have greedily plotted the economic ruin of the countries they govern. Tribal rural people have taken AI~ o R~’ng Reli ~ou~

monetary handouts from the West, which have led to the destruction of their way of life and to a dependency on further handouts. Other cultures can be less utilitarian and selfish by taking their heritage very seriously and protecting it. The Chinese, .Japanese, and Indians have not allowed Western materialism and individualism free access into their cultures, and they have been less enthusiastic in terms of cooperating with the West. Africa can be rather like Esau, who sold his birthright for a mess of pot- tage, because Africa does not appreciate the richness of its social and spiritual heritage for itself and for the world. The message of.jesus builds deeper trust. Christ has through his death and resurrection conquered death and despair. He is above all spirits. He is above all ancestors. There is no need for Christians to fear curses or sangomas or their neighbor. Life for Christians is secure because .jesus has already overcome the spirit of death and chaos. .Jesus speaks a message of love of one’s neighbor and of one’s enemy. Christians have to consider people who do not belong to their group or clan as nevertheless belonging to the family of .Jesus. Such "outsiders" are not objects, and they must be treated with love and respect. In this way the Christian message brings peace to the troubled area of ethnic and tribal violence--something which has brought misery and death to many millions in Africa and has impoverished whole nations of people. If Christ’s message is allowed to bring to fruition the values which the African people received from-God through the Ancestors, much that is unauthentic can be removed from African life even as its contact with the West increases.

526 Review for Religious ALBERT DI IANNI

Religious Life and Religion

Some recent discussions on "refounding" religious life in which I participated were passionate and at times ended in discord. Admittedly the groups involved were tired and living overworked, but this was not the whole explanation. The religiously heat manifested in exchanges about potential cures for the ills of contemporary religious life springs from a deeper source, from a basic disagreement about the nature of Christianity and of religion. When I first encountered the notion of"refounding" currently in vogue, I welcomed it as an improvement over "renewal" because it seemed to demand a deeper conversion and a more radical rebuilding. It brought to mind the Carmelite reform at the hands of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross through an inventive retrieval of the spirit and discipline of the founders. Refounding seemed to invite us to set out once again upon a religious adventure demanding both great sacrifice and an engagement with the world that remained in some way separate from the world. Resistance to the notion mounted, however, with the repeated calls to identify "change agents" in the group who might encourage creativity in ministry and develop alternative community lifestyles. The more speakers limited their discussions to talk about "delivery systems" for Albert DiIanni SM serves as vicar general of the Society of Mary (Marist). His address is Via Messandro Poerio 63; 00152 Rome; Italy.

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change, namely, leadership models derived from anthropology and from corporate-reflection techniques borrowed from business psychology--the more they discussed only means--the more I felt I was being bundled down some primrose path. Before I discuss means, I want to discuss goals; before I accept help to move forward, I want to determine where I, where we, should want to go. This is possibly because I suspect that I do not want to go where some speakers want to lead me or that their advice about means carries some hidden freight about goals with which I do not concur. In a recent conversation about refounding, I found myself suddenly compelled to ask some strange, basic questions, not about religious life but about religion: What, for you, constitutes the heart of the Christian religion? What is its basic meaning or purpose? What engenders religion in the first place? Such questions came to mind because I suddenly realized that our disagreement lay at a deep level, that we could not simply assume we would all answer such fundamental questions in the same way. This was not because anyone had expressly denied any belief which I held, but becaus{ they seemed to deflect or sidestep certain ideas as old-fashioned or not in line with the particular action steps being recommended. The urge to ask fundamental questions comes upon me especially when I sense that religion is being reduced to sociology, psychology, or even to morality, be it personal, social, or ecological morality. In fact, any tendency to reduce religion to morality fires me up more than sociological or psychological reductions because it is more subtle and plausible and thus more seductive. But let me put my own cards on the table. What do I believe is at the heart of the Christian religion? (I will ignore the eso- teric distinction drawn by some between faith and religion and the theory that Christianity is not a religion but.a faith.) Though Christianity like other religions is an amalgam of many components, I believe that its strictly religious aspect lies in its being an answer to the experience of human contingency and the contingency of the world. Most people at some time in their lives have felt wonder that the world exists at all and have faced into the void of their own death. They moved beyond the taken-for-grant- edness of the world and became frightened by the thought that nothing at all might have existed and no possibility of anything. They wondered if there were an ultimate meaning to life or if

528 Review for Religious humans were but a sport of nature. Christianity’s central doctrine is that the world need not have existed and that it was the object of creation by a good God. A Christian believer is convinced that at the center of the universe is not a surd but a personal Love. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein was not a believer. Norman Malcolm, his former student and biographer, says that he could not be called a religious person, but that he was passionately The urge to ask interested in religion and always seemed close to the possibility of religion. Wittgenstein once fundamental questions produced two examples of what he considered bona fide religious experiences as comes upon me opposed to moral or aesthetic ones. He when I sense that respected them even if he thought that in entertaining them he was running up against religion is being the limits of language. One was the experience of uncanniness that the world exists at reduced to sociology, all. The second was the conviction he some- psychology, or even times had that, whatever might happen, he would be safe. to morality. Neither of these experiences points of necessity to the existence of some transcendent reality, but they provide, the experiential ground from which many people move to affirm the existence of God. In such feelings and experiences, the affirmation that God exists is existentially grounded, becomes more than an intellectual proposition, takes root, finds a home. The first experience is the sense that a fleet- ing world must be rooted in a stable fundamental Reality. The second bespeaks a trust that cannot be explained without the presence of a loving center of the universe. My own thoughts about religion center on experiences of this type. Admittedly my idea of religion has strong mystical over- tones; it is our response to radical contingency and, in its most primitive and deepest meaning, has little to do with morality. Religion refers primarily to a "holy" space out of which we and the world spring and gives rise to the imperative that each of us become holy, living our life in and for God. Beyond this I know that religion and morality are intimately intertwined and that a religious or holy person must also be morally good. One can hardly be holy and evil. Holiness means in part being extraordinarily kind, socially just, honest, temperate, a

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peacemaker. Yet it cannot be reduced to the practice of these moral virtues. For it is conceivable that someone could be morally good, could follow punctiliously the rules of a moral system, foster social justice, be chaste and kind, and yet not be a religious person. He or she could be moral out of personal taste, by temperament, for aesthetic reasons, or out of natural sympathy toward others, and not because of his or her relationship to God. Philippa...Foot, an Oxford moral philosopher and avowed atheist, once told a seminar group that she was such a moral person and that she refused to be patronized by being called an "anonymous Christian." A Christian religious person not only acts morally, but also sees the world in a new way--that it is dependent for its very existence on a transcendent reality and that this makes all the difference. Because it is focused upon the transcendent, the Christian vision has specific ethical implications different from Enlighteflment theories which place the human person or freedom at the center of the moral endeavor. For the Christian the primary response to the world is not that of owner and Promethean creator, but of humble and obedient creature; not an entrepreneurial relishing of power and freedom, but a Marian gratitude before God for all that God has wrought. From this Christian gratitude is born the imperative to love God and God’s creation, to allow God to express the divine mercy through us, especially toward the weak and the abandoned. This Christian gratitude and its ethical implications are nourished and deepened through a close union with God in prayer. It is this vision, it seems to me, which should be at the heart of the life of consecrated religious. If they are to be prophetic, it is in this: that in their lives they point constantly to the transcendent moment of the universe and try to develop what it means. It is up to each group to decide how it will express this. Christian meaning exists in--and is to be found in--religious sisters, brothers, and priests when they are rapt in contemplation of God as well as when they are picking up dying persons from the streets. When people see one of them unremittingly engaged in both, they believe they are in the presence of a saint. Some contemporary Catholic lay people and members of religious congregations seem to have lost sight of the transcendent pole of Christianity. Their model of Christianity has become what Charles Davis labels "pragmatic." The pragmatic version of

530 Review for Religious Christianity arose, he says, when "the Christian religion ceased to function mythically as an overarching totality .... The emphasis therefore shifted to Christianity as a practical way of life or ethical system. This is still conceived in religious terms, such as the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of God’s children, the kingdom of righteousness .... But all these expressions are different ways of formulating the moral imperatives gov- erning human existence." ~ Someone could be Both conservatives and liberals morally good, have made this pragmatic shift in Christianity. Conservatives stress per- could follow punctiliously sonal and family morality and such questions as abortion and euthanasia, the rules of a moral system, and progressives stress social justice, foster social justice, ecology, and women’s rights. Future historians may judge that the Vatican be chaste and kind, itself, but to a lesser degree, has been drawn into what I am characterizing as and yet not be an overemphasis of morality. They may a religious person. well remember Pope John Paul II as the "morality pope" because of his repeated statements about both personal and social morality. In practice if not in theory, love of neighbor and enemy seem to have taken precedence over concern about union with God. Today’s heresies all seem to be moral heresies. Not many Catholics seem concerned about dogmas, about trinitarian, soteriological, or Christological errors. And yet the history of the early church reveals that this was not always so. (I am at times tempted to fashion a brand-new trinitarian heresy to spur people to think more about God and less about themselves!) In this excessive emphasis on morality, the modern church reflects our secularized times, the age that mistook the world for God. In the late sixties, a time noted for its air of revolution, our seminary faculty once gathered the seminarians for a discussion on the question: W’hat are the most important qualities for being a priest and religious today? Some suggested approachability, others learning and competence, still others kindness or some other human virtue. I was surprised that no one spoke of holiness--a sure candidate just ten years before--and I pointed this out to

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the group. One of the seminarians fixed me with a stare and said with an air of disdain: "Just be human, Father!" Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Kiko ArgOello, the Spanish layman and artist who founded the Neo- Catechumenate movement, which offers a series of steps, a way, for modern Catholics to rediscover their baptism and be committed to evangelization. I played the devil’s advocate and asked whether his way (camino) of training lay people over a period of years did not produce an arrogant elite and end up creating more division than unity in parishes. His answer was in strict contrast to the seminarian’s. He insisted that becoming a Christian today was not easy, regardless of what many priests trained since Vatican II seemed to believe. It did not suffice to simply shout the love slo- gan. Belief that God exists and that Jesus is in some way the son of God was difficult in a secularized culture. Besides, our world of drugs and violence, suburban adultery and abortion, euthanasia and consumerism, was full of snares. It would not be sufficient simply to limit our preaching to a form of positive reinforcement. People had to be called to a public confession of their belief in God and Jesus, be brought to a felt need for conversion, be tested in their resolve, b~ supported by a tightly knit community, and be nourished by an adequate participative’ liturgy. Needed, in his view, was a method, a way, a structure, a catechumenate, ’to bring people squarely before their baptism and its implications for their lives. In so many words he was saying that it was simplistic for the 1968 seminarian to have said: "Just be human, Father." Yes, Christ is at work in the world wherever human good is being done, and we have to recognize and foster such work wherever we find it; but we must be aware, too, that fostering humanistic values and being a Christian are not in every way identical. Besides demanding that we be thoroughly moral, Christianity demands belief in many strange things, like the incarnation, the need for redemption, the resurrection, the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and the role of Mary. For a time in my adolescence, I wished I had been brought up neutral vis-~a-vis religion so that at the age of twenty-one I might consider all the major religions and choose among them without the prejudice of early Catholic training or brainwashing. But I know now that this is naive, for I have recognized that young people who have not been brought up in any religion end up by

532 Review for Religious having no religious sentiment or religiosity. They tend to remain religion-neutral, unable to make a choice in favor of any religion. George Lindbeck, a Protestant theologian, believes that, unless some religion is taught to us when we are young, unless we are brought up in some religious practices, we might not even be capable of religious experience. This may be exaggerated, but I am sure it contains Besides demanding that a grain of truth. One thing is certain: we be thoroughly moral, People are never brought up in a vacuum of vision and values. If they do Christianity demands belief not absorb religious vision and values, they absorb the secular vision in many strange things, and religion-neutral values of the like the incarnation, movies and television. Especially in Europe several new the need for redemption, lay Christian movements and reli- the resurrection. gious orders have been born in full awareness of this: the Focolarini, the Sant’ Egidio community, the Neo- Catechumenate, the Lion of Juda, the Legionaries of Christ, and so forth. They all believe that becoming Christian in a secularized world is especially difficult and demands a way, a method, an entry through a kind of Christian subculture. It means leaving behind a lot of things that can seem very important from the world’s point of view, but really are not. It demands kenosis, emptying oneself, in preparation for a radical decision in favor of Christ and God. Karl Rahner once declared: "A Christian in today’s world will be a mystic or else he will not exist." And he went on to speak of mystagogy, the need of a method to lead people to see everything in God. I believe that one reason why religious congregations are in a mere survival situation today is that, in their admirable effort to take a positive view of the world, they have identified religion too strongly with a humanistic morality that tends to be secular- istic, individualistic, and overly egalitarian. History shows that almost all religious congregations enjoyed strong growth at their beginnings. They were exciting and attractive in part because they were new, but part of their attraction lay elsewhere. The early members had a sense of a religious adventure and cause larger than themselves which rendered them willing to forgo many personal rights and privileges.~They were members of what

July-August 1992 533 Dilanni ¯ Religious Life and Religion

have been called "intentional" communities as opposed to various "associational" and "bureaucratic" ones that have come into existence since Vatican II.2 They were quite unconcerned with self- expression and equality, not because they were naive and subservient (today’s caricature), but because they were caught up in a higher religious vision that enhanced and focused their energies for God and the church. Most religious congregations were founded for three main purposes, the salvation of the members, the salvation of others, and dedication to a devotion or a way of the apostolate. Their charism did not lie only in the third element but in all three. Their purposes were decidedly religious and eschatological as well as incarnational. Today the eschatological has been pushed aside by an incarnational theology interpreted too secularistically and humanistically. Transcendent themes have been toned down in favor of an emphasis on egalitarian rights, on a type of justice interpreted not only as equity but as evenness, a kind of unifor- mity without differences. Everyone knows that only in unity is strength. But egalitarianism, by its very definition, effects an atomism and separateness within a group inasmuch as it deems individual rights and desires more important than the group’s religious cause and adventure. Such stress upon egalitarian and humanistic ideals is an ideology. It is one way--and only one way--of interpreting democracy and justice in society and in religious groups. To oppose that ideology is not to give up democracy but to give it another interpretation. This was brought home to me recently as I overheard a conversation between an Mnerican priest--a born-again egalitarian-and a young female member of the lay Sant’ Egidio community in Rome.3 Describing how the community functioned, she mentioned that in her particular community, because of its makeup and history, only certain men and no women were asked to speak at the prayer services. The American priest objected that this was a grave error, that it was supremely important--as a symbol and sign to others if not for her personally--that women be allowed to preach in every community. She answered that the Sant’ Egidio community did not approach questions ideologi- cally, but pragmatically. Some of the other communities did have women preachers, but because of its particular history and talents, her group preferred not to have them and she was happy with things as they were. She explained that for the Sant’ Egidio

534 Review for Religious group three things were of paramount importance: (1) prayer together over the word of God, (2) friendship or mutual support, and (3) work for and with the poor. All else must cede before the achievement of these goals. The American priest’s voice rose as he insisted that she was wrong and that the American interpretation of women’s rights was correct. But she stood her ground and deftly changed the subject. We have come full circle. In the 1960s, after ’A Christian many years of repression and an exaggerated in today’s world supernaturalism, we needed to stress personal freedom and responsibility and a true equality among will be a mystic the races and sexes. We had to recognize our duty before God to take responsibility to build up a or else world of justice and peace. But this did.not mean he will not exist.’ that such concerns should come to prevail in religious congregations and sweep all else away in their wake. Now that we have seen the shadow side of such emphases in religious life, we can better take stock and rediscover that our involvement with the world must begin beyond the world. While the psychological and political agendas were very important for religious life, neither of them was the "one thing necessary." Religious life should center upon that in Christianity which relates our lives to the transcendent. It is here that we must seek its prophecy. It is in reminding people of the divine enchantment of the world that it must be countercultural. It is upon this that reflection on refounding religious life must insist. In her article "Religious Life and the Need for Salt,’’4 Joan Chittister asks the right questions regarding contemporary religious life. She wisely concludes that the project of encouraging self-expression in traditionally repressed religious has now been achieved. She says we must now move to questions about the group and how it can be prophetic in today’s world. But her answers, giving her interpretation of prophecy, are still too much centered on ecology, social assistance, and human rights and thus, by remaining within a pragmatic model of Christianity, seem but another reiteration of the program of liberal politics. These liberal concerns are important and must be addressed by the church: the laity, the clergy, and the religious. But addressing such issues, in my opinion, is not going to be the salvation of religious life. Its problems do not

.July-August 1992 535 Dilanni ¯ Religious Life and Relig4on

arise from a neglect of them. Religious lack, not moral outreach, but religious centering. They fail to realize what the poor themselves realize and express in their popular religions, that our union with God through Jesus is central, that we must work at it, and that it is primarily in this that we will be countercultural. Which is more countercultural--to say we must strive to save planet earth or to say we truly believe that the dead are with God because Jesus rose from the dead and that this makes all the difference? I have made some hard remarks and asked some hard questions, and I would welcome a dialogue about them. I am sure I have not expressed them adequately, but I am convinced that they contain at least a grain of truth. I am encouraged in uttering them by the swing of young people in both Europe and North America toward an interest in the mystical sense of religion. In the 1960s the young were caught up in the humanistic values of psychology and sociology, but today’s youth exhibit a great interest in mysticism, religious cults and movements, apparitions and heal- ings, the afterlife; and even reincarnation and the satanic. Does this not indicate that they are experiencing a deep void of meaning in an anorexic and bulimic world where money, notoriety, power, individualism, and equality have become the primary values? Does not this cultural change signal that secular humanism for all its ethical achievements has also been an impoverishment by reason of a dearth of religious imagination? Is it not a sign of the times when people living in sophisticated technological cultures begin to be attracted to religious beliefs interpreted in a most .simplistic fashion? I know the good responses to the distinction I draw within Christianity between morality and religion. Most will describe it as dualistic--for contemporary pundits the most damning of epi- thets. They will say, "You are separating things that are essentially linked." Love of God and love of neighbor are two aspects of the same thing. If you do not care for the person you see, how can you say you love the God you do not see? Those who love God should find their love’s primary expression in their dedication to caring for their neighbor, whether friend or enemy. Prayer is missionary and missionary activity is prayer--and on and on. Others will say that I give a false description of the present situation of religious life; they will deny that those engaged in social justice and ecology tend to pray less and to be less interested in the transcendent, in sacraments, and in the eschatological.

536 Reviezv for Religious I know these rejoinders are partly true, but also that they are partly false. I know that the two aspects of Christianity, religion and morality, love of God and love of neighbor, are very closely intertwined, and I am aware of Karl Rahner’s brilliant attempt to conjoin them.5 But I know too that they are conceptually distinct because I have seen them separated in the history of the church. At times the church has experienced the extreme of quietism, an overemphasis on faith without good works, Which is more and other times the heresy of action, a hectic involvement in important countercultural - works of justice and charity to the to say we must strive detriment of prayer and interiority, the soul of the apostolate. ~ to save planet earth or It is up to each of us to examine our life to determine where we are. to say we truly believe that But I am convinced that the problems the dead are with God of religious life stem only partly from a lack of adequate delivery systems because Jesus rose and from ignorance about psychology, social systemics, and anthropo- from the dead and that logical models in an age of rapid this makes all the difference ? change. I am convinced that their deeper source lies in the confusion between religion and morality and in an insistence upon morality because of a loss of faith and interest in religion. If Christian religion is centered almost exclusively upon doing the moral good, upon promoting social justice and ecology, or upon fighting pornography and abortion, then what is the meaning of doctrines and dogmas? Are they but religious, accouter- ments? If so, why not be honest and simply drop them? What is the meaning of the redemption through Christ for a religion reduced to morality? What is the meaning of the Eucharist? Are these dogmas and sacraments only stimuli for action, stories and symbols subtly swaying us to do what is truly important: fostering the construction of a socially just and ecologically sound world, creating the. kingdom of morality? Is the resurrection just a story whose real cash value is all those smaller resurrections which can occur in a society, in history, or in each human life? How is a religious congregation which centers so strongly on morality to be differentiated from such groups as UNICEF or the

~dy-Augzlst 1992 537 Dilanni ¯ Religious Life and Religion

FAO wherein men and women devote themselves to humanitarian causes at times for wages far lower than they could obtain elsewhere? I know that, since Vatican II, theologians including Rahner and Schillebeeckx have highlighted the thesis that Christ is at work in the world wherever good is. being done and humane causes are fostered. I am acquainted with the theories that the work of building up the kingdom of God is primarily a matter of our A life steeped in prayer present life in the world, that salvation is not only after death but begins here, that the will produce something glory of God is man and woman fully alive. we may have lost: I am in sympathy with such emphases, but must also admit that they do not set me on a solid number of holy fire; and judging from the vocation statistics of "progressive" congregations, I know that men and women they have not stirred the young. For in my whose life clearly heart I suspect that such emphases are quite incomplete and were (in part) born of a loss is centered on God. of faith in the transcendent. For me Christianity centers not on us but on God. It demands a different vision of the world and reality, which generates a humble gratitude to the God who is responsible for all that is. One of Christianity’s concerns is our inborn tendency to distort our freedom, arising from what Luther called the "in-curvedness" of our will. Christianity is about God and sin and the need for God’s grace- ful hand to help us make proper use of our freedom. Christian religion must be about God and our relationship with God not only implicitly but also explicitly. It is from a union with God in prayer that light will emanate on how we are to relate to God, the world, and each other. And if a life is to be devoted to religion in a special way, if it is to be a consecrated religious life, it must be lived primarily in view of this relationship to God, not only in ideal but also in structure. It must be structured in such a way that the life of,the group abets in its members this concern about each one’s relationship to God and gives witness of it to others. Such a life steeped in prayer will produce something we may have lost: a solid number of holy men and women whose life clearly is centered on God. If this proves true, young people will surely again be attracted to this kind of life, not so much because

538 Review for Religious it is relevant or more interesting than the world, but simply because religious life so construed and so lived is what it purports to be--religious.

Notes ~ What is Living, What is Dead in Christianity Today? (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986), p. 39. -’ See Patricia Wittberg SC, Creating a Future for Religious Life (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), chaps. 2, 3, and 4. See also the use made of these categories by Elizabeth McDonough OP in "The Past is Prologue: Quid Agis?" in Review for Religious 51, no. 1 (January-February 1992): 78-99. 3 On this community, see Robert P. Maloney CM, "The Community. of St. Egidio," Review for Religious 48, no. 2 (March-April 1989): 252-257. 4 Religious Life Review 30, pp. 284-291. s See "Reflections on the Unity. of the Love of Neighbor and the Love of God," in Theological Investigations, vol. 2 (Baltimore: Helicon Press, 1969), pp. 231ff.

Indwelling

Manifest in all I see or hear Reflecting beau ty and Incarnate love, Maker and Indweller of my heart- It’s yours to own, possess, to recreate.

Would that I could sense this miracle Of deep abiding habitation t. Would my heart be splintered, shattered by The knowledge ’that my God is here to stay?

Welcome, Holy Guestt. Can you dwell amid The soil from sins of my own making? Cleanse me, God, eradicate, forgive My guilt, and deepen rootedness in met.

Anna Louise Staub SSJ

3%dy-dugust 1992 539 EILEEN P. O’HEA

Detachment in Our Psychological Age

hen eating an orange, eat the orange" is the exhortation given to a young monk by the Zen master. In our Western culture, as we eat an orange, or drive to work, or sit down to pray, our minds are already thinking about the activity that follows. And, if our minds are not thinking about our next activity, then they are filled with self-criticism about our performance at the hour before’s meeting, or the evening before’s indul- gence in a dessert that will add another unneeded pound to our weight. Our minds are so filled with our "must do" lists, our "how to do it better" analyses, and our nonstop commentaries on our perceptions of ourselves in certain relationships that the simple task of being present to the orange we are eating is almost impossible for us. Detachment is a key virtue for our psychological age because we find ourselves stuck in patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that keep us unfree. Compulsive work patterns, obsessive thinking patterns, and emotional preoccupation take over the structure of our psyche and leave us feeling unfree and unable to be truly present to what is happening to us at the moment. For most of ug, retreats and vacations are so wonderful because the exact opposite begins to happen. Around the third day of a retreat, most people report that they start getting into it.

Eileen P. O’Hea CSJ is a psychotherapist and spiritual director. Her address is Sondra Smalley and Associates; Stoney Lake Office Park; 2459 15th Street NW, Suite B; New Brighton, Minnesota 55112.

540 Review for Religious This usually means that they have had time to rest their bodies through extra sleep and that the new setting has enabled them to feel free from the burdens and pressures of ministry and of social and family responsibilities. In other words, their bodies have relaxed, their minds have let go of preoccupation, and their hearts now seem open to what is before them. They read Scripture with new interest and understanding and often find a clarity about God and their relationship with God and others that gets Detachment lost in the dailyness of busy lives outside of this time apart. If we could find out is a key virtue because why this is so, then perhaps we could change ourselves enough to experience we find ourselves stuck God’s presence in our lives even in the in patterns of thinking, midst of our busy schedules. A cluttered and preoccupied psyche feeling, and behaving has its energies so constrained that it cannot experience a deeper reality. The man- that keep us unfree. ifold tasks to be done consume all of our attention; we begin to live and act in ways that make these tasks the central reality of our lives. Most of us have experienced this in some way. For instance; talking with some people, we have recognized that they missed our point because, although they were physically present to us, their minds were someplace else; or we realize that, at the time of our morning prayer, we never heard the scripture reading because our minds were prioritizing the things we needed to do that day. A cluttered psyche can imprison us. We begin to treat its content as the only reality of our lives. We cannot see beyond the tasks we must perform or the things we must accomplish for the sake of some self-satisfaction. Since such a need to accomplish is endless, so is our preoccupation and compulsive activity. In a human person composed of body, mind, and spirit, what is left out of this picture is the spirit~ Locked in the realm of the psyche as if it were all of reality, we cut ourselves off from the deepest reality of our personhood, namely, our spiritual self. The integration that we see as proper to our nature, and for which we long, comes about through the discovery of our spirit in union with the Spirit of God. Contact with this depth level of reality enlightens and transforms the psyche, which ih turn integrates the activity of our minds and bodies.

3nuly-August 1992 541 O’Hea ¯ Detachment in Our Psychological Age

When our spiritual nature is cut off or compartmentalized, we experience fragmentation. The spiritual reality of our being fails to infiltrate our psyche and our bodies; then the psyche acts as the only reality and perpetuates systems of thinking, feeling, and behaving that are distorted and untrue. This false programming creates in us an experience of the self that is not true--the false self or ego. Sensing that something is missing, we follow the programming we have inherited from our parents and our culture and look outside of ourselves for what we think is missing. We pursue relationships, tasks, and accomplishments with the hope that they will fill in what is missing. Since none of these can do so, we increase our pursuit, thinking that if we try harder we will finally realize fulfillment. But, because we are constantly frus- trated in this venture and never get the desired result, either we choose to distract ourselves from this experience of emptiness through perpetual activity, or we pursue programs for assuaging this experience with greater and greater intensity. Since Christ came to rescue ~us from what prevents our realization of the love and intimacy we share with the Divine Other, this saving act must touch the place of our woiandedness. The place of our deepest wound is our human psyche; it is our psyche that must be healed. In the person of Christ that wound is identified, suffered, and transmuted. It is a twin wound: the fear of death and the fear of true love. Our collective and personal programming as human persons sends us frantically running outside ourselves in desperate attempts to fill in what we perceive as missing. We refrain from stopping our frantic activity because we fear that in doing so we will find ourselves in a bottomless pit, filled with darkness, emptiness, and isolation. We are terrified of extinction and loss, and our compulsions are the result of our fear. In Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, what it means to be a human person is explicated. In Jesus, death for all humanity loses its sting because we discover that, when death is entered into in faith, life--new and greater life--continues. In Jesus we discover that death is not the end, but the beginning of a new life in which a relationship of love and mutual indwelling is realized. In the risen Christ we experience the new life that we were meant to share. The twin fears that lurk in our psyche and keep us running from the truth of ourselves must be opened to the h+aling brought by Christ.

542 Review for Religious Not only are we victims of our compulsions and unmet desires, but we are also persons who intuit that there is something--Someone--greater than our fears. A spiritual hunger in us longs for oneness and wholeness and impels us to discover and know intimacy with Divine Love. God’s Spirit, the same Spirit that guided Jesus through his life, death,and resurrection, now guides and draws us beyond our fears into the experience of Love. The virtue of detachment is a way of The virtue of opening ourselves to the healing that God desires for us and for which the human detachment is the heart longs. It is the practice of letting go of the destructive programs and patterns practice of letting go at work in the human psyche. of the destructive Through the practice of detachment, we acknowledge the deepest reality of our programs and patterns personhood: the life of our spirit in the at work in the human Spirit of God. No longer confined by the psyche as the central reality of our being, psyche. we gradually become one with the deepest dimension of personhood and find our being in the Being of God. The luminosity of Being infiltrates and illumines our minds. We bring to our relationships and activities a sense of presence and light which is our own experience. The experience of our self now changes from one of diminish- ment, frantic activity, and victimhood to the experience of knowing we are loved. In this experience fear dissolves, and compulsive activity no longer has meaning. The illumined mind is now the agent of the Spirit. Contemplative prayer--the prayer that prepares us to simply rest in God, who is within us--is a way in this our psychological age to repattern ourselves. It tunes out the false programming which sets us running like John Updike’s Rabbit and invites us to come to a place of quiet, ready to hear and experience, not our own false selves, but our own truth. The practice of Christian meditation, a form of contemplative prayer, is a pathway to this place of quiet. A mantra, or sacred word, can help us tune out the static raised by our preoccupied and overactive minds and imaginations. Contemplative prayer is an image of life’s ultimate reality, the discovery of our being in the Being of God. When the psyches of persons are informed and illumined by

July-August 1992 543 O’Hea ¯ Detachment in Our Psychological Age

the reality of the Spirit present within them, their way of being in relationship to other persons or things changes. Since they have found inside themselves all they sought, they no longer use people or things as means to their own gratification or for filling in their own perceived deficiencies. Instead, their experience of ultimate Reality engages them in a respectful and loving presence to all the expressed forms of this reality. And so, when eating an orange, they eat the orange. ~,

Meditation Let it all go now, Let it.lade away, Fall out o f fortune, Into a gray Forgetfulness, Into an obscure way. Let it be cold now, This old fretfulness Of my soul, This refusal to be still. Let it empty out, This fullness of my own hell. Let all be well.

Cornelius Buckley

544 Review for Religious BERNARD SEIF

An Ache in My Heart

that perhaps I might belong in a more monastic or contemplative community. He asked me what books I had been reading. I told him I had just finished a biography of Teresa of Avila. His response was "Well, if that is what those books do to you, I’ll take them off the shelf." That seemeda pretty drastic measure, since we had only a few score of books available for us to read as it was. Though the library was filled with books, the novices were restricted to certain shelves.

The Way It Was Those were the days of large groups of novices and little individual discernment--other than what was in the Rule, or what had always been, or what was expected. The novice master in this story simply did what most people in formation work would do in those days. I also did what most people would do: I stayed in the community for about twenty-seven more years. Yet the example the novice master" set subtly in other areas formed my contemplative heart, and for that I will always be grateful. The years after novitiate were filled with growth, both spiritual and pastoral. They were also filled with a longing that I could never completely come to terms with. I still felt called to a more monastic or contemplative community, yet ministry was sat- Bernard Seif SMC, a clinical psychologist and spiritual director, is abbot and founder of the Salesian Monastery; HCR 1, Box 455; Frantz Road; Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania 18322. This community of women and men, lay and religious, was founded in 1987 to foster a Salesian monastic life in the spirit of Vatican II.

j~uly-August 1992 545 Seif ¯ An Ache in My Heart

isfying and exciting, and often exhausting. I believe that God used those years to develop skills in me and to have me serve the church; and then, when the time was right (after the impact of Vatican II), God led me into my present call.

Creativity Part of my difficulty was that there were no monks in existence who followed the Salesian spirituality of my original community. (Our Rule presently provides for both men and women as professed monastics and associate members.) My challenge to live out what I thought God was inviting me to was therefore doubly difficult. It eventually became clear to me that I needed to begin a community which was monastic as well as Salesian. There was also a need to emphasize monastic life in such a way that it supported and invigorated a limited direct apostolic activity, and perhaps some members who might be priests, without distorting or watering down the basic monastic lifestyle. About a year after I had gone off the deep end and said yes to God as fully as I thought I could, I was in a little rented house in a town I had never lived in, knowing no one in the area, canonically exclaustrated, and graciously welcomed by the local ordinary, the Most Reverend James C. Timlin DD. I supported myself primarily through my practice as a clinical psychologist and paid back in monthly installments the $5,000 1 had borrowed from my original community. I was never lonely and felt very much at peace. Others seemed much more concerned than I was about attracting members to live the life with me. I was convinced that if this was my vocation I would live it out alone, if necessary, to the grave. A group of men and women grew up around me who wanted to share in this experience. They became a wonderful extended family of associate members of the monastery. Two postulants came and went; a third is persevering and is now well into his second year of novitiate. We have become a dual community through the entrance into the novitiate of our first female candidate. Someone is presently with us for his one-month observership. Other people are discerning a possible vocation to the Salesian Monastery. Our associates have grown to over eighteen members, and the full Liturgy of the Hours is simply and joyfully celebrated every day in inclusive language in our little oratory. Toward the end of my three years of exclaustration, I took a leap of faith and petitioned

546 Review for Religious from the Vatican an indult of departure from my original community in order to continue my life as a Salesian monk autonomously and with a blessing of the local ordinary.

Dare to Look Crazy The much too brief personal salvation history outlined above illustrates the point of this article: There comes a time when we must give in to our inner longings, no matter how risky, and move out in faith. There is a great deal of excellent literature being written on refounding religious life, the life cycle of religious communities, and the various kinds of religious communities which have been in the past, as well as models of possible future religious life. One need only look at the index of Review for Religious There comes a time over the last ten or fifteen years to find when we must give in numerous articles and references to books that will bring one up to date in this area to our inner longings, very quickly. My concern is that there are those in religious life who are waiting for no matter how risky, something to happen which will pull them and move out in faith. out of their depression or their sense of not being in the right community or of not living the life they feel called to live. This literature, helpful for most people, might be a hindrance for them. Religious are notorious for using intellectualization as a defense against facing inner conflicts. A way of understanding who these people are, and perhaps identifying oneself as being one of them, would be to think about people interested in joining religious life today. Having worked for many years in formation ministry in my original community, now doing the same in our young monastery, and being a consultant to about fifteen religious communities, it is clear to me that hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women out there long for religious life but are too terrified to let go of their present lifestyle. Legal and financial matters are so complicated these days that there is a real fear of burning bridges. But this is what eventually must be done. Prudence must be exercised, of course, but sooner or later one needs to let go to the point of taking a risk, looking crazy, and surrendering all. Many potential candidates to religious life cannot seem to make this leap. I do not fault them for that; they are wonderful people. If anything, I pray for them because they are missing something wonderful and because that longing,

.l~uly-Aug’ust 1992 547 Seif ¯ An Ache in My Heart

that ache in the heart, will never go away until they let go. Many professed religious, in my observation, are in a parallel situation. There is a longing among many for something different, something more, for example, more silence, more Liturgy of the Hours, more direct apostolic activity (or less activity)--any way you can think of it. It seems to me that these people get lost in reading books about, hoping for, participating in--and never quite getting to the heart of the matter. If you have an ache in your heart that has been there for many years and will not go away, books and meetings will not take it away. After discernment, spiritual direction, some prudent "test- ing the waters," one needs to transfer to another community, live a noncanonical life if necessary, ask for a change of province, move to a house of prayer, or whatever it takes to remove that ache. All of this needs to be done, and can be done, within the parameters of obedience. So much has changed since Vatican II! We need to refound our vocations individually along with the collective refounding efforts. Healing of Heart From time to time I would visit Our Lady of the Genesee Abbey in Piffard, New York, for some quiet time. I loved it there and always felt a great pain when I had to leave, yet I knew my vocation was not to that Trappist community. I had .a few little postcards from Genesee Abbey, and when I would come across one on my desk I would feel that ache in my heart. If someone would bring up Something about the abbey, I would experience a bittersweet response. Once I let go and began the process of being true to myself by writing to my provincial superior (which led to communication with my superior general, canon lawyers, and bishops), that ache went away. I had not even made any formal transition, but the ache was gone. It is interesting to note that the place where I said yes to my call to monasticism was Genesee Abbey, and it was when ~ least expected it. I was not there for any decision making, and making a change in my religious community was certainly not on my conscious mind, but it seems to have been in the mind of the Lord. Since moving to this land where I knew no one and becoming a kind of Abraham, I have found many friends and brothers and sisters to journey with. And several years back I received a phone call from someone in leadership in the Fellowship of New

548 Review for Religious Religious Communities and have become a part of a wonderful association of new communities throughout the United States and Canada. It is much like belonging to a large community with houses all over. We share skills with one another, information, prayer, and support. Yes, God has provided well for me. Bills get paid with little left for extras. Our financial condition is much like the manna in the desert. We have what we need and cannot store up anything beyond our daily needs. I traded in the ache in my heart for the hundredfold promised in the Gospel and was not disappointed. Canonical Hope Canon 605 encourages diocesan bishops to strive to discern new gifts of consecrated life granted to the church by the Holy Spirit, to help their promoters to express their proposals as well as possible, and to protect them with suitable statutes. The literature on the history of religious life indicates that the church tended to think religious life was established once and for all early on and then to codify how it was to be lived; but eventually another form of religious life grew up, and so did new legisla- tion. This went on through several cycles. The desert fathers and mothers lived as hermits and later lived in common what we might call the lifestyle of monks and nuns. Later the mendicant movement produced friars who wandered far and wide and nuns who were cloistered but of a bit different spirit from the earlier nuns. The period of Ignatius Loyola, Francis de Sales, and Jane de Chantal produced communities of service that dealt more and more with direct apostolic action to the poor, the sick, and the ignorant. The church now seems to understand that the Spirit’s creativity is never quite finished, and it provides a canon which helps us all to be vigilant for the work of the Spirit in our religious way of life. Things which were thought of as impossible in the past are not only possible but realities today.

Just Do It! Sisters and brothers, I beg you to feel the fear, the confusion, and the embarrassment of the ache in your heart. Do not stifle it. The future of religious life is now. No article, book, or chapter meeting will ever take away the ache. Jesus told us very clearly that his yoke is easy and his burden light. Imitate his obedient creativity and that experience will be yours.

July-August 1992 549 PATRICIA E WALTER

.Religious Life in Church Documents

The Tri-Conference Commission on Religious Life and Ministry, made up of representatives from the focusing National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), the Leadership Conference of Women Religious religious (LCWR), and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM), invited Patricia Walter OP to pre- life pare a short paper dealing with the identity of religious life for use in dialogue. The following article is the result of that invitation.

Because "religious life" is a term applied to rather diverse historical phenomena, there have been recurring debates over the components essential to such a life. These discussions became quite heated, even acrimonious, when such new entities as the mendicant orders and apostolic communities of women arose. As religious obeyed the directives of Vatican Council II and studied the charism of their founders in light of the signs of the times, they grap- ’pied anew with the question of religious iden6ty. For many communities, the discussion of such core issues eventu- ated in true unanimity despite significant changes in self- understanding. However, misunderstandings, disagreements, and divisions also developed within some communities and between various ecclesial groups; usually one party

Patricia E Walter OP is prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. Her address is 1257 E. Siena Heights Drive; Adrian, Michigan 49221.

550 Review for Reli~ous understood religious life primarily in terms of individual consecration while the other party emphasized a view of religious life as charismatic communities in mission. Thus the conflict is often cast in terms of different theologies of religious life. However, religious life is a particular expression of Christian life. Therefore, articulations of the identity of religious life depend on more basic anthropological, soteriological, and ecclesiological presuppositions. Attention to these deeper issues may help to resolve some misunderstandings or to come to mutual recognition of legitimate diversity. To that end this paper offers a brief summary of the theology of religious life found in official conciliar and postconciliar documents. It indicates the main lines of development and suggests some reasons for significantly different emphases within the teaching,1 Conciliar Theology The initial drafts on religious life prepared for Vatican II reflected the operative preconciliar ecclesiology. Despite the appearance of Mysterium Ecclesiae in 1943, this ecclesiology viewed the church as an institution concerned with the salvation of souls, a perfect society articulated by clear ranks and states. Within this society, religious life was a "state of perfection," a privileged way of life undertaken by those with enough nobility and strength of soul to obey Christ’s counsels as well as the commandments. There was a focus on individual perfection achieved through total consecration to God and through a life of asceticism marked by penance, separation from the world, and the threefold renunciation of the vows. Such an understanding was greatly influenced by Aquinas’s theology of the counsels, nineteenth-century ascetical theology, and the 1917 Code of Canon Law. Vatican Council II endorsed descriptions of the church as a mystery or sacrament, a communion, the people of God. The basic equality of all members of the church contextualized the treatment of office and status. The recovery of the centrality of baptism led to the reaffirmation that, through that sacrament, all are consecrated, all are called to holiness, all are called to participate in the mission of the church. This mission, following upon the missions of the Son and the Spirit, is in and to the world.

Lumen Gentium. Chapters 5 and 6 of Lumen Gentium, which treat the finality of the church, are linked by a discussion of the

July-August 1992 551 Walter ¯ Religious Life in Cburcb Documents

counsels. Chapter 5 claims that "all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity" (LG §40). The various counsels given by Christ and observed by Christians are means of fostering the holiness of the church (LG §42). Deliberately refusing to give a formal definition of religious life or to use the term "state of perfection," the council describes religious life in chapter 6 as the state of life "constituted by the profession of the evangelical counsels" (LG §44). Explicit commitment to the practice of the counsels thus connects religious life with the holiness to which all Christians are called and characterizes it as a unique state of life. These counsels are "a divine gift, which the church received from her Lord": they are founded on the "words and examples" of Jesus (LG §43). Their practice is undertaken by the promptings of the Spirit (LG §39). It is God who calls new members and conse- crates them (LG §44, §47). Furthermore, the state manifests "the force of Christ" and "the power of the Holy Spirit" (LG §44). Religious life, then, is clearly of divine, not ecclesiastical, origin: it is a gift in and to the church.2 Profession of.the counsels ratifies and intensifies the death to sin and consecration to God’s service effected in baptism (LG §44, see PC §5). Therefore, religious life can help individual progress in charity. Such charity links religious to "the church and her mystery in a special way" and thus gives religious the responsibility of furthering the reign of Christ in ways consonant with their own vocation. Profession itself is "a sign which can and ought to attract all the members of the church to an effective and prompt fulfillment of the duties of their Christian vocation." The state is a witness to the priority of the reign of God, a sign of present grace, and a pointer to eschatological existence. Religious also continue the presence of Christ in the world through their various ministries (LG §44). Approval of the rule of life establishes the form of life as a "canonical state." Religious life is not, however, simply a juridical entity. Despite the fact that profession is not a sacrament, its liturgical setting shows that profession is a profoundly religious act: a "consecration" to God on the part of the person. The church accepts the vows. In its liturgical setting, religious profession evokes a further response of recognition, prayer, and blessing from the broader ecclesial community (LG ~45).3

552 Review for Religious Perfectae Caritatis. Perfectae Caritatis incorporates the ideas of two conflicting viewpoints within the council. Its theology of religious life is, therefore, not completely consistent. Perhaps because of its more dynamic starting point, the following of Christ (sequela Christi), the document makes the connections between love of Christ and love for the church, love of God and love of neighbor, contemplation and action, more integrally than did Lumen Gentium. It also enables religious life to be understood as an historical phenomenon, rich in its diversity. Perfectae Caritatis begins its treatment of religious life by acknowledging the role of founders: "From the very infancy of the church, there have existed men and women who strove to follow Christ more freely and imitate him more nearly by the practice of the evangelical counsels." There is a clearly trinitarian and ecclesial pattern of reflection on this fact, a pattern reminiscent of the opening paragraphs of Lumen Gentium. Influenced by the Spirit, men and women throughout history have followed Christ, thus leading a life dedicated to God. The sequela Christi is "the fundamental norm of the religious life" and the "supreme law" for all religious communities (PC §2a). Perfectae Caritatis reiterates the description of religious life found in Lumen Gentium as "a life consecrated by profession of the counsels" (PC §If). Profession is a commitment to the service of God, an intensification and specification of baptismal consecration (PC §Sa). Religious are essentially connected to the life and mission of the church: their following of Christ associates them with the "work of redemption" and the spread of the reign of God (PC 85). Apostolic communities are linked to the church through their ministries, which "have been consigned to them by the church and must be discharged in her name" (PC §8b). The diverse religious communities are thus part of the divine plan for the church, enriching it and contributing to its ministries.

Postconciliar Texts Evangelica Testificatio. Evangelica Testificatio (1971) is a land- mark in official theology of religious life. This is due in large measure to the fact that Pope Paul VI discuss.es religious life and its relationship to the church in the context of an ecclesiology which flows integrally from the first two chapters of Lumen

~uly-August 1992 553 Walter ¯ Religious Life in Church Documents

Gentium. This approach has several critical consequences. First, it consistently recognizes the mutuality and diversity of vocations within the ecclesial community. Second, it allows for the development of an apostolic spirituality based on mission. Third, it is more thoroughly trinitarian, giving due attention to the work of the Holy Spirit. Fourth, it avoids identifying the church solely with the hierarchy and keeps alive the distinction between the church and the reign of God. Within the church, religious are a "concrete sign" and "privileged witness" of a constant search for God and total commitment to the spread of God’s reign. This witness serves the hope and love of the entire church and helps preserve the tension of "the salvific paradox of the Gospel" (ET §3). The pope summarizes the teaching of Lumen Gentium on the vows, profession, and consecration. His commentary on that teaching firmly avoids any notion of consecration that might be elitist or separatist. Religious profession or consecration involves mutuality: it is "made within the church and through her ministry--both that of her representatives who receive your profession and that of the Christian community itself, whose love recognizes, welcomes, sustains, and embraces those who within it make an offering of themselves as a living sign" (ET §7). This sign reminds all believers of their own vocations. Evangelica Testificatio also takes some significant steps toward developing an apostolic spirituality and theology in which religious life is not seen simply as an imitation of Christ interpreted in terms of asceticism and individual holiness. Religious are consecrated to God in a public commitment to follow Christ more intensely. This necessarily entails a more intense connection to his mission and, therefore, to the mission of the church. Service to the church is not the ultimate value or goal of religious life: rather it is a corollary of commitment to work on behalf of the reign of God (ET §23, §50). Religious are valuable partners in the mission of the whole people of God; they are not ecclesiastical employees. In the same manner Evangelica Testificatio presents a new development in the theology of the vows: they are for the sake of God’s rule, an event somehow connected with this (ET §3, §7b). They are not merely ascetical practices but also practical critiques of specific forms of social sin. In this way Evangelica Testificatio allows the transcendent witness given by the vows to be under-

554 Review for Religious stood as a prophetic sign rather than as a means of escaping historical reality or simply as pointers to some heavenly future (ET §§13, 16-22, 25). Evangelica Testificatio also maintains a delicate balance between the christic and pneumatic foci in its ecclesiology and theology of religious life. It is through the impulse or call of the Holy Spirit working in the church that people decide to follow Christ for the sake of the reign of God (ET §3, §7). Evangelica Testificatio follows Perfectae Caritatis in noting the historically diverse forms of what has been called "religious life" (ET §3, §12). However, it speaks not only of the "charisms" of the founders, but of the "charism" of religious life itself, which "is the fruit of the.Holy Spirit, who is always at work within the church" (ET ~11). This explicit description of religious life as a charism is a fundamental advance in magisterial teaching, signaling as it does a shift from juridical to pneumatic categories. After citing Lumen Gentium §43 on the functions of ecclesiastical authority with respect to religious life, Paul VI makes it clear that these activities are ways of recognizing and authenti- cating previously existing charisms and of establishing religious life as a state within the church (ET §7). The impulse of the Spirit is not confined to the origin of a religious community. It is also present in renewal, a movement designed to lead religious "to the freedom of the sons [and daughters] of God" (ET §6, see ~51). This further pneumatic initiative requires a new process of discernment (ET §1, §6; see LG §12). Paul VI’s consistent inclusion of the role of the Spirit allows him to give an internal norm for the authentic development of religious life, another advance in postconciliar documents. The interior impulse which is the response to God’s call stirs up in the depths of one’s being certain fundamental options. Fidelity to the exigencies of these fundamental options is the touchstone of authenticity in religious life (ET §12). Responsiveness to this interior impulse can counteract for- malism and lead to renewal. This internal norm is counterpoised by an external, objective one: "fol!owing Christ according to the teaching of the Gospel" (ET ~12).

Mutuae Relationes. Mutuae Relationes (1978), as the title suggests, addresses relationships between bishops and religious.

j-~uly-August 1992 555 Walter ¯ Religious Life in Church Documents

Although it reprises much of the teaching of Lumen Gentium, the document follows the initiative of Evangelica Testificatio in its application of pneumatology to the phenomenon of religious life and in its rather consistent interpretation of the life as a charism. The charism of the founders is "’an experience of the Spirit,’ transmitted to their disciples to be lived, safeguarded, deepened, and constantly developed by them..." (MR §11). At the core of every religious institute is its unique way of encountering the Spirit, a way called the spirit or charism of the group. The recognition that such distinctiveness has a pneumatic origin impels the church to safeguard that uniqueness. For this reason, too, fidelity to the charism of the founder is listed as the first responsibility of superiors (MR §14c). In addition to acknowledging the Spirit as the source of diversity within religious life, Mutuae Relationes also credits the Spirit for being the origin of the innovation and originality generally associated with the charism of religious life. Although this initiative or inventiveness may be problematic and require discernment, it is of great value for effective pastoral response to a changing world. In such a situation a certain apostolic diligence is urgently necessary in order to devise new, ingenious, and courageous ecclesial experiments under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who is by his very nature Creator (MR §19). Charismatic ingenuity is especially expected in the work of religious with "the little ones and the poor" (MR §§23f). Religious life, like any charism, is "a special gift for the entire chuf’ch." (MR §10). The distinctive vocation of religious is a witness of total dedication to God, a dedication marked by the spirit of the Beatitudes (MR §14).

Religious Life and Human Promotion. "Religious Life and Human Promotion" (1978) recalls the prophetic mission of Jesus. In announcing the good news of the reign of God to the poor, Jesus called people to conversion and liberation. At its root Jesus’ mission was the formation of a new community of brothers and sisters through the gift of the Spirit (RLHP §24). The church continues this mission in its work of evangelization, a work integrally linked to human promotion. This is a prophetic task which requires "a radiCal change of mentality and attitudes" (RLHP Intro.). The role of religious is similarly dynamic. Religious life is

556 Review for Religious "charismatic and prophetic" (RLHP §27): it is a radical response to the radical demands of the Beatitudes (RLHP §4a, §15, §22). Religious are "persons of the Absolute" within the church, reminders of the transvaluation required of all Christians (RLHP §12b.4). So religious life is a state of ongoing conversion inspired by Jesus’ life and counsels. The conversion is to "God’s original plan for humanity," a community of brothers and sisters forged by the realization that God is their common source and goal and linked through relationships characterized by justice and love. This is the "vocation and mission" of religious (RLHP §19; see §§15, 18, 22, 33b). Religious life, then, is prophetic because it announces and anticipates human community under the,reign of God and because religious work to make this good news effective in the broader ~community. Such activities are forms of public, intentional, and communal participation in the mission of the church. The dichotomy between being and doing is resolved here: religious structure their lives, in everything from community life to apostolic work, in order to witness to and promote the reign of God. In the church’s mission of evangelization and human promotion, the function of religious is distinguished from that of other individuals and groups precisely by the fact that they are members of religious communities. Life in communion is the core of religious vocation and mission, the great gift and uniqueness of religious: "Experts in communion, religious are, therefore, called, to be ecclesial community in the church and in the world, witnesses and architects of the plan for unity which is the crowning point of human history in God’s design" (RLHP). They are a prophetic sign of a community formed from the love of and in communion with God. In this way they reflect the mystery of the church. That religious groups live in communion is the key to their ecclesial nature and their service to the church and world (RLHP §27). The primacy of the communitarian dimension in their way of life also determines the ways in which religious become involved in humafi promotion: they do it not as individuals, but in ways aligned with the mission of their institutes and with the support of their communities.

The Contemplative Dimension Of Religious Life. "The Con- templative Dimension of Religious Life" (1980) states that the

July-August 1992 557 Walter ¯ Religious Life in Church Documents

"religious community is itself a theological reality, an object of contemplation .... It is of its nature the place where the experience of God should be able in a special way to come to fullness and be communicated to others" (CDRL §15). Contemplative institutes are, like the church, communities in mission. Contemplative life "is their typical and characteristic way in God’s special design to be church, to live in the church, to achieve communion with the church, and to carry out a mission in the church" (CDRL §26).

Code of Canon Law. The Code of Canon Law (1983) reiterates many of the ideas and even phrases found in Lumen Gentium and Perfectae Caritatis. The Code does not fully reflect the more integrated understanding of religious life developing in official teaching, in large measure because all references to charism were deleted from the 1982 draft and, with them, a basic category for interpreting ecclesial and religious identity. The understanding of religious life in the Code is also shaped by the decision to place the norms for religious institutes in a section on institutes of consecrated life. Consecration through profession of vows is thus the generic description for religious life. The following definition begins the section on consecrated life: Life consecrated by the profession of the evangelical counsels is a stable form of living by which faithful, following Christ more closely under the action of the Holy Spirit, are totally dedicated to God who is loved most of all, so that, having dedicated themselves to his honor, the upbuild- ing of the church, and the salvation of the world by a new and special title, they strive for the perfection of charity in service to the kingdom of God and, having become an outstanding sign in the church, they may foretell the heavenly glory (c. 573, §1). The description of religious life echoes that of virgins (c. 604). Religious life, as a consecration of the whole person, manifests in the church a wonderful marriage brought about by God, a sign of the future age. Thus religious bring to perfection their full gift as a sacrifice offered to God by which their whole existence becomes a continuous worship of God in love (c. 607, §1). Here religious life is depicted in spousal and sacrificial or ritual language; its primary value lies in the transformation of existence of those so consecrated. As in canon 573, §1, the eschatological witness value of the life is noted. Canon 607, §3,

558 Review for Religious mentions the public witness of religious, connecting this witness with separation from the world. Canon 602, however, presents the witness to be given by religious in a manner reminiscent of "Religious Life and Human Promotion": "by their communion as brothers or sisters, rooted in and built on love, the members are to be an example of universal reconciliation in Christ." Here the connection between religious life and the mystery of the church is quite clear. The Code cites consecration through public vows, common life, and public witness involving some separation from the world as the characteristics which distinguish religious from members of secular institutes. The chapters specifically devoted to religious life reiterate these two functions: religious participate in the mission of the church and serve as sign to others in the church. The canons reflect the split between being and doing found in much theology of religious life as well as the difficulty of speaking in general terms about all religious, be they cloistered, mendicant, or apostolic. Canons 587, 598, §1, and 662 demonstrate the essential connection between the sequela Christi as expressed in the unique purpose and inheritance of the institute and the institute’s interpretation of the way it structures itself for mission. In summary, the Code of Canon Law presents institutes of consecrated life as an essential part of the church. These institutes are dedicated to the service of God and the church. They acquire canonical status through the approbation of their constitutions. These constitutions mediated the institutes’ self-understanding, since they are the expression of the members’ interpretation of the sequela Christi as specified by their charism, their unique history, and their lived experience. Because these institutes live from their founding gift, a gift of the Spirit, they have a rightful autonomy of life.

Redemptionis Donum. Redemptionis Donum (1983) meditates on religious life in the context of the mystery of redemption. This mystery is the origin and milieu of the church. It is of special concern to religious since, through their vowed consecration, they "strive towards a particular fullness of Christian life" (RD §i). Pope John Paul II describes a religious vocation as a call of Christ in his redeeming love, a call with a spousal character (RD §3). The redemptive and spousal love of religious is a unique expression of the love of the whole church for Christ; at the same

July-August 1992 559 Walter ¯ Religious Life in Church Documents

time, it is a witness to the whole church. Through. religious profession, women and men are "consecrated to God through the ministry of the church" and si.multaneously incorporated into their "religious family" (RD §7). He continues: Hence, the church thinks of you, above all, as persons who are "consecrated": consecrated to God in Jesus Christ as his exclusive possession. This consecration determines your place in the vast community of the church, the people of God (RD §7). The controlling image for religious life, in John Paul’s thought, then, is consecration. Consecration is a response to Christ’s love, a self-giving which is also spousal and redemptive. Through this action, religious are rooted in Christ in a new way and bring new spiritual energy to the one mission of the church in ways specified by their particular vocations. The counsels are also presented in connection with a theology of redemption. Recognizing that there are manifold evangelical counsels, the pope states that "chastity, poverty, and obedience give to this way [of following Christ] a particular Christocentric characteristic and imprint upon it a specific sign of the economy of the redemption" (RD §9). The plan for redemption encompasses the transformation of the world through the conversion of humanity--from the inside out. John Paul’s argument then takes a turn to an understanding of the vows prominent in preconciliar theology but found nowhere else in official conciliar and postconciliar documents. He cites 1 John 2:15-17 regarding the threefold lust: it is this which must be transformed in and for the love of God. The redemptive significance of the three traditional vows then becomes clear: "In the economy of the redemption, [they] constitute the most radical means for transforming in the human heart this relationship with the world" (RD §9). The exhortation continues to develop this Johannine view of the world and to present the vows as a prolongation of Christ’s mission to renew creation in this fashion. Clearly, then, the last three decades of official teaching on the identity of religious life indicate several characteristics of that life. Just as clearly, the interpretation and relative weight assigned to those characteristics vary according to the ecclesiologies and anthropologies operative in the authors of the texts. This fact indicates once again the essential connection between religious life and the mystery of the church.

560 Review for Religious Notes ~ The translations of Lumen Gentium and Perfectae Caritatis are taken from the The Documents of Vatican H, ed. Walter M. Abbott and Joseph Gallagher (New York: America Press, 1966). Citations of canon law are from Code of Canon Law: Latin-English Edition, translation prepared under the auspices of the Canon Law Society of America (Washington, D.C.: Canon Law Society of America, 1983). The St. Paul editions (Boston: Daughters of St. Paul) are the source for the remaining postconciliar documents. Emphases within quotations are in the English translations. Because "Essential Elements in the Church’s Teaching on Religious Life as Applied to Institutes Dedicated to Works of the Apostolate" is itself a summary of official teaching, it is not included in this brief paper. 2 Lumen Gentium §44 asserts that, although religious life "does not belong to the hierarchical structure of the church, nevertheless it belongs insepara.bly to her life and holiness." ~ 3 This interpretation of profession reflects the council’s attempt to emphasize the sacramental rather than the juridical basis for ecclesial life. The connection between profession and consecration echoes the recognition of the consecration effected in baptism (LG §§11, 15, 44), the clear connection between episcopal..,consecration and the fullness of the powers of orders (LG §21, CD §4), and the "kind of consecration in the duties and dignities of their state" which Christians receive in the sacrament of matrimony (GS §48). Vows are made to God through the major superior of the institute or her or his delegate; it is th~ superior, as the official leader of a recognized ecclesial community, who receives the profession. This is one distinction between the profession of religious and that of virgins and hermits, whose vows are received by the bishop.

~uly-August 1992 561 JOAN L. ROCCASALVO

The Ignatian Charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph

" ~ he Sisters of St. Joseph were founded in Le Puy, France, .AK. about 1650 by the Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre M~daille. At the time of his death in 1669, he had transmitted to them the apostolic spirituality of the Society of Jesus founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1540. Today twenty-five thousand Sisters of St. Joseph serve in diverse ministries on every continent.’ This article will examine the influence of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises on the spirituality of the Sisters of St. Joseph as found in Father M~daille’s Maxims of Perfection, which "contain the entire spirit of the Institute and of the Constitutions.’’2

The Early Institute of St. Joseph The founding of the Sisters of St. Joseph was a bold and dar- ing enterprise. At a time of French anticlericalism, the first sisters came together as a "secret design" in 1647 under the guidance of Father M~daille. Some three years later in the "second foundation," the women of the "secret design" were given official approbation by Bishop Henri de Maupas.3 These women met and prayed together and ministered without the traditional supports of the cloister or even of religious garb.4 They dressed simply, "adopt[ing] the clothes worn by widows in their locality, which varied from country to country.’’5 The prevalence of war "meant Joan L. Roccasalvo CSJ is assistant professor of music and coordinator of the Center for Eastern Christian Studies at the University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania 18510.

562 Review for Religious that the widow’s habit was the most common form of dress for a woman, so that a sister wearing it could walk freely about the streets on her apostolic work.’’6 The Sisters of St. Joseph are among the first congregations to labor outside the cloister. From their beginnings they were engaged in a mobile apostolate extremely varied and adapted to local needs. They understood that, because God is present and at work in all things, union with God was possible in their dealings with people and circumstances as well as in the experience of prayer. The daily examen would become a spiritual exercise indispensable for reviewing one’s efforts to find God in the daily horar- ium, which combined contemplation and action. This prayer is a structural part of Ignatian spirituality. Its importance is highlighted in the Spiritual Exercises (nos. 24-43) but also in the following two reflections, the first by St. Ignatius, the second by M~daille in one of the maxims: Consider the end of your studies. The scholastics can hardly give themselves to prolonged meditations. Over and above the spiritual exercises assigned for their perfection, namely, daily Mass, an hour for vocal prayer and examen of con- science, weekly confession and communion, they should practice the seeking of God in all things, in their conversation, their walks, in all that they see, taste, hear, understand, in all their actions, since His Divine Majesty is truly in all things by his presence, power, and essence .... This method is an excellent exercise to prepare us for great visitations of our Lord.7 Desire the perfection suitable to the three powers of your soul: for the memory, a forgetfulness of all things, even of self, in order to remember God alone; for the seeing of God in all things, the glory, the power, the providence, the mercy of God; for the will, the liberty of approaching God, of loving God, and of embracing all the orders of God’s providence with all the affection of your soul. The early Jesuits and later the Sisters of St. Joseph embraced an apostolate which involved going anywhere and doing whatever was needed to minister to others. Their training was implicitly based on the three questions which permeate the Spiritual Exercises: "What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What must I do for Christ?" (no. 53). In addition to personal prayer, the examen enabled active women to reflect on every aspect of their lives, physical, spiritual, material, and mental, in order to discern the good pleasure of God.

~uly-August 1992 563 Roccasalvo ¯ The Ignatian Charism

Conditions in France during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were not very different from the human condition today, which may be characterized by a vacuum of spiritual values and by greed and materialism, political unrest, and social-justice issues.8 The Sisters of St. Joseph placed themselves at the disposal of the local church and answered the call to serve in these conditions. Serving outside the cloister in this way, how could they be faithful to their vows and foster a life of deep prayer? They needed the greatest spiritual maturity to allow others to make the greatest demands on their time and energy, their patience and wisdom. They had to have a strong and serene affective union with God in order to bring that love to others. As Jesus derived inner strength from periods of prayer with his Father, so the sisters had to find their inner strength from solitary prayer with God. For them apostolic spirituality was nothing more than love in action, and it transformed them into affective and effective leaders of the seventeenth-century church. This total gift of oneself to God is expressed in the "Suscipe" of St. Ignatius, as found first in the book of the Exercises (no. 234) and then in the old Formulary of prayers of the Sisters of St. Joseph: Receive, O my God, my liberty, which I offer to thee without reserve; accept of my memory, understanding, and will all that I have, all that I am. Thou hast given all to me, l only return them to thee that thou mayest dispose of them according to thy loving and amiable pleasure. As is well known the book of the Exercises is "not to be read so much as prayed, [and] a cursory reading is bound to lead to disap- pointment?’~° Doing the Ignatian Exercises may be described as a deep and prolonged experience of being with God in personal prayer. The Exercises embody various forms of prayer whose goal is gen.uifie interior freedom so that one’s life will be lived at the faith level. The experience of the Exercises deepens one’s awareness of God’s overwhelming love which makes all things possible.

A Trinitarian Charism The charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph is the charism of St. Ignatius as lived by Mddaille. What is the meaning of this oft- repeated word? A charism (from the Greek charis, meaning favor or grace) begins with an unmerited religious experience of depth and intensity. God singles out individuals and touches them with

564 Revie~ for Reli~ous an unforgettable experience of love in which they are given a special understanding of God. Aware of their total dependence on God, the graced persons are caught up in God and ready to respond as the Spirit beckons. John Futrell summarizes: "The mode of receiving the charism is shaped, then, by the person’s historical and cultural conditioning, as well as by his temperament, human gifts, and limitations; all of which Christians recognize as the effects of God’s active love in history.’’~’ In the Judeo-Christian tradition, Moses, St. The charism of the Paul, St. Teresa of Avila, Martin Luther King Sisters of St. Joseph Jr., and Mother Teresa are only a few examples of graced individuals. is the charism It was at Manresa near the River Cardoner that Ignatius received from God of St. Ignatius great illuminations into the mystery of the as lived by M daille. Holy Trinity and of God’s energizing all of creation. Michael Ivens says that "the Trinity for Ignatius is emphatically the creator and redeemer God, continually at work in ’all things.’’’~2 Of this pure unmerited gift Ignatius says unpreten- tiously that "his understanding began to be elevated so that he saw the Holy Trinity in the form of three musical keys... [which] brought on so many tears and so much sobbing that he could not control himself."’3 In the solitude of Manresa, Ignatius could not have envisioned that this mystical experience would lead him to found the Society of Jesus. Yet he allowed God to lead him gently toward this end. Ignatius’s understanding of the Trinity was not abstract. For him and later for M~daille, to participate in the life of the Trinity was to be caught up in the paschal mystery of the Lord Jesus and of our pilgrimage to spiritual freedom in God. When Ignatius conceptualized his understanding of the Trinitarian mystery, he did so from his lived experience. He came to see that "all creatures are related to God," a fact that "he came to experience directly for himself.’’’4 To say that God was at work in all things meant that Ignatius too was at work in the concrete conditions of life, where he was helping to transform creation and return it to its God. He conveyed this practical spirituality to his Jesuit confreres and they to others. Listen to Mfidaille: Embrace, at least in desire, the conversion and sanctification

j~uly-August 1992 565 Roccasalvo ¯ The Ignatian Charism

of a whole world in imitation of apostolic persons and do so with a generous courage which, in the orders of God’s good pleasure and of obedience and in the observance of true humility, brings you and urges you to wish to do everything and to suffer everything in order to glorify God and assist in the salvation and sanctification of those who cost God’s dear Son everything."

Years later Ignatius narrated that he seemed to see Christ with the cross on his shoulders and beside him the Eternal Father, who said to him, "’I wish you to take this man [Ignatius] as your servant,’ and Jesus so took him and said, ’My will is that you should serve us.’" Thus Ignatius was to serve the Holy Trinity by taking the crucified Lord into the contemporary world. Hugo Rahner says, "This reveals the underlying structure of Ignatian theology-above, below, and middle.’’Is In this "divine descent," Ignatius found God "above," which enabled him to find God "below" in the contemporary world)6 In between was "Christ the Mediator, as the incarnate God, the creator and Lord who had become a creature.’’17 Centuries earlier the Eastern Fathers phrased this theology in what would become one of the best- loved verses of Eastern Christianity: "God became one of us that we might become as God." The motto "for the greater glory of God" implies that Ignatius saw God as the beginning and end of that life which comes to us from Jesus through the Spirit. It was by being an intimate companion of Jesus that one entered into the life of the Trinity. This life was to be lived not in the cloister but in the world. The trinitarian charism of Ignatius of Loyola stands as the cornerstone in the spirituality of the Sisters of St. Joseph and many other religious congregations. In the Maxims, M~daille speaks not of one Trinity but of two--the Holy Trinity and the trinity of the holy family. After Mary, his spouse and the mother of God, St. Joseph, who lived the hidden life in harmony with his holy family, is presented as a model for a Sister of St. Joseph. The choice of St. Joseph suggests, indeed, that "the manner of living is [indeed] ordinary.’’18 The following maxim exemplifies Fr. M~daille’s trinitarian devotion: "Consecrate yourself often to the holy and uncreated Trinity of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; to the created one of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; and to all the saints of heaven." The pre- and post-Vatican II Constitutions of the Sisters of St.

566 Reviezv for Religious Joseph affirm the Trinity as the centrality and "fullness of life and union to which all creation is called.’’19 From the earliest days of his conversion, Ignatius experienced many spiritual movements which needed to be weighed in order that God’s "good pleasure" might be found. It was the movements of the Holy Spirit which he sought in a maze of winds swaying the spirit to and fro. If the Spirit was at the origin of these movements, then the soul felt God’s presence in peace and consolation. Through the discernment of spirits, Ignatius became deeply aware of the action of the Holy Spirit within him, and he learned to distinguish this action from other movements arising from "the enemy of mankind" (no. 334). With the emphasis on apostolic service, with all its demands, the Holy Spirit came to occupy a special place in the spirituality of Ignatius. Discernment of the various spiritual influences took on great importance for an apostle living in and serving the world. Note the close identity of one rule for the Discernment of Spirits for the Second Week in the Spiritual Exercises and a maxim: It is typical of the evil spirit to transform himself into an angel of light, to go in by the devout soul’s way but to come out his own way; I mean he introduces sound and pious thoughts, suited to the piety of that soul; but then, little by little, he tries to achieve his own purposes, by dragging the soul down to his secret designs and corrupt purpose (no. 332). Be watchful over yourself and take care not to be deceived by the angel bf darkness who masquerades as an angel of light in order to deceive you; and, if your conduct is out of the ordinary, believe that it is not without danger and always mistrust it. The remainder of Ignatius’s life was a continual living out of the trinitarian focus. His was the experience of seeking and finding God in all things, for he saw all things in God. This became the tapestry against which his entire life was lived. The Spiritual Exercises are a charism and a gift not only to the Society of Jesus but to the entire church as well. As to M~daille’s devotion to the Trinity, Anne Bernice Hennessey states: In speaking of the Trinity, M~daille does not employ the usual catechetical formula: Father-creation, Son-redemption, Spirit-sanctification. Instead, he proposes the perfection (will/glory) of the Father, the self-emptying of the Son, and the pure and perfect love of the Spirit.2°

~uly-August 1992 567 Roccasalvo ¯ The Ignatian Charism

Consensus Statement Among the French congregations of religious women founded by Jesuits, "only in the instance of the Sisters of St. Joseph is there evidence of a Jesuit actually writing the constitutions of the new congregation.’’2~ Theheart of this spirituality is contained in the Consensus .Statement--the central ideas of Mddaille as found in the Primitive Constitutions: Stimulated by the Holy Spirit of Love and receptive to the Spirit’s inspirations, the Sister of St. Joseph moves always towards: profound love of God and love of neighbor without distinction, from whom .she does not separate herself and for whom, in the following of Christ, she works in order to achieve unity both of neighbor with neighbor and neighbor with God directly in this apostolate and indirectly through works of charity in humility--the spirit of the Incarriate Word in sincere charity (cbaritl cordiale), the manner of St. Joseph, whose name she bears in an Ignatian-Salesian climate: that is, with an orientation towards excellence, that is, le plus, which means towards the greater, the magis, tempered by gentleness, peace, and joy. The,above reference to an "Ignatian-Salesian climate" means that the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales was shaped by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. The bishop of Geneva (d. 1662) was educated at the Jesuit College of Clermont and at the University of Padua. He lived under spiritual direction from his school days and throughout his ministry as bishop. He did the Spiritual Exercises each year.22 Like St. Ignatius and M~daille, St. Francis focuses on the universal call to holiness, and his writings are especially practical for the lay person. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, he speaks to the contemplative who lives in the world.23 Because an internal relationship exists between the teaching of St. Ignatius, M~daille, and St. Francis de Sales, the founder of the Society of Jesus is the "father" of these two spiritual sons.24 Le plus or the magis of the Consensus Statement connotes a meaning broader than mere excellence and deeper in spiritual meaning. The rnagis is an attitude of mind and heart. Faced with two alternatives both giving equal glory to God, which will I choose? I will choose the alternative which will make me more like Christ. Take, for example, the saint who saw two crowns--one of gold, the other of thorns. Assured that her choice would be equally pleasing to Christ, she chose the crown of thorns. Another example is that of a wife who chooses to share a hardship with

568 Review for Religious her husband when he would be equally pleased even if she did not. "The more" deepens the meaning of "For the greater glory of God."

The Spiritual Exercises and the Maxims of Perfection In a popular literary genre of the seventeenth century, M~daille’s maxims summarize the book of the Exercises in "concise statements of practical wisdom.’’25 Parallel examples abound between the Maxims and the Exercises. The following texts are such an example: Spiritual Exercises: For the overcoming of self and the regula- tion of one’s life on the basis, of a decision arrived at without any unregulated motive (no. 21). Maxims of Perfection: For those who aspire to the great virtue revised and enlarged by exercise for stripping self of self, putting on Christ Jesus, and imitating him in his hidden and public life in the form of prayers and conversations with the Savior himself by a servant of God [M~daille] very enlightened in the interior life (Frontispiece). The question naturally.arises as to why M~daille did not directly incorporate the experience of the Exercises into the early spiritual practice of the Sisters of St. Joseph. Scholarship is silent on this question. However, given the secret character of the early institute and because of the prevailing anticlericalism, it may have been unwise for M~daille to direct the Exercises in the cell communities. Instead, he gave them some one hundred maxims, which were memorized because six of the seven original sisters were illiterate. Since 1650, M~daille’s legacy has nurtured the apostolic spirit of thousands of Sisters of St. Joseph, including those who served as "angels of mercy" in the French Revolution, at Gettysburg, and in Russia before, during, and after the Russian Revolution.26 Today, in the spirit of Ignatius and M~daille, there is hardly any ministry in which the Sisters of St. Joseph are not engaged. For some sisters, praying the maxims has led to deep prayer and loving service to others. One saintly sister of St. Joseph spent her entire life praying the maxim: Always be perfectly predisposed to receive with gentleness and indifference everything that is not contrary to God: to be healthy or sick, happy or dissatisfied, loved or persecuted; to do one thing or the other; to live or to die; in a word, pre-

~uly-~ugust 1992 569 Roccasalvo ¯ The Ignatian Charism o .....

disposed to receive the whole of God’s will for you, which you ought to love tenderly whatever it may be. MI that comes from the hand of God is very beneficial when we receive it properly. Those familiar with the Exercises will recognize this maxim as a paraphrase of the Principle and Foundation. Given today’s demands on our time and energy, the following two maxims, reminiscent of the Rules for Discernment, offer particularly sound advice: Always be serious-minded in your relationship with others; however, let it be a pleasant and gracious seriousness in which there is neither unrestraint nor too much constraint, and seek relaxation, as indeed you should, at the proper time. The bow that is always taut will soon snap. Do not become entangled in too many things at once: if, through obedience or some other demand of your work, you have several things to attend to, never be anxious about fin- ishing some in order to work at others. This anxiety troubles peace of heart, causes forgetfulness of God’s presence, and shows with certainty that there is still much of the old self intermingled with the movements of grace and that nature impedes rather than facilitates what grace would work in us and through us more perfectly if allowed to act with its usual gentleness and with less anxiety on our part about our devotion and health. Some, however, may view the maxims as piety for an earlier age. But, instead, they should be seen for what they are: a diminu~ tive version of the Spiritual Exercises, which, as was previously mentioned, M~daille did not explicitly give to the first Sisters of St. Joseph. Nonetheless, he made certain that the maxims did correspond to the Spiritual Exercises. Because the maxims have their own peculiar organization, the presence of the Exercises in them is not easily detected by those unfamiliar with the Ignatian handbook. Yet, when the maxims are rearranged, they correspond to every section of the Exercises proper, as follows: Principle and Foundation: twenty maxims First Week: six maxims The King: seven maxims Second Week: thirty maxims Rules of Discernment: eleven maxims Third Week (Passion): nine maxims Fourth Week (Resurrection) and the Contemplation for Obtaining Divine Love: 15 maxims.

570 Review for Religious In my view, the Maxims are incomplete without the Spiritual Exercises. The Maxims are dependent on them. The CSJ charism will not be revitalized without an interior knowledge of their matrix, the Spiritual Exercises. The following analogy by Joseph Veale, although it addresses a different point, is a pertinent way to describe the Maxims: It [is] as though someone took King Lear and extracted the great speeches and lyrical passages, arranged them in some rough logical order, dismembered the text, dislocated the dramatic structure and destroyed the story.. And then said, there you have the essence of King Lear.27 Anne Bernice Hennessey suggests three problems encountered in studying the history and spirituality of the Sisters of St. Joseph: (1) lacunae about the founder, (2) lack of "consistent or scholarly reflection," and (3) inability to assemble and edit critical editions of the founder’s documents.28 Yet for years Sisters of St. Joseph have been aware of the close relationship between their own charism and that of the Society of Jesus, between the Maxims and the Spiritual Exercises. Sisters have benefited from the experience of either the full Exercises (the thirty-day retreat or the nineteenth annotation) or the six- or eight-day retreat. Moreover Sisters of St. Joseph have responded to the ministry of directing both women and ~nen through the Exercises. Other Sisters of St. Joseph have written and lectured about the Exercises. The period of refounding necessitates the continued studying and praying of the Maxims and the Exercises together.

Conclusion This article has affirmed the thesis of Anne Bernice Hennessey: "The spirituality which Jean-Pierre M8daille proposed for the Sisters of St. Joseph is clearly Ignatian, and therefore apostolic in nature.’’’9 Let us now summarize by referring inore fully to the article entitled "What Is an ’Ignatian Congregation’?’’3° In it Mary Milligan discusses four ways in which congregations are related to the Society of Jesus: (1) through reliance on Ignatian texts in the formulation of their own constitutions; (2) through influence by individual Jesuits; (3) by modeling certain works or structures on those of the Society of Jesus; (4) by inspiration drawn from Ignatian Christological and apostolic visions.31 All four categories apply in varying degrees to the Sisters of St.

)~dy-Aug~st 1992 571 Roccasalvo ¯ The Ignatian Charism

Joseph. First, the pre-Vatican II Constitutions of the Sisters of St. Joseph relied on Ignatian texts though less so than other congregations. Institutes whose texts bear a close resemblance to the Jesuit Constitutions have inherited only the Summary of the Constitutions, which "resembles a collection of rules.’’32 What began as a practical compendium for Jesuit novices was soon promulgated for all Jesuits.33 Subsequently this summa~y became foundational for many women religious, who followed it as their own constitutions. Second, the integral relationship between the Spiritual Exercises and M~daille’s Maxims and his writing of the Primitive Constitutions is now well established. Third, the apostolic structures of the Sisters of St. Joseph are based on those of the Society of Jesus. The eight-day if not the thirty-day retreat continues to be part of the ongoing formation of the Sisters of St. Joseph. In the matter of "experiments" in the initial formation, sisters not finally professed are still assigned to some form of ministry at various intervals to insure the versatil- ity of their training. Moreover, like the Jesuits, the Sisters of St. Joseph from the outset have engaged in an active and mobile apostolate, committing themselves to go wherever the need was most pressing. Fourth, from M~daille’s teaching, the Sisters of St. Joseph draw a trinitarian and Christological focus in the tradition of Ignatius’s mystical experiences. The Sisters of St. Joseph are an Ignatian congregation. To some extent, religious institutes have deemphasized their individual differences. They have viewed the Gospels as their uni- fying charism, and indeed this is so. Yet the variety of gifts within each religious order further refracts the prismatic colors of the Gospels as they spread through the entire Catholic Church. Each Gospel, for example, places a different emphasis on the mystery of Jesus, yet each complements the others. No informed Christian would single out one Gospel above the others as the embodiment of the full mystery of Jesus. No one of them can encompass a complete understanding of Jesus. Similarly, the unique gifts of the religious orders within the Catholic Church complement one another, for no one order can entirely incarnate the mystery and perception of Jesus as the God-man. Each order enables us to view the mystery of Jesus from a different perspective. In rediscovering our unique charism, we must seek unity, but unity in diversity.

572 Review for Religious The Vatican II decree on the up-to-date renewal of religious life has exhorted religious orders and congregations to search out their spiritual roots and rediscover their meaning in light of contemporary needs. The document exhorts: For the good of the church, institutes must seek after a genuine understanding of their original spirit, so that they will preserve it faithfully when deciding on adaptation, will purify their religious life from alien elements, and will free it from what is obsolete.34 Like other religious institutes, the Sisters of St. Joseph are preparing to serve the church of the twenty-first century with a renewed spirit. Leaders in the four federations are exhorting the Sisters of St. Joseph to rediscover together their corporate identity. The key to this realization is to be found in the book and experience of the Spiritual Exercises lived by the founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Jean-Pierre Mddaille of the Society of Jesus. Notes ~ "The thirteen thousand Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States form part of a world-wide body of twenty-five thousand Sisters of St. Joseph in four Federations: the French, the Canadian, the Italian, and the United States." Sisters of St. Joseph, A Sto.![y w!th an Endless Beginning (Paris: Caldirola, Dolfy, 1987), p. vi. 2 Jean-Pierre M~daille SJ, Maximes de Perfection, ed. M. Nepper SJ (Lyons: Roudil Fr~res, 1962), quoted in M~daille Committee, "The Spirituality of Reverend Jean-Pierre M~daille SJ" (New Orleans, 1967), p. 3. The Maxims of Pofection were published in 1657. 3 Living in small groups, they were directed to form similar "secret" groups of lay women. 4 M~daille Committee, "The Spirituality of Reverend Jean-Pierre M~daille SJ," pp. 2-3. s Sisters of St. Joseph, A Story with an Endless Beginning, p. 18. Similarly, at the time of its founding, the Society of Jesus could not be identified by a distinguishing habit. ~ 6 Ibid. 7 St. Ignatius’ Own Story, trans. William J. Young sJ (Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1956), p. 103. 8 Pierre V~Zolf SJ, "Keynote Address to Sisters of St. Joseph, Albany Province" (Latham, N.Y., 16 April 1983), pp. 1-2. 9 George E. Ganss SJ, Foreword in David L. Fleming SJ, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: A Literal Translation and a Contemporary Reading (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1970), p. xiii. lO The Spiritual Exerc#es of St. Ignatius of Loyola, A New Translation by Thomas Corbishley SJ (London: Burns and Oates, 1963), p. 9.

3~uly-August 1992 573 Roccasalvo ¯ The Ignatian Charism

1| John C. Fntrell SJ, "Discovering the Founder’s Charism," The Way Supplement 64 (autumn, 1971): 63. 12 Cheslyn Jones, Geoffrey Wainwright, and Edward Yarnold SJ, eds., The Study of Spirituality (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 361. 13 St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Autobiography in Ignatius of Loyola, The Classics of VVestern Spirituality, ed. George E. Ganss SJ (New York and Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1990), pp. 79-80. , 14 Hugo Rahner SJ, Ignatius the Theologian, trans. Michael Barry (New York: Herder and Herder, 1968), p. 3. ~s Rahner, p. 3. 16 Rahner, p. 9. 17 Ibid, p. 12. ~8 St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, translated with an introduction and a commentary by George E. Ganss SJ (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1970), p. 80 and fn. 19. ~9 Constitution of the Sisters of Saint Joseph (Brentwood, N.Y., n.d.), p. 4. 20 Anne Bernice Hennessey CSJ, "The Influence of Ignatian Spirituality on the Primitive Documents of the Sisters of St. Joseph" (M.A. thesis, 1983), p. 103. 21 Ibid, p. 84. 22 Cheslyn Jones, p. 361. 23 Those interested in the spiritual influence of Bishop de Maupas on the early founding will discover that he too "was a recipient of this [Ignatian] influence as a result of his Jesuit education and his Jesuit spiritual directors." See Hennessey, "The Influence of Ignatian Spirituality," p. 22. 24 The writings of St. John of the Cross are also influenced by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. 2s Hennessey, p. 17. 26 "Soeurs de St. Joseph de Chamb~ry en Russie, 1863-1922" (May- June 1988), commemorating the millennium of the baptism of "Russia." 27 Mary Milligan RSCJ, "What Is an ’Ignatian Congregation’?" The Way Supplement 70, (spring 1991), p. 42. 28 Hennessey, p. 10. 29 Hennessey, p. 98. 30 Milligan, pp. 40-50. 3~ Ibid, pp. 41-45. 3-, Ibid, p. 41. 33 See St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, p. 85, fn. 29. 3q Perfectae Caritatis, Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of the Religious Life, 28 October 1965, trans. Austin Flannery, Vatican Council //(Northport, New York: Costello Publishing Co. 1975), p. 627.

574 Review for Religious ROSE MARIE JASINSKI

Envisioning Associate Identity

Associate membership has emerged within religious congregations with much variety, but also with a strong sense that the Spirit is very much working among us. This was a common sentiment expressed at the second national conference for associates, directors, and codirectors of associates held 5-7 May 1991 at the Bon Secours Spiritual Center in Marriottsville, Maryland. Entitled "Envisioning Associate Identity for the Future," the conference was follow-up to one held in 1989 though with a different format and content. The ’89 conference was the first of its kind and focused primarily on historical background and how associate groups began within the various religious congregations in attendance: approximately sixty-five people, mostly vowed religious and a few associates. The May ’91 conference was attended by 1 li9 people: women religious, associates, and a few men repre- senting, all told, sixty-two congregations from all parts of the United States and Canada. The increase in numbers alone reli- ably suggests that the associdte movement is not just alive and tending toward well, but growing and tending toward deepening.

Purpose ., The main purpose for this gathering was to provide an atmosphere where we could: share ideas and questions/concerns on associate relationship; learn from each other; share resources; be

Rose Marie Jasinski CBS is director of the Bon Secours Associate Community. This article is a follow-up to a previous report on the associate movement published in Review’ for Religious May-June 1990. Her address is 1525 Marriottsville Road; Marriottsville, Maryland 21104.

July-August 1992 575 ~as~nski ¯ Associate Identity

a support to each other; establish some regional and national net- working; and envision a future direction. The participants in 1991 were eager to come together with a view toward better bonds of relationship between associates and vowed members for the future.

Design As in the ’89 conference, the approach was taken that the true "experts" in the associate movement are those directly involved: associate members and vowed religious members themselves. From that conviction a format was developed to make the best use of the skills and insights of the participating "’experts." Focus areas were selected from a list of responses to a mailing that had requested: What are your concerns, your issues regarding associate membership at this point in your history? Receiving the most mention and explored at the conference were: I. "Associate Ideritity: Interactive or Dependent?" What is the relationship of the associate members with your community? 2. "Recruitment and Formation in Light of Associate Identity." Where are your new associate members coming from and why? What is your philosophy and practice of formation? 3. "Alternative Membership Expressions." Has there been any evolution in the way associate membership is lived and expressed.? 4. "Dreams/Needs for the Future." What are your dreams for associate membership in the future? Panels on these four major focus areas had been arr,anged from among participants who indicated on the registration form an interest in being so involved. All panelists were asked to share their experiences and insights on the topic being addressed. After the panel’s input, there was interaction in the form of questions and ideas from the other participants. This format allowed expression of the wealth of variety present: variety in ministry and spiritual activities, in decision-making processes, in levels of involvement in community functions, and so forth. At the same time the format allowed expression of some significant similarities in overall philosophical approach to associate relationships.

Identity In general, associate identity is seen as separate and distinct from the identity of the vowed members. Participation as an asso-

576 Review for Religious ciate member is seen as a response to a unique call to live out a particular charism as a lay woman or man alongside vowed members of a congregation. While the call is unique, there is a shared vision, shared ministry, and shared faith in a God who calls both associates and vowed members. Through their contacts with each other, associates strengthen and support one another in their distinct call much as vowed members do for each other. The challenge for associates and vowed members alike is to encourage a healthy and creative distance that is not too distant nor yet too close where unique identities can flourish, strengthen each other, learn from each other, and challenge each other to be faithful to the charism. Religious congregations may be especially challenged to let the laity "own" the charism, gift of the church that it is.

Recruitment The concept of "owning" the charism seems important to and affects the recruitment and orientation of i~ew members. It seems to be generally agreed that associates are attracted to a particular congregation precisely because they already have the charism within them. Given this situation, the orientation enhances and deepens the sense of call and builds on a relationship already existing. The process assists the individual to discern if this relationship is the best way to respond to the call. It focuses on the history of the congregation, its ministry, spirituality, and prayer, and so forth. Orientation is not a formation in the sense of "forming" the uninformed. Recruitment, for the most part, is the result of word-of-mouth invitations by either associates or vowed members. Frequently these invitations are extended to coworkers, relatives, or former members of the congregation. The growth in membership seems to be consistently slow but steady.

Alternative Membership Ideas of commitment and community were consistently mentioned in considering "alternative membership expressions" for associate members. There was much expression of people’s desire for commitment and a challenge to the vowed members present to not "water down" the expectations for or invitation to a deeper

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commitment from associate members. Associates are "looking for commitment." Similarly, associates expressed a need to know that there is also a level of commitment to the whole associate project on the part of the vowed members. The discussions surrounding community led to the affirmation that, at this time, community is based on a shared faith, a shared charism, and a shared ministry. Associates are looking for faith community. Community in this context is not a shfiring of physical space--though visions of new forms of community in the future include scenarios where associate members and vowed members could share physical space as well in their creation of community together. In the present reality and in dreams of future possibilities, the challenge for a more mutual acceptance of responsibility and accountability is clear. There was strong resonance to the idea that associate relationships will only flourish and deepen when vowed members and associates together assume mutual responsibility and accountability for participation in the community of faith that the Spirit calls them to create together.

Observations In 1989 the first conference focused on how each associate group began and then evolved. And so we listened to stories, many of them. The conference evaluations reflected some dissatisfaction over the repetitiousness of many similar stories. The conveners were told, "Let’s not do that again!" Participants in the 1991 conference had made it very clear that they wanted to talk with each other about where the movement is going, but sur- prisingly, in both the formal and informal sharing, they returned to telling stories of their beginnings. What was going on? We believe that associate communities, by and large, have passed beyond the need for external legit° imization by their individual religious congregations and are now engaged in a process of internal legitimization. The movement, generally speaking, is defining and authoring itself from within through the very natural process of introducing itself and talking about itself in its history. This would also seem to be part of the process of associate communities beginning to take responsibility for themselves. A critical part of this process seems to be the discovery of a

578 Reviezv for Religious vocabulary that discloses or genuinely describes associates’ experience of themselves. Thus participants spoke of a "call" to associate membership as the "work of the Spirit." This language seemed quite emphatic and energizing. Related to this historical moment of self-definition is an obvious shift in perspective or assumptions around the associate phenomenon: Whatever associate membership means, it is to be explored in the experience itself rather than in the structures or organization of the "program" that shapes, and perhaps seeks to contain, the experience. Thus, the best answer to Participants spoke the question "Should associates be invited to the chapter?" is "What is your mutual of a ’call" to experience?" Associates and religious are associate membership either graced in their experience of each other or they are not. Whatever might as the "work of the Spirit." express a next step in that relationship will flow from the reality and history of that graced relationship. So a religious community that has had enlivening and "fitting" experiences working with associates in ministry, in praying together, in planning common events together, in working on province committees together, might well ask, "Why not sit in at the chapter as non- voting members--let’s see what happens." On the other hand, a congregation that ignores these early stages of relational fit will find the chapter question, disorienting and destructive of whatever small comfort and clarity they have in the associate relationship. We have not seen a developmental plan or methodology that seems to work for all religious with their associate communities other than the belief that God is at work with this congregation and this associate community, where they are and as they are, gracing both in mutually understandable ways.

Reflections on the Conference Summing up, we may ask: What should an associate community be in relationship to a particular religious congregation? There are no answers other than those that emerge over time

~dy-August 1992 579 Jas~~sociate !dentity

from their prayer, reflection, and sharing on the experience of God in the relationship found: ¯ at the personal level of all involved; ¯ at the levels of.the associate community experience and of the congregational experience; and, finally, ¯ at the level of shared gratitude and fidelity to the One who gives this form of life to the church. This is clearly a process orientation--though a spiritual process rather than an organizational one. What will emerge, in our opinion, from this moment in the history of the church will be a result of a collective religious or spiritual imagination that can see God at work among us--forming and reforming--rather than a result ’of solely rational planning and human design.

Next Steps Participants in this conference elected to meet again in two years. Many groups active in the United States and Canada, unable to attend the Marriottsville meeting, are asking that a midwest and a western conference be considered as well. Since these past two conferences on the associate movement were attended primarily by religious, it seems reasonable and desirable to schedule an off-year meeting for lay associates to facilitate their process of self-definition in light of their relationship with religious congregations.

580 Review for Religious JAMES E. CLAFFEY

Musings about Vocations

~ttt usually starts when I am introduced to a group as a "voca- ion director." People’s eyes narrow a bit, their eyebrows rise a few centimeters, and one can read their minds: hmm ... sends young men to the seminary.., a recruiter.., a body-snatcher! Sooner or later one question will surely be posed: How many signed up? Interestingly, although much of ministry cannot be measured in precise terms, vocation directors submit to being scored mathematically in every conversation. It all comes down to numbers. Our titles and job descriptions reveal muddled thinking in these difficult times. Are we really "directors" of vocations? Is "coordinator of vocational ministry" much better? We all applaud the disappearance of "recruiter," but beyond that what can we say? And how should we describe our ministry? The current practice has us straining out anything very specific. We "minister for direction finding among the young," we "accompany those who might journey with us in building the: kingdom." One senses some mild frustration expressing itself in the search for the correct title and the appropriate--and not too specific--job description. The most common explanation for the "lack" of religious vocations today revolves around the lack of support from our society for such a career choice. The society of the "mighty dol- lar and the almighty me" militates against vocations. People today James E. Claffey CM began his ministry as a vocation director for the Vincentians in September 1991. His address is Vincentian Vocation Office; St. John’s University; Grand Central and Utopia Parkways; Jamaica, New York 11439.

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do not value celibacy. The young do not believe in the perma- nence of anything except perhaps money making and the con- sumption it affords. The objective eye. discovers undeniable elements of truth in this analysis. But as a finished explanation of the vocational state of affairs, it is clearly a cop-out. Our society suffers a crisis of value and direction, fair enough. But so does religious life. The real vocational crisis, if indeed there is one, may be largely the fruit of our own lack of spirituality and significance. In a word, we do not make enough, of a difference. The most significant and dramatic message of all has been entrusted to us, the story of God’s ongoing love for humanity, and we fail to move hearts and minds, to stir imaginations, to create contemporary idioms and paint pictures vivid enough to get a lively response. At an historical moment rich in communication devices, the age of the com- puter and the cellular telephone, our religious lifestyle seldom connects with people at levels where meaning and value are deci- phered. It is not necessarily society’s responsibility to be Christian; it is, however, ours to live and present Christian meaning and value and direction effectively. The Gospel of John places on the lips of Jesus an incredible and ultimately troubling statement: "You will do greater things than I" (14:12). Directed to his followers, the phrase has con- founded and intrigued me for some time. I wonder if the present context may shed new light on this text. The church ambles on towards the third millennium praying fervently for vocations. Is there no reply? Can there be no reply? Any decent theology of vocation will begin with the affirmation: God as good shepherd never ceases to provide for the people of God. Perhaps the reply to our vocational prayer is not what we expect or what we want. After all, "God’s ways are not our ways," as we know. Does a vocational crisis exist? Surely the numbers of priests and religious have plummeted in recent years. But on the other hand what about the signs of hope all around us, in world and church, that hold the promise of new and creative solutions to all our ills? Never before in history, for example, has there existed such concern for human rights as today. Dictators are out; democracy is in. The winds of change blow strongly enough even to topple hard-line ideol~)gies in Eastern Europe. And closer to home, in the church herself, never before have so many Christians

582 Review for Religious been aware and accepting of their role as protagonists of the kingdom-building vocation that is ours. Never have there been so many lay ministers and parish councils; never so many lay volunteers for every sort of service. As we move towards the God who is our future, perhaps the church increasingly will discover a broader understanding of how God breaks into our history and how that future, even now, unfolds in new and untold ways. Perhaps we will "do greater things" and respond to the challenges of the year 2000 as The real a totally ministerial people of God, more conscious of the gifts and ministerial possibilities vocational crisis of the whole Christian community. Perhaps may be largely the "death" of lower numbers will give birth to another type of evangelization; perhaps our the fruit of our own ecclesiology will be stretched in new ways. lack of spirituality Perhaps we will do bold things and take prudent risks, even in terms of Christian ministry. and significance. Perhaps, finally, we will more fully accept the giftedness of women in the church. In this context Erik Erikson’s seventh developmental task, impotence vs. generativity, seems to challenge the Christian community to invite a next generation of priests and religious to serve in ministry. Today’s priests and religious themselves play a key role, most significantly by modeling the vocation, attracting others, working with families, and creating parish and university atmospheres conducive to the consideration of this lifestyle. Reasonable hope resides in the fact that the rather high "job satisfaction" reported by priests ordained five to nine years, according to a recent survey, holds hope that these priests will invite others to the priesthood and to religious life more convincingly than their slightly older colleagues.

Some Tentative Conclusions 1. Priests and religious will be fewer and grayer as we move into the future. 2. God will continue to pastor the church. Even as we pray for vocations, we can pray for wisdom and discernment in order to grasp what ministry will look like in the future. 3. As we broaden and deepen our notion of ministry, we can Claffey ¯ Musings about Vocations

continue to share our life and values with the young in a certain hope that at least some few will find enough meaning to walk with us. Three months into this vocational ministry, this kind of thinking-and believing--allays my frustration and uplifts my hope in our future. As I continue with bolstered confidence, however, I must say that, if anyone out there is interested in joining us, I just happen to have an application form right here ....

Where Are You?

Where, Lord, are your places of intimacy? I think, while reflecting on this question, that in order to find you I have to climb up lichen-covered cliffs, or walk without directions across dry savannas, or contempJate boulder-moving rapids when they are in spring floods. But perhaps in reality it is most difficult to discover you when I am requested to become very still, to be another Ruth waiting patiently for you to choose the moment to turn around to me and say, "Here I am." Richard Heatley FSC

584 Revie~v for Religiaus MATTHIAS NEUMAN

Pastoral Leadership beyond the Managerial

The months have been difficult, especially in adapting to the various personalities of the teachers, pastor, and school ministering board. It is very hard to find out what they want from me; their expectations are a mixture of reactions to past disappointments, some realistic hopes, and some partly unreal fantasies about what a school can hope to accomplish. They want a dynamic progressive educational leader who provides a compelling vision of education for the twenty- first century.., while allowing them complete freedom in every area; they want a spiritual director who listens patiently to their every concern and need, sets an example of a completely integrated life, yet places few demands upon their time and efforts. I am not sure where to go with this. The above concerns of a friend of mine describes her first year as an elementary-~chool principal in a suburban parish. In a few sentences she sums up the web of involve- ments that surrounds many people trying to exercise leadership in, pastoral ministry today. Her realistic assessment contrasts with much of the current, often idealistic, literature. In both industry and business as well as among religious organizations, it seems almost everyone is trying

Matthias Neuman OSB teaches theology at St. Meinrad Seminary. He works on the editorial staff at Abbey Press and serves as chaplain for the Benedictine Sisters at Ferdinand, Indiana. His address is St. Meinrad Archabbey; St. Meinrad, Indiana 47577.

~uly-August 1992 585 Neuman ¯ Pastoral Leadership

today to find some compelling tactics and style for organizing and directing personnel interactions and efforts. In this article I consider some matters of leadership in ecclesial ministries.

Three Kinds of Leadership As regards the leadership exercised in pastoral contexts (for example, by pastors, school principals, directors of religious education, and pastoral associates), several kinds should be differentiated. These vary according to the goals, methods, and attitudes that are in play or will come into play. Frequently pastoral ministry involves three types of leadership, but a blurring of the distinctions between them often leads to the neglect of one or another. A first kind of leadership might be termed managerial. It encompasses all the ways of running an operation well. Whether in a parish, school, or religious education program,the managerial leader is expected to have a vision of what the operation should be accomplishing, to organize the personnel and resources and to oversee the smooth running of the operation. This involves many specific skills: having a clear vision, setting goals, maintaining communication, empowering people, and so forth. In this area pastoral leadership draws on the research of the organizational sciences. Here one may read Lin Bothwell’s The Art of Leadership or many other good materials.1 Pastoral ministers should and will not neglect this kind of leadership, for it is indeed what all parties will demand of them. Moreover, the tasks of managerial leadership will undeniably take up most of the time and energy of the majority of pastoral leaders today, for church structures have become much intertwined with civil law and government regulations as well as with diocesan norms. Furthermore, if one does not do well at managerial leadership, there will be no opportunity to demonstrate any other kind of leadership, for only good managers will get and keep the available jobs. A second kind of leadership might be termed religious. As a religious leader the pastoral minister seeks to suffuse his or her organization with true faith values. The school principal tries to make sure that the teachers are alert to making appropriate connections with matters of the Catholic faith; for example, classes about justice can attend to the social-justice teaching of the

586 Review for Religious church. The pastor wants to see the parish as modeling and reflecting faith; all the various parish groups (even the finance committee) should be guided towards this goal. Here the pastoral minister may well attend to some of the national literature on how moral leadership should be joined to managerial leadership.2 Important though this religious leadership is, in fact only some of the people the pastoral minister deals with will be expecting it. Not everyone in a parish or with a child attending school or a religious education program The spiritual leader sees will be concerned about religious leadership. Many other motives may impel peo- the mystery of faith and ple to be members of the above ecclesiastical programs and yet uncon- the presence of the holy cerned about the values therein. A harsh in the real circumstances assessment, perhaps, but a realistic one which pastoral ministers should be aware of daily work and life. of and take into consideration when judging their own performance and their response to people’s expectations. Still, pastoral ministers ought to consider religious leadership a vital part of their self-image and a topic for periodic self-evaluation. Third, we come to spiritual leadership. This encompasses being truly concerned about and involved with the personal integration of faith and life in the lives of those one works with most closely (staff or teachers or volunteers). The spiritual leader sees the mystery of faith and the presence of the holy in the real circumstances of daily work and life. The spiritual leader recognizes the need for integration in the lives of others because it is an integration with which he or she has personally struggled. The key process of all spirituality is integration, to mesh one’s life in all its actuality with the. goals and values of faith, to sense the presence of God’s mystery in the concrete details of all one does during the day. Spiritual leadership is furthering, assisting, guiding others in that integration process as well as directly witnessing to the spiritual drama in one’s own life. Generally only a few people will directly seek this kind of leadership from a pastoral minister. Usually they will be those who have a closer knowledge of the minister, who have come to appreciate a certain integration or wholeness of life there and wish to have it in their own life too. More and more people have

July-August 1992 587 Neuman ¯ Pastoral Leadership

become involved in spirituality movements and are seeking spiritual direction and guidance. The pastoral minister is ordinarily a spiritual leader in a technical sense to only a few people; that influence, however, will eventually extend far beyond its apparent reach. It is valuable to distinguish these three kinds of leadership. While they mix together, sometimes imperceptibly, in daily work, they are different and call for various skills on the part of the leader. They also function differently as integral parts of the pastoral minister’s self-image as a leader and how he or she evaluates personal effectiveness.

Spiritual Leadership Since I am attempting to mark out a special realm for spiritual leadership beyond the managerial and the religious kind, let us consider it a little more fully. My friend’s letter quoted at the beginning of this article proposes some points for our purposes: (1) There is indeed such a thing as spiritual leadership (some individuals were directly asking her to be a kind of spiritual director). (2) Spiritual leadership occurs within and is conditioned by the larger context of religious and managerial leadership; sometimes they can be separated only after strenuous reflection. One should not try to imagine spiritual leadership as existing in some pure state, as if one could automatically switch to it from managerial leadership. Pastoral leaders are spiritual leaders and organizational leaders at one and the same time. (3) This mixture implies there are some very important constraints on the exercise of a properly spiritual leadership. As much as we might want to think of ourselves as spiritual leaders, sometimes that will not be apparent to our coministers. Pastoral ministers who seek to exercise a spiritual leadership beyond the managerial and general religious demands of their positions have a challenge facing them. Many people today (staff, parent volunteers, and so forth) seek spiritual leadership. They want their pastoral ministers to be sensitive to spiritual needs as well as to job issues; they want them to consider their personal lives of faith as well as their occupational tasks. How does a pastoral minister, often burdened with huge managerial demands, ever get to a spiritual ministry? I believe that many pastors and parish ministers would admit that they seldom arrive at that point

588 Review for Religious in their pastoral service. They might even content themselves with saying that religious leadership (making sure of some general religious values in the overall work of the organization) is indeed sufficient. After a presentation of mine entitled "Managerial and Spiritual Leadership," a parish director of religious education wrote: One of the weaknesses I experience in our church is that we have some excellent administrative leaders and religious leaders who organize and run a good institution, who artic- ulate religious values and principles, but who appear to lack a spiritual basis of their own. God forgive me ifI am being judgmental, but I sense there is a great hunger among our people for leaders whose lives are truly affected and converted by the Gospel message they preach! It often appears that the lack of peace, the frustration, unhappiness, and dysfunction of many of our religious leaders speaks much louder than their skilled administrative actions or religious pronouncements. It concerns me that our people hunger for leaders whose spirituality enables them to assure others that, no matter what circumstances occur in the "ordinary," our love and understanding of God call us to a level of peace and surrender that is beyond explanation--that simply is because of the depth of our relationship with God. If we are speaking of who we are, and including what we do, I would see spiritual leadership as the top priority and the umbrella under which all our leadership falls.

I agree; it could not be said much better than that. The challenge is thrown down for pastoral ministers to move beyond man-~ agerial and religious leadership to spiritual leadership for the sake of their fellow ministers and th~ people they all serve.

Spiritual Leadership and Ministry Problems The majority of pastoral ministers will probably find themselves enmeshed in many managerial tasks and functions. Some (for example, school principals, and social-justice workers), even after concerted efforts, will have very little religious influence, and a goodly number of people will never visualize them as spiritual leaders. Some people do not even think of their parish priest as a spiritual leader; he is the one who performs religious rituals for them. The impetus for a properly spiritual leadership has to come from within the pastoral minister as well as from individuals

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requesting it. Still, by keeping an eye out for the spiritual problem areas in the lives of staff, teachers, or volunteers, a pastoral minister may spot opportunities for personal spiritual leadership. Consider some of the ways in which parish staff or school teachers or volunteer workers can find themselves in real need of spiritual leadership: 1. How often members of a parish staff or a faculty meet with apathy or hostility from the people for whom they are trying to minister. That negative reaction can create a real questioning about the honesty or value of one’s own effort or about the openness of "those people" to God. M1 these individuals face a spirituality question in their lives, one which a pastoral minister can and should address. 2. Again, how often members of parish committees or volunteer helpers find themselves disagreeing and arguing with other ministers over the values, goals, or tactics of their common effort. They never dreamed that would happen; their intention was only to assist in a Christian service. These conflicts easily give rise to discouragement and doubt about the worth of the chuich and even to anger with God. Such a crisis calls for spiritual leadership. 3. How frequently pastoral ministers inherit problems left by others who went before them. They find themselves sharing the blame as well. Confronting the mistakes and burdens of others’ failures can cause much spiritual confusion. Spiritual integration is needed. 4. Staff personnel and ,~olunteers are frequently called on to do extra work. They find their religious responsibilities compet- ing with responsibilities of family or work and with needed personal time. The mounting pressure can lead to resentment and anger at the church and God. Such problems call for spiritual leadership. Pastoral ministers who are concerned about truly exercising a spiritual leadership will do something to address those conflicts--which brings us to the next topic.

Spiritual Leadership Skills The goal of a spiritual leader is furthering, assisting, and guiding others in the integration of faith values into the very fabric of their life and work. The skills we seek are those which foster and achieve integration.

590 Review for Religious The first and most basic skill is simply to be available and offer sensitive listening. Spiritual leaders go beyond organizing work effectively and promoting religious values; they listen to the whole lives of their coworkers. This listening may occur in conversation, formal or informal, or in gatherings expressly for the purpose of learning about the lives of one’s fellow ministers. This listening does not offer correction or even feed- back; it seeks only to understand others’ lives in context. In the usual routines of daily work, opportunities for such sensitive listening seldom occur and must be deliberately carved out. A spiritual leader A second skill is being spiritually reflec- attends carefully tive, that is, recognizing the faith dimension within the ordinary daily tasks and struggles. to the quality of For example, in conflict situations a spiritual leader might take extra time at a staff meeting communal hope to have the members spiritually evaluate in the vision and whether or how their service is contributing to the growth of their own faith. Or, having work of staff learned of some staff members’ distress about or faculty. general apathy or hostility, a spiritual leader might begin a discussion with some personal reflections on the paradoxical quality of Christian proclamation, noting that people’s willing acceptance does not always follow one’s best efforts. Or a spiritual leader might propose some prayer focused on "bearing the sins of others" as a dimension of all Christian ministry. In such ways the spiritual leader helps people to connect their daily- life struggles with their Christian faith. Third, a spiritual leader helps others to manage the stress of the conflicts in their lives. Surely stress is one of the great problems people face in their work, families, and personal lives. The result is often rage, depression, or burnout among pastoral ministers as well as others. Managing stress, a tactic of psychological survival, is also a spirituality skill. Too much stress not only destroys one’s self-esteem and social relationships, but also challenges one’s trust in God. Spiritual leaders must be sensitive to the effects of stress upon their coworkers and take steps to stop the downward spiral. These may include a reduction (temporary or permanent) of responsibilities, encouragement to care for one’s health, or realistic suggestions for a healthier life. The pastoral

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minister must set an example here; working oneself to death is not an adequate religious model for anyone. A fourth skill is making use of solitude and leisure, assisting people to locate some peaceful space in their lives where they can get in touch with their interiority. Without opportunities to look deeply at oneself, the spiritual life can hardly flourish through the ongoing work of ministry. A spiritual leader takes time for solitude and enjoys leisure, not merely as physical or psychological necessities, but as parts of a balanced religious life. There are times when everyone needs to go away to a quiet place. In the hectic pace of today’s ministry, it is needed more than ever, but probably neglected more than ever. A spiritual leader tries to encourage and even structure such opportunities for staff, faculty, or volunteers so that a reintegration of faith and life occurs more easily. Last, but certainly not least, comes the skill of nurturing hope. The pressures of regular ministry, the constant drive of personal and social expectations can wear down the deepest reserves of people, Then follow the losing of hope, the onset of depression, and finally real burnout. A spiritual leader attends carefully to the quality of communal hope in the vision and work of staff or faculty. Quite simply it is not enough that the requisite work of school, parish, or organization is being done; the work must be enlivened by the Christian hope of seeking the kingdom of God. William Lynch SJ once wrote that true Christian hope is always a shared, communal reality; it flames up between people; we catch itin the process of seeking it together.3 Spiritual leaders fan enthusiasm as a necessary component of their common efforts with coworkers.

The Self-Image of a Spiritual Leader Because spiritual leadership often occurs within a larger context of managerial leadership, some constraints come into play. Here the minister will not function in the same way as a spiritual director or a freely chosen mentor. Indeed, one’s managerial actions may seem to compromise the very spirituality of one’s best intentions. A pastor may be a~ patient as possible with a staff member who is coping with difficult family problems, but he remains aware of his own responsibility for the programs this person is neglecting. He can go only so far before having to take

592 Review for Religious some action for the good of many others. A school principal may want to think of herself as a servant leader, but the memory keeps crowding in that she had to dismiss a teacher last month, and the unpleasantness still lingers. Moments like these make it hard to integrate managerial and spiritual leadership. Such is the nature of the spiritual’ leadership exercised in many pastoral positions. The self-image of such a person will necessarily be a mixture of managerial, religious, and spiritual fac- Many pastoral ministers tors. One’s spiritual leadership will exercise their leadership within never be a pure and shining reality clearly visible to all others. a dysfunctional system. Some individuals on the staff or faculty will probably never see the minister as a spiritual leader; he or she is the one who hires and fires, directs and evaluates, and that is the only view ever considered. A pastoral minister frequently possesses a mixed self-image with seeming contradictions; that is not ideal, but it is all right. Lastly, it ought to be remembered that many pastoral ministers exercise their leadership, not within a perfectly oiled and functioning ecclesial organization, but within a dysfunctional system. Harsh reality calls many pastoral ministers to be middle- level leaders in poorly operating parish or school systems. The question then becomes: In what ways, however minimal, can a pastoral minister be a spiritual leader in an angry institution? Sometimes the only realistic possibilities are to listen, manage stress, and nourish hope. That is not the parousia, but there are real values there and they remain part of an authentic spiritual leadership. Many ministers today must write this smaller vision into their self-image as a spiritual leader. Spiritual leadership, then, for many pastoral ministers will be limited by the other tasks, the managerial and religious ones, they must perform. Still, there remain areas where a true spiritual leadership can find realization. However small a percentage of their actual workload, this exercising of spiritual leadership can give a compelling quality and a fruitfulness to their broader leadership. Those who work with them will realize that spiritual values are present in what they do. Such leaders will be more readily followed, trusted, and given the benefit of the doubt.

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People in the church are today seeking spiritual leadership. To be a spiritual leader is to help others shape an active pastoral spirituality for the concrete situations of their lives. Such leadership devolves to some extent on all ecclesial ministers, from pastors to directors of religious education to school principals. Spirituality gives strength to people; it enables them to link their faith and their daily life.

An Example St. Catherine ofGenoa (1447-1510) is a fitting example of spiritual leadership. After an early, unhappy marriage and a bout with depression, she .experienced a profound conversion and devoted the rest of her life to working with the poor of Genoa. After becoming the administrator of the largest, hospital for the poor in the city, she still found time to be an example to others by her own service to the sick and even wrote spiritual instructions for the hospital staff. These instruction~ are a fine example of seeing the holy in the ordinary daily tasks of hospital care. Perhaps it was that delicate mixture of leadership which made her so attractive to other administrators of the time. After her death people in Genoese hospitals sang for centuries a little song: Just imagine: In Genoa--a saint among the administrators! Maybe there’s a chance for us, tOO?4

Note 1 Lin Bothwell, The Art of Leadership (Prentice-Hall, 1983); T. Peters and R. Waterman, In Pursuit of Excellence (Harper & Row, 1982); David Whetten and Kim Cameron, Developing Management Skills (Scott, Foresman & Company, 1984). 2 James Gill SJ, "Educating for Leadership," Human Development 4 (fall 1983): 7-15. 3 William Lynch SJ, Images of Hope (University of Notre Dame Press, 1965). 4 Catherine of Genoa, Purgation and Purgatotsv, The Spiritual Dialogue, ed. and trans. Serge Hughes (Paulist Press, 1979), p. 67.

594 Review for Religious THOMAS P. SWEETSER

Scarcity and Abundance in Parishes

ntoine de Saint-Exup4ry in The Little Prince said, "What makes a desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well." In many ways parishes appear as deserts. They are supposed to be nourishing, witnessing communities of faith. But look at the faces of those who come to church on the weekend. You see "obligation" written all over them. In many ways it is a desert experience. The list of scarcities in parish life is long. Money is an obvious one but not nearly as significant as the scarcity of creativity, nourishment, communication, and ownership. Take nourishment, for instance. For most people the only contact with the parish is at the weekend liturgies. Are they being nourished during that one hour service? Not to look at their faces or watch their body language. They appear lifeless and bored. Can you blame them? Instead of being nourished by word and by sacrament, they encounter readings that are often hard to hear and difficult to understand. The music may be well done, but people do not feel drawn into the songs. Instead, they remain voiceless listeners rather than participants. The homilies are filled with generalities and platitudes that do not touch their daily experience.~The Eucharistic Prayer is long and routine, the greeting of peace per- functory, and when they come up for communion, they do not get nourishing bread but something closer to cardboard. It is a desert experience. Thomas P. Sweetser SJ is founder and director of Parish Evaluation Project. His address is 2200 E. Devon, Suite 283; Des Plaines, Illinois 60018.

~uly-Aug~st 1992 595 Creativity is scarce in parishes. Better to keep to the routine, the lowest common denominator. Do not shake people up with innovation. As a result, all the Masses are the same on the weekend: same music, ritual, prayers, symbols, and emphasis. Sacraments, programs, education all fit into a pattern. Easier to prepare, but deadly for the participants. Parishes are full of new and better communication tools, including computers, larger bulletins, newsletters, and special mailings. But the word is not getting out. For one thing, the communication is in one direction, from the professionals to the people. And it is not touching hearts. The words become a blur and are not comprehended. As a result, people do not respond to invitations and requests for involvement. Yet the need is great, Our American culture is consumed by sex and violence. Families~ and individuals thirst for direction, wisdom, and insight. What do parishes offer? In many cases, only rules, regulations, obligations, and, above all, silence. Parishioners are dying of AIDS, but it is a well-kept secret. Sex is hidden, suspect, and sterile. Violence is all around but never mentioned. It is a desert. Much of what occupies parish energies revolves around survival. The emphasis is on how to get people to donate more money so as to keep the school open, the programs goingi or the staff paid. Not only is money scarce; so are the bodies, beginning with priests, lay ministers, volunteers, candidates for the council, even people coming to church. Weekly Mass attendance is dropping in Catholic parishes--which should not surprise us, given what people receive in return. The irony is that there is an abundance in~these very scarcities. People are still committed, still giving of themselves, despite great obstacles and hindrances. There is a well in the desert. It keeps springing forth in the most unsuspected places. Here are a few examples. People are being nourished in parishes without a resident priest. More and more parishes, primarily in rural areas; but also in inner cities, are being led by a parish administrator or pastoral coordinator. A priest comes in to preside at Eucharist each week, but the real pastor is the nonordained minister. These pastoral administrators are listening to their people, molding them into committed communities, giving them hope and future. There is abundance in the face of scarcity.

596 Review for Religious One sister who has "pastored" a parish for ten years told me how easy it is for her to get people involved in projects and activities. They accept her as one of their own number, quite unlike the priest who comes to "say Mass." This is a hidden well in the desert. People are becoming church and, out of necessity, are assuming responsibility. One "gym Mass" community took the Mass People are into their own hands and spent time planning a still committed, two-month renewal of their liturgy. One experience of church was a "dinner party" Mass; people still giving were greeted at the door as if they were coming to a dinner party. They gathered in the living room of themselves, (vestibule) and talked about their week and told despite great stories and listened to other stories from the Bible. They went into the dining room (worship space) obstacles and and sat down around the altar to pray and break hindrances. bread together. The priest and ministers shared Eucharist across the table, something closer to people’s home experience. After the meal, the "party" went back to the living room (vestibule) to share more food and stories. This dinner-party liturgy was remembered long afterwards because it fit people’s lives. They were nourished. A source of abundance. Support groups and recovery programs help people deal with their addictions. It is a spiritual journey, one the people should be able to experience in their parish but do not. Instead, they see in the parish more occasions for getting hooked on addictions. The pastor and staff are overworked, do not take time off, get caught on work addiction. The lay leaders get drawn into that same addiction. So few volunteers to do so much work. The kinds of food and drink offered at parish socials and meetings are not helpful for people concerned about addictive behavior: fatty, sugar- filled foods; caffeine drinks; snacks that have low food value. As a result, people concerned about an addictive-free environment look elsewhere, many to small groups that are supportive and challenging. Within these small groups there is an abundance of nonaddictive, creative energy. The people gather together every three or four weeks for a few hours of reflection on Scripture and a discussion on the impact this has on their everyday lives. Some parishes are beginning to restructure themselves around these small groups, but it is a slow process. The leadership is still thinking "scarcity"--too few leaders, little time for training, drain-

~uly-Augtmt 1992 597 ~ an.d Abundance

ing talent away from other sectors of the parish, stretching the already thin budget. They have .not yet discovered the abundance in the desert, that the more small groups a parish can generate, the more the parish itself will flourish. In fact, if a parish would ever take the risk to reorder its weekend Mass schedule around small groups, it might find itself completely out of its depth, over- whelmed by the abundance of talent, dedication, commitment, and creativity. What does this entail? First of all, spreading out the Masses so there is more time between them. Next, creating space for small groups to meet before the Mass, perhaps while religious education for the children takes place. Then, gathering together after the small-group sessions for a common sharing of the Eucharist. People might also be given the opportunity to share insights into the Scripture that came from the small groups, perhaps one group each Sunday. These are hidden wells in the weekend desert experience of Mass. It just needs a little searching and creativity. Money; there is lots of it around. We keep hearing on the news about the billions that are spent every day. Why is there such a scarcity in parish giving? A recent parish we surveyed, had an average family income of over $50,000. The average monthly contribution was $25, less than one percent of income. Where is the money spent? On oneself and on one’s family. But not always. Given the right invitation and explanation of need, people open up and give freely, even out of their scarcity. A number of parishes have linked up with a Catholic community south of the border, in Mexico or in Central or South America. Not only have people given freely to their sister church, but some have traveled south to help out fqr a;few weeks or more as part of a parish-sponsored work camp. Representatives from the sister community have been flown north to tell their story. Crafts created by the southern parish are displayed and sold in the north- ern parish. This is just one of many examples in which Catholic parishioners have opened their purse strings and dug deeply when challenged to do so. The abundance is evident. What is scarce is the invitation and challenge. Catholic parishes have such potential, such~potency, so many avenues for abundance. At the present time, many opportunities are lost while pastors, staffs, and leaders complain about growing scarcities and shortages. What makes a desert beautiful is that it

598 Review for Religious is filled with hidden wells. It is time we go scouting for them. Uncover every rock (program), look behind every cactus (stubborn person), dig into every crevice (facility). Find the abundance. It is there for those who keep searching. After they all had their fill, they gathered up twelve baskets of what was left over (Mr 14:2 I). All this from a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. Can we not give it a try in the parish as well?

Not Arguing with Isaiah

Full of sunny-Sunday-morning fervor, There I am, singing along to "Spirit Of the living God, fall afresh on me," When something, spirit or otherwise, does: I feel it, gently - ever so gently - Touching down on my prayerfully bowed head.

Puzzled, I look up for enlightenment, To encounter a blue-eyed, infant gaze, Directed at me from the bench in front. Atop a supporting, adult shoulder, The gazer is reaching across with one Small hand to explore my just-reachable scalp.

Caught in the act, he stares and stares at me, Eyes oceanic with curiosity. L silenced, while all round us others sing, Stare back. Slowly, slowly it comes - a s, mile Of radiant friendliness; then he resumes His interrupted investigations.

"The Lord is very near," says Isaiah, Somewhere in the morning’s scripture-readings. As those tiny fingers tentatively Probe my hair, trail frail as a moth over My eyelids, brow, I think (catching that smile): Who am I to argue with Isaiah? IanWhite

j~uly-dugust 1992 599 PATRICK PRIMEAUX

Marian Community and Ministry

A hnost thirty years ago Herbert Richardson asked this important question: "Is Peter the father of the church, or is Mary its mother?" His question arose from history. On 21 November 1964 Paul VI had promulgated the Constitution on the Church and also declared Mary Mother of the Church.I The Constitution on the Church calls the church the people of God and sees the college of Apostles under the primacy of Peter as the focal point of that title. This Petrine-centered theological image lends itself to a certain kind of organizational structure, one with an emphasis on centralized authority and patriarchal hierarchy. Mother of the Church suggests a very different organizational structure, which for the time being we will characterize as decentralized authority and communal ownership. For Richardson this difference signals "a stark clash of archetypes and an implicit struggle between two rival ecclesiologies." Just how important is that distinction? More than simply a matter of theological refinement, it is a matter of self-identification, of living faith, of pastoral ministry. It is a matter of emphasis as we strive to establish a consistency of thinking, speaking, and acting. It is also a matter of charism, especially the charisms of Marian congregations such as mine, the Society of Mary, known as the Marists. When Jean-Claude Colin founded the Marists early in the last century, he was seeking an alternative to the

Patrick Primeaux SM is parochial vicar of the Church of St. Louis, King of France, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is doing research and writing on business ethics and church management. He has a Ph.D. in theology from St. Michael’s College of the University of Toronto and an M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. His address is 506 Cedar Street; St. Paul, Minnesota 55101.

600 Review for Religious church of his experience in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France. There is no question in my mind that he wanted more than an alternative ministry, more than a way to meet educational and spiritual needs that were being ignored because of a shortage of priests. He wanted a new and different spirit of and for ministry, the spirit of Mary as a lived reality which would overflow from the members of the first order of priests and the second order of brothers and sisters into a third order of lay men and women and eventually to the whole world. He grounds the foundation of his Society of Mary directly in Mary’s inspiration. Would it not be fair to see a continuity between that inspiration and a real need for the church and the world of his time? And, in our own time, would it not be fair to perceive a continuing need for the maternal mercy, compassion, love, and care which Mary represents and reflects? Richardson uses the word archetype. To describe Mary as the first and perfect disciple of Jesus, Patrick Bearsley recommends the word paradigm as having a better connotation than archetype. Edwin Keel, drawing a parallel between the church and world of Colin’s time and our own, appeals to Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic of symbolism.2 Common to all three of these verbal usages is an attempt to capture a phenomenon which (1) draws a common thread through thinking, speaking, and acting; (2) understands that common thread to be so pervasive that it inspires or directs that same thinking, speaking, and acting; and (3) serves as the basis for a common vision and mission. It is important to observe, however, that Richardson, Bearsley, and Keel are not referring to individual representation and direction, but to group representation and direction. Peter represents the whole of the church, as does Mary. The representation moves beyond individual interest to universal, cosmic dimensions. It is not a question of what kind of Christian I am, but of what kind of Christians we are. Are we primarily Petrine or primarily Marian? Which of these archetypes, paradigms, or symbols provides the better basis for vision and mission? Arising from the French Enlightenment and the French Revolution was a renewed emphasis on individuality as expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which, at least in word, destroyed the absolutism and privilege of the old regime and established a new one based upon the inalienable rights of individuals. It signaled a real paradigmatic shift, from

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an emphasis on the common to an emphasis on the individual, from the monarchy to the citizen. That paradigmatic shift neces- sitated a new way of thinking, speaking, and acting as well as new government structures to order and organize it. This took time to grow into, as evidenced by the reversion and confusion of ensu- ing monarchies, republics, and empires. In our day we have experienced a similar paradigmatic shift within religious communities. In some cases we experienced shifts from governments emphasizing absolutism and privilege to governments advocating individual rights and liberties while trying to hold on to the center, and we are having trouble getting used to it. There is some reversion in evidence; we see new communities being founded with the same kinds of centralized government and disciplinary rule as in the pre-Vatican II era. Others seem to have lost the center completely, diverging into individual living and individual apostolates. Between the two extremes are uncomfort- able accommodations and compromises which want to allow for individuality and also want to continue some cbmmon identity. There is, I suspect, another paradigmatic shift in the making, one arising from the thesis of communality and the antithe- sis of individuality towards a synthesis of the two. That paradigmatic shift does not belong simply to the church, but to the world itself, noticeably to the world of business management. It centers on common ownership and is reflected in the managerial research of Rensis Likert, Kenneth Blanchard, Michael O’Connor, and many others. From the perspective of organizational management in businesses, they have not only defined a new kind of organization, but also provided us with the means to realize it. Rensis Likert was distinguishing management styles and corporate structures at the same time that Richardson was distinguishing Petrine and Marian ecclesiological archetypes. Likert identified three organizational "systems," two of which parallel the Petrine and the Marian representations of church. Likert?s first system is the authoritative, which he further distinguishes as either exploitive or benevolent. The exploitive authoritative system exhibits "an autocratic, top-down approach to leadership" wherein "employee motivation is based on punishment and occasionally rewards" and "decision making and control reside primarily at the top of the organization." The benevolent authoritative system is similar to the exploitive "except that management is more pater- nalistic" and "employees are allowed a little more interaction,

602 Review for Religious communication, and decision making, but within limited bound- aries defined by management."3 Beyond the readily perceived similarities between Likert’s authoritative model and Richardson’s Petrine archetype is another which is not so readily apparent. The emphasis is decidedly on the individual qua individual. Corporate unity or corporate culture is defined (and experienced) as so many individuals within a chain of command. The man at the top sets policy, goals, and objectives, dictating them to second-level management that in turn dictates them to third-level manage~nent, and so on. Success and rewards are deter~nined by how well people follow orders and accommodate their personal talents to that set of dictates. Moving from a focus on church to a focus on religious life, we might be quick to discard that Petrine, authoritative model as no longer operative. We have gone far beyond that, have we not? Note the hesitation. In some respects we have, but in a fundamental way we have not. The person with the title is clearly in charge, whether superior, moderator, pastor, or president. He or she sets the tone for the community or co~n~nunity apostolate. Conscious and subconscious expectations of oneself and others are influenced and determined within a definite chain of co~n- inand, a hierarchy of individuals. As ~nuch as we would like to think otherwise, our lived experience of community life at the end of the twentieth century is funda~nentally Petrine, that is, hierarchical and authoritative. It is also individualist and invests power only in the individual. To be sure, the empowered individual seeks advice and pro~notes ownership as never before. Organizational structures are created to facilitate that consultative process, even to increase input frown every level of the organization. But final decision making is reserved for the very top of the hierarchical structure. Perhaps our present experience of religious life and church is closer to Likert’s second model, the consultative. The consultative "increases e~nployee interaction, communication, and decision making" but retains final decision making for tnanagement. For Likert it is a strategically intermediate stage between the authoritative and the participative, Likert’s third model.4 The participative is analogous to Richardson’s Marian archetype. It is "designed around group methods of decision making and supervision" and "fosters high degrees of member involvement and decisions" with "work groups . . . highly involved in

1992 603 Primeaux ¯ Marian Community and Ministry

setting goals, making decisions, improving methods, and apprais- ing results." The emphasis is decidedly on the group and defines the group as having an identity of its own--not simply as a mathematical sum of its component parts. Moreover, decision-making power and authority reside in the group itself rather than in any one member of the group. In this sense the participative ties in directly with the Marian archetype, especially when that archetype is described in terms of Bearsley’s paradigmatic understanding of Marian discipleship. According to Bearsley, Mary is a paradigm for the church precisely in her discipleship. At the beginning of the church as well as at its end, Mary represents what the church is to be, an all- embracing and all-pervasive disciple. For him Mary’s discipleship consists essentially in her "hearing the word of God and putting it into practice," which reflects a certain "attitude of heart and mind in relation to Jesus." Bearsley contends that the Johannine description of Mary at Cana implies that her relationship to Jesus transcends the "familial relationship of mother and son" and "is transformed into the higher relationship of discipleship." Identifying Mary as the woman in Revelation, Bearsley sees her as "a symbol for the new people of God, . . . the community of disciples, the heirs to the rewards of the messianic age." Clearly, Mary is a paradigm for the church, and the church is a "community of disciples." Within his lengthy discussion of Mary’s discipleship, Bearsley makes an observation which ties his perspective to that of Likert’s third system. "’Perfect disciple’ is not a static term," writes Bearsley, "implying that one already has reached perfection on the scale of discipleship in such a way that no further development is possible." Likert’s participative system is open-ended, developmental, and progressive. But it is not simply individually or personally open-ended, although that personal quality would be assumed. It is, rather, corporately progressive and enlists an openness to change and development. Likert’s first system, the authoritative, tends towards an ideal defined and decreed by the individual at the highest level of management. His third system does not posit an ideal, but encourages creative initiative. Moreover, creative initiative implies mistakes in decision making, but it does not attach a negative attitude or punishment to mistakes. Rather, it enlists mistakes as integral to the creative process. The Marian archetype or

604 Review for Religious paradigm, with its implied dynamism, would also allow for mistakes in decision making and view mistakes as positive contributions. Within this third or consultative system, responsibility and accountability reside in the group rather than in any particular member of it. The authoritative system, like the Petrine, places responsibility and accountability directly on the shoulders of the individual manager charged with a par- The Marian ticular task. We could, of course, define dis- archetype or paradigm, cipleship in individual terms, that is, with its implied dynamism, in terms of the person "who hears the word of God and acts on itd’ The would also allow for authoritative and Petrine systems would clearly adopt that perspective. mistakes in decision making The consultative and Marian systems and view mistakes would move beyond the individual to identify hearing God’s word and act- as positive contribu tions. ing on it as a group or corporate enterprise. Another important implication for each of our archetypes or systems is that of differences in leadership. The Petrine archetype and the authoritative system demand a manager rather than a leader. Warren Bennis distinguishes between the two in these words: "Leaders are people who do the right thing and managers are people who do things right.’’5 For the Petrine and authoritative, the emphasis is on management, doing things right. The Marian and consultative would emphasize leadership, doing the right thing. Implied in the first is an emphasis on the work or the task; and in the second, an emphasis on people. On the level of ministry, this difference beco~nes more observ- able if we define the minister as servant leader.6 Within the Petrine and authoritative,, the more appropriate term ~night be servant manager, for the e~nphasis is on serving the institution, its goals and objectives, and preserving its structures. It is as though the organization has a life and an identity of its own, apart from its constituent mmnbers. The Marian and participative servant leader would serve the group and the people who comprise the group. That is, the servant leader would be much more a facilitator, encouraging group interaction and decision ~naking. The life and identity of the organization would be that of its members.

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When Bearsley explains the Marian paradigm of discipleship, he refers to "concretizing" the paradigm, that is, establishing a continuum between theory and practice. How can we do this? First, there is a need to understand the paradigm itself. This we have attempted by contrasting the Petrine and the Marian, the authortafive and the consultative. Second, there is a need to realize the implications of the paradigm. This also we have attempted by showing how the Petrine and the authoritative emphasize the individual and how the Marian and the participative emphasize the group. Third, we need to ground the paradigm in strong conviction. Is not, one might ask, the Petrine paradigm also one of discipleship? Of course it is. But, as Richardson argues, it is a discipleship fo.unded on a divine commission, implying a top-down organizational and managerial structure. The Marian archetype, continues Richardson, is substantially different. It is founded on a divine maternity, implying an inverted pyramid and flattened hierarchies. It emphasizes personal growth and human potential in a creative, open-en.ded manner. Another problem tending to inhibit conviction is that the Marian model is new. We have not experienced it. We cannot define or describe it in practice. We do not know what it looks like. On the other hand, the Petrine model is the one we know, the one with which we are theoretically and practically familiar. We understand it intuitively. We know what it looks like. We grew up with it. We know its assumptions and its expectations. We find it virtually impossible to dismiss from our thoughts and our actions, from our theology and our ministry. A third problem arises when we attempt to use the language of one model to describe our thinking, speaking, and acting within another model. Words like control and management (doing things right) clearly belong to the Petrine or authoritative. We shy away from those kinds of words. We prefer words like sharing, empowerment, ownership, and leadership, which belong to the Marian or the participative. The difficulty arises when we try to fit the language (and the concepts that language represents) of one paradigm into another. It just does not work. For example, one pastor may refer to his assistants as associate pastors, but treat them as assistants. Another may refer to his assistants as copastors, but treat them as associates. Another may refer to them by the canonically correct title of parochial vicars,

606 Review for Religious but treat them as assistants. Regardless of which terms are used, the reality is the same. Merely changing words does not alter the Petrine, authoritative organizational structure. Why are we unable to use the language and concepts of one paradigm or system in another? The answer is simple. It sends mixed signals, incites confusion, and leads to real morale problems. It means that we continue to define individuals in terms of Whereas the Petrine the institution while saying that we want to identify the community in terms of the indi- paradigm may be viduals. What if, as Richardson points out, the primary archetype or paradigm for the more appropriate church is the Petrine? Implied in that ques- for the diocesan tion is a submission of the Marian to the Petrine. An emphasis on Mary’s personal, clergy, the Marian individual submission to authority would of e may be more have to replace any sense of communal, relational growth and development. appropriate for Perhaps another perspective may help us. As Marists and other religious congre- religious clergy. gations, especially those with priests, struggle to create mission statements, one of the real questions is that of distinguishing ourselves from diocesan clergy. We might do so by using the Marian paradigm and the participative system of organizational leadership. Whereas the Petrine paradigm may be more appropriate for the diocesan clergy, the Marian one may be more appropriate for religious clergy. We would not ignore the Petrine completely, but for us the Marian paradigm would be primary, and we would redefine the Petrine in terms of the Marian. Beyond understanding the Marian, participative paradigm and its implications, beyond the conviction that it is the appropriate paradigm for us, there is a fourth need: to learn how it works in practice. Many American companies grapple with this question today. They have become convinced, in the words of John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene, that "the hierarchical structure where everyone has a superior and everyone has an inferior surely is cor- rupting of the human spirit--no matter how well it served us during the industrial period.’’7 Many of us in religious life and ministry have reached the same conclusion. We can together form

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a new kind of organization that will honor, rather than corrupt, the human spirit. The clash of archetypes, the mixing of signals from radically different organizational systems, is one reason for the malaise we experience in our world, in our Church, in our religious communities and, I would suggest, a major reason for defections. The continual tension between opposing expectations leads to accom- modation: intellectual assent and affective apathy or perhaps external conformity and internal rebellion. Jan Hulshof writes that "the familiar models do not work any- more" as we realize "the task to begin, so to speak, a new church.’’s Edwin Keel identifies the objectives of,,that task, a Marian presence in the "struggle... for those ultimate realities of faith and communion." Indeed, Keel senses that fo~: Colin the Marian presence "embodied precisely those spiritual qualities which were a remedy both to the illness of the age and to the ecclesiastical attitudes and approaches that tended to exacerbate rather than heal the malady." Both Keel and Hulshof are searching for a radically new style of ministry grounded in a Marian paradigm. But how we can adopt a Marian paradigm for ministry without, at the same time, adopting a Marian paradigm for our lives within religious community? If our ministry is to be one of "faith and community," our lives must be the same. For this we will have to discard Petrine and authoritative ways of thinking and acting, especially in relation to one another, and we will have to learn Marian and participative ways. We will have tO begin a radical swing away from .thinking of ourselves as individuals within a community towards thinking of ourselves as a community of individuals. Kenneth Blanchard has been working towards a similar paradigmatic shift in American companies. He realizes that, although our education is directed towards "supervising and working with people one-on-one," much of our lives are spent "working with people in groups.’’9 Bearsley’s Marian paradigm and Likert’s participative management system provide us with a theological and organizational framework within which to envision ourselves "working with people in groups." From modern organizational intervention we can learn how to identify ourselves and live and work together as a Marian community. That is, we can learn that a community can have an identity of its own, one which surpasses the mathematical sum of its individual members.

608 Review for Religious I am familiar with two forms of organizational intervention. The first tries to elicit and create consensus. That is all it purports to-do, and that is all it does. It has some validity within its own assumptions. It tends to boost morale by demonstrating that in any organization there are some underlying commonalities to which all of the members can subscribe. It also helps in decision making and policy stating as it enlists a broad basis of opinion. It presents problems as well, at least within our perspective. It presumes that the. group is the sum total of its component members. It also presumes a Petrine or authoritative organizational structure and falls within Likert’s benevolent authoritative system. As it seeks to take into account the thoughts and feelings of every member of the organization, it does so precisely to help senior management arrive at decisions for the group as a whole. The other form of organizational intervention with which I am familiar aims at the realization of Likert’s third managerial system, the participative. It offers possibilities for the realization of a Marian vision of community life and ministry. It assumes that the group or community has an identity of its own. That identity incorporates the individual identities of its members and enlists their talents and personalities. The identity of the group, then, does not reside outside of, or apart~ from, its constituent personalities, Rather, it calls them forward, leveraging all of the similarities and differences, to work towards a common objective. According to Kenneth Blanchard, the success of the participative managerial style is realized in "the high performing team" characterized by increased productivity and high morale. It is grounded in two interrelated precepts: (1) "You will never, never, never have an empowered, self-directed team unless the manager is willing to share control," and (2) "empowerment is all about letting go so that others can get going." Essentially we are discussing leadership and locating leadership in the group itself rather than in any one person. Morale is heightened because people feel better about themselves. Productivity is increased because of a greater commitment arising from participation. Management theory does more than define participatory systems. It offers a simple, basic process for its realization. Michael O’Connor has created that process as well as a plan for its imple- mentation. In effect, it identifies individual characteristics of leadership, positive and negative, and explains how and when these

July-August 1992 609 Primeaux ¯ Marian Community and Ministry

characteristics manifest themselves in action. Leaders become familiar with not only their own leadership profiles, but those of other members of the group as well. As unrecognized differences and unrealized expectations become known, the people involved begin to appreciate one another and the immense richness of pooling diverse talents and energies.~° We have all become accustomed to personality inventories and profiles of different kinds and have used them to understand ourselves better. The genius of O’Connor’s intervention is threefold. First, the profile is directed, not to better self-understanding and individual growth, but to communal self-understanding and development. Second, it is not a personality profile per se. It is rather a performance-and-values profile for a group. It assumes that people will interact differently in different groups, depending on the membership of the group as well as on the goals and objectives of the group. Third, and practically most significant, it is a process of observation and review towards concrete results. It recognizes four stages: orientation, dissatisfaction, resolution, production. ~ The ultimate goal of O’Connor’s intervention is change. Towards that end he enlists a few rules of thumb which focus attention on interrelational attitudes. For example, he replaces the golden rule with a platinum rule: "Do unto others as they want to be done unto." It is a question of whose expectations. What do they want? During an official visitation from a high- ranking member of my order, I assumed he wanted to know about me, what I was thinking, doing, and so forth. He did not. Instead he described a missionary in Samoa or Fiji who had experienced a radical conversion after an Ignatian long retreat. Clearly, the visitor wanted to promote his own agenda with the expectation that everyone would fall into line and have a radical conversion after an Ignatian retreat. I have noticed and reflected on a tendency among those in leadership positions to empower themselves and become so convinced of the validity Of their thoughts and actions that they pre- sume others within the community are likewise convinced. The reality is often otherwise, as expressed in cynicism, tardiness, and lack of interest and enthusiasm. From the superior’s, pastor’s, or president’s viewpoint, there is something wrong with the person who speaks or acts in these ways--some psychological difficulty, some problem with authority, something.

610 Review for Religion, s Actually it is an organizational and managerial problem. It arises from misplaced or misdirected expectations. Following the golden rule, the superior cannot understand the difficulty, for he or she is bending over backwards to treat others with justice and fairness, love and understanding--but doing ’so according to his or her understanding of these terms. The platinum rule would direct attention towards others, try- The more people feel ing to understand and appreciate their expectations. wanted and needed The difficulty can be addressed in within an organization terms of empowerment. When one member of the community is empowered as and the more they feel superior, the others immediately become inferiors with the expectation, of course, empowered, the happier that they become attuned to the superior’s they are and the more agenda and to the kinds of attitude, speech, and action required to meet that they will produce. agenda. Inevitably, it becomes a disaster waiting to happen. The kind of collective empowerment Blanchard and O’Connor are recommending tends to diffuse these disasters by empowering everyone, appreciating everyone’s expectations, sharing those expectations, and realizing a real consensus or synthesis. Moreover, it appreciates everyone’s talents and abil- ities, calls them forth, and enlists them in a common project, even the project of realizing "faith and communion" in community as well as in ministry. The kind of leadership implied in O’Connor’s platinum rule, as well as in Likert’s participative system and Bennis’s strategies, is clearly consistent with the Marian paradigm. It is also as radically different from Bennis’s definition of manager as the Marian paradigm is from the Petrine. That difference is more than one of differing biblical images and organizational systems. Its real difference lies in lived experience. In effect, organizational research has studied very different situations, listened to people voice satisfaction or approval, and on that basis diagnosed the situation. The bottom line is simply that the more people feel wanted and needed within an organization and the more they feel empowered, the happier they are and the more they will produce. If they express dissatisfaction or lack of

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enthusiasm in word (cynicism) or in action (tardiness), you know there is a problem. A corollary to this understanding of leadership is that no one person leads; everyone does. Leadership becomes collective. It belongs to the group, the organization, the community, the ministry. It belongs to individuals to the degree they feel part of the group and ascribe to its vision and mission. As a pastor and superior, I could never understand why the others in my community did not feel the enthusiasm I felt in both community and ministry. We were doing exciting things, I thought, leading people towards a greater appreciation of themselves in relation to God and others, The persistent, nagging question was why my community did not feel the same. It must be because they did not like the work, the place, the people, the way I was doing things; or perhaps they did not understand what I was trying to do. Someone once suggested that the difficulty lay in my failure to communicate goals and objectives adequately. He was pointing to a symptom more than to the real problem. The problem, as I now appreciate, is that the "we" of that thinking was really an "I." The problem was failure to recognize clearly the need for common ownership and the need for vision and mission to arise from that common ownership. I recognized the needs in a vague, undetermined way, but at the time simply had neither the presence of mind nor the organizational theory and managerial tools to meet them. One ~difficulty in applying Blanchard’s and O’Connor’s intervention process to religious life and ministry involves clarifying what our "product" is. In the business world the product is clearly recognizable, and a clear distinction exists between personal life and the activity of the workplace. O’Connor is discovering .that there is significant interplay between the two. As people learn to feel better about themselves in their work, they extend what they have learned into other parts of their lives. Perhaps we can ease the tensions between our own lives in community and our ministerial responsibilities by defining one "product" as common to both: faith and communion. In other words, along the lines of Edwin Keel’s analysis, we would move towards acknowledging and alleviating the confusion and alien- ation in our own li+es and in the world around us. The goals and objectives of community living and of ministry would blend into one consistent and all-pervasive mission. In the language of busi-

612 Review for Religious ness, this kind of consistency in vision, mission, and practice is called "alignment.’’~-’ Alignment can be translated into biblical language: a unity of mind and heart within community and ministry. Perhaps we can move from Marian and Petrine paradigms of discipleship directly into the heart of the paschal mystery. Perhaps an operative theological, biblical, and spiritual warrant could be envisioned in terms of dying to individual, authoritative, Petrine sp+ech and action; and, with the help of modern organizational theory and practice, rising to communal, participative, Marian faith and communion.

Notes ~ Herbert W. Richardson, ’~Mother of the Church," The Current 5 (1965): 48-61. 2 Patrick J. Bearsley SM, "Mary the Perfect Disciple: A Paradigm for Mariology," Theological Studies 41 (1980): 461-504; Edwin L. Keel, "The Work of Mary at the End of Time," Forum Novum 1 (1991): 427- 444. 3 Rensis Likert, New Patterns of Management (New York: McGraw- Hill, 1961). 4 Edgar F. Huse and Thomas G. Cummings, Organizational Development and Change (St. Paul: West Publishing, 1985); Rensis Likert, The Human Organization (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967). s Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge (New York: Harper and Row, 1985). 6 National Conference of Catholic Bishops Priestly Life and Ministry Committee, "Reflections on the Morale of Priests," Origins 18 (1989). 7 John Naisbitt and Pat~icia Aburdene, Reinventing the Corporation: Transforming Your Job and Your Company for the New Information Society, (New York: Warner Books, 1985). 8 Jan Hulshof SM, "Le P~re Jean-Claude Colin et la fin des temps," in L’dtude de spiritualitd mariste/The Study of Marist Spirituality (Rome: Center for Marist Studies, 1984). 9 Kenneth Blanchard, The One Minute Manager Builds High Pe~fo~wting Teams (Escondido, California: Blanchard Training and Development, Inc., 1990). 10 Michael J. O’Connor, People Smart: Powerghd Techniques for Turning Every Encounter into a Mutual Win (La Jolla, Calif.: Keystone, 1990). ~ Blanchard, The One Minute Manager. ~-’ Naisbitt and Aburdene; Reinventing the Corporation. HENRY J. CHARLES

Three Images of Priesthood

esuit sociologist John Coleman has suggested that the renewal Jof ordained priestly ministry today is perhaps best served by new ways of imaging that priesthood.~ New images can inspire new self-understanding in priests in ways that the expanding research and current literature on the priesthood have not done. Despite the proliferation of reflective materials, clarity and definition about priestly identity and mission remain as elusive as ever. New images can bring to the agenda of renewal an energy and attractive power that reflection more theoretically conceived cannot. "We will never," Coleman affirms, "think our way or the- ologize ourselves to a renewal of priesthood.’’2 Coleman’s suggestion has obvious and fruitful implications for a spirituality of the ministerial pr!esthood. Images indicate modes of spiritual possibility. Looking at the priesthood from the perspective of salient images can provide vision, focus, dnd challenge for priests both intellectually and spiritually. In this article I propose three such images, namely, the priest as collaborator, mystagogue, and holy man or public sacrament.

Collaborator Of these images collaborator is perhaps the most recent. Its force derives from Vatican II’s ecclesiology, specifically the common priesthood of the faithful, the universal call to holiness, and the church as a community of disciples. These matters imply that Henry J. Charles, a diocesan priest, is assistant professor of moral theology at Saint Louis University, with degrees from the Gregorian, Harvard, and Yale Universities. He may be addressed at the Department of Theological Studies; 3634 Lindell Blvd.; St. Louis, Missouri 63108.

614 Review for Religious priestly ministry is situated within the different ministries and charisms of the faithful. Collaboration defines priestly ministry in an essential way. In its most obvious sense, collaboration means working with, not working solo. It means that ministry is essentially a cooperative undertaking, of priest with people and of people with one another. It involves diversity within cooperation. People will be working in different Collaboration means that groups and in different ways, at different interests, with different competen- ministry is essentially ties and with varying degrees of a cooperative undertaking, commitment. To make collaboration serve the cause of unity, the priest as of priest with people collaborator has to have a sense of the whole through the diverse or multiple and of people forms of service. This requires, among with one another. other things, a democratic sense and feel that generates in others a consciousness of community and of community service. People must sense that their individual contributions matter. In bringing life to the whole through attention to individuals and groups in their particularity, the priest receives life himself. The fault I find with most current understandings of collaboration in ministry is that the image becomes too functional or too managerial, a sort of orchestration. The priest is the conductor who coordinates the individuals and groups and makes them har- monious. Of course, there must be such functional and managerial "orchestration" in all collaboration, but this gets at neither its spiritual meaning nor its spiritual potential. It treats people’s ministries and gifts too instrumentally, leaving out the spirit. Ecclesial collaboration needs, before all else, a genuine recognition of people’s fundamental equality in.baptism and a certain alertness to the many ways in which this equality can be manifested. All are gifted with the powers of priest, prophet, and king. The offering of many may be purer than mine, their witness more transparent, their ability to teach or lead more genuine. Many are better, more generous, holier, and live a deeper discipleship. Many have a livelier sense of providence, a more uncomplaining commitment to sacrifice, more courage in seeking justice.

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Collaboration among such Christians makes for very surprising encounters with the mystery of grace. Collaboration provides the priest with a new awareness of himself and his fellow Christians: This awareness is basically of the omnipresence of grace, its gratuitousness, freedom, and amazing character. Grace is not in thrall or servant to clericalism or social position or competence or any of the many distinctions we make between people and in the light of which we see them. Collaboration can thus be a school of humility and interconnec- tion. If humility is seeing things truly, genuine collaboration cannot fail to be humble. Its basic perspective is a gratuitous Giver and a gift shared in common by unworthy recipients. A functional understanding of collaboration is perhaps nowhere more dominant than in the liturgy. The functional aspects of all liturgy are of course obvious. In the Eucharist, for example, the priest, as chief celebrant, orchestrates the ways in which other ministers and persons relate to the rite. These other ministers--for example, the choir director and the coordinators of ushers, greeters, lectors, and eucharistic ministers--structure various components.. Function falters somewhat when it comes to the people. What do they do? They participate by responding and singing and by being attentive~ But collaboration is not only or chiefly the smooth and effi- cient concert of different functions. It is all the participants, including the celebrant, giving themselves or handing themselves over to the expression of the community’s source of life and identity. The different parts of the body of Christ collaborate to become that body. The priest mediates access to this experience of unity and communion. Mediating well requires of the celebrant much more than an ability to orchestrate. He must attend receptively to the ritual at several levels: the level of the different functions, of course, but also the levels of equal belonging, of presence in its many forms among the people--such as the different signals and intimations they give of their lives, the influence perhaps of prevailing issues on their consciousness--as all of this (and more) imaginatively fills the ritual space. Mediation is the being of the celebrant res- onating as fully as possible with the multiple patterns of being and presence of the congregation and in this way facilitating a fuller experience of participation. Mediation is not the celebrant’s burden alone (though his public signification is crucial),

616 Review for Religious Sometimes, indeed, the mediation .of the people or of different ministers bears him interiorly along. Ideally, mediation is every- 6ne’s burden and everyone’s glory. Collaboration is each mediating for the whole and the whole for each. It is worship, mutual support, and intercession through communion) A further aspect of collaboration is expiation. Expiation identified as personal substitution has lost much of its explanatory sway in sote- riology and also much of its hold on people’s spiritual imagination, but in All forms of expiation a broken and wayward world it remains a collaborative option of’ enshrine the Christic pattern: permanent spiritual value. Not all of He was wounded the world’s evil can be put to rights by activism and programs of trans- for our transgression; formation. People cannot always be willed or preached into doing some- by his stripes we are healed. thing about their lives. Not everything or everyone is fixable. Spiritually, expiation signifies the voluntary absorption of evil and suffering in their many forms as a way of transmuting them and of making available in the world new possibilities of depth and freedom. All forms of expiation, from the Old Testament story of Joseph and his brothers onward, enshrine the Christic pattern: He was wounded for our transgression; by his stripes we are healed. Collaboration as expiation takes the priest once more beyond the operational perspectives of management and also beyond the ways that leaders must absorb the uncertainties and tensions of their position Vis-a-vis others. The curd d’Ars, St. John Vianney, is said to have asked a fellow priest who was depressed about how little the results were for all his efforts to improve life among his parishioners: Do you fast for them? Similarly, Bernanos’s "country priest," listening to Dr. Delbende’s nonreligious account of "facing up to" his work among the poor, a speech inflected with anguish and spiritual hurt, chooses to be silent, but not stoically or hopelessly. His reticence is the silence of voluntarily assumed and shared pain: Others perhaps might.., be able to find the right words to appease and persuade. I don!t know such words. True pain coming out of a man belongs primarily to God, it seems to

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me. I try and take it humbly to my heart just as it is. I endeavor to make it mine--to love it. And I understand all the hidden meaning of the expression which has become hackneyed now: to commune with. Because I really "commune" with his pain.4 Collaboration means also "communing" with the pain of the world, in solidarity with the Servant Lord, whose suffering takes it away.

Mystagogue "Mystagogy" is a liturgical and conceptual retrieval that has become quite familiar to parish life through the RCIA program. In this context it refers, as it did in early Christian tradition, to the postbaptismal catechesis of recent initiates. Mystagogues explain to the newly baptized the meaning of the initiation, unveiling its range of significance and symbolism. The focus of mystagogy is not doctrine or teaching, as in earlier stages of catechesis, but the experience of initiation itself. The truth of this mystery is imparted, but as a kindling of the imagination and an impression of the memory, beyond the capacity of didactic instruction. "Mystagogue" and "mystagogy" are particularly appropriate images for the identity and ministry of the priest. Simply stated, the priest as mystagogue is one who interprets mystery for others~ In a very obvious way, interpretation of faith’s mysteries means rendering them comprehensible or, more accurately today, providing first a rudimentary notion of them. Notwithstanding Marcel’s well-known distinction between a mystery and a problem, basic mysteries of faith are problematic for many, and this for several reasons. Those who grew up after Vatican Council II received their faith education at a time when catechesis at all levels was in constant revision. Others who had been nurtured on faith as apologetics found--after enemies had become friends or at least allies--they had been defending truth without much experiential understanding. Meanwhile the world had become shorn of sacramental significance, and society lacked any sense of transcendent reference. For many, therefore, faith lacks both intelligibility and sociological support. Yet the lexicon of faith remains familiar: incarnation, sin, salvation, paschal mystery, grace, baptism, conversion, resurrection, and so forth. A wide gap exists between what many

618 Review for Religious people understand by these words and what they are supposed to understand by them. This gap is wider than the traditional difficulty in understanding such doctrines as the Ascension and the Assumption. The agenda implied by this situation is not primarily one of making the mysteries of faith relevant, in the sense of being conceptually accessible. It has to do with the unveiling of meaning. The pulpit has therefore become the The priest as mystagogue place where the priest routinely practices or fails to practice mystagogy. One is one who interprets reason why the homily is often felt and mystery for others. described by the faithful as an affliction is the absence of mystagogy. Familiar words may be used with familiar lin- guistic associations, but little or nothing. is unveiled. People "get nothing" out of it. They look elsewhere; they shop for meaning. To counter this eclecticism by affirming the objective reality of the Mass everywhere and its value independent of the celebrant is to miss the point. Dissatisfaction exists, not at the level of doctrine, but at the level of experience. "The hungry sheep lookup and are not fed." What is called into question is not the shepherd’s objective credentials but the food. Mystagogy is (to keep the metaphor) the provision of pas- ture. It describes a particular mode of teaching: teaching out of engagement with mystery. In his reflection on the baptismal rites, Cyril of Jerusalem provides a lyrical example of such engagement: What a strange and astonishing situation! We did not really die, we were not really buried, we did not hang from a cross ahd rise again. Our imitation was symbolic, but our salvation was a reality. Christ truly hung from. a cross, was truly buried, and truly rose again. All this he did gratuitously for us, so that we might share his sufferings by imitating them, and gain salvation in actuality. What transcendent kindness! Christ endured nails in his innocent hands and feet, and suffered pain; and byletting me participate in the pain without anguish or sweat, freely bestows salvation on me.s Lyricism here takes flight from participation. Explanatory power is carried by the two exclamations: "What a strange and astonishing situation! . What transcendent kindness!" Participation connects symbols and referents, engages listeners Charles ¯ Priesthood

in the connection, and unveils meaning to them through the engagement. The mystagogue is thus essentially an engaged insider. .Some implications of this for priestly ministry are obvious. Rendering the mysteries of faith intelligible or relating the Gospel to life requires a living engagement with the world of faith and the Gospel. Constant exposure to ministry which enshrines such engagement enables others to make that world available for their own exploring. Collaboration, I have indicated, offers a new awareness; it offers a sense of inhabitation, as in Iris Murdoch’s: "A moral philosophy should be inhabited.’’6 It should not be something held only as a conviction or a point of view. The same is true for mystagogy. Without inhabitation mystagogy cannot rise above being didactic. Minds may meet, interest may be stirred, but life is neither generated nor transformed. The challenge mystagogy poses to the priest includes such questions as: Where do I live? To what do I return in my unreflexive moments? What are the recurring objects of my attention? The answers given to such questions indicate where our treasure and our hearts are; in Heidegger’s expression, where we dwell.7 Mystagogy also fundamentally describes the priestly ministry of spiritual direction, where its interpretive form is more con- centrated. Within recent times the traditional limits of direction have been broadened as regards both those who direct (an increasing number of nonordained ministers) and those seeking direction (an. increasing number of the laity). In relation to priestly ministry, it seems more people seek direction today than go to confession. Spiritual demands on priests have become higher. Meeting these demands involves more than a wide familiarity with methods (an area with no shortage of commentary) or the knowledge that direction is work of the Holy Spirit (which has become a theological axiom). Correct method plus correct theology do not necessarily add up to appropriate direction. The concern repeated in John of the Cross over poor direction was not over method or theology, but over the harm caused by experiential ineptness or ignorance.8 The spiritual director as mystagogue is someone familiar with spiritual possibility, its forms of advancement and peril, its rhythms and seasons, its productive avenues and dead ends, its special demands and genuine manifestations. All these features need to be

620 Review for Religious interpreted for individuals on their particular journeys. Interpretation presumes not only familiarity with the field but connaturality with it. In the ethical tradition from Aristotle to Aquinas, connaturality has been affirmed as a form of knowing. The good person knows the good through connaturality with goodness. The mystagogue analogously knows and interprets the field of the spiritual through a certain identification. In Pauline terms, such knowledge is the testimony of the Spirit with our spirit, for the sake of others’ benefit (1Co 2:6ff). It hardly need be said that such identification is never finished or perfect, but rather a matter of greater approximation; the object also of greater desire and more faithful obedience.

Public Sacrament or ~Holy Man Closely associated with the image of mystagogy is that of the priest as public sacrament or holy man. Common to both is the emphasis on existential representation of the transcendent. The immediate difference is contextual. In the former the context is the church; in the latter, society viewed as the general human milieu. The tradition of the holy man, who enshrines commitment to the sacred, is of course an ancient one, as old as that of the "wise man," who symbolizes the ideal of the seeker (the bits theoretikos).9 Indeed, the character and internal dynamic of both lives are very similar. Seeking describes both, and it frees them from rootedness in their locations, from prevailing ways of understanding. The wise man appears to be a stranger, one who never understands what everyone else knows. The holy man seems equally strange, for his life appears to lack insertion in existence ordinarily viewed. In some obvious respects the image of the holy man should not be pressed too far in the effort to illuminate the significance of the ordained priest. The latter, for instance, remains an official church representative, someone therefore institutionally rooted. But for many reasons the holy-man tradition closely if uninten- tionally mirrors manyfeatures in the contemporary situation of the priest. The public symbolism of the priesthood no longer enjoys strong self-evident significance. Recent public scandals associated with priests have not helped, but this does not constitute the main reason. Stronger reasons are widespread diminution in the power of traditional religious figuration and general institutional

"~uly-August 1992 621 Charles. PHesthood

disenchantment. The figure of the priest, therefore, appears socially strange. At the same time, public symbolic expression of religious meaning seems more necessary than ever, not only for its integrative significance, but also because the cultural experience of sacramental loss is so palpable. "Wasn’t that Eden, cher mon- sieur?" Clamance asks his interlocutor in Camus’s The Fall: "no intermediary between life and me? . . . I never had to learn how to live.’’l° What Camus emphasizes is an essential dimension of modern and postmodern sensibility, namely, the experience of severance and the longing for unreflexive connections between existence and the larg~r realities of life. Much of this feeling is also internal to the church. Here the sense of severance is linked with distance from a vanishing Catholic world. The public world is in this way present in and corroborated by experience within the church. Retrieving the significance in the life of the holy man, therefore, has important correlative institutional value. I noted earlier that the situation of the traditional holy man happens (ironically) to reflect the contemporary priest’s situation. In the f6rmer, dislocation is the by-product of a search undertaken as a personal imperative; in the latter, it represents poignantly (and often tragically) the situation in which many priests simply find themselves. A life of a certain voluntariness in the former has to be deliberately assumed in the latter. The value potential is, however, the same. What has been lost to the priesthood is, in any event, nonessential to its significance, namely, public respect, esteem, and status. Having thus lost his pedestal, the priest may at length find his place. The holy man lives the importance of religion as an indispensable human value.ll The social import of such witness is that life is deficient or incomplete without a religious dimension, human but not human enough, and quite capable of degenera- tion. This belief, a staple of institutional teaching, needs to be articulated and incarnated in a noninstitutional way as an essential truth of human existence, not a vested interest of an institution or a church. The same applies to truths of moral value. The ethical tradition of Roman Catholic morality, as the tradition itself affirms, is one which appeals to. and confirms the best in the experience and understanding of human beings. But the often egregious failures and self-preserving concerns of officials and institutions have led to wide distrust of the articulation of such val-

622 Reviem for Religio~s ues by religious authority. A noninstitutional, more organic articulation or style of teaching can be more effective, as more likely to be free of the authoritarianism and condescension so often associated with official communication. Institutional identification does not disappear in the process, nor indeed should it, because religion requires mediation and structure. What is needed is a differ- The holy man ent awareness of consciousness if the gap in the credibility of religious authority is not to become lives the importance a chasm. A patristic ascription that preserves such of religion as ecclesial identity without institutional restric- an indispensable tiveness and is very relevant to the foregoing is that of the anima ecdesiastica, (a soul bearing the human value. form of the church).12 The phrase refers to the ecclesial significance of a form and way of life within and beyond the institutional limits of the church. This is a life of self-dispossession and abandonment to God, which recognizes with joy arid thanksgiving the Spirit and the grace of God wherever they are found. The soul or the person so described need not be a church official or representative. The expression signifies a pure ecclesial possibility. Such persons display and radi- ate the deep meaning of the church as the sacrament of the life of God, which institutions within the church only partially exem- plify. The image of the priest as public sacrament intends a similar range and witness. It keeps the priest institutionally located, but with a potential significance wider than institutional limits and yet underlining the meaning and purpose of the institution itself.

Conclusion New images of the ordained priesthood define or suggest transforming perspectives or possibilities. The search for new images may also, as the foregoing suggests, entail the recovery or reappropriation of older though less familiar ones. Such searching and recovery underline the fact that the priesthood remains an option of historic embodiment and recurring challenge. The challenge may be more keenly felt or felt with greater anxiety in our time of change and fracture, but previous embodiments all orig- inated as responses to particular historical challenges. Vital images

3~ly-August 1992 623 Charles ¯ Priesthood

crystallized those challenges and gave focus and light to a renewal of commitment. Submission to a similar process today can be as deeply productive both in the present and for the future.

Notes * John Coleman SJ, "Choosing a Metaphor for Ordained Ministry Today," Origins 20, no. 37 (21 February 1991). 2 Ibid, p. 605. 3 See Xavier John Seubert, "Weaving a Pattern of Access: The Essence of Ritual," Worship 63, no. 6 (November 1989): 490-503. 4 George Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest, trans. Pamela Morris (Garden City: Doubleday, 1974), p. 65. s See Edward Yarnold, The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation (London: St. Paul Publications, 1971), pp. 76-77. 6 Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good (New York: Schocken Books, 1971), p. 47. 7 M. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, trans. Albert Hofstadter (New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1975), pp. 147ff. s See The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Prologue, 3-5; The Living Flame of Love, stanza 3, sections 30-62, in The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, 2d ed. (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1979). 9 See Bernd Jaeger, "Theorizing, Journeying, Dwelling," in Duquesne Studies in Phenomenological Psychology, vol. 2 (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1975), pp. 240-241. 10 Albert Camus, The Fall, trans. Justin O’Brien (New York: Vintage Books, 1956), p. 27. n A fine example of the articulation of religious truth as truth of human value, expressed organically, is Pope Paul’s description of the relation of faith and development in paragraph 21 of Populorum Progressio. ~ See The yon Balthasar Reader, ed. Medard Kehl and Werner Loser (New York: Crossroad, 1982), p. 228.

624 Review for Religious Involuntary Exclaustration

The previous Canonical Counsel essay (May-June 1992) discusses the meaning and procedures for voluntary exclaustration, that is, exclaustration initiated by the reli- canonical gious, as indicated in canon 686, §1. That essay explains counsel exclaustration as the juridic vehicle by which a religious may be partially separated from his or her institute while maintaining a fundamental juridic connection to it. The voluntary exclaustration of canon 686, §1, is granted for a limited time and for particularly serious reasons and entails certain canonical consequences. Voluntary exclaustration for members of monasteries of nuns, as provided in canon 686, §2, follows the same procedures as those in §1 with the exception that the competent authority to grant exclaustration for nuns is always the Holy See unless the constitutions of the monastery in question specifically indicate otherwise. Canon 686 contains another kind of exclaustration, however, which is not requested by the member and is referred to as involuntary exclaustration because it is imposed on the religious either by the Holy See (for pontifical institutes) or by the diocesan bishop (for diocesan institutes) at the request of the supreme moderator of the institute. Canon 686, §3, states: "If a supreme moderator

Elizabeth McDonough OP, JCD, regularly writes this department of canonical information and reflection. She is canonical consultant and tribunal judge for the Archdiocese of Washington, where she may be addressed: 5001 Eastern Avenue; P.O. Box 29260; Washington, D.C. 20017-0260.

July-)lug,ust 1992 625 Canonical Counsel

with the consent of the council petitions, exclaustration can be imposed by the Holy See on a member of an institute of pontifical right or by a diocesan bishop on a member of an institute of diocesan right for grave reasons, with equity and charity being observed." While this may appear an extreme or even punitive measure, it is sometimes necessary for the good of the individual religious as well as for the community at large. By way of a context for imposed exclaustration, many religious could probably corroborate the experience of canonists that troublesome religious are often tolerated, under the guise of charity, when their conduct has fallen far below minimal levels of adult behavior; those in leadership positions thus avoid some basic responsibilities and become detrimental both to the religious in question and to the other members of the institute, who have a right to live their vocation in a certain degree of peace in relatively normal community circumstances. Unfortunately, superiors often inherit difficult religious, that is, members who may have for years exhibited behavior indicative of personality difficulties or of serious human relational deficiencies. Often previous superiors have failed to take decisive action as soon as it was clear that a member could not constructively alter his or her community-life behavior without professional help. (On this issue see the insightful comments by Richard Hill SJ in the Canonical Counsel essay for May-June 1989.) Sometimes, of course, troublesome religious are unwilling to cooperate in seeking help and will attribute all difficulties to the community or to superiors or to some other outside source. Some difficult religious have been moved from one house to another--or simply allowed to live alone indefinitely-- in an effort to diffuse or to hide the person’s relational problems rather than deal with them directly. Such practices of superiors often amount to avoidance of leadership responsibility or to simple procrastination and become a long prelude to more serious and more difficult actions such as imposed exclaustration or dismissal. Although the voluntary exclaustration of canon 686, § 1, is at times a helpful way to deal with difficult religious on a temporary basis, supreme moderators need to be aware that an indult of exclaustration cannot be granted validly beyond three years, that under ordinary circumstances they cannot force a religious who has not requested it to live apart from the community, and that they are not themselves competent to impose exclaustration validly on any member of their institute. They also need to be aware

626 Review for Religious that often there is only a fine and rather unclear line between urging the person to seek voluntary exclaustration and forcing him or her to do so. Whereas voluntary exclaustration is an indult or favor, involuntary exclaustration is actually a precept or command. Any precept is a special form of decree (c. 48) that commands someone specifically to do or to omit something (c. 49), and any decree must be given in writing and must express at least in summary fashion the reasons for its having been issued (c. 50). Canon 686, §3, indicates that the only authorities competent to issue a decree imposing exclaustration on a religious are the Holy See for pontifical institutes and the diocesan bishop for diocesan institutes. The precept that imposes exclaustration actually does three things simultaneously: (1) It forbids the religious to live the common life of the community; (2) it deprives the religious of his or her right to cast a vote or to receive votes in elections; and (3) it grants a dispensation from, or mitigates, any of the obligations assumed at profession which cannot be appropriately observed under the new" circumstances of obeying the precept. Unfortunately, these specific effects of imposed exclaustration are only summarily contained in the Code (c. 687); and the procedures required for imposing exclaustration, which are not directly mentioned in the Code at all, are known primarily from long experience in particular cases. Before the promulgation of the revised Code in 1983, imposed exclaustration had actually been in use for at least three decades as part of what canonists refer to as praxis Curiae, namely, the body of administrative procedures by which the Holy See handles certain cases as a matter of standard practice. In late 1952 the secretary of the Sacred Congregation for Religious, forerunner of the present Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICL), comment+d on the already established practice of imposed exclaustration, referring to it as exclaustration ad nutum Sanctae Sedis--at the will of the Holy See--and described it as a measure adopted to cope with those situations in which a religious was rather impossible to live with but was not so impossible as to be able to be dismissed. In such cases the Congregation would impose exclaustration, with certain restrictions on the behavior of the member in relation to the institute, and the exclaustration would perdure as long as it was considered opportune (with the institute obliged to assist in the

j~uly-Aug.ust 1992 627 Canonical Counsel

maintenance of the religious during this time). The same Congregation soon afterwards elaborated on the practice of imposed exclaustration, noting that "it is not asked for by the subject but is imposed by the Holy See--not strictly as a penalty, however, even though the causes leading up to it may have been culpable, but for the good of~ the Institute and sometimes also for the individual. Its duration is indefinite, yet not strictly perpetual. It does not cease by the mere cessation of the causes for which it was imposed, but a new decree of the Sacred Congregation revok- ing it is required." A gradual development in the understanding of difficult religious and a definite concern for the rights of the person upon whom exclaustration is imposed are evident in the 1973 comments from a meeting of the Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes (SCRIS) in which imposed exclaustration, or exclaustration ad nutum Sanctae Sedis, was described as follows: The exclaustration imposed ad nutum is a rather strong disciplinary measure, but it is also an act of clemency. There is no juridical difference between exclaustration ad nutum and that which is accorded for a well-defined time. The rescript of exclaustration ad nutum carries almost always the clause that the Institute should assist the religious morally and also materially if later on there is need .... The superiors themselves can propose to the Holy See a project of assistance for a religious who should eventually be exclaustrated. Such a procedure will avoid controversy in the future. Since imposed exclaustration ad nutum S. Sedis implies losing the right of remaining in community and obliges the religious to live in the world, it is necessary that ~ the process be well formulated and the religious be informed of the intentions of the Institute so that he can present his own point of view. In keeping with the last portion of the above statement, in 1974 SCRIS decided: "When the measure [exclaustration] is imposed and the interested party must accept it, there remains the possibility of recourse; in such a case it is necessary, at least in general, to observe the procedure of dismissal: admonitions, defense, decision of the council expressed by a secret vote." In summary fashion, then, it can be seen from a combination of the above comments that canon 686, ~3, of the revised Code actually refers legally to the gradually improved version of the original practice of imposed exclaustration and thus requires: (1) that the religious in question is a difficult person who, for some

628 Review for Religious reason, does not fulfill the requirements for being dismissed; (2) that the competent authority to impose exclaustration is still the Holy See, with the diocesan bishop now also competent in certain cases; (3) that the duration of such exclaustration is effectively indefinite; (4) that the institute is ultimately responsible for the religious, who remains legally a member of the community; and (5) that the dismissal procedures of canons 696-699 be followed, in an adapted manner, in order to protect the rights of the religious. The basic dismissal process as adapted for exclaustration requires the competent superior (who at the beginning could be either the supreme moderator or the provincial) to consult with his or her council in order to decide whether to initiate the process. Then this superior is required to collect and complete specific and certain information on the problematic behavior of the religious with a view to issuing a warning to him or her. This warning is actually a precept and thus must be given either in writing or in the presence of two witnesses (and recorded) and must clearly specify both the threat of imposed exclaustration and the causes for this possible action. The religious must then be afforded the opportunity to present a defense in response to the precept. If the defense is not persuasive and if the religious shows no noticeable change in behavior or no compliance with the precept, the same warning in the form of a precept should be repeated after a minimum of fifteen days has elapsed. If the second warning is also ineffective after another minimum offifteen days has elapsed, then the major superior and council may judge that the member’s behavior is incorrigible and that the defenses presented are insufficient; in this case all the documents are notarized and forwarded to the supreme moderator of the institute. Of course, the forwarding of documents is not necessary if the institute has only a supreme moderator (that is, if there are no provinces). In a dismissal process the law then requires the supreme moderator along with the council (which must contain four members) to decide by a collegial, secret ballot whether to issue a decree of dismissal (c. 699, §1). However, the process of imposed exclaustration is different at this point, and the supreme moderator must instead obtain the consent of council. The significant legal difference in these two requirements is that the consent for imposed exclaustration must be sought in accord with canon 127, 81. In such cases the superior cannot act validly without this consent, but is not required to act should the consent be given. In contrast,

J~uly-August 1992 629 Canonical Counsel

for dismissal cases the requirement of a collegial vote means not merely that the supreme moderator is seeking the consent of the council, but also that he or she and the council constitute a single entity whose members each have one vote and whose collective decision is binding. Another difference between dismissal and imposed exclaustration is that for dismissal the supreme moderator actually issues the decree, which then requires confirmation by a higher authority (c. 700), but for imposed exclaustration the request for issuing the decree is forwarded to the competent authority indicated in canon 686, §3. ~For the purpose of processing a request for imposed exclaustration, the documentation should contain, in addition to a careful record of all of the above-mentioned steps: (1) a curriculum vitae of the religious in question, (2) the steps that have been taken to resolve the problematic behavior, and (3) any restrictions that the supreme, moderator and council would like the response to contain, such as not wearing the habit. Of course, if items 1 and 2 are already sufficiently included in the other information collected, they need not be repeated. Additionally, although the procedure does not require it, practically speaking it is helpful if at least some pertinent information is submitted regarding the financial support intended or already planned for the religious in question. Regarding the procedures for imposed exclaustration, two points should be noted. First, CICL requires and insists that procedures be followed exactly; and, second, the imposed-exclaustration procedure should never be attempted without the assistance of an experienced canonist. Moreover, the religious in question should be afforded canonical advice; and, when exclaustration is imposed, the religious may take hierarchic recourse against the action by following the requirements of canons 1734- 1739 and may include a request to suspend the effect, in accord with canon 1736, until the recourse is decided. Note, however, that, whereas recourse against dismissal automatically suspends the effect according to law (c. 700), there is no provision in law whereby recourse against imposed exclaustration automatically suspends its effects. By way of the consequences of imposed exclaustration, although the precept remains in effect for an indefinite period of time and although the member cannot return to the institute without the intervention of the authority who imposed the

630 Review for Religious exclaustration, it should not become in fact perpetual, because long-term compliance with the requirements of imposed exclaustration becomes almost equivalent to dismissal from the institute. In practice the only major differences between the effects of dismissal and of imposed exclaustration are that in imposed exclaustration the minimal obligations of the vows remain and the institute is ultimately responsible for adequate financial support of the religious for the entire duration of the exclaustration. Ordinarily, in any type of exclaustration, the member becomes substantially, if not entirely, self-supporting and handles his or her own finances as well as livi.ng and working arrangements. Nevertheless, the i’eligious still remains juridically a vowed member of the institute, and the religious community is still ultimately responsible for him or her. In practice it appears that imposed exclaustration often perdures in this fashion until the religious in question is quite elderly or ill and returns to be cared for in the infirmary of the religious community, unle~ss other arrangements for such care are made. Finally, to conclude these comments on involuntary exclaustration, let us recall that the legal vehicle of exclaustration exists in order to acknowledge the reality that a religious--for various reasons--may sometimes not be able to exercise all the rights and fulfill all the obligations acquired through profession, but still should be able to remain a member of the institute for the time being, or even indefinitely if necessary. As a legal vehicle, exclaustration is supposed to provide a certain "juridic distancing" from the institute and to be a help to the religious in question as well as to his or her community. While voluntary distancing is always to be preferred, sometimes a required distancing--that is, imposed exclaustration as described above--may in fact be necessary for the good of all.

1992 631 Evelyn Underhill: Artist of the Infinite Life Dana Greene. New York: Crossroad, 1990. Pp. 179. Cloth. $18.95. The recrudescence of interest in the life and thought of Evelyn Underhill may be a sign of the revival of concern in the spiritual life. Her two great works, Mysticism and Worship, are classics in their fields. Now many of her out-of-print books are being reis- sued, often in paperback her Letters, for example. Her spiritual reviews teachings are becoming subjects for doctoral studies. This new biography by Dana Greene, professor of history at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, is therefore timely as well as illuminating. Previous biographies by Cropper and Armstrong were written under circumstances causing omission of some serious issues concerning Underhill’s life and teaching. Greene has had access to manuscript materials in the archives of St. Andrew’s University in Scotland, King’s College in London, and elsewhere. The resulting account of Underhill’s life and writings broadens and deepens our understanding of what she wrote and who and what she was. Her private life is not a subject of conspicuous significance. She is most easily seen as a religious writer whose prolific out- put of articles, reviews, addresses, and books was widely acclaimed in her time. The Calendar of the Church Year of the Episcopal Church calls her "a theologian and mystic." Both ascriptions are accurate as far as they go, but they fail to touch the heart of what she was as a person and as a spiritual pilgrim. The present biography makes clear that her writing and speaking were her personal life and that her personal life found in this "public" address the means of carrying on her vocation "as a writer for ordinary .people."

Materials for this department should be sent to: Book Review Editor; Review for Religious; Room 428; 3601 Lindell Boulevard; St. Louis, MO 63108. Reviews published in Review for Religious are indexed in Book Review Index. Neither Review for Religious nor its reviewers can fill orders for any tides. Interested parties should inquire at their local booksellers or direcdy from the publishers.

6 3 2 Review for Religious This vocation grew upon her as she moved from preoccupation with mysticism as "pure spirit"--an oudook founded on her early commitment to Neoplatonism--to her sense of being called to help ordinary people discover the mysticism inherent in their day-to-day lives. As she followed this vocation, she moved toward a Christocentric and institutional ground and frame for the God-centering of life she felt to be both the possibility and the calling of everyone. This transition was in a large degree brought about by the spiritual direction she sought and received from yon Hugel in the maturer years of her life. She was not without inner struggles and conflicts that reduced her, at times, to deep depression, even despair. These sieges assailed her most acutely in her last years, when she saw much of what she believed and taught called in question by the horrors of the Second World War. This biography helps one understand this side of Underhill’s personal experience, which people often ignore when they take her teaching as read, without counting its cost. A Scottish friend, seeing her for the first time, told me she looked "dowdy." Another friend saw her, when she turned to greet him, as "luminous." One suspects that she would have admitted the first and dismissed it with a bantering laugh. The second she would have con- fessed to have been her lifelong vision and seeking. This new biography solidly and with insight corroborates both these eyewitness impressions of Evelyn Underhill--and supports what one conjectures about her response to them. John L. Casteel Muncie, Indiana

Discerning God’s Will: Ignatius of Loyola’s Teaching on Christian Decision Making JulesJ. Toner Sy. St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1991. Pp. x + 346. Paper. $24.9L Cloth. $37.9L The reader is not many pages into this long-awaited companion to Jules Toner’s earlier volume on discernment (A Commentary on Saint Ignatius’ Rules for the Discernment of Spirits, 1982) before he or she is grateful, because the author’s experience as a teacher of philosophy seems to have made him labor to make clear Ignatius of Loyola’s sometimes daunting process for discerning God’s will. The term "discernment" is practically coin of the realm these days in conversations about matters spiritual. Perhaps we use it too loosely. But if we are serious about finding God’s will, Toner makes clear for us Ignatius’s certain belief that we can discover it. He carefully examines the original sources from Ignatius’s own hand and the hands of other first-generation Jesuits. With the kind of critical reading of these sources which we ordinarily associate with biblical studies, Toner gradually illumines the process which Ignatius himself used to make impor-

~uly-August 1992 633 Reviews

tant decisions for his own life and for the direction of his new company of religious, Toner never pretends that his volume is light reading. A careful examination, however, leaves one grateful for his thorough research. He conscientiously footnotes his frequent references, thus making the volume a valuable tool for further research. He thoroughly separates his bibliography into primary and secondary sources. At the heart of the volume, Toner examines the three modes of Ignatian discernment. He is willing to criticize other classical and contemporary readings of the relevant texts and offers reasonable criteria for his own interpretation and application. The reader comes away with the means which Ignatius used for determining the will of God. The appendices examine the approaches to Ignatian discernment used by the highly respected Karl Rahner and Thomas Green. Again, using the original sources, Toner respectfullypoints out his areas of disagreement. tJules Toner has provided a valuable resource for anyone working generally in spiritual direction or especially in formation for religious life or priestly ministry. He writes with confidence about a subject obviously dear to his own heart as a Jesuit. But his scholarly approach to his subject provides the real benefit to readers--and to those who will benefit from their ministry. Patrick E Halfpem~y Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit

Spiritual Direction in the Early Christian East h’&z& Haushe~w Sy. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1990. Pp. xxxiii + 434. Cloth and paper: No price. This book is a translation by Anthony E Gythiel of Hausherr’s 1955 work Direction spirituelle en orient autrefois. The modern reader will discover here an invaluable sourcebook for understanding early spiritual direction. As one would expect from a Cistercian Publications book, this one has extensive notes, indices, and a bibliography. The text is heavy at times, but always insightful and challenging. Ironically, in reading a work such as this, one comes to realize that the difficulties of gender and sexuality--and faltering attempts to work them out--are nothing new and, in fact, have existed for centuries. As the author points out in chapter nine, "Spiritual direction was not taught and practiced to perfection except among monks" (p. 267); spiritual direction for nuns and lay persons was formula(ed on the monastic style. Clement of Alexandria, Origen,~ and Gregory of Nyssa addressed the differences in male and female. Procopius of Gaza presented one viewpoint when he wrote, "Everyone of us is immediately called a female when he is cast down from the state of intelligence and is ensnared by passions and vices toward which nature is prone .... If,

634 Review for Religious on the contrary, he avoids the vices and would strive for the high ground of virtue, he is valued as a male" (p. 269). On the other hand, Gregory of Nazianzus wrote, "If there is a difference between the sexes, it is visible only in that men have a stronger, more vigorous body. As for the rest, the cultivation of virtue is the same; they march together on the road leading to life eternal, and in this no one has anything more than the other except the difference of his merit and his toil .... " (p. 271). And yet this discussion is only a small part of the entire text. In the foreword Bishop Kallistos V~rare of Diokleia summarizes the characteristics required of a spiritual director: he or she is "doctor, counsellor, intercessor, mediator, and sponsor" (p. xii). The balance of the text enlarges on these characteristics and illustrates the essential relationship of director and directee. Hausherr’s book is an excellent resource for students of history and spiritual direction. I recommend it enthusiastically. Ma~y VVinifred CHS St. Cuthbert’s Ren’eat House Brewster, New York

To Look on Christ: Exercises in Faith, Hope, and Love Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. New York: Crossroad, 1991. Pp. 120. Cloth. $13.95. This slim and rather expensive volume confains the conferences given by Cardinal Ratzinger as a retreat for the priests of Communione e Liberazione in the summer of 1986 and was first published in Europe in 1989. It is based on the philosophy and theology of Thomas Aquinas as filtered through the writings ofJosef Pieper, to whom the book is dedicated. Thus, to say the least, it would seem that Ratzinger’s work may not find a ready or appreciative audience among the rather eclec- tic and sometimes superficial spirituality seekers of late-twentieth- century America. However, those who do read it will find a sound, typically classicist critique of the historicist approach to theology, epis- temology, spirituality, and the world in general, with specific reference to the meaning and manifestation of faith, hope, and charity from the Christian perspective today. To his credit the cardinal reminds us that the fundamental action of God is the gratuitous, supernatural invitation to share eternal life and that the response of humanity to this invitation must be a humble willingness to listen and learn in faith, a discovery and response to the goodness of each person in love, and an affirmation of hope in the certainty that we are loved by God forever. Also to his credit Ratzinger criticizes the "Pelagianism of the pious" on the far right that prevents its adherents from escaping a "net of shared pretense," while he simultaneously excoriates the "mask of ideological optimism" and "bound-

j-7:uly-August 1992 635 Reviews

less intellectual cowardice" on the left, which he contends actually obviate the possibility of dealing constructively with the rampant denial and despair of contemporary society. In perhaps the most spiritually significant of the several short essays, Ratzinger comments on the enemy of hope, that is, the once familiar accidie or sloth. In his perspective this notion translates rather appropriately into that inertia of the heart and that lack of greatness of soul which are evident in the apathy, rancor, malice, verbosity, and rest- lessness exhibited by so many in contemporary society and which subtly coexist with much activity and busyness that provide no effective Christian witness (with public and concrete results) to the genuine effort required--not to mention the genuine depth of suffering entailed--in caring enough to love one another as God has loved us. Elizabeth McDonough OP Washington, D.C.

Lay Ministry: A Theological, Spiritual, and Pastoral Handbook William J. Rademacber Foreword by Joan Cbittister New York: Crossroad, 1991. Pp. xiii + 274. Paper. $14.9Y. The title of this book is rather misleading. It is much more a treatise on sacramentality in general and holy orders in particular than on lay ministry. The historical survey, which makes up a good portion of the book, is well done for the most part. But, unfortunately, too much of the book is taken up with church and clergy bashing. Such cynicism and sarcasm may flo much for the ego of the author, but contribute little to the growth of the reader. And, as a teacher of college seminarians, I must take issue with his denigration of the seminarians of today. I found his comments totally out of touch with reality. If the theology of the book is sometimes questionable, the spiritual and pastoral dimensions are almost nonexistent. Although there is much good in the book, there is not enough to seriously recommend it. Irvin Meinrad Arkin Department of Theological Studies Saint Louis University

The Political Meaning of Christianity: The Prophetic Stance Glenn Tinder. Harper San Francisco, 1991. Pp. 257. Paper. $14.95. "In a word, this is a book about civility, or at least a certain sort of civility. It is an effort to discover the nature and conditions of humane relationships in the grand collectivities that structure our lives in his-

636 Review for Religious tory. It is particularly concerned with the question of how civility can be defined and defended in an uncommonly chaotic and demoral- ized-hence uncivil--age. The main thesis of the book is that Christianity points to a concept of civility that corresponds closely with our needs. To practice this concept is to adopt the posture I call the prophetic stance" (p. 16). More simply, this book is about the impact of Christianity upon political life. Glenn Tinder, professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, has based this work upon the fact that God has established his solidarity with the human race and that consequently every person is exalted and glorified. The dignity of the individual becomes the law of all being and history. It is also the source of all political obligations. Key c.oncepts and chapter headings are: Prologue: The Prophetic Stance; The Exaltation of the Individua!; Prophetic Hope; Liberty; Social Transformation; Prophetic Spirituality; Postscript: World Politics. This is a modest basic work on Christianity and political thought. I agree with the New York Times review, which stated that "everyone ~concerned with social transformation can gain from reading this book." Lucius E Cervantes SJ Professor Emeritus of Social Sciences Saint Louis University books received ALHAMAR PUBLISHING: Ysabella de Trast~mara: First LaXly of the Renaissance, by Elizabeth Long, pp. 449, paper, $14.95, cloth, $22.95. AMECEA GABA PUBLICATIONS: The Liberating Role of the Church in Africa Today, by Chukwudum B. Okolo, pp. 88, paper, US$4.70. BALLANTINE BOOKS: The Hero and the Goddess: The Odyssey as Mystery and Initiation, by Jean Houston, pp. 440, paper, $12. BELL TOWER: Silence, Simplicity, and Solitude: A Guide for Spiritual Retreat, by David A. Cooper, pp. 318, cloth, $18. BASIC BOOKS: The World of Biblical Literature, by Robert Alter, pp. 238, cloth, $23. CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS: The Foundation and First Decade of the National Catholic Welfare Council, by Douglas J. Slawson, pp. 391, cloth, $55.95; "Some Seed Fell on Good Ground": The Life of Edwin V. O’Hara, by Timothy Michael Dolan, pp. 325, cloth, $29.95. COWLEY PUBLICATIONS: Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction, by Margaret Guenther, pp. 159, paper, $11.95; Teach Us to Pray (new edition), by Andr~ Louf, trans. Hubert Hoskins, pp. 126, paper, $8.95. CROSSROAD: History and the Triune God: Contributions to

July-August 1992 637 Reviews

Trinitarian Theology, by Jfirgen Moltmann, pp. 223, cloth, $27.50; Who’s Who in Theology: From the First Century to the Present, by John Bowden, pp. 160, cloth, $18.95; Silent Lamp: The Thomas Merton Story, by William H. Shannon, pp. 320, cloth, $22.95; Pilgrimage of Hope: One Hundred Years of Global Interfaith Dialogue, by Marcus Braybrooke, pp. 384, cloth, $34.50; The Shadow Side of Community and the Growth of the Self, by Mary Wolff- Salin RSCJ, pp. 204, paper, $12.95; A Delicate Balance: Sexuality, Celibacy, and Relationships Among Catholic Clergy and Religious, by Sheila Murphy, pp. 143, cloth, $14.95; Catholic Prayer: Pray-er, Words, Gestures, Reading, Jesus, Eucharist, Models, Politics, Stages, by Lawrence S. Cunningham, pp. 208, paper, $12.95; The Art of Spiritual Guidance: A Contemporary Approach to Growing in the Spirit, by Carolyn Gratton, pp. 263, cloth, $23.95; The Recovery of Love: Christian Mysticism and the Addictive Society, by Jeffrey D. Imbach, pp. 156, cloth, $14.95, paper, $9.95; Tree of Renewed Life: Spiritual Renewal of the Church through the Twelve-Step Program, by Terry Webb, pp. 167, paper, $11.95; The Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System, by Avery Dulles SJ, pp. 239, cloth, $22.50. DOUI]LEDAY IMAGE BOOKS: Awareness: A de Mello Spirituality Conference in His Own Words, by Anthony de Mello SJ, ed. J. Francis Stroud SJ, pp. 191, paper, $10; Queen of Prophets: The Gospel Message of Medjugorje, by Dudley Plunkett, pp. 123, paper, $8. DOVE PUBLICATIONS (Pecos, New Mexico 87552): A Code of Ethics for Spiritual Directors, by Thomas M. Hedberg SDB and Betsy Caprio and the staff of The Center for Sacred Psychology, pp. 19, paper, $3.75. WILLIAM B. EERDMANS: Living with Dying: Finding Meaning .in Chronic Illness, by George Lea Harper Jr., pp. 131, paper, $8.95; Freedom for Ministry (revised edition), by Richard John Neuhaus, pp. 271, paper, $17.95; Peculiar Speech: Preaching to the Baptized, by William H. Willimon, pp. 135, paper, $10.95. ELEMENT: Kenosis: Emptying Self and the Path of Christian Service, by Kevin M. Cronin OFM, pp. 116, paper, $9.95. FORTRESS PRESS:. The Christian Life: Traditional Metaphors and Contemporary Theologies, by Harriet Crabtree, pp. 230, paper, $13.95. FOUNT (HARPERCOLLINS): Lord, Teach Us to Pray (revision of Christian Zen and The InnerEye of Love), by William Johnston SJ, pp. 360, paper, $15.95. GLOBE PRESS BOOKS: Dialogue on the Path of Initiation: An Introduction to the Life and Thought of Karlfried Graf Diirckheim, by Alphonse Goettmann, trans. Theodore and Rebecca Nottingham, foreword by George Maloney SJ, pp. 183, paper, $12.95. HARPERPERENNIAL: In the Eye of the Catholic Storm: The Church since Vatican II, by MaryJo Leddy, Bishop Remi de Roo, and Douglas Roche, ed. Michael Creal, pp. 206, paper, CanadianS14.95. HARPERSANFRANCISCO: The Pope Speaks to the American Church: John Paul II’s Homilies, Speeches, and Letters to Catholics~ in the

638 Review for Religious United States, ed. the Cambridge Center for the Study of Faith and Culture, pp. 528, paper, $18. ICS PUBLICATIONS: The Hidden Life: Hagiographic Essays, Meditations, Spiritual Texts (vol. 4 of The Collected Works), by Edith Stein OCD, trans. Waltraut Stein, pp. 191, paper, $8.95. IGNATIUS PRESS: Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power, byJosef Pieper, trans. Lothar Krauth, pp. 54, paper, $5.95; Paul Struggles with His Congregation: The Pastoral Message of the Letters to the Corinthians, by Hans Urs yon Balthasar, trans. Brigitte L. Bojarska, pp. 90, paper, $6.95; Edmund Campion: Hero of God’s Underground, by Harold C. Gardner SJ, pp. 180, paper, $9.95; Love Is Stronger than Death, by Peter Kreeft, pp. 140, paper, $8.95; The Last Ugly Person and Other Stories, by Roger B. Thomas, pp. 215, paper, $9.95; Newman: Towards the Second Spring, by Michael Ffinch, pp. 230, paper, $12.95. LITURGICAL PRESS: But When You Are Older... : Reflections on Coming to Age, by Donald X. Butt OSA, pp. 110, paper, $5.95. LITURGICAL PRESS--MICHAEL GLAZIER BOOKS: Practical Discipleship: A United States Christology, by J.J. Mueller SJ, pp. 175, paper, $14.95; Belief in God in Our Time: Foundational Theology I, by M. John Farrelly OSB, pp. 381, paper, $19.95. LOYOLA UNIVERSITY PRESS and INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES: The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: A Translation and Commentary, by George E.,Ganss SJ, pp. 244, paper, $11.95 (and cloth, only from IJS, $22.95), WILLIAM MORROV~r AND COMPANY: The Pursuit of Happiness: Who Is Happy--and Why, by David G. Myers, pp. 33 I, cloth, $20. MULTNOMAH PRESS: Almost Every Answer for Practically Any Teacher!: A Resource Guide for all who desire to teach for lifechange, ed. Bruce Wilkinson, pp. 272, paper, $12.99. ORBIS BOOKS: Christian Discovery: The Road to Justice, by James J. DiGiacomo SJ and John J. Walsh MM, pp. 236, paper, $10.95; Eclipse of Justice: Ethics, Economics, and the Lost Traditions of American Catholicism, by George E. McCarthy and Royal W. Rhodes, pp. 304, cloth, $24.95; Common Journey, Different Paths: Spiritual Direction in Cross-Cultural Perspective, ed. Susan Rakoczy IHM, pp. 183, paper, $18.95. PARABOLA BOOKS: Kaleidoscope: "The Way of Woman" and Other Essays, by Helen M. Luke, pp. 330, tentatively $17.95. PAULIST PRESS: The Primacy of Love: An Introduction to the Ethics of Thomas Aquinas, by Paul J. Wadell cp, pp. 162, paper, $11.95; My Witness for the Church, by Bernard H~ring, intro, and trans. Leonard Swidler, pp, 240, paper, $14.95; In the Footsteps of the Mystics: A Guide to the Spiritual Classics, by Henry C. Simmons, pp. 174, cloth, $9.95; A Way without Words: A Guide for Spiritually Emerging Adults, by Marsha Sinetar, pp. 202, paper, $9.95; Can Women Re-Image the Church? by Rosemary Chinnici, pp. 116, paper, $6.95; Walking Together in Faith: A Workbook for Sponsors of Christian Initiation, by Thomas H. Morris, pp. 214, paper, $12.95;

July-August 1992 639 Reviews

Women and Sexuality: 1992 Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality, by Lisa Sowle Cahill, pp. 89, paper, $4.95; The Parish: Where God’s People Live, by Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk, pp. 82, paper, $4.95. PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE: Social and Ethical Aspects of Economics: A Colloquium in the Vatican, pp. 146, paper, $I0; Human Rights and the Church: Historical and Theological Reflections (November 1988 Colloquium Conferences), by John Paul II, Joseph Joblin sJ, and Walter Kasper, pp. 73, paper, no price. RESOURCE PUBLICATIONS: Stories to Invite Faith-Sharing: Experiencing the Lord through the Seasons of the Year, by Mary McEntee McGill, pp. 139, paper, $8.95; Grief Ministry Facilitator’s Guide, lay JoAnn Sturzl PBVM and Donna Reilly Williams, pp. 114, paper, $19.95. ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER PRESS: Helping Skills for the Nonpro- fessional Counselor, by Joseph Moore, pp. 67, paper, $3.95; Visiting the Sick: A Guide for Parish Ministers, by Patti Normile, pp. 139, paper, $6.95; Journeys into Luke: 16 Lessons of Exploration and Discovery, by Raymond Apicella, pp. 63, paper, $5.95. ST. PAUL BOOKS & MEDIA: The Silence of Mary, by Ignacio Larrafiaga OFMCap, trans. V. Gaudet OMI, pp. 230, paper, $12.95. ST. PAUL PUBLICATIONS (Bandra West P.O. Box 9814; Bombay 400 050): Three Days with God: Seeking God in the Bhakti Marg, by Ramon Nubiola SJ, pp. 115, paper, Rs. 13; Parables and Fables for Modem Man: vol. 1, 30 scripts for moderators and animators and for the reading pleasure of those fond of "flights of fancy," pp. 228, paper, Rs. 45 / vol. 2, 37 parables bearing on religious values, pp. 146, paper, Rs. 32 / vol. 3, 34 paiables bearing on personal and psychological values, pp. 128, paper, Rs. 32 / vol. 4, 30 parables bearing on social and justice values, pp. 128, paper, Rs. 32--all by Peter Ribes SJ. SCHOOL SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME (320 East Ripa Ave.; St. Louis, Missouri 63125): The Letters of Mother Caroline Friess SSND, ed. Barbara Brumleve SSND, pp. 553, paper, $8. SHEED & WARD: Mantras from a Poet: Jessica Powers, by Robert F. Morneau, pp. 127, paper, $8.95. SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS: God’s Greatest Gifts: Commentaries on the Commandments and the Sacraments, by St. Thomas Aquinas, foreword by Ralph McInerny, pp. 130, cloth, $16.95. THOMAS MORE PRESS: Paschal Journey: Reflections on Psycho- Spiritual Growth, by Patrick J. Brennan, pp. 246, paper, $13.95. UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS: The Lord’s Prayer: A Survey Theological and Literary, by Nicholas Ayo CSC, pp: 272, cloth, $29.95. UPPER ROOM BOOKS: The Workbook on the Christian Walk, by Maxie Dunnam, pp. 157, paper, $6.95; Praying through the Lord’s Prayer, by Steve Harper, pp. 109, paper, $6.95. WESTMI.NSTER /JOHN KNOX PRESS: Trumpet at Full Moon: An Introduction to Christian Spirituality as Diverse Practice, by W. Paul Jones, pp. 190, paper, $12.95.

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