THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY JAN. 18-25, 2010 $3.50

NO EXCUSES FOR TORTURE STEPHEN M. COLECCHI

BISHOPS REIMAGINED MICHAEL SEAN WINTERS

‘THE HOLY FAMILY’ WENDY BECKETT OF MANY THINGS

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES alls and e-mail messages have birds to feed on. I used to walk on the been coming in asking whether wall alongside the pussy willow bush EDITOR IN CHIEF Drew Christiansen, S.J. C the cover photo of our last to place the fat on the branches. We issue was done tongue-in-cheek. I never had problems in those days. The EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT

regret to inform suspicious readers birds came, fed on the suet, to return MANAGING EDITOR that the photo of a northern cardinal again to perch in our special aviary. Robert C. Collins, S.J. perched on a branch and fluffed out for Problems came later when I thought it EDITORIAL DIRECTOR warmth, as the credit on page 2 says, would be good to feed the birds with Karen Sue Smith was simply the most colorful option seed. One of our friends, Henry ONLINE EDITOR given me for a seasonal cover to mark Anderson, managed a garden products Maurice Timothy Reidy the onset of winter. plant where they made bird feeders CULTURE EDITOR As I look out from my office on the from redwood. I hung a feeder from James Martin, S.J. grey stone and asphalt of West 56th the bush and proceeded to fill it. LITERARY EDITOR Street, the countryman in me resists Suddenly the songbirds disappeared. Patricia A. Kossmann losing touch with the land and the Squirrels that rarely migrated from the POETRY EDITOR cycle of the seasons. I wanted to share acorn-rich pin oaks across the street James S. Torrens, S.J. my now very limited enjoyment of the raided the feeder and scared off the ASSOCIATE EDITORS stark beauty of winter with those of birds. Sometimes then our only visi- George M. Anderson, S.J. our readers who also draw delight tors were the noisy, mean blue jays who Peter Schineller, S.J. from seasonal change, to break up our were equally discouraging of our hos- Kevin Clarke string of newsy cover photos and, in a pitality to other birds. ART DIRECTOR small way, to acknowledge that there is Our other disappointment over bird Stephanie Ratcliffe more to record than political and eccle- feeding came with ringnecked pheas- ASSISTANT EDITORS siastical controversies or even personal ants. The woods nearby always had a Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. journeys of faith. Sometimes in winter brood or two. We would watch them Kerry Weber a bird appears out of the dim light to from bedroom windows in back of the ASSISTANT LITERARY EDITOR our delight and should be enjoyed as house as they moved yard by yard from Regina Nigro the apparition of beauty it is. the woods to my grandfather’s veg- When I was a boy, our family’s pri- etable garden and down the rock gar- BUSINESS DEPARTMENT mary vantage point for bird-watching den near the house. Their behavior PUBLISHER was the casement window over the was marvelous. The males would wait Jan Attridge kitchen sink. Outside stood a very full on guard while the hens and chicks CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER pussy willow bush, so hardy my father fed. Lisa Pope cut it to the ground at least twice only One snowy winter we began to feed MARKETING to have it grow even larger. Before I the pheasants corn. When spring Eryk Krysztofiak hung a bird feeder on it when I was a came, we stopped putting out the corn, ADVERTISING scout, the bush was a favorite perch for but the birds still expected to be fed. Julia Sosa songbirds, just as bushes, tangled vines, So at first light they would come under woody, short trees and the celebrated the windows to rouse us with their 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 mustard “tree” of the parable are crowing. Eventually they wandered to favorite cover for birds even in the our neighbor’s yard, where he fed Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 desert. Mom would call me to the win- them. When after a time he fell ill and E-mail: [email protected]; dow to teach me my birds. There I saw died, they would still arrive in the [email protected] Web site: www.americamagazine.org. my first cardinal and birds whose morning and peck at his basement Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 sightings would later become more windows as if to grab his attention. © 2010 America Press, Inc. rare, like orioles and tanagers. If mem- Neither those pleasures nor those ory doesn’t play me tricks, once or disappointments are to be had on twice Mom may have even pointed out West 56th Street. We have only an elusive bluebird. pigeons. That is why you found a fluffy In those early years, Mom used to cardinal on your last cover. Cover: A view of the Alps. cut suet and hang it from the bush for DREW CHRISTIANSEN, S.J. Shutterstock/Daniel Loretto CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org VOL. 202 NO. 2, WHOLE NO. 4880 JANUARY 18-25, 2010

ARTICLES 13 NO EXCUSES FOR TORTURE Torture degrades both the victim and the perpetrator. Stephen M. Colecchi

16 COLLEGIALITY MADE VISIBLE Three ways to revitalize the apostolic character of the episcopacy Michael Sean Winters

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 13 5 Editorial Weakened by Defense 8 Signs of the Times

11 Column A Turbulent Decade John F. Kavanaugh

23 Faith in Focus Healing Faith Pat Fosarelli 34 Letters

37 The Word God Inside-Out; Fulfilled in Our Hearing Barbara E. Reid

16 BOOKS & CULTURE 26 ART A Meditation on Janet McKenzie’s “The Holy Family” BOOKS Angel Time; The Last of His Mind; Dawn Light

ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Drew Christiansen, S.J., talks about the real Reinhold Niebuhr on our podcast, and from the archives, Paul Farmer, right, on “Medicine and Social Justice.” Plus, reviews of “The Lovely Bones” and other holiday films. All at americamagazine.org. 3526 CURRENT COMMENT

Grace-Optimism Not-So-Secret Archives “Extra mundum nulla salus—There is no salvation outside The Vatican Secret Archives have that appellation not the world.” That was the final message of Edward because they are secret (in the sense that no one may see Schillebeeckx, O.P., to his theological colleagues at a sym- them) but because of the Latin word secretum, meaning posium held in his honor in Leuven, Belgium, in “personal” or “private.” Still, any mention of them in the December 2008. That conviction captures the love of the media (or Dan Brown’s novels) is catnip to the curious, crit- world and the “grace-optimism” that characterized the life’s ical and conspiracy-minded. Perhaps as a sop to those folks, work of this Flemish Dominican, who died at the age of 95 the Vatican has published selections from the archives. on Dec. 23, 2009. Included in The Vatican Secret Archives is a tart note, dated From his groundbreaking first book, Christ the 1550, from Michelangelo Buonarroti, demanding payment Sacrament of the Encounter With God, to the final volume for his outstanding expenses and complaining that a papal of his Christological trilogy, Church, the Human Story of conclave has interrupted work on the dome of St. Peter’s God, Father Schillebeeckx helped readers grasp the core Basilica. A missive to Leo XIII from the Ojibway people, sacramental insight disclosed by the Incarnation: The dated “where there is much grass, in the month of the flow- mystery of God is to be encountered in human life and ers,” thanks the pontiff, or the “Grand Master of Prayer,” for creation. Throughout his teaching career and in his writ- providing lands in northern Ontario and a “custodian of ing, Father Schillebeeckx emphasized that we experience prayer,” that is, a bishop. It was written on birch bark. The God’s love, the creative and saving presence of God’s illustrated book is already a hot seller at $99.50—a myste- grace, wherever human persons minister to one another, rious number that surely carries a hidden meaning known especially to the neighbor in need. Human love is an only to the Knights Templar. Sadly, shortly after it appeared embodiment, a sacrament, of God’s love. These human on Amazon, all available copies were sold, so some secrets “fragments of salvation,” as he called them, are a share in may remain secret until a reprinting. the final triumph of God’s grace, which was promised in a definitive way in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Christians are called to participate in the liv- A Deadly Year ing story of Jesus by “writing a fifth Gospel with their A record number of Catholic men and women religious lives.” and members of the clergy were killed around the world in This sacramental view of the world, and of the church’s 2009. According to Fides, at least 37 Catholic missionaries role within the world, remained at the heart of Father died violently last year, nearly double the number reported Schillebeeckx’s writing, preaching and teaching for over in 2008 and a record high for the decade. The death toll seven decades. It was also central to the vision of the Second included 30 priests, two religious sisters, two seminarians Vatican Council, which he helped to shape as an advisor to and two lay volunteers. Most were murdered in the Cardinal Bernard Alfrink and the Dutch bishops. Americas, where 23 pastoral workers were killed, followed In the decades following the council, Father by Africa, where 11 lost their lives. In Asia two priests Schillebeeckx was acutely aware of how difficult it had were killed, and in Europe one priest was killed. become for many to believe that God holds open a What is contributing to the sudden upsurge in violence future full of hope amid a world of radical suffering, against Catholic missionaries? Economic and political insta- especially when the church’s own witness had been com- bility whipped up by the world’s Great Recession may be promised. In the face of those real stumbling blocks, factors. Many of the missionaries lived in developing world Father Schillebeeckx reminded his readers that “God is communities, where a perception that they had some rela- new each moment” and that in situations of injustice tive wealth made them targets of common criminals. (whether in the world or in the church) the Spirit of But another factor may be the advancing average age of God is actively at work, prompting resistance, hope, Catholic clergy and religious. Most of the victims of violence courage and change. in 2009 were in retirement, many older than 70. In societies May this gifted theologian and preacher of the Gospel throughout the world it is unfortunately the elderly who are now enjoy the fullness of life that he once described as especially vulnerable to crime. The 2009 figures could signal “God’s eternal surprise.” a trend, unless the church takes stronger measures to protect MARY CATHERINE HILKERT, O.P. its aging and often isolated retirees in the developing world.

4 America January 18-25, 2010 EDITORIAL Weakened by Defense

nother year and another unchallenged Pentagon has been the historic fate of empires to diminish themselves budget goes by. This year the nation is officially through overspending on military might while their rivals A committing $636 billion to its defense budget with and allies allow themselves more judicious investments of $128 billion allocated for “overseas contingency opera- their resources. It is unfortunate that the United States tions”—the military campaigns formerly known as the glob- seems set on this familiar course. al war on terror—assumed into the While Washington wonks official budget for the first time. DEFENSE TRADE-OFFS are aware of the danger of a global The 2010 and proposed 2011 $1 million, the amount required to put one U.S. sol- strategy and foreign policy overde- dier into the field in Afghanistan for one year. Pentagon budgets continue the termined by military force, few $3.6 billion, the cost of one month of war in escalation of the nation’s defense Afghanistan. U.S. citizens can calculate the pro- spending initiated after the terror- $8 billion, the “reduced” amount committed to mis- found opportunity costs of our ist attacks that began the 21st cen- sile defense. current and projected defense tury. The United States is current- $7 billion, the amount the Navy will receive for spending. Will we have the disci- ly spending more than 10 times the seven vessels. pline to roll back this budget amount of the world’s other big $7 billion, the amount the U.S. Air Force will spend expansion as our military involve- to acquire 30 new fighters. spenders, the United Kingdom ment in Afghanistan and Iraq is $5.7 billion, the unallocated price tag for sending and China, which each commit every at-risk 4-year-old in the United States to quali- eventually concluded? about $60 billion a year to defense, ty pre-school. One can argue endlessly and accounts for about half of all $3 billion, the unallocated cost of preventing 59 mil- about the proper role of the feder- defense spending in the world. lion children in the developing world from going to al government in responding to And let’s remember that the school hungry. the economic and social challenges $10 billion, the annual amount still needed to ensure nation’s total defense spending that those same children have a classroom to go to. menacing the country. But defense includes much more than the spending sets severe limits on amounts allocated to the what the government can and can- Pentagon. A comprehensive listing of defense costs would not do: in terms of saving failing states, paying down the also include defense contributions from the federal depart- national debt, creating employment, patching our social ments of energy (nuclear weapons development and clean- safety net, making creative investments in human capital up of weapons sites), justice (F.B.I. counterterrorism), state and bankrolling infrastructure maintenance and expansion. (military aid programs), homeland security, and treasury The way to put ourselves on a sustainable path to true (military retirements); the Veterans Administration; strength and security is to reassess our international responsi- NASA’s counterterrorism programs; and the military share bilities and focus on reducing our debt, investing in our people of the nation’s annual debt servicing. All together, the total and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. We cannot alter defense tab quickly approaches $1 trillion a year or more. the maximalist mentality of Islamic fundamentalists and ter- There comes a point when one must ask whether this is not rorists through force, though we can surely still protect our- a sinful misallocation of the nation’s limited fiscal resources. selves and our national interests with more sensible allocations While the Obama administration has made some for defense. small efforts to contain defense spending—cutting back The United States cannot afford to be the world’s missile defense, killing the F-22 fighter program—the biggest defense spender. While our nation continues to make nation’s ongoing confrontation with worldwide Islamic ter- dead-end commitments, the world’s rising nations are invest- rorism since 2001 has basically meant carte blanche for the ing in their own future. Weighed down by its defense alloca- Pentagon. Few legislators challenge the bloating of the bud- tions, the United States may be shaping for itself a future of get or the strategic and economic assumptions underlying it complaint, lamenting its falling standard of living and over- for fear of seeming soft on terrorism or vaguely unpatriotic. whelming debt. In such a future we may reach a point where This is a poor understanding of patriotism, just as our we will no longer be free to choose between guns and butter. reliance on defense is a poor substitute for real security. It Both will be denied us by our debt holders.

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LATIN AMERICA A Venezuelan soldier rests near the Colombian border during a Arms Race, U.S. Inattention flare-up of tension between the Promote Rising Tension two nations in March 2008. renewed Latin American arms race and the United States’ lack of attention to it has some international policy experts wor- Aried. Spending on arms in the region doubled from $24 billion in 2003 to $47 billion in 2008. Latin American nations are purchasing tanks, fighter jets and other military equipment better suited to wag- ing war on their neighbors than the fighting domestic threats like drug trafficking and organized crime. While Catholic bishops in Guatemala and Mexico have warned about the imminent threat of drug-related violence, little has been said about the military buildup. Underlying the purchases is “profound mis- trust and political tension” among Latin American nations, said Michael Shifter, vice president for policy at the nonprofit organization Inter- American Dialogue in Washington, D.C., and a professor at Georgetown University, partly because economic globalization, technol- ogy and migration spur countries to defend their national interests. “Compared to 10 or 15 years ago, each country is turning inward more, and tries saw unprecedented growth in the Isacson notes, most of the weapons each country is more concerned about past decade and can afford to replace being purchased, from tanks to fighter its national priorities,” he said. obsolete equipment, said Adam Isacson jets to automatic weapons, “are for sce- After economic crises in the 1980s of the Washington-based Center for narios of interstate conflict.” and 1990s, many Latin American coun- International Policy. Nevertheless, Isacson said that as events in the

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA prayer, reconciliation and faith-based acts of charity. Bishops Battle Over Spiritual “The pilgrims do one thing above Worth of Medjugorje Pilgrimages all: They pray,” he said during the broadcast. Each day thousands of peo- fter visiting Medjugorje, the needed peace and unity.” ple recite psalms together, spend time site of reported Marian Cardinal Schönborn visited adoring the Eucharist, meditate on the Aapparitions in Bosnia-Her- Medjugorje from Dec. 29 to Jan. 1 in Stations of the Cross and pray the zegovina, Cardinal Christoph what his office described as a “private rosary, he said. Medjugorje also is “a Schönborn of Vienna said the pilgrimage.” He visited one of the place where people have rediscovered church must recognize that private young adults who claimed they began confession,” he said. pilgrimages to the village result in receiving messages from Mary in Cardinal Schönborn told Vatican prayer and reconciliation. 1981, and he celebrated Mass in local Radio he believed that until the But Bishop Ratko Peric of the parishes. He told Vatican Radio’s church issues an official judgment on Diocese of Mostar-Duvno, which German language program on Jan. 4 the apparitions, it is wise not to permit includes Medjugorje, said the cardi- that it was up to the universal church formal pilgrimages, a policy adopted nal’s very public pilgrimage “has to determine whether or not the by the bishops of the former added new sufferings” to those alleged apparitions at Medjugorje are Yugoslavia in 1991 and confirmed by already present in his diocese and supernatural, but he also said it was the Vatican. But he said it was also did “not contribute to its much clear that Medjugorje is a place of important to provide pastoral care to

8 America January 18-25, 2010 France that includes the purchase of weapons. But Peru is also negotiating submarines, fighter planes, tanks, mis- the purchase of naval frigates, and at a siles and radar equipment. Brazilian military parade in December, it showed politicians have said the country must off new tanks from China. protect large offshore oil deposits, but With U.S. attention focused on President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Iraq and Afghanistan, other countries also expressed concern over a U.S.- are stepping in to build closer relations Colombian agreement allowing the with the region, analysts say. President United States to use military bases in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has that Andean country. visited Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia, While past U.S. military actions in and China is striking deals not only to the region focused on drug interdiction, sell military hardware, but also to “the mission is completely broad now,” prospect for minerals and oil. Isacson said. He noted that the “vague Isacson said the United States is language, secrecy and leaks” that marked also paying too little attention to the the signing of the U.S.-Colombia agree- greatest threat of violence in the ment “were the biggest gift you could region, which he said comes from drug give” Venezuela’s President Hugo trafficking and organized crime. “I am Chávez. Chávez has, predictably, cited worried about the next five years in the U.S.-Colombia deal to justify beef- Latin America,” he said. “You’re seeing ing up his country’s arsenal. organized crime taking over govern- Middle East distracted U.S. attention President Alan García of Peru called ments.” The United States “has to do from Latin America, Brazil has on South American countries to avoid everything it can to reduce its own emerged as a regional leader and is try- an arms race, sending cabinet members demand [for illegal drugs], stop the ing to position itself as a world power. to urge other governments to spend flow of weapons into the region, and The country has signed a deal with funds to reduce poverty instead of for crack down on money laundering.”

Medjugorje visitors, which the same nor anyone from his office contacted ing to go to confession are seen as a sign policy recommended. him. that Mary is appearing, he said, then In an interview on Jan. 4 with In addition, Cardinal Schönborn’s some could argue that she is appearing Vercernji List, a daily newspaper, visits to unauthorized religious com- in every parish in the diocese. Cardinal Schönborn said, “Jesus said munities “could be inter- that the bad tree doesn’t bear any preted as supportive,” fruits, which means if the fruits are Bishop Peric said. good then the tree is good as well.” The bishop also said Bishop Peric, who repeatedly has that in his diocese the questioned the authenticity of the phenomenon of many apparitions and struggled to limit the faithful going to confes- influence of religious living in the dio- sion is not unique to the cese without permission, issued a churches in Medjugorje. statement on Jan. 2 saying that while “We believe that the he recognized the right of a cardinal to mercy of the heavenly celebrate Mass anywhere in the world, Father is perceptible in “there also exists a certain etiquette in Medjugorje, just as in the church” that encourages a visiting each and every parish of cardinal to discuss a visit with the local this diocese,” he said. If Pilgrims pray at the site where the Virgin Mary bishop. He said neither the cardinal long lines of faithful wait- reportedly appeared in Medjugorje.

January 18-25, 2010 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

2010: Two Dozen U.S. NEWS BRIEFS Bishops Could Retire Up to 24 U.S. bishops, including two Thailand’s Catholic aid agency was refused cardinals, could retire in 2010. There access to more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong asy- are 11 active U.S. bishops, including lum seekers in the northern part of the coun- one cardinal, who have already turned try as Thai soldiers arrived to deport them to 75. Thirteen more will celebrate their Laos on Dec. 27. • Catholic aid officials from the Diocese of Gizo joined relief efforts on Jan. 75th birthday in 2010. At age 75 bish- A Thai policewoman ops are requested to submit their resig- 4 in the Solomon Islands after a magnitude 7.2 holds a Hmong child. nation to the pope. Turning 75 on earthquake and a resulting tsunami left at least April 19 this year is Cardinal Justin 1,000 people homeless. • The Centers for Disease Control and Rigali of Philadelphia, where he has Prevention has given a five-year, $5.9 million grant to the New York- served since 2003. He was elevated to based Catholic Medical Mission Board to fight the spread of H.I.V. the College of Cardinals that same year. and AIDS in southern Sudan. • Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta Pope Benedict XVI, like his predeces- will be among the subjects depicted on U.S. stamps debuting in sor, Pope John Paul II, has often asked 2010. • The Malaysian High Court in Kuala Lumpur ruled on Dec. cardinals to stay on the job after age 75. 31 that a national Catholic weekly could use the word Allah to refer Even when a cardinal retires in his 70s, to God and that the Home Ministry’s order banning certain uses of he remains an active member of the Allah was illegal. • The veteran astronomer George V. Coyne, S.J., College of Cardinals, eligible to enter a was honored on Jan. 4 by the American Astronomical Society for his conclave and vote for a new pope, until work in building up a Vatican-sponsored summer school for young age 80. Cardinal Bernard F. Law, for astronomers and promoting discussions on the intersection of reli- example, turned 75 on Nov. 4, 2006 gion and science. and still serves on the Congregation for Bishops. Cardinal Law was archbishop of Boston from 1984 until his resigna- house was kept safe.” The remains are of utives—gained traction in 2009 as tion in 2002 because of his handling of “utmost importance” and reveal new 38 publicly traded companies said cases of sexual abuse by members of information about how people lived they would address compensation the clergy. during Jesus’ lifetime, said Yardena issues. While some companies saw Alexandre, excavation director at the the writing on the wall regarding Jesus-era House Brings Israel Antiquities Authority. Earlier executive pay in the slumping econo- digs had revealed several tombs from my of 2009 and pledged to adjust pay Joy to Nazareth the time period, but until the discovery packages, others still resisted. At Auxiliary Bishop Giacinto-Boulos of this house, no evidence of a human Cisco Systems, the technology cor- Marcuzzo of Jerusalem said the settlement had been uncovered. The poration, shareholders forced a vote Christian community in Nazareth was structure was found next to the Basilica on the issue for the second year in a joyful at the recent discovery of the of the Annunciation, where the floor of row in 2009. They prevailed this remains of a first-century dwelling. a former convent was being removed to time, garnering 51.4 percent of all “This belongs to the time of Jesus and prepare for the construction of the shares voted. The issue has also we can now see how [people lived],” International Marian Center of picked up steam in Washington, said Bishop Marcuzzo, noting that the Nazareth. where government officials rescued dwelling had remained largely intact financial firms through its Troubled throughout the ages. “The ruins...were A Push for Executive Assets Relief Program and joined the not destroyed during history. There outcry when some bailed-out firms were lots of [wars and battles] which Accountability still produced hefty bonuses for top destroyed buildings, but that house was The effort to give stockholders a “say executives. kept safe. Why? We don’t know why, on pay”—determining the compensa- but certainly there is a reason why that tion packages of companies’ top exec- From CNS and other sources.

10 America January 18-25, 2010 JOHN F. KAVANAUGH

A Turbulent Decade ime magazine called it the In 2003 the United States, having An almost dogmatic faith in the mar- “decade from hell.” I would not taken on the Taliban the previous year, ket and blind reliance on financiers T go quite that far, but the first invaded Iraq. The overthrow of dissolved in a decade when stocks 10 years of the new century surely sig- Saddam Hussein and our tenuous would fall 25 percent, median family naled an erosion of confidence not only claim of victory will likely cost over a income would drop, millions of jobs in institutions, but perhaps also in our trillion dollars. The terrible cost to life would disappear, and huge corpora- very selves. Casting a glance at each and limb for America’s soldiers and tions would go bankrupt. year, I am struck not so much by the top Iraq’s civilians may yet weigh more Amazon, at the end of 2009, report- news story as by harbingers of opportu- heavily on us if we have opened the ed that for the first time, electronic nity and threat for the new century. way not for peace in the Persian Gulf books for its Kindle device outsold The year 2000 was marked by the but for a 100-year war. physical books during the Christmas delayed election of President George The years 2004, 2005 season. Ray Kurzweil, a W. Bush after intervention by the and 2006, though marked Confidence creative computer zealot Supreme Court. The peaceful transi- by images of torture at Abu who thinks that artificial tion despite electoral chaos proved for Ghraib or terrorism in has eroded intelligence will surpass many once again that democracy Madrid and London, are human intelligence by works. It could also be seen, however, inextricably bound togeth- not only in mid-century, has himself as the beginning of a mounting distrust er as testimonials to our institutions, unveiled an e-reader of the political system we relied on. seeming powerlessness program that will be The atrocities of September 2001 before great physical and but perhaps available for personal were not only the beginning of a war moral evil. A tsunami killed also in our computers, the iPod on terrorism; they also marked the 200,000 people in a flash. Touch and the iPhone. beginning of our nationwide feeling of A hurricane devastated a very selves. The exponential growth terror. The assault on symbols of two great American city. Thugs in computer technology things so close to our national identi- slaughtered 200,000 in Darfur. points to a revolution in journalism, ty—great wealth and great power— In November 2007 the journals medicine, politics, communication and exposed us to a vulnerability that Science and Cell revealed that life itself. While most of us celebrate would be intensified each year as our researchers in Japan and Wisconsin had the change, critics like Lee Siegel, in wealth and power failed to provide the successfully derived pluripotent stem Against the Machine, warn us that we security we thought they had insured. cells from adult skin cells. Although are already becoming an electronic The year 2002 revealed the full range most people still think of embryos mob, bereft of personal substance and of scandal in the Catholic Church. The when they hear about stem cells, this any interior life. scandal of sexual abuse by priests and new procedure offers the most promis- Whether Siegel is right or not, his the coverup by some bishops continued ing breakthrough in regenerative worry about the loss of personhood, it to haunt the decade with lawsuits, the medicine. The mapping of the human seems to me, is well founded. But that outlay of millions in settlements and the genome early in the decade has opened problem is not new. Perhaps the very departure of many members of the laity previously unknown paths to human fault and fall in Eden turned on the wounded by a sense of betrayal and healing. It has also raised the specter of acceptance or rejection of our vulnerabil- angered by ecclesial priorities. We are genetic manipulation, enhancement ity as only human persons. In the present still faced with a daunting choice. Do we and modification of our species. day, it is just that the stakes are so much retrench or do we reform? The year 2008 was the year of higher. An unchecked human longing financial collapse. Earlier rumblings for control, whether in geo-politics, from the ethical failures of Enron and money, power, religion or the domina- JOHN F. KAVANAUGH, S.J., is a professor of philosophy at St. Louis University in St. its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, tion of nature, makes every new oppor- Louis, Mo. erupted into a full-blown earthquake. tunity a treacherous new temptation.

January 18-25, 2010 America 11 Members of the New York City Catholic Worker pray near the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo, Cuba. PHOTO: REUTERS/HO NEW

12 America January 18-25, 2010 TORTURE DEGRADES BOTH THE VICTIM AND THE PERPETRATOR. No Excuses For Torture

BY STEPHEN M. COLECCHI

atholic teaching on torture is both simple and richly com- plex. On the one hand, the church’s teaching seems straightforward: Torture is fundamentally incompatible Cwith the dignity of the human person, and its practice is absolutely prohibited in all circumstances. On the other hand, both historically and existentially, the Catholic Church has more than a passing acquaintance with torture. Leaders and members of the church have been both victims and perpetrators. The church looks to the cross of Christ and to the witness of Christian martyrs throughout the centuries in whose torturous sufferings it finds meaning and inspiration. At the time of the Inquisition and in many other historical circumstances in the past, however, the leaders of the church have tolerated and even supported the use of torture to achieve so-called higher purposes. One of the great strengths of the Catholic tradition is the church’s ability, under the inspiration of God, to repent of past errors and to seek the fullness of God’s truth—a truth fully revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ but grasped only partially in each age by the sons and daughters of the church. Ours is a church of both saints and sinners, a dualism that offers insight into a complex ethical problem like the use of torture. Torture is an issue of particular concern in the United States today because of ethically questionable practices tolerated under the exigencies of the “global war on terror.” These practices include the waterboarding, or simulated drowning, of Al Qaeda detainees and “extreme rendition,” the capture, detention and deportation of terror suspects, often to nations where the use of torture is common.

STEPHEN M. COLECCHI is the director of the Office of International Justice and Peace of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

January 18-25, 2010 America 13 The Tortured Body A Threat to Human Dignity The church’s contemporary prohibition of torture reflects a The basis for the church’s current total rejection of torture deep understanding of the human person and a profound is its teaching on the life and dignity of the human person. vision of human society. In 1998 Pope John Paul II offered a The human person is created in the image of God. In Christ reflection on the Shroud of Turin in which he connected the all are offered redemption without exception. In Catholic suffering of Christ to the inhumanity of torture. Pope John teaching, human dignity does not come from any human Paul said: “The imprint left by the tortured body of the quality or accomplishment; it comes from God. For this rea- Crucified One, which attests to the tremendous human son, the catechism teaches, “It is also blasphemous to make capacity for causing pain and death to one’s fellow man, use of God’s name to cover up criminal practices, to reduce stands as an icon of the suffering of the innocent in every age: peoples to servitude, to torture persons or put them to of the countless tragedies that have marked past history and death” (No. 2148). the dramas that continue to unfold in the world.” The pope The catechism later declares: “Torture which uses physi- went on to ask: “How can we not recall with dismay and pity cal or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the those who do not enjoy basic civil rights, the victims of tor- guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to ture and terrorism, the slaves of criminal organizations?” respect for the person and for human dignity” (No. 2298). Pope Benedict XVI made a similar association of the The use of torture dishonors the Creator in whose image tragedy of torture with the suffering of Christ when he vis- every human person is created and disfigures the human ited Lourdes in 2008. In a homily, the pope made a connec- person who is worthy of respect. tion between the cross of Christ and those who suffer tor- In Catholic teaching, there is more than one victim of an ture in his name: act of torture. First there is, of course, a profound concern for the immediate victim of torture, whose body and mind By his cross we are saved. The instrument of torture suffer assault. But the church is also concerned for the which, on Good Friday, manifested God’s judgment human dignity of the perpetrator of torture, who is debased on the world, has become a source of life, pardon, by the act itself. This is why the catechism, as it calls for the mercy, a sign of reconciliation and peace. For on this abolition of torture, also asks Catholics to “pray for the vic- cross, Jesus took upon himself the weight of all the tims and their tormentors.” sufferings and injustices of our humanity. He bore the Catholic teaching on torture sits within a broader body of humiliation and the discrimination, the torture suf- teaching on a wide range of threats to human life and dignity. fered in many parts of the world by so many of our The Second Vatican Council taught in the “Pastoral brothers and sisters for love of Christ. Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” (No. 27):

In the teaching of the church, the suffering of Christ and Whatever is hostile to life itself, such as any kind of of the saints, especially that imposed by torture, testifies to homicide, genocide, abortion, euthanasia and volun- the reality of evil in the world. This testimony is not an tary suicide; whatever violates the integrity of the acceptance of evil, but rather a call to overcome it. Catholics human person, such as mutilation, physical and men- believe the cross leads to resurrection. Death does not have tal torture and attempts to coerce the spirit…all these the final word. The victim on the cross was ultimately the and the like are a disgrace, and so long as they infect victor. Life triumphed over death, good over evil. human civilization they contaminate those who inflict Yet the followers of Christ have not consistently applied them more than those who suffer injustice, and they the lessons of the cross throughout the centuries. In a are a negation of the honor due to the Creator. remarkably candid passage, the Catechism of the Catholic Church acknowledges: “In times past, cruel practices were Torture attacks the human dignity of its direct victims, commonly used by legitimate governments to maintain but it also victimizes the perpetrators and any society that law and order, often without protest from the Pastors of tolerates its practice. Torture contaminates society and the Church, who themselves adopted in their own tri- debases it. This is true because the human person is not bunals the prescriptions of Roman law concerning torture” only sacred but also social. What we do to one another we (No. 2298). The catechism includes a compelling critique ultimately do to ourselves, because as social beings our fates of the practice: “In recent times it has become evident that are bound together. A society that tolerates torture threat- these cruel practices were neither necessary for public ens the common good of all persons because it undermines order, nor in conformity with the legitimate rights of the respect for human dignity and basic human rights. These human person. On the contrary, these practices led to ones rights should find expression in laws that protect human even more degrading.” dignity and prohibit torture and other actions that assault

14 America January 18-25, 2010 this dignity. For these and other reasons, the Catholic Church supports international humanitarian law that pro- THE FORDHAM CENTER ON RELIGION AND CULTURE AND FORDHAM UNIVERSITY THEATRE PROGRAM hibits torture.

No Justification Under Any Circumstances The church views torture as an “intrinsic evil” that can never Religion be justified. The inevitable harm it does to individuals and to society as a whole allows no exceptions. To those who would advance arguments for the exceptional use of torture and Madness to protect public safety, the Catholic Church argues that we SPIRITUALITY AND PATHOLOGY cannot do something intrinsically evil and expect good to come of it. In 2007 Pope Benedict reiterated the teaching Tuesday, 2 March 2010 | 6 - 8 p.m. found in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church =fi[_XdLe`m\ij`kp›C`eZfce:\ek\i:Xdglj “that the prohibition against torture ‘cannot be contravened Gfg\8l[`kfi`ld›((*N\jk-'k_Jki\\k under any circumstances.’” In Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the state- Ever since ancient Greece honored Dionysus, patron ment on political responsibility that the U. S. Conference of of drama and source of divine frenzy, religion and Catholic Bishops issued in November 2007 in preparation madness have been linked on the stage. Both religion for the 2008 national elections, the bishops referred to the and madness take the self beyond the self—and issue of torture five times. Echoing the catechism, they beyond social convention. For the theatre, that declared plainly that torture is “intrinsically evil” and “can has made religion and madness entry points for never be justified” and stated categorically: “The use of tor- exploring what is normal or abnormal, wisdom or ture must be rejected as fundamentally incompatible with folly, liberating or oppressive, heroism or fanaticism, the dignity of the human person and ultimately counterpro- reality or delusion. ductive in the effort to combat terrorism.” It is counterpro- ductive not only because experts tell us that it does not To cap a season of plays dealing with these elemental forces, work, but also because it undermines the very good it hopes Fordham’s Theatre Program and the Fordham Center on to achieve: the common good of all. Religion and Culture are mounting an unusual forum In his encyclical letter “The Splendor of Truth” (“Veritatis that will combine dramatic excerpts with commentary Splendor”), Pope John Paul II indicated that we cannot make by a psychologist, a theologian and an actress. moral exceptions and perform “intrinsically evil” acts, even This forum will look for insight into sanctity and sanity, when our intentions may be good. He noted the Second the brighter and darker sides of religion, and the power of Vatican Council’s absolute rejection of intrinsically evil acts theatre as well as the art and science of healing. that “infect human civilization and contaminate those who inflict them.” U.S. culture sometimes fails to grasp the insidi- MODERATOR Matthew Maguire#[`i\Zkfif]k_\=fi[_XdLe`m\ij`kpK_\Xki\Gif^iXd ous nature of intrinsic evil. It has not understood the corrosive effect of the acceptance of torture, abortion and other such acts PANELISTS James Jones#Zc`e`ZXcgjpZ_fcf^`jk#gif]\jjfif]i\c`^`feXkIlk^\ijLe`m\i- on U.S. society. For example, in the television series “24,” the j`kpXe[Xlk_fif]Religion and Psychology, and Terror and Transformation character Jack Bauer, whom some U.S. military personnel have George Drance, S.J.#XZkfi#=fi[_XdLe`m\ij`kpXik`jk$`e$i\j`[\eZ\Xe[ stated they took as a role model, is presented as an entertain- Xlk_fif]Working on the Inside: The Spiritual Life Through the Eyes of Actors ing hero, but his character is no social or moral hero. Jack Julie WhiteXZki\jj#Kfep8nXi[n`ee\iXe[m\k\iXef]dXep9ifX[nXp Bauer’s use of torture undermines what he seeks to preserve gcXpjXe[k\c\m`j`fegif^iXdj#`eZcl[`e^Grace Under Fire and protect—the lives and dignity of ordinary people. In a church of both saints and sinners, victims and per- FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC petrators, Catholic social teaching on torture has special R.S.V.P. authenticity and credibility. In its service to the human fam- k_\Xki\[\gk7]fi[_Xd%\[ls )() -*-$-*+' www.fordham.edu/ReligCulture ily as it seeks the full truth of the human person, the church =fidfi\`e]fidXk`fe1 has come to understand and teach with honesty and clarity that the prohibition against torture is absolute. The act of torture is utterly incompatible with the dignity of the human person, and the practice of torture wounds the vic- tim, the perpetrator and the common good of all. A

January 18-25, 2010 America 15 Collegiality Made Visible Three ways to revitalize the apostolic character of the episcopacy BY MICHAEL SEAN WINTERS

n the 40 years since the conclusion of the Second churches the recommendation that “when, in a particular Vatican Council, observers and journalists have case, there is a tabernacle on the altar at which the bishop is highlighted the changes the council wrought. It is to celebrate, the Blessed Sacrament should be transferred to easy to see why: Change is news and captures the another fitting place.” Today the rubric is now observed only media’s attention in a way that continuity does not. in the breach. Rarely is the Blessed Sacrament removed IPope Benedict XVI has tried to correct this interpretation from the central altar when the bishop comes to a parish by arguing that the council should also be seen in terms of church, apart from the celebration of the Tridentine rite. how it carried on the early traditions of the church. In the The original reasons for this practice are cloaked in the words of the pope, a “hermeneutics of discontinuity” must mist of history. The rubric could be a practical holdover be countered with a “hermeneutics of reform.” from the days of the Tridentine high Mass, when the bish- This hermeneutic of reform is advisable for both theo- op would vest in the sanctuary, his vestments laid out on the logical and historical reasons. Vatican II’s reforms were not altar. Yet the practice also had a theological purpose that plucked out of thin air. The ressourcement theology that remains central to the role of the bishop today. informed much of the council’s texts looked back to the first Removing the Blessed Sacrament during a pontifical centuries of Christendom to reclaim insights that had been Mass is a symbolic reminder that the bishop is the font of lost. We can now see that the liturgical reforms begun by the sacramental life of his diocese. By placing the Blessed Pope Pius X and the biblical scholarship blessed by Pope Sacrament elsewhere, it becomes clear that the bishop is at Pius XII also prepared the way for Vatican II in essential the center of the liturgical celebration. “The bishop is the and meaningful ways. chief priest of the local church and as such carries out an One of the more contentious issues at the council was irreplaceable role in the celebration of the sacred liturgy that that of episcopal collegiality, the idea that all the bishops, some today may find unsettling,” says the Rev. G. Dennis united with the pope, are responsible for the governance of Gil, director of the Office of Worship for the Archdiocese the universal church. This, too, was an idea the council of Philadelphia. “He is the sacramental centerpiece of the fathers sought to rescue from the practices of the early celebration.” church—and they succeeded, despite significant curial The centrality of the bishop to the liturgy is echoed in opposition. The council’s doctrine of collegiality presented Vatican II’s “Decree on the Bishops’ Pastoral Office in the bishops less as branch managers for the Vatican and more as Church”: “Bishops are the principal dispensers of the mys- successors of the Apostles in their own right. teries of God, as well as being the governors, promoters, and Unfortunately, Vatican II did not choose to reclaim three guardians of the entire liturgical life in the church commit- earlier church practices that could have helped to fulfill its ted to them.” Removing the Blessed Sacrament during a goals regarding the episcopacy. One such practice is liturgical, pontifical Mass could help to bring this teaching to life for a second is canonical and a third might be called managerial. Catholics in the congregation. As Father Gil said, “A recov- Rediscovering these older practices could help to reinvigorate ery of this unique liturgical understanding of the bishop in the council’s teaching on collegiality and help to re-emphasize the celebration of the sacred liturgy re-establishes his simul- the role of the bishop as a successor of the Apostles. taneous duties to teach and shepherd the local church.” This is a profound theological claim and demonstrates a Removing the Blessed Sacrament much more sacramental view of the relationship between The book of rubrics for episcopal liturgies (the Ceremoniale the bishop and his flock than does the administrative–chief Episcoporum) includes in its discussion of cathedral executive officer model often deployed. It also shows that the church is, in essence, a communion of persons, united MICHAEL SEAN WINTERS, a regular contributor to America’s blog sacramentally, not the “organized religion” much derided by “In All Things,” is writing a biography of the Rev. Jerry Falwell. cynics.

16 America January 18-25, 2010 The pope celebrates Mass at the opening of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in 2005.

The Selection of Bishops Portland, Me., the priests of the diocese and the bishops of Today the selection of new bishops is largely the responsi- the larger ecclesiastical province drew up their ternas, set- bility of the papal nuncio. Every three years, bishops send in tling on the same three names. The Vatican’s apostolic dele- the names of priests they think would make good bishops. gate voiced concerns about two of the candidates’ drinking When a see becomes vacant, the nuncio consults with both habits, and the Congregation for the Propagation of the priests and bishops and draws up the terna—a list of three Faith, sometimes called simply Propaganda—the Vatican names—of candidates to become the bishop. This terna office in charge of the United States and other “mission” ter- goes to the Congregation for Bishops in Rome, which can ritories—rejected all three candidates and instead appoint- accept, reject or modify it. It then goes to the pope, who ed the rector of the North American College in Rome, the makes the final selection. Rev. William O’Connell, a rising star with influential It was not always this way. There was no nuncio or apos- friends in Rome. “Conflicting reports, a poor choice of can- tolic delegate in the United States until 1893. At that time didates, and fear of scandal in the American Church pro- when a see became vacant, canon law required the “irremov- vided the Vatican with the opportunity to take episcopal able rectors of the diocese,” usually priests who served as pas- appointments solely into its own hands,” writes the histori- tors of key parishes, to meet and draw up a terna. After the an Gerald Fogarty, S.J. process was completed, the bishops of the ecclesiastical Three years later, when the archbishop of Boston sought province—a larger grouping of dioceses in a geographical a coadjutor, similar intrigues erupted, and in 1906 region—would gather and draw up a separate terna. If an Propaganda once again ignored the ternas they received and archdiocesan seat were vacant, then all the archbishops would appointed the same William O’Connell as coadjutor. meet and draw up their own terna or send in their comments Archbishop Patrick Riordan of San Francisco called the on the other two. Rome had the authority to call for new ter- appointment “the most disastrous thing that has happened nas, but throughout the 19th century the Vatican sought more to religion in a century.” In 1908, the United States was involvement by priests in the nomination of bishops, not less. removed from the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the An episode in 1901 led eventually to the centralization of Propagation of the Faith, and in 1917 Pope Benedict XV

PHOTO: CNS/ REUTERS this power in Rome. With an episcopal seat open in issued the Code of Canon Law that placed the nomination

January 18-25, 2010 America 17 of bishops firmly in the hands of the nuncios and Vatican Stop Transferring Bishops congregations. It is now common practice for Rome to appoint as the It is unlikely that the church will return to the system diocesan bishop of larger sees bishops who have cut their employed in the 19th century, nor would it be advisable. teeth as heads of smaller dioceses or who have served as That process often led to politicking for posts, just as the auxiliaries in large ones. The rationale is obvious: the tasks secrecy of the process today invites alternate intrigues. Any confronting a bishop today are many and varied, and expe- process has the potential to promote cliquishness, with the rience on the job may be the best indicator that a candidate 19th-century model fostering local grandees and the current will perform as needed. system leaning toward candidates who attended the North The problem with this method is twofold, one theologi- American College in Rome. In the United States we have cal and the other practical. The theological difficulty is that been blessed with a string of excellent nuncios, but the cur- bishops are supposed to be wedded to their diocese the way rent system puts an enormous amount of power in the nun- a man is wedded to one wife. The rite of ordination includes cio’s hands, which could lead to serious problems in the long the giving of an episcopal ring to the newly ordained bishop term. as the principal consecrator says: “Take this ring, the seal of A proposal: Restore the practice by which local priests your fidelity. With faith and love protect the bride of God, and the bishops of the province draw up their own ternas. his holy Church.” Indeed, when a bishop is transferred from This would provide useful information for the nuncio and one diocese to another, the papal bull of appointment for the Congregation for Bishops in Rome. If there were a speaks of the candidate’s being freed from his bond to the significant difference between the terna of the presbyters previous diocese. Yet if a bishop is to be wedded to his dio- and that of the provincial bishops, it would indicate deeper cese, should he not be joined to his flock for life? divisions that might need to be examined and addressed. The practical difficulty is that current practices too often Conversely, since the ternas would be only advisory, the pol- lead to careerism. A young bishop might be tempted to iticking would be less vociferous than it often was in the make a decision based on how it will be perceived by those 19th century. More information is always better; it would with the power to “promote” him. If instead a bishop knew help the pope select bishops suited to their dioceses. he would have to live with the consequences of his decision because advancement was not a possibility, he would be more likely to take the long view. If a man wants to be the bishop of one town, let him be the bishop of that place, but Here Comes Everybody it does not help that church to have a bishop who sees his A lecture series of the Braegelman assignment there as a steppingstone. Catholic Studies Program at The College of St. Scholastica Certain circumstances might require the occasional “Reconciliation in the New Age” transfer of a bishop from one diocese to another. Take Spring 2010 Boston. With the scandal of sexual abuse by clerics still boil- Feb. 22 “Reconciliation: A Scarred Church Faces the New Century” ing and the first-ever resignation of an American cardinal Abbot John Klassen, O.S.B. The Tenth Abbot of Saint John’s Abbey and Chancellor of Saint John’s from his diocese, then-Bishop Sean O’Malley had a unique University, Collegeville, MN combination of administrative gifts and personal authentic- March 8 “Reason with a Heart: Advancing the Catholic Tradition in ity needed at a moment of crisis. A bishop with the neces- the College Context” Dr. Larry Goodwin, President, The College of sary experience might return to his home diocese to fix a St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN large financial or other challenge. Yet these would be the April 12 “One Flock, One Shepherd: exceptions, not the rule. Careerism would be dealt a fatal A Twenty-First Century Vision for the Church” Bishop Barbara Harris, Assisting Bishop, Diocese blow. of Washington, D.C. Bishop Harris is the first woman These three changes are not likely to be adopted anytime to be ordained to the episcopate in the worldwide Angelican Communion. soon. Yet even thinking about them can help Catholics to

Available now: reimagine the role of the bishop in the faith and life of his Here Comes Everybody: diocese. There are other ways, to be sure, to renew appreci- Catholic Studies in American Higher Education, Edited and introduced by The Rev. William C. Graham, ation for the sacramental quality of the bishops’ relationship Professor and director, Braegelman Catholic Studies Program, to his flock or to put an end to careerism. The point is to The College of St. Scholastica www.univpress.com remain focused on the call of the council to see the bishop “as the high priest of his flock, the faithful’s life in Christ in Lectures are open to the public. Admission is free. some way deriving from and depending on him” For more information call 1200 Kenwood Ave. Barb LeGarde at (218) 733-2287 Duluth, MN 55811-4199 (Sacrosanctum Concilium, No. 41). Sometimes this becomes www.css.edu/catholiclecture.xml An equal opportunity educator and employer. obscured. It should be made clearer. A

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In recognition of Catholic Press month (February), America is again featuring the Catholic Periodicals Sampler. Through CPS our advertisers offer you the opportunity to sample a variety of Catholic publications. To receive a sample issue, please contact the publisher of the periodical. A recent issue (not necessarily the one shown here) will be sent to you directly from the publisher while quantities last.

AMERICA is a Catholic media ministry connecting the church and the modern world. It is a forum for discussion of religion, politics and culture from a Catholic perspective. Cultivating the Ignatian traditions of “finding God in all things,” America for over 100 years has been the magazine for thinking Catholics and for those who care what Catholics think. To request a free sample issue or a one year subscription call us at (212) 581-4640 or send an e-mail to [email protected]. All new subscriptions will commence three weeks after receipt, payable in U.S. funds only. Sample issue: Free 39 issues (1 year): $56 U.S., $86 Can., $110 Foreign

ASSEMBLY: A Journal of Liturgical Theology addresses issues of liturgical import for ongoing formation. Assembly explores the relationship between Christian liturgy and life, offering those who prepare liturgy an accessible yet challenging resource. Currently edited by David W. Fagerberg, it is 16 pages in length. To request a free sample or to subscribe, call Liturgy Training Publications at (800) 933-1800. 6 issues (1 year): $15 12 issues (2 years): $28 18 issues (3 years): $40

THE CARA REPORT is an award-winning quarterly publication of social scientific research about Catholics and the Catholic Church in the United States that provides The CARA Report

Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate . Georgetown University . Vol. 14 . No. 4 Spring 2009 summaries of current research and contacts for additional information. The Center PARISH RENEWAL KEY Graduate-Level Seminary Enrollments TO CATHOLIC FUTURE Up Slightly

“The Catholic Church in the United uring academic year 2008-2009, enrollments at the theologate level of priestly States is in turmoil and transition,” formation totaled 3,357, a net increase of 71 (2 percent) above last year’s enroll- according to Jesuit Fr. John Piderit ments. Of these, 75 percent (2,530) were candidates for dioceses and 25 percent for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University placing and Dr. Melanie Morey. “Fewer D (827) for religious orders. Diocesan enrollments increased by 41 (up 2 percent from last men and women are willing to com- year) while religious increased by 30 (up 4 percent). mit to faithfully serving the Church as nuns and priests. Mass attendance is at an all-time low in many parts “In 2008–2009, a quarter of seminarians . . . of the country. Catholics divorce at are from countries other than the United States. social science research tools at the service of the church since 1964. CARA, 2300 the same rate as non-Catholics, and ” Catholics do not have markedly CARA has collected enrollment data for priesthood formation programs in the different attitudes and behaviors United States since the the 1967–68 academic year. This includes information from from other Americans in terms of the two programs abroad sponsored by the U.S. hierarchy—the Pontifical North their use of artificial birth control, American College in Rome and involvement in war, capital punish- the American College at Louvain,  NOW AVAILABLE . . . Wisconsin Avenue NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20007; Ph: (202) 687-8080; e- ment, abortion, embryonic stem cell Catholic Ministry Formation Directory 2009. Belgium. It also includes the research, and same-sex marriage. Seminario Hispano de Santa See pages 5-8 inside for highlights. At times, observers see a Catholic Maria de Guadalupe in Mexico See page 12 for ordering information. Church rife with division, discour- City, established in 2000 to agement, and dissent, whose mem- bers increasingly believe and act just Seminary Enrollments, Academic Years 1968-69 to 2008-09 mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://cara.georgetown.edu. like everyone else.” Piderit and Morey’s latest book, Academic Diocesan Religious Total Total Total Renewing Parish Culture: Building Year Theology Theology Theology College High School for a Catholic Future, provides 1968-69 4,561 3,045 7,606 10,889 12,875 suggestions for strengthening 1978-79 2,844 1,469 4,313 4,316 5,380 Catholic culture through parish 1988-89 2,724 1,064 3,788 2,091 2,295 renewal. The authors are associated 1998-99 2,551 793 3,344 1,527 810 with the Catholic Education 2008-09 2,530 827 3,357 1,384 524 Institute in the Bronx, N.Y., which promotes new approaches to the prepare Latino students from American dioceses for ministry to Hispanic Catholics in ongoing education and formation the United States. of Catholics. They are specialists in Sample issue: Free Catholic institutional culture, Highest Enrollments at Theologates defined as “the set of people, prac- The theologates with the ten highest enrollments account for 1,336 or 43 percent of total enrollments reported by theologates in 2008-2009. The table on page 5 lists these 4 issues (1 year): $49 See Parish Renewal, p. 11 See Seminary Enrollments, p. 5

20 America January 18-25, 2010 CATECHUMENATE: A Journal of Christian Initiation provides training, information and ongoing formation for leaders ministering to catechumens and candidates. It features articles on all aspects of Christian initiation, reflections on Sunday scrip- tures, prayers, poetry and information on Forum Institutes and other meetings. To request a free sample or subscribe, call Liturgy Training Publications at (800) 933- 1800. 6 issues (1 year): $21 12 issues (2 years): $36 18 issues (3 years): $50

CHICAGO STUDIES is a theological journal for those serving in parish ministry. While sacrificing nothing in scholarship or scope, Chicago Studies is always writ- ten with the parish minister in mind. From its inception, it has had this singular goal: to provide high-quality, continuing theological development for parish min- isters. To request a free sample or to subscribe, call Liturgy Training Publica-tions at (800) 933-1800. 3 issues (1 year): $17.50 6 issues (2 years): $30 9 issues (3 years): $43

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LOGOS: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture is an interdisciplinary quarterly Summer 2009 Volume 12:3 which explores the beauty, truth and vitality of Christianity, particularly as it :=5=A is rooted in and shaped by Catholicism. Logos readers are not only academics but A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture anyone interested in the arts, philosophy, theology and the sciences as read through the lens of Catholicism. We welcome submissions in all these areas. For samples or subscriptions, visit www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/logos/ or call (800) 444-2419. Sample issue: $5 4 issues (1 year): $30, individual

January 18-25, 2010 America 21 THE MERTON SEASONAL, a joint publication of the International Thomas Merton Society and the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University, is edited by THE MERTON SEASONAL A Quarterly Review Patrick O’Connell and published quarterly. It contains articles, book reviews and Vol. 34, No. 2Summer 2009 ISSN 0988-4927 other information relating to the life and thought of Thomas Merton. A newslet- ter is included twice a year. To request a sample copy or to subscribe write to: ITMS, 2001 Newburg Road, Louisville, KY 40205; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: www.merton.org/itms. Sample issue: Free

Drawing by Raphael Forés, OCSO 4 issues (1 year): $25 Seeds of Hope: Thomas Merton’s Contemplative Message

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22 America January 18-25, 2010 FAITH IN FOCUS Healing Faith How a physician returned to God BY PAT FOSARELLI

t must be hard for you,” the That lasted nine long, painful years. eighth grader said to me with I missed the intimacy of prayer, even as ‘I sympathy. “Isn’t a doctor sup- I doubted that there was anyone to posed to be an atheist?” whom I could pray. Medical school, His words did not shock me. I had internship and residency can be very heard such an assumption numerous difficult years: one is exposed to some times before. The first time occurred of the hardest moments in the lives of when I was working in a clinic that others. I could have used someone in provided medical care for H.I.V.- whom to confide. Once that had been infected and H.I.V.-affected infants, God, but now it was my colleagues. children and teens. A foster mother They could not answer my questions was rocking an inconsolable infant about why bad things happened to whose tiny body was wracked with innocent people. withdrawal symptoms because of his Why was I so disappointed in my birth mother’s drug addiction. While I faith? I reasoned that if God had per- recorded the results of his physical mitted such horrible things to happen exam, the foster mother crooned softly to young children, then the least God to comfort him. She stopped her Sunday mornings sleeping in. God had could do was to fix things. If God is singing to say, “Jesus loves you, and so no place in their lives. More important, omnipotent and loving, doing right by do I.” Then she blurted out, “Oh, I’m I encountered the enormous suffering children should be a no-brainer. sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” of the truly innocent: premature Ignorant of the fullness of the Catholic Looking up, I asked, “Why not?” infants struggling to breathe; children tradition, I had no idea that many “Aren’t you doctors all atheists?” she with vicious malignancies, the treat- saints had struggled with such issues. I asked. “I don’t want to offend you. ments for which subjected them to thought I was one of an enlightened You’ve been so good to the baby.” prolonged misery; and children with few who had exposed the ruse of a lov- I grew up in a Catholic, Italian- horrible congenital defects. My ing, all-powerful God in a world filled American family where going to Mass Catholic education had taught me the with the suffering of innocents. Full of every Sunday (and even on weekdays) good are rewarded, the evil are pun- myself, there was no room for God. was expected. I attended Catholic ished. As a 21-year-old previously schools from first grade through col- unexposed to much suffering, I strug- Children’s Questions lege. This Catholic upbringing gled to make sense of what I was expe- No sudden flash of insight led my enlivened in me a robust spirituality. riencing. What evil had these children return to God. It was the children who God was very real to me. Even in col- done? ultimately brought me back—the lege, I spoke to God in prayer regular- I concluded that I had been duped same group of suffering individuals ly throughout each day. for 16 years. The only intelligent thing who had caused me to doubt God’s In medical school, however, I was to do was to jettison my uncritical existence. They buffeted me with surrounded by classmates who spent belief in God. Not courageous enough questions: Why would God let them to be an atheist, I chose agnosticism. be so sick? Why didn’t God make “Give me the proof,” I said to all who them better? Why weren’t their PAT FOSARELLI, M.D., is the associate dean would listen, “and I will believe.” So as prayers working? Why did God let of The Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, not to be a hypocrite, I refused to go to their mom and dad break up? Abused

Md. church even on Christmas and Easter. children asked me why God had not ART: SEAN QUIRK

January 18-25, 2010 America 23 stepped in to stop their torture: Why tential questions they faced. To stand but only in the crassest sense is their wasn’t God on their side? with them, I had to understand them relationship predominantly an eco- In the beginning I fled the children’s better. My science had to come to nomic one. Rather, physicians and questions by hastily leaving their terms with their beliefs and dreams. In patients are partners in the entire heal- rooms, but soon realized I was meant so doing, I became an heir to a proud ing enterprise, which includes the spir- to hear them and respond. Instead of tradition that did not find God super- itual and the physical. expecting God to make their lives bet- fluous in the art of healing. In some ter, I decided to assume my own role. I cultures, doctors and spiritual healers God as Healer sat with children and teenagers when are one and the same. Physicians today distinguish disease their family members were nowhere to As a physician, theologian and pas- from illness: disease is the defined con- be found—being present with them in toral minister, I find that most suffer- dition someone has; illness is the dis- their fear, confusion, anger and sorrow. ing people speak about God when ease and its effects on person, family, I acknowledged how little I really their lives are in turmoil. Some are friends and social roles. In another knew about God’s ways, while explor- respectful; some are repentant; others time, it was all illness, which was not ing what I could do to help. To their are hostile and very private, especially never-ending questions, I often said, I angry at God and when one was suf- don’t know. My refusal to be a know- the people who ON THE WEB fering or dying. From the archives, Paul Farmer on it-all comforted them. They could see claim to represent “Medicine and Social Justice.” Illnesses are messier I was in solidarity with them in their God. When faced americamagazine.org/pages than diseases suffering. with finitude, all because one must Suddenly God became very real to sorts of people find deal with much me. In the suffering children, the “little God very real, even those who had no more than an organ or an individual. ones,” I met the suffering Christ. time for God before. Yet when one can facilitate healing of a When I rocked a child in pain, I com- Although some skeptics might person, one has made a major impact, forted the suffering God. I remember explain this appeal to God as a human not only on the life of the ill person but looking into the faces of young chil- need for a Big Daddy to mop up the also on the lives of those around him dren and asking myself, “Who is hazardous spills in life, the words of or her. this—really—whom I am comfort- patients and their family members Enter God. ing?” Instead of an impassive, impress me as too profound to Only God can heal because only supremely independent God, I met a attribute to wishful thinking. God can affect people profoundly on God who needed me to make a differ- Before the Enlightenment, physi- both microscopic and macroscopic lev- ence in the lives of suffering people. cians accepted God-talk as part of the els. We human beings do our part, but art of healing. To them, God dwelt in the project is much larger than we are. Doctors, Science and Belief the recesses of human misery as much In life, especially during illness, our I decided to seek graduate theological as in the peaks of human joy. human abilities often fall short. Yet education to learn how people of dif- Physicians understood both the mag- extraordinary events happen. ferent times, places and cultures nificence and frailty of the human Conflicted relationships are healed. understood God, especially amid suf- body, although they could never have Hopeless situations are resolved. fering; I felt this would make me a bet- imagined its delicate cellular struc- Seemingly impossible events take ter doctor. My medical colleagues were tures and exquisite biochemical bal- place before our eyes. Are these coinci- scandalized. “You are on the faculty of ance. They attributed the body’s mag- dences or moments of grace? a school of medicine and write for nificence to God and understood Healing is always possible even medical journals, and you are going to themselves as “chosen” by God to care when cure is not. Cures are usually be a student again? Why would a doc- for human illness wherever they found restricted to the resolution of adverse tor need a theological education?” it. It was a divine calling, but they physical conditions, and sometimes a My colleagues’ questions were never mistook themselves for God. A cure is not possible. Healing is more based on a modern view of medicine, physician’s job was to work with the holistic in that it encompasses the one in which doctors restricted them- Divine Physician. physical, psychological, social and spir- selves to science and did not entertain Nowadays, by contrast, it is popular itual. Although a dying person will not philosophy or theology. Yet my young to call patients “clients,” as if they are be cured, he or she can be healed. In patients and their families did not per- party to an economic transaction. the end, cure will elude every one of mit me to remain aloof from the exis- Physicians and patients are partners, us, but healing need not.

24 America January 18-25, 2010 Jesus was a healer. He looked into the hearts and minds of those who sought his aid in recovering their sight or ability to walk. He restored them to wholeness, not just to physi- cal well-being. Their problems were larger than eyes that could not see or DOCTOR legs that could not move. Jesus saw their illness as well as their physical of condition. He was open to the divine, MINISTRY which made all the difference. It still does. When human beings open in PREACHING themselves to a power greater than their own, extraordinary things can happen. They can see illness as well as • Remain in your ministry while disease. They can see the human being before them and, in that per- perfecting your preaching skills For information son, see God. in our unique, internet-enhanced or to apply, Consider selfless service to others. program. contact: What explanation for it suffices? From an evolutionary perspective, it makes • Explore the scriptural, Aquinas no sense. Why risk one’s life to save a theological, liturgical and person who is not even kin? Yet fire- Admissions fighters and emergency care workers historical dimensions 23 S. Spring Ave. do it all the time. Doing such jobs well of homiletics so that preaching St. Louis, MO means risking one’s life. Where does integrates theology and 63108 the desire for such self-giving come experience. from, since it is of no practical benefit 800-977-3869 to themselves? To put it in theological • Engage professors and other language: What is the origin of agape love? There is but one answer. students in discussion through posted assignments, online admis- God is in the midst of tragedies, in [email protected] the persons who need assistance and preaching clips, and internet in the persons who willingly give discussions. themselves to help others. Although ______rescuers are merely human beings even • Gather twice a year in St. Louis at their finest moments, that is too www.ai.edu limited a descriptor. Just as suffering with fellow students for people can serve as an image of the intensive weeks of study. ______God who suffers with them, so people who give selfless service to others show forth the God who sustains and gives. Next Cohort Begins Theology Those who give freely reflect some- July 2010 for life thing of the divine in the midst of their own flawed humanity. It is no longer possible for me to be Where an agnostic. To doubt God’s existence, good preachers I would have to deny the totality of my experiences. I would have to deny the become divine spark present in the individuals master to whom I give and in the individuals preachers. who give to me. A

January 18-25, 2010 America 25 BOOKS &CULTURE

ART | WENDY BECKETT ing. But he will sit on her lap, as here, when they flee Herod and they travel WE CAN BELIEVE THIS to Egypt, and when they return after Herod’s death and live in Nazareth. A meditation on Janet McKenzie’s ‘The Holy Family’ Always Mary sits sidesaddle, holding t is impossible to paint the Holy who have the features of the African or the child to her heart, while Joseph Family realistically. We do not perhaps the Mexican or Peruvian. either leads the donkey or walks beside Iknow what they looked like. Their Jesus, Mary and Joseph did not look her, a protecting presence. contemporaries left us no record of like this. But this is a wonderful equiv- When next we see the Holy Family, their appearance, and the four great alence, forcing us to recognize both they are in Jerusalem, and we are about theologians who wrote the Gospels difference and similarity. The whole to have a demonstration of the impos- were completely uninterested in the painting is a marvelous interplay of sibility of parents and children ever personal details that we long to know. realism and symbolism. We are com- fully understanding one another. We Their minds were wholly set on what pelled to think again and to look twice. know the story, one with which many Jesus was, his significance. He was All three have dark skin, a flat nose, parents will empathize. When they fully man but also fully God; he dark, short curled hair (though Mary’s leave Jerusalem, Joseph thinks the offered humanity the truth of his is longer) and full lips. child is with Mary, Mary thinks he is Father, and no externals could be It is as if the unknown reality of with Joseph, and it is only when they allowed to clutter up the strong, deep those first-century peasants has been gather around the fire in the evening lines of this message. transposed into another key, one to that they realize to their horror that Artists, though, are forced to imag- which we can genuinely respond. We Jesus is missing. It takes them three ine for us the appearance of Jesus, are aware of their poverty. The couch days of frantic search before they find Mary and Joseph, and over the cen- on which Mary sits is patched, but its him in the Temple, talking about his turies they have done so with great realism is set in an abstract context. heavenly Father. Even in this closest enthusiasm. Yet when we look at these Behind the family arises a geometrical and most loving of relationships, the pictures from the Middle Ages on, patterning of lattice, palest pink in parents are wounded at what seems beautiful as they are, we may not real- color and decorated with a flamboyant their child’s thoughtlessness. ize their relative untruth. They all pink lily. The same touch of pink is (Thoughtlessness? Jesus, the Son of show us a fair-skinned Jesus with a visible behind Joseph’s shoulder. God? Yes, but a human Jesus who fair-skinned mother. If St. Joseph is in Where are they? It would seem they could make innocent mistakes.) the picture, he is hovering shyly in the are in some symbolic setting, where Mary reproaches him: “Did you not background, usually aged, heavily the lattice subtly suggests the cross, a know your father and I have sought bearded and fair. These are European theme picked up in the larger of the you, sorrowing?” The 12-year-old families, usually rather aristocratic of patches on Mary’s couch. I am calling Jesus is astonished. How could they aspect (except for poor Joseph), it a “couch” because its true definition have sought him? Where could he whereas the true Holy Family were is deliberately obscure. Mary is seated have been except in the house of his Jewish peasants. The jolt many will aslant, which inevitably recalls the heavenly Father? feel when they look at Janet side-saddled journeys that we know No matter how deep the love, every McKenzie’s painting “The Holy the family took together. The family human being is essentially a mystery. Family” forces us to recognize the vast vehicle, the donkey, seems to be pre- Here we see, for our comfort, Mary stretches of time and culture that lie sent, even if only in subliminal fashion. and Joseph accepting the disappoint- between us. It is with these journeys that the ment that all parents must feel on real- The people in McKenzie’s painting, Holy Family is most associated. On izing the unknowability of their child. which hangs in the chapel of Loyola the first, when they traveled to Jesus, too, must experience the sadness School, a co-educational high school Bethlehem, Jesus was only present in of coming to terms with the truth of in New York City, are not Palestinian. his mother’s womb, as secure and the human condition. She shows us a group of poor people warm as he appears to us in the paint- But if the Holy Family did not

26 America January 18-25, 2010 always understand one another, their mutual love and dependence was unshaken. McKenzie makes it beautifully clear that here is a fam- ily unit, three individuals bound together. We notice that both Mary and Joseph look not at us or at each other, but at Jesus. Highlighted by the glancing sunlight, Joseph’s body language makes it unmistakably clear that he is devoted, body and soul, to the support of his beautiful wife, resolute to share with her the extraordinary responsibility of rais- ing the child Jesus to manhood. This was most definitely not a one- parent family. It took the church a long time to understand the significance of St. Joseph. In the very early church it was only Mary who was shown with Jesus, and she appeared very much as merely the means by which he comes to us. For centuries she was not seen as a person in her own right. To safeguard the doc- trine of her virginity, St. Joseph was relegated even more to a back- ground figure. Perhaps not until Murillo in the 17th century, devot- ed believer that he was, do we have an artist who understood that a family needs a father—a role model, to use modern jargon—and St. Joseph was the man God had especially picked for this. HOLINESS AND THE FEMININE SPIRIT We can believe this of McKenzie’s Joseph. We notice his Jesus, Jesus has eyes for us. Like any of raising a child. Mary’s immense dig- sturdy shoulders, his lack of interest in child who is completely secure in love, nity, her majestic inwardness, is surely anything but the mother and child. he looks out with an eager and innocent that of a young mother holding her gift We see how gently and tenderly his curiosity to an unknown world. from God. The closeness and the sense broad workman’s hand touches Mary’s Snuggled up in his warm jacket, he can- of unexpressed devotion, which gives veil. (The veil itself, diaphanous and not imagine threats any family its stability, white, subtly recalls the bridal veil of a or danger. This, of ON THE WEB are here made visible. virgin.) Mary does not touch him— course, is how it Terence W. Klein The artist wants us to there is no physical contact—but there should be with reviews “Men of a Certain Age.” see the Holy Family as is emotional contact, beautifully every child, and a americamagazine.org/culture writing large for us the understated. We see Joseph’s fingers striking feature of holiness of the family, on the veil, but not his thumb; we see this painting is how it appeals to the any family, our family. Mary’s thumb but not her fingers. It is ordinary experience of a young family. The halos of the Holy Family, as as if together they form a hand. The silent awe that Joseph feels is that of McKenzie depicts them, are not the

“THE HOLY FAMILY,” BY JANET MCKENZIE, COLLECTION OF LOYOLA SCHOOL; FROM If Mary and Joseph have eyes only for any young father faced with the wonder traditional gold, but rather a very pale

January 18-25, 2010 America 27 purple that fits in unobtrusively with see the ideal: a man who loves his wife the subdued pinks and browns of the and her child and will devote himself background. The dominant impression to their protection; a woman who is is of warmth, a deep and glowing inner secure in her husband’s affection and in radiance, at its brightest in the face of their joint responsibility for her baby; a the small Jesus. Although McKenzie baby who feels completely safe. The does not set herself to teach, still less to family is holy. preach, this painting has a special rele- vance for our contemporary world. So WENDY BECKETT, a hermit who lives near a Carmelite monastery in Quidenham, Norfolk, many of our tragedies and discontents England, is best known for her television docu- seem to stem from the decline of fami- mentaries on art. Her most recent book is ly life. All too often there is no father, Sister Wendy on Prayer. This essay is adapted from the new book Holiness & the or there is an absent father, and the Feminine Spirit: The Art of Janet child suffers from insecurity. Here we McKenzie, edited by Susan Perry (Orbis).

BOOKS | ANGELO STAGNARO CELESTIAL GUIDANCE

ANGEL TIME A Novel By Anne Rice Knopf. 288p $25.95

Anne Rice’s mesmerizing new novel, Angel Time, is about a young man who witnesses his young siblings’ murders at the hands of his alcoholic mother and her own subsequent suicide, goes to New York City with the intention of becoming an internationally famous lute player but instead gets sidetracked and becomes an accomplished and financially successful assassin. He is ultimately confronted by his guardian angel, who helps him travel back in time to 13th-century England in order to save a village of Jews. I know what you are thinking right now: “Ah! That old chestnut!” Despite the far-fetched plot, Angel The entire body of my earlier Time is in fact a good read. The book, work reflects a movement however, marks a departure from the towards Jesus Christ. In 2002, I author’s previous bloody, sometimes consecrated my work to Jesus sadistic, frightening and macabre Christ. This did not involve a books. As a result of her return to denunciation of works that Catholicism, Rice refuses to devote reflected the journey. It was any more time or energy to writing rather a statement that from about vampires, witches and demons. then on I would write directly The author explains: for Jesus Christ. I would write

28 America January 18-25, 2010 works about salvation, as Considering this is a foray into a delved into her spiritual awakening in opposed to alienation; I would new genre and the topic of this partic- her autobiographical Called Out of write books about reconciliation ular book, she has a weighty task Darkness: A Spiritual Confession in Christ, rather than books before her. Readers of Dante’s Divine (Knopf, 2008). Angel Time is the first about the struggle for answers in Comedy might remember that Inferno fictionalized account of her coming a post World War II seemingly and Purgatorio are riveting because all back to the fold. It is about the titanic atheistic world. of us want to know how the bad guy struggle between good and evil as gets it in the fullness of time. The played out in the confines of a single Readers more accustomed to Rice’s crimes and the corresponding suffer- human soul and how that struggle gorier, eldritch literature will see that ing and pain of the damned souls fas- affects the world around that soul— her skillful storytelling and character cinate us, whereas the beatific exis- specifically, Anne Rice’s soul. development are still in evidence. The tence of souls floating blissfully in The story’s assassin protagonist is slow, pedantic and choppy style in the Paradiso is a bit less compelling. It is not merely “sad” at his predicament in first 12 pages initially made me despair more entertaining to talk of evil things life. He is a spiritually empty, embit- that Rice had lost her touch. But, slowly, and their effect upon the soul and tered, self-centered atheist, who sees almost imperceptibly, the reader is upon the world in general. Holiness is others as means to his own end. The drawn into the characters of her book— harder to sell, so Rice has her hands only thing that seems to fill that especially the lead antihero assassin, full trying to make holy seem hip. emptiness is his dedication to destroy- Toby “Lucky” O’Dare, aide-de-camp to Certainly all art is autobiographical ing all vestiges of human emotional the rather hands-off angel Malchiah, to some degree, but Angel Time is attachments. By her own admission, who needs Toby to interact with more personal than Rice’s previous fic- this is the state in which Rice found humans on a more “human level.” tion. It seems that intentionally or not, herself before her conversion of heart. Though Angel Time’s plot is unbe- Rice has written a roman à clef. I sug- It should be noted that Rice’s con- lievable, it is easy for the reader to sus- gest that the hidden drama in this voluted use of relativistic ethics as a pend disbelief. Rice weaves a compelling, book is her recent return to plot device is a point of concern. The suspenseful and even sordid tale. Catholicism. Fans will recall that Rice author spends a quarter of the book POETRY CONTEST Poems are being accepted for the 2010 Foley Poetry Award Each entrant is asked to submit only one typed, unpublished poem of 30 lines or fewer that is not under consideration elsewhere. Include contact information on the same page as the poem. Poems will not be returned. Please do not submit poems by e-mail or fax. Submissions must be postmarked between Jan. 1 and March 31. Poems received outside the designated period will be treat- ed as regular poetry submissions, and are not eligible for the prize. The winning poem will be published in the June 7-14 issue of America. Three runner-up poems will be published in subsequent issues. Cash prize: $1,000. Send poems to: Foley Poetry Contest America, 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019

January 18-25, 2010 America 29 detailing a complex plan to deceive a accept the idea that God is encourag- “When was I happiest?” he asks bishop and his ecclesiastical court by ing an end-justifies-the-means style of himself: passing off a live Christian sister as her ethics. If we found ourselves in such a dead Jewish twin in order to save a situation, as certainly many European …it was the years with my son town’s Jewish community. It is the clas- Christians who saved Jews persecuted on our farm in Ohio, years of sic moral question everyone considers by Nazis did, we should lie because it volleyball and soccer in the living at one time or another: “Would you lie would save lives, not because lying is room, baseball in the meadow, to Nazis in order to save the Jews hid- good in and of itself. board games at night and wasted ing in your attic?” Toby, the assassin- But despite the confused ethical hours with the rain falling out- turned-time-traveling-superhero, has system, and the angelically assisted side and the two of us lying to make the same decision, but sans time-traveling assassin, Anne Rice has around on the sofa. It was a sim- the Nazis. written a highly entertaining book that ple life—just as life with my dad I did not find the time-traveling shows the world the very real spiritual is now simple and repetitive— sequence as hard to believe as the idea results of intentionally separating one- but I was never more engaged that God and Toby’s guardian angel self from God and refusing his grace. than in those childhood years Malchiah wanted the erstwhile assas- when Janir and I lived together. sin to lie under any circumstances, ANGELO STAGNARO, the author of six books on mentalism, has written for many Catholic even if that lie resulted in saving many journals and is a correspondent for Catholic When he becomes responsible for others from death. I find it difficult to News Service. his father’s very survival, John Thorndike finds a similar satisfaction. Despite the tedium, long silences, MARY DONNARUMMA SHARNICK spilled food, soiled diapers, despite the loneliness, fear and regrets, despite the SLOWLY DOWN THE SLOPE encroaching inevitability, John craves his father’s continued presence in his life. THE LAST OF HIS MIND an adult, I see how much warmth I Even as Joe Thorndike “loses A Year in the Shadow didn’t get from him, and how much I nouns” and suffers the indignities of of Alzheimer’s needed.” incontinence, he retains for quite By John Thorndike Less emotionally and physically some time the laconic, correct and dis- Swallow Press. 248p $24.95 inhibited than her husband, Lois tant manner of speech that has pained Thorndike satisfied her John since he could John Thorndike’s wrenching, detailed sexual desires in a series of himself articulate his and affecting memoir chronicling the affairs that her son desire for paternal inti- year he cared for his Alzheimer’s-beset researched and narrates in macy. No matter the father is at its core a story about touch. these pages. Bravely asking gentle service John will- The son’s yearning for touch was his son not to blame his ingly offers and pro- never sated. His parents—Lois, a mother for her betrayals, vides his father, Joe physician who suffered from depres- Joe reveals a “hurt” he responds with a sion and committed suicide in 1972; caused his wife, insisting to startling consistency: Joe, an editor at Life magazine under his son that it was he who “For the past few days, Henry Luce, an intellectual among breached their marriage he’s been thanking me intellectuals—loved and cared for him, vows first. John likewise constantly. When I he knew. But apart from his toddler’s acknowledges some self- serve him a meal, when experience of being “buzzed” or destructive choices in his I bring him his coat, “flown” around the living room by his own life. His salvation came about, he when I open a door for him, he thanks dad, John Thorndike never received says, by caring for his only child, his me. The formality of it has started to the physical comfort he sought: “He son, Janir, whose mother (John’s ex- get on my nerves. He never says [Joe Thorndike] can’t be emotional or wife) suffered severe psychological Thanks or Great or Okay, it’s always a affectionate. This seemed normal probems. Winning sole custody of precise Thank you. It makes me feel when I was growing up: weren’t all Janir, John was determined to give his like an attendant.” fathers the same? But looking back as son what he himself desired. But over the course of his 92nd

30 America January 18-25, 2010 year, as Alzheimer’s lays claim to Joe’s case in hand, when Joe Thorndike still tion of the animal and plant kingdoms. mind, the touch so long denied to his knew what was happening to him, One can read Ackerman for the pure son becomes for John both burden and when he posted notes to himself all pleasure of encountering her felicitous gift. While others—the nurse Harriet, over the house: “I already ate break- writing. In spring, “A howling-bright the psychologist Gerry Elovitz, John’s fast”; when he could, like a wonderful moon floats below a coal scuttle full of brothers, Al and Joe, friends from surprise, correctly use the word stars.” And in summer, “Voice-dueling Ohio, home hospice staff members— “prong”; when he could ask to go to the birds keep winding their springs, offer respite care, advice both sought ocean, eat ice cream, visit with his buzzing their kazoos, whistling, war- and unsought, humor, financial com- granddaughter. bling, and chattering in a divine ruckus pensation and respect for the man who He was there when Dr. Elovitz list- of warring songs.” honors his father’s plea not to be ed Alzheimer’s encroachments: The book’s exquisite prose and placed in a nursing home, none of “Aphasia is language impairment, keen observations about the natural them experiences the anguished inti- agnosia the failure to understand the world likely will remind readers of macy John at last shares with his source or meaning of pain, anosog- Mary Oliver and Henry David father: nosia the loss of self-awareness, and Thoreau. dressing apraxia the inability to dress In describing the habits and I’m going to move into the living himself according to the usual lifestyles of doves, whooping cranes, room and stay there, because if norms....” mockingbirds, woodpeckers and he starts to go I don’t want one of And he is there when Joe squirrels, Ackerman exudes curiosity, the sitters to be here in the Thorndike breathes his last. His loss appreciation and respect for all living house. I don’t want anyone here, and his love indistinguishable, John things. not even Harriet, maybe not Thorndike takes his father “fully in Cranes can solve problems, experi- even Al. Of course I’ll call him, [his] arms.” ence feelings, hold grudges, recognize and Joe in Virginia—but what I Readers, too, will respond to the human faces and perform “many other really want is to be alone with touch of his daring, deft embrace. tricks we regard as solely human.” The my father when he dies. brown thrasher has a repertoire of MARY DONNARUMMA SHARNICK chairs more than 2,000 songs. The mocking- the English department at Chase Collegiate And so he was. School, Waterbury, Conn. She is a founding bird “trills and warbles, yodels and He had arrived on Cape Cod, suit- editor of The Litchfield Review. sighs, buzzes and caws in a single rib- bon of magically changing song.” And when it rains, squirrels fold their tails over their heads as umbrellas. BILL WILLIAMS Throughout the book, Ackerman BIRDSONG AND EARLY MORN returns to the magic of dawn, which has enjoyed a special significance in culture and religion throughout histo- DAWN LIGHT observer of the myriad wonders of ry. Religious rites, prayers and festivals Dancing With Cranes and nature. In this latest gem often take place at dawn. Other Ways to Start the Day she invites us to turn off Ackerman cites the By Diane Ackerman our cellphones and open morning prayers known W. W. Norton. 256p $24.95 our ears, eyes and hearts to as Lauds, a practice that the beauty that surrounds can be traced back to the One cannot help but smile at Diane us. She finds it “eye-pop- Apostles. Ackerman’s contagious exuberance for pingly wonderful…to live She mourns the loss of the natural world. Her childlike on a planet in space, and to dark, star-filled nights enthusiasm leaps off the pages of this be alive with intelli- and cites the work of the poetic tribute to hummingbirds, gence…to remember how Dark Sky Society, which whooping cranes, squirrels, flowers, lucky and fleeting it is just seeks to restore “the seasons and, yes, the coming of dawn. being alive.” grandeur of star-loaded Perhaps best known for her 1990 Dawn Light draws on night skies” by dimming book, A Natural History of the Senses, the Bible, ancient myths, lights and placing cur- Ackerman has long been a prolific science and poetry in a joyful celebra- fews on illuminated advertising signs.

January 18-25, 2010 America 31 The book celebrates the art of early,” she writes, “he would climb into dled with light.” Claude Monet and the poetry of the the boat he’d transformed into a float- And in a lovely tribute to her friend late John O’Donohue. Ackerman mar- ing studio, and set out on the river, O’Donohue, Ackerman notes that the vels at Monet’s painting titled painting the sensations of dawn in famed Irish writer found in poetry “a “Mornings on the Seine.” “Rising thick, voluptuous swirls of color rid- form of endless rebirth, a mystical path to the divine.” Lamentably, clocks, deadlines and MARCH 18 (YOUTH DAY) & noise have replaced the rhythms of MARCH 19-21, 2010 nature. “Few,” Ackerman tells us, ANAHEIM CONVENTION CENTER ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA, USA “wake to birdsong or watch the sun- rise anymore.” But the author sits qui- Explore the rich traditions of our etly in her yard in Ithaca, N.Y., in Catholic Christian faith, of liturgical “data-free time, time away from celebrations, of art, music and poetry, clocks, e-mail, cell phones, comput- of resourcing, and of community-building ers, newspapers, televisions, radios in a multicultural setting. and all the other purveyors of infor- mation that plug us in and plug us 2010 LOS ANGELES up.” She mourns the social cost, believ- RELIGIOUS EDUCATION CONGRESS ing that children today suffer from a • FOUR DAYS Mitch Albom • John Allen Jr. • Paul Coutinho • Sr. Fran Ferder • Sr. Barbara “nature deficit disorder” that may • 188 SPEAKERS Fiand • Dr. Richard Gaillardetz • Paula Huston • Matthew Kelly • Bishop Peter affect their nervous systems and ability • 315 WORKSHOPS Nguyen Van Kham • Rev. Bryan Massingale • Bishop Malcolm McMahon • Sr. • 15,000 YOUTH Helen Prejean • Rev. Ronald Rolheiser • Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chávez • James to handle stress. • 20,000+ ADULTS Schellman • Clodomiro Siller Acuña • Dr. David Walsh • Char Wenc • Maria While reading this enchanting Arroyo • Dr. Tom Beaudoin • Fr. Richard Benson • Rev. Lawrence Boadt • Rev. Patrick Brennan • Grayson book, I found myself paying closer Warren Brown • John Burland • Andrew Chinn • Rev. Michael Crosby • Dr. Michael Downey • Msgr. Ray East • Carole Eipers • Fr. Richard Fragomeni • Dr. Greer Gordon • Dr. Thomas Groome • David attention to nature. On the back deck Haas • Kevin Hartigan • Marty Haugen • Bill Huebsch • Jack Jezreel • Peter Kolar • Fr. Patrick LaBelle • of my house one day, I stopped to Liam Lawton • Fr. Richard Leonard • Eduardo INFO: PAULETTE SMITH, EVENT COORDINATOR watch a tiny bug climb a pole, wonder- Levy • Eva Marie Lumas • Jesse Manibusan ONLINE: WWW.RECONGRESS.ORG ing where it was headed and what it • James Martin • Mariette Martineau • EMAIL: [email protected] Timothy Matovina • Michael Patin • Donna was doing. On another day, walking Peña • Brian Robinette • Rev. Donald ONLY $60 FOR THE 3 DAYS $70 after February 5, 2010 near a field in the early morning semi- Senior • Anne Bryan Smollin • Pam Stenzel darkness, I observed a fox 10 feet in front of me, perhaps looking for break- fast. THE LOYOLA EXPERIENCE “Born into a world of light,” An Ignatian Retreat Pilgrimage Ackerman writes, “my senses will mature and will decay. But until they June 29–July 8, 2010 do they are the gateways to the myste- rious kingdom in which I find myself, Julio Giulietti, S.J. one I could not have imagined, a land Thomas A. Kane, C.S.P. not entirely of hope and glory, yet no less beautiful for that.” A prayerful journey into the heart And, finally, she offers this sage advice: “Just show up, that’s all we have of St. Ignatius includes fine hotels, to do, that’s all I do when I am fully most meals and transportation in Spain. present, for good or bad, right here, right now, without thinking about For a brochure contact Fr. Kane: work or recess.”

Phone: (617) 552-6520 BILL WILLIAMS is a freelance writer in West www.GoCatholicTravel.com/Loyola Hartford, Conn., and a former editorial writer for The Hartford Courant. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

32 America January 18-25, 2010 CLASSIFIED raryreligiousart.com for a gallery visit of original Behavioral Medicine Institute. Ph: (314) 289- works. 9407. www.slbmi.com. Books Retreats Web Sites HELP SEVERELY AUTISTIC adults. Buy a book at BETHANY RETREAT HOUSE, East Chicago, Ind., THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBIOSIS is nature’s douglasacres.com. offers private and individually directed silent retreats, pattern and God’s plan. Enrich your faith with the including Ignatian 30 days, year-round in synthesis of science. Free resources at: www.secon- Education a prayerful home setting. Contact Joyce Diltz, denlightenment.org and www.evolution101.org. OBLATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY offers an P.H.J.C.; (219) 398-5047; [email protected]; M.A. degree in spirituality; regular semester and www.bethanyretreathouse.org intersession courses. Web: www.ost.edu. Wills BETHANY SPIRITUALITY CENTER, Highland Please remember America in your will. Our legal title Parish Missions Mills, N.Y., offers the following retreats: “Psalms is: America Press Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New INSPIRING, DYNAMIC PREACHING: parish as Source of Catholic Prayer and Spirituality,” Feb. York, NY 10019. missions, retreats, days of recollection; www 26-28, with Lawrence Boadt, C.S.P.; “Preaching .sabbathretreats.org. the Just Word,” May 10-14, with Rev. Raymond America classified. Classified advertisements are Kemp and Nancy Sheridan, S.A.S.V. Visit accepted for publication in either the print version of www.bethanyspiritualitycenter.org or call (845) America or on our Web site, www.americam- Pilgrimage 460-3061. agazine.org. Ten-word minimum. Rates are per IRELAND. Exploring the Celtic Tradition. April word per issue. 1-5 times: $1.50; 6-11 times: $1.28; 20-May 1, 2010; Contact: pilgrimages@earth- WISDOM HOUSE, Litchfield, Conn. Jan. 16, 12-23 times: $1.23; 24-41 times: $1.17; 42 times or link.net or Jane Comerford at (509) 868-1683. Yoga: Renewing Body and Spirit, Suzanne more: $1.12. For an additional $30, your print ad Kukolla; Jan. 23, The Art of Listening, Marguerite will be posted on America’s Web site for one week. Positions Mulee, Ph.D.; Feb. 5-7, Winter Contemplative The flat rate for a Web-only classified ad is $150 for HEAD OF SCHOOL. Search reopened. Saint Weekend. Contact (860) 567-3163 or pro- 30 days. Ads may be submitted by e-mail to: Dominic Academy in Jersey City, N.J., [email protected]; www.wisdomhouse.org. [email protected]; by fax to (928) 222- (www.stdominicacad.com) a Catholic college 2107; by postal mail to: Classified Department, preparatory secondary school for young women Treatment Center America, 106 West 56th St., New York, NY sponsored by the Sisters of Saint Dominic of INTENSIVE, OUTPATIENT PROGRAM, clergy 10019. To post a classified ad online, go to our home Caldwell, N.J., seeks a visionary Head of School and religious. Multidisciplinary approach to per- page and click on “Advertising” at the top of the able to plan and implement a long-range strategy sonal healing, behavior change and weight manage- page. We do not accept ad copy over the phone. for the school and articulate the school’s vision ment. Local community housing arrangements. MasterCard and Visa accepted. For more informa- and case for support to engage a higher level of Program for Psychology and Religion, St. Louis tion call: (212) 515-0102. alumnae, parent and community involvement. Founded in 1878, Saint Dominic Academy is one of the oldest independent schools in New Jersey. It offers an excellent academic program, including an international baccalaureate diploma, and enrolls 450 students in a school community rich Services for in diversity. Applicants must be practicing mem- bers of the Roman Catholic faith, demonstrate Catholic Communities successful secondary school administrative expe- rience and make evident a commitment to Partners: John Reid, Tom Reid Catholic secondary education for young women. and Maureen Gallagher An advanced degree and experience in a diverse Leadership Development Where does your Diocese, Parish, or School want to be in five school community are strongly desired. The suc- years and how will you get there? cessful applicant will have proven success in strategic and operational planning and manage- Do you need to reorganize the parishes and schools in your ment, institutional advancement and financial Diocese for the sake of your mission? Prophetic management. Salary is competitive and commen- Planning Do you need to address the communication challenges of an surate with experience. Interested and qualified candidates are asked increasingly diverse staff and community? to submit electronically a letter of introduction; a Then Call Us résumé; names, addresses, telephone numbers and Managing e-mail addresses of five professional references; Change The Reid Group offers organizational development and a statement describing the importance of services specifically tailored to the needs of Catholic secondary education for young women, based on their personal experiences, to: Saint Catholic organizations. Dominic Academy, Head of School Search, Team Contact us today for more information: Catholic School Management Inc., Attn.: Jennifer Building C. Kensel, at [email protected]. 800-916-3472 / [email protected] / www.TheReidGroup.biz Review of applications will begin Feb. 15, 2010, The Reid Group, 12535 15th Ave. NE, Suite 211, Seattle WA 98125 and continue until the position is filled. Position is SAMPLE OF PAST CLIENTS: available July 1, 2010. Dioceses: Archdiocese of Newark / Diocese of Madison / Archdiocese of Anchorage Colleges & Universities: Spring Hill College / University of Notre Dame Religious Art National Organizations: National Association of Catholic Chaplains / National Association for Lay Ministry Religious Communities: Sisters of St. Francis, Joliet, IL / Benedictine Sisters, Erie, PA / Maryknoll Fathers, Brothers & Lay Missioners CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS ART in an iconic tra- Parishes & Schools: Planning, Team Building & Spirituality sessions with parishes and schools in Washington, California, Wisconsin and Ohio dition available. Go to http://www.contempo

January 18-25, 2010 America 33 LETTERS munity, I need only walk down the hall ries on, generation after generation. But to be in the chapel, and yet so many of with Protestant parishes it depends The More the Merrier our lay people make incredible sacri- mainly on who the pastor is, whether he Re Of Many Things by Maurice fices to go to daily Mass. They visit the can attract a large following.” Timothy Reidy (1/4): Thank you for Blessed Sacrament, read the DAN LYONS Bloomsbury, N.J. the podcasts. I look forward to them. Scriptures and make great financial It is good to sit back and listen to a contributions to the church. I second favorite author, get acquainted with a the nominations of those great men The Word Never Fails new personality and just plain enjoy it and women you mentioned. Re “God’s Family Reunion” (The all. And these podcasts can easily be PAUL WIERICHS, C.P. Word, 12/21): Just a note to express North Palm Beach, Fla. downloaded, burned to a CD and my appreciation for Sister Barbara passed on to a person with limited Reid’s help in my understanding of the Catholic Continuity physical vision. In addition, they make Sunday readings. She never fails to Your article “Parish Revival,” by Bruce for great listening on a long drive. The prompt thoughts for my meditation. Cecil (12/21), was enlightening. It more the better. Just wish I could be as brief as she! LAURA DULUDE shows what a certain Protestant pastor MICHAEL R. BRAUN Warwick, R.I. can do to bring in a crowd. On the Bakersfield, Calif. other hand, when my parish in Seattle Holy Mothers and Fathers applied for a huge loan to replace our War Totally Unacceptable I could not agree more with little wooden church, the bank made Re “Another War President?” by John “Venerabile Subito!” (Current the loan immediately. DiIulio (12/21): We might recall the Comment, 12/14). We need more lay A prominent local Protestant church homily of Pope John Paul II in May people canonized. As a priest, I am complained to the bank for not loaning 1982 at Coventry Cathedral in humbled by the example of our good funds to complete their building. The England. As Britain prepared for a people who day in and day out live the bank replied: “With a Catholic parish, no major aerial bombardment of the Gospel. As a religious living in com- matter who the pastor is, the parish car- Falkland Islands, an assault that eventu-

To send a letter to the editor we recommend using the link that appears below arti- cles on America’s Web site, www.americamagazine.org. This allows us to consider Sabbatical in Scotland your letter for publication in both print and online versions of the magazine. Let- A Seven Week Sabbatical for ters may also be sent to America’s editorial office (address on page 2) or by e- mail to: [email protected]. They should be brief and include the writ- priests, religious and lay leaders er’s name, postal address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for in Perth, Scotland length and clarity. Participants invariably highlight these dimensions of our sabbatical programme: the focus on personal The Spirituality of Fasting growth and inner healing, the con- Rediscovering a Christian Practice templative approach to prayer, em- Charles M. Murphy phasis on a spirituality of true self- esteem, the introduction to Celtic “Brilliant and readable . . . the book is a studies and spirituality and the three perfect example of retrieving an ancient day pilgrimage to St. Columba’s Christian practice for modern people.” island of Iona. See and enjoy Scot- land. Rev. Richard Cliff ord, S.J. Dean, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry Sabbatical Courses 10 May – 24 June 2010 “Articulates what St. Augustine meant 18 October – 2 December 2010 when he wrote, ‘Longing deepens the Full details of all our heart.’” courses and retreats on Margaret R. Miles www.kinnoullmonastery.org. Emerita Professor of Historical Theology The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley Contact: 128 pages / $12.95 The Secretary, St Mary’s, Kinnoull, Perth, PH2 7BP Available from your bookstore or from ave maria press® Notre Dame, IN 46556 / www.avemariapress.com / Ph: 800.282.1865 Scotland, UK A Ministry of the Indiana Province of Holy Cross [email protected] PROMO CODE: AN4011005MA

34 America January 18-25, 2010 ally would kill over 600 Argentine sol- able on the Internet and nothing an appetite for control that is nothing diers, the pope had the courage to say to struck me as so horrible. I do not less than indecent. The Second his hosts the following: “Today, the mean to be too harsh, but why would Vatican Council’s accomplishments in scale and the horror of modern war- anyone seriously consider the opin- the way of collegiality, so specific in fare—whether nuclear or not—makes ion of a liturgical theologian or litur- allocating translation authority to it totally unacceptable as a means of set- gy commission? Aren’t they the ones regional bishops, is now openly jetti- tling differences between nations. War who have contributed so much to soned. In 2002 the Vatican replaced should belong to the tragic past, to his- making the mess of worship that leadership in ICEL with bishops dra- tory; it should find no place on human- afflicts so many parishes today? matically aligned with Vatican views. ity’s agenda for the future.” In any case, Father Ryan should not Now the naked grasp for total control! I think it is safe to assume, given worry too much. If any priest does not Our U.S. bishops have shown inap- this statement, that Pope John Paul care for the new translation, I am sure propriate surrender of their proper would not support our country’s he will just make the prayers up as he role. actions in Afghanistan and would see goes, as so many do today, confident (MSGR.) HARRY J. BYRNE it as the unjust war that it is. that he is doing his people a favor by Bronx, N.Y. TIM BROYLES sparing them the horrible new transla- Growing Up Catholic Phoenix, Ariz. tions. BOB HUNT Thank you for your thoughtful, gen- Knoxville, Tenn. uine and insightful article (“This Boy’s No Need to Worry Life,” by Gerald Schiffhorst, 12/21). I It seems to me that the Rev. Michael A Question of Control have much gratitude for those who G. Ryan (“What If We Said, ‘Wait’?” The church is experiencing much offer the whole, concrete experience of 12/14) is setting us up to hate the more than a translation problem. The growing up Catholic. As one who wan- new translations even before we’ve problem is one of governance. The dered away from the church for a experienced them. I’ve read those Vatican under Pope John Paul II and number of years, finding my way back parts of the new translations avail- Pope Benedict XVI has been showing has often been through illustrative

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January 18-25, 2010 America 35 reflections such as yours. You have put fathers are, in deepest need we all cry D.C., area have had the good fortune into words what I have felt in my heart out for our mothers. of receiving vouchers to enable them to but had not yet given a voice. EVELYN BALDWIN escape the underperforming public Bear, Del. LINDA GODDARD school system there. But teachers’ Winter Springs, Fla. Expanding Vouchers unions are fighting to end this oppor- Re “Opening School Doors to tunity for the most needy. The Divine Feminine Hispanics,” (Signs of the Times, 1/4): Nothing would help the less-fortu- Praying the rosary (“Beads of Power,” What do the current minority mem- nate minorities in the United States by Thomas Shelley, 1/4) appears to be bers of the Supreme Court, Justices more than an expansion of the voucher another example that belief matters Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence program, with two Supreme Court jus- more than history. Personally, I am Thomas, as well as the current surgeon tices and a surgeon general at the pinna- thrilled with Marian devotions general of the United States have in cle of their professions living proof of because they do tend to be “bottom- common? One is a female Hispanic, the result. All Catholics concerned for up” instead of “top-down.” And just the others male and female African- social justice for our poorest citizens when scholars and wise clergy think Americans, yet all came from humble should support the effort to extend and these irrational devotions are under backgrounds. They are not all of the expand vouchers across the nation, espe- control, doesn’t Mary end up appear- same race, sex or political viewpoint, cially for needy inner-city residents. ing to some peasant somewhere! The but all three of them had parents or They will perform the same uplifting message seems always to include, grandparents who made the extra service they did earlier for impoverished “Pray the rosary.” Popular devotions effort to enroll their children in the Irish and Italian immigrants only a few are popular because they touch souls, parochial school system. generations ago. souls that long for the divine feminine. Right now some 1,700 students of WALTER MATTINGLY No matter how loved and adored our inner-city families in the Washington, New Orleans, La.

America (ISSN 0002-7049) is published weekly (except for 13 combined issues: Jan. 4-11, 18-25, Feb. 1-8, April 12-19, June 7-14, 21-28, July 5-12, 19-26, Aug. 2-9, 16-23, Aug. 30-Sept. 6, Sept. 13-20, Dec. 20- 27) by America Press, Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019. Periodicals postage is paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. Business Manager: Lisa Pope; Circulation: Judith Palmer, (212) 581-4640. Subscriptions: United States, $56 per year; add U.S. $30 postage and GST (#131870719) for Canada; or add U.S. $54 per year for international priority airmail. Postmaster: Send address changes to: America, 106 West 56th St. New York, NY 10019. Printed in the U.S.A.

. The Vatican II Institute for Clergy Formation Our future Menlo Park, California

Presents depends on you.

Reclaiming and Renewing Our Mission: Please remember America A Pastoral Think Tank for Priests in your will. Presenter: Rev. Louis Cameli

June 7—11, 2010

Developed in conjunction with the Year for Priests, this workshop is designed to engage priests in exploring the pastoral challenges they face in today’s world and in identifying the resources and choices required to meet those challenges.

Topics include:

• The Future of Parishes: Larger or Smaller? • Engaging Culture: Accommodation or Resistance? • Responding to the Movement of People, Goods, & Ideas • Providing Moral Direction and Moral Support Our legal title is:

For more information on this workshop, please visit our America Press Inc., website at: www.stpatricksseminary.org and follow the 106 West 56th St., Vatican II Institute prompt or call (650) 325-9122. New York, NY 10019

36 America January 18-25, 2010 THE WORD

repentance. Or were they tears of grat- itude for the gift of the law from a God God Inside-Out whose words of undeserved love and THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C), JAN. 24, 2010 mercy rained down upon them from the mouth of Ezra? Readings: Neh 8:2-10; Ps 19:8-10, 15; 1 Cor 12:12-30; Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21 Perhaps the tears were for all of the “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...to bring glad tidings to the poor” above. When God reveals outwardly the bounteous heart of divine love, our (Lk 4:18) first response is often to be over- whelmed to the point of tears. It is easy to imagine that as Jesus any organizations have a now rests upon Jesus, announced his embodiment of mission statement that who makes humanly this divine mission there may have M succinctly defines their visible and outwardly been a similar reaction, as those purpose. The idea is to be able to tangible the inner who felt exiled in body or spirit state clearly to those on the outside heart of God, who heard a new promise of restora- what is the aim of the organization. A desires healing, tion and release, a new time of mission statement helps as well to wholeness and jubilation. keep those within the group focused jubilee justice. Luke Paul uses a vivid metaphor to on their purpose. Luke begins his says that “the eyes of describe the way the Christian Gospel with his own brief mission all in the synagogue community continues the mission statement, telling Theophilus, proba- looked intently” at Jesus of being “God inside-out.” The bly his patron, that he intends to set when he read from the forth for him an accurate account to prophet Isaiah. Could they see “God PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE give him assurance about the teaching inside-out” as he interpreted the he has received. Today’s Gospel then Scripture passage as fulfilled in their • How does your faith community reveal jumps ahead to Jesus’ declaration of hearing? “God inside-out”? his mission in his hometown syna- Similarly, in the first reading, gogue. Nehemiah stresses that all the people • How does the Spirit counter any sense of inferiority or superiority in the exercise of Jesus begins by saying that the listened attentively as Ezra read forth the gifts for mission? power of the Holy Spirit is upon him. the law and interpreted it for them. . . . The Spirit is actually God’s mission For our ancestors in the faith, it was • Pray with gratitude for having been called to mission, at whatever stage of statement to the world, since prior to through the law that the Spirit made your life you accepted it. Jesus’ coming, God’s love in mission is known the inner heart of God. first revealed by the Spirit’s activity in Nehemiah says that “all the people • How does the sense of being called by God fortify you for the difficulties involved creation. We can only know the were weeping as they heard the words in following Jesus? “inside” mystery of God through the of the law.” He urges them not to be

“outside” manifestation of the action sad or weep, but does not explain what ART: TAD DUNNE and presence of the holy in the world caused their weeping. Spirit, as love in mission, creates unity and in human experience. Were they tears of joy to have and harmony within the very diverse My colleague Stephen Bevans has returned home from exile in Babylon body, where the many parts are all elaborated a missionary theology of to their own homeland, with their own unique, precious and equally important. the Spirit, naming it “God inside-out.” temple being rebuilt and their own The mission is especially focused on Today’s Gospel says that this Spirit customs restored? Were they tears of attending to those members who are the grief over all that had been lost in the most vulnerable. As within the divine BARBARA E. REID, O.P., a member of the intervening years: those who had died being, so within the united community of Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, Mich., is or who had not returned with them, believers: Every joy felt by one is shared a professor of New Testament studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Ill., the land despoiled, the Temple in by all, and every suffering is borne by where she is vice president and academic dean. shambles? Maybe they were tears of all.

January 18-25, 2010 America 37 young man what were God’s designs lenges to live justly, the reaction can Fulfilled in Our for him. Not only does Jeremiah per- become even murderous. To Jeremiah Hearing ceive his calling very early, but he God gives assurance of divine strength FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY understands that it is not something to withstand whatever opposition he he dreamed up on his own. Rather, it experiences. Similarly, when the crowd TIME (C), JAN. 31, 2010 was God who appointed him as in Nazareth turns on Jesus, he is given Readings: Jer 1:4-5; 17-19; Ps 71:1- prophet before he was even formed in the strength to pass unharmed 17; 1 Cor 12:31–13:13; Lk 4:21-30 his mother’s womb. Similarly, Luke through their midst. “Do here in your native place the began his account with the annuncia- Today’s Gospel picks up from last things that we heard were done in tion to Jesus’ mother of her child’s Sunday’s, in which Jesus first Capernaum” (Lk 4:23 ) prophetic mission even before he is announced his mission to reveal God’s conceived in her womb. liberating and re-creating Spirit One can always resist such a calling, through the healing and freeing of any ome people know what they want to especially since prophets always expe- who were bound. Jesus’ neighbors and be when they grow up from the rience suffering in carrying out their friends are familiar with the passage time they are very young. mission. People who are lifted up by from Isaiah that he quotes. At first SOthers discover their vocation the prophet’s liberating words react they marvel when he says that it is ful- as young adults. Still others never with enthusiastic welcome. But for filled in their hearing. Jesus, as if read- seem to find their real mission in life. those whose power, privilege or status ing their thoughts, exposes what is on Jeremiah apparently knew as a very is threatened by the prophet’s chal- their minds: “Let’s see what you can do.” These thoughts seem very close to what the devil says to Jesus in the pre- vious Gospel episode. They want him Felician College to do a flashy miracle to show off his The Franciscan College of New Jersey powers to cure. Instead, Jesus retells stories with which they are well acquainted, stories about earlier GRADUATE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION prophets who used their healing pow- ers to cure foreign outsiders. ONLINE What kind of response is that? One of the implications of Jesus’ Master of Arts in Religious Education (33 credits) answer is that the mission he has Master’s Certificate in Religious Education (18 credits) Post-Master’s Certificate in Religious Education (18 credits) embraced is, in some ways, not a new one. God’s healing Spirit has been t
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XXXGFMJDJBOFEV participate in this same saving mis- STUDENTS FIRST sion. Jesus’ powerful words and deeds are not just something to watch and by which to be impressed. Rather, his THE GOOD WORD mission of jubilee justice is to be Visit our blog on Scripture and preaching for more commentary on the week’s readings. taken up and continued by all who Featuring the writing of John Kilgallen, S.J., John W. Martens and Barbara Green, O.P. americamagazine.org/goodword hear. Thus it is fulfilled today in our hearing. BARBARA E. REID

38 America January 18-25, 2010 A Place of Peace

www.ignatiusguelph.ca

You will step into one of America’s premier Catholic universities and carry on a rich tradition of ministry when you join the team of men and women who serve as rectors of 29 single-sex residence halls at the University of Notre Dame.

Under the direction of rectors, residence halls become communities of faith and learning, where students discover how to integrate the intellectual, spiritual, and social For application materials for dimensions of their education. the academic year 2010–2011 The University of Notre Dame is an EEO/AA employer and a more complete description R of the RECTOR position, visit ectors the Office of Student Affairs make a difference. website at osa.nd.edu.

January 18-25, 2010 America 39 Preparing you for MINISTRY in HEALTH CARE

See yourself at BARRY UNIVERSITY • You can now pursue a stand-alone certificate or a concentration in the MA and DMin degrees in Health Care Ethics • www.barry.edu/theology

Health care in the United States has its roots in the hospital care provided by congregations of Catholic women religious. Barry, the second-largest private, Catholic university in the Southeast, continues the traditions by preparing mission leaders, chaplains, and health care professionals with theological reflection on the ethics and ministry of health care.

The Health Care Ethics program explores: • The historical roots of bioethics • Health policy and law • Emergent issues surrounding reproductive/genetic technologies, neonatal health and the welfare of children, death/dying, and justice • Organizational ethics • Health care mission and outreach

Department of Theology and Philosophy • 11300 NE Second Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695 800-756-6000, ext. 3469 • [email protected]